"But it is not always like that." Laura opined, deciding to talk, deciding to add to what Peter had stated calmly without a note of unhappiness or dissatisfaction or envy in his voice. It was as if he had just been talking about the weather, as if he hadn’t just intoned that he was under his wife.
"Yes, the females are mostly endowed with more magic, but there are so cases whereby n are too. For example our last ruler was a male, so said my mother..."
"Did he have white hair?" I asked, interrupting her mid sentence, apologizing by lifting up my two hands, but not retracting my sentence either way. It was best to put two questions together for her to answer. That will save ti.
"Yes. Here, in this community, white hair signifies more power. And so leadership isn’t passed on hereditarily as other communities do, but in relation to white hair component, except the ruler’s heir has the white hair blessing." Laura answered, and I nodded, thinking back to the girl I had seen with the queen, and then the boy I had seen at the store. None had the white hair.
Does it an that they would be usurped when a white haired witch or wizard surfaces, or is given birth to. Wouldn’t that put the white haired ones at risk of being murdered by witches who want to remain in power?
"Not at all.." Laura must have read my expression again. "They are protected fiercely, and the doctors here can’t be bribed."
"Are the doctors hereditary?" I asked.
"Yes, they are. The gift is passed through the bloodline. So, my family have been healers for thousands of years." She replied, her earlier discomfort dissipating slowly.
I nodded, getting understanding. It was no different from my pack. The doctors, I an.
"So, about what I had been taking about before I was interrupted..." She winked at before continuing. "In so families, the n are empowered more, and so they normally rule over their household. But in households where the female is empowered more, well, she has more bargaining power than the man. And yes, in so cases, the woman abuses that power and the man has no choice, but to stay low. That’s how it is. The man can choose to leave or remain. This happens on a few occasions though. The queen had made sure of that."
How did she do it? I wondered, but decided to leave the question for another ti. The clock was ticking away.
"She gave abusive won punishnts, n counterparts too, to maintain the balance of things." Peter said. He must have read my expression. Well, that was good, it hastens the process.
The Queen. She had a good side, if I must admit, but I was still unrelaxed about her. I rembered the look of adoration on the man’s face who had sat near her, and then rembered my next question. "The man that sat beside the queen during the eting today. Who is he? Is he her husband? Diana had ntioned during one of her tales, that the queen was a widow, her husband had died ten years ago. Did she remarry? Are queens allowed to do that?" I asked, darting glances between Laura and Peter who glanced at each other, before shaking their heads in unison.
"That’s her brother, Hendel. Any yes, her husband is dead." Laura answered, a furrow to her eyebrows. She was wondering why I was asking.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Just curious about the man, nothing much." I answered, aware of the questions popping up in my mind about the Hendel.
Brother? How could that be? Brothers don’t look at sisters that way!
In my thoughts at the eting, I had referred to the man, now known as Hendel, as Queen Aliana’s husband.
Brother? Why would a brother look at a sister so affectionately? Why would he place his hand on hers so lovingly? Was that how siblings behave here, or was the community blind to what I was seeing here? They couldn’t be siblings for god sake, the sexual tension between them in the hall had been so palpable! Why couldn’t the people see that?
"Maya, are these all the questions you have?" Laura asked, breaking into my thoughts.
I shook my head. Of course not. I was just getting started.
"And that reminds , Maya..." my ears perked up to hear what Laura was about to say. "Don’t look at the Queen eyeball to eyeball at a close range for as long as you had done at the office. She might have overlooked it because you were a new person. But that action is actually a punishable offence here. It is a sign of disrespect."
I nodded, totally getting her point. After all,I couldn’t look Mr Brekan in the eye at a close range. We were always admonished to bow even before a respected elder of the pack, not to ntion the Lycan king. "I understand. I won’t do that again. But why the keen interest of the queen in ? Does she offer every new visitor the choice to stay at her place?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest, switching gears. The matter seed disturbing to .
"I am not sure about the reason, Maya. You are the second person that she is giving that offer. She never allows visitors to stay at a palace that is almost a sacred place." Peter answered this ti around, furrowing his eyebrows, most likely thinking on the issue too, shaking his head intermittently. He too, couldn’t make sense of it.
So, who was the first person to get the generous offer?
"The first person was Zande. She was the girl that I had referred to as my daughter at the store today. Her situation is similar to yours, only that she didn’t lose her mories. She had been ousted from her community for performing black magic on her parents. It was a setup though, one that had been resolved later. She had refused to go back to her community despite the apology rendered to her by her ruler, choosing to stay with us, to stay with us in particular. The queen hadn’t been happy with that. For so reason, I don’t know, she had wanted the girl to stay with her or with Dim. Nevertheless the girl chose us. I never understood her keen interest in Zande, not even her son." Laura said, and I sighed. It seed my next questions would have to be research work for .
What does she an by Zande and the Queen’s son? How had Zande died?
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