(urth) That canted tower

[Roy C. Lackey]

I really don't want to be involved in this stuff any more, but some things
bug me even more than others, so I'm going to pop out of lurker mode for a
moment to address this particular issue. I was hoping someone else would
point this out, but more than a day has gone by and it hasn't happened.

Marc Aramini quoted and wrote:

> From: António Pedro Marques:

> Well, you've said this a number of times. But just what
> makes Nessus similar to the City of the Inhumi?
> _______________________________________________

>Really?

>I'm just going to use direct quotes.

>"This was a tower indeed, its nose high as the tops of the tallest trees
and its sleek lines radiating a strength it no longer posessed.  I can see
it now, that slightly canted tower gleaming dully in the reddish ligh of the
stifling afternoon.  Like a rotting corpse, it showed ribs wehre some
sideplates had been taken.  How we shouted in our delight, thinking it would
save us!"
>[tower on Green to save them, its a ship like the Matachin tower]<

[snip]

The above quote does little to support the contention that the City of the
Inhumi is Nessus. In fact, it undermines it because the "canted tower" in
question wasn't in the City of the Inhumi at all, or even near it, as the
full context makes quite clear. The above quote is from page 125 of IGJ.

This is the gist of the context. After Horn was washed down the sewer when
the clog of corpses was cleared, he eventually decided to return to the City
to free Sinew and the other men who had arrived on their lander. He had
about a hundred men when they fought their way out of the City (120). He
tried to persuade the men to try to retake the lander, but they wanted to
leave and find other colonists. They traveled a long way and found a small
settlement, but were not welcomed. The two groups fought and Horn's band of
men was down to 69 (121).

He again tried to get them to return to the City to reclaim the lander they
had arrived in. There was dissension, but eventually he and a smaller band
returned to the City and found that the lander was gone. They had to fight
their way out of the City again, and Horn and Krait were both wounded. The
band was down to 27, counting Krait (123). Krait died after imparting the
Secret.

The survivors "traveled very far" and eventually came to "a deserted
settlement, in whose center stood a ruined lander." This is from the
paragraph immediately before the text quoted above by Marc. After the quoted
text, it is established that this is the lander that Horn and his remaining
men tried to restore. They found "cards as well as bones in the wretched
huts" of that deserted settlement, and used the cards to restore the
lander's monitor. Directed by the monitor, they "tried to restore the lander
itself, raiding the few settlements we could locate, and sometimes carying
heavy parts from other landers for scores of leagues." They didn't succeed,
but came close. Sinew betrayed his father and there was more fighting, until
only two men were left. They too left him.

The "canted tower" of the quote is the lander Horn died in, one of the many
ruined landers scattered all over Blue and Green, landers that had been
launched from the _Whorl_. We later learn that the lander Horn died in is
not far from Sinew's village, but it is far from the City of the Inhumi.

-Roy