[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"All passages to the castle itself have been resealed this very morning, save the main gate. That is now
the only way in, and the only way out. I have changed the lock to the main gate. There is only one key to
the new lock and I keep it wherever I am. When I am outside with the one hundred troops, the key is in
the outside lock and no one can leave the castle from the inside. When I am with you, as I am now, the
key is in the inside lock, and no one may enter from the outside."
"Follow," said the Prince, and he moved to the large window of his chamber. He pointed outside. Below
the window was a lovely planted garden. Beyond that the Prince's private stables. Beyond that, naturally,
the outside castle wall. "That is how they will come," he said. "Over the wall, through my stables, past my
garden, to my window, throttle the Queen and back the way they came before we know it."
"They?" Yellin said, though he knew the answer.
"The Guilderians, of course."
"But the wall where you suggest is the highest wall surrounding all of Florin Castle it is fifty feet high at
that point so that would seem the least likely point of attack." He was trying desperately to keep himself
under control.
"All the more reason why they should choose this spot; besides, the world knows that the Guilderians
are unsurpassed as climbers."
Yellin had never heard that. He had always thought the Swiss were the ones who were unsurpassed as
climbers. "Highness," he said, in one last attempt, "I have not yet, from a single spy, heard a single word
about a single plot against the Princess."
"I have it on unimpeachable authority that there will be an attempt made to strangle the Princess this very
night."
"In that case," Yellin said, and he dropped to one knee and held out the envelope, "I must resign." It was
a difficult decision  the Yellins had headed enforcement in Florin for generations, and they took their
work more than seriously. "I am not doing a capable job, sire; please forgive me and believe me when I
say that my failures were those of the body and mind and not of the heart."
Prince Humperdinck found himself, quite suddenly, in a genuine pickle, for once the war was finished, he
needed someone to stay in Guilder and run it, since he couldn't be in two places at once, and the only
men he trusted were Yellin and the Count, and the Count would never take the job, being obsessed, as
he was these days, with finishing his stupid Pain Primer. "I donot accept your resignation, youare doing a
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
capable job, there isno plot,I shall slaughter the Queen myself this very evening,you shall run Guilder for
me after the war, now get back on your feet."
Yellin didn't know what to say. "Thank you" seemed so inadequate, but it was all he could come up
with.
"Once the wedding is done with I shall send her here to make ready while I shall, with boots carefully
procured in advance, make tracks leading from the wall to the bedroom and returning then from the
bedroom to the wall. Since you are in charge of law enforcement, I expect you will not take long to verify
my fears that the prints could only be made by the boots of Guilderian soldiers. Once we have that, we'll
need a royal proclamation or two, my father can resign as being unfit for battle, and you, dear Yellin, will
soon be living in Guilder Castle."
Yellin knew a dismissal speech when he heard one. "I leave with no thought in my heart but to serve
you."
"Thank you," Humperdinck said, pleased, because, after all, loyalty was one thing you couldn't buy. And
in that mood, he said to Yellin by the door, "And, oh, if you see the albino, tell him he may stand in the
back for my wedding; it's quite all right with me."
"I will, Highness," Yellin said, adding, "but I don't know where my cousin is I went looking for him less
than an hour ago and he was nowhere to be found."
The Prince understood important news when he heard it because he wasn't the greatest hunter in the
world for nothing and, even more, because if there was one thing you could say about the albino it was
that he wasalways to be found. "My God, you don't suppose thereis a plot, do you? It's a perfect time;
the country celebrates; if Guilder were about to be five hundred years old, I know I'd attack them."
"I will rush to the gate and fight, to the death if necessary," Yellin said.
"Good man," the Prince called after him. If there was an attack, it would come at the busiest time, during
the wedding, so he would have to move that up. State affairs went slowly, but, still, he had authority. Six
o'clock was out. He would be married no later than half past five or know the reason why.
At five o'clock, Max and Valerie were in the basement sipping coffee. "You better get right to bed,"
Valerie said; "you look all troubled. You can't stay up all night as if you were a pup."
"I'm not tired," Max said. "But you're right about the other."
"Tell Mama." Valerie crossed to him, stroked where his hair had been.
"It's just I been remembering, about the pill."
"It was a beautiful pill, honey. Feel proud."
"I think I messed up the amounts, though. Didn't they want an hour? When I doubled the recipe, I didn't
do enough. I don't think it'll work over forty minutes."
Valerie moved into his lap. "Let's be honest with each other; sure, you're a genius, but even a genius gets
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
rusty. You were three years out of practice. Forty minutes'll be plenty."
"I suppose you're right. Anyway, what can we do about it? Down is down."
"The pressures you been under, if it works at all, it'll be a miracle."
Max had to agree with her. "A fantasmagoria." He nodded.
The man in black was nearly stiff when Fezzik reached the wall. It was almost five o'clock and Fezzik
had been carrying the corpse the whole way from Miracle Max's, back street to back street, alleyway to
alleyway, and it was one of the hardest things he had ever done. Not taxing. He wasn't even winded. But
if the pill was just what it looked like, a chocolate lump, then he, Fezzik, was going to have a lifetime of
bad dreams of bodies growing stiff between his fingers.
When he at last was in the wall shadow, he said to Inigo, "What now?"
"We've got to see if it's still safe. There might be a trap waiting." It was the same part of the wall that led,
shortly, to the Zoo, in the farthest corner of the castle grounds. But if the albino's body had been
discovered, then who knew what was waiting for them?
"Should I go up then?" Fezzik asked.
"We'll both do it," Inigo replied. "Lean him against the wall and help me." Fezzik tilted the man in black
so he was in no danger of falling and waited while Inigo jumped onto his shoulders. Then Fezzik did the
climbing. Any crack in the wall was enough for his fingers; the least imperfection was all he needed. He
climbed quickly, familiar with it now, and after a moment, Inigo was able to grab hold of the top and say,
"All right; go on back down," so Fezzik returned to the man in black and waited.
Inigo crept along the wall top in dead silence. Far across he could see the castle entrance and the armed
soldiers flanking it. And closer at hand was the Zoo. And off in the deepest brush in the farthest corner of
the wall, he could make out the still body of the albino. Nothing had changed at all. They were, at least so
far, safe. He gestured down to Fezzik, who scissored the man in black between his legs, began the arm
climb noiselessly.
When they were all together on the wall top, Inigo stretched out the dead man and then hurried along
until he could get a better view of the main gate. The walk from the outer wall to the main castle gate was
slanted slightly down, not much of an incline, but a steady one. There must be Inigo did a quick
count at least a hundred men standing at the ready. And the time must be  he estimated closely five [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Archiwum