City of Constance Silence

Jim Rankin is Noctiviganti, a "night wanderer" who can visit the world known as the Fringe in his dreams. Jim is an occult detective, a killer and a secret policeman, the warrior retainer and unquestioning servant of the Paramount, the tyrannical yet supremely beautiful queen of the Fringe. The Fringe is the world of myth and mystery from which our own world was born at the beginning of time. At its heart is a great city, the City at the Heart of Her Dreaming, and in the city is a bottomless Pit or Abyss. In "City of Constant Silence," an unknown disease is killing people from Boston's Chinatown to the empty spaces of the desert Southwest. Its symptoms are different with every victim: Smallpox, Ebola, the Black Plague. In his dreams, Jim Rankin is in exile in the City of Constant Silence, the Dead Guard's secret home. Back in the mortal world, he has begun taking on jobs for money, spurred by the need to make a living while he serves the Paramount. The disease is spread through a tainted batch of methamphetamine sold by Chinese gangs in Boston, so the Chinese Triad hires Jim Rankin to find out what it is. Jim owes a debt to the Witch of Dogtown, who demands that Jim repays what he owes by singing her a song from the Book of the Black School. Seeking to delay the Witch, Jim takes the job and gets out of town.