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"I wonder though if we should ask someone to show us around," River said worriedly. "If things are so much more formal here, then maybe we should be careful ... there might be rooms or areas where we're not supposed to go."

"Like what?" Amalirahc asked disbelievingly.

River shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe the king and queen's chambers, or something like that."

Amalirahc stared at her for a moment, then shrugged and looked back at Miyuki. "I think the palace at Amon Darthir is bigger, but that one's a bit boring," he agreed with her. "I think we should just start exploring here. If there's somewhere we're not supposed to go, the guards will tell us if we get close. Right?"

"Well we better not knock on doors," River pointed out practically. "Everyone's resting and we would be interrupting them by knocking to ask if we were. Maybe for today we should stick to doors that are open."

That made sense even to Amalirahc, and the boy quickly agreed.

"Should we start at the top and work our way down?" he asked. "Or at the bottom and work our way up?"

"Okay, back to the stairs!" Amalirahc grinned, leading the way to the tall marble stairs.

River giggled. "And there he goes again. Come on, Miyuki, we'd better go quickly if we're going to keep up with him. There's no stopping him when he's like this."

She started after him. It didn't take long to catch up with him - he had stopped at the bottom of the stairs and was looking down the long corridor at something that seemed to really have gotten his attention.

River was one step ahead of Miyuki, and she smiled when she saw what had stopped Amalirahc.

"Oh, look, it's Iorlas!" she beamed, seeing the golden-haired woman wandering down the hall ahead of them. "Come on, let's go see if she wants to explore, too!"

She moved to run ahead, but Amalirahc grabbed her arm and yanked her back. "Don't," he said, his face pale. "That's not Iorlas."

River stared at her friend, then looked back at the woman ahead of them. "How can you tell?"

There were of course guards stationed around the corridor, but they weren't paying any attention to Iorlas (or Ioreth, according to Amalirahc) because as far as they were concerned, she was one of the guests.

"Wait!" Amalirahc called out, running after Miyuki, reaching out and trying to grab her as well. "Don't!"

"Because if they go after her, she's going to hurt them," Amalirahc protested. "Please, don't make them go after her!"

"How do you even know it's Ioreth and not Iorlas?" River asked with a frown. "Amalirahc, no one else can tell even if we're right next to them, how could you possibly know from this distance?"

"Just trust me!" the black boy insisted. "It's her! And it won't be good to send anyone after her!"

River looked at Miyuki. She personally wasn't sure that she could trust Amalirahc's judgement in this case, that it was the evil twin and not the good one, but if he was right and that was the case, then she felt that they should at the very least tell the guards what was going on.

The guard eyed Miyuki as she approached him. He had heard most of the conversation, but he wasn't entirely sure what was going on ...

"Is something happening?" he asked cautiously.

"It's Ioreth!" Amalirahc blurted. "But she's bad!"

"Amalirahc, let Miyuki explain," River said, grabbing Amalirahc and clamping her hand over his mouth. "You're not making any sense to them and I think Miyuki understands what's going on even better than I do!"

The guard didn't waste any time. He gave the order to the guard next to him to find Lady Kirahn (whoever that was) and then ordered two others to come with him.

"Which way?" he asked the children as the one other guard ran off as he had been directed.

Amalirahc pointed ahead of them, deeper into the castle, where he had seen Ioreth walking.

The guard nodded. "You'd better come with to make sure we take the right woman," he told the children. "Come on now, quickly."

And he, along with the other two guards, started off in the direction in which Amalirahc had pointed them.