Chapter 47 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 47 — Tattoos, and a flower offered

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 46 — Operation Snake Pit: the line of succession · Next: Chapter 48 — Colonel Prepotente · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

» Louis: Uh, I see the sluggalos.

Summary

Louis: the sluggalos have given up on the goat and are doing 'donuts' in a stolen cart a mile from the castle ('LOUIS, YOU WILL NOT CALL IT “DONUTS.”'), and something is flashing far to the south. Imani and Elle move on the castle without the slugs who were meant to spring the traps; Carl feels sick and sends them anyway. Britney: Juice Box thinks it is too soon but her people are ready. Katia and Bautista argue in flashing eyes — 'I said no' — and she changes into a mantaur with a mullet, smelling of leather and bourbon, while Samantha coaches Bautista to throw her on the ground and offers herself as an alternative, then to kill her mother; 'Shut the fuck up.' Bautista, Li Jun, Zhang and Sergeant Toyotomi work on the clock tower. In private chat: he is scared for her, remembers his family, and wants her to eat the flower now, because if this fails he thinks Carl will turn on her to give it to Donut. Carl had not even thought it. Katia, four-armed, takes his hand: if it comes to that, she will give Carl the flower for Donut, and Huanxin will rage but take the cat; she tells him and not Donut because Donut would never allow it. Rend, at their feet: 'No, no, no.' Bautista watches the hug with Samantha whispering in his ear. Elle is in, no nagas yet; a searing pain in Carl's chest — 'Crawler Imani C has used your Tripper spell' — and traps go off across the stronghold. The reverse tattoo: Carl's item Tripper from Drakea's kerchief cannot be lent because fairy races cannot wear it, but the spell had risen to level 7 on its own, so Katia drew his blood (six levels, healing in four days) and gave Imani a barbed-wire ankle tattoo in toraline ink that will fade and can be recharged with the last of the yam; a spell taken by violence, Rosetta says, is stronger and permanent, as Walk on Air proves; how the yam gift was meant to be understood is in the Cookbook somewhere Carl cannot find. Donut: 'A PAMELA ANDERSON TATTOO IS MOST CERTAINLY A DISFIGUREMENT […] SOMETIMES I WORRY ABOUT THE COST' — guilt for a tiara put on in the first floor. 'He's coming.'

Characters

• Katia Grim — A mantaur; four arms; 'If it comes to that, I will give you the flower.'
• Daniel Bautista — Katia, to him: 'I said no'; afraid Carl will turn on her.
• Imani — Casts Carl's spell through a barbed-wire tattoo on her ankle.
• Samantha — Offers to watch, to substitute, and to kill a mother.
• Carl — Wants to scream; nods.
• Princess Donut — Worries about the cost, in the only way she can.
• Toyotomi — In his element at a clock tower.

Locations

• Shanty Town — A clock tower on the naga edge, with wires.

Motifs

• The Crown of the Sepsis Whore — A flower that only one of them can eat, offered to the other.
• The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — Blood given against blood taken.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Milk's entries hold a key Carl cannot find.