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could see the title printed in a hokey, gothic sort of script that readTourist
Guide to the Fortress of Doom. Then she flipped it over to show the back. "It
has a map in it."
"Great!Just what we need. Let me see it."
Becky held it out of Kevin's reach. "It's mine. I found it. I get to lead us
out of here."
"I just want to take a look at it."
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"Ha! You just think a girl can't read a map."
"I didn't say that."
"Just follow me, and you'll find out."
"If we don't get a move on," said Mercredi, "you two won't have any breath to
argue with. Your Highness, I would follow you anywhere, but preferably out of
this fortress."
"This way," said Becky. She chose one of the doors, pulled it open, and
checked the hallway. It was still clear. She consulted the map."Left."
She led them down the hallway, into another hallway, up a long flight of
stairs, along another hallway, down a short spiral of stairs, and into a large
room. She pointed at one wall, painted in a pastoral scene with a handsome
shepherd tending his flock. "That's south."
"How can you tell?"
Becky read from the brochure." 'Pause to admire the fresco on the south wall,
one of the earliest known works of Antonio Calivetti.' There's the fresco, so
that must be the south wall."
"Okay. But now we're off the ground floor?"
"Right."
"Where do we go to next?"
"First we have to pause to admire the fresco."
"Sure, Becky.Maybe after the battle we can check out the artwork. Right now I
think our top priority ought to be getting out of here."
"Stop telling me what to do, Kevin Timberline!" Becky's voice was high and
edgy, on the brink of hysteria. Kevin realized the strain of the past few days
was catching up with her. "These are my directions, and they say topause to
admire the fresco!"
"Right, right.Pause to admire the fresco. What a lovely fresco. Note the
depth of color, the chiaroscuro, the almost impressionistic interplay of light
and shadow. Magnificent."
"I like horse pictures," said Laura.
Becky read again from the brochure. "The shepherd was modeled after the son
of Calivetti's patron, the Duke of Fortescue."
"His eyes are really pretty," said Laura. "They seem to follow you around the
room."
"Because the artist made the eyes the center of perspective," said Mercredi.
"I'm deeply moved by this painting," said Kevin. "Now, Becky, could we please
move on?"
They moved on to the next exhibit, because Becky insisted on doggedly
following the map step by step. "If we follow the tour, it will end at an
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exit. If we deviate from it, we'll only get lost again." There was no choice
but to follow her. And Kevin had to admit he was totally lost. None of these
rooms looked familiar to him. Laura had not been inside the fortress before.
Mercredi, though he had been working there for several months, had only been
allowed in the area around his lab. Even then he had often been under guard,
with little chance to explore.
So they trailed behind the Princess, dutifully admiring an elaborately carved
banister, twenty steps high, yet built from a single piece of bird's-eye
maple. They nodded respectfully at a pair of antique mirrors in gilt frames
(work of an unknown craftsman), gazed upon several stained-glass windows
(impossible to see out of, unfortunately) and did a quick critique of a
floor-to-ceiling depiction of according to the brochure the Diet of
Lohengrin-Fatima, which showed several dozen cardinals in red robes gathered
around an altar.
Mercredi let his eyes drift across the portly figures. "Just the types you'd
expect to find at a Lo-Fat Diet."
"Cute," said Kevin."If we could go on?"
The next stop brought them back down to a lower floor. Kevin looked around.
"Are weback on the ground floor?"
"It all looks the same," said Laura.
Becky looked up from the map. "Yes, it's the ground floor. Just one last
pen-and-ink, and we're out of here." Kevin was doubtful at first. All the
halls on this section of the castle tended to look the same, and after the
last sketch(Portrait of the Countess de Werque by Francois Delouard) there
were no more tourist points of interest to orient themselves to the map. Then
they had to hide in an unlocked room to avoid a group of soldiers moving
through the fortress. When this happened for the third time he became
convinced that Becky was right, and they really were on the ground floor, or
at least a floor with access to the outer walls. Eventually their path was
clear of soldiers. Becky brought them to another door. It was unmarked, heavy
and solid. She waved for them to gather close by.
"Nowthis is the door to the entrance hall," she whispered, tapping the map.
"And the plan is the same as Kevin said before. There will probably be guards
inside, so our best chance is to rush for the door. Keep running and don't
stop.Everybody with me on this?"
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| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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