Harrow the Ninth

Harrow finds herself in Ianthe’s rooms lamenting that she is “not a normal Lyctor” (138). While Ianthe is a “normal Lyctor,” she cannot use her replacement arm, impacting her swordplay. Ianthe lost an arm in the climactic confrontation with Cytherea in Gideon the Ninth; the Cohort gave her a replacement arm from a matched donor after rescuing them from Canaan House. Ianthe hates the arm, and her cavalier soul-battery, Naberius Tern, refuses to use it. Ianthe asks Harrow to make her a new replacement arm out of her own flesh, but Harrow refuses. Ianthe reflects on how odd it is for the two of them to be bedfellows.

Harrow explores the structure of the Mithraeum. The sanctum consists of a series of concentric rings hidden in the asteroid belt orbiting a dead star. The Mithraeum is filled with the hallowed bones of heroes from all the Nine Houses and the Cohort. Harrow learns from John that a group called BOE (later revealed as the Blood of Eden) took down the three Cohort ships. She learns that BOE had a charismatic leader 25 years ago who made BOE a formidable force against the Houses. Harrow does not learn that this leader is Commander Wake: the Sleeper, and Gideon’s mother, who lurks in her two-hander. Cytherea had seemingly made some sort of deal with BOE when she attacked Canaan House.

Harrow confesses the circumstances of her birth to John. John is appalled by her parents’ actions and agrees to keep the secret between them. John takes the blame for their crimes and believes their sins are his. He promises to make it right with her.

Harrow’s dreams are haunted by the Body. Every night, she dreams of the Body in different circumstances. Every day, the Body follows her everywhere she goes aboard the Mithraeum. Harrow admits to the Body in a dream that she fears dying; she believes she will die when the Resurrection Beast attacks due to her inability to defend her body while in the River. Harrow asks the Body about her own eyes as if she has never seen them; says she promised somebody (likely Gideon) to not tell Harrow about her eyes. This severely distresses Harrow, who awakes screaming. She searches the mirror for the eyes of her cavalier, whom she believes is Ortus and who had the same eye color as Harrow. Every Lyctor has flecks of their cavalier’s eye color in their own; sometimes their eyes change entirely to the cavalier’s when the necromancer’s soul is in the River. Harrow cannot find Ortus’s eyes in her own and is bewildered.

Harrow begins keeping a new diary, encrypted against Ianthe’s snooping. She begins writing her observations on the others aboard the Mithraeum. She writes that Ianthe is untrustworthy and believes that Harrow is “mad” (153). Harrow notes that Ianthe cries every night and her eyes have not reverted to their normal lilac color since she entered the River. Harrow tries to convince Ianthe that Cytherea’s body is being moved around by somebody, but Ianthe refuses to believe her.

Harrow overhears an argument between Augustine and Mercy that reveals the deep animosity between the two elder Lyctors while they reference the Dios Apate, Major conspiracy. Augustine favors Ianthe over Harrow and rarely speaks to her. Augustine grows frustrated with Ianthe’s inability to use her new arm during combat lessons and believes she is doing so on purpose. He gives the two younger Lyctors lessons on spirit magic and the Resurrection Beast. He reveals that the real Resurrection Beast lurks in the River; its physical manifestation is made of kilometers of impossibly thick armor, which protect its anchor to the physical world. The Resurrection Beast harbors Heralds, insect-like creatures made from the organic material that the Resurrection Beasts consumes from other planets. The Heralds possess a special property that induces mental health crises in any necromancers, especially any Lyctors, that see them. The only way to fight the Resurrection Beasts is to enter the River while their cavalier soul-batteries defend their bodies from the Heralds; the cavalier soul-batteries are immune to the terror of the Heralds. This will leave Harrow completely vulnerable to the Heralds.

Harrow’s diary entries on the other members of the Mithraeum continue. Mercy is not forthcoming with information. She is Harrow’s keeper since Augustine has claimed Ianthe. Mercy is incredibly talented with flesh magic. Harrow gathers that Mercy’s cavalier, Cristabel, is a contentious person amongst the elder Lyctors.

The Saint of Duty, the third remaining original Lyctor, wants Harrow dead.

This chapter is another false memory. Captain Deuteros was killed by the Sleeper. (In truth, she is alive; the version of her in these memories is a soulless puppet.) Harrow, Abigail Pent, and Magnus Quinn deduce that she was killed by an antique rifle. Martas Dyas, Deuteros’s cavalier, says she saw the Sleeper kill Deuteros and then slip back into her glass coffin in the research facility underneath Canaan House. Dyas notes that, as the Sleeper got into the coffin, she saw a two-hander within. It is heavily implied to be the two-hander Harrow carries.

The narrative, which has been progressing steadily toward the Emperor’s murder, goes briefly back in time to address Duty’s first attempt on Harrow life. After Harrow inexplicably stabs Cytherea’s corpse, she begins avoiding others. While eating alone in the kitchen, Duty attacks her. The two fight and Duty nearly kills her until Mercy intervenes and saves Harrow. Mercy makes a vague reference to Duty getting into trouble 19 years ago (referring to his affair with Gideon’s mother, the sworn enemy of the Houses) and sends him off as if he hadn’t tried to murder Harrow. When Harrow asks why “Ortus the First” wants her dead, Mercy looks at her as if she has little idea who “Ortus the First” is (181). When Mercy says “Gideon,” Harrow hears “Ortus” and repeats this back to Mercy, who believes Harrow’s mental health has been impacted as a result.

Duty attempts to murder Harrow 14 more times in the following months. Secretly, Duty is attacking Harrow in an attempt to brute-force the barrier that Harrow has placed on Gideon’s soul. John chastises Duty but does not personally intervene in the matter. John asks Harrow to start wearing the rapier in the hopes that it might help her against Duty. Harrow reluctantly agrees in order to make John happy.

Harrow’s rooms on the Mithraeum are the unused rooms of Anastasia and Samael, the necromancer and cavalier of the Ninth House who were meant to be the Ninth original Lyctors. The two were designated to watch over the Locked Tomb and establish the Ninth House. John killed Samael when Anastasia botched the Lyctoral process (she discovered “perfect Lyctorhood,” discussed in Chapter 51). Talking about Anastasia allows Harrow to segue into the Locked Tomb. She asks who is buried there. John calls the woman buried there “Annabel Lee” and recites several lines from the poem of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe.

Back in the false Canaan House, it begins to rain ceaselessly, which has never happened before. The Sleeper murders the Sixth House, though in reality, Palamedes and Camilla are both technically alive. Dulcinea Septimus helps identify the bodies, while her cavalier Protesilaus and Ortus jab one another over who is more well-read in poetry. Characters continue to repeat phrases like “Is this how it happens?” in Harrow’s false memories (192).

Harrow snags a note from the dead Palamedes’s pocket. Again, it is nonsensical and angry scrawl from Wake about the botched Dios Apate, Major conspiracy. Ortus sees nothing but a “drawing of the letter S” (194). Ortus and Harrow have an argument over his autonomy and cowardice; Ortus reveals that he knows what happened to his father and how Harrow was made.

The night after Harrow kills her 13th planet, she dreams about dinner with the Body. Harrow wakes up from the dream and finds Cytherea’s body walking through the halls of the Mithraeum. Harrow flees and hides with Ianthe, who still does not believe her about Cytherea.