“Against some kind of law?” I’d only been through the massive book of Precedent once—maybe I’d missed it.
“In a manner of speaking,” said Brach. “Orcus thread is a powerful catalyst whose primary purpose is, in fact, a violation of Precedent Law. But we seldom even use its name out ofreverence for its origin. We don’t wish to sully it with idle banter, and certainly not as a transactional matter in a place like this. Though, a finer bunch of cutthroats and housebreakers you won’t find in all the Strata.”
The rats burst out laughing and drank a few toasts to themselves. “You’re here to arrest me, then?” I fought the urge to put my hand on my khopesh. Civil talk, the way I knew it, was a disarming tactic before the worst of street fights.
Brach laughed. “How many times must I tell you that I’m an ally? My guess is that I’ve been ill-used in the mouths of your closest advisors. But ask anyone here if I’m the monster that topside propagandists would make of me. No, despite whatever else you may believe or have been told, I’m on your side, Mr. Solomon.”
“Then we are free to leave,” Cassius said, taking a step toward the door. Brach raised a finger, stopping Cassius in his tracks. “I do need to ask, however, as a matter of Strata safety and concern, why you’re pursuing one of the most powerful and mostillegalcatalysts known to thanaturgy.”
We both knew the answer. But such an admission, given that it was a violation of Precedent Law, would look bad at my trial, and I figured that’s why he wanted to hear me say it. “First, please tell your friends Bazalgette and Swan no hard feelings. Could be I didn’t understand what was going on and got a bit zealous. But where I’m from, you tend to hit first and ask forgiveness later.”
“That is a terrible ethos,” Cassius whispered.
“Second, I’m still new to all this.” I was hoping the noob card would work. “I’ve got a thousand terms in my head, and I can’t keep any of them straight.” Quite the contrary, thanks to my hum-reading trick. “So, it’s like I said, I’m just trying to learn and do what ourmutual friendasked of me.”
“That, on the other hand, was clever,” Cassius muttered.
Brach looked from me to Cassius and back. “Ignorantia juris non excusat, Mr. Solomon.”
I shook my head.
Cassius placed a hand on his sword pommel. “It means ‘ignorance of the law excuses no one.’ ”
Mick knocked his table, his fist like a gavel. “Hear hear, friends, you’ve got to know the law as good as a counselor so’s ya know how to break it.” Then he laughed his buzzsaw laugh, and all of Rats Castle joined him. Brach, too.
When it quieted back down, I admitted, “Well, maybe if I’m honest, thereisa little anger in my heart these past few days,” then hummed a line from Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law.”
Brach immediately hummed a line from Judas Priest’s “United,” which was next-level metal chess—the guy really did know his music—and said, “Between friends there is no need of justice.”
“You quote Aristotle,” Cassius observed.
By that point, I didn’t know why I was surprised, but I shot Cassius a look all the same. He shrugged. “Centuries ago, I was bound to Sir Francis Bacon. He required his vestiges to read philosophical texts for scheduled debates.”
I turned back to Brach. “You’ve made yourself clear. No pursuit of illegal catalysts. I appreciate the heads-up, too.”
“I don’t just want your compliance, Mr. Solomon.” Brach crossed the rest of Rats Castle, stepping through the tailor’s blood on the floor. A mere foot from me, he stopped. “I want your friendship. Same as I had with Henry.”
Made me sick to hear, and I had nothing for it.
“You don’t know what you’re seeing in the Strata,” he added. “But I can show you. Teach you. Make sense of the strangeness and wonder that confounds you. I can do for you what I was trying to do for Henry.”
I locked eyes with him. “Which was what?”
“Heal a failing ward,” he said quietly. “And in so doing preserve both our worlds. I am as committed to the preservation of the Strata as you are the world above. Henry knew that. It’s why he came to me. But it takes time. The arcanum is either old or no longer extant. Besides which, in friendship, I would be a powerful ally at your trial.”
“Friendship . . .”
Brach raised his chin. “If that feels a bridge too far just yet, then consider: ‘He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression, for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.’ ”
It sounded familiar, but both Cassius and I were stumped.
“That’s your country’s revolutionary man Thomas Paine.” Brach pivoted and tracked back through the blood to his retinue, speaking over his shoulder. “I invite you to think up on it until we speak again. But don’t dither, Mr. Solomon, because I can assure you, we in the Strata are not idle and your trial fast approaches.” His crew parted, and he strode between them, disappearing out the door, his cronies in tow.
The gas lamps in Rats Castle guttered as if stroked by the wind, then settled. Rats began to chatter again, as though they’d just sighted a celebrity and now had stories to tell. Mick grumbled, “Where’s my damned reward.”
I turned to Cassius. “Why didn’t Brach just take us now?”
The centurion stared after the Shiguan leader. “I believe he is earnest about wanting your friendship, though I might call it allegiance. But either way, he has already issued a trial summons. If he undermines the chancery’s opportunity to rule on theissuesof that summons, he invites their scrutiny. And there are still a few honorable chancellors in the chancery.”
