The Gembound: The Price of Keeping Chapter 36: Volume 2: Chapter 34 — The Regent’s Vault

Read chapter 36 of The Gembound: The Price of Keeping by Taliorn on NovelPedia.

Volume 2: Chapter 34 — The Regent’s Vault The throne room remembered the ceremony, even if the city didn’t. Through ash, thin sunlight fell; the banners appeared as old bruises. Yara, who had learned how to be looked at, crossed the floor with careful neutrality. "Report," Yara commanded. Eliza stepped from the ledger station. Her voice softened at the edges, careful not to set last night jangling again. A second quill rode behind her ear, the first worn to a blood-dark nub. "Two holdouts, two parts of the kingdom that haven’t taken the new name nor bent the knee," she said, almost conversational. "Quarry with bluster, Docks with gossip. Both can wait an hour and won’t get better or worse for it." Yara’s brow tipped. “Which breaks cleaner?” “The Quarry, when we choose,” Eliza answered, already moving past it. She tapped the ledger’s corner with a knuckle, like knocking on a closed lid. “But before that we have a door in the castle that hasn’t been opened. From what we can tell it is the Regent’s treasure. That one door is only yours to open. The Regent’s vault. My runners can’t lay it to inventory, and the books don’t like not knowing.” A small, conspiratorial smile that remembered Yara was still young beneath the scarf. “If there’s coin, we turn it into grain and rope. If there’s more than coin… perhaps we borrow a little luck before we go back to breaking rocks and rumors.” The Gem warmed under Yara’s sternum, leaning forward like a listener. Open what feeds. Eliza met Yara’s gaze. "One hour," she promised softly. "A clean problem. Then we'll make the ugly ones behave." "Fine." Yara's tone was final. "We clear the vault before we spend men on the Quarry or Docks. Scion, Horror—on me." The Horror, Yara’s first attempt at enhancement, and the Scion lifted their heads from the shadow of the steps. Behind them, the two girl Horrors padded forward as one, eyes bright in the ash-light. Marcus signaled the door guard; Elior took that post, chin high, eyes steady in a way that meant he was holding something upright by will alone. "Hold the room," Yara instructed him. He nodded. “My lady.” — The vault stairs were slick with the city’s breath. A door waited at the bottom, pretending to be stone. Iron bands and four locks marked it, its seams too perfect to be mere craft. The air around it had that tight, metallic taste that meant wards. Eliza’s runners had chalked the lintel with cautious numbers. None of them mattered. Yara lifted her hand and felt the hum before her palm met iron. Old magic, defensive and jealous, woven to bite anything not of the Regent’s blood. The Gem stirred, curious. Trap. Clever. Feed it to us. "Hungry, are you?" Yara murmured to the Gem. She let the ward strike first. Pale fire raced the carvings, finding her flesh. It stopped there—hesitation woven into the spell’s pattern. She drew its energy between breath and will, redirecting it into herself. As she focused, the Gem reacted, its magic unfurling like a throat opening. The spell’s force compacted into her sternum, a tangible ribbon of blue heat sharp with salt, coin, and fear. The air snapped cold around her. Sweet. Old flavor. More? "Later," Yara replied. The last of the wards guttered out in a sigh. The door stood honest now, no magic left, only iron pretending to matter. Yara glanced back. “Scion.” The creature filled the stairwell like a shadow with muscle. Its eyes reflected the faint green from her chest. "Take it," Yara ordered. The Scion stepped forward, hooked both claws under the banding, and leaned. The metal screamed. Stone flaked from the frame in gray scales. A final pull, shoulders flexing like mountains cracking, and the hinges surrendered with a sound like thunder spoken softly. The door tore free and toppled inward, dust billowing up in a slow bloom that caught the light. Air that had not moved in years breathed out across their faces. Dust drifted like stars in the dark beyond. The girl Horrors came up on either side of the torn door, sc