By the way the door guards eyed them, Atreus knew that his and Yago's constant rocking made them appear drunk or worse, but they could not help themselves. They had passed most of the four-month journey from Duhlnarim to the Utter East aboard a square-rigged cog Squall Duchess, which rode the waves like a piece of flotsam. It would be some time before their legs grew accustomed to solid ground again. Atreus only hoped their unsteady stances would not prevent Queen Rosalind from providing the help they needed.

A small courtier in billowing silks emerged from the scalloped portal of the audience hall. With black hair, a thin build. and golden skin, he was obviously one of the Mar natives who had inhabited this hot and sultry land when rosalind's Faerunian ancestors arrived to claim it. He dismissed Yago's imposing bulk with a disdainful smirk, then turned to Atreus, his lip curling as he took in the polished boots, linen trousers, and silk tunic beneath a brocaded cape. When his gaze reached Atreus's disfigured face, he gasped and stepped back, speaking sharply to the guards in Marari-a strange, melodious tongue of short syllables and throaty clicks.

The guards answered in the same language, pointing across the courtyard to the gates where the hired elephant that had carried Atreus inland stood waiting with its driver. As Squall Duchess's captain had promised, the mere fact that Atreus had an ogre bodyguard and traveled in such luxury marked him as a man of consequence.

"1 have a letter of introduction from my own liege, King Korox of Erlkazar," Atreus said. From inside his cloak he withdrew a folded parchment that Heartwarder Julienne had procured from the king's sister, Princess Dijara. Atreus bowed, displaying the unbroken wax on its royal seal. "I am Atreus Eleint of Rivenshield, in Barony Ahlarkhem of Erlkazar."