The Locked Tomb, #1
Gideon the Ninth
by Tamsyn Muir
Contents
Chapter 25
Overview
Gideon, Jeannemary, and Isaac search the facility for Protesilaus but instead encounter a vast bone construct that targets the Fourth House. Isaac dies trying to fight it, and Gideon rescues Jeannemary to a supposedly secure locked study.
The apparent refuge fails: while Gideon sleeps briefly, Jeannemary is murdered by bone spears and another taunting blood message appears. The chapter sharply raises the threat level by proving the killer can strike even behind locked doors and by eliminating both remaining Fourth House teens.
Summary
Gideon leads Jeannemary Chatur and Isaac Tettares back down into the First House facility to search for the missing Protesilaus. The Fourth teenagers are frightened from the start, especially because they suspect the skeleton servants and because bone fragments were found in Abigail and Magnus. Isaac, anxious but methodical, wards each doorway before they proceed.
The group searches the Sanitiser room where Gideon once found Harrow injured, but Protesilaus is not there. Isaac senses movement and a terrible amount of old bone matter in the facility, though no wards are tripped and Gideon hears only machinery. As they leave, the lights go out, then briefly reveal a fresh message written in blood: DEATH TO THE FOURTH HOUSE.
Isaac panics and runs ahead, blazing with necromantic light. In the main room, Gideon sees an enormous bone construct, larger than anything she has known, made of bones, teeth, tendrils, and a masklike skull. Isaac tries to pull the spirit or animating force out of it, briefly damaging the construct, while Gideon and Jeannemary attack its limbs and tendrils.
Gideon orders the Fourth to run, but Isaac refuses to stop fighting. The construct spears Isaac through with dozens of bone tendrils, killing him in a spray of blood and blue fire. Jeannemary tries to keep fighting in grief, screaming the Fourth House motto, but Gideon forcibly carries Jeannemary away, climbs out of the facility, locks the hatch, and refuses Jeannemary’s plea to go back.
Needing somewhere secure, Gideon remembers the red key and takes Jeannemary to the locked study room X-203, believing it safe because Gideon has the key and the door is iron. Jeannemary breaks down over Isaac’s death, explaining that Isaac was cautious and had a large family, and she eventually cries herself unconscious while Gideon keeps watch with a rapier.
Gideon falls asleep for only a short time and wakes to a dripping sound. Jeannemary is dead on the bed, pinned by bone spears through the shoulders, thighs, and ribs. Above the blood-spattered headboard, another message has been written in fresh blood: SWEET DREAMS.
Who Appears
- Gideon NavLeads the search, fights the construct, rescues Jeannemary, and discovers her murder.
- Jeannemary ChaturFourth House cavalier; survives Isaac’s death briefly before being murdered in the locked study.
- Isaac TettaresFourth House necromancer; wards the facility, confronts the construct, and is fatally speared.
- Unnamed bone constructEnormous animated mass of bones and teeth that kills Isaac and pursues the survivors.
- Protesilaus EbdomaMissing cavalier whose absence motivates the search; not found in the facility.