Chapter 12: Let the Rules Eat Her

"'Where the blood of Vance stands and speaks,'" Matteo said, "'the Charter stands with her. Her word is the law's word. Her enemy is the law's enemy. Let no man, by rank, by ring, or by vow, raise his hand against her house.'" He got to the end. He swallowed against the knife. "It was never revoked," he said. "It couldn't be revoked. Only the Vance line could revoke it, and the Vance line was—" "Dead," I said. "Yes. Convenient, wasn't it." Four hundred men in that hall started, very slowly,...