The Will to Battle (Terra Ignota, #3)

by Ada Palmer

Hence the honest and necessary plea: terra ignota. I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime.

“You want me to keep my hands out? Cornel, I don’t play at that era when the lady was shut up in a dollhouse fussing over the silver; I play at the era when she had a secret hand in every plot.

How many fewer—set-set and Servicer alike—might have died in Odessa if the Hives had shared the Blacklaw custom that one may not lynch anyone without first asking the best-informed person in town whether we’re being idiots?

Think of a number for me. Any number.” Carlyle did not even raise her sparkling eyes. “Now there’s some top-quality despair. If you won’t give me a number, look at these forty-eight pictures of things eating bananas.” Faust held out a tablet, since the ancient room contained no screens. Absurdity awoke what charm could not. “Why?” Faust stiffened. “I am Headmaster of Brill’s Institute and Steward of Gordian, the First Hive, which birthed the best age this planet has ever known. When I tell you to look at forty-eight pictures of things eating bananas, you do not ask why.”