Pomanda
Pomandans had an innate distrust of monarchy, of being ruled at all. They avoided rulers like a mad dog shucks a leash. There was a king there, but he wore a false crown. The council of seven leading families shared the government with the king—each family receiving one vote while he got two. Even this proved to be a tentative rule, for if the people didn't like a law, they simply disregarded it.
Sykor ruled with an iron glove, but even a silk one spurred revolt in Pomanda. At the slightest hint of an unjust law Pomandans took to the streets, swarming the Great Houses like maggots on a four-day carcass. Where the bellow of a force leader cowed the Sykorans, the people of Pomanda barely tolerated a raised voice. Guards trod lightly there.
Tobias had taken the point and waited wit
