way that islanders thought of it.
It simply didn't matter. Every Councillor knew the basic arithmetic, if not the exact figures. Give Demansk every ship in the Confederate fleet, including the ones besieging Preble—even build as many new ones to add to it—and there still wasn't room on those wooden seagoing forts for more than . . .
At most, one fourth of the Confederation's forces. In practice, given the need to maintain the siege at Preble—and still under Albrecht's command—Demansk simply wouldn't have the forces available to impose himself as a dictator.
All that was needed was the final indirection. Demansk took a sudden step forward—almost a lunge—and extended both