The girl spent a few moments just studying the various individuals in the room, noting the cut and coarseness of their clothing, their unkempt appearance, and the way they carried themselves. Though she found them generally repugnant, she had to admit that they seemed to be enjoying themselves to the fullest. One man, small and wiry with greasy hair tied back from his head, was seated almost directly below her. Her eyes were drawn to him when he began to laugh, for he really guffawed, slapping his hand on the table and sloshing drinks. Across from him, a bulky woman in a bodice that barely contained her ample breasts sat on another man's lap, a huge bear of a fellow with a thick beard and mustache. He was laughing and singing along with the song being performed on the stage, and the hefty dame was bouncing in time to the music and singing right along with him. Though Emriana was embarrassed that the woman seemed to have no shame, the girl was also a bit envious that she seemed so comfortable in the company of the men she was with.
Emriana sighed and was just about to turn back to the safety of her alcove when she noticed a face staring up at her. It belonged to another woman, though she was obviously a bit more refined than the plump matron the girl had been watching. Dressed in purple leggings tucked into supple leather boots and a magenta vest over a white shirt-both of which were unlaced to an indecent level near her navel-the woman had short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. She was sitting alone on a bench that rested against the far wall and had no table to accompany it, and she was staring right at Emriana intently.
The girl began to stare right back, cocking her head to one side as if to say, "What, exactly, do you want?" When the stranger realized she had been spotted, she shook her head once in consternation and got to her feet. She glanced up once more as she made her way toward the rear of the establishment. Emriana thought the woman had a smug smile on her face. The girl frowned, unsettled by the silent confrontation, and started to follow. Then she remembered her aunt's warning and restrained herself.
No, she trusted me to come with her tonight. I'm not going to make a mess of things.
Emriana returned to her seat in the tiny alcove and waited. After a while, growing bored, the girl began to examine the surface of the table. Countless knives and daggers had carved up the wood, cutting names, simple caricatures, and cryptic symbols over the entire surface. Even so, the wood looked fairly new, not stained and dark as she would have expected.
I wonder how often they have to replace them? Emriana pondered, remembering her aunt's tale of the previous night, when half the furniture in the common area below apparently took a beating. Imagining such a brawl made the girl grin. She could just picture Xaphira in the midst of it all, leaping, kicking, and punching, just as she had against the dire-cats earlier that day. She must have been intimidating, the girl thought.
Emriana began to get restless. Xaphira's meeting was taking longer than she would have imagined, and the girl was growing agitated. She did not want to have to sit there and wait much longer.
When another quarter-hour must have gone by, Emriana realized she was growing genuinely worried. Several times, she half rose from the seat with the intention of hunting her aunt down, just to make certain the woman was fine, but each time, she stopped herself, not wishing to interrupt whatever delicate negotiations might have been taking place.
Suddenly, Emriana remembered her pendant. Fool! she silently snapped at herself. It's been hanging around your neck the whole time.
The girl snatched up the opal dangling on the chain and withdrew it from inside her shirt. Clutching it, she closed her eyes and envisioned her aunt, dressed in her telltale red shirt and cloak. Emriana began to speak.
"Aunt Xaphira, are you well? It's been quite a while since you left, and I'm worried about you. Do you need help?"
She paused and waited for a response. There was nothing but silence.
Growing more concerned, Emriana looked at the pendant, wondering if it was functioning properly. She had no way of knowing whether the enchantment had ceased to work or if Aunt Xaphira could not respond at the moment. Either way, she was going to have to find out the old-fashioned way.
Rising to her feet, Emriana slid out of the booth and to the balcony, wondering which direction Quill had taken Xaphira. She was just about to start down the row of alcoves, intent on poking her head inside each one, when a flash of red caught her eye down below, in the common area.
"Aunt Xaphira!" Emriana called out, but her aunt had her back turned and vanished beneath the stairs, never turning around.
Emriana darted down the balcony toward the stairs, rushing to catch up to her aunt.
What's she up to? the girl thought, reaching the bottom of the stairs and pushing past the people milling about. Why did she leave without me?
Emriana was so focused on catching the older woman that she no longer noticed the leering stares or the crude comments uttered in her direction by the other patrons. Just beyond the base of the staircase, a narrow hallway ran toward the back of the establishment, leading to a set of private rooms, including a kitchen or pantry of some sort. Emriana had to dodge and weave to make her way through the passage, for it was crowded with serving folk both coming and going. One skinny fellow with grease stains on an apron covering his front shouted an obscenity at her and told her to get out, but Emriana ignored the man and slipped to the far end of the hall, where it ended in a doorway leading out into the night.
Once through the doorway, Emriana had to stop and let her eyes adjust to the dimness of the evening. The alley in which she stood was dirt, and it stank of rotting vegetables and raw sewage. It couldn't have been more than three paces across, and all the buildings on either side were at least two stories tall, most even higher than that. But there was no sign of the other woman.
"Aunt Xaphira!" Emriana called, taking a few steps away from the doorway and the noise issuing forth from it. She then stood very still and listened. At first, she could hear nothing except for the din of conversation from inside the rathrur and the trickle of some fluids running down the alley, but a moment later, she caught wind of a faint scuffling noise off to her left.
Growing suspicious, the girl turned in that direction, slipping into the shadows and padding silently along the alley, peering into every dark cranny she came upon, listening still for further sounds of movement. At the juncture of The Silver Fish and the next building over, she found what she had been looking for. There was a gap between the two structures, not really wide enough for a man, but certainly spacious enough for a more diminutive woman or girl to squeeze into.
Emriana peered cautiously into the gap, but she did not see anyone moving through it. Then a thought occurred to her and she gazed up just in time to catch the silhouette of someone climbing up the gap, using both walls as support. It was too dark to make the person out clearly, but from Emriana's vantage point, it certainly looked like a woman in a cloak.
Convinced that she was not following her aunt, but rather someone who intended to look like her, Emriana hesitated. She was wary of a trap, but her growing fear for Xaphira's well-being pushed her onward. As silently as she could, she began feeling for hand- and footholds, following the mysterious figure above her. She found the going fairly easy, and she had pulled herself halfway up the building when the figure she was pursuing reached the top and disappeared over the side of the roof.
Damn it all, Emriana silently fumed as she continued her ascent. She'll be long gone before I can get up there. She hastened her pace, hoping against hope that perhaps she could make up some ground and keep her quarry in sight.