When they reached the ground floor, Rishi led the way through an open poultry market into a narrow lane. Atreus was so turned around that until a pair of Mar wandered past carrying a long plank, he did not recognize it as the same alley over which he had been hanging a few minutes earlier.

"Over here, my banana-loving friend!"

The call came from a short distance down the alley, where a round-faced Mar with a waxed mustache sat in the driver's seat of a large covered wagon. He was a plump man, about the same size and shape as the shadowy figure who had thrown the banana into the Howdah. Hitched to the man's wagon were two of the strangest oxen Atreus had ever seen. They had narrow, cow like faces with curved horns as long as a man's arm, and their bodies were hidden head-to-hoof beneath shaggy skirts of golden-black hair.

Rishi draped his hand around Atreus's elbow in the overly familiar way of the Mar and led him toward the cart.

"Bharat, my good friend! This is the unfortunate gentleman I was telling you about, and this is his large servant." Rishi gestured at Yago. "Is everything ready?"

"Yes, yes, just as you asked. Hide yourselves beneath my carpets, and we are on our way to Langdarma." Bharat smiled too eagerly, displaying teeth as white as snow, then nodded to Yago. "I brought my largest wagon, but even so, I fear you will have to fold your legs."

Rishi started toward the back of the cart, but Atreus made no move to follow.

"We're going to Langdarma in an oxcart?" he asked.

Rishi feigned a look of shock. "But of course! Surely, you did not think we could take your elephant?"

CHAPTER 4

Bharat's carpet wagon had nearly crested the front range of the Yehimal Mountains when the Queen's Guard finally caught up to it. The riders, mounted on shaggy mountain ponies about the size of a good war dog, traveled lightly, with little more than sabers, haversacks, and long woolen hauberks that served as both coat and armor. Behind them, three days back and a thousand switchbacks down the wooded mountainside, lay the misty forests of Edenvale. The capital itself was still visible, a tiny dun-colored circle on the far horizon.