Chapter 20 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 20 — Ruby

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: Havana · Previous: Chapter 19 — What's in the box · Next: Chapter 21 — The warlords' table · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

» Time until phase two: eight days, one hour.

Summary

December 15th; three of six totems; eight days to phase two. The ghommid village waves like a cartoon. 'There are always solutions.' Samantha, unmuted and yelling, has been passed by the spider but is kept tied in its web; Prepotente, alone with Bianca (who hisses), wants Carl to read him the Bahamas book. Southwest through Havana toward the highway and the royal chariot, collecting cards (too many utility cards dilute totem draws), a zoo of illusions, saferooms everywhere. Donut has already messaged Sister Ines — a disgrace to cat kind, we will rip the Paz card, Mongo is disappointed — and been blocked: 'Sometimes I feel like there's no winning with you.' Carl's steps now show on the map; the Martyr's Path has no manual. Children playing in a street three weeks before the apocalypse — 'I hoped, for their sake, that all of these children were inside at the time.' A saferoom that is someone's house: Vitasy the sullen bopca, a coin left on the floor, a Desperado Club a few kilometres south. Zev: Odette is in orbit and wants both of them in a couple of days (Katia too, but 'they said no on that one') and will ask something live on air — Carl already knows it will be the Adjutant. Back in the saferoom: charisma's hold on bopcas is weakening; by the tenth floor it will buy Mongo no extra rations. Mordecai with a pink bow stuck to his head and lipstick across his face — a cyclops cannot see his own reflection or anything attached to him. Donut: 'I am an ally […] if you need tips for proper application.' A split controller propped at forty-five degrees with a pillow before it. Confession: he took his one attendant slot and Carl's five, a thousand gold a day paid out of the supply money, for Ruby and the compression-sick changelings who would not have survived the castle fight. 'That's called embezzlement!' 'If you'd asked me, I would've said yes.' 'I stand by my decision.'

Characters

• Carl — Plans southwest; thinks the fucked-up thought; already knows Odette's ask.
• Princess Donut — Blocked by a nun; offers Mordecai makeup tips.
• Mordecai — Bow, lipstick, six attendant slots and a secret worth keeping.
• Ruby — The armless changeling girl, hidden as an attendant with a pillow and a controller.
• Sister Ines — Blocked Donut; unreachable.
• Samantha — Pooped out, still webbed.
• Prepotente — Lonely with Bianca; wants the Bahamas book.
• Zev — Odette is in orbit; a live ask incoming.
• Vitasy — A bopca who lets the coin fall.

Locations

• Havana — The zoo, the freeway pileup, suburbs of hovels and churches, a house that is a saferoom.

Motifs

• The ghosts of Earth — Children at play recorded three weeks before the end.
• The changelings — Ruby and the sick ones kept alive as staff.
• Race and class — Bopcas surly now: resistances scale with depth.
• The Martyr's Path — Footsteps on the map and a boon nobody explained.
• T'Ghee totems — Three of six; utility cards as dead weight.
• Faction Wars — The Adjutant ask, foreseen.
• Secrets — Mordecai's makeup; Carl's foreknowledge.