Chapter 33 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 33 — Parlay

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 32 — King Rust arrives · Next: Chapter 34 — The king's message; Rosetta's whip · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

Kibben, the grizzled, former stablemaster of the high elf castle grunted one last time as

Summary

Kibben, the elf castle's old stablemaster, saddles Simoom — Ferdinand's albino rhinoceros, Tina's inseparable pet now, a genuine animal with no extra intelligence — with the howdah, so that Donut can meet the king on a mount his size; Mongo whines, and Rend, whom Kibben remembers 'from his last incarnation', chases a treat. 'Push the horn forward […] a gentle rub' to stop her. Past the composite-concrete bunkers with the looted heavy guns (the small ones are user-locked and cost a Cracker Jack scroll), over the earthworks teams, down the one road between Tripper-resistant fields that a level-15 Tripper would still blow nine times in ten. Florin has captured two Operatic tanks — Weepers, Mark V shapes with a turret and an anti-air tube — and warns the horde will move before it is sandwiched; Katia, Bautista and the 105th's remnant flank west to keep a corridor to Shanty Town open. 'Are we having fun yet?' 'You just keep that castle safe, and I'll give you my answer when we're face-to-face.' Rust waits alone on Gonk, slumped, old, feathered like a tidal wave; his adjutant is a grixist, His Honorable Judge Deng Bao, adjutant to the previous year's victor, Victory's old taxation professor, no relation to Huanxin, who has no living relatives but a child clone. The parlay shield: no chat, no harm, saferoom rules, dissolving at a hundred metres. Donut, curtain lifted: 'Carl, what's wrong with the orc guy? Is he… is he crying?'

Characters

• Princess Donut — In a howdah on a rhinoceros, learning to steer with a horn.
• Kibben — Stablemaster of the elf castle; knew Rend before.
• Simoom — Ferdinand's rhinoceros, gentle as an old horse.
• King Rust — Alone, slumped, waiting to talk.
• Judge Deng Bao — A grixist judge, adjutant to the last winner, Victory's teacher.
• Florin — Two Weepers captured; a corridor kept open.
• Carl — 'Let me do the talking until it all breaks down.'

Locations

• The FUPA — The one road out through the trapped fields.

Motifs

• Faction Wars — A registered parlay; captured armour does not count against the limit.
• Ferdinand — His rhinoceros and his howdah, borrowed for theatre.
• Huanxin Jinx — No living relatives but a child clone; driving Katia's goddess, and the only hope of getting Donut and Katia off the floor.