The Gembound: The Price of Keeping Chapter 10: Chapter 9 — The Gem

Read chapter 10 of The Gembound: The Price of Keeping by Taliorn on NovelPedia.

Chapter 9 — The Gem The stairs ended in a round chamber cut from black stone. The heat hit first, radiating from the walls in waves, making every breath an effort. Then the smell: copper and old dust, the stale reek of something sealed for centuries. The hum that had followed her through Runewick's streets was deafening here, so deep it skipped her ears completely and went straight to her bones. Yara stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs. The Scion filled the stairwell behind her, blocking the only way out. Green light from its eyes spread across her shoulders. She could feel the heat rolling off its scales, hear the slow rasp of its breathing. It didn't move. Didn't need to. The stairs were narrow. If she tried to run, she'd have to squeeze past claws the size of her forearm. Her throat grew dry. She was underground. In a sealed chamber. With that thing between her and escape. At the center of the room, something floated above a stone pedestal. A gem. Fist-sized, multifaceted, rotating slowly in the air without anything holding it. Light pulsed inside it, green veins threading through crystal that should have been clear. Each pulse matched the rhythm of the hum, a heartbeat made visible. It was beautiful in the way a blade is beautiful. Perfect and terrible and utterly wrong. "Was it you?" Her voice came out smaller than she meant it to. "The voice I've been hearing?" The hum changed. Dropped lower. The vibration in her chest shifted; the Gem focused on her. It was suffocating and exciting; her body tingled with excitement or lack of oxygen. Then something answered. Yes. She gestured back at the massive creature filling the doorway. "Then what is that?" My herald. My marker. The Gem's surface rippled with what seemed like amusement. The cultists were weak; they could not hear me through the stone, the wards, or the weight of years. Their ritual only called forth the Scion, a beacon to guide them down. But you? The light pulsed, warm and intimate. You heard me before they even reached the temple. You called, and I answered. The cultists needed a herald to find me. You did not. Yara's throat tensed. "What does that mean?" It means you were always going to open the way. The Scion merely waited for you to arrive. Her knees went loose. She tightened them by will. "This was your plan all along," she said. Her throat felt raw. "You've been using me all day." The hum shifted, and words formed directly in her mind. You asked for safety. You asked for power. She flinched. Hated that she did. "You answered me when the brute had me. When I was about to die." The answer to your question is the same. You were desperate. I was there. That is all a bargain requires. The Gem pulsed brighter, the light pulling inward rather than spreading. For three seconds, she saw inside it: green light threading through the crystal in branching veins, hollows shaped almost like chambers, carved into something that had never been stone. Her heart stuttered, trying to match the rhythm. It felt wrong. Her body had no business keeping time with this. Behind her, the thing that had led her here shifted. Light rippling into smoke, smoke condensing into the suggestion of scales, then fracturing back to threads of green fire. Heat rolled over her back in uneven waves. She couldn't tell if it was guarding the Gem from her or herding her toward it. Maybe both. She took a step forward. The dais' rim was carved with runes even a hedge-priest could not have pretended to read. Time and heat had softened their edges until the words looked like teeth worn down by chewing. "You were never out there," she whispered. "You've been under the city the whole time." The Gem's surface rippled, a laugh with no sound and creepier for it. You called. I answered. "I didn't know what I was doing." You do now. Her mouth dried. "What do you want from me?" Everything you have already given. Green light warmed her cheeks. You fought. You bled. You freed me. Now finish it. Yara shook her