The Locked Tomb, #2
Harrow the Ninth
by Tamsyn Muir
Contents
Chapter 51
Overview
Mercymorn and Augustine expose the central lie of Lyctorhood: Alecto was John’s cavalier, and John had achieved a version of the process that did not require the cavalier’s death. This revelation reframes the Lyctors’ ancient sacrifices as preventable losses caused by John’s deception.
After John confesses that he let their cavaliers die and still cannot relinquish his mission, Mercy offers forgiveness only to turn it into judgment. Mercy kills John, leaving the divine order of the Nine Houses suddenly and violently broken.
Summary
Gideon reflects inwardly to Harrow about childhood on the Ninth House: trying to identify her mother’s skeleton, telling her mother’s niche about small victories, and fighting Harrow over whether Gideon’s unknown parentage might matter. These memories frame Gideon’s immediate reaction to John recognizing her as his child, tying the revelation to Gideon’s lifelong longing and resentment.
Mercymorn turns the confrontation toward John’s secrets, focusing on Gideon’s eyes. Mercy and Augustine argue that the eyes once attributed to Alecto were actually John’s genetic legacy, and that Alecto had always worn John’s eyes while John wore Alecto’s. Augustine explains that Harrow’s changed eyes after Lyctorhood helped them understand the truth: Alecto was not merely John’s bodyguard, but his cavalier.
Mercy and Augustine reconstruct what John concealed from the Lyctors. John did not truly kill Alecto, only “switched her off,” and then made the Locked Tomb with Anastasia as its guardian. Because John and Alecto had exchanged eyes without Alecto dying, Mercy realizes there was a perfect Lyctorhood process that could preserve the cavalier. John had let the Lyctors believe their cavaliers had to die, causing the deaths of Alfred, Pyrrha, Titania, Valancy, Nigella, Samael, Loveday, and Cristabel.
Augustine presses John about Anastasia and Samael, suggesting Anastasia had nearly discovered the right method. John claims Anastasia panicked during the process and that John killed Samael to save her, but Augustine questions whether that is truth or self-justification. Augustine then tells John to stop his long mission of expansion and punishment, but John’s answer implies he still cannot abandon it.
Mercy shifts from accusation to a final test of forgiveness. Mercy asks John to look at Mercy and say John loved Cristabel and never wanted her harmed. John admits that he lied, that the cavaliers are dead because of him, and that John let them die because it seemed easier. Mercy grants forgiveness, then slides Mercy’s hands inside John and destroys him, causing the Emperor of the Nine Houses to come apart into mist and nothingness.
Who Appears
- Gideon NavNarrator in Harrow’s body; processes childhood pain and John’s paternity revelation.
- MercymornConfronts John’s lies, extracts his confession, forgives him, then kills him.
- John GaiusEmperor exposed as Alecto’s necromancer and deceiver of the Lyctors.
- AugustineExplains the theory behind John’s power and urges John to abandon his mission.
- Harrowhark NonagesimusAbsent mind addressed by Gideon; her Lyctoral eyes helped reveal John’s secret.
- AlectoRevealed as John’s cavalier, preserved rather than killed after perfect Lyctorhood.
- Ianthe TridentariusEmerges from hiding and silently witnesses the confrontation and John’s death.
- AnastasiaDiscussed as having nearly discovered the correct Lyctoral process with Samael.
- CristabelMercymorn’s dead cavalier; her fate becomes the focus of Mercy’s final test.