The Locked Tomb, #2
Harrow the Ninth
by Tamsyn Muir
Contents
Chapter 28
Overview
In the false Canaan House, the survivors shelter from an unnatural ice storm while Harrowhark finally tells Abigail and Magnus that Silas Octakiseron and Coronabeth Tridentarius are dead. Abigail and Magnus then test Harrowhark with a written note, revealing that Harrowhark reads a completely different message from what Abigail sees.
Harrowhark confesses to lifelong hallucinations and doubts her reliability, but Abigail proposes a different explanation: Harrowhark may also be haunted. The chapter shifts Harrowhark’s apparent madness from private shame into a possible supernatural clue.
Summary
Days after the storm at Canaan House, the rain and fog turn to ice. Harrowhark wakes in the Second House chambers, where the remaining group has taken shelter because the rooms leak less. Abigail Pent and Magnus Quinn sleep nearby, along with Protesilaus Ebdoma, his intubated adept, Lieutenant Dyas, Ortus, and Harrowhark. Abigail has already moved the surviving Fourth children elsewhere, apparently to keep them out of danger.
Harrowhark rises early and is invited into Abigail and Magnus’s room, where Abigail watches the hail and offers coffee. Abigail discusses Dulcinea Septimus’s distress over the missing Eighth House pair and notes that Silas Octakiseron’s apparent disappearance is strange, because the Eighth are not usually prone to hiding.
Harrowhark decides to tell Abigail and Magnus what Harrowhark has withheld for nearly a week: Silas Octakiseron is dead, and so is Coronabeth Tridentarius. Harrowhark says the Sleeper was not responsible, then recounts what Harrowhark saw while omitting the blood in the fog. Abigail is troubled that Harrowhark waited so long, while Magnus tries to minimize the loss of Silas; Abigail insists that they need everyone.
Abigail then asks Harrowhark to read a piece of old paper. Harrowhark becomes wary and tries to bring Ortus into the conversation, but Magnus blocks the way with cheerful politeness, making clear that Abigail and Magnus have engineered this moment. Harrowhark reads aloud what appears to Harrowhark as a violent, intimate confession about kisses, death, heaven, hell, and regret.
When Harrowhark asks Abigail to read the same paper, Abigail reads an entirely different sentence: “I still get an erotic charge from snakes, sorry to say.” The discrepancy confirms that Harrowhark’s perception of the text cannot be trusted. Harrowhark responds by admitting that Harrowhark has always been mad, sees and hears things that are not there, and withheld the news of Silas’s death because Harrowhark was unsure of being a reliable witness. Abigail accepts the confession but reframes it, suggesting that Harrowhark may not only be hallucinating but also haunted.
Who Appears
- Harrowhark NonagesimusReveals Silas and Coronabeth’s deaths, fails Abigail’s reading test, and admits lifelong hallucinations.
- Abigail PentShelters the group, questions Harrowhark’s delay, and suggests Harrowhark may be haunted.
- Magnus QuinnSupports Abigail, gently blocks Harrowhark’s escape, and reacts to the deaths and note test.
- Ortus NigenadSleeps as the group’s self-declared bulwark; Harrowhark wants his presence during Abigail’s test.
- Silas OctakiseronAbsent Eighth House adept whose death Harrowhark finally reports to Abigail and Magnus.
- Coronabeth TridentariusAbsent Third House princess whose death Harrowhark reports alongside Silas’s.
- Marta DyasSecond House lieutenant hosting the survivors and lying awake with her rapier.
- Dulcinea SeptimusIntubated Seventh adept, distressed that the Eighth House pair are missing.
- Protesilaus EbdomaDulcinea’s cavalier, present among the sheltering survivors and sleeping with his sword.