The Emerald Scepter

'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.