Finally, he gave a little wave of the hand,
temporarily dismissing her to the far left side of his royal dias.
She arose and stepped back, literally gasping for air in her newfound
terror, for she instinctively realized what was coming and desperately
yearned that she might not have accused Si'Wren in the first place.
"You," Emperor Euphrates pointed out the second of Si'Wren's three
accusers, "Come hither."
Outwardly confident before all, Sorpiala smoothly and adroitly copied
the first woman's awkward approaches and fell at Emperor Euphrates's
feet. Another whispering conference ensued.
Finally, he dismissed her to his left, and did likewise with the last
of Si'Wren's accusers, the one who had voluntarily and initially spoken
first of her own free volition. When he had heard all, he dismissed her
in like manner, and sat in silence.
Emperor Euphrates remained motionless for a long time and said nothing,
staring straight ahead as if in a trance.
The entire assemblage of the court waited upon him, many of them quite
familiar with this process from past experience. Others who were less
experienced in the ways of the court, Si'Wren and her three accusers
being numbered among these, experienced deep agitation as they also
waited.
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