“Kiriona?” said Camilla.
“I mean, it’s fine, you can call me Gideon if you want,” said Prince Kiriona Gaia the First. “I kind of keep forgetting it’s me when people say Kiriona. Anyway, who’ve we got?” She glanced round the group with interest. “Corona—looking great, ma’am, may I say—Cam, though probably not for long by the looks of it—Mumfucker Prime—Judith Deuteros for some reason, or, like, her corpse—and Sex Pal. Oh, and this fake Nonagesimus over here.” She paused. “Everyone but Corona can leave. How come you’re ambulant, Sextus? Thought you went bang.”
“How long have you been awake?” asked Palamedes, standing up with noticeably more difficulty than the corpse prince had done.
“Whole time. I’ve been playing possum. Pretty clever, right?”
Nona was indignant enough at Prince Kiriona Gaia’s whole demeanour, but this last piece of self-congratulation was too much to bear. “I knew it!” she burst out. “You didn’t fool me—I saw you looking at me, back in the other room! You know, when I—”
“Yes, congratulations,” said the Prince sarcastically. “No, babycakes, I didn’t fool you. Who is this literal goddamn infant? Can someone give her like a rusk or something and shut her up?”
Nona opened her mouth to say the worst thing she had ever said—she didn’t know quite what it was going to be, but she understood that when it emerged it would be really bad, perhaps the worst thing anyone had ever said, she could feel it bubbling in her throat—but Palamedes shot her a beseeching glance and she forced her jaw to clamp shut.
“Nona, sorry, but hold on,” said Palamedes. “This isn’t making as much sense as I’d like it to, and we’re short on time. Nav, why did Ianthe lock you away in the first place, if you’re moving under your own steam?”
“Oh—she got big pissed that I came along for the ride,” said Gideon. “She shut me off in public so I wouldn’t screw up the very important Sixth House mission.” She made a sort of insulting noise by blowing air out very fast through almost-closed lips, like pvvvvbb.
“The ride?” said Palamedes. “Wait. You mean you both dropped through the River? In that shuttle?”
“Can’t be,” said Pyrrha, who was watching the Prince narrowly. “Not anymore. You’ve got a soul attached to you, kid … or part of one, at least. John would have had to go with you to stop it being stripped bare.”
The corpse prince tilted her head to one side, like a curious bird. “You haven’t been in the River lately, have you?” she said.
“What’s that meant to mean?”
“Guess you’ll find out at some point,” said the Prince. “Anyway. You’re going to the Ninth House, right? I want in.”
“Why?” said Camilla.
The Prince shrugged. “Why not? Nostalgia. Boy, how I miss the old place. There’s no skeleton like a home skeleton, you know? I have so many happy memories there.”
“Nav,” said Palamedes levelly, “if you’ve been awake this whole time, you know perfectly well what we’re doing. Given that you’ve introduced yourself as Prince Kiriona Gaia the First, should you not be trying to stop us in the Emperor’s name?”
Prince Kiriona Gaia smiled. It was not a very friendly smile: it went slowly up her face, and there was something a little bit hungry about it.
“Oh, Sex Pal,” she said. “Do you—do you want to fight me?”
“No,” said Palamedes, at the same time moving one hand up and to the side to stop Camilla, who had taken a first step forward. “I very much don’t. I’ve already fought one of the so-called Tower Princes today. Besides that, I consider you a friend of mine.” This filled Nona with vague outrage: she could not believe that someone as kind as Palamedes could be friends with someone as awful as Kiriona Gaia. “But I’m struggling to understand why you’re here … what you’re doing … what you want out of this. What do you want, Gideon?”
The corpse prince considered this. “I don’t want much of anything anymore,” she said brightly. “I just don’t really give a shit. I got on Ianthe’s shuttle because it looked like it was more fun than standing around at home watching parades and getting saluted. I could kill all you guys and John would probably give me another medal or something—okay, not you, Corona, Ianthe would never shut up about it—but … eh, medals. I want to go where stuff’s happening. And I feel like … I feel like I’ve got unfinished business on the Ninth. Very cultural, very personal.”