The rickety balcony shook as the third guard rushed to strike from behind. Atreus grabbed the leader's collar and dropped to the floor, swinging around behind him. The move catapulted his captive into his attacker and sent both men tumbling over the balustrade into the confusion below.
Atreus rolled to his knees in the doorway. Rishi was standing inside the murky chamber, staring gape- mouthed out onto the verandah. At his feet sat the heavy basket Atreus had thrown to him, and there were fresh scrape marks on the teak floor. Whether or not the Mar's intention had been to steal, he had clearly been trying to take the cargo basket and flee.
Rishi pointed at the empty balcony behind Atreus. 'You… how did you defeat so many, good sir?'
'An ugly man learns to fight,' Atreus said, standing.
'It was a… a thing of beauty!' Rishi's mouth continued to hang open, then his arm shot up and pointed out the door. 'Good sir, watch your back!'
Atreus twisted forward and away, then glimpsed the tip of a sword arcing toward his head from across the verandah. Behind it came the guard he had knocked unconscious earlier, hurling himself off the balustrade in an assault as wild as it was foolish. Before Atreus could raise his arm to block, a tiny dagger flashed past from Rishi's direction and sank deep into the guard's gullet. The sword slipped from the man's grasp, as he let out a surprised gurgle and collapsed through the doorway.
Atreus kneeled beside the man and pulled the dagger free, unleashing a stream of bright red froth. He looked at Rishi in horror.
'Why did you do that?'
'Perhaps the good sir forgets he owes me money,' said Rishi. 'It would hardly do to let him get killed before he pays.'
'I wasn't going to get killed,' said Atreus. He glanced back to see several pairs of hands reaching up to grasp the verandah railing. 'But now you've made a marked man of me. The queen's guards will take a poor view of having one of their own killed.'
'Then I suggest we go.' Rishi gestured at the basket on the floor. 'I fear the good sir must carry his own cargo. The basket is too heavy for me.'
Atreus pulled his purse from his belt and dropped it on the floor for the dying man's family, then he grabbed his basket and followed the Mar across the dingy room into a dark, cramped corridor. An angry outcry erupted behind him as the guards climbed onto the balcony and noticed their dying comrade. Rishi pulled the door closed and led the way toward a dingy stairwell at the end of the hall.
As they approached, Yago's heavy steps began to rumble up the stairs, then the ogre appeared in the doorway, doubled over and packed into the narrow passage. When he saw Rishi and Atreus, he dropped to his hands and knees and tried to squeeze through the doorway.
'Not this way,' Rishi called. 'We must go up the stairs. Quickly!'
Yago retreated through the door and scrambled up the stairs on all fours, the whole stairwell shaking beneath his pounding feet. Rishi followed close behind, shouting at the ogre to move faster. Atreus brought up the rear, his knees limping furiously as he hauled the heavy basket up the steps.
A door slammed open behind him, then someone cried, The stairs!'
The hammering footfalls of a half-a-dozen charging men began to echo up the stairwell. Upon reaching the next floor, Atreus saw how well Rishi had planned their escape. on the landing, a dozen oil casks lay stacked on their sides, held in place by a single wooden wedge lodged between the floor and first barrel. After Yago and Atreus squeezed past, Rishi turned to kick the wedge free.
It twisted sideways, but did not come out.
Rishi's eyes widened. The angry guards reached the bottom of the stairs and started up, nostrils flaring and swords waving. Again, the Mar kicked at the wedge. This time, his toe bounced off without budging it.
Atreus squatted down and dropped the heavy basket on the floor. Rishi spun around at the resulting jingle, but he did not step out of the way.
'Move!' Atreus shouted, pulling the Mar aside.
The first guard was only a dozen steps below, staring up at the casks and sneering in relief.
When Atreus reached down and grabbed the wedge, the man's smirk vanished. He cocked his arm to throw his sword, and Atreus jerked the wedge free. The casks tumbled loose with a deafening rumble, bouncing down the stairs to bowl the guards over backward. One keg split and spilled oil everywhere, turning the whole stairwell into a slimy avalanche of somersaulting men and flying casks.
'Well done!' Rishi exclaimed, once again eyeing Atreus's heavy cargo basket. 'Very well done. Now escape is assured.'
'I'll believe that,' Atreus said, 'once we've actually escaped.'
Atreus picked up his cargo, and he and Rishi started up the stairs after Yago. Although the basket was ungainly and difficult to carry, he did not even consider abandoning it. The coffer inside held many ten-thousands of gold lions, a full quarter of the fortune bequeathed to him by his unknown mother. This was the amount he had dedicated to finding Langdarma, and he had no intention of leaving it to Queen Rosalind's guards.
They ascended three more flights of stairs, then stepped into a long hallway leading toward the rear of the building. Yago stopped and pointed toward a window at the end of the corridor, where a long plank lay on the bottom sill, stretching across a narrow alley to a similar casement in another building.
'Am I supposed to fit through that?' the ogre demanded.
'Most definitely not,' Rishi replied. 'Your weight would snap the board like straw. You must continue up to the roof.'
'The roof?' asked Atreus.
'I have seen how strong the ogre is,' said Rishi. 'I am sure he will not be troubled by such a small leap.'
Yago squinted out the distant window. 'How far is it?'
'Oh, it cannot be far,' said Rishi. 'The board itself is not five paces long.'
'Five paces?' The ogre stretched his arms apart, trying to envision the distance. 'That's got to be as long as a-'
'Five of our paces. It is no more than two of yours,' Rishi said as he braced his hands on Yago's hips, struggling in vain to shove the ogre into the stairwell. 'Now go up on the roof-and hurry! Can you not hear our enemies?'
Atreus cocked his head, listening to the sound of the pounding feet below, then nodded to Yago. 'Go on. We'll see you on the other side.'
Yago reluctantly squeezed back through the door and rumbled up the steps, leaving Rishi and Atreus to continue down the corridor alone. The Mar stopped at the window and turned to Atreus.
'No indignity is meant, but you are heavy enough with-out your basket, and the board is very old. Perhaps I should go first and drag your cargo along behind me.'
Atreus shook his head. 'I'd feel terrible if you fell. The basket is too heavy for you.' He eyed the plank. As weathered and gray as the board was, it was also quite thick, with no sign of rotting. 'You go ahead. I'll be fine.'
Rishi sighed, then leaped onto the board and trotted across as lightly as a cat. Atreus followed more slowly, holding the heavy basket away from his body so he could look down and see his feet. By the time he had taken five steps, he almost wished he had let Rishi steal the gold. The plank was bowing severely under his weight, and every step caused it to bounce so harshly he could hardly keep his balance. Forty feet below, a constant stream of Mar scurried past, oblivious to the danger that Atreus might slip and drop the basket on their heads or fall off the board entirely and come crashing down himself.
Atreus was halfway across, on the bounciest part of the board, when heavy boots began to pound down the corridor behind him. He looked up to find Rishi staring across the alley, eyes as wide as coins.
'Perhaps the master could come more quickly,' said Rishi.
'I'm coming as fast as I can!' Atreus's gaze dropped back to the plank, and he began to grow dizzy as he contemplated the distance between his feet and the ground. 'This isn't as easy as it looks!'
'The master is to be extolled for his remarkable balance,' said Rishi. 'But Her Radiance's men are proving most persistent.'
Atreus took a deep breath, then rushed ahead three quick steps. The plank jumped like a quarterdeck on a
