Gideon the Ninth

Gideon finds herself in the Sixth’s chambers while Harrow and Palamedes discuss their theories over the Lyctor trials. Palamedes proposes they team up to open the rest of the Lyctor doors to get the theorems they need, and Harrow agrees. Palamedes suggests they pick the lock on a door that corresponds with the one Lyctor door key the Eighth took from Dulcinea. They go to see the door and find its lock stopped up with magically regenerating bone ash. Harrow siphons Gideon to destroy the ash. The two immediately get into an argument because Harrow is jealous of the time Gideon spends with Dulcinea. Gideon storms off, deciding to betray Harrow to the Eighth.

Gideon goes to see Silas in his rooms. Gideon voluntarily disarms and gives Colum her weapons because he promises she won’t be harmed. Silas tells Gideon that Glaurica and Ortus were en-route to the Eighth House with Gideon’s shuttle since Glaurica was originally from the Eighth, but the shuttle exploded mysteriously, killing Glaurica and Ortus. Silas suspects Harrow and her parents are behind it. He asks Gideon what happened to the 200 children killed by “vent bacteria” in the Ninth House; Silas believes Harrow’s family capable of killing all of those children. However, Gideon is clueless and cannot give Silas any information. Silas demands her keys now that he has her trapped and disarmed. Colum protects Gideon since he gave his word that she would not be harmed. Gideon flees while the two butt heads.

Gideon wanders Canaan House in a daze, thinking about what Silas had to say. She then finds Corona in the training room. Corona tries to duel Gideon but is interrupted by Naberius. Corona breaks down and Gideon, not understanding what is happening, quickly leaves; Gideon does not understand that Corona is not a born necromancer and wanted to be a cavalier. Gideon wanders back to her rooms. In a frenzy, she goes through Harrow’s belongings because she’s tired of the necromancer’s secretive nature. She finds Protesilaus’s head in a box and believes Harrow killed him.

Needing help processing her emotions, Gideon brings the head to Palamedes. Gideon is crushed by the deaths of the Fourth, so she confesses her guilt over the death of Harrow’s parents: When Gideon was 11 and Harrow was 10, Harrow decided to open the Locked Tomb. Gideon witnessed this and immediately told Harrow’s parents, hoping for approval and affection. Instead, Harrow’s parents hung themselves and their cavalier. Gideon believes she is directly responsible.

Palamedes assures her that an 11-year-old is not responsible for the actions of adults, but Gideon struggles to let go of her self-loathing. Then, Camilla shows up with Harrow handcuffed to her. Harrow explains that she did not kill Protesilaus; his head merely popped off when she found him already dead. All of the Houses assemble in Dulcinea’s room and present the head to her. Palamedes declares that Protesilaus was dead before he set foot in Canaan House. Dulcinea confesses and explains that she used the “way of the beguiling corpse” to make Protesilaus appear as if he were still alive because she needed a cavalier (315). She claims he had an accident before their trip to Canaan House, and she had no other choice. The Eighth considers this blasphemy and storms off angrily.

Privately, Palamedes tells Gideon that she’s misread Harrow. Gideon believed Harrow killed Protesilaus to become a Lyctor, but Palamedes does not believe Harrow is a heartless monster pursuing Lyctorhood.

Harrow brings Gideon to the freshly renovated pool room, and the two jump into the pool. Harrow explains that family secrets can only be discussed in a pool of salt water because the Locked Tomb itself is steeped in salt water. Harrow intends to come entirely clean with Gideon and establish the trust that she has failed to keep. Harrow confesses that she suspected Protesilaus was not alive since the first day. She realizes her mistrust and poor treatment of Gideon have caused nothing but problems.

Gideon is infuriated and blames Harrow for killing the Fourth since she knew Protesilaus wouldn’t be found. In turn, Harrow did not want Gideon near Dulcinea since she feels that Dulcinea had “compromised” Gideon (324). This causes Gideon to admit she was planning on murdering Harrow if she had not talked to Palamedes. Still, Harrow has no idea who the murderer at large is.

Harrow tells Gideon the truth about the vent bacteria. Harrow’s parents and great-aunts killed all of the children of the Ninth so that they could harness enough souls and thanergy to produce the perfect necromancer prodigy: Harrow. Harrow’s parents killed most of their House in the hopes that her superhuman necromantic abilities would re-establish their House as a political force. Gideon was meant to be killed by the vent bacteria, but for some reason, she survived, and Harrow’s parents hated the sight of Gideon because she reminded them of their sins. Harrow assures Gideon she never blamed her for the death of her parents.

Gideon deeply sympathizes with Harrow and tells her she is sorry for everything that happened to her. Harrow, who has abused Gideon her entire life, cannot handle Gideon’s apology. She explodes at Gideon, ranting and raving until Gideon hugs her. Finally, Harrow gives in and accepts Gideon’s sympathy. The two repeat the “one flesh, one end” vows to one another, and Gideon kisses Harrow on the cheek. Afterward, Harrow describes the inside of the Locked Tomb to Gideon: She found a girl with a sword wrapped in chains and frozen in a block of ice. Harrow found her so compelling that she decided to continue living despite her self-loathing over her parents’ crimes.

Gideon decides to start sleeping at the foot of Harrow’s bed like a proper cavalier. She then learns that it was Crux who blew up the shuttle; Crux would rather commit murder than see the Ninth House betrayed by deserters.

Harrow and Gideon are inseparable since their reconciliation in the pool. With the Sixth, they try to pick the lock of the Lyctor door as they had previously discussed. Harrow uses what she learned from the winnowing/transference theorem chamber to look at Palamedes’s memories of the key and sculpt it from bone. The key works, and they open the door to find a lab that looks like a “bomb wreck” (336).

The group finds photos of Teacher in the lab. Since every room behind the Lyctor doors pre-dates the Resurrection, they are at least 10,000 years old. This means Teacher is as old as the Lyctors and the Emperor himself. A fire alarm is set off, and the group rushes to the kitchens. All of the skeletal servants of the First House have collapsed, causing a small fire in the kitchen that is easily put out. They rush off to find Teacher and find that the Second has violently confronted Teacher: The Second wanted to contact the military for reinforcements, but when Teacher refused, they attacked him. He fatally injured both members of the Second, and they killed him. A dying Deuteros informs the group that Teacher had a radio that contacts the Emperor’s flagship directly. Deuteros contacted the flagship, meaning the Emperor himself is on his way to Canaan House. Unable to help the dying Deuteros, the group leaves her to her fate.

The Sixth and Ninth encounter the Eighth, who tells them that the Third has defiled Abigail’s body. The three Houses visit the morgue, where they find Abigail has been cut open by Naberius’s knife. A key was hidden in her body, which the Third took. (Cytherea hid the key when she murdered Abigail.) Palamedes knows it was the last key from the door that had the regenerating bone ash in its lock. Palamedes, Camilla, Harrow, Gideon, Silas, and Colum set out to confront the Third House in the final Lyctor room.

The group finds the Third in the final Lyctor room. Corona cries over a dead Naberius, whom Ianthe killed, absorbing his soul to become a Lyctor. Ianthe explains that Lyctors are made from trapping the souls of cavaliers and using them as “everlasting batteries” (390). Ianthe reveals that Corona was never a necromancer, and that she had to become a good enough necromancer to cover for Corona’s inability. Living in her sister’s shadow allowed her to figure out the steps to Lyctorhood despite never completing a theorem chamber. Naberius went unwillingly and fights Ianthe in her head for control of her body.

Silas brands Ianthe a heretic, and Colum attacks her. Ianthe fights the two of them while wrestling with Naberius in her head. Silas siphons too much energy from Colum, which leaves him open to possession. Ianthe uses the opportunity to turn Colum against Silas and forces the cavalier to kill his necromancer. Gideon fights Colum, who has been possessed by the spirits of Canaan House; Ianthe then kills Colum. Finally, her internal fight with Naberius is too much, and she flees. Palamedes, not involved in the fight, is found to be missing. He slipped away to confront Dulcinea, whom he suspects is not who she claims to be. Gideon tries to comfort Corona, but Corona feels betrayed because Ianthe killed and absorbed Naberius instead of her.

Camilla reveals to Harrow and Gideon that Palamedes has known Dulcinea for over a decade. The two have exchanged letters since Palamedes was eight, and he is now 20. Originally, Palamedes became an expert in medical necromancy because he wanted to help cure Dulcinea’s blood cancer. A year prior to the Lyctor trials, he asked her to marry him, but she turned him down. Palamedes and Dulcinea had never seen one another in person until they came to Canaan House, and Harrow realizes that Dulcinea speaks about Palamedes as if she doesn’t know him.

Gideon is upset that Dulcinea may not be who she thinks she is. She runs off to find Dulcinea only to find Palamedes confronting her. When Gideon arrives, Palamedes binds her in place with magic so she can’t interfere. Gideon, helpless, has no choice but to listen to their conversation. Cytherea admits to her ruse and confesses to killing Abigail because feared Abigail’s expertise as a historian and spirit summoner. She hid the key in her body to slow down the trials. Cytherea cremated the real Dulcinea and Protesilaus in the furnace when she could no longer keep up the ruse of puppeteering Protesilaus. While Cytherea talks, Palamedes uses his magic to accelerate the blood cancer Cytherea has been holding at bay for 10,000 years. He then turns himself into a bomb and blows up Cytherea’s room with the intent to kill her. Gideon manages to flee the scene to the atrium, but Cytherea survives the explosion and confronts Gideon. She says she is the “vengeance of the ten billion” and has come to destroy the Houses (374). Then, she attacks Gideon.

Camilla and Harrow arrive to help Gideon fight Cytherea while Cytherea summons her large bone construct that she used to kill Isaac. Harrow uses everything she has learned in Canaan House to disable the construct, including replicating Cytherea’s regenerating bone ash. Harrow restrains the bone construct and passes out, and Gideon makes sure she is safe while Camilla fights Cytherea. Eventually, Cytherea beats Camilla and pins her to the floor with a bone spear, but before Cytherea can kill Camilla, Ianthe returns and attacks her. The two Lyctors fight, and Ianthe knocks Cytherea through a wall and out onto a terrace. Gideon, with an unconscious Harrow and a severely injured Camilla, follows them out onto the terrace because the atrium is collapsing from the fight.

Cytherea beats Ianthe and pins her down. She cuts off Ianthe’s arm, intending to cut off all of her limbs and use her as a siphoning battery. Camilla intervenes and draws the Lyctor’s attention to the trio. Gideon attempts to fight Cytherea but is already injured from her fight in the atrium. Cytherea frees her construct to finish them off, but Harrow encloses the trio in a dome of regenerating bone to keep them safe. After a long back and forth about what to do next, Gideon kills herself before Harrow can stop her. She throws her life away so Harrow can absorb her, become a Lyctor, and defeat Cytherea.