Harem System novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Heart-Stone
Veyra lay on her back in bed three, with her lips gone gray and a crystal in each palm.
Her pulse under Liriel's fingers was slow and thready.
"Three days if I keep the crystals fresh," Liriel said. "Less if she keeps trying to get up and scrub."
"She did that again?"
"Twice." Liriel's mouth shook. "Bed nine tied her to the frame with a bandage."
Nils sat down on the stool and took Veyra's wrist.
It was cold.
She did not wake.
"The core," he said.
"Floor three." Liriel straightened. "The old books say the Gate has a heart-stone on the third floor. A man with a seed puts his hands on it, and it opens him or kills him."
"You've known this for a week."
"I've known it for a day. Nobody tells you the second half until you have a seed."
"And the stamp?"
"Ardith holds the stamp for three."
"Then I'll try the door," Nils said.
Ruenna was already in the doorway with her sword belted on.
"Three of us," she said. "I'm not sitting this one out."
"I'm coming," Liriel said.
"You run the Ward."
"Bed nine runs the Ward tonight." She took her satchel off the hook. "I'm on your arm, Halvorsen. I'm not staying behind."
The queue on the Gate steps was empty at that hour.
Only the marshal stood at the barrier.
She looked at the three of them, and at the dark third door at the end of the mist.
"I can't seal you through," she said. "The matron filed that door under her stamp alone."
"Understood," Nils said.
He walked up to the third door by himself.
It was black stone, bare of any seal, and cold under his hand.
He laid his palm on it.
The seed in his chest hummed.
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