Tamsyn Muir: Gideon the Ninth

for pT

The Ninth House

Keepers of the Locked Tomb, House of the Sewn Tongue, the Black Vestals

Harrowhark NonagesimusHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE NINTH, REVEREND DAUGHTER OF DREARBURH

Pelleamena NovenariusHER MOTHER, REVEREND MOTHER OF DREARBURH

Priamhark NoniusvianusHER FATHER, REVEREND FATHER OF DREARBURH

Ortus NigenadCAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR

CruxMARSHAL OF THE HOUSE OF THE NINTH

AiglameneCAPTAIN OF THE GUARD OF THE NINTH

Sister LachrimortaNUN OF THE LOCKED TOMB

Sister AisamortaNUN OF THE LOCKED TOMB

Sister GlauricaNUN OF THE LOCKED TOMB

Some various followers, cultists, and laypeople of the Ninth

and

Gideon NavINDENTURED SERVANT OF THE HOUSE OF THE NINTH

The First House

Necromancer Divine, King of the Nine Renewals, our Resurrector, the Necrolord Prime

THE EMPEROR

HIS LYCTORS

AND THE PRIESTHOOD OF CANAAN HOUSE

The Second House

The Emperor’s Strength, House of the Crimson Shield, the Centurion’s House

Judith DeuterosHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SECOND, RANKED CAPTAIN OF THE COHORT

Marta DyasCAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, RANKED FIRST LIEUTENANT OF THE COHORT

The Third House

Mouth of the Emperor, the Procession, House of the Shining Dead

Coronabeth TridentariusHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE THIRD, CROWN PRINCESS OF IDA

Ianthe TridentariusHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE THIRD, PRINCESS OF IDA

Naberius TernCAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIRS, PRINCE OF IDA

The Fourth House

Hope of the Emperor, the Emperor’s Sword

Isaac TettaresHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE FOURTH, BARON OF TISIS

Jeannemary ChaturCAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, KNIGHT OF TISIS

The Fifth House

Heart of the Emperor, Watchers over the River

Abigail PentHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE FIFTH, LADY OF KONIORTOS COURT

Magnus QuinnCAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, SENESCHAL OF KONIORTOS COURT

The Sixth House

The Emperor’s Reason, the Master Wardens

Palamedes SextusHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SIXTH, MASTER WARDEN OF THE LIBRARY

Camilla HectCAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, WARDEN’S HAND OF THE LIBRARY

The Seventh House

Joy of the Emperor, the Rose Unblown

Dulcinea SeptimusHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SEVENTH, DUCHESS OF RHODES

Protesilaus EbdomaCAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, KNIGHT OF RHODES

The Eighth House

Keepers of the Tome, the Forgiving House

Silas OctakiseronHEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE EIGHTH, MASTER TEMPLAR OF THE WHITE GLASS

Colum AshtCAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, TEMPLAR OF THE WHITE GLASS

In the myriadic year of our lord—the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death!—Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.

She didn’t run. Gideon never ran unless she had to. In the absolute darkness before dawn she brushed her teeth without concern and splashed her face with water, and even went so far as to sweep the dust off the floor of her cell. She shook out her big black church robe and hung it from the hook. Having done this every day for over a decade, she no longer needed light to do it by. This late in the equinox no light would make it here for months, in any case; you could tell the season by how hard the heating vents were creaking. She dressed herself from head to toe in polymer and synthetic weave. She combed her hair. Then Gideon whistled through her teeth as she unlocked her security cuff, and arranged it and its stolen key considerately on her pillow, like a chocolate in a fancy hotel.

Leaving her cell and swinging her pack over one shoulder, she took the time to walk down five flights to her mother’s nameless catacomb niche. This was pure sentiment, as her mother hadn’t been there since Gideon was little and would never go back in it now. Then came the long hike up twenty-two flights the back way, not one light relieving the greasy dark, heading to the splitoff shaft and the pit where her ride would arrive: the shuttle was due in two hours.

Out here, you had an unimpeded view up to a pocket of Ninth sky. It was soupy white where the atmosphere was pumped in thickest, and thin and navy where it wasn’t. The bright bead of Dominicus winked benignly down from the mouth of the long vertical tunnel. In the dark, she made an opening amble of the field’s perimeter, and she pressed her hands up hard against the cold and oily rock of the cave walls. Once this was done, she spent a long time methodically kicking apart every single innocuous drift and hummock of dirt and rock that had been left on the worn floor of the landing field. She dug the shabby steel toe of her boot into the hard-packed floor, but satisfied with the sheer improbability of anyone digging through it, left it alone. Not an inch of that huge, empty space did Gideon leave unchecked, and as the generator lights grumbled to half-hearted life, she checked it twice by sight. She climbed up the wire-meshed frames of the floodlights and checked them too, blinded by the glare, feeling blindly behind the metal housing, grimly comforted by what she didn’t find.