Dedication
for pT
Dramatis Personae
In Order of House Appearance
The Ninth House
Keepers of the Locked Tomb, House of the Sewn Tongue, the Black Vestals
Harrowhark Nonagesimus HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE NINTH, REVEREND DAUGHTER OF DREARBURH
Pelleamena Novenarius HER MOTHER, REVEREND MOTHER OF DREARBURH
Priamhark Noniusvianus HER FATHER, REVEREND FATHER OF DREARBURH
Ortus Nigenad CAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR
Crux MARSHAL OF THE HOUSE OF THE NINTH
Aiglamene CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD OF THE NINTH
Sister Lachrimorta NUN OF THE LOCKED TOMB
Sister Aisamorta NUN OF THE LOCKED TOMB
Sister Glaurica NUN OF THE LOCKED TOMB
Some various followers, cultists, and laypeople of the Ninth
and
Gideon Nav INDENTURED 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 Deuteros HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SECOND, RANKED CAPTAIN OF THE COHORT
Marta Dyas CAVALIER 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 Tridentarius HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE THIRD, CROWN PRINCESS OF IDA
Ianthe Tridentarius HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE THIRD, PRINCESS OF IDA
Naberius Tern CAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIRS, PRINCE OF IDA
The Fourth House
Hope of the Emperor, the Emperor’s Sword
Isaac Tettares HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE FOURTH, BARON OF TISIS
Jeannemary Chatur CAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, KNIGHT OF TISIS
The Fifth House
Heart of the Emperor, Watchers over the River
Abigail Pent HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE FIFTH, LADY OF KONIORTOS COURT
Magnus Quinn CAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, SENESCHAL OF KONIORTOS COURT
The Sixth House
The Emperor’s Reason, the Master Wardens
Palamedes Sextus HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SIXTH, MASTER WARDEN OF THE LIBRARY
Camilla Hect CAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, WARDEN’S HAND OF THE LIBRARY
The Seventh House
Joy of the Emperor, the Rose Unblown
Dulcinea Septimus HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE SEVENTH, DUCHESS OF RHODES
Protesilaus Ebdoma CAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, KNIGHT OF RHODES
The Eighth House
Keepers of the Tome, the Forgiving House
Silas Octakiseron HEIR TO THE HOUSE OF THE EIGHTH, MASTER TEMPLAR OF THE WHITE GLASS
Colum Asht CAVALIER PRIMARY TO THE HEIR, TEMPLAR OF THE WHITE GLASS
Epigraph
Act One
Chapter 1
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.