The girl tried to smooth her expression to one of complete innocence and said, "I'm fine. This is all just a little overwhelming, that's all."
Denrick nodded sagely, giving her a look that said, "I know exactly what you're going through." His eyes brightened.
"Let's take a walk," he suggested.
Emriana had to swallow the lump that rose suddenly in her throat. Unsure of her own voice, she simply nodded. Then, steeling herself to trust in the plan and in her brother, she took the older boy's hand and led him away from the main party, through the garden and along one of the meandering paths between stands of trees, bushes, and vines. The couple walked for a little while, Denrick apparently happy to let his counterpart lead the way and probably thinking that she was taking him to one of her favorite secluded spots in a far corner of the garden. For her part, Emriana tried to make it seem as though she was simply strolling with a companion, though she wanted more than anything just to drag Denrick to the location she and Vambran had agreed upon before the party had begun.
After a few moments, Emriana turned down another path that led back in the general direction of the house. Denrick hesitated, tugging on the girl's hand.
"Wait," he said. "Where are we going, now? I thought we were going to come out here and be alone," he added, smiling and flashing his eyes at the girl in the semidarkness of the moonlit night.
"There's a great view of part of the city over here," Emriana lied, struggling to control her panic. He knows we're on to him! her mind screamed. He's figured it out!
"Oh," Denrick replied, easing up. "As long as we can enjoy the view by ourselves," he added, his voice husky.
Emriana didn't answer as she resumed her trek through the greenery, winding her way up the sloping hill to the estate. When they broke free of the garden path and began to cross the lawn, she could hear the sounds of the party on another side of the house. She longed to be back there, among the colorful lanterns and the smiling people. She had felt safe there, admired and honored. Where she was, there was only Denrick, and despite her private mental admonitions to be strong, she feared him.
Shaking off the feeling of dread that was washing over her, Emriana led the older boy to a set of steps that climbed to a higher part of the house, a wide patio that surrounded a cistern built into the structure for catching and storing rain water. The pool was filled at the moment with cool, clean water almost to its brim. There was a single doorway leading inside, but the path was dark there, for it led into a part of the house that was little used at the moment. They were alone.
Denrick nodded in satisfaction and strolled casually around the perimeter of the cistern, staring at its surface, which was undulating gently in the warm night breeze that blew in from the harbor to the west, carrying with it the smell of the ocean and the scents of the blossoms from the garden below. Emriana stood and watched him, wondering what he thought was about to happen. She wondered if he even had an inkling.
"So, where's the city?" Denrick asked. "I thought you said you had a good view of it from here."
"I-" Emriana began, stammering. She hadn't thought he'd care one way or another, once she got him there and showed him that they were ostensibly alone. "I meant that-this isn't the right spot. It's a different place where you can-"
"You were fibbing to me, weren't you?" Denrick said, coming around the corner of the cistern toward the girl.
She blanched-though he couldn't see the blood drain from her face in the near-darkness-and barely stopped herself from fleeing back to the party right then and there. He was calling her bluff. He knew what was going on.
"You don't come up here to see the city. You just wanted to have me all to yourself," the older boy said, smiling wolfishly at her. "It's all right; you can admit that you want to be with me here. It's just the two of us, now, no one around to pretend that you're still all prim and proper."
Emriana took a step back, confused, but nonetheless wary of the advancing figure.
"What?"
"I said, you don't have to pretend that you're still the innocent little girl," Denrick replied. "I know how you look at me, and I feel the same way." He took another step closer. "Up here, where no one else is around, you can let down your guard, be the woman I know you are. You've turned sixteen, now. You look all grown up to me."
Another step.
"Denrick," Emriana began, backing up another step, until suddenly, she was against the railing and had nowhere else to retreat to. "I'm not… I mean, it's a little too fast to…"
She couldn't get the words out. She kept seeing Jithelle Skolotti's face, kept imagining that that must have been how Denrick had tried to woo her, too. What had he said that would have made the woman get into his bed?
"Em," Denrick said, taking another step closer, close enough to reach out to her, and he started to. "Quit pretending you don't want me to do it," he said, taking her by the waist and drawing close to her. "I promise you, I'll make you feel so good. Trust me."
Suddenly, Emriana couldn't maintain the pretense anymore. She shoved Denrick backward from herself, hard. Then she darted to the side, out of the corner in which he had apparently been trying to trap her.
"Is that what you told Jithelle before you had her killed? To trust you?" she spat as she maneuvered herself around to the opposite side of the cistern pool from the older boy.
"Jithelle? What?" Denrick said, shaking his head and trying to guess which way to circle the pool to reach Emriana.
Every time he stepped in one direction or the other, she would counter it, keeping the pool between them.
"Stop this, Em," he demanded, taking a firm couple of strides to his left.
"No," the girl replied, moving in concert with the older boy. "I'm not letting you near me. I know about Jithelle, Denrick. I know about all of it."
Denrick stopped then, staring hard at Emriana in the gloom.
"Well, I guess that proves it, then," he said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Emriana asked, watching the boy for some sign of attack, some indication that he was going to come after her.
Where is Vambran? she wondered desperately, berating herself for letting slip her suspicions before he had arrived.
"What I mean is, you're not the innocent little girl you've been pretending to be," Denrick replied. "Yesterday, at the picnic, you knew already, didn't you? All those questions. You were setting me up, weren't you?"
Emriana was already shaking her head before Denrick even finished his accusation.
"No," she said. "Not when I first arrived. I only figured it out later, when we went to get the picnic basket. And even then, I didn't know you were bedding her, you lecherous bastard."
Even in the darkness, Emriana could see Denrick wince at her revelation and scathing words.
"Em, you don't understand," he began. "I didn't know, then. I only heard it later, last night."
"Liar," came a voice from overhead, on the roof of the entryway into the house. Vambran crouched there, looking down at both of them. Emriana sighed in relief, nearly collapsing against the railing. Denrick whirled around in shock, backing away from the edge of the house several steps to get clear of any attack. "Em and I think there's more to your story that you're not telling, Denrick Pharaboldi."
"Vambran," Denrick began, regaining his composure somewhat. "What are you doing here?" He looked again at Emriana. "You set this up," he growled, folding his arms across his chest. "You two are working together."
"That's right," Vambran said as he swung himself over the edge of the roof and dropped down to the tiles of the patio, landing softly. "We planned the whole thing."
He began to walk around the perimeter of the pool, like Denrick had done before, and the younger man would have been forced to move in the same circular direction to keep the lieutenant away from him. But Vambran simply stopped when he stood next to his sister. Emriana reached out for her brother's hand and gave it a squeeze, just a silent way to thank him for showing up when he did.