The Emerald Scepter

CHAPTER 7

Pilos peered through the cracked doorway out into the hall beyond, but no one stood near. Sighing with relief, he shut the portal again and made certain that it latched properly.

"Must have been some stray draft, blowing the door open," he said as he returned to the far end of the room, well away from the door. "There was nothing out there."

Pilos and Quill, along with Hetta-still hosted inside Laithe the wizard's body-had retreated to the library where the young priest and Emriana had hidden before, when they had been searching the Generon for Xaphira. After failing to locate the mirror in which Emriana was trapped, they had decided to hide out for a while and plan their next move.

Hetta had located a set of keys in the prison chamber that freed the two men from their manacles, for which Pilos was truly thankful. His wrists and ankles were sore and bruised from being jerked and banged about by the metal. Once they had the restraints off, they wasted no time departing the dungeon, retracing the path the Abreeant and the girl had originally taken to get down there.

"Why don't you tell me exactly what has happened here?" Hetta demanded, standing over Quill, who sat leaning against one of the bookshelves, looking forlorn. "Start from last evening, when you met with my daughter and granddaughter, and don't you dare leave anything out."

Sighing in resignation, the mercenary began. "After Xaphira came to see me the first time, I knew she was asking for trouble hunting for a man like Junce Roundface. But I was so glad she was still alive, so happy that I had found her after all these years, that I wanted to try. For her. Somehow, Junce knew before I did that I was going to come looking for him. He arranged it so that when I started asking around, the information I got led right to him-and about five thugs.

"The long and short of it is that the meeting went exactly the way he wanted. He made it vividly clear that I could either help him, or Xaphira would die. I decided to help him, because he assured me that once he was done with her, I could take her away, slip out of Arrabar, and the two of us would never look back. That was his promise."

"And you trusted him?" Pilos asked, his words harsh, clearly both incredulous and resentful. "You know what kind of vile serpent he is, and you actually agreed to get him what he wanted," the priest added, shaking his head and turning away.

"That's precisely why I did it," Quill argued. "I knew that he could make good on his threats, and I didn't see much choice. I didn't want to see Xaphira disappear again after… after so long."

"Did Roundface manage to let slip exactly what he intended to do?" Hetta asked, her words no less harsh than Pilos's. "Did he mention how he has been trying to destroy my entire family? Did you really think Xaphira would want anything to do with you once she found out your role in such a thing?"

Quill shrugged, his expression sullen. "I wasn't thinking beyond just trying to save her life," he muttered, looking down. "I just wanted to protect her. I'm just one man. I can't save your entire House."

Hetta snorted. "You certainly can't if you don't even try. I'm glad you're not one of my children. I'm sure your mother would be very proud right now, if she'd heard your little explanation."

Quill didn't say anything, but he continued to avoid his companions' gazes.

"So what happened?" Pilos prodded. "You obviously set it up for her to be caught."

Quill nodded and continued. "He told me that all I had to do was meet her as I had originally agreed, then take her to 'meet a man who knew where he was.' He said he would take care of the rest. We set everything up in a shed in the alley behind the Silver Fish-that's the rathrur where I was to meet her. All he told me was, once I had entered the shed, I had better close my eyes. So I did."

"And just like Emriana, he got Xaphira to gaze into a mirror," Pilos said. "She never had a chance."

"Yes," Quill said. "Then he kept promising me that he would free her once he had dealt with the other members of the family who were troubling him. After he caught Emriana, I thought he'd be finished, but it was pretty clear that he never intended to let her out."

"And now you know, too late, that you never should have trusted him," Hetta said. "So you learned your lesson. Now you have to live with what you've done."

Quill looked up at the woman, sorrow and desperation clear in his mien. "I'll help you find her," he said. "Let me do that."

"Oh, absolutely," Hetta replied. "I would expect no less from you. I think you owe her that, at the very least."

Pilos began to pace. "But we have no idea where the mirror has gone. How are we going to find it now?"

Hetta looked at him. "Isn't your magic strong enough to track it down, as you did before, with Emriana?"

Pilos shook his head. "There are ways I could do it, but I have nothing prepared. By the time I do, it'll be too late."

"Then we'll consider that a fallback idea," Hetta said in a businesslike tone, "and come up with other, more immediate solutions."

"Laithe probably knows something," Quill ventured. "Can you ask her?"

"Yes," Hetta replied. "I could release her from the ring and let her back into her body," she said. "But it's doubtful I could overwhelm her a second time. She'd be ready for it, and her will is strong."

"Then we need to make sure we have the upper hand," Pilos said, grabbing the manacles he had worn. "We'll bind and gag you before you release her, then we'll persuade her that it's in her best interests to aid us."

Hetta considered Pilos for a moment, then she nodded. "It's the best choice we have," she agreed. "Let's do it."

It did not take them long to secure the wizard. Pilos and Quill locked her legs together and chained her arms behind her back, as theirs had been. After they stuffed a large wad of cloth in her mouth and tied it in place, they sat her down in a corner and took up positions on either side of her.

"We're ready," Pilos said, and Hetta nodded.

For a moment, the woman's eyes glazed over, then her head snapped back and her eyes flared in anger. Immediately, she began to grunt and struggle, but Pilos and Quill held her down.

"Stop it," Pilos ordered, grabbing her by the hair and jerking her face up toward his. "You can't get out of them, so give it up."

Slowly, with a sullenness in her visage, Laithe relaxed.

"Good," the young priest said, releasing her. He reached behind her and slipped Hetta's ring from her finger, then pocketed it. "Now, we have some questions, and you'd do well to answer them. Because if we don't find out what we want to know, we'll let our good friend take over your body again, and she might never give it back. Am I clear?"

Laithe's eyes widened, and she nodded.

"Excellent," Pilos said. "I'm going to remove your gag, but only if you agree not to call out. If you lie to us, I'll make sure you don't have any teeth left to talk to whomever comes to rescue you. Again, do I make myself clear?"

Once more, Laithe nodded.

Pilos reached out and began to untie the gag while Quill stood next to him, his fist drawn back menacingly.

When the Abreeant had removed the binding, Laithe spit the wad of material out of her mouth and made a sour face. "You two fools ought to run while you have the chance," she said.

"Shut your hole," Quill said, drawing his fist back farther. "We ask questions, you answer. Otherwise, no words better come out of your mouth."

Laithe glared at the man, but she nodded.

"Fine," Pilos said. "Now, this is very easy. Where is the mirror?"

"What mirror?" Laithe asked.

Quill's slap echoed off the bookshelves, and the wizard grunted. When she turned back to face them, her lip was bloody.

"You know what mirror," Pilos said. "Where did Junce take it?"

"I don't know," Laithe answered. She tensed, as though ready for another slap. Quill seemed to think about it, but he didn't strike her again.

"Are you sure you don't know?" Pilos asked. "Because if I have to let my friend invade your body again to find out for sure, we can do that."

"I told you, I don't know. I don't ask the man what he does when I'm not around."

"Where did he likely take the mirror?" Pilos asked. "Possible places?"

Laithe shrugged. "I don't know anything about his mirror. Only that he uses it to catch people. I don't know where he got it or where he keeps it."

"Liar," Quill snarled, and he smacked her again.

"That's enough," Pilos said. "She's telling the truth."

Quill turned to look at the young priest, a hurt look on his face. "How do you know?" he asked.

"I just do," Pilos remarked. "She may not be volunteering information, but what's she's telling us is accurate."

"So what do we-" Quill's words died on his tongue as the door to the library slammed open.

The three of them had chosen their hiding place wisely-the doors were not visible to them-but Pilos knew beyond a doubt that whoever had entered the chamber knew they were there, and had come to hunt them down.

Laithe apparently knew also, for she began to yell. "Junce! I'm here! Hurry! They're both here!"

Quill moved to punch the wizard in the face, but Pilos grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. "No time," he said, handing the man a small vial. "Drink this and follow me," he ordered.

Without waiting for Quill to comply with his instructions, the young priest downed his own magical elixir, feeling the moisture vanish from his mouth and noting the familiar smoky taste. He felt himself become insubstantial, a cloud of misty vapors drifting off the floor. There was no weight to his body, no sense of push or pull in his legs. He just floated there, able to see in every direction at once, an ability his mind had a difficult time accepting.

Pilos willed himself toward the ceiling just as Junce came charging around the last of the bookshelves, a blade drawn. As Pilos wafted up into the rafters where Emriana had hidden earlier that evening, he noted that the assassin had brought a number of Generon guards with him.

Laithe was yelling at Junce that they were escaping, jerking her head up toward the ceiling, but Pilos didn't wait around to see if the assassin figured out what she meant. He saw that Quill was not standing there, and instead had transformed into a mist himself, so he led the way out of the library. At the door, which was closed and was now guarded on both sides by two soldiers each, he simply imagined flowing through the crack at the top. As quickly as he considered it, it happened, and he slipped through the gap. None of the guards thought to look up as Pilos and Quill drifted along the ceiling of the corridor outside, though Laithe was yelling orders and curses back in the library.

Hetta, are you with me? Pilos asked as he wafted along.

Yes, child, I am still here. That was quick thinking, drinking those elixirs.

Pilos wanted to nod, but the sensation to do so was simply not there. Don't know why I thought of it, but I'm glad, he projected. Now we have to hope that we can stay this way long enough to get out of here. If we're still down in the bowels of the Generon when the potions wear off, we're in trouble.

Chimneys, Hetta thought. Go up.

Of course, Pilos realized. Good idea.

The priest sought out the next room along the corridor, and inside, he drifted toward a fireplace. From there it was a simple matter to follow the flue up, ignoring any connections that did not continue vertically. It was a long ascent, but as he neared the top, Pilos was helped by updrafts rushing along, carrying him ever faster toward the chimney top.

Soon enough, Pilos and Quill stood on a roof of the Generon, looking out over the city.

"That was an adventure," the mercenary said, looking around. "But how do we get down?"

Pilos shrugged. "One thing at a time," he said. "Be glad we're not still down there."

Quill nodded in agreement. "It looks like we can drop over that side and climb down to a balcony," he said, pointing.

Pilos followed the man to the edge of the section of roof where they had just exited. Directly under them was a colonnaded walkway, and beyond that, there were gardens. "I guess I'm going to be climbing around the Generon after all," he muttered, thinking of Emriana. It seemed like an eternity ago that she had tried to convince him that they would need to climb over a wall to sneak inside. He almost laughed at the irony that he was climbing down to sneak out, but thoughts of her quelled any mirth he might have felt.

Don't worry, child, we'll find her, Hetta said, her presence soothing him. She's a strong girl. She'll be all right.

I hope so, Pilos replied. Then he dropped down and swung his legs out over the edge of the roof, hoping he would find a safer way of getting down than falling.

Emriana's strength eventually gave out, and sometime after she had stopped fighting him, Denrick turned to Lobra and said, "I grow weary of this. Torment her yourself, if you must, but I am done." And he stood up and left the room, drawing the door shut behind him. Emriana turned her head and watched the man go, beyond caring any longer. She glanced over to where Lobra still sat, having watched from a sofa. The woman was brooding.

After a moment, Lobra stirred, rising from her seat. "I guess it's time to put you back into the mirror," she said, false cheer in her voice.

Bitch, Emriana thought, turning away again.

She heard Lobra cross the room toward her, and Emriana considered punching at her, pummeling her face and stomach and fighting her way out of the house, but she didn't have either the strength or the will.

Denrick had been so strong. Stronger than she ever remembered.

"Are you going to cooperate, or do I need to call him back to help me?" Lobra asked, her voice too sweet.

Mocking.

"Rot in the ninth layer," Emriana muttered, turning at last and staring balefully at her captor. "Try and make me go back."

Lobra clucked her tongue in disapproval and was just turning toward the door, ostensibly to summon Denrick back to assist her, when a shout erupted from down the hall. "Guards!" a man cried out. "To the parlor!" Lobra froze, her back tensed with fear, and Emriana saw her chance.

Clambering from the bed, her aching body protesting, the girl stumbled toward Lobra and grabbed her by the shoulder. Lobra jerked at the sensation, but Emriana managed to spin the woman around. Bracing herself, Emriana swung her fist with all her might, popping her foe right in the cheek.

Lobra stumbled back, eyes wide in shock, clutching at her face and grunting in abject pain.

Emriana didn't give her a chance to recover. Summoning some reserve of energy she didn't know she had, the girl leaped on Lobra and knocked her to floor. She pelted the other woman with a flurry of punches, pummeling her just as she had imagined.

It felt so good to hit her.

Lobra writhed and squirmed as she was struck over and over, crying out and trying to protect her face and head. Emriana didn't let up, but finally, Lobra got hold of some bare flesh and clawed at Emriana. The girl yelped in pain and jerked away, and Lobra managed to buck Emriana off her. As Emriana landed in a heap, Lobra began to scream.

"Guards! To me! Help!" She was staggering to her feet as she called out, weaving unsteadily, her face already swollen and bloody.

Emriana lunged up and grabbed at Lobra, jerking her away from the door. "Shut up, you nasty wench!" In her pent-up fury, Emriana found one last well of strength and slung Lobra across the room. The woman stumbled and staggered, trying to maintain her balance, but she lost the battle and went sprawling-right at the great mirror.

With a horrendous crash that was far more than the sound of glass breaking, the mirror shattered. Emriana could feel a powerful emanation burst forth from the ruined object, a wall of arcane force that had been bound in the reflecting glass however long before. It rushed over and past the girl, leaving her feeling breathless.

Lobra dropped like a stone, settling among the shards and fragments that skittered across the floor, finally coming to rest in a heap in the midst of the wreckage.

Beside the woman, Xaphira flopped to the floor, as naked as Emriana. Her body was covered in purplish bruises.

"Aunt Xaphira!" Emriana yelled in delight, rushing across the space toward her. Barely mindful of the jagged glass strewn everywhere, Emriana reached the woman and clenched her gingerly in a hug, feeling tears begin to well up in her eyes. She hadn't realized how alone she had felt until then.

Xaphira gave a soft, muffled groan at the girl's touch and stirred. "Em?" she said softly, her voice dazed. "Is that you?"

Emriana was crying in delight when she answered, "Yes, it's me." Then she hugged the woman even tighter, unwilling to let go.

Xaphira groaned in pain and the girl released her, realizing she was hurting her aunt. She scanned the marks all over the older woman's body, horrified.

"What happened?" she mumbled, feeling more tears welling up. "What did they do to you?"

Xaphira rolled to her knees and tried to sit up. "I'm all right," she said, looking around, her dark hair damp and plastered to her face. "Where are we?"

Emriana scowled over at Lobra's still form. "House Pharaboldi," she said. "That's Lobra there. She had Denrick-Denrick, he-" and Emriana shuddered.

"Denrick's dead," Xaphira said, looking at Emriana with concern in her eyes. "It couldn't have been real."

"It was," Emriana insisted. I did not just imagine what happened, she silently added. She wasn't sure if she wanted to explain or not. Blinking back a few tears that she hoped Xaphira didn't see, she held up her hand. "Later," she said. "We have to get out of here." As if to punctuate the girl's words, the muted sounds of someone shouting erupted beyond the door.

"How did we get here? I thought we were in the Generon." Xaphira's voice sounded weak, dazed.

"I don't know," Emriana replied, standing and looking about for anything she could use to cover herself. "Lobra had something to do-"

The girl's sentence was interrupted as the door leading into the hall slammed open. "Lady Lobra, come quick. It's your-" It was a woman, a servant, and as she dashed into the bedroom and spotted her mistress lying on the floor, along with two unclad intruders, she froze, her words dying in her throat.

"Grab her!" Xaphira hissed, trying to rise on wobbly legs in the midst of the broken glass. "Don't let her get away!"

The servant let out a startled squeak and tried to flee, but Emriana managed to bound across the room and seize her by one wrist. Using the woman's own momentum against her, Emriana managed to sling the servant around and back into the room, flinging her across the floor in the direction of the bed. As the woman lost her balance and sprawled across the mattress, Emriana shut the door, careful not to slam it, and turned to face the woman.

By that time, Xaphira had managed to get to her feet and tiptoe her way out of the multitude of glass shards. As the servant flopped on the bed, Emriana's aunt half fell and half pounced, landing on top of the woman and pinning her arms to her sides. She clamped a hand over the servant's mouth. "Find something to tie her with," Xaphira commanded, looking unsteady. "Hurry, before I pass out."

Instead of complying with her aunt's instructions, Emriana moved around to face the bucking, struggling woman. "Patimi," she said, believing she recognized her. She got down close to the servant's face to be certain. At the sound of her own name, the servant stopped struggling and eyed Emriana, her expression wary. "It's Emriana Matrell. Do you remember me?" she asked.

Patimi's eyes took on a puzzled expression, then they widened and she nodded.

"Good," Emriana replied. "I know this seems suspicious, but you need to hear what we have to say."

"You know her?" Xaphira asked her niece. "Can we trust her?"

"Yes to the first question," Emriana answered, "and I don't know to the second. We'll see." She got down in Patimi's face again and said, "I'm sure that Lady Lobra has said all sorts of terrible things about me and my entire House, but I suspect most of them are not true. Now," she warned, "you can either sit quietly and listen to us, or we can tie you up as my aunt suggested and lock you in a closet. Which do you prefer?" The woman grunted and nodded again, and Emriana took that for acquiescence. She looked up at her aunt. "Let her up."

"Em," Xaphira started to argue, "one sound from her and we're caught all over again."

"I know, but if we're asking her to trust us, don't you think we should return the favor?" Emriana asked.

Sighing, Xaphira fell off the woman, who quickly sat up and rubbed her arms where her captor had pinned them down. Emriana grabbed the chair Denrick had used and slid it in front of the bed. She pointed to it. "Sit," she commanded, and Patimi moved to comply. "Good," the girl said. "Now, I really would like to put some clothes on. Will you sit there quietly while we make ourselves decent?"

"Yes, ma'am," Patimi answered, looking at the floor as though she were embarrassed at the women's naked condition.

"All right, then," Emriana said, looking around. "Since our own clothes don't seem to be here…" she said, leaving the thought hanging. She walked over to a wardrobe in the corner, the same one from which Patimi had helped her find a riding outfit months before.

Before I found out what a fiend Denrick was, Emriana thought.

The girl rummaged through the clothing in the closet and pulled out two dark outfits that would aid them in hiding, if necessary. "Here," she said, turning to toss the garments to her aunt.

Xaphira was bent over Lobra, checking on the woman. "She's still alive," she said. "No major cuts, just a lot of scratches. She was lucky," the woman added, looking down at all the broken glass.

"Too bad," Emriana snapped, wishing Lobra had been impaled on a particularly long and nasty shard. "She doesn't deserve to be lucky." She saw Patimi flinch at her comment, and she almost wished she hadn't said it aloud. Grabbing up two pairs of riding boots from the closet, Emriana turned back.

Xaphira was giving her niece a single concerned look, but Emriana simply handed the boots she had chosen to her aunt and they dressed silently and quickly.

Donning clothes seemed to aid Emriana's courage, and once she was finished, she went to the doorway and opened it a crack, peering into the hall. No one stood near, and no sounds arose from elsewhere in the house. "It's clear," she whispered to Xaphira, who had come up behind the girl.

"We can't go out that way," her aunt replied. "Too many people will see us. Whatever you want to say to this one, do it quickly. We've got to leave before someone starts missing them."

Emriana nodded and turned back to Patimi. "Do you remember what we talked about the last time I was here?"

"Yes, ma'am," the servant answered, looking sorrowful. "You were one of Denrick's lady friends. But I told you that Jithele was carrying his baby when the city watch killed her, and you got pretty upset. Did you really murder him, Lady Emriana? Over a serving girl?" She sounded horrified at the prospect.

Emriana had to clench her fists to keep from shuddering. "No. He fell from a balcony fighting my brother. He wanted to kill me, though." She took a deep breath. The next question was the hardest. "Are you saying he's truly dead?" When Patimi only stared at her, Emriana shook her head. "Never mind. It's too complicated to explain right now. But the reason you found the two of us here tonight is because we were brought here as Lobra's prisoners. She wanted revenge. You saw the bruises on my aunt, didn't you?"

Patimi only nodded, her eyes big.

"That was her doing," Emriana lied. Well, Lobra might have done it, she told herself. I wouldn't put it past her. "Now we just want to get out, to escape and get home. Will you help us?"

"Me?" the servant said meekly. "What can I do?"

"All we need to know is how to get out without getting caught," Xaphira said. "Which way should we go? That's all. No one will catch on, we promise."

"I'm afraid," the woman said, shaking her head. "Lady Lobra's husband, Lord Mestel, was wounded in a fight tonight, and the guards are very alert. It will be very hard to get out unnoticed. And Lady Lobra will be terribly angry if she finds out I assisted you."

"Falagh Mestel was hurt?" Xaphira said. "What happened?"

"I don't know, ma'am," Patimi replied. "I was sent to fetch Lady Lobra so she could go to him, and I found you two in here with her. At first, I thought you might have had something to do with it," she trailed off, obviously not comfortable voicing her accusation.

"If she was supposed to find Lobra, someone will come looking for her-and Patimi-very soon," Emriana said, concerned. "We can't wait any longer."

Xaphira nodded. "Here's what you do, Patimi," she said. "First, tell us the best route to get out unnoticed. Then you go back out there and act like you're searching other parts of the estate for Lobra. If anyone wants to know what you're doing, you simply tell them she wasn't here. No one will know you had anything to do with our escape."

"All right," the servant said, not sounding very sure of the plan. "But what about Lady Lobra? And all the glass? If someone else comes looking for her, they'll know I was lying."

"Don't worry about that," Xaphira said, reassuring the woman with a pat on her arm. "We'll take care of it."

"All right," Patimi said again. "There's an arbor not far from Lady Lobra's balcony that's little used and overgrown. On the back side, there are several trees close enough to the outer wall that the boys used to climb up and slip out at night. But the guards may think to watch there-some of them have been with the family for a long time and might remember that route from chasing Jerephin and Denrick for so many years."

"Good," Xaphira said, nodding. "That's perfect. Now go, and act like you're still looking for Lobra."

They let Patimi out of the room after making certain no one was in the hall. The servant gave them one last panicked look before scurrying off.

When she was gone, Xaphira said, "I've been thinking. If Lobra acquired the mirror from Junce, then she must know some of what's going on. We should take her with us."

Emriana looked at Lobra. "Fine with me," she said. Give me a chance to figure out a proper payback, she thought.

"Em," Xaphira said, moving to stand before her niece. "What happened tonight?"

Emriana shook her head. "Later," she insisted. "When we have time." When I can talk about it, she silently added.

Xaphira gazed at the girl a moment, then nodded. She walked over to the still-unconscious woman. "Help me," she said, and Emriana moved to the older woman's side, ready to aid her.

Under Xaphira's direction, the two of them bound Lobra Pharaboldi hand and foot using shredded clothing, and stuffed a hunk of cloth into her mouth to silence her once she regained consciousness. Then they stepped back.

"It's going to be a lot harder to sneak out of here dragging her along," Emriana commented. "Just the two of us, we can sprint and hide, but carrying a trussed up Lobra is really going to slow us down, especially since you must be sore and weak. Why don't you heal some of those bruises?"

Xaphira shook her head. "I did that as much as I could already."

Emriana's eyes widened at the implication of her aunt's words. She started to ask what happened, despite her own admonition earlier that they should wait until later.

"We'll go through the arbor and hope for the best," Xaphira replied, cutting the girl off and changing the subject. "If we get caught, we leave her behind and fend for ourselves. Ready?"

Though she felt immense sorrow for what Xaphira must have endured, Emriana nodded, thankful to have her aunt beside her once more. It's so much easier with someone else by my- "Pilos!" she gasped. "What happened to Pilos?"

Xaphira paused in her attempt to try to hoist up Lobra. "Who? What?"

"Pilos Darowdryn," Emriana explained as they got the unconscious woman between them and began shuffling their way toward the doorway leading out onto the balcony. "He came with me to the Generon to save you. I don't know what happened to him."

"And how did you manage to enlist the aid of a Darowdryn?" Xaphira asked as they maneuvered out into the dark of night.

"After Hetta died, and Grozier took over the house, I went to the Darowdryns for help."

Xaphira nearly dropped Lobra. "Mother's dead?" she asked, her voice meek, and Emriana could see the woman shivering.

You're an idiot! Emriana screamed at herself. "Not exactly," she said hastily, "but she's in a ring, which-oh, no! The ring!" The girl nearly dropped Lobra then, realizing she had been separated from her grandmother. "Oh, no," she said again, feeling despair wash over her once more. "I lost her, Xaphira. I lost Hetta."

"Shh," Xaphira said, and Emriana thought she was trying to comfort her, to tell her it was all right. In the next moment, though, the woman crouched down into the shadows, and Emriana did likewise just as a patrol of House guards stalked past below the balcony. It was not the casual sauntering Emriana was accustomed to seeing in House Matrell guards.

"They don't look happy," Emriana said once the soldiers had passed.

"I guess not, after everything that happened tonight," Xaphira said. "If I say run, you let go of Lobra and go as fast as you can. Do you understand me? Don't look back, just run for safety."

"All right," Emriana said, knowing her aunt was suggesting that they might get separated. Not on your life, she thought silently. Never again.

Once they were certain the guards had moved out of earshot, they started down the steps of the balcony, hauling their still-unconscious prisoner between them.