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The Locked Tomb Read: Nona the Ninth, Day 5, Part 1 [1]
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Date: 2023-05-29
Day 5, and 24 hours until the Tomb opens.
It’s our final day in this world until Alecto the Ninth is released later this year, and things happen fast. Next week, we’ll finish Nona (and it will be lengthy). The following week (June 12) we’ll do a retrospective and wrap-up, with space to discuss what we think is coming next. There are a lot of moving parts that Muir has woven together and it goes without saying that it’s complicated. So . . . without more ado, onward!
Chapter 20 Header: First House skull
Nona wakes up in a Blood of Eden facility, with Palamedes beside her. He realizes she’s ill and she confesses her secret: she’s dying. He confirms it and explains Lyctorhood, more to himself than to her. We Suffer brings them in to listen to Crown’s surrender to the House forces. Camilla begs We Suffer to pull her out, until she hears confirmation that Crown brought Judith with her. As We Suffer starts to order a sniper to shoot, Camilla changes tack, telling her to hold. Ianthe discovers the listening device in her earring but, before destroying it, they hear Pyrrha’s voice.
Nona’s soul is trying to leave its body. “Your body would never try to reject its own soul … unless it didn’t recognise it. Unless your soul was a stranger’s … or a melange. Is that the gestalt theory busted — or confirmed? Is that how we explain the rapid healing?” (p. 289). This is all about who knows what: As far as Camilla, Palamedes, and Pyrrha know, there are only two souls in play, belonging to Harrow or Gideon, or some combination of the two. As far as they know, Harrow was a full-out Lyctor — she told Palamedes so when she met him in the River bubble — and as far as they know, from Pyrrha’s experience, a blend of two souls in a Lyctor can be unpicked, the way that Pyrrha survived when Gideon 1 died. Even though Pyrrha might have told them she was an incomplete fusion, they don’t realize that she might have been unusual for Lyctors, which means that John might have told the truth at the end of Gideon when he told her “That soul’s inside you now. If I tried to pull it out, I’d take yours with it and destroy both in the process” (p. 441). Then again, John could have been lying. We know the rapid healing is due to Gideon Nav being John’s daughter. Nona’s regenerative abilities are also due to some bit of Harrow and Gideon still being in Harrow’s body, which means it’s due to Gideon’s divinity. They don’t know that. Palamedes is trying to understand why Harrow’s body would reject a combination of her and Gideon’s souls. They don’t know about Alecto.
Palamedes is still trying to preserve both souls. “Ninth, really, I sincerely did not want to have to look after your bedamned water bottle” (p. 289). It’s a meme. When things start getting dark and tense, look for the memes.
“Can one person even be two people? I feel like I’ve only got enough room inside for me, and sometimes like that room’s not even enough” (p. 290). She’s not wrong.
“Lyctors can . . . or at least — they thought they could; in fact all they became were half-dead cannibals. I think a true Lyctorhood is a mutual death … a gravitational singularity creating something new. A true Grand Lysis, rather than the Petty Lysis of the megatheorem” (p. 290). Lyctorhood as we’ve seen it involves So. Much. Pain. In an interview, Muir said something to the effect that “Lyctorhood solves for shittiness,” in that only the absolute worst people manage it, because it involves the cold-blooded murder of your best friend, reducing that friend to a mere battery and sword hand to serve you for eternity. It’s an extreme and personal version of Ursula Le Guin’s Omelas, with one person’s well-being entirely dependent on the misery of another. Not for nothing, we’ve not seen any evidence that the cavalier’s soul is made insensible or destroyed by the Lyctorhood process; in fact, Pyrrha and Gideon Nav’s survivals suggest otherwise. We don’t see with Mercy or Augustine because they’re never in a position where we could find out. “A true Lyctorhood is a mutual death” will come up again. In biology, as you no doubt recall, lysis is the rupture of a cellular membrane.
“Do you remember the girl on the broadcast? . . . The one who wasn’t a startlingly handsome and very obviously dead person with fashion hair?” (p. 291). And thus we are sure that it’s not Ianthe who spoke during the broadcast, but Naberius. And now we know why Ianthe was practicing preservation on apples during Harrow. She was keeping Naberius’ body for her own purposes.
Blood of Eden calls Aim the Messenger, which is a translation of the word Angel. We Suffer says, “The Angel is Blood of Eden” (p. 294). Whether this means she’s part of BoE, or embodies the whole thing, we don’t know, but it’ll be important.
We Suffer thinks that Crown will give them intel on the barracks. Camilla thinks Crown wants to surrender to be with Ianthe, and even if she meant to be a BoE agent, Ianthe will see through it because “Corona can’t lie to her” (p. 296).
Remember that Ianthe told Harrow she and Coronabeth had only spent three nights apart before the Canaan House massacre? Their reunion is less loving and more creepy, with strong Tennessee Williams vibes. (For the record, I am not a twin, and will probably never understand, but I have talked to twins who also agree this is a creepy, codependent and borderline incestuous relationship).
Ianthe didn’t know that Crown was on New Rho (Ur to the locals), and has been looking for her elsewhere. Note that Pyrrha did not give her up. She told Ianthe that Camilla and Harrow were here, but didn’t mention Crown or Judith.
Ianthe does not want to take Judith, and would rather kill her. So Crown smuggled Judith out from under BoE’s noses. I note this because she has abilities and competencies we haven’t seen from her before. Ianthe killed three of the surviving barracks necromancers immediately on landing (p. 300). She makes no effort to evacuate them or figure out how to ease their suffering.
In their first conversation, Crown tries to get Ianthe to explain about Gideon’s body but Ianthe flips the script, saying, “multiple puppets are a pain” (p. 301). She knows BoE is listening and tells them she’s puppeting both bodies.
Addressing BoE directly, Ianthe says that Crown is the only reason she won’t bomb the planet: “I’m changing the terms of the demand, but don’t panic. You see, I don’t particularly care about Blood of Eden. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if you all survived for a few hundred more years. You think we’re fighting you on Antioch? You think you’re the main event? Sure, you’ve made a hell of a mess, but we’re already doing cleanup. My eyes are not on you . . . I want the Sixth House Oversight Body. I want Camilla Hect on my front doorstep. and most of all I want Harrowhark Nonagesimus . . . or the whole planet is forfeit” (p. 302). There are a couple of gems in here: She came looking for the Sixth House, but learned that Camilla and Harrow are on the planet. Therefore, the demands shifted to higher-value targets. Do we think that Ianthe is carrying out John’s orders? Is it possible that, after a mere six months, she’s taking some serious initiative? There’s someone else the Houses are fighting on Antioch, and they’re more formidable than Blood of Eden. Tuck that away.
As soon as Crown insists they bring in Judith and We Suffer is ready to call on the sniper, Camilla urges them not to take the shot: “She’s trying to tell us something” (p. 302).
Pyrrha shows up and Crown freaks out. “He’s a tame Lyctor” (implying that Ianthe is not). “’Kill her,’ said the voice. ‘Deadweight” (p. 303). “”Get the fishhook out of the fish” (p. 304). Check the codes.
Chapter 21 Header: fractured Third House skull
We Suffer believes the whole operation is forfeit until Nona tells her otherwise and Camilla asks her to check for other bugs. Palamedes enters the chat to explain why this is a fraught situation, but one that potentially achieves all of We Suffer’s objectives. He explains that Ianthe may be a Lyctor, but she’s piloting a dead body remotely and that limits her. In exchange for the return of the Sixth House Oversight Committee, they will try to secure Gideon Nav’s body. They will go in to the barracks and Blood of Eden will follow with a commando raid in six hours. If they’re successful, they’ll also get the shuttle. In return We Suffer wants them to take something with them off-world.
The bug on Judith’s body activates while Crown and Pyrrha argue. Ianthe puts a ward on Judith to keep her unconscious and takes Crown away for a private talk. Camilla solves the rest of Pyrrha’s message and tells Nona that she’s key to the mission. Nona reveals that she’s dying, and We Suffer offers all her support for the mission. Camilla asks for scissors, eye dye, and black clothes.
Why a fractured Third House skull header? Why, the relationship between the twins is broken. This is probably a good time to mention that in Gideon the Ninth: “A Little Explanation of Naming Systems,” Muir notes about the sisters: “In the original, Ianthe and Corona were ‘Cainabeth and Abella,’ a feat of naming so unsubtle that I might as well have just gone with ‘Goodtwin’ and ‘Badtwin.’ And it’s not even accurate! It should be Badtwin, and Lessbadtwin” (p. 471). Ianthe is named for Abel, and Coronabeth for Cain. Sure puts a spin on things, doesn’t it?
We Suffer is furious: “she made the sniper order, you see. The headshot was not intended for the Lyctor. She ordered the headshot for her if she was found out … And I believed her. I have seen people call for the headshot before, and their eyes are not all like hers were. She had the conviction” (p. 306). She is second-guessing all her trust in Troia Cell. “Troia,” as you might have guessed, has multiple meanings. There are communities in Southern Italy and Portugal named Troia, but that’s not it. In Italian, the word means “sow” and commonly also means “prostitute” — think of all the times people assumed that Cam and Nona were prostitutes and Pyrrha was their pimp — but it also means “Trojan,” as in, the Iliad’s Trojan War. Another callback to the Iliad. Crown does indeed have “the conviction.” This will make more sense soon.
“I wouldn’t make her mad” (p. 306). Understatement of the myriad.
When Camilla tells Nona that her grasp on the chair leg and her stance were good for a two-handed sword, Nona’s nose starts to bleed.
“Pyrrha’s talking funny like she’s trying not to sneeze” (p. 308). Pyrrha is talking like Gideon I would talk, because Ianthe knew him.
“Everyone in this room needs that body. It’s your way to carry out your mission, and it’s our way to save Nona” (p. 310). “’I’m dying,’ Nona put in cheerfully. Having admitted it once, the words seemed a little lighter every time she said them, so she as quite keen to say them at every opportunity” (p. 310). Blood of Eden thinks it needs Gideon’s body to open the Tomb. Palamedes and Camilla think that putting Nona near Gideon’s body will restore her soul. The fact that Gideon’s body is dead is a bit of a problem for both, but one thing at a time.
“The same building contains both Gideon Nav — whom I want in a bag — and a Lyctor, now apparently neutered — whom I want in a box” (p. 310). Palamedes assures her that it’s not that simple: Ianthe could pull away at any time: “They’re not in a corner, Commander, they’re bobbing on the end of a string” (p. 310). Like bait. “Blood of Eden went back on its word. Despite that, you can get the Tomb and your honour, and all you have to do is trust a couple of zombies” (p. 311). Great line. Blood of Eden was supposed to be negotiating with the Oversight Committee and instead took the members hostage, under Merv Wing’s control.
“If you find a way off-world … I would like you to take a package with you” (p. 312).
Crown and Pyrrha let loose on each other: “Did you have a family, once? Have you thought about them in the last hundred years … in the last thousand?” Before Canaan House, in twenty-one years, Coronabeth and Ianthe spent three nights — three nights — apart. They slept together; they were everything for each other; they carried off a massive con — for twenty-one years. Of course Crown thinks constantly of her sister; maybe not the rest of the family, but Ianthe, certainly. “’No,’ said Pyrrha. There was silence. Then Pyrrha said, ‘I don’t trust you either” (p. 313). Does the “No” refer to not trusting Crown, or to not thinking about her family? Crown laughs and says, “a little hysterically: ‘Nobody should ever trust me’” (p. 313). As Maya Angelou told Oprah Winfrey: when people tell you who they are, believe them.
“This was all a dreadful plan to lure out the Ninth, wasn’t it? I’m a little heartbroken, you know. I thought Ianthe had come for me, but it was only a mission, after all. A honey trap” (p. 313). Crown is telling the truth. She’s seen through Ianthe and realized that Ianthe wants Harrow more than anything, or anyone, else. Just how aware is John of her mission? If he is, is he twigged to her motivations? Somehow, I think not. Ianthe is pursuing her own objectives. “Yes . . . it’s a trap . . . None can get at that corpse . . . I put all the corpses in the morgue” (pp. 313-314). If this conversation feels weird, like they’re talking past each other, they are. Crown is trying to yell at Pyrrha, Pyrrha is giving intel. Have you put it together yet? Deadweight = all clear. Fishhook = important resource. “It’s a trap.” “The corpses in the morgue.” “None can get at it.” None, as in Nona. None is, as we confirm in a few pages, one of Pyrrha’s nicknames for her.
Ianthe depends on wards, and puts one on Judith. Crown insists she use Judith’s own material so she won’t be hurt.
This is a good place for a reminder that, for all her talent and as Harrow noted in the last book, Ianthe is fundamentally lazy and takes shortcuts.
“For that smile Nona would have lived, if she had had any say in the matter” (p. 316).
John 9: 22
Notice that Nona doesn’t have to be asleep any longer for the dream/memory to continue
They approach the concrete building and work their way inside. John tells her that the necromancy announcement brought in more pilgrims and alarmed the authorities enough that the United Nations wanted to send troops against them. Meanwhile, his powers were growing, but there was a missing element — the soul — which he didn’t believe in, but Cristabel insisted was the necessary element that conferred life. When five people shot outside the walls, John feels the rush of thanergy and uses is to kill everyone holding a gun within a kilometer radius, which included many of Pyrrha’s friends. He claimed then it was an accident, but admits to her now that it wasn’t.
John wants to clear the rubble from the building entrance by hand, in the grand tradition of doing the work of grief without magic. Think Harry Potter digging Dobby’s grave by hand.
Even before the deluge, the building had been wrecked by violence, and the bodies left inside. John doesn’t want to recognize that. “She pointed out that some of the bones still had meat on them and he said to stop” (p. 318). His regret and grief are real — they’re just not enough to have stopped him from doing what he did.
He uses regenerating bone to expand the wall “but that just freaked everyone out more. It even scared A—. He was all Matter doesn’t play by these rules!” (p. 318). Note the awful Your Mama joke. Muir is deft at embedding, not only memes as easter eggs for fans, but pop culture references that serve as touchstones to ground her characters. Some readers find them off-putting, but I disagree: John’s dad jokes place him in a specific historic context that’s very close to ours, giving us a date for the apocalypse that isn’t too far off from our own world, while the cultural traditions that survive in both the Houses and Blood of Eden do a few other things: They speak to random survival of traditions and the way that not always the important stuff endures, random examples including: “One flesh, one end”: from sex toy to sacred oath. Blood of Eden’s three part names: “dead words, stretching back ten thousand years.” They provide important character references for readers. We immediately get, for example, BoE’s characters: Crown’s deeply ambiguous name; We Suffer’s wisdom, Our Lady of the Passion’s commitment and fervor. They break tension. This one, for instance, leavens a scene where rotting bodies and picked bones lie on the ground and makes it bearable to read.
“What I could do wasn’t simply freaking out everyone outside the walls” (p. 318). His growing abilities are scaring everyone inside, too.
“The last frontier I couldn’t cross was the soul. M—‘s nun of all people was convinced this was the element I was missing, and that finding it — the last link between what made someone alive and what made someone dead — would bring us closer to God. She was right, but I’m not sure she was right in the way she meant” (p. 319).
“The soul. Element X. I knew the only way I was going to get closer was to see more people die” (p. 319). “I was too distracted to do anything with it because it was then that I found out fresh deaths were like — like crack cocaine” (p. 319). Intense and addictive high. “It was like my brain was hyper-attuned to the moment of violent death” (p. 319). “And the more I did it the more I could see.”
“Guys as careful as me don’t have accidents” (p. 320).
Chapter 22 Header: fractured Ninth House skull
Nona is disguised and coached on how to carry on the fiction that she's Harrow while preparations continue for the raid. Ctesiphon is interrogating Merv, which means that, if the operation fails, We Suffer will have to answer for war crimes against her own organization. We Suffer informs Pash that the Angel will be part of the operation, and Pash refuses until she learns that Ianthe may have a working shuttle. After neutralizing Ianthe, Camilla tells them she doesn’t know what will happen next. We Suffer approves, they load up the truck and travel to the barracks. Cam suits up with her weapons and puts on her sunglasses. They walk up the road and into the barracks, through some empty rooms and find Ianthe in Naberius’ body, with Pyrrha and Crown.
“We Suffer had said, leaning over Nona’s face and checking the position of the plastic films: ‘I am glad you did not tell us this. We had no idea there was any recourse from Varun the Eater’s effects, nor any Beast.’ ‘It’s pure theory,’ Camilla said curtly. ‘Something’s being transmitted in the light spectrum. Absorption through the eyes is worst for the brain’” (p. 322). “Something’s being transmitted in the light spectrum.” Something that drives necromancers insane. Remember that, as insane as the RB makes necromancers, it’s worse for Lyctors. Nona, in a necromancer/Lyctor body, finds comfort in Varun’s light. “This made Nona think of something. It tugged at the edges of her memory and stayed there, nagging.” Absorption through the eyes: is this why Lyctors take the eyes of their cavaliers? I don’t know the significance of this passage, but it feels important. “Survival through caution” (p. 322). Pash is a serious hard case. How much of this, do you think, is a put-on?
“’Look at me like you’ve worked out how to kill me,’ and then, ‘More eyebrows,’ and then, ‘Good God, perfect. Do you know, I miss Harrow terribly’” (p. 323). This isn’t significant, but it is adorable.
“Cam had told her that her main job was to be a Distraction. Nona asked if Harrowhark Nonagesimus had been a Distraction in life, and Cam said it always was the quiet ones” (p. 324). If all else fails, she should pretend to have the blue madness, like Judith does.
We Suffer asks Camilla, “You say you only need one good chance — an element of surprise — and the Lyctor will be out of the question? . . . You are certain, one simple touch?” (p. 325)
“Her body had been playing strange games with her ever since she had recovered from the last tantrum. She was beginning to feel like a floating balloon on a string, with a weight tied to the end — the balloon bobbing, the weight dragging behind. She was the balloon, and also the string, but she wasn’t sure she was still the weight” (p. 326). This is more than illness; the submerged identity is coming to the fore as its soul is trying to leave the body it’s in. Nona is losing her grip on her identity.
“People with their hands in their pockets standing around on the street corners — people walking, people thronging, people righting bins that had been knocked over, as though nothing were happening, as though her whole life really were nothing more than a balloon passing by overhead” (p. 327). Two references in this passage: W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts,” which, if you don’t know it, stop now, follow this link, and read it. The painting referenced in the poem is here. Nena’s “99 Red Balloons,” about disaster floating overhead.
“Die quick, die cold, bring ‘em with you” (p. 328). This is the best encouragement that Pash can give. At least she recognizes that they’re on the same side. “’That one yours?’ ‘No. Came down from someone much bigger than me.” Any guesses about who that might be? If you guessed Wake, ding ding ding ding! You got it.
Nona channels Hot Sauce to carry herself like Harrowhark. Anyone who wondered what the purpose of the gang is, here’s one tick in the positive column.
The barracks stinks. Not only does it carry the stench of death, but of desperate people who have no food, no water, no utilities, holding out for an extended length of time.
Ianthe has Crown dressed in a yellow gown with her hair styled. She’s making her into Coronabeth again, making her into an ornament. Note that she also disparages Crown and belittles her intelligence. This is a serious mistake on Ianthe’s part.
Chapter 23 Header: Sixth House skull
Ianthe bigfoots her way through the meeting, trying to provoke Camilla and Nona and not succeeding. She tells Camilla that John wants the Sixth House back, but she intends to kill the Oversight Committee once she gets her hands on them, and is badly shaken when she learns that the Sixth House left on the instructions of Cassiopeia. Crown begs her to throw in with her, run away, and start over. Callously, Ianthe declines. Then she addresses Nona and, lacking options, Nona copies Judith, and screams.
It doesn’t go as planned, and when she recovers, Camilla and Pyrrha are restrained, Crown under guard, and Nona grabbed by some of the dead puppets. Ianthe is furious and issues orders about leaving. But first, she’ll kill Camilla, or just dismember her now and kill her later. In response, Camilla challenges her to a duel. Ianthe laughs at her, but Crown grabs Pyrrha’s gun and threatens — convincingly — to shoot herself if Ianthe doesn’t agree. Petulant, she does. If she wins, Camilla dies. If Camilla takes her handkerchief, she’ll concede and Cam can walk away. They duel, it’s unequal as hell, and Camilla takes Ianthe’s rapier to her midsection, but finishes with her hand on Ianthe’s bare wrist. She proclaims that she wins and Naberius’ body collapses.
There’s a lot of catchup in this chapter. I’ll focus on what we don’t already know:
“Who cares what I think? I’m only a Lyctor, a sacred fist and gesture holding the power of life and death, having ascended to the state your pompous moralising blowhard of a necromancer disdained … whereas you’re the big girl who made the Sixth House secede” (p. 333). There are two things outstanding here: One: Ianthe’s ego has attained Mercymorn proportions in six months with John’s undivided attention. Two: Ianthe has no idea that Palamedes is still around. Also, Ianthe fundamentally misunderstood Palamedes from the start.
Ianthe tries to bait Nona, thinking her Harrow, with Gideon Nav’s corpse, but Nona doesn’t react. “Has that fire cooled? Have you changed your mind on that one? Is Camilla the better model? I consider Camilla Hect an obvious upgrade; I imagine she hardly makes one ass joke a day …” (p. 333). Remember that Ianthe has a serious thing for Harrow and is insanely jealous of Gideon’s relationship with her.
Ianthe came to New Rho (Ur) for the Sixth House. She didn’t know that Crown, Judith, and Camilla, were there, or that Harrow (she thinks) and Pyrrha survived the River. Abruptly her plans change: to recover the Sixth House and everyone except Camilla.
“I’ve read Sixth House juvenile moral novels about very smart children who save the day with logic, and I think you can all go drown. No, God wants the Sixth House back … badly. It was unfortunate timing, you know. First, we hear that the Sixth House facility is missing. Teacher assumes it melted as result of a little domestic drama, which sets him off wallowing all over again. Then we find out it really is missing, not burned . . . “ (p. 334). Her attitude proves that inter-House prejudices are real and enduring. That “domestic drama” was, of course, the Emperor’s murder and revival in Harrow. John has been grieving, doubly grieving because the Sixth didn’t burn but left. Ianthe is deeply dismissive of John’s suffering. She has, as they say, come into her prime.
“It’s called applying the fucking boot, and I’m going to teach God all about it . . . I have seen fear and understand it now, and I am going to become wonderfully versed in its transmission” (p. 335). Ianthe all but announces her plan here: to displace John and rule his empire by terror.
Camilla tells Ianthe, “The Sixth House . . . doesn’t move for moral philosophy . . . . Cassiopeia the First left us instructions years ago . . . . We left for a Lyctor” (p. 335). This is an unimpeachable reason to break, if the House founder authorized it. Pyrrha adds, “Cassy played long games” (p. 336). The breach was not a morally philosophical issue, but has to be something else.
Returning to the subject of John’s depression, Ianthe says, “If he hears that yet another one of his duplicitous sluts betrayed him, he’s never going to come back from it. He’s so fragile right now. Not even if we scourge Antioch and fly the First flag from the tallest tower” (p. 336). I take it that things aren’t going great at Antioch.
Crown tries her best supplication routine and Ianthe almost goes with it. There are serious incest vibes here, as well as indications of a shared grand scheme. Ianthe tries to defuse her, saying “There is no starting over, Corona . . . . But we’re closer to the goal than ever before” (p. 336). “I fully intend for us to be us, together, now … but I have the framework for it and you, my poor dummy, do not” (p. 337). It’s possible that Ianthe killed Naberius and not Coronabeth to become a Lyctor because she wants the two of them ultimately to end up together, but in Coronabeth’s body. Ianthe spends an inordinate amount of time focused on Crown’s looks and a lot less on how happy she is to see her.
“She screamed, ‘Help! Help! Help!’ for want of anything better to say. The scream moved through her chest and up her throat and out of her nose. When she let it out, it did not at all sound like when she had heard the Captain do it” (p. 338). She screams for help. Remember this. “Her mouth and nose were streaming; but she hadn’t coughed up anything except water” (p. 339). Water — remember this. Pyrrha: “Everyone with a necromantic body is down” (p. 340). All of this for a scream. We know it’s Nona’s scream, and Nona is Alecto, but . . . Who is Alecto? Seriously. Think about it. All the clues are here.
Camilla gets Ianthe to admit that there was no emancipation for the city or resettlement planned. “I only wanted the Sixth as a goodwill gift for God” (p. 340). “We’re dealing with some shit back on Antioch, and really, God can’t spare the Hands. No, the Sixth isn’t a priority. Which means … I really don’t need you. I don’t want the details about Cassiopeia, and God — doesn’t — need — to — know” (p. 340). Ianthe really is freelancing here.
“The outnumbered, overpowered hero against the narcissistic villain. Yuck. Just like a storybook” (p. 342). Or an epic fantasy novel. Or an action film of just about any genre. Muir knows exactly what tropes she’s playing with, and yet she puts a twist on them all.
Crown threatens suicide if Ianthe executes Camilla without duelling her, and the dynamic is both unsettling and dysfunctional, giving us yet another window into their relationship: “’I’m going to shoot myself and you’re going to watch,’ said Crown, with deep satisfaction. ‘Like when we were teens, but this time I’m going to really tie the rope … really drink the poison … ‘” (p. 343). Everyone thinks/still thinks that Corona was the stronger and more forceful twin, but if she has to hold herself hostage to get around Ianthe, it appears that everyone was wrong. Or maybe not. They’re both deeply manipulative. Remember that she gave the order for a headshot in Chapter 20? Crown has a distinct relationship with suicide. Who is really in charge in this relationship?
Pyrrha notes where the puppeted soldier kicks her pistol.
Chapter 24 Header: Gideon Nav’s skull — Ninth House with mandible, aviators, and the IX crossed out
All the puppeted soldiers collapse, two of them pinning Nona down. Crown holds Camilla steady while Pyrrha retrieves her gun and trains it on Naberius’ body before recognizing Palamedes in it. As Crown goes for bandages, Palamedes reads the signatures on Naberius and in the building and tells Pyrrha where Gideon Nav’s body is, and tells her to take Nona with her. Crown goes to retrieve Judith. As they go downstairs, Pyrrha both grounds and reassures Nona, and Nona confesses that she’s dying. Pyrrha is unsurprised.
The downstairs area is warded but Nona’s regenerative abilities break the ward. While Pyrrha checks for other traps to be disabled, Nona finds Gideon’s body. Tentatively she touches it and its eyes open. Nona kisses her just before Pyrrha enters. Pyrrha carries the body upstairs, where Crown is waiting. She confirms that the shuttle is out of commission. They examine Gideon’s body while reviewing the checklist. Palamedes prepares to draw a blood sample from the body, and Gideon stops him.
We’ve all been wishing for Gideon to come back, and Muir has given us our wish. But, as she customarily does and just like the gods of Greek mythology, she gives us what we ask for but in a way that’s wholly unsatisfying.
[END]
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