Chapter 6
PlansAfter the formal speech, Zhor approached the friends.
'I am very sorry,' he said. 'I argued for allowing you to go, and was just about to call a stalemate and give my casting vote when they came out of the closed room for the sixth time. Unfortunately, the three that thought you should stay managed to persuade one of the others and it went four to two.'
'Who voted to let us go?' sniffed Thadora.
'That I can't say.' Here Zhor raised his hand as the girl opened her mouth to speak again. 'No, I'm not being difficult. I genuinely don't know. It's a secret ballot, you see. Each council member has two balls—one red and one white. They drop the balls into a jar. Red is for 'yes' and white for 'no'. In this case, the question was 'Should we allow the brandin to leave the City?'
