bookpub Chapter 582 The Vote - Part 3
Chapter 582 The Vote - Part 3
A noise at the door, and one of the Minister's retainers came in, urgently. He did a little half-jog, seeming about to run down the walkway, but he managed to talk himself back down to a swift walk. He reached the stairs, and took them two at a time, approaching Minister Tavar, and whispering in his ear.
Tavar listened, and nodded, once, then twice. He cleared his throat when the messenger was done, aware that all the eyes in the room were on him, for now there had been nothing going on for almost fifteen minutes – they were all eager for this to be done with. Eager to hear the results.
"The Lords return," Tavar declared. They reentered at his announcement, Idris and Blackthorn confidently leading them. Blackthorn seemed to be considerably more comfortable now that he could confidently walk alongside Idris, in the knowledge that the two of them were closer than allies – they were comrades in arms, servants of the same Princess.
They did not filter back to their benches, but they were brought all the way towards the bottom of the Minister's stares, where the witnesses had stood before.
"I believe I am allowed to watch now that the voting has already been decided, no?" Asabel asked in a clear voice from the door. Tavar did not seem surprised by their reemergence.@@@@
"By all means, Princess. You may stand beside me, if you wish," Tavar said.
"You're very kind, General Tavar, but I will remain at the back with everyone else, I have disturbed these proceedings enough for today," Princess Asabel said.
Tavar nodded his appreciation, turning to another one of his attendants, who had arrived just behind the stream of Lords. "The votes have all been cast?" Tavar asked.
"For," Tavar said, producing a white stone this time. He slid it straight onto the opposite side, and it landed with a click. Oliver hadn't expected to feel quite so wounded at that, since he knew how many enemies he had... yet it hurt all the same.
Asabel and Hod were staring at the tally with as much ferocity as Oliver, if not more. When the next stone was white, he could practically see their eyes flash.
"For," Tavar said again, sliding the white tally on. Lazarus and Jolamire shared a look. It would have been a stretch to call it a happy look, but it was definitely not a displeased one... if a little tense.
"For," Tavar said again, plucking yet another white from the coin bag. Now Oliver's fist was clenched. That... Wouldn't genuinely be the way it would go, would it? He'd mentioned it to himself before, that it was indeed a strong possibility that he would have been executed. He'd dealt with that fact calmly, but only because he hadn't truly believed it.
"For," Tavar said again, mercilessly. He was like an executioner. He was the executioner. He was the very man swinging a sword at Oliver's neck, mercilessly. So it had failed then. The votes were of course decided by majority decision, but if it was already four votes to one, the game was practically up.
The effort of Asabel and the efforts of Hod, they'd all been for naught. It was cruel, but it was reality.
"For," Tavar said again. The strike of the hammer. Relentless. Everso relentless. Like digging a hole outside of Solgrim. All those holes that they'd dug, looking for the start of the ore vein that the prospectors had promised.
It was Ferdinand that had set them that fruitless task, wasn't it? To think that the very same Ferdinand was Lord Blackwell's son... The world had seemed smaller then. Oliver hadn't met him yet. The very man everyone had seen as a God in the village, and now it seemed he likely never would.