burning down villages and destroying crops and all that stuff, and nobody can defeat it, so the king sends out heralds to say that any hero who kills the giant will get his daughter’s hand in marriage and half the kingdom.” She paused. Florizel was frowning slightly. “With me so far?”
“What? Oh, yes, definitely.”
“And then the hero comes along and he kills the giant and he gets the princess and half the kingdom, right?”
“Yes. Yes, I suppose so.” Florizel gave her a big smile. She couldn’t help feeling it was intended as a distraction. “But of course giant attacks are very rare. There is no cause for alarm.”
“Rare-ish,” she said. “Six in the last hundred and fifty years.”
“Is that right? Well, fairly rare, then. Not something you really need to be concerned about.”
“Which means,” she ground on, “that in the course of the last century and a half, the size of this kingdom has halved
six times
.”
“Um.”
“All right,” she continued. “Let’s say for the sake of argument that the kingdom started off with an area of three million hectares, which is probably the bare minimum required to sustainably support, say, five major cities, given a basically agrarian society. You’ll agree, I’m sure, that any geopolitical entity with less than five major urban centres would properly be classified as a duchy or principality ratherthan a country, according to accepted international diplomatic protocols.”
“I guess.”
“Well then, subdivide three million by fifty per cent six times, and you’re left with a surface area of 46,875 hectares, which is clearly insufficient to sustain one city of, say, twenty thousand inhabitants, not to mention the cost of a royal court, centralised administration and bureaucracy and a standing army. Then, when you factor in the knock-on effect of economic disruption caused by a series of unanticipated partitions, not to mention loss of confidence in the currency and the concomitant pressure on sovereign debt—” She stopped and breathed out slowly. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Does it?”
There was a long, awkward silence. “You thought of that all by yourself?” Florizel asked.
“Yes.”
“Dear God.” He blinked twice, then broadened the smile until she could almost hear the tendons in his face creaking. “You’re a pretty smart girl, you know that?”
“Yes. But how does it
work
?”
The smile was still there, but now she reckoned she could see things moving behind it. “How come,” he asked her, “you know about hectares?”
“I—” She narrowed her eyes. “Come to that,” she said, “how come
you
know about hectares?”
“Look.” The smile had gone now. “It’s perfectly simple. For a start, it’s a big kingdom. Very, very big. Also, you’ll probably find that on at least one occasion, the king didn’t have a son, so when he died his son-in-law the giant-killer inherited his throne, so the kingdom was put back together again. Or maybe he inherited a chunk of another kingdom, as the result of a carefully planned dynastic marriage. Or something like that. The point is, it
does
work and it
does
makesense, and the only reason you can’t see it is because you’re a girl from a stupid little village and you don’t know about important stuff like politics. All right?”
She thought about that for a moment. Then she stamped on his toe. “I see,” she said. “Thank you so much for explaining it to me.”
He’d closed his eyes. Now he shifted his weight slowly from one foot to the other and hopped towards the horse, which was eating bracken. “My pleasure,” he said. “Any time.”
“You won’t forget about the wolves, now will you?”
“I’ll try very hard not to.”
“You shouldn’t let your horse eat that stuff. It makes them sick.”
“Does it? Ah well.” With visible effort, he put his stamped-on foot in the stirrup and hoisted himself into the saddle. “Well, I’d just like
“What? Oh, yes, definitely.”
“And then the hero comes along and he kills the giant and he gets the princess and half the kingdom, right?”
“Yes. Yes, I suppose so.” Florizel gave her a big smile. She couldn’t help feeling it was intended as a distraction. “But of course giant attacks are very rare. There is no cause for alarm.”
“Rare-ish,” she said. “Six in the last hundred and fifty years.”
“Is that right? Well, fairly rare, then. Not something you really need to be concerned about.”
“Which means,” she ground on, “that in the course of the last century and a half, the size of this kingdom has halved
six times
.”
“Um.”
“All right,” she continued. “Let’s say for the sake of argument that the kingdom started off with an area of three million hectares, which is probably the bare minimum required to sustainably support, say, five major cities, given a basically agrarian society. You’ll agree, I’m sure, that any geopolitical entity with less than five major urban centres would properly be classified as a duchy or principality ratherthan a country, according to accepted international diplomatic protocols.”
“I guess.”
“Well then, subdivide three million by fifty per cent six times, and you’re left with a surface area of 46,875 hectares, which is clearly insufficient to sustain one city of, say, twenty thousand inhabitants, not to mention the cost of a royal court, centralised administration and bureaucracy and a standing army. Then, when you factor in the knock-on effect of economic disruption caused by a series of unanticipated partitions, not to mention loss of confidence in the currency and the concomitant pressure on sovereign debt—” She stopped and breathed out slowly. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Does it?”
There was a long, awkward silence. “You thought of that all by yourself?” Florizel asked.
“Yes.”
“Dear God.” He blinked twice, then broadened the smile until she could almost hear the tendons in his face creaking. “You’re a pretty smart girl, you know that?”
“Yes. But how does it
work
?”
The smile was still there, but now she reckoned she could see things moving behind it. “How come,” he asked her, “you know about hectares?”
“I—” She narrowed her eyes. “Come to that,” she said, “how come
you
know about hectares?”
“Look.” The smile had gone now. “It’s perfectly simple. For a start, it’s a big kingdom. Very, very big. Also, you’ll probably find that on at least one occasion, the king didn’t have a son, so when he died his son-in-law the giant-killer inherited his throne, so the kingdom was put back together again. Or maybe he inherited a chunk of another kingdom, as the result of a carefully planned dynastic marriage. Or something like that. The point is, it
does
work and it
does
makesense, and the only reason you can’t see it is because you’re a girl from a stupid little village and you don’t know about important stuff like politics. All right?”
She thought about that for a moment. Then she stamped on his toe. “I see,” she said. “Thank you so much for explaining it to me.”
He’d closed his eyes. Now he shifted his weight slowly from one foot to the other and hopped towards the horse, which was eating bracken. “My pleasure,” he said. “Any time.”
“You won’t forget about the wolves, now will you?”
“I’ll try very hard not to.”
“You shouldn’t let your horse eat that stuff. It makes them sick.”
“Does it? Ah well.” With visible effort, he put his stamped-on foot in the stirrup and hoisted himself into the saddle. “Well, I’d just like
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