The Gembound: The Price of Keeping Chapter 77: Volume 3: Chapter 71 — Roads That Don’t Want Us

Read chapter 77 of The Gembound: The Price of Keeping by Taliorn on NovelPedia.

Volume 3: Chapter 71 — Roads That Don’t Want Us (Days 18–26) The city was steady enough to leave. That was the whole point of the last 2 days' work oaks at the gates, wards under Valeria’s hand, a circle stitched to Aramore and Rainbow City. Before the first bell, Yara called out to Weaver. “Weaver,” she said. I’m here. “I want three clerics through the circle,” Yara said. “One stays in Aethelmar market ward clinics, sanitation, public blessings. Two travel with us for the next two towns. I want to boil discipline set before we hit rain, and I want people to see a healer’s face that isn’t mine.” Names? “You choose them. I trust your eye.” She made a considering sound. Sister Maira stays. She knows how to talk to markets without insulting anyone. Brother Renn and Novice Ilan will march. “Good. Maira’s under Valeria’s umbrella. Put her in the market ward with a tent and a copper basin, and she’ll turn it into a clinic by noon.” She will. “Tell Blue to idle the circle to a thread once they’re through,” Yara said. “I want doors we control, not doors we have to apologise for.” That’s all doors, Weaver said, amused. Thread it is. She ended the call and found Valeria waiting by the vault, a sealed case under one arm and a pair of black boots in the other. The Archmage had not slept much. The lines under her new calm were still settling. “Two things,” Valeria said, passing the case first. “A scroll. Leave No Footprint . Tracks fade, wards forget, and witnesses keep only the feeling that nothing happened.” Yara nodded. “And the boots?” “Quickness”, Valeria said. “Light. Ward-tagged to your mark.” She dropped her voice. “For the gifts I received yesterday.” Lower still: “You own the city. It was yours anyway.” Yara put the boots on. They fit like they had been waiting for her feet specifically. “I rented it with bloodless ink.” Valeria’s mouth almost made a smile. “Return the deposit.” Take the rent and raise it, the Gem purred. Sister Maira arrived through the circle with a canvas roll on her back and authority in her hands. She nodded to Yara and went straight to the market ward without ceremony or guards, because real power doesn’t ask permission to be useful. Brother Renn and Novice Ilan came next: lean, road-ready, field-pack efficient. Yara liked them at a glance. Renn had the face of a man who understood that wash barrels matter more than prayers during a plague; Ilan had quiet eyes that listened first and fixed second. They stepped into formation like they’d always belonged there. “Rules,” Yara said. “Boil, wash, dig. Bless water if it helps people obey the first three. Basically, back up Rosa with the men about keeping clean and sanitary. Hopefully, we won’t need your healing skills.” “Yes, General,” Renn said. Ilan just nodded. He had the look of a boy who would become a problem worth having. Rosa shoved bowls of hot broth at them and then at everyone else. “Eat,” she said. “We start nice because we won’t end nice.” They didn’t. But Day 18 tried. Day 18 — Light Packs, Dry Feet They left Aethelmar with a column that felt almost clean. Armor oiled. Rucks balanced. The wolves loped at the flanks, tongues out, disinterested in anything that wasn’t an order. Graveclaw and Stonehide pulled the first two carts to set the pace; Shadowfang ranged ahead with two of Bruno’s best to taste the road. Rift and Splice stood at their gates and watched them go. Yara’s “sight” skimmed across the city one last time and showed her lines that wanted to be obeyed: honest stairs, doors that remembered being doors. It was a relief to look away. Valeria raised two fingers in a gesture that could be read as a blessing if you were generous. “Weekly reports,” she said. “Or daily if you’re bored.” “Never bored,” Yara said. “Sometimes quiet.” You are never quiet, the Gem said, pleased. They passed the last farm wall. Rosa poured more broth and called it luck. A man at the rear tried a joke about dry boots, and the whole squad laughed too loudly because it w