"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."