Nona the Ninth (the Locked Tomb, #3)

Nona the Ninth, the third installment in Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series, is set in a far-future universe governed by the Emperor Undying, a necromancer-god named John who rules the Nine Houses, a civilization built on necromancy. The story follows Nona, a young woman who woke up six months ago in a body that does not belong to her, with no memories, no ability to read or write, and no idea who she really is.

Nona lives in a cramped apartment in a besieged refugee city with three guardians: Camilla Hect, a cavalier (sworn sword-companion) of the Sixth House; Palamedes Sextus, Camilla's dead necromancer partner, whose ghost time-shares Camilla's body for a few minutes at a stretch; and Pyrrha Dve, the surviving cavalier half of a dead Lyctor, one of the Emperor's immortal saint-warriors. A monstrous blue sphere called Varun the Eater, a planet-sized Resurrection Beast, hangs in the sky, driving necromancers mad and terrifying the populace. Nona secretly loves the sphere and can hear it sing.

Each morning, Camilla records Nona's dreams, which always involve water, a painted face, and arms holding her. Palamedes and Camilla hope these fragments will reveal whether Nona is Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the Ninth House necromancer whose body she inhabits, or someone else entirely. Nona's body heals from any wound almost instantly, her eyes are an unusual gold, and she can speak any language she hears, but she shows no necromantic ability and cannot learn to fight.

Nona works as a volunteer Teacher's Aide at a local school, where she belongs to a gang of children led by Hot Sauce, a 14-year-old burn survivor. The gang includes Honesty, a 12-year-old hustler, among others. Their friendships give Nona a sense of belonging outside her complicated home life.

The city is a pressure cooker. Blood of Eden, an anti-necromancy resistance movement, controls the area and holds Nona's household under surveillance. Pyrrha advocates fleeing the planet, but Palamedes insists on a broader mission: He wants to save not only the Sixth House Oversight Body, held hostage by Blood of Eden, but also the city's millions of refugees.

At a Blood of Eden debriefing, Commander We Suffer reveals that a shuttle from the Nine Houses has entered orbit. She presses Nona's guardians for progress: Blood of Eden wants Nona to become a weapon, either a Lyctor or something equivalent. Camilla buys time by promising results. Coronabeth Tridentarius, a former princess of the Third House now allied with Blood of Eden, cryptically tells Nona she knows what Nona is and envies her.

That afternoon, the Nine Houses broadcast their terms. Prince Ianthe Naberius the First, a Lyctor who puppets the dead body of her former cavalier, demands the populace surrender and turn over all House personnel. Beside Ianthe sits Crown Prince Kiriona Gaia, the Emperor's heir, utterly still and expressionless. Nona recognizes Kiriona's face as the painted face from her recurring dreams but does not tell Camilla.

The following day, Pyrrha disappears. At school, the Angel, a veterinarian-turned-teacher, teaches the remaining children survival skills. When Palamedes, switching into Camilla's body, deliberately uses a necromantic diagnostic touch on the Angel, she panics, believing him to be a Lyctor. Snipers from Merv Wing, a hostile armed faction, then fire through the classroom windows. Nona is shot in the head; the wound heals instantly. Hot Sauce, who witnessed the impossible recovery, presses a gun to Nona's temple and pulls the trigger, declaring her out of the gang. The bullet does not kill Nona. Blood of Eden takes Nona and Camilla to their facility, where Nona, waking bound, throws a catastrophic tantrum, breaking chains, regenerating lost fingers, and battering down a door before being subdued.

Palamedes reveals that Nona's body is dying. Her soul is trying to leave, shedding energy at a rate consistent with terminal decline. Nona admits she has known for months. Palamedes theorizes that proximity to the corpse of Gideon Nav could save her through "spiritual gravity." He suspects Nona may not be Harrowhark alone but could be connected to Gideon, the redheaded swordswoman whose reanimated body is the Crown Prince seen on the broadcast.

Coronabeth infiltrates the Cohort barracks, the base of the Nine Houses' military, ostensibly surrendering to her twin sister Ianthe. Over monitored audio, Pyrrha's voice comes through, using prearranged code words to signal she is safe. We Suffer, Camilla, and Palamedes strike a deal: If they can extract Gideon's body from the barracks, Blood of Eden will release the Sixth House hostages.

Nona is disguised as Harrowhark, with shorn hair and white-dyed eyes, as a distraction during the infiltration. She and Camilla enter the barracks, where Ianthe confronts them in a hall filled with reanimated dead soldiers. When Ianthe grabs Nona, Nona screams with a force that knocks out the lights and staggers the Lyctor. Ianthe stabs Camilla, but Palamedes seizes control of Ianthe's puppeted body from within, and all of Ianthe's reanimated soldiers collapse. Pyrrha and Nona descend to find Gideon's corpse, destroying Ianthe's necromantic wards along the way.

Kiriona reveals she has been conscious the entire time, playing dead. She introduces herself as the Emperor's construct, with a body made nearly indestructible. The shuttle's fuel is warded and unusable, so the group pivots to rescuing the Sixth House. Using Honesty's intelligence about the Convoy, a network of megatrucks circulating through the city's tunnels, Blood of Eden locates the Oversight Body.

Camilla and Palamedes then perform the act Pyrrha begged them not to: a permanent soul merger. Camilla bursts into white flame and emerges as a new person called Paul, a true fusion of both souls. Paul drives a megatruck into the River, the liminal space between life and death, with Nona navigating instinctively. They surface at the Ninth House.

The Ninth House is under attack by spirit-possessed people serving the Resurrection Beast. Kiriona leads them underground to survivors guarded by Captain Aiglamene, a Ninth House soldier, and Crux, the ancient Ninth House seneschal. Ianthe's real body has arrived first, and Kiriona, initially her reluctant ally, turns on Ianthe, declaring the Emperor sent her to kill whatever is inside the Tomb. Nona's body fails catastrophically. Crux volunteers his death to fuel the Tomb's opening, and Kiriona kills him. The Tomb opens.

Nona walks into the salt water at the Tomb's center, where a golden-haired body lies chained on a marble altar. This is Alecto, a being John created 10,000 years ago from his own blood and bone and the soul of the dying Earth. Nona is the fragment of Alecto that inhabited Harrowhark's body. Nona collapses onto the frozen breast, and Alecto awakens.

Woven throughout the novel are dream interludes in which John reveals how he became God. He led a research team developing a cryo project to save Earth's population, but the project was defunded. In the process, he discovered he could manipulate death itself. Separately, trillionaires built faster-than-light evacuation ships that proved fraudulent, designed only for the ultra-wealthy. When the ships launched, John's closest friends were killed in the ensuing violence. In the moment of mass death, he consumed the energy of billions, merged with the planet's soul, and became God. He shaped Alecto from his own body and the Earth's soul, then locked her in the Tomb because her existence proved his power was stolen. The interludes conclude with Harrowhark declaring her intention to seek God on her own terms and walking into the River.

In the epilogue, Alecto breaks her chains, strikes down Ianthe, and takes up her iron sword. Harrowhark Nonagesimus speaks clearly for the first time, accepting Alecto's service according to an ancient vow made to Anastasia, the first keeper of the Tomb and Harrowhark's ancestor, and to all her descendants. Alecto kneels, offers her sword, and carries the unconscious Harrowhark to a ship. Finding John asleep, Alecto drives the sword through his chest. John opens his eyes and greets her as Annabel.