Chapter 29 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 29 — Blood and ink

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Vengeance of the Daughter · Previous: Chapter 28 — Premature Questjaculation · Next: Chapter 30 — A Valtay landing vessel · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

Donut and I sat, fascinated, as we watched Edgar the tortoise use a silver, needle-like st

Summary

Edgar pokes a silver stick into Signet's thigh, having sucked up Miss Nadine's remains through it like a straw; each poke clicks against bone and leaves a dot that moves on its own. Every tattoo is a fallen companion or a worthy enemy: the first the night her mother died, the night she met Edgar; the second Di-we, a three-headed nodling who died protecting her from Imogen's agents and whose death split him into three toddler ogres — Areson, Apollon and Herman, each with a third of his knowledge (the Popovs are a two-headed nodling; 'usually two or three'). The finished tattoo is not Nadine: 'a blood and ink elemental […] a combination of the remains of who she was and of my personal memories of her […] A loving memory.' The caterpillar straightens into a young chee woman in a long skirt, and a child peeks from behind it — Clint, as he was before the change, carried in her memory. The were-castors bow to Signet's skin. 'Christ […] This goddamned place.' At sunrise they dam the castle entrance, its fallen alarm trap stuck in a vent playing 'Wonderwall' on an endless loop. Signet will send someone to collect them for the assault on the elves; Imogen will know she is back; she kisses Carl on the cheek. Donut, in the kayak: Signet wants to jump his bones, the producers will arrange a meadow and candles, and 'sex with a guest star always spells doom' — 'You are not to ever be alone with her again.' The southern shore's Ursine, chomped in half, are looted; thorny dervishes — blackberry bushes that move like spiders — are on Mordecai's list. Zev, unusually insistent, says the transfer will take Carl wherever he stands; the view counter buries itself as the internet realises something. The next town is already named: Alucarda. 'But he has returned to the earth. An evil woman has taken control. A woman with two beasts that kill indiscriminately.' And Carl is transferred away.

Characters

• Tsarina Signet — A new tattoo; her first the night of her mother's death; Di-we and his three sons; a kiss.
• Edgar — The tattooist with a silver stick.
• Areson the Wise — A third of a dead nodling, born a toddler.
• Miss Nadine — A blood and ink elemental now, with Clint behind her skirt.
• Holger — 'You're safer than we are.'
• Princess Donut — Forbids Carl to be alone with Signet.
• Carl — Crosses the river by kayak and is transferred from Lucia Mar's doorstep.
• Lucia Mar — Mayor of Alucarda, having killed R'aggah.
• Zev — 'Or maybe you should… Never mind. I can't say that.'
• Samantha — Asleep, snoring, tied to Carl's back by her hair; 'my type of crazy'
• The Popov brothers — A two-headed nodling: more questions than answers.

Locations

• Alucarda — A small dryad village named before Donut could name it; Lucia Mar's.
• The river — Crossed by kayak in fog.

Motifs

• Signet's tattoos — Blood and ink elementals: remains plus memory; a child carried inside a teacher.
• The Vengeance of the Daughter — The sex-sacrifice rule of guest stars, per Donut.
• The show — A transfer that will take him from the wild; a counter buried to the right.
• The mongoliensis — Locked away because dinosaurs sense each other.