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."Garion flushed."I'm afraid of dungeons," he said in a small voice, suddenly very ashamed of himself."I don't want to be locked up in the dark forever when I don't even know what for.""The kings of Sendaria are just and honest men," Silk told him."Not too bright, I'm afraid, but always fair.""How can they be kings if they aren't wise?" Garion objected."Wisdom's a useful trait in a king," Silk said, "but hardly essential.""How do they get to be kings, then?" Garion demanded."Some are born to it," Silk said."The stupidest man in the world can be a king if he has the right parents.Sendarian kings have a disadvantage because they started so low.""Low?""They were elected.Nobody ever elected a king before - only the Sendars.""How do you elect a king?"Silk smiled."Very badly, Garion.It's a poor way to select a king.The other ways are worse, but election is a very bad way to choose a king.""Tell me how it was done," Garion said.Silk glanced briefly at the rain-spattered window across the room and shrugged."It's a way to pass the time," he said.And then he leaned back, stretched his feet toward the fire and began."It all started about fifteen hundred years ago," he said, his voice loud enough to reach the ears of Captain Brendig, who sat nearby writing on a piece of parchment."Sendaria wasn't a kingdom then, nor even a separate country.It had belonged from time to time to Cherek, Algaria or the northern Arends - Wacite or Asturian, depending on the fortunes of the Arendish civil war.When that war finally came to an end and the Wacites were destroyed and the Asturians had been defeated and driven into the untracked reaches of the great forest in northern Arendia, the Emperor of Tolnedra, Ran Horb II, decided that there ought to be a kingdom here.""How could a Tolnedran emperor make that kind of decision for Sendaria?" Garion asked."The arm of the Empire is very long," Silk said."The Great North Road had been built during the Second Borune Dynasty- I think it was Ran Borune IV who started the construction, wasn't it, Captain?""The fifth," Brendig said somewhat sourly without looking up."Ran Borune V.""Thank you, Captain," Silk said."I can never keep the Borune Dynasties straight.Anyway, there were already imperial legions in Sendaria to maintain the highway, and if one has troops in an area, one has a certain authority, wouldn't you say, Captain?""It's your story," Brendig said shortly."Indeed it is," Silk agreed."Now it wasn't really out of any kind of generosity that Ran Horb made his decision, Garion.Don't misunderstand that.Tolnedrans never give anything away.It was just that the Mimbrate Arends had finally won the Arendish civil war - a thousand years of bloodshed and treachery - and Tolnedra couldn't afford to allow the Mimbrates to expand into the north.The creation of an independent kingdom in Sendaria would block Mimbrate access to the trade routes down out of Drasnia and prevent the seat of world power from moving to Vo Mimbre and leaving the imperial capital at Tol Honeth in a kind of backwater.""It all sounds terribly involved," Garion said."Not really," Silk said."It's only politics, and that's a very simple game, isn't it, Captain?""A game I do not play," Brendig said, not looking up."Really?" Silk asked."So long at court and not a politician? You're a rare man, Captain.At any rate, the Sendars suddenly discovered that they had themselves a kingdom but that they had no genuine hereditary nobility.Oh, there were a few retired Tolnedran nobles living on estates here and there, assorted pretenders to this or that Wacite or Asturian title, a Cherek war chief or two with a few followers, but no genuine Sendarian nobility.And so it was that they decided to hold a national election - select a king, don't you see, and then leave the bestowing of titles up to him.A very practical approach, and typically Sendarian.""How do you elect a king?" Garion asked, beginning to lose his dread of dungeons in his fascination with the story."Everybody votes," Silk said simply."Parents, of course, probably cast the votes for their children, but it appears that there was very little cheating.The rest of the world stood around and laughed at all this foolishness, but the Sendars continued to cast ballot after ballot for a dozen years.""Six years, actually," Brendig said with his face still down over his parchment."3827 to 3833.""And there were over a thousand candidates," Silk said expansively
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