The Gembound: The Price of Keeping Chapter 126: Volume 5: Chapter 113 – Wings and Worship

Read chapter 126 of The Gembound: The Price of Keeping by Taliorn on NovelPedia.

Volume 5: Chapter 113 – Wings and Worship Day 97 – Eldania Yara decided to fly home. They were standing on Eldania’s inner wall at twilight, the sky fading from bruised purple to deep blue. The wind coming off the peaks tugged at her hair and plucked restlessly at her wings. Below, the city moved with the slow, tired pattern of a place that had not yet decided it was safe. Sam shifted beside her, claws hooked over the parapet. “You are thinking too loud,” he said. “I want to see Aramore,” Yara answered. “With these.” She spread her wings. They caught the wind like they had been made for this all along. Shadow-silver membranes tensed, lifted, adjusted. Each small change in angle gave her more information than a dozen marches ever had. Harry rubbed at his chest absently, the fused shard beneath his skin pulsing steadily but warm. “It is one day by flight,” he said. “Maybe less if we go high and the winds are clean.” “Then we go,” Yara said. “You, me, Sam, and the bears. Bruno can handle Eldania for a day. Weaver will scream in my ear if anything important happens.” Graveclaw, Stonehide, and Shadowfang stood behind her, already braced as if the decision had been made a long time ago. Their helms glinted in the last light. Corvin padded up quietly, Petra at his shoulder. “You are leaving,” he said. “For one day,” Yara said. “Guard this place.” Petra’s ears flicked. “We will.” She hesitated, then added, “Come back.” Yara touched the top of Petra’s head, just once. “I plan to.” Rosa came up the steps, breath misting. “If you are going to test the wings, bring something back from Aramore that is not a problem,” she said. “Like what?” Yara asked. Rosa thought about it. “Bread that is not ration crust. Or fruit. Or something sweet. Or just Eliza in a slightly better mood.” “That last one is impossible,” Harry said. “Fly anyway,” Rosa said. They did. Yara stepped up onto the wall, took one long breath, and jumped. The world fell away. Wind slammed into her wings, tried to flip her sideways, then caught properly as her body adjusted. Her heart lurched, then settled into a new rhythm. For a terrifying instant, she dropped, then her wings bit into the air and lifted. She rose. Sam launched after her with a roar, his larger wings beating heavy, powerful strokes that sent gusts spiraling back to the wall. Harry followed with a burst of shimmering metallic, his flight wobbling at first until he found a stable angle. The bears did not leap so much as step into the sky. Their wings snapped open, turning the drop into a controlled descent that curved up into flight. Their weight made every stroke thunder, but they held. Eldania shrank beneath them. Torches became pinpricks. The great broken hall was just a scar of pale stone. The walls turned into lines on a map. Yara climbed higher. The air grew thin and sharp, but it felt clean. Uncomplicated. Up here, there were no ledgers. No wounded. No reports. Only the beat of wings and the pull of distance. Harry drew level with her, breathing harder than she was, but steady. “This is better than teleportation,” he said. “It costs more,” Yara said. “The view is worth it,” he replied. Below them, mountain ranges rolled away into darkness. The world looked smaller and stranger, but also more connected. She could almost feel the lines between cities as threads in Weaver’s web. The Gem stirred, not with hunger this time, but with interest. You are learning the height of your empire. Good. You should know the shape of what you claim. Yara angled her wings forward. “Aramore,” she said. “Let us see what we have done to it.” They reached the capital well after full dark. Aramore’s walls rose out of the night in a ring of shadow and lantern light. The city glowed from within, streets traced in pale gold where patrols moved and household windows burned. They circled once, then glided lower. Yara landed in an empty street two districts from the palace, stone cool under her boots. The bears came down behind her with