The Almighty Dominance novel Chapter 775

"Your Majesty."

The voice came from the left side of the floor, and every head in the Hall of Council turned toward it, because everybody knew which side of the floor that was.

There were three factions in that room, and there had been for twenty years.

The First Queen's people sat on the right, under the green standards.

The Second Queen's sat on the left, under the gold. And in the middle, in the plain seats nearest the throne, sat the ones who belonged to nobody — the career men, the old families, the ministers who served the Emperor and whoever came after him and had very carefully never been seen to prefer a prince.

It was the left side that stood up first.

The Minister of the Interior came down onto the black stone with his hands folded in front of him.

"Your Majesty, the Second Queen's household is prepared to be generous." He turned his palms up.

"We will agree to restore the Tenth Prince to the line of succession. Whatever this council struck from the record, let it be written back in."

A murmur went round the hall.

"However."

Everybody leaned in.

"However, let us be honest about the last fourteen years." The minister turned a slow half-circle, taking in the gallery.

"For fourteen years this Empire has been the subject of jokes in every foreign court. The Emperor's son who could not hold a spoon. The prince in the servants' wing. That was a humiliation, Your Majesty, and it was a humiliation borne by the whole house."

He turned back toward the throne.

"I think the throne is owed compensation."

The whole hall went very quiet, because every person in it wanted to know what he was going to ask for.

"The Tenth Prince may have his place in the succession," the minister said. "And in return, the territory of Harland — its government, its bank, its companies, its revenues, everything it holds and everything built on it — reverts to the Crown."

He smiled at Alexander.

It was a lovely smile, and everybody in that room could read it.

A prince in the line of succession with no territory, no money and no people was not a prince.

He was a name on a list. The Second Queen's faction would give him the title and take the island, and he would walk out of the Hall of Council with exactly what he had walked in with, which was nothing.

And Harland, which was now earning half a billion dollars a year, would belong to whoever held the Crown's purse.

It was the neatest thing anybody had said all afternoon, and the hall knew it.

On the right, under the green standards, the First Queen's ministers looked at each other and did the arithmetic, and came out in the same place.

In the middle, the neutral men did it more slowly, and came out there too.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Yes, Your Majesty. The minister speaks for the Crown."

"We agree. We agree entirely."

For the first time in twenty years, all three factions of the Hall of Council nodded at the same thing at the same time.

Alexander stood up.

He turned his back on the throne. And he started walking down the middle of the black stone floor toward the doors.

Two hundred people watched him go and not one of them understood what they were looking at.

"Prince Alexander!" The Minister of the Interior's voice cracked on it. "Where are you going? You are standing before His Majesty. Show some respect!"

Alexander stopped, and half-turned, and looked honestly puzzled.

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