Chapter 8 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 8 — Larracos, City of Dreams

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ceasefire · Previous: Chapter 7 — Donut Holes; the Semeru dwarf · Next: Chapter 9 — Juice Box's war room · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

Arief whisked us out of the main courtyard of the college, out the main gates and past the

Summary

Arief leads them out of the college gates onto a cobbled street one cart wide, and Carl looks over the railing into the funnel: rings of gothic stone narrowing down into smoke, a waterfall stepping from ring to ring, columns, arches, gargoyles, vine-covered gables — 'a real, living, breathing place', clean and lived in, not blocks built to be knocked over, and, after Havana's ghosts, real in a way that makes what they have already done to it worse. Donut plans the wedding (Mongo as ring bearer, 'Don't Look Back in Anger' as long as nobody is named Sally) with her sunglasses on, watching for changelings on Carl's instruction. Arief explains the rings: sixty-six by name, numbered from the bottom, not all complete; 50 the college and the highest cultural district, 49 homes, 45 closed clothing shops, the Piccadilly theatre on 9 still full of jellyfish; the water rose to 39, drained to 29, was kept clogged at 15 on Juice Box's order once she began 'opening everybody's eyes', and now covers only the castle's highest tower, so 'anybody who wants to take that castle has gotta learn how to swim'. Explosives at every other down-ramp. Crawlers meet them on the way to be recruited — Ajib with a mechanical leg; Jurgen, a level-65 Harii who worships Donar and kisses Carl on the cheek for saving him and his Heidi 'with that black magic'. Arief lets slip 'another season' and the word Jatismara: most of the Semeru are new, but some have their memories quickened and his uncle remembers dozens of seasons and sits on Juice Box's war council; most now know about their past lives, though 'some shopkeepers are different', and they believe that when they die they die forever. He draws his sickle to swear revenge on Architect Houston, the Viceroy leader of the Madness, who caught and tortured his brother before Juice Box ended it; nobody has entered Houston's 'operating theater'. The NPCs have raided every camp and got 'inside the inner circle at least once for all of them except the naga', a court of assassins whose Sultana no spy has ever seen. Carl knows more than Arief: from Drakea and Mordecai, the real nagas are a constitutional monarchy playing their bloodier history for tourism, the Blood Sultanate's leader is the real crown princess in the role of the Sultana, a former soldier, who in every season vanishes before her throne room falls and reappears laughing; and the old story of the Sepsis Whore, the one sultana who bore 198 daughters before 99 sons and poisoned her sons. Down through the ruined lower rings — the Piccadilly's marquee promising 'One Night Only. Session of Love, the final show before we all die', a frog statue choked with something, dwarves jogging a cadence out of sync with hammers and sickles — to the Desperado Club on ring 4, a 1960s concrete box on pillars with half its neon lit and a sheet reading 'Grand Re-Opening. Under New Management'. The gnoll bartender is a changeling, Donut confirms. Through a panel in the kitchen to a back room, where an old one-eyed gnoll named Hunger Hammy, manager of the Headlamp Colonnade, leaps across the table and kisses Louis furiously on the mouth.

Characters

• Arief — The rings, the water line, his uncle the Jatismara, and a vow against Architect Houston.
• Carl — Staggered by the city; knows the Sultana is a real princess who has never died in the game.
• Princess Donut — Wedding planner; recruits by touch; spots the changeling bartender.
• Juice Box — An old gnoll with one eye who kisses Louis.
• Jurgen — A Harii barbarian who worships Donar and gives kisses for black magic.
• Louis and Firas — Louis, kissed by a gnoll.

Locations

• Larracos — Sixty-six rings numbered from the bottom; water at ring 3; explosives on the ramps.
• The Desperado Club — Reopened under new management on ring 4; the Headlamp Colonnade.
• The Piccadilly — The theatre on ring 9, wet, playing one last show.

Motifs

• The Blood Sultanate — A court of assassins; the Sultana behind veils; the Sepsis Whore's 198 daughters.
• The Crown of the Sepsis Whore — The royal line Donut and Katia are in, explained from Drakea's notes.
• Waking the NPCs — Jatismara: memories quickened; 'if one dies, they are dead forever'.
• The changelings — A gnoll behind the bar who is not a gnoll.
• The Madness — Architect Houston's operating theatre, which nobody has entered.