The Gembound: The Price of Keeping Chapter 27: Chapter 26 — The Gate of Crows, Part III: The Fold

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Chapter 26 — The Gate of Crows, Part III: The Fold Dawn came cold and gray. Yara hadn't slept. She'd spent the night watching the eastern horizon, waiting for more lights. They'd come an hour before sunrise, dozens of them, moving in formation. Not scouts this time. An army. Rolen called down from his perch. "Column approaching. Twice yesterday's numbers. Maybe more." Elior appeared beside her, arms crossed. "We can't hold another assault like yesterday." "I know." Bruno joined them, limping slightly. His remade leg was stronger than his old one, but the rest of him was tired. "So what do we do?" Yara looked at the battlefield, thirty-some bodies still cooling in the pre-dawn chill. "We make more." Eliza closed her ledger. "You're exhausted. The Gem—" "Can handle a few more." Yara's voice was flat. "We don't have a choice." The Gem stirred, eager. Yes. Give me more. We can be stronger. "Not stronger," Yara said quietly. "Just alive." The Trap They gathered in the shadow of the gate. Rolen, Elior, Bruno, Eliza. The core group. The ones who still thought. "We need prisoners," Yara said. "Alive, breathing. Two, maybe three." "For conversion." Elior didn't make it a question. His voice was acid. "Yes." "And how do we get them?" Bruno asked. Rolen traced lines in the ash with his finger. "Scouts will come first. They always do. We set bait, something that looks like an oversight. An opening that's too good to ignore." Elior nodded slowly. "A gap in the perimeter. Make it look accidental." "But trap it," Bruno finished. "Nets. Dogs. Fast and quiet." Yara looked at each of them. "Can we do it?" "We can do it," Rolen said. His voice was steady, professional. The bond wouldn't let him refuse even if he wanted to. But his eyes said he would've agreed anyway. Survival made strange allies. They worked fast. Bruno's team loosened a section of the barricade. It wasn't obvious—just enough to look careless: a plank askew, a gap wide enough for two men. Rolen took a position on the awning with a clear view, ready with a white cloth as a signal. The war-hounds were hidden in the alleys on either side of the gap, concealed in shadow. The nets were strung overhead, ready to drop. Elior placed spearmen nearby—not to kill, but to block any escape. "When they come through," Yara told Bruno, "take them alive. I need them breathing." "You'll have them." They didn't wait long. Two scouts appeared in the pre-dawn gloom, moving cautiously down the approach. Young, nervous, testing the perimeter. They saw the gap and froze, signaling to each other. One pointed. The other nodded. They thought they'd found a weakness. They crept forward, slow and careful. One held a bow. The other had a long knife. They were ten feet from the gap when Rolen dropped the white cloth. The nets fell like curtains. The war-hounds lunged from the shadows, not biting, just tackling, driving the scouts to the ground. Bruno's men rushed in with ropes, binding hands and feet before either could shout. Thirty seconds. Done. They dragged the scouts into the alcove behind the gate. Both were breathing hard, eyes wide with terror. "Don't kill us," one gasped. "Please—" "Gag them," Yara said. Eliza stuffed cloth in their mouths. The scouts struggled, but the ropes held. Yara looked at the two terrified young men who'd been sent to die by someone else's order. She felt nothing. The Gem had burned that out of her days ago. "Strip them," she told Bruno. "Find anything personal." They found more scouts an hour later. There were three scouts this time, moving along the collapsed archway on the market's north side. The same tactic worked: bait, trap, nets. The war-hounds were getting better at this. The third scout tried to run, but one of the hounds tackled him in a move that would've made Bruno proud. Five prisoners total. Five chances to make defenders. Yara looked at them, bound, gagged, terrified, and did the math. The Gem was already pulling at her ribs, eager. She could feel its hunger l