Stasilaine said, "How old were you, Manganot, when you had your princehood? Sixteen? Eighteen? And you, Divvis? Seventeen, I think? Elidath, you?"

"It is different with us," said Divvis. "We were born to rank. I am the son of a Coronal. Manganot is of the high family of Banglecode. Elidath—"

"The point remains," Stasilaine said, "that when we were much younger than Hissune we were already at this rank. As was Valentine himself. It is a question of qualification, not of age. And Elidath assures us that he is qualified."

"Have we ever had a prince created out of commoner stock?" the Duke of Halanx asked. "Think, I beg you: what is this new prince of Valentine's? A child of the Labyrinth streets, a beggar-boy, or perhaps a pickpocket—"

"You have no true knowledge of that," said Stasilaine. "You give us mere slander, I think."

"Is it not the case that he was a beggar in the Labyrinth when Valentine first found him?"

"He was only a child then," said Elzandir. "And the story is that he hired himself out as a guide, and gave good value for the money, though he was only ten years old. But all of that is beside the point. We need not care about what he was. It is what he is that concerns us, and what he is to be. The Coronal Lord has asked us to make him a prince when, in Elidath's judgment, the time is right. Elidath tells us that the time is right. Therefore this debate is pointless."

"No," Divvis said. "Valentine is not absolute. He requires our consent to this thing."

"Ah, and would you overrule the will of the Coronal?" asked the Duke of Chorg.

Divvis, after a pause, said, "If my conscience bade me do so, I would, yes. Valentine is not infallible.

There are times when I disagree greatly with him. This is one."

"Ever since the changing of his body," said Prince Manganot of Banglecode, "I have noted a change also in his personality, an inclination toward the romantic, toward the fantastic, that perhaps was present in him before the usurpation but which never was evident in any significant way, and which now manifests itself in a whole host of—"

"Enough!" said Elidath in exasperation. "We are required to debate this nomination, and we have done so, and I make an end to it now. The Coronal Lord offers us the knight-initiate Hissune son of Elsinome, for elevation to the principate with full privileges of rank. As High Counsellor and Regent I place the nomination before you with my seconding vote. If there is no opposition, I propose it to be recorded that he is elevated by acclamation."

"Opposed," said Divvis.

"Opposed," said Prince Manganot of Banglecode.

"Opposed," said the Duke of Halanx.

"Are there any others here," asked Elidath slowly, "who wish to be placed on record in opposition to the will of the Coronal Lord?"

Prince Nimian of Dundilmir, who had not previously spoken, now declared, "There is an implied threat in those words to which I take exception, Elidath."