Chapter 196: Two Streets, One Kingdom
The broadcast had ended.
The scrying veil had gone dark above Mercer's Row, fading from the bright, detailed image of the hall to nothing, and for a moment the street had simply stared at the space where it had been.
Then everyone started talking at once.
"Why ain't the Duke of Blackmere in the top three?"
"His poem weren't that good..."
"What d'you mean it weren't that good? Did you hear it?"
"I heard it fine..."
"Then how can you stand there and say..."
"I'm just sayin' what I think..."
"Well, what you think is wrong."
Jacob had his arms folded and his jaw set.
"It don't make sense," he said. "That's all I'm sayin'. It don't make sense."
"Course it don't make sense," the grey-haired woman said. She hadn't moved from her bench. "But since when does anything they do up there make sense?"
"The Baron's poem was good," a man near the back said. "I ain't takin' that away from him."
"Nobody's takin' it away..."
