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.
CHAPTER 8
Horial landed hard on his back, and though the ground was soft and spongy beneath him, the sudden appearance of Edilus directly above him made the mercenary's journey through the magical portal a painful one. As the druid collapsed on top of the sergeant, the weight of both of them together drove Horial down hard against the earth, and the arrow still rammed in his shoulder sank deeper into his flesh. The sergeant gasped and barely refrained from crying out fully.
"By the gods," he groaned, panting. "Get off me," he pleaded, pushing at Edilus with his good arm.
The druid scrambled off Horial and stood, muttering in that language the sergeant had heard the Enclave use back in the Nunwood. It sounded like Edilus was cursing.