The Locked Tomb, #2
Harrow the Ninth
by Tamsyn Muir
Contents
Chapter 9
Overview
Harrowhark wakes in a First House chapel during Cytherea’s funeral, where God, Mercymorn, and Augustine mourn the dead Lyctor and expose old grief around Cytherea’s ascension and Loveday’s sacrifice. Augustine formally folds Harrowhark and Ianthe into the family of Lyctors, reframing them as new saints rather than heirs of their former Houses.
The funeral is interrupted by Ortus the First, who brings catastrophic news: Number Seven is far closer than expected and cannot be avoided through the River. God chooses to stay and fight, and Harrowhark collapses after hearing Ortus’s name, signaling that the crisis outside is intersecting with her own internal instability.
Summary
Harrowhark regains consciousness in a grotesque, disoriented state, lying in a pew with her double-handed sword across her legs. Ianthe sits beside Harrowhark and quietly warns her to be silent. Harrowhark realizes they are in a candlelit chapel filled with bone, skulls, House colors, and the body of Cytherea the First, whom Harrowhark helped kill.
At the altar, Mercymorn, God, and an unfamiliar fair-haired Lyctor kneel beside Cytherea’s rose-covered corpse. Mercymorn grieves with visible fury, while God and the newcomer reminisce about Cytherea’s arrival at Canaan House, her illness, her charm, and her transformation into a Lyctor. The stranger is named Augustine, and the conversation reveals that Cytherea wanted to be called Cytherea Loveday after Loveday Heptane.
Mercymorn recalls that Cytherea cried after becoming a Lyctor and said they had once had the choice to stop. God is shaken by this memory, and Augustine and Mercymorn offer brief eulogies for Cytherea and Loveday. When Mercymorn notices Harrowhark and Ianthe are awake, God brings the two new Lyctors forward to kneel by the bier.
Augustine introduces himself as Augustine the First, Saint of Patience, and identifies Ianthe as the eighth saint and Harrowhark as the ninth. He also names Mercymorn as their sister in Lyctorhood, while referring to Cytherea as the dead sister before them. The conversation shifts uneasily to another absent Lyctor, whose duties and possible knowledge of recent missile strikes trouble Augustine.
The chapel doors burst open, and the missing Lyctor arrives: a muscular, severe man later named Ortus the First. After briefly embracing God, Ortus announces that Cytherea is dead and that they are effectively doomed because Number Seven is at the rim. He explains that its brain is already in the River, its body will arrive in under ten months, and Heralds will come with it.
Ortus demands that God choose whether to run or fight. God rejects retreat and says they increased their numbers in order to face these threats, deciding that they will stay and fight. When God thanks Ortus the First for making it home, Harrowhark registers the name, begins bleeding from her ears, and collapses unconscious on the chapel floor.
Who Appears
- Harrowhark NonagesimusNew Lyctor who wakes at Cytherea’s funeral, witnesses the crisis, and collapses bleeding.
- Ianthe TridentariusNew Lyctor seated beside Harrowhark, exhausted and formally named the eighth saint.
- GodEmperor of the Nine Houses; mourns Cytherea and chooses to fight Number Seven.
- Mercymorn the FirstSaint of Joy; angrily grieves Cytherea and recalls her regret after Lyctorhood.
- Augustine the FirstSaint of Patience; introduces himself to the new Lyctors and eulogizes Cytherea.
- Ortus the FirstSaint of Duty; arrives with urgent news that Number Seven is nearing the rim.
- Cytherea the FirstDead Lyctor laid out for funeral; remembered as beloved, sick, charming, and regretful.
- Loveday HeptaneCytherea’s remembered companion, invoked as central to Cytherea’s Lyctorhood and chosen name.