(sorry, our internet was being screwy!)
Aery laughed despite herself. Several of the younger urchins cowered in the shadows, most sporting fresh cuts and bruises. "Oh, dears. Oh my dears." She knelt down and gave them a hug. "You all find somewhere safe, okay, and I'll come find you once I've made my claim to the throne. If I don't come in two days, get out and keep going down this road until you find a group mounted on Asterion horses. Tell them who you are and they'll look after you.
Then, rising to her feet, nodding to Celaena, she continued up the road to the palace, her daggers out. The palace gates swung open to admit them without a challenge. So too did the doors to the inner keep, and to the throne room, until she faced the man sitting on her uncle's glass throne. The throne that would soon be hers. She made eye contact with the man; he did too through a jeweled black mask. A golden crown upon his brow.
"You are an imposter." She called to the man on the dais. "I am the true ruler of Adarlan, by my blood and by my birthright! For I am the last heir that is left of the House Havilliard, of the ancestral line Silverheart." From under her tunic she produced the symbol of her birth, the jeweled silver rose charm that had been given to her for her tenth birthday, when she finally became useful to the realm. "I challenge you, imposter, for the divine right to rule Adarlan." She swapped the dagger she had drawn for the long one that she carried in place of a sword and raised them into the "guard" position, looking at the man on the dais with such calm, measured fury that he had to have been at least a little frightened.