down the road and looked up the steep mountainside. He could see nothing but the massive tree trunks and impenetrable rhododendron undergrowth of a lush fir forest.
'Perhaps my friends would care to come out now?' he asked. 'We must hurry and re-pack, if we are to find a safe campsite before the evening rains start.'
Atreus and his two companions sat up, plucking rhododendron branches out of their sleeves, collars, and pant legs.
'There is no need to camp,' said Rishi, casting a sly grin in Atreus's direction. we will just ask Ysdar's devil to shrink us, then we will spend a dry and cozy night in an empty jar… or perhaps in a yak's ear. I am sure it is warm in there.'
'A most excellent idea,' agreed Bharat, 'but I will be too afraid to sleep. Yago has not had his bath today!'
The ogre scowled. 'I was born orange,' he said, pulling the treasure basket from its hiding place. 'And I don't take that many baths.'
'Indeed,' commented Bharat. 'And yet you smell as sweet as a lily.'
'You Mar,' Atreus snapped, in no mood for joking. 'Is there not one of you who isn't a born liar?'
Rishi and Bharat fell silent and sullen. Atreus did not care. He was accustomed to being thought slovenly, wicked, and even stupid because of how he looked, but this was the first time anyone had accused him of being a cannibal and a kidnapper. By the time they reached the Sisters of Serenity, that rumor mongering patrol leader would have every traveler in the Yehimals ready to behead Atreus in his sleep.
Motioning Yago to follow, Atreus scrambled down to the road and returned to the wagon. When Bharat and Rishi came up behind him conversing softly in Maran, he whirled on them.
'You will do me the kindness of speaking in Realmspeak or not at all. I've enough to worry about without wondering what you two are plotting,' Atreus said sternly, then snatched the rucksack off the road and turned to Bharat. 'What is this for?'
'You will n-need it,' the Mar explained. 'You cannot reach the Sisters of Serenity in a carpet wagon. You will have to walk many days.'
Atreus frowned. 'Then why is there only one rucksack?' Bharat's face paled from its normal golden bronze to saffron. He looked to Rishi for help.
'Good sir, there is no reason for being angry,' said Rishi. 'it is only that there are no rucksacks large enough for Yago, and Bharat did not know how strong you are for one of the Ffolk. He assumed most naturally that I would be carrying your load.'
'Yes, yes-very good! That is just so,' said Bharat. 'In the Utter East, wealthy Ffolk hire porters to carry their things.'
He flashed his too-bright smile and waited for his employer to accept the explanation. Atreus simply climbed into the wagon and returned the rucksack to its cubby hole, then pushed the floor back into place. The porter's explanation made sense as far as it went, but he still did not understand why the carpet seller had hidden the sack in the first place. Certainly, the Queen's Men had not seemed terribly upset at finding it, and that left only him and Yago that Bharat could have been concealing it from. The two Mar would bear even more watching than he originally thought.
Atreus settled onto his haunches. 'Why don't you pass the baggage in? I'll pack.' He reached out to accept the first load. 'And I'm sorry for that remark about born liars. If anyone should know better than to say such things, it's me. That patrol leader's lies made me angry.'
Bharat's insincere smile remained on his face as he said, 'No apology necessary. The captain was indeed a very big liar. He made me angry as well.'
'Ignorant Mar like him are what made Queen Rosalind reluctant to help you,' Rishi added as he hefted a sack of rice into the wagon. 'Someday, I will give you his tongue.'
'Thanks, but no thanks.'
Atreus grimaced, then moved the rice to the front of the cargo bed. They finished re-packing the wagon quickly, leaving a place between the carpets so he and Yago could lie down and hide when they passed someone on the road.
That night, Atreus had Yago stay close to the treasure basket and politely refused to go to his bed inside the wagon until Bharat and Rishi had gone to theirs underneath it. His caution was somewhat unnecessary. Only he could open the coffer inside the treasure basket and it was too heavy for either Mar to carry off, but he wanted them to know he was thinking about the possibility as much as they were.
The next day dawned clear and cold, as did most in the Yehimals. After a breakfast of warm yak milk and cold barley, they traveled a few hours up to the end of the valley. There, much to Atreus's amazement, the road started up a mountainside longer and steeper than the one they had crested just the night before. As they ascended, the rhododendron undergrowth vanished, giving way to silver-barked bushes Atreus did not recognize. The trees grew smaller and closer together, and the breeze became cool and thin. The valley in which they had camped the night before seemed as distant and low as had the plains of Edenvale, and still they climbed. When the afternoon mists came, their breaths turned into billowing clouds of vapor, and a chill dampness sank into their bones.
They continued to climb for three more days, the forest eventually growing thin and patchy, sometimes vanishing altogether when the slope became too steep or rocky. The wind nipped at their ears, and their own breaths kept them swaddled in perpetual clouds of white steam. Gradually, Atreus pretended to let his guard down. He neglected to remind Yago to keep a close watch on the basket, then started to go to bed first. He paid less attention to his treasure and complained more often about fatigue and cold. He even had Yago forget to take the basket with him when he went to sleep at night, and still the Mar made no attempt to steal his gold.
Eventually, they crested this mountainside too, and began to cross an endless succession of ridges and valleys. often, they traveled miles through alpine meadows far above the timber-line, then descended into deep valleys full mist and mountain bamboo. Several times a day, they met Yago caravans coming in the opposite direction. Atreus and Yago would hide beneath the carpets while Rishi and Bharat stopped to gossip, for travelers in the Yehimals had long, ago learned the wisdom of pausing to hear what lay ahead.
The news was always of Ysdar's ugly devil, and the accounts grew increasingly exaggerated. Tales such as his ogre having slaughtered a herd of yaks, his Mar servant maiming all the children in a village, and the devil himself murdering an entire company of the Queen's Men were common. Of course, no one could name the places where any of this had occurred. Rishi and Bharat seemed to find these stories a great amusement. After hearing one, their moods grew as jocular as Atreus's did foul. Eventually, the two Mar stopped translating the reports for their master, knowing that the latest accounts of his outrages would make their 'good sir' even angrier than their refusal to repeat what was being said about him.
Twice after hearing that the Queen's Men were approaching, Atreus, Rishi, and Yago had to hide in the rocks while a patrol searched the wagon. The inspections went much the same as before, save that Bharat now accepted them as a matter of course and insisted on having his rugs neatly stacked instead of strewn all over the road. The rucksack continued to draw comment, as the soldiers could not imagine a merchant abandoning his goods to go trekking through the mountains.
Finally, the morning came when Atreus opened his treasure basket to check the coffer inside and saw scratch marks on the brass latch. He was less surprised to discover his companions had tried to break into the chest than that Yago had not heard the attempt. The ogre had slept beside the basket all night without noticing a thing.
Atreus closed the lid and said nothing, though now he began to worry. So far, they had not reached any of the valleys or mountains named on Sune's map, and the thought occurred to him that Rishi might not know how to find the Sisters of Serenity after all. Perhaps the two Mar were simply leading him about blindly, waiting for their chance to rob and abandon him-or worse. Given the hideous rumors coursing through the mountains, they could murder him and be hailed as heroes. Atreus and Yago began to sleep in shifts, napping in the wagon and closing their eyes at night only after they were certain the two Mar had slumbered off.
They had been traveling little more than a ten-day when Bharat, preparing their usual supper of fried vegetables over rice, turned the oil jar over and nothing came out. He cursed and hurled the vessel against a rock. As it shattered, he turned to Rishi and spoke in rapid Maran. Rishi shook his head and made an angry reply, then glanced across the fire to where Atreus was sitting.
