She awoke to find the carriage moving- moving rapidly, in fact. Emelye sat up and opened the window. "Julie?" she yawned. "What's going on?"
Her sister was on horseback, looking a bit sleepy herself. "We've been riding for an hour already," Julietta said. "I told the princes that the extermination and mind-mending processes are hard on you, so we let you sleep. We're only an hour or so away from the capitol."
"Good," Emelye said, stretching her short legs from one side of the carriage to the other. "I'd like to sleep in a real bed for once."
"Don't we all," Julietta sighed. "You might want to change your clothes. We won't have much time to prepare when we reach the city."
"All right," the younger sister agreed. Emelye closed the window shade and nudged Sully off the bench. He awoke with an irritated snort. "You have done nothing but sleep this whole trip," she fumed.
"And you've done nothing but spar with the prince," Sully said, arching his back to stretch.
"Well, I have to change, and I don't want your beady little goat eyes open," Emelye said. "So? Turn around."
"You're not very mature, are you?" Sully asked.
"I'm modest," she defended. "I don't want my goat watching me while I change." Muttering under his breath, Sully turned his back to Emelye.
Emelye fished in her satchel for her good dress. It was wrinkled from being in her pack for so long, but it hadn't been in very good condition in the first place. It was a hand-me-down from the twins. The outfit was very simple, just a dark blue dress with a wide neck, minute puffed sleeves, and a gathered skirt. It had been let out and hemmed countless times to fit the three girls that wore the dress, so there was a whole pattern of holes and creases at the bottom. Emelye took off her skirt and blouse and wriggled into the dress.
"All right, Sully," she said. "I'm done."
He turned around. "I'm simply adoring your footwear, Emmalina," Sully said.
Emelye stuck one small foot out. Her boots were quite old, quite patched, and quite ugly. "Aren't they the best?" she said. "They were a trade from little Peter Furmer from down the road, when I got rid of the brownie living in his family's chimney."
"Oh, so they're boys' boots," Sully said. "That makes everything better."
The coach started to slow down. Someone rapped on the door. Emelye lifted the shade and looked out.
"We're going to ride through the capitol," Jeanetta said. "Leave the shades up, and for Mab's sake, Emmalina, do something with your hair."
Emelye rolled her eyes, undid her loose pigtails, and wove her hair into two braids so tight that her face felt stretched. The pain as she jerked her hair into shape help assuage the waves of anxiety that had started to wash over her. The gleaming white walls of the city rose up before them, the gates wide and welcoming. People lined the roads to wave at them. Emelye leaned as far out the window as she could possibly go and waved back.
"Moderation, Miss Schmeadling," Leverett said. "They're just peasants."
"Don't forget, I'm a peasant too," she pointed out, still waving heartily.
The streets of the city were clean and paved with perfection, each cobblestone in place. She'd heard of street sweepers, but perhaps they had an entire staff just for keeping the palace stones in line. Emelye giggled with the sudden mental image of Leverett in a grubby uniform, rearranging every stone so that it was just so.
Her good mood started to dissipate as they approached the palace. Standing on the steps were several figures, and she could tell already that some of them weren't too pleased. Emelye gulped.
The carriage, flanked by the horses with Leverett bringing up the rear, stopped at the edge of the staircase. Emelye started to open the door herself, but a footman beat her to it. He held out his hand to her to help her down. Emelye exited the rattley coach, her heart pounding as she stared up at the royal family.
She recognized King Gaurav immediately; she'd seen his face on every coin in the country. He was kind and rather fatherly looking, but a little absentminded at the same time. The queen, Queen Malicent, also had a parental look about her, but instead of looking absentminded, she looked just plain out of it, as if she was thinking so hard over other things that the topic at hand was completely forgotten.
At the king's right was an old woman and at the queen's left was a young girl; yet they looked a great deal alike. Emelye surmised that they were Dowager Queen Sibyl, Gaurav's mother, and the Crown Princess Ramona. The princess was devastatingly beautiful, with jet black hair like Leverett's that was neither spiky nor rebellious, but was piled on her head in graceful, silky waves. Her eyes were a dark chocolate brown like Keefer's and Calix's, and would have been much prettier if Ramona's eyebrow wasn't so heavy. It looked like a bush was growing out of her forehead.
"Honored family, I bring you the Misses Jeanetta and Julietta Schmeadling of the village of Ciderbarrel," Keefer announced. He and Calix brought the older girls before their family and the identical blonde twins swept charming identical curtsies.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, my dears," King Gaurav said. "And you are the two warrior maidens who will save our kingdom?"
"No, your Majesty," Jeanetta said. "Our sister Emmalina is the...warrior maiden."
"Where is she?" Queen Malicent asked.
"Honored family, this is Miss Emmalina Schmeadling, also of the village of Ciderbarrel," Calix introduced. He opened the carriage door, but the first person to leap out was Sully.
"A goat?" Princess Ramona said, raising her dramatic eyebrow. "Your sister is a goat?"
"Oh, no, your highness," Julietta said hastily. "That's my sister."
Emelye struggled out of the coach, her cheeks red. "I'm sorry. My boot caught on my hem," she apologized.
Lady Sibyl sniffed. "No wonder. Those boots are simply horrendous," she said.
Her ears by now the color of an overripe tomato, Emelye curtsied a bit clumsily, her dress trailing after her. "It pleases me to meet you, your Majesties," she murmured.
"You are Emmalina Schmeadling?" Queen Malicent gasped. "You're only a child!"
"She is quite talented, Mother," Calix said. "I'm sure that this giant problem will be small potatoes to her."
The king didn't look entirely convinced. "No matter," he said. "Welcome to the capitol, my dears."
The trumpets blared as the girls curtsied again. But Emelye didn't realize that Sully was standing behind her. Her right leg slid behind her left as she curtsied deeply, and rammed into Sully, knocking his legs straight from under him. He collapsed promptly on her heel, pinning her right foot to the ground.
"Oberon's great wings, you're an idiot, Sully!" Emelye exclaimed. She clapped a hand over her mouth. That was not a phrase to say in royal company. Among goats, yes, but kings and queens, no. Jeanetta looked a bit pale.
"Heavens!" Lady Sibyl gasped. "The child is a perfect oaf!" Princess Ramona tittered.
The royal family entered the palace and Emelye trailed behind them, limping slightly. Julietta patted her arm.
"That could have gone worse," she whispered.
"Not by much," Emelye whispered back. "I'm dreading what Leverett's going to say." To her surprise, Leverett said nothing. In fact, Leverett split up from the rest of the entourage, turned right into a wide hallway, and vanished. Emelye was about to follow him when the king stopped in front of a large door.
"The palace servants will attend to you," King Gaurav said. "I am sure you are exhausted after your long journey. Do not hesitate to request anything you need."
"Thank you, your majesty," Jeanetta and Julietta curtsied. Jeanetta elbowed Emelye sharply.
"Oh!" she said. "Yes, thank you." The king nodded amiably, and he and his family retreated down the hallway.
"I suppose we should go in," Jeanetta said, opening the door.
Inside was a large sitting room. The wall facing them was almost completely made up of windows, and there were two doors each on the right and left sides of the room. Three maids in neat navy uniforms stood in the room.
"Welcome to the palace," the tallest one said, smiling. "I am Giolla, and this is Rivka and Tambrial. We will be serving you during your time here."
"Thank you," Julietta said.
The youngest maid stepped up to Emelye. "Good afternoon, my lady," she said. "I am Tambrial."
"I'm Emelye. It's nice to meet you," Emelye said, holding out her hand.
Tambrial didn't know what to do. "It is...a...pleasure to meet you as well," she said, squeezing Emelye's offe a little warily. "Please, let me show you your room." She led her to the room on the right.
"Well," Emelye gulped. "It's bigger than my room back home." She turned around slowly, drinking in every detail of the lavish bedroom. Sully nudged against her knee. "Where will Sully sleep?"
"Sully?" Tambrial blinked.
"Yes, Sully. My goat," Emelye said.
"I suppose he'll be taken down to the royal barnyard," Tambrial shrugged. She lifted Emelye's battered satchel onto a low table and began unpacking.
"Oh, Sully can't sleep in a barnyard with other animals. He's more of a...a people goat," Emelye said.
"As you wish, my lady," Tambrial said. "I'll have one of the stable boys prepare a bed for him to sleep here."
"Thank you," Emelye said, flopping onto the soft bed. "Oh, bed. How I have missed you." She hugged a pillow enthusiastically. "Tambrial, do you think I could sleep for a while?"
"Of course, my lady," Tambrial said, instantly laying down the patched skirt she was folding. "Please don't hesitate to call me if you need something."
"All right. Thank you, Tambrial," Emelye yawned. Without bothering to pull off her dark blue dress, she crawled under the silky sheets and fell promptly asleep.
She slept for several hours, letting her travel-worn body relax for the first time in three days. When she awoke, the sun had set behind the hills, turning the interior of the white and gold room pink. Emelye sat up and rubbed her nose, yawning. "Sully?" she said.
"And you said I sleep too much," he groused.
"Sorry," she said, yawning again. "What have you been doing?"
"I found the kitchen," the goat said. "Quite large. Very nice."
"You glutton," Emelye teased, swinging her legs over the side of the high bed. "Have you found anything else?"
"There's a library right down the hall," Sully offered.
"Good. I need to do some research," Emelye said, slipping her bare feet into her too-large boots.
"Oh, perfect light reading before bed. Seventy good ways to kill a giant," she heard Sully say as she crept out of the apartment.
It wasn't hard to find the library. She could see the massive bookshelves beckoning through the glass doors. Emelye tapped them open and slipped inside.
For a while she only meandered through the aisles of shelves, marveling at the sheer quantity. "There's more books in this room than there are in all of Ciderbarrel," Emelye said. Her soft words echoed through the room.
Her voice wasn't the only one in the room. She heard voices coming from deeper in the library. Emelye ducked behind a shelf to listen.
"Gaurav, I am not impressed," the queen was saying. "She's only a child."
"And a stupid one at that," Lady Sibyl added.
"She is highly honored in her own region for her skills," Gaurav said.
"That's just it. In her own region," Malicent said. "What's excellent in a peasant village is simply mediocre for the kingdom."
"Besides, Father, the girl can't even walk straight," Ramona said. "She dresses worse than one of our servants, she speaks without the slightest respect for us, and she carries a smelly goat with her. Honestly."
"I cannot go back on my word, Ramona," Gaurav objected.
"Do it just once, Gaurav," Lady Sibyl said. "She is an embarrassment."
The king sighed and rubbed his temples. "What of a compromise?" he said. "Mother, you and Ramona can see what you can do to make her presentable. Mayhap she'll lose interest in the giants and we can bring in real experts."
"And what if she doesn't?" Ramona retorted.
"Then we'll let her down gently," Gaurav said.
Emelye clenched her fists. An embarrassment? Mediocre? A stupid child? Was that all they thought of her?
She spun on her heel and stalked back to her room without them hearing her. Sully was snoring on top of the canopied bed. Emelye pulled out her notes out of her satchel and began to study furiously.

Author's Notes: Aha! Finally an update!! Sorry it's taken so long.

Tambrial is actually from another story I wrote, but it was a horrible story, except for Tambrial. Except the personalities are quite different, but I love the name Tambrial. I made it up!

Element Princess- I'm glad you like the story! Here's an update!

Gwenllian- Thanks for the enthusiastic review!! Me like you!

WildPixieChild16- Glad you like Sully. Actually, the way I've planned the story, he doesn't do too much later, but I suppose I'll have to change that, ne?

Raspberry Girl- You're right! Just about every heroine in fairy tales is like "Oh, my! A HORSE! Come, my lovely horse! Because you are a horse, you are now my LOYAL SIDEKICK!!" Let's see...Khan, Phillippe, that one horse in the Damar books, Alanna's horse...dude, every girl has a horse for a sidekick! Well, Emelye is quite happy with her goat, thank you very much. Later I talk about exactly how Emelye got Sully...and why Leverett hates goats! Oh, and Rei Kashino is the very hot main character of a manga series called Mars. Super hot...drools...But Yoh Asakura is my real love...

If you have any ideas with what I should do with the story, do tell me! I love readers who write to me!!! happyhappyjoyjoy

In the meantime, may the force be with you, live long and prosper, and never, under any circumstances, give Count Olaf any information about the Baudelaire orphans!

With all due respect,

Keitorin Asthore

PS- Don't tell him anything about the two Quagmire triplets, either!