Character · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Ferdinand

Someone Donut loved from the moment she first saw him, whom she invokes on her deathbed after the Juicer and in her drunken confession under the Krakaren, and ranks above Carl. Carl asks, 'Who the hell is Ferdinand?' She will not say.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 8 — The Night Wyrm's web
• Chapter 39 — Prepotente Town Number Four
• Chapter 51 — The howdah
• Chapter 52 — Gehenna Bramble
• Chapter 54 — The blood bar
• Chapter 64 — The attendant entrance
• Chapter 65 — The Oak Mother's sacrament
• Chapter 66 — The Sugar Cube
• Chapter 71 — Jill
• Chapter 72 — Cat-nac the Magnificent
• Chapter 73 — Wonderwall, again
• Chapter 74 — All Eyes on Me
• Chapter 75 — Sic 'em
• Chapter 76 — Cage Fight Extreme
• Chapter 77 — The mask

Arc

The curtain of the howdah opens on Donut's Ferdinand (ch. 51): Gravy Boat, a familiar who killed a Creeper (ch. 52), 'nothing but a lowly creature' to the footman (ch. 64). On Carl's shoulder, mocking, in a four-foot turban (ch. 71, ch. 72), his card calls all cats soulless murderers and credits him with cat-sized hallways in the castle; Donut enchants him and he leaves the queen's ballroom to be closer to her (ch. 72) — which locks him in with the crawlers (ch. 73). Charmed for real, a minion who calls her his bride, he slams into the queen's head as she reels Carl in and is backhanded away, hat flying (ch. 74, ch. 75). Still in the party, somewhere on the ninth floor (ch. 77).