She Dreamed Her Empire Would Burn, So She Set Out to Break Four Collars novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: The Registry
The Registry lay three floors under the library, and the midnight bell was still ringing when Nimeriel reached the bottom stair.
Ru went first with a shuttered lantern.
He had not asked a single question since she told him where they were going.
He had only put on his cloak and said, "Stay close, Princess."
The air smelled of dust and old ink.
Shelves climbed into the dark in long grey rows, each one packed with leather ledgers stamped with the Tree's seal.
"Third shelf, under the Warden's ledgers," she whispered.
"I know where it is." Ru's voice was flat. "I carried the Chancellor's boxes down here for two years."
He knelt, slid a heavy book aside, and pulled out a thin flat case that had been wedged behind it.
The wood was dark and the lock had been scratched open and closed so many times that the brass shone.
Inside lay a single sheet of vellum folded in four.
She read it by the lantern.
It was the Binding's founding clause, in the old tongue, written in the hand of the first Warden.
She had studied that tongue for eight years.
She had never seen this page.
"Read it aloud," said Ru.
"A collar of the Tree may be loosed by the Warden alone." Her voice shook. "And only from one who has given the Warden their heart of their own free will. Where the heart is taken by force, the Tree shall take the wearer in its place."
Ru said nothing.
"Take the wearer," she said. "Take them how?"
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