Floods 10 Read Online Free PDF Page A

in Yggdrasil’s finest guest bedroom, ‘not creeping around in dark tunnels looking for places that we don’t even know for sure actually exist.’
    â€˜We can do the pretty places later,’ said Maldegard. ‘This will be much more exciting.’
    Edna Hulbert wasn’t sure she wanted exciting. Admittedly, she hadn’t had a lot of it in her own life, but she’d seen what happened to other people when they got excited, and it often ended in tears. On the other hand, leaving her safe suburban home and wardrobe full of cardigans to go off to live in a huge castle with a family of wizards in a remote valley was probably more exciting than most people even dream about, never mind experience. Part of her thought that was probably more than enough excitement for one lifetime, but another part thought if she had handled that OK, and she had to admit she was happier now than she had ever been back in Acacia Avenue, then what the hell, she was game for anything.
    That part won and she said – ‘You’re right, let’s boldly go where no housewives have gone before.’

‘This Parliament thing,’ said King Nerlin. ‘Do you think we should have one?’
    â€˜Difficult to say,’ said the Chancellor, Mr Hulbert. ‘If you don’t, people could accuse you of being a dictator, but if you do, it could just lead to endless arguments with lots of people wanting different things.’
    â€˜I never took much notice of things like that when we lived in Acacia Avenue,’ said Nerlin, ‘but it sounds like a lose-lose situation. Can you explain exactly what a Parliament is supposed to do?’
    â€˜Well, umm,’ said Mr Hulbert.
    He thought about it for a bit, but every time hebegan to speak, he stopped, thought about it some more, then said ‘umm’ again. He did this at least ten times. Finally, he said that as far as he could tell, politics was what went on in Parliament and politics was a few people who thought they were more important and intelligent than everyone else, which they hardly ever were, deciding what everyone else could do, should do and had to do. Then After a while they all went away with big fat pensions and another lot of self-important idiots took over and spent the next four years doing exactly the opposite of the people they were replacing.
    â€˜So what is the point of it?’ said Nerlin.
    â€˜I’m not sure,’ said Mr Hulbert. ‘Especially here in Transylvania Waters where everyone is very clever.’
    â€˜I see what you mean,’ said Nerlin. ‘What you’re saying is that humans invented politics and Parliament because most of them are very stupid and actually want to be told what to do by people who may or may not be a tiny bit cleverer than them?’
    â€˜Exactly,’ said Mr Hulbert, ‘and because theyvoted for these people, they don’t want to admit they chose a load of pompous, unqualified idiots to govern them, because it makes them look even more stupid for choosing them in the first place.’
    â€˜So do humans learn politics at school?’
    â€˜No, they don’t learn anything at all, except how to make other people think they are intelligent and important.’
    â€˜I don’t see how we could do that here,’ said Nerlin. ‘I mean, everyone’s too clever.’
    â€˜Still it might be a good idea if we did have a Parliament,’ said Mr Hulbert. ‘After all, you do want the rest of the world to think we’re a democracy.’
    â€˜What’s one of them, then?’
    â€˜It’s a sort of system where everyone pretends they are equal.’
    â€˜No, seriously,’ Nerlin laughed. ‘What is it?’
    â€˜Honestly, it is the idea that everyone is equal.’
    â€˜That’s not possible,’ said Nerlin. ‘Is it?’
    â€˜No, of course not,’ said Mr Hulbert. ‘It’s just an illusion people