The Gembound: The Price of Keeping Chapter 57: Volume 3: Chapter 54 – Beneath the Rainbow

Read chapter 57 of The Gembound: The Price of Keeping by Taliorn on NovelPedia.

Volume 3: Chapter 54 – Beneath the Rainbow Morning reports came with breakfast; Yara learned to chew policy, not bread. She sat in what had been the White Conclave's council chamber, with its high windows, marble floor, and chairs arranged in a circle that suggested equals, though the room had never believed it. Now the chairs held her court: Harvester with her ledgers, Marcus with his maps, Veil standing like dusk in the corner, and Whisper perched on the windowsill listening to the language of the city. Five days since the conquest. Five days since White City became Rainbow City. Five days of learning that taking a city was easier than keeping it. Harvester spoke first. She always did. "The western district reports compliance. Merchants are opening shops, but prices are triple what they were. Fear premium." She turned a page without looking down. "The eastern district had two fires yesterday, accidental, both times, or so the witnesses claim. No casualties, but we lost a granary." "Sabotage?" Marcus asked. "Carelessness," Harvester said. "People are trying to cook in buildings we haven't cleared for occupancy. They're afraid to be seen going to public kitchens, think we're counting who eats." "We are counting who eats," Yara said. "Yes. But they don't need to know we're counting." Harvester made a note. "I am working with the bakers. I’ve convinced them that regular meals mean regular headcounts. They're more frightened of starvation than surveillance." "How many have accepted the copper and the tax?" This from Crimson, standing by the door in his garrison captain's stance, scar bright along his jaw. "Fourteen thousand, two hundred," Harvester said. "Out of an estimated population of thirty-six thousand within the walls. The rest are either hiding, holding out, or already fled." Marcus leaned forward, finger tracing a line on his map. "The outer farms are the problem. Most of the landholders fled during the siege. Their tenants are still there, but they're not planting. They're waiting to see who owns the land now." "We do," Yara said. "They need to hear it from someone who looks like authority," Marcus said. "Not soldiers. Not Enhanced. Someone who speaks farmer." Yara started to answer, then Weaver's voice filled her mind... but wrong. Not the single, filtered voice Weaver usually used, but a cascade of raw input: thirty-two chirps, squeaks, and chittering reports hitting at once before Weaver caught them and pulled them back into coherence. Sorry, Weaver said, sounding flustered. They're excited. Hard to keep them organized when they all want to speak at once. Then, properly filtered: Below. Power. Old. The small ones hear it singing through the stones. Yara's hand went still on her cup. The others noticed that Marcus paused his finger on the map, Harvester's report trailing off, Veil's gaze sharpening from the corner. "Mistress?" Harvester asked. "Weaver," Yara said quietly. Then, in her mind: Singing? Humming, the chorus corrected, rat-voice prominent. Like the Runewick spire. But smaller. Buried deep. Under the city. Under the catacombs. Under the under. "How deep?" Yara asked. "Three descents," Weaver said, all voices now, discordant chorus. "Stairs, tunnel, stairs, tunnel, stairs. Then the singing place." "Defended?" Dead things. Sleeping. Might wake. Yara relayed the information. Marcus was already studying his maps. "The old city plans show catacombs under the temple district, but nothing below that. If there's a third level, it predates the current architecture. Possibly pre-Conclave. Possibly older." "How old is Rainbow City?" Yara asked. "Depends on how you count," Veil said quietly. Their voice carried the weight of someone who'd lived through enough history to know it was layered. "The current walls are two hundred years old. But there was a settlement here for centuries before that. And before that..." They gestured vaguely downward. "Stories. Legends. A city built on a city built on a city. The catacombs are