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Gardens of the Moon
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Book 7-Epilogue Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 7: “The Fête”
Book 7, Chapter 20 Summary
The characters prepare for Lady Simtal’s new year’s party, which is, according to tradition, a masquerade. Against his wishes, Baruk agrees to take Rake as his guest to Lady Simtal’s masquerade. The Bridgeburners have been hired as guards for the event. Kruppe, Murillio, and Rallick will also attend as guests. Crokus plans to sneak in so that he can speak with Challice D’Arle.
Murillio realizes that Kruppe is the Eel. When he confronts Kruppe with his discovery, Kruppe casts a spell on him to make him temporarily forget.
Mammot wakes from his magically induced sleep, seeming healthy and full of energy.
Adjunct Lorn arrives in Darujhistan and finds the Bridgeburners. Whiskeyjack gives her a report, telling her that Sorry has been missing for days. As they discuss the plans for detonating the explosives around the city, he is intentionally condescending as a distraction, successfully keeping his true motives a secret.
The Jaghut is awake, and his name is revealed for the first time: Raest. He sets out to recover the Finnest. Moon’s Spawn’s five dragons attack the Jaghut. They nearly destroy his body, but he can take over a new body if he needs to.
Book 7, Chapter 21 Summary
Adjunct Lorn sneaks into Lady Simtal’s garden and plants the acorn Finnest. She has one more goal, which she thinks will be the final act of her life: find and kill the Coin Bearer and steal Oponn’s coin.
The noisy battle between the Jaghut and the dragons echoes like thunder through the city as the guests arrive at Lady Simtal’s party.
At the party, Baruk refers to Kruppe as “the Eel,” revealing that the alchemist has figured out Kruppe’s double life as the city’s spymaster.
Rallick intentionally offends Councilman Orr so that Orr will challenge him to a duel. This is part of his plan to get revenge on Lady Simtal by killing her supporter and her connection to the council. Rallick easily kills Councilman Orr in the duel.
Murillio and Lady Simtal sneak away from the party for a romantic interlude, also part of Rallick and Murillio’s plan. After the duel, Rallick also sneaks up to the bedroom to tell Lady Simtal that Orr is dead and Coll is alive. The news shakes her deeply. Murillio tosses a knife onto her bed and leaves, thinking that she will probably use the knife to kill herself.
Mammot shows up to the party wearing a Jaghut mask. Baruk introduces Rake to another guest, a witch named Derudan, who is part of Baruk’s secretive group of magic users.
After leaving Apsalar at the garden wall, Crokus finds Challice at the party. Challice is waiting to meet another man and is surprised to find Crokus approaching her instead. Crokus grabs her and pulls her further into the garden where they can speak unseen.
Book 7, Chapter 22 Summary
In Lady Simtal’s gardens, Kalam and Paran find the clearing where Adjunct Lorn planted the Finnest. It has grown into a block, like an altar. Before it stands Apsalar. Even though she doesn’t recognize them, she moves like a warrior with Sorry’s speed and agility. The Finnest continues to grow before their eyes.
At the party, the master of the assassins’ guild, Vorcan, introduces herself to Rallick. He’s never met her before—typically, Vorcan uses a middleman to pass down orders. She asks Rallick to follow her into the garden where the Finnest is. Vorcan thinks Rallick has magic-negating abilities that might prevent the strange object from growing larger. Crokus finds them there after speaking with Challice.
Kalam offers the Empress’s contract to Vorcan: They will pay a lot of money and promise future control of the city if Vorcan assassinates the “true rulers” of Darujhistan, the mages of Baruk’s secret cabal.
Rallick sends Crokus to warn Baruk about Vorcan’s plan to assassinate him.
Kruppe falls asleep at the party and has a dream, in which he speaks with the Jaghut. Tool joins them in the dream and attacks the Jaghut with his sword. While the Jaghut is on the ground, the ancient god K’rul also enters the dream. He tells the Jaghut that they are both past their time; he tries to convince the Jaghut to join him through “the Gates of Chaos” (443). To escape the dream, the Jaghut abandons his body to find another. He possesses Mammot’s body.
Mammot, possessed by the Jaghut, attacks the partygoers. Whiskeyjack’s leg is broken. Paran draws the sword Chance, but when the Jaghut’s magic hits the sword, Paran is transported into the dreamworld. He sees Tool fighting an embodiment of the Finnest magic. He also sees a strange house rising out of a lake. Tool calls this house the Azath and says that it is not ready yet. Tool needs help holding the Finnest back until the house is ready. Paran helps him, and Tool tells him that the Azath will now imprison the Finnest.
Quick Ben hits Mammot with a powerful magical strike. Then, one of the Bridgeburners fires an explosive at Mammot. After the explosion, the Azath grabs Mammot and pulls him in, imprisoning the Jaghut.
In the crater left by the explosion, Kalam sees broken gas pipes and recalls the giant gas caverns beneath the city. He realizes that if they detonate their explosives, the entire city will go up in flames. He rushes after the Bridgeburners who were assigned the explosives, stopping them just in time.
Book 7, Chapter 23 Summary
Cotillion and a Hound of Shadow visit Paran. The Hound attacks him and then backs off, sensing that Paran saved other Hounds from Dragnipur’s slavery. Paran gives Cotillion the sword Chance and sets out to find and kill Adjunct Lorn.
Crokus, having witnessed his Uncle Mammot’s death, is distraught. He rushes to Baruk’s home to warn the alchemist about the assassination threat. Adjunct Lorn follows Crokus, planning to kill him. She also releases a bottled demon and instructs it to attack Anomander Rake. Anomander Rake transforms into a black and silver dragon to battle the demon.
When Adjunct Lorn attacks Crokus, the Crimson Guard members who have been secretly protecting him step in to fight her. They tell Crokus that they are helping him under orders from their leader, Caladan Brood. Adjunct Lorn, escaping the Crimson Guard, is then attacked by Meese and another regular from the Phoenix Inn. They leave Adjunct Lorn gravely injured. Paran finds her and watches her die before taking her Otataral sword.
Baruk and Derudan are at Baruk’s house, mourning Mammot’s death. They sense magic ripples when the demon is summoned and when two other members of their mage cabal are murdered. They prepare to fight off an assassin.
Book 7, Chapter 24 Summary
Anomander Rake and the demon are battling in the street. Rake kills the demon with his sword. In their battle, they tear a hole in the wall of Baruk’s estate, thus enabling Crokus to sneak past the alchemist’s wards. Crokus arrives as Derudan and Baruk are fighting Vorcan. Crokus saves them with a surprise attack, and Vorcan flees.
The Bridgeburners and Paran reunite. They contact Dujek, who informs them that the rebellion is now out in the open. He’s seeking an alliance with Caladan Brood. He makes it clear that any of the Bridgeburners can leave if they don’t want to fight in the upcoming war. Everyone in the squad wants to fight, but Kalam and another man, Fiddler, say that first, they want to take Apsalar home.
Still in Lady Simtal’s garden, Rallick watches the Azath grow from the size of a dollhouse into a two-story house with a tower. He feels a sense of rightness near the Azath. Vorcan arrives, injured by Crokus. Rallick picks her up and carries her through the door into the Azath. Vorcan’s pursuers are not able to follow.
Epilogue Summary
The Bridgeburners depart Darujhistan. Whiskeyjack, Paran, and most of the squad head to meet Dujak. Crokus joins Kalam, Fiddler, and Apsalar. They will travel by boat to Apsalar’s home continent of Itko Kan. On the boat, Crokus throws Oponn’s coin into the sea.
Paran senses Tattersail, “already in her adolescence” in her new body (487). He mentally promises her that he will find her, and he hears her voice in his head telling him that she will await his arrival.
Book 7-Epilogue Analysis
Chapter 21 is pivotal in Adjunct Lorn’s tragic character arc. The disenchantment with her mission that has been growing inside her throughout the novel reaches its peak as she is planting the Finnest. Her thoughts turn inward, becoming fatalistic. Adjunct Lorn is conscious of this change: “She realized, with sudden comprehension, that she was breaking down. The Adjunct was cracking, its armor crumbling and the luster gone from its marbled grandeur. A title as meaningless as the woman bearing it” (421). Lorn’s bleak contemplation of her own mortality foreshadows her death and highlights the darker side of The Positive and Negative Aspects of the Human Condition.
The mystery of the Azath, a magical entity introduced in Book 7, aligns with the novel’s motif of masked or concealed identities. The Azath proves instrumental in containing the Jaghut’s magic and provides an escape for Rallick and Vorcan at the end of the novel. There is an aura of mystery around the Azath; few characters have any idea what it is, and the few that do are shocked to come across one. The author fosters this aura of mystery without offering many answers in Gardens of the Moon. Azaths are instrumental in later books in the series and are explored in more detail in those later books. Gardens of the Moon establishes that Azaths arise “where unchained power threatens life” (458). In this case, the ancient and wild magic of the Jaghut’s Finnest draws an Azath. The epigraph at the beginning of Chapter 24 provides some detail as to the shape and purpose of the Azath, which takes the physical form of a house: “I am the House / imprisoning in my birth / demonic hearts” (472). As it is developing, the Crimson Guard members refer to it as being childlike and innocent. In this way, the Azath balances the domineering intentions of the Jaghut.
In keeping with the recurring motif of hiding one’s true identity, the climax of the novel takes place at a masquerade party where the characters are literally masked. The author uses the setting of Lady Simtal’s party as a device to unite the characters in one place, resulting in an action-packed, dramatic climax. At the masquerade, the author plays with readers’ expectations around the motif of masking by dressing the characters in masks that reflect their inner lives rather than conceal them. For example, Murillio’s peacock mask reflects his role as court dandy, mimicking the attractive physical qualities that he uses to achieve his ends. Rallick wears a tiger’s mask made in the image of Trake, the god of battle. This fierce mask matches Rallick’s intentions to kill Councilman Orr in a duel. Mammot’s Jaghut mask is telling as well, foreshadowing the Jaghut’s possession of Mammot. It is significant that this evolution of the masking motif takes place at the book’s climax; the characters resolve the novel’s conflicts by acting in ways that are true to themselves while wearing masks that proclaim that truth. The author inverts reader expectations around the motif of masking, thus reinforcing the complexity and The Positive and Negative Aspects of the Human Condition.
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