The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 842

"The tenth prince." Hector came away from the door, laughing softly.

"Sir, did you hear her? The idiot of the Tiffany kennels. The whole coast has laughed at him for fourteen years. He sleeps by their dogs."

His voice rose. "And you bowed to him. Twice. In front of me."

"Hector," said Mr. Wolfe.

"You bowed to a kennel dog, sir!"

"HECTOR." The old man did not raise his voice often.

When he did, the brushes jumped on the table. "One more word, and you will leave this house and never come back to it."

Hector's mouth shut. His face went from red to white.

He stood there with his broken wrist in its cast, and the paper with the herbs on it crushed in his good hand, and he looked at Alex as if he were memorising him.

Alex smiled at him. Then he turned back to Nina.

"I learn many things," he said.

"That isn't an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting."

"I could tell the whole coast," she said. "The idiot prince fights like a demon and writes secret arts in school notebooks. Do you know what they'd do with that?"

"They'll think you're crazy." Alex laughed.

"Nina." Her grandfather's voice was quiet again. "A grandmaster's past belongs to the grandmaster. What is said in this house stays in this house. Is that clear? Hector?"

A pause. "Clear, sir."

Nina's jaw tightened. She looked at Alex for a long, burning moment. "Fine. Not a word. But I'll find out."

"Good luck."

"Forgive them," said the old man. "They were raised by a suspicious old man. Ask your questions, Grandmaster."

Alex sat down across the table from him, among the brushes and the drying paper.

"Your art. Where does it come from? Who else has it?"

The old man glanced at the door. Hector closed it, with his back to it.

"It's a long history. On paper, the Emperor controls everything," said Mr. Wolfe quietly.

"The palace. The nobles in their seats in the capital. The government and the politics are theirs. They always have been." He leaned forward.

"But the economy, the money, isn't. The great business families of this Empire, the shipping houses, the banks, the old trading names. Most of them, Grandmaster, are Xia's people."

Alex went very still. "Xia."

"You know the name," said the old man, watching him.

"I thought you might. Hardly anyone does now. Xia was a great people, long before the Empire. They had the real arts, all of them. Mine is a broken piece of what they knew. Their blood went on into the families that made money while the nobles made laws. But the glory is gone. Most of their own grandchildren don't know what they are. Only a few of us remember."

He spread his old hands. "Xia is over. It's a story for old men."

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify