Eve Forward by Animist

Author:Animist
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

Alex learned that the princess was a member of Parliament, and he went to watch a session of this strange new form of government. He went primarily to fulfill his promise to Celine, to watch for any Otherwise threats, but he was also curious about the system. He’d come to gather that the king was not, in any real sense, in charge of the city anymore; he couldn’t be. His advisors and officials ran it as it had always been, keeping it in his memory out of genuine fondness for a kind and just ruler fallen on strange times.

“Sometimes he does come up with good ideas, though,” Valence told Alex once. “And some ideas seemed like madness, long before he ever had the accident. Striches, for example. There were none on the island eight years ago, but he heard about them and insisted we get some. Traded to the Lemyri for them, wouldn’t go anywhere else. Now you’ll find them everywhere; we made quite a lot selling them to other cities. Of course, the General thought we should keep them to ourselves.”

The king would put ideas up before Parliament, twelve members of which were elected by vote from the general populace. Six more were appointed by the king, and six others, the Traditionals, had their origins lost in the mists of time, but appointed their own successors after a term of seven years. The six appointed by the king were a rather mixed bunch; they were the princess, Coocoo, a Rodeni merchant named Gleet, a seven-year-old boy named Echal who spent most of the time playing with a yo-yo, Garri the innkeeper, and, surprisingly, Luken.

Luken came up to Alex and smilingly shook his hand, as he spotted him in the ranks of the audience. “We’ve both done well!” he told Alex. “I gather since Temith explained who I was to the king, he figured we were all friends, and he gave me a Parliament chair, and I guess I really owe it to you. Here, let me find you a better seat.”

Parliament was held in an open forum, with ranks of stone benches cut into the hillside around the stage where chairs had been set up for the Parliament members. On other days, the stage was used by actors and musicians; even Parliament sometimes had to dodge flying vegetables if they were debating an unpopular ruling. Alex was shown to a seat right up front, looking up at the members, as Luken climbed back onto the stage to take his place.

The chairman of the electoral group opened the meeting by clearing his throat and standing. “We have a number of issues up before us today—” he began.

“Louder!” shouted someone from the audience. The chairman glared, and Coocoo screamed.

“That’s better!” shouted someone else, and there was a smattering of laughter and applause.

“If we could get back to the matters at hand,” grumbled the chairman. “First off, the issue of immigration, Rodeni in particular—”

“They’ve nowhere else to go!” said Gleet, jumping to his feet and running claws quickly through the cream-colored fur of his face, a nervous gesture.

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