  
  When the seventh day comes and it is time for you to return to the castle
  in the forest, your sisters cling to your sleeves.
  
  "Don't go back," they say, and "When will we ever see you again?" But you
  imagine they will find consolation somewhere.
  
  Your father hangs back, silent and moody. He has spent the week as far from
  you as possible, working until late at night. Now he speaks only to ask
  whether the Beast treated you "properly." Since he obviously has his own
  ideas about what must have taken place over the past few years, you do not
  reply beyond a shrug.
  
  You breathe more easily once you're back in the forest, alone.
  
  
  
  Bronze
  A fractured fairy tale by Emily Short
  Release 12 / Serial number 080217 / Inform 7 build 5M28 (I6/v6.31 lib
  6/12N) SD
  
> Have you played interactive fiction before? >   Drawbridge                                                1
  If you have not played Bronze before, you may still want to type HELP to
  learn about special commands unique to this game.
  
  Drawbridge
  Even in your short absence, the castle has come to look strange to you
  again. When you came here first, you stood a long while on the drawbridge,
  unready to cross the moat, for fear of the spells that might bind you if
  you did. This time it is too late to worry about such things.
  
  An iron-barred gate leads north.
  
> >   Drawbridge                                                2
  You are nontrivially the worse for your journey -- hungry, dirty, and
  tired. But all that can be seen to later.
  
> >   Drawbridge                                                3
  You are carrying nothing.
  
> >   Entrance Hall                                             4
  (first opening the iron-barred gate)
  You shouldn't be able to open it, heavy as it is, but it swings aside
  lightly at your touch. The Beast said that it knows friend from enemy; and
  the castle, at least, still regards you as friend.
  
  Entrance Hall
  There is no fire in the big fireplace, and no one is waiting for you here;
  the air is very cold. Over the gate, the old familiar warning sign is
  painted.
  
  Various passages lead deeper into the castle: north towards the central
  courtyard, southwest to the guard tower, east and west into the libraries,
  the offices, the galleries. Somewhere in this maze, he waits; and he should
  be told as soon as possible that you did return.
  
  An iron-barred gate leads south to the drawbridge.
  
> >   Entrance Hall                                             5
  You know the words by heart, having heard them first from your father, and
  then studied them yourself on many more recent occasions.
  
  You read: Those who seek to leave the castle depart at peril of their lives
  and souls, unless another servant be provided in exchange, or a fixed term
  of absence be granted by their master.
  
> >   Guard Tower                                               6
  Guard Tower
  A round tower offering protection to the drawbridge.
  
> >   Entrance Hall                                             7
  Entrance Hall
  There is no fire in the big fireplace; the air is very cold. Over the gate,
  the old familiar warning sign is painted.
  
  Various passages lead deeper into the castle: north towards the central
  courtyard, southwest to the guard tower, east and west into the libraries,
  the offices, the galleries. Somewhere in this maze, he waits; and he should
  be told as soon as possible that you did return.
  
  An iron-barred gate leads south to the drawbridge.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         8
  Great Dining Hall
  Such a long hall that the soup might get cold between one end and the
  other. You and he used only the far west end, nearest the kitchen. Once you
  took to dining together at all, that is; the first few months he brought
  trays to your room, while you hid.
  
  But then you took to eating here; and at the end of every meal he would
  stand up formally and ask his question.
  
  "You can leave at any time," he said, when he first spoke to you. You
  stared at him, surprised that someone with his face and teeth was capable
  of human communication. "Would you like to go?"
  
  There are other memories, more recent, of course. Every glance around the
  room reminds you of a different one.
  
> >   Enormous Kitchen                                          9
  Enormous Kitchen
  Haunted with the spirits of chefs past, generations and generations of
  culinary geniuses; one can never predict its whimsies. Unless he has moved
  everything, the bell to summon them into action should be in one of the
  rooms upstairs.
  
> >   Servant Quarters                                          10
  Servant Quarters
  You've never come here before, and now you see why. Not a room friendly to
  visitors, it has the air of resentful, martyred suffering. Even His most
  unpleasant ancestors would not have grudged this place more paint, surely,
  and more straw for the beds.
  
  A decaying ladder leads down.
  
> >   Enormous Kitchen                                          11
  Enormous Kitchen
  Haunted with the spirits of chefs past, generations and generations of
  culinary geniuses; one can never predict its whimsies. Unless he has moved
  everything, the bell to summon them into action should be in one of the
  rooms upstairs.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         12
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "I'm surprised you haven't gone home yet," he said very early in your stay.
  
  "I've heard stories," you replied. "As if there weren't enough to see
  around the castle. I know what happens to your servants who try to leave
  you."
  
  "Nothing bad would happen to you," he said. But you could not believe him,
  not with all the captured spirits, not with the stories, not with the
  evidence around the castle.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         13
  You find your way blocked by a phantom guard. Somewhere nearby you hear
  chimes.
  
  As soon as you back up, he disperses into smoke again.
  
> >   Entrance Hall                                             14
  Entrance Hall
  There is no fire in the big fireplace; the air is very cold. Over the gate,
  the old familiar warning sign is painted.
  
  Various passages lead deeper into the castle: north towards the central
  courtyard, southwest to the guard tower, east and west into the libraries,
  the offices, the galleries. Somewhere in this maze, he waits; and he should
  be told as soon as possible that you did return.
  
  An iron-barred gate leads south to the drawbridge.
  
> >   Scarlet Gallery                                           15
  Scarlet Gallery
  You do not often come this way, into the older part of the castle, which is
  narrow and has a low roof. The walls, and the ceiling too, are deep
  scarlet, the color of the old king and queen that ruled here two hundred
  fifty years ago, when there was still a kingdom.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             16
  Treasure Room
  Locked in an iron cage are the house treasures not in use: the collection
  consists of a sceptre, a puzzle piece, and a pair of cloven shoes, at
  present -- he showed them to you one rainy day, telling you their many
  histories.
  
  Nearby a small door leads east.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             17
  Made of broad strap-like bars of metal, as thick as a man's belt, and
  heavily reinforced. Here and there are marks where someone would seem to
  have made an attempt to break in. In the cage are the sceptre, the puzzle
  piece, and the pair of cloven shoes.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             18
  Formerly belonging to Queen Ingratitudina the First (so he said), only
  slightly bent where she used it to strike King Cophetua.
  
  You reacquaint yourself with its appearance: Studded with measly turquoises
  and semi-precious stones.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             19
  Made for something with cloven hoofs. They bear evidence of having been
  adjusted to their current size by a shoemaker, and perhaps (therefore)
  could be again.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             20
  (first unlocking the iron cage)
  You lack a key that fits the iron cage.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             21
  (first unlocking the small door)
  You lack a key that fits the small door.
  
> >   Scarlet Gallery                                           22
  Scarlet Gallery
  You do not often come this way, into the older part of the castle, which is
  narrow and has a low roof. The walls, and the ceiling too, are deep
  scarlet, the color of the old king and queen that ruled here two hundred
  fifty years ago, when there was still a kingdom.
  
> >   Scarlet Tower                                             23
  Scarlet Tower
  A little hexagonal room, from whose narrow window you can see the moat, the
  lawn, and the beginning of the forest outside.
  
  On the windowsill, a helmet waits, for the use of the sentry.
  
> >   Scarlet Tower                                             24
  Beyond a short stretch of clear ground, the forest grows thick and
  uninhabited for many miles.
  
> >   Scarlet Tower                                             25
  Beyond a short stretch of clear ground, the forest grows thick and
  uninhabited for many miles.
  
> >   Scarlet Tower                                             26
  You acquire the helmet, and assess it curiously.
  
  A very old helmet that you have seen the Beast wear (and quite foolish it
  looked, perched on a head it no longer fits: it would suit your head
  better). He told you once that the helmet was for night watchmen, scouts,
  and guards, to increase their vigilance and strengthen their hearing.
  
  Lines of writing arc over each ear, but you do not know the language in
  question.
  
> >   Scarlet Tower                                             27
  Lines of writing arc over each ear, but you do not know the language in
  question.
  
> >   Scarlet Tower                                             28
  You settle the helmet over your head, and there is a roaring in your ears
  at first. But then the sharpened hearing begins to feel natural again.
  
> >   Scarlet Tower                                             29
  You hear your own steady breathing.
  
> >   Scarlet Gallery                                           30
  Scarlet Gallery
  You do not often come this way, into the older part of the castle, which is
  narrow and has a low roof. The walls, and the ceiling too, are deep
  scarlet, the color of the old king and queen that ruled here two hundred
  fifty years ago, when there was still a kingdom.
  
> >   Gallery of Historical Paintings                           31
  Gallery of Historical Paintings
  Here on the north wall and the south are paintings of historical events
  from times past: the assassination of King Elzibad in 1248; the arrival of
  Princess Lucrezia from the Italian State of Medici-Credenza in 1545.
  
  The gallery goes on, echoing, both east and west.
  
> >   Gallery of Historical Paintings                           32
  You see his pointy-slippered attendants wringing their hands, his wife
  wiping her eyes on an ermine muff, peasants grieving.
  
  Of Elzibad himself, there is only a pair of blackened feet, sticking out
  from under the elephant.
  
> >   Gallery of Historical Paintings                           33
  Lucrezia wears silk the pale blue of the morning sky, and her eyes are
  little currants of malice.
  
> >   Room with the Labyrinth Floor                             34
  Room with the Labyrinth Floor
  A mosaic floor of black and white, like that of cathedrals, as protection
  against the spite of the undead: which protection might often have been
  needed, by those that dwelt here in former times. The way down is at the
  center of the maze.
  
  He's not down here, then, in the east wing.
  
  Perhaps he's in one of the side rooms you've not visited yet...?
  
> >   Room with the Labyrinth Floor                             35
  The maze doesn't look uncrossable by you. You step forward and look down
  into the room below, but it is too dark to see much.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  36
  Darkness
  Though a dim light filters down from the room with the labyrinth floor, you
  can see almost nothing of the contents of your current location.
  
> >   Room with the Labyrinth Floor                             37
  Room with the Labyrinth Floor
  A mosaic floor of black and white, like that of cathedrals, as protection
  against the spite of the undead: which protection might often have been
  needed, by those that dwelt here in former times. The way down is at the
  center of the maze.
  
> >   Gallery of Historical Paintings                           38
  Gallery of Historical Paintings
  Here on the north wall and the south are paintings of historical events
  from times past: the assassination of King Elzibad in 1248; the arrival of
  Princess Lucrezia from the Italian State of Medici-Credenza in 1545.
  
  The gallery goes on, echoing, both east and west.
  
> >   Scarlet Gallery                                           39
  Scarlet Gallery
  You do not often come this way, into the older part of the castle, which is
  narrow and has a low roof. The walls, and the ceiling too, are deep
  scarlet, the color of the old king and queen that ruled here two hundred
  fifty years ago, when there was still a kingdom.
  
> >   Entrance Hall                                             40
  Entrance Hall
  There is no fire in the big fireplace; the air is very cold. Over the gate,
  the old familiar warning sign is painted.
  
  Various passages lead deeper into the castle: north towards the central
  courtyard, southwest to the guard tower, east and west into the libraries,
  the offices, the galleries. Somewhere in this maze, he waits; and he should
  be told as soon as possible that you did return.
  
  An iron-barred gate leads south to the drawbridge.
  
> >   Central Courtyard                                         41
  Central Courtyard
  Open to a grey sky, from which a light rain falls. You have never seen the
  courtyard otherwise: it rains in every season, winter or summer, no matter
  what lies beyond the moat.
  
  It was here that you first laid eyes on the Beast: emerging from the State
  Rooms, snarling. He seemed angry at you for coming, even though you had had
  no choice. Or perhaps (you thought) he was simply violent. You did not run.
  
  The castle proper opens both north and south, and to the east a helical
  staircase ascends to the roof.
  
> >   Central Courtyard                                         42
  Again the sound of chimes, and the phantom guard that blocks your path.
  Somewhere there must be a ringer summoning him, protecting the State Rooms.
  
  You have never known the Beast to put up guards before. It has always been
  enough for him to guard the rooms himself.
  
> >   Central Courtyard                                         43
  Even your own breathing is magnified when you wear the helmet, so you must
  concentrate past it...
  
  The chimes sound randomly, but not unpleasantly. It is only if you listen
  for a long time that they begin to remind you of a warning or a threat.
  
> >   Ground Floor Helical Staircase                            44
  Ground Floor Helical Staircase
  The steps rise from here towards the upper rooms, and open out onto the
  bare courtyard.
  
  An obscene gargoyle sits where the finial of the banister should be.
  
  Upstairs. That must be the solution. You'll find him up there, and
  everything will go back to normal; as it always does after a fight or
  disagreement or odd patch. Sooner or later things just right themselves and
  resume as they have always gone.
  
> >   Ground Floor Helical Staircase                            45
  He came up while you were bent over the gargoyle, trying to lift it.
  "Taking that back to your room?" he asked slyly. "It won't work, but if
  you're lacking companionship I could find an appropriate servant to see to
  your needs."
  
  You felt yourself blush. "It's ugly," you said. "I wanted to move it."
  
  "Oh. You can't." He frowned at it. "It is a remnant, left here by an angry
  soul who managed to take some revenge despite his enslavement. There are a
  few others around, mostly in the crypt. They're immovable, but harmless."
  
  You reacquaint yourself with its appearance: Not too large, but stunningly
  ugly: a stone about the size of an apple, carved into a monster with
  outsized ears and eyes -- not to mention outsized attributes elsewhere.
  
> >   Ground Floor Helical Staircase                            46
  It still doesn't budge, and -- you rather think -- it never will.
  
> >   Upstairs Helical Staircase                                47
  Upstairs Helical Staircase
  In this spot, you fell and almost broke your leg -- or some other more
  valuable part of you -- except that He caught you.
  
  But you are alone now, and therefore cautious.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            48
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby a heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            49
  His latest offering: he brings you all the most innocent toys he can find,
  to occupy your time and make you less miserable. This one is nearly
  finished, missing only one piece that neither of you could ever find.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            50
  You have looked, many times. The trouble is, the floorboards aren't very
  well-fitted, and the piece could easily have fallen through to the room
  below.
  
> >   Green Bedroom                                             51
  Green Bedroom
  Having more personality than most of the bedrooms, it was decorated for
  someone specific and has been left that way: green and white, with a simple
  rustic cast unusual for the palace.
  
  The chief exception is the royal portrait on the wall.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            52
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby a heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Green Bedroom                                             53
  Green Bedroom
  Having more personality than most of the bedrooms, it was decorated for
  someone specific and has been left that way: green and white, with a simple
  rustic cast unusual for the palace.
  
  The chief exception is the royal portrait on the wall.
  
> >   Green Bedroom                                             54
  "That was me," he told you. "Before I was changed. Do you think I was
  handsome?"
  
  You shrugged. Handsome, yes, but proud, selfish, resentful, perhaps cruel.
  "The painter did not do justice to your personality," you replied.
  
  "You're wrong," he said. "And I put the painting here to punish the woman
  who slept here. She treated me with justice, and I could not forgive her."
  
  He refused to tell you the rest. "You like me more than you should, and
  trust me less," he said. "If I told you the rest of this particular story,
  you would neither trust nor like. There, that's a warning for you."
  
  You reacquaint yourself with its appearance: A portrait of a young,
  arrogant king: not a prince, but one who inherited early and used his power
  from the beginning. He stares out with bitterness, perhaps even resentment.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            55
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby a heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Crystal Bedroom                                           56
  Crystal Bedroom
  A fantasia of gleaming and glittering, chandeliers and mirrors: all that
  shines or reflects has been moved here, into this room that you inhabit,
  which he never enters.
  
  The south end of the room is most dazzling, because of the daylight from
  the balcony.
  
> >   Crystal Bedroom                                           57
  You learned, long ago, that the mirrors would keep him away; and then, when
  you had less need to keep him at bay, you kept them anyway, so as not to
  disturb him by returning them to the rest of the palace.
  
> >   Crystal Bedroom                                           58
  You look and see yourself, scratched and dirty from the long journey; and
  remember...
  
  He stood in the doorway, amused. "You look displeased."
  
  You, holding wide brocaded skirts. "They're very rich and very beautiful
  and much too fancy for me."
  
  "And?"
  
  "And--" You glanced down at them. "And they would have been out of fashion
  on my grandmother!"
  
  "Which is the last time the servants had a chance to practice making
  gowns," he said. "Do you mind? There is no one to see you but me, and I
  assure you that my knowledge of current Parisian fashion is nonexistent..."
  
> >   Gilded Balcony                                            59
  You step out into the rain; the fat droplets sound like hail on the surface
  of your helmet.
  
  Gilded Balcony
  A ridiculous filigreed balcony that is like nothing so much as a birdcage:
  and from here you can see all the way across the moat, across the forest,
  the plain, to the edge of the sea, only by staring long enough in any
  direction.
  
  When you first came here, the balcony was full of plants in pots: poison
  oak, nettles, nightshade, datura. "They grow best here," he explained.
  "Don't touch them." And he took them away, and you have never seen them
  again since.
  
> >   Gilded Balcony                                            60
  A considerable expanse of evergreen forest -- the view sharpens under your
  gaze if you wish, showing you individual trees, branches, leaves; or
  widening out again to show you rolling miles and then the pastureland
  beyond.
  
  If you look exactly the right direction and squint, you can see your family
  home, and that is what triggered the attack of homesickness in the first
  place.
  
> >   Gilded Balcony                                            61
  A considerable expanse of evergreen forest -- the view sharpens under your
  gaze if you wish, showing you individual trees, branches, leaves; or
  widening out again to show you rolling miles and then the pastureland
  beyond.
  
  If you look exactly the right direction and squint, you can see your family
  home, and that is what triggered the attack of homesickness in the first
  place.
  
> >   Gilded Balcony                                            62
  You can't see anything promising that way.
  
> >   Gilded Balcony                                            63
  A considerable expanse of evergreen forest -- the view sharpens under your
  gaze if you wish, showing you individual trees, branches, leaves; or
  widening out again to show you rolling miles and then the pastureland
  beyond.
  
  If you look exactly the right direction and squint, you can see your family
  home, and that is what triggered the attack of homesickness in the first
  place.
  
> >   Crystal Bedroom                                           64
  Crystal Bedroom
  A fantasia of gleaming and glittering, chandeliers and mirrors: all that
  shines or reflects has been moved here, into this room that you inhabit,
  which he never enters.
  
  The south end of the room is most dazzling, because of the daylight from
  the balcony.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            65
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby a heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Empty Bedroom                                             66
  Empty Bedroom
  Like a monk's chamber compared to every other part of the palace, just bare
  walls now. Here your father stayed, when he made his ill-fated journey to
  the castle. The Beast told you this, on your first visit.
  
  On the wall, as a curio, hangs an open shackle -- sign of the only person
  ever to have escaped the power of this place.
  
> >   Empty Bedroom                                             67
  Your father claims to have been chained up, but the Beast never made the
  least effort to restrain you with chains or bars. On the contrary-- but
  that remains a puzzle.
  
  You reacquaint yourself with its appearance: A curious object, a broken
  shackle. Nowhere else in the castle are there any chains or ropes or
  devices of torture; there has never been a need for such physical
  coercion...
  
> >   Empty Bedroom                                             68
  You acquire the shackle.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            69
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby a heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Guest Bedroom                                             70
  Guest Bedroom
  Made up for the reception of a guest who will never arrive again. A
  tapestry recalls the story.
  
  Still here at the center of the room is the stool you and the Beast used,
  the time he tried to teach you to dance -- not a great success, but more
  effective than the experiment with stilts.
  
  He's not upstairs, then: there's nowhere in these rooms he could have been
  hiding, no space large enough to conceal him.
  
  He must have gone into one of the more... difficult portions of the castle.
  The state rooms, or the crypt. One of the places he knows you hate to visit
  alone.
  
  This does not bode well for his state of mind. (Will he be angry? It has
  been a long time since he was truly angry at you... But you cannot deal
  with that until you find him.)
  
> >   Guest Bedroom                                             71
  An ordinary three-legged stool, like the one your cat at home liked to
  sleep on.
  
> >   Guest Bedroom                                             72
  You acquire the stool.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            73
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby a heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Upstairs Helical Staircase                                74
  Upstairs Helical Staircase
  A dizzying prospect, the spiral of steps down to the ground.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            75
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby a heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            76
  (first opening the heavy door)
  You get far enough to glimpse a bell collection before being overcome: you
  reel back from a smell of roses and death, so powerful that you can't go
  forward. Until there's a breeze through here, you won't be able to stand
  being in the place.
  
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            77
  It looks thick enough to block sound.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            78
  You get far enough to glimpse a north window before being overcome: you
  reel back from a smell of roses and death, so powerful that you can't go
  forward. Until there's a breeze through here, you won't be able to stand
  being in the place.
  
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            79
  You get far enough to glimpse a silver bell before being overcome: you reel
  back from a smell of roses and death, so powerful that you can't go
  forward. Until there's a breeze through here, you won't be able to stand
  being in the place.
  
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads north.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Upstairs Helical Staircase                                80
  Upstairs Helical Staircase
  A dizzying prospect, the spiral of steps down to the ground.
  
> >   Ground Floor Helical Staircase                            81
  Ground Floor Helical Staircase
  The steps rise from here towards the upper rooms, and open out onto the
  bare courtyard.
  
  An obscene gargoyle sits where the finial of the banister should be.
  
> >   Central Courtyard                                         82
  Central Courtyard
  Open to a grey sky, from which a light rain falls. You have never seen the
  courtyard otherwise: it rains in every season, winter or summer, no matter
  what lies beyond the moat.
  
  The castle proper opens both north and south, and to the east a helical
  staircase ascends to the roof.
  
> >   Entrance Hall                                             83
  Entrance Hall
  There is no fire in the big fireplace; the air is very cold. Over the gate,
  the old familiar warning sign is painted.
  
  Various passages lead deeper into the castle: north towards the central
  courtyard, southwest to the guard tower, east and west into the libraries,
  the offices, the galleries. Somewhere in this maze, he waits; and he should
  be told as soon as possible that you did return.
  
  An iron-barred gate leads south to the drawbridge.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         84
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "And now -- would you like to go home?"
  
  You bit your lip. It had been a pleasant conversation, up until now, when
  you are reminded: however nicely he may behave, he is still the king of a
  cursed line, and not to be trusted.
  
> >   Enormous Kitchen                                          85
  Enormous Kitchen
  Haunted with the spirits of chefs past, generations and generations of
  culinary geniuses; one can never predict its whimsies. Unless he has moved
  everything, the bell to summon them into action should be in one of the
  rooms upstairs.
  
> >   Servant Quarters                                          86
  Servant Quarters
  Not a room friendly to visitors, it has the air of resentful, martyred
  suffering. Even His most unpleasant ancestors would not have grudged this
  place more paint, surely, and more straw for the beds.
  
  A decaying ladder leads down.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  87
  Darkness
  Though a dim light filters down from the servant quarters, you can see
  almost nothing of the contents of your current location. You find yourself
  concentrating all the more alertly on your hearing, as though the slightest
  echo might offer a clue.
  
  Windchimes ring, almost inaudible, from the east, competing with some dry
  sifting from the northeast. You can also make out your own steady
  breathing.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  88
  Darkness
  Though a dim light filters down from the law library, you can see almost
  nothing of the contents of your current location. You find yourself
  concentrating all the more alertly on your hearing, as though the slightest
  echo might offer a clue.
  
  Windchimes ring, muted, from the east, competing with some dry sifting from
  the north. You can also make out your own steady breathing.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  89
  Windchimes ring, muted, from the east, competing with some dry sifting from
  the north. You can also make out your own steady breathing.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  90
  Darkness
  It's so dark in here that you have to feel your way along, and are nervous
  of tripping at any moment. You find yourself concentrating all the more
  alertly on your hearing, as though the slightest echo might offer a clue.
  
  Windchimes ring, melodious, from the northeast, competing with some dry
  sifting from the northwest and an irregular dripping from the southeast.
  You can also make out your own steady breathing.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  91
  Darkness
  It's so dark in here that you have to feel your way along, and are nervous
  of tripping at any moment. You find yourself concentrating all the more
  alertly on your hearing, as though the slightest echo might offer a clue.
  
  Windchimes ring, loud, from the northeast. You can also make out your own
  steady breathing.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  92
  Darkness
  Though a dim light filters down from rose garden, you can see almost
  nothing of the contents of your current location.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               93
  You climb into the pale light...
  
  Rose Garden
  Only one kind of rose grows here, a pink only just distinct from white.
  This strain creeps over the ground and climbs the walls of the cloister.
  
  In the middle of the garden a way slopes into the ground, reminding you of
  the entrance to a burial mound.
  
  Strung up by a chain is a set of iron windchimes.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               94
  Each chime is engraved with the staring eyes and exaggerated nostrils of a
  spirit warrior.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               95
  You cannot reach the iron windchimes from your present position; you'd need
  something to stand on.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               96
  You hop, but don't attain much height.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               97
  You set the stool down next to one wall.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               98
  You stand, a little precariously, on the stool, and are now more or less
  the same height as an ordinary person.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               99
  The chimes have been locked to the chain that supports them.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               100
  You get off the stool.
  
  Rose Garden
  Only one kind of rose grows here, a pink only just distinct from white.
  This strain creeps over the ground and climbs the walls of the cloister.
  
  In the middle of the garden a way slopes into the ground, reminding you of
  the entrance to a burial mound.
  
  Strung up by a chain is a set of iron windchimes.
  
  You can also see a stool here.
  
> >   Cloister Walk                                             101
  Cloister Walk
  A pleasant cloister overlooking the rose garden to the north. You have
  walked it many times, seeking to waste the excesses of time at your
  disposal.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                102
  Walk's End
  Lucrezia, they say, died here. It is only a turning point in the corridor,
  with a bench.
  
  On the stone bench are some discarded embroidery materials.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                103
  A few weeks ago now, he came to you with a quick step. "Look, it took me
  all morning, but I found this." Holding out the basket of threads, the
  folded linen. Not in bad condition, either.
  
  "What is that for?" You were never much for sewing things at home, even
  before your mother died.
  
  "I thought -- since you're so bored here --" He lowered his arm. "When I
  saw more of the world, I knew a number of young ladies who were very fond
  of it. My sister liked to make stories with hers."
  
  You opened your mouth, looking for something to say.
  
  "I see," he answered. "The world has changed. What do young ladies do now?"
  
  "I don't know," you reply. "My father fell on hard times. We live in the
  country. I'm more or less a milkmaid, these days."
  
  At the word milkmaid, his mouth twisted a little and he shrugged. "I cannot
  provide any cows," he said, after a long time.
  
  You reacquaint yourself with its appearance: The little that is already
  done is old-fashioned blackwork, like your grandmother's mother might have
  stitched.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                104
  That's hardly portable.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                105
  You acquire the discarded embroidery materials.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                106
  A deep seat with a curious relief carved onto the back: if you look from
  the right angle, it appears as though Lucrezia is lying on the bench, just
  like a lady on a tomb, her hands piously folded around the handle of a
  mirror. Scrying her own death, perhaps, or maybe communicating with someone
  who had already died.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                107
  A deep seat with a curious relief carved onto the back: if you look from
  the right angle, it appears as though Lucrezia is lying on the bench, just
  like a lady on a tomb, her hands piously folded around the handle of a
  mirror. Scrying her own death, perhaps, or maybe communicating with someone
  who had already died.
  
> >   Scrying Room                                              108
  Scrying Room
  A place for consulting with the servants, summoning them by their
  instruments and allowing their spirits to manifest in the mirrors. But you
  know this only from explanation, because the mirrors and glasses have been
  broken or carried away to the Crystal Bedroom, when they ceased to reflect
  anything that gave pleasure to their master.
  
  Nearby a small door leads west to the treasure room.
  
  A small key hangs beside the door.
  
> >   Scrying Room                                              109
  The key is of the sort of delicate design intended to unlock more than one
  thing, and hangs from a peg.
  
  The small key unlocks the small door.
  
> >   Scrying Room                                              110
  You acquire the small key.
  
> >   Scrying Room                                              111
  You are carrying:
    a small key (which opens the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet (being worn)
  
> >   Scrying Room                                              112
  The key is of the sort of delicate design intended to unlock more than one
  thing.
  
  The small key unlocks the small door.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             113
  (first opening the small door)
  (first unlocking the small door)
  (with the small key)
  
  Treasure Room
  Locked in an iron cage are the house treasures not in use: the collection
  consists of a sceptre, a puzzle piece, and a pair of cloven shoes, at
  present -- he showed them to you one rainy day, telling you their many
  histories.
  
  Nearby an open small door leads east to the scrying room.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             114
  You lack a key that fits the iron cage.
  
> >   Scrying Room                                              115
  Scrying Room
  A place for consulting with the servants, summoning them by their
  instruments and allowing their spirits to manifest in the mirrors. But you
  know this only from explanation, because the mirrors and glasses have been
  broken or carried away to the Crystal Bedroom, when they ceased to reflect
  anything that gave pleasure to their master.
  
  Nearby an open small door leads west to the treasure room.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                116
  Walk's End
  Lucrezia, they say, died here. It is only a turning point in the corridor,
  with a bench.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               117
  Rose Garden
  Only one kind of rose grows here, a pink only just distinct from white.
  This strain creeps over the ground and climbs the walls of the cloister.
  
  In the middle of the garden a way slopes into the ground, reminding you of
  the entrance to a burial mound.
  
  Strung up by a chain is a set of iron windchimes.
  
  You can also see a stool here.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               118
  You stand, a little precariously, on the stool, and are now more or less
  the same height as an ordinary person.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               119
  (with the small key)
  You unlock the iron windchimes.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               120
  You take the chimes down, silencing them and muting their power. When they
  are entirely still, they fade from your grip and vanish.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               121
  You get off the stool.
  
  Rose Garden
  Only one kind of rose grows here, a pink only just distinct from white.
  This strain creeps over the ground and climbs the walls of the cloister.
  
  In the middle of the garden a way slopes into the ground, reminding you of
  the entrance to a burial mound.
  
  You can see a stool here.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               122
  You acquire the stool.
  
> >   Cloister Walk                                             123
  Cloister Walk
  A pleasant cloister overlooking the rose garden to the north. You have
  walked it many times, seeking to waste the excesses of time at your
  disposal.
  
> >   Parliamentary Chambers                                    124
  Parliamentary Chambers
  Despite its grand name, this is one of the smaller chambers of the castle,
  because the kings were never inclined to brook too much advice. On each
  side of the room are two neat oak benches, seating for perhaps thirty men
  -- and, more rarely, women, and a few characters who could not be called by
  either term.
  
> >   Parliamentary Chambers                                    125
  The appearance of the oak benches has not changed significantly since you
  left.
  
> >   State Rotunda                                             126
  State Rotunda
  Built for the bureaucratic offices of the palace. Inlaid in the floor is
  the map of all the lands that once this palace commanded; and from the
  stains and driblets of wax, it is clear to you that someone at some time
  thought it useful to set a candle at the map's center, and observe the
  result.
  
> >   State Rotunda                                             127
  Since the lands of the Kingdom were once quite dispersed the cartographer
  has, from indolence, fancy, or an urge to flatter, omitted all the
  territories that intervened, so that here floating in a cherry-wood sea are
  the State of Medici-Credenza; the Emirate of Elzibad; the Equine
  Protectorate of Argos; a goodly portion of Essex; and Malta, the only true
  island of the lot.
  
  There is writing around the map's edge, not legible in this light.
  
> >   State Rotunda                                             128
  You walk far enough in to get a view of sand falling in a huge hourglass.
  Though it is only a thin stream, it sounds louder than it should: the
  noise, magnified by your helmet, becomes too much to bear, and you retreat.
  
> >   Law Library                                               129
  Law Library
  Many books of precedent line these walls, containing every kind of contract
  that can be made to bind every kind of soul.
  
  A hole in the floor descends to the other, less savory portion of this
  place.
  
  You can see a great contract book here.
  
> >   Law Library                                               130
  The runes are unfamiliar to you, but you know what the book is: a record of
  all the contracts of all the souls enslaved to the king of this castle.
  
  You caught him staring at you once. "Your clothing is wearing out. I'll
  look up a seamstress in the contract book for you."
  
  You plucked the erring sleeve back into place. "You needn't," you said. "I
  don't mind."
  
  "Yes, but I do," he snapped. "I was once a -- the polite term would be a
  connoisseur of ladies -- and it is not a taste that goes away. So for
  everyone's sanity it would be best if you went about fully clothed."
  
  You avoided him for three days, after that incident. But your gowns were
  all replaced.
  
> >   Law Library                                               131
  The words are in a language you don't understand: even the Beast had to
  take it to the translation room to make any sense of it.
  
> >   Law Library                                               132
  The runes are unfamiliar to you, but you know what the book is: a record of
  all the contracts of all the souls enslaved to the king of this castle.
  
> >   Law Library                                               133
  Law Library
  Many books of precedent line these walls, containing every kind of contract
  that can be made to bind every kind of soul.
  
  A hole in the floor descends to the other, less savory portion of this
  place.
  
  You can see a great contract book here.
  
> >   Law Library                                               134
  You lift the helmet from your head, and the sudden quiet feels like going
  deaf.
  
> >   Lower Bulb                                                135
  Lower Bulb
  In this very tall room, like a silo, is a glass of running sand: not an
  hourglass, or even a dayglass, but a timer whose duration you do not know.
  A whole Sahara has poured into its lower chamber, but the trickle from
  above continues, very fine.
  
  Around the outside of this contraption ascends a wooden staircase.
  
> >   Lower Bulb                                                136
  No human glassblower could have made this thing, that much is certain.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                137
  Upper Bulb
  In the upper chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  below; indeed for all you can tell the flow might be eternal.
  
  Nearby an ivory door leads southwest.
  
  And here Beast lies, sprawled on the ground as if he'd fallen.
  
  "Nothing bad will happen for the first seven days," he said, when you left.
  
  And yet here he is, looking very nearly dead.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                138
  He looks starved, unwell, near death, in fact. He will need to be given
  food before he will properly revive -- and who knows what else...
  
  It baffles you to find him in this condition, when he could easily have
  gotten whatever he needed in the kitchen.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                139
  Though you shake him vigorously, he does not stir.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                140
  You press your mouth to his cold one, and catch the strange scent of night
  woods, cinnamon, and blood copper.
  
  He does not stir.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                141
  He looks starved, unwell, near death, in fact. He will need to be given
  food before he will properly revive -- and who knows what else...
  
  It baffles you to find him in this condition, when he could easily have
  gotten whatever he needed in the kitchen.
  
> >   Records Room                                              142
  Records Room
  Where all the papers and histories are kept, not only for the royal family,
  but for kin in every kind and direction.
  
> >   Records Room                                              143
  Neatly filed: he told you he'd spent twenty years or so on them, having no
  other way to occupy his time. Anything you wanted to look up, you should be
  able to discover easily.
  
> >   Records Room                                              144
  You have never known his true name, and can only guess that he must be the
  last of the line of kings.
  
> >   Records Room                                              145
  You are the merest interloper here.
  
> >   Records Room                                              146
  You discover nothing of interest in the papers.
  
> >   Records Room                                              147
  An entertaining story tells how Elzibad, worse than all the other kings of
  this palace that had previously been seen, was defeated by one of his own
  demons in elephant form, when someone who was not contracted to him gained
  command of the demon. Command of his slaves then passed to his son.
  
  From that day on the castle was so built that no one could even enter into
  it without becoming contracted to its king, for the protection of the royal
  family.
  
> >   Records Room                                              148
  You quickly skim the unpleasant history of Lucrezia of Medici-Credenza, how
  she brought odd magical treasures with her, introduced new methods of
  binding and contracting that were previously unknown even to this castle,
  and maintained a room for her studies in the basement below the rose
  garden. From this room everyone including her husband was banned.
  
  There are some suggestions that she was the daughter of the Devil himself,
  sent to the castle to tempt the kings into further folly and destruction.
  But who knows?
  
> >   Records Room                                              149
  Among the records there is a large section on the various failed romantic
  business of the kings and queens and their brothers and sisters, so that
  you might almost suspect this to be part of the castle's curse.
  
  In this collection, you find the history of Duke Cantherius: married at 59
  to a lissome wife of 17, he "urgently desired to enjoy her company", but
  found himself unable. He consulted a young Parisian doctor, who contracted
  that through his services the Duchess would be delivered of a child within
  the year.
  
  Alas, medicine brought no relief; not even that most reliable method, an
  ointment of honey, crow's egg, and the gall of an electric eel. The Duchess
  began to hint that she meant to have the marriage annulled; the Duke grew
  abusive. Seeing no solution through medical arts, the doctor was compelled
  by his contract to seduce the Duchess.
  
  When the young woman was delivered of triplets, the Duke kept two of the
  boys and raised them as his own; the third he strangled, together with the
  doctor himself, as a punishment to his erring wife.
  
  Whereupon the ugly gargoyle appeared on the stair, and could never be
  budged.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                150
  Upper Bulb
  In the upper chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  below; indeed for all you can tell the flow might be eternal.
  
  Nearby an ivory door leads southwest.
  
  And here Beast lies, sprawled on the ground as if he'd fallen.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                151
  From here, you can head southwest, east, west, and down.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                152
  (first opening the ivory door)
  (first unlocking the ivory door)
  You lack a key that fits the ivory door.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     153
  Gallery of Still Life
  Natural light from the south -- coming in from the courtyard, you suppose,
  though you are too short to see out -- illuminates a series of still life
  paintings on the north wall: one showing the Wedding Treasure when Lucrezia
  arrived from Medici-Credenza, the other rather fancifully entitled Supper
  with M.
  
  Nearby a heavy door leads east.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     154
  A table tastefully laid with possessions of power or personal worth,
  brought by Lucrezia as gifts from her father: an inkpot, a helmet, a green
  girdle stitched with vines, a curious pair of cloven shoes.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     155
  A table nicely laid out with white linen and napkins, bread and fruit; and
  a spoon with a very, very long handle.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     156
  (first opening the heavy door)
  You get far enough to glimpse a mechanical chessplayer before being
  overcome: you reel back from a smell of roses and death, so powerful that
  you can't go forward. Until there's a breeze through here, you won't be
  able to stand being in the place.
  
  Gallery of Still Life
  Natural light from the south -- coming in from the courtyard, you suppose,
  though you are too short to see out -- illuminates a series of still life
  paintings on the north wall: one showing the Wedding Treasure when Lucrezia
  arrived from Medici-Credenza, the other rather fancifully entitled Supper
  with M.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads east.
  
  With both doors open, a breeze begins to blow through the smelly area.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     157
  Time passes.
  
  The worst of rose stink has mostly gone, now.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             158
  White Gallery
  Of more recent construction than many another portion of the castle, and
  therefore light and airy, and a pleasant place to spend a few hours.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads west to the gallery of still life.
  
  Placed where it will have the most light on the board for the longest time
  is a mechanical chessplayer.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             159
  The chessplayer wears a turban, and in its wooden fingers grasps the head
  of the black bishop. Whatever move it contemplates has yet to occur.
  
  The Beast brought it out for you to play against, when other entertainment
  palled. You lost consistently until he came and roared at it; and
  afterwards began to win. The suspicion that it was throwing games made you
  a bit reluctant to make use of it, in the end.
  
  The mechanical chessplayer is currently switched off.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             160
  You throw the switch hopefully, but nothing happens -- in fact, the switch
  flops loosely back into its old position, plainly connected to nothing.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             161
  The switch is just for show: it must not really work by gears, but by
  summoning the spirit of some dead gamesman.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             162
  The chessplayer wears a turban, and in its wooden fingers grasps the head
  of the black bishop. Whatever move it contemplates has yet to occur.
  
  The Beast brought it out for you to play against, when other entertainment
  palled. You lost consistently until he came and roared at it; and
  afterwards began to win. The suspicion that it was throwing games made you
  a bit reluctant to make use of it, in the end.
  
  The mechanical chessplayer is currently switched off.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             163
  You can't think of anything further on the topic.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  164
  Bellroom
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have
  slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs.
  Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar itemsare some iron
  windchimes, a little gold dinner bell, and a silver bell.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  165
  Each chime is engraved with the staring eyes and exaggerated nostrils of a
  spirit warrior.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  166
  It is the dinner summons, and particularly familiar to you.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  167
  It bears the stamp of a lamplighter.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  168
  iron windchimes: You acquire the iron windchimes.
  little gold dinner bell: You acquire the little gold dinner bell.
  silver bell: You acquire the silver bell.
  
> >   Apothecary                                                169
  Apothecary
  Furnished with a long countertop and the equipment of an apothecary;
  sketches from physicians; anatomical drawings of creatures similar to the
  Beast, bears and lions being especially prominent; also poison reference
  books, primarily the work of Italian and (earlier) Persian experts. The
  room has an unused air, and you do not remember ever coming in before, or
  seeing the Beast go in. It must have been a hobby that interested him
  before your arrival.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
> >   Apothecary                                                170
  They concentrate on weak points and the functioning of the digestive tract.
  
> >   Apothecary                                                171
  Assorted disturbing recipes for ways to make your enemies die quickly, or
  to dispatch them slowly in great pain. The pages most discolored by use and
  splashed ingredients are those pertaining to swift and pleasant execution.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  172
  Bellroom
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have
  slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs.
  Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  173
  You smell the decay from the north window.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             174
  White Gallery
  Of more recent construction than many another portion of the castle, and
  therefore light and airy, and a pleasant place to spend a few hours.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads west to the gallery of still life.
  
  Placed where it will have the most light on the board for the longest time
  is a mechanical chessplayer.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     175
  Gallery of Still Life
  Natural light from the south -- coming in from the courtyard, you suppose,
  though you are too short to see out -- illuminates a series of still life
  paintings on the north wall: one showing the Wedding Treasure when Lucrezia
  arrived from Medici-Credenza, the other rather fancifully entitled Supper
  with M.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads east to the white gallery.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     176
  You are carrying:
    a silver bell
    a little gold dinner bell
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         177
  You head west to the upper bulb. Then down to the lower bulb. Then south to
  the law library. And finally south to the great dining hall.
  
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "I assure you," he added. "No harm will come to you if you do go."
  
  "I only have your word for that," you replied, looking stubbornly into your
  soupbowl.
  
  He sat. "I am unable to lie to you," he said. "It is one of the conditions
  placed upon us. We can only tell the truth."
  
  "And why should I believe that?"
  
  He raised his glass. "I'll try again tomorrow."
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         178
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "Were you ever married?" you asked, ignoring his question.
  
  "No."
  
  "Then you have no heirs?"
  
  "I have no legitimate sons," he replied. "But I certainly have an heir,
  somewhere. If I died, somewhere, someone would inherit all this, and the
  whole system would go on as before, the servants and the contracts. But
  don't worry: I have tried, and it turns out that I don't die easily."
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         179
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "And you promise I would not regret it? Truthfully."
  
  He coughed. "I don't know your future. And -- since you ask I must answer
  -- I don't think much of your father, a man who would barter his daughter's
  service for his own, especially since he had unflattering ideas of what I
  would do with you."
  
  You sputtered. "Well of course you couldn't-- I mean, being an animal..."
  
  His teeth gleamed. "I assure you I could," he said. "But I won't."
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         180
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "I have become used to it here," you answered, surprising yourself. "There
  is plenty to read; there is the chessman, and games; and you are good
  company." He raised his glass with a half smile. "You'd rather stay here
  without me?"
  
  "No," he said.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         181
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "I c-care for you," you said. "I am lonely without you, and you make me
  laugh, and you're nice..."
  
  "Stop," he said. "And remind me never to order the port again."
  
  He picked you up from your chair and your head rested on his shoulder. "But
  why can I not be in love... Oh, carry me carefully on the stairs: I feel
  sick!"
  
  "Simply, pet," he said, walking slowly up the steps. "What you offer I
  couldn't accept. In fact, I'm not sure what you are offering. Do you have
  some fantasy of marrying me? Being my mistress?"
  
  You could not think of the answer; there was no solution that was not
  absurd. He set you down carefully on the bed and went away. A moment later
  he came back, bright crimson bell in his left paw. "When you wake in the
  morning and are very ill, which you will be, ring this and the servants
  will bring a tonic appropriate to your condition."
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         182
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "For a visit, if you won't go to stay?" he asked. "We could arrange that
  too, if you liked."
  
  "And nothing bad would happen to anyone I cared about?" you demanded.
  
  "Nothing bad would happen to you or to your family. There would be no ill
  health and no spiritual repercussions."
  
  "You're leaving something out," you said, having gotten familiar with the
  precise way he speaks when hedging around a difficult fact.
  
  "It could be unpleasant for me," he replied, strained. "But you mustn't
  stay because of my feelings on the matter. Your family miss you, and I am
  the villain in this piece."
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         183
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  "Don't mention the leaving thing once more," you said. "Or I will throw a
  glass at your head."
  
  He sighed. "You are as stubborn as you are honorable," he said. "No doubt
  the two are related."
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         184
  Great Dining Hall
  You allow yourself to remember another night, another request.
  
  After a long time: "You haven't asked me to leave in a while," you said.
  
  "Ah." He looked at his plate of food. "Of course you may go. I'm glad you
  believe my word about the effects, now."
  
  "I will go to visit my family," you say, stressing the word visit. "On
  condition that you tell me how to do it so that I will not harm you. If you
  won't do that, I don't go."
  
  He looked at you, his expression cloudy. "There is a very good reason
  why..."
  
  "Those are my terms."
  
  He sighed. "Very well," he said. "If your trip lasts fewer than seven days,
  it will have no effect on anything here." He looked down at his curled paw.
  "But if you don't come back -- and I imagine you won't -- I will forgive
  you."
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         185
  Great Dining Hall
  Such a long hall that the soup might get cold between one end and the
  other. You and he used only the far west end, nearest the kitchen. Once you
  took to dining together at all, that is; the first few months he brought
  trays to your room, while you hid.
  
  But then you took to eating here; and at the end of every meal he would
  stand up formally and ask his question.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         186
  Great Dining Hall
  Such a long hall that the soup might get cold between one end and the
  other. You and he used only the far west end, nearest the kitchen. Once you
  took to dining together at all, that is; the first few months he brought
  trays to your room, while you hid.
  
  But then you took to eating here; and at the end of every meal he would
  stand up formally and ask his question.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         187
  You ring the bell hopefully, but apparently it only works in the Kitchen
  itself.
  
> >   Enormous Kitchen                                          188
  Enormous Kitchen
  Haunted with the spirits of chefs past, generations and generations of
  culinary geniuses; one can never predict its whimsies.
  
> >   Enormous Kitchen                                          189
  The little gold dinner bell tinkles gaily: as in automatic response, your
  stomach rumbles. There will be a feast, now, waiting for you in the dining
  hall.
  
  As for the gold bell, it returns to its place.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         190
  Great Dining Hall
  Such a long hall that the soup might get cold between one end and the
  other. You and he used only the far west end, nearest the kitchen. Once you
  took to dining together at all, that is; the first few months he brought
  trays to your room, while you hid.
  
  But then you took to eating here; and at the end of every meal he would
  stand up formally and ask his question.
  
  A considerable feast is set out on a platter as big as a shield.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         191
  A platter heaped with -- why, you must this time have woken the chefs of
  King Yggdram the Piscine: it is pickled whitefish and wilted greens, hot
  soup made from leviathan's bones, and other dishes you do not recognize,
  made of things that have not grown in this vicinity for many a year.
  
> >   Great Dining Hall                                         192
  You acquire the feast.
  
  Perhaps he will feel better when he has eaten, you reflect. He has always
  had a large appetite -- the result of his change in form, he tells you.
  
  He used to mock your dainty eating, and sit at table long after your plate
  was empty; and make a game of guessing foods that might tempt you to eat
  even a little more; vanishing into the kitchen to instruct the staff, and
  returning a little later; saying roguishly, "This, I think you will
  like..."
  
  In your defense, you never had sugared violets at home.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                193
  You head north to the law library. Then north to the lower bulb. And
  finally up to the upper bulb.
  
  Upper Bulb
  In the upper chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  below; indeed for all you can tell the flow might be eternal.
  
  Nearby an ivory door leads southwest.
  
  And here Beast lies, sprawled on the ground as if he'd fallen.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                194
  (the feast)
  With great care, you feed the soup to the Beast. So much spills that you
  doubt whether you are making any progress; then he swallows.
  
  "You are ornery," he says. "I guaranteed your return -- you know what that
  means?"
  
  "That if I had not come back, you would have died," you reply.
  
  "That is only a small part of what would have happened. The other contracts
  would have unraveled, the servant souls freed."
  
  You frown at him. "I've been trying to use you to this purpose for years,"
  he says, touching your cheek. "But you wouldn't go. I'm touched that you
  came back for me -- really, I can't tell you how much -- but you've ruined
  the plan."
  
  "Is there a way to set them free that doesn't kill you?" you ask.
  
  He looks startled. "Not for me," he says. "There's a room in the basement
  below the rose garden I can't get into. Lucrezia's room. You'll need to get
  in, search the crypt, find a way to destroy the contracts book... there are
  places in the castle I cannot enter, because she sealed them against all
  her descendants. But you are not one of her descendants, so--" He chuckles
  weakly at some joke, but he hands you an iron key. "You'll need the shoes."
  
  "Would that lift the curse on you, too, do you think?" you ask.
  
  "Unlikely. That is another matter. Less happy." After a moment he begins to
  sleep again.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                195
  You are carrying:
    an iron key
    a silver bell
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             196
  You head down to the lower bulb. Then east to the state rotunda. Then south
  to the central courtyard. Then south to the entrance hall. Then east to the
  scarlet gallery. And finally northeast to the treasure room.
  
  Treasure Room
  Locked in an iron cage are the house treasures not in use: the collection
  consists of a sceptre, a puzzle piece, and a pair of cloven shoes, at
  present -- he showed them to you one rainy day, telling you their many
  histories.
  
  Nearby an open small door leads east to the scrying room.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             197
  (with the iron key)
  You unlock the iron cage.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             198
  You open the iron cage.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             199
  In the iron cage are a sceptre, a puzzle piece, and a pair of cloven shoes.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             200
  sceptre: You acquire the sceptre.
  puzzle piece: You acquire the puzzle piece, and assess it curiously.
  
  Something shiny has been painted on the piece.
  
  pair of cloven shoes: You acquire the pair of cloven shoes.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             201
  Treasure Room
  Kept in an iron cage are the house treasures not in use: the collection
  consists of nothing, at present.
  
  Nearby an open small door leads east to the scrying room.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             202
  You are carrying:
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a puzzle piece
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    a silver bell
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             203
  They emphatically do not fit. You will have to find someone to adjust them,
  evidently.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             204
  Something shiny has been painted on the piece.
  
> >   Treasure Room                                             205
  It is not necessary to specify movement within the room.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            206
  You head southwest to the scarlet gallery. Then west to the entrance hall.
  Then north to the central courtyard. Then east to the ground floor helical
  staircase. Then up to the upstairs helical staircase. And finally east to
  the private parlor.
  
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads north to the bellroom.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            207
  You snap the final piece into place.
  
  Nothing tremendous happens, but the picture is complete.
  
  The table is set for two: a robed king, and the devil. Between the two of
  them is a quill pen, jet black, and a huge book. The dialogue of these two
  characters is written on tiny gilt scrolls that spool out of their mouths,
  and this is what you could not read before the jagged piece was found: the
  devil is saying, "TIME IS ON MY SIDE," to which the king replies, "BUT NOT
  FOR LONG."
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            208
  The table is set for two: a robed king, and the devil. Between the two of
  them is a quill pen, jet black, and a huge book. The dialogue of these two
  characters is written on tiny gilt scrolls that spool out of their mouths,
  and this is what you could not read before the jagged piece was found: the
  devil is saying, "TIME IS ON MY SIDE," to which the king replies, "BUT NOT
  FOR LONG."
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            209
  You are carrying:
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    a silver bell
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            210
  Studded with measly turquoises and semi-precious stones.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            211
  It bears the stamp of a lamplighter.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            212
  You can't think how to get there from here.
  
> >   Upstairs Helical Staircase                                213
  Upstairs Helical Staircase
  A dizzying prospect, the spiral of steps down to the ground.
  
> >   Ground Floor Helical Staircase                            214
  Ground Floor Helical Staircase
  The steps rise from here towards the upper rooms, and open out onto the
  bare courtyard.
  
  An obscene gargoyle sits where the finial of the banister should be.
  
> >   Central Courtyard                                         215
  Central Courtyard
  Open to a grey sky, from which a light rain falls. You have never seen the
  courtyard otherwise: it rains in every season, winter or summer, no matter
  what lies beyond the moat.
  
  The castle proper opens both north and south, and to the east a helical
  staircase ascends to the roof.
  
> >   State Rotunda                                             216
  State Rotunda
  Built for the bureaucratic offices of the palace. Inlaid in the floor is
  the map of all the lands that once this palace commanded; and from the
  stains and driblets of wax, it is clear to you that someone at some time
  thought it useful to set a candle at the map's center, and observe the
  result.
  
> >   Lower Bulb                                                217
  Lower Bulb
  In the lower chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  above; it must have been flowing a very long time.
  
  Around the outside of this contraption ascends a wooden staircase.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          218
  Translation Room
  Endowed with a deep power that dissolves into ready vernacular even the
  most ancient and secret scripts of the Law Library.
  
  Usually blazing with the captured light of many thousands of candles, but
  it has been let to go out, and everything is dim.
  
  You can see an ordinary quill pen here.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          219
  Made of a black feather, to be sure, but there is nothing else at all
  strange about it, or valuable, or in the least bit unusual. Nothing to make
  you look twice.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          220
  You notice -- can't help noticing -- that the feather is blacker and
  sleeker and longer than should come from any ordinary bird. As if pulled
  from the wing of a black angel. The stain on the tip is red.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          221
  The silver bell rings once in triumph, and the room springs to brilliant
  light.
  
  The bell itself fades back to its usual place.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          222
  Translation Room
  Endowed with a deep power that dissolves into ready vernacular even the
  most ancient and secret scripts of the Law Library.
  
  The single candle blazes with many times more light than one light source
  ought to produce.
  
  You can also see a quill of Mephistopheles here.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          223
  Only apparently a single candle, but giving off a great deal of
  illumination.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          224
  You are carrying:
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Lower Bulb                                                225
  Lower Bulb
  In the lower chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  above; it must have been flowing a very long time.
  
  Around the outside of this contraption ascends a wooden staircase.
  
> >   Law Library                                               226
  Law Library
  Many books of precedent line these walls, containing every kind of contract
  that can be made to bind every kind of soul.
  
  A hole in the floor descends to the other, less savory portion of this
  place.
  
  You can see a great contract book here.
  
> >   Law Library                                               227
  You acquire the great contract book.
  
> >   Law Library                                               228
  The words are in a language you don't understand: even the Beast had to
  take it to the translation room to make any sense of it.
  
> >   Law Library                                               229
  The runes are unfamiliar to you, but you know what the book is: a record of
  all the contracts of all the souls enslaved to the king of this castle.
  
> >   Lower Bulb                                                230
  Lower Bulb
  In the lower chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  above; it must have been flowing a very long time.
  
  Around the outside of this contraption ascends a wooden staircase.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          231
  Translation Room
  Endowed with a deep power that dissolves into ready vernacular even the
  most ancient and secret scripts of the Law Library.
  
  The single candle blazes with many times more light than one light source
  ought to produce.
  
  You can also see a quill of Mephistopheles here.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          232
  You search, search, search -- and here is the page with your name at the
  top. But the contract below, which stipulates your eternal imprisonment
  here, has been amended with a permission to leave and return within seven
  days. Then: "Guarantor of this exchange: the king of the castle and all his
  rights and servants." Which means that if you had not returned, the Beast
  would have been forfeit and all the servants as well.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          233
  Even if you knew his name, he wouldn't be listed here, of course. The
  master is not contracted, only the servants.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          234
  Your father's contract is just before your own: a lifetime (and deathtime)
  of service in this castle, as the immediate result of setting foot herein.
  From comparison to some of the other contracts, you see that it would have
  been easy service indeed, no manual labor but only companionship to the
  king, and no command-bell to make him come or go.
  
  But the contract has been amended in a small neat hand that says: "Voided
  in voluntary exchange for his daughter's service." That would be where you
  come in. And: "Guarantor of this exchange: the king of the castle and all
  his rights and servants."
  
> >   Translation Room                                          235
  The kings you will not find contracted here, though there might be some
  history in the papers of the records room.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          236
  The mistress is not contracted, only the servants. She had no contract,
  while she lived, and was allowed, therefore, to die.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          237
  To live as a thin spirit, having no volition, and lighting the lamps
  whenever the silver bell is rung.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          238
  You discover nothing of interest in the great contract book.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          239
  A book many thousands of pages long, and on each page is a name, a
  birthdate, a term of service, all the contracts that bind the castle's
  ghosts and servitors and Powers: ostlers and fighting-men, bishops and
  whores.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          240
  To judge by this, the castle once had many hundreds of horses. No way of
  guessing what they do now, the horses having passed a plain animal lifespan
  and died.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          241
  You find just one bishop, actually -- men of the church having been, on the
  whole, more wary than the average person about coming into any contact with
  this castle and its inhabitants. He appears to have been an Ethiopian, and
  the terms of his service abstruse and theological. A backhanded attempt to
  save one or two of the royal souls, perhaps.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          242
  Well. This explains the dreams one has in certain bedrooms.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          243
  The windchimes bind the usual array of guards and armsmen; from the large
  number so bound, and the terms of the contracts, you get the sense that
  even the undead are not entirely proof against destruction in battle, so
  that new ones had to be taken on with great frequency.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          244
  The windchimes bind the usual array of guards and armsmen; from the large
  number so bound, and the terms of the contracts, you get the sense that
  even the undead are not entirely proof against destruction in battle, so
  that new ones had to be taken on with great frequency.
  
> >   Lower Bulb                                                245
  Lower Bulb
  In the lower chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  above; it must have been flowing a very long time.
  
  Around the outside of this contraption ascends a wooden staircase.
  
> >   Lower Bulb                                                246
  You are carrying:
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Translation Room                                          247
  Translation Room
  Endowed with a deep power that dissolves into ready vernacular even the
  most ancient and secret scripts of the Law Library.
  
  The single candle blazes with many times more light than one light source
  ought to produce.
  
  You can also see a quill of Mephistopheles here.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          248
  You acquire the candle.
  
> >   Lower Bulb                                                249
  Lower Bulb
  In the lower chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  above; it must have been flowing a very long time.
  
  Around the outside of this contraption ascends a wooden staircase.
  
> >   State Rotunda                                             250
  State Rotunda
  Built for the bureaucratic offices of the palace. Inlaid in the floor is
  the map of all the lands that once this palace commanded; and from the
  stains and driblets of wax, it is clear to you that someone at some time
  thought it useful to set a candle at the map's center, and observe the
  result.
  
> >   Parliamentary Chambers                                    251
  Parliamentary Chambers
  Despite its grand name, this is one of the smaller chambers of the castle,
  because the kings were never inclined to brook too much advice. On each
  side of the room are two neat oak benches, seating for perhaps thirty men
  -- and, more rarely, women, and a few characters who could not be called by
  either term.
  
> >   Cloister Walk                                             252
  Cloister Walk
  A pleasant cloister overlooking the rose garden to the north. You have
  walked it many times, seeking to waste the excesses of time at your
  disposal.
  
> >   Cloister Walk                                             253
  From here, you can head north, east, and west.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                254
  Walk's End
  Lucrezia, they say, died here. It is only a turning point in the corridor,
  with a bench.
  
> >   Walk's End                                                255
  From here, you can head northwest, south, and west.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               256
  Rose Garden
  Only one kind of rose grows here, a pink only just distinct from white.
  This strain creeps over the ground and climbs the walls of the cloister.
  
  In the middle of the garden a way slopes into the ground, reminding you of
  the entrance to a burial mound.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               257
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
> >   Bell Castings                                             258
  Bell Castings
  A room of scrap and refuse: wooden structures and clay molds from which
  bells might be made, scrap metal, pieces of bells now broken.
  
> >   Bell Castings                                             259
  By the look of it, there's not a useful, sounding instrument in the lot.
  
> >   Wax Supply                                                260
  Wax Supply
  A dank storage area, stacked with bars of wax -- perhaps for some casting
  process? You couldn't say.
  
> >   Wax Supply                                                261
  Far too large a supply for you to move around.
  
> >   Zoo                                                       262
  Zoo
  A resting place for an animal: warm but rough. There is little to suggest,
  from this environment, that he thinks of himself as a man at all, though he
  is capable of walking upright and eating with utensils, of reading books
  and even of writing a legible hand.
  
  The only distinguishing mark is a miniature hung on the wall, like a
  devotional object, or perhaps a reminder. Something about the sole image in
  an otherwise bare room reminds you of the royal portrait in the Green
  Bedroom.
  
  You can see a poison vial here.
  
> >   Zoo                                                       263
  You brought it with you; he confiscated it the first night.
  
  "It was a good thought," he said, plucking it from your fingers with a
  delicacy that should be impossible in one his size. "But if I could be
  killed by poison -- or by violence, or starving, or leaping from towers, by
  drowning or by suffocation or by fire, I assure you, I would have found the
  way by now. That leaves only yourself as a victim, and I did not bring you
  here to die." And so you didn't.
  
  You reacquaint yourself with its appearance: It has mostly dried up now;
  the apothecary who sold it to you did not say anything about whether it
  would keep its efficacy for long.
  
> >   Zoo                                                       264
  The tiny image of a lady in a green girdle. But it isn't Lucrezia.
  
> >   Zoo                                                       265
  It fails to move even a little, but clings to its place tenaciously -- in
  the way you associate with the stone gargoyle, upstairs.
  
> >   Zoo                                                       265
  Obviously this is the picture of someone who is (or was) significant to the
  Beast.
  
> Shall I go on? >    Zoo                                                       266
> >   Zoo                                                       267
  You are carrying:
    a candle (providing light)
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Bear Corridor                                             268
  Bear Corridor
  Less couth and cultivated than any other part of the castle, and you have
  been forbidden to visit this place before now. The walls press close to you
  on either side. The floor slopes down. Bears with sharp claws are carved
  into the rock, but they remind you of Him, and you are not frightened.
  
> >   Zoo                                                       269
  Zoo
  A resting place for an animal: warm but rough. There is little to suggest,
  from this environment, that he thinks of himself as a man at all, though he
  is capable of walking upright and eating with utensils, of reading books
  and even of writing a legible hand.
  
  The only distinguishing mark is a miniature hung on the wall, like a
  devotional object, or perhaps a reminder. Something about the sole image in
  an otherwise bare room reminds you of the royal portrait in the Green
  Bedroom.
  
  You can see a poison vial here.
  
> >   Rocky Chamber                                             270
  Rocky Chamber
  A tight, rocky corner among foundations of the oldest part of the castle. A
  slow leak in the south wall admits a little water, but not enough to be
  very destructive.
  
> >   Rocky Chamber                                             271
  The dripping moisture has the oily look of moat water.
  
> >   Rocky Chamber                                             272
  You feel nothing unexpected.
  
> >   Rocky Chamber                                             273
  You start into the crypt, but an icy unnatural wind blows against you, as
  though the spirits resent the intrusion of someone with a light. And yet
  you have seen the Beast come down here, from time to time, bearing
  lanterns, torches, whatever he found handy.
  
  There must be some preliminary, a matter of spiritual etiquette perhaps, to
  establish yourself as the master of those below.
  
> >   Rocky Chamber                                             274
  You are carrying:
    a candle (providing light)
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Zoo                                                       275
  Zoo
  A resting place for an animal: warm but rough. There is little to suggest,
  from this environment, that he thinks of himself as a man at all, though he
  is capable of walking upright and eating with utensils, of reading books
  and even of writing a legible hand.
  
  The only distinguishing mark is a miniature hung on the wall, like a
  devotional object, or perhaps a reminder. Something about the sole image in
  an otherwise bare room reminds you of the royal portrait in the Green
  Bedroom.
  
  You can see a poison vial here.
  
> >   Zoo                                                       276
  From here, you can head northeast, southeast, and southwest.
  
> >   Wax Supply                                                277
  Wax Supply
  A dank storage area, stacked with bars of wax -- perhaps for some casting
  process? You couldn't say.
  
> >   Bell Castings                                             278
  Bell Castings
  A room of scrap and refuse: wooden structures and clay molds from which
  bells might be made, scrap metal, pieces of bells now broken.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               279
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             280
  Tight Passage
  The passage through rock ends here, and begins to tunnel through soil
  instead where it heads northeast.
  
  There is also a sinister door, leading west.
  
  You can also see a cord and an inscription here.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             281
  The work of the hinges and handle, the color of the wood, the point of the
  arch: all malevolent. It does not have a keyhole at all, however, and looks
  far too sturdy to succumb to battering. In fact, by the looks of it,
  someone has had a try before.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             282
  (first unlocking the sinister door)
  You lack a key that fits the sinister door.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             283
  A pullcord emerges from the rock just before the walls of the passage turn
  to mud.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             284
  There's lettering beneath the pullcord.
  
  Unfortunately the words are too worn for you to read. Perhaps if the light
  were coming in from an extreme angle, you would do better.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             285
  You experiment with holding the candle in a variety of positions, but still
  you can't quite make the inscription out -- something about the cord, and
  you think the large L is for Lucrezia. But what you really need is for the
  light to be coming in at about the height of the inscription itself, flush
  with the wall, and from some distance away. Your arms aren't long enough to
  let you hold the candle in the right position while you read.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             285
  That's not a verb I recognize.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             286
  You experiment with ways to hold the candle, and find that the beginnings
  of letter forms suggest themselves if you put it at about knee height and
  some way northeast, close to the wall.
  
  Unfortunately, from that position it's impossible to look at the
  inscription at the same time.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             287
  You set the candle down immediately under the inscription -- but that's no
  good, you see at once, because thanks to the curvature of the wall you
  still can't get the thing at the right angle. Perhaps if it were lit from
  further off and from the side, rather than the bottom...
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             288
  You try pushing the candle this way and that. The farther it gets from the
  wall, the less use it is; and putting it right under the inscription does
  no good either.
  
  But you find that the angle gets better as you push the candle northeast
  along the wall, until the deepest-cut letters jump out at you: P, L, D.
  
  There's a lot more to it than that, though.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             289
  Try though you might to discover its meaning by touch, the letters are too
  small and numerous for you to read that way; only the capitals P, L, and D
  stand out. L for Lucrezia, maybe? The word does feel long enough.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             290
  You try pushing the candle this way and that. The farther it gets from the
  wall, the less use it is; and putting it right under the inscription does
  no good either.
  
  But you find that the angle gets better as you push the candle northeast
  along the wall, until the deepest-cut letters jump out at you: P, L, D.
  
  There's a lot more to it than that, though.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               291
  You continue to move the candle along the northeast wall until you reach a
  point where the angle seems to be improving...
  
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               292
  You'd have to head back southwest to be close to the inscription -- you
  can't reach it or read the small lettering from here, though from what you
  can see, this is a good direction for the light to come from.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  293
  Darkness
  It's very dark and you can barely make out any of the room's contents, or
  even tell where the walls are. The only illumination is a harsh raking
  light across the floor, coming in from the northeast.
  
  The inscription is unfortunately just too high on the wall to be fully lit
  this way, though you can pick up part of it.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  294
  There's lettering beneath the pullcord.
  
  The light coming in does illuminate the floor sharply, and is at a good
  angle, but it is a bit too low to show up the lettering halfway up the
  wall. All you get is the deepest capital letters -- P, L, and D -- and the
  last line: or he will depart again without offering aid.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  295
  You are carrying:
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a stool
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               296
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
  You can see a candle (providing light) here.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               297
  You set the stool down next to one wall.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               298
  You need to be holding the candle before you can put it on top of something
  else.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               299
  You pick up the candle, restoring the lighting to a more natural angle.
  Immediately the place seems less unnerving.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               300
  You put the candle on the stool, aligning it neatly against the wall. A
  harsh raking illumination is now cast along the wall, about at a height
  with your knees.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  301
  Darkness
  The light from northeast comes in a bit above floor-level, sharply
  illuminating one wall but leaving the rest of your surroundings dark and
  unfathomable.
  
  The inscription stands out beautifully now.
  
> >   Darkness                                                  302
  There's lettering beneath the pullcord.
  
  You read: Pull this cord, then wait in the room directly above to speak
  with Lucrezia's steward. Do not let more than five minutes pass between the
  summons and the waiting, or he will depart again without offering aid.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               303
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
  You can see a stool (on which is a candle (providing light)) here.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               304
  stool: You acquire the stool.
  candle: You pick up the candle, restoring the lighting to a more natural
  angle. Immediately the place seems less unnerving.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             305
  Tight Passage
  The passage through rock ends here, and begins to tunnel through soil
  instead where it heads northeast.
  
  There is also a sinister door, leading west.
  
  You can also see a cord and an inscription here.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             306
  You give the cord a hard yank. Somewhere above you a very deep bell tolls.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               307
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
> >   Bell Castings                                             308
  Bell Castings
  A room of scrap and refuse: wooden structures and clay molds from which
  bells might be made, scrap metal, pieces of bells now broken.
  
> >   Bell Castings                                             309
  From here, you can head north and east.
  
> >   Bell Castings                                             310
  From here, you can head north and east.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               311
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             312
  Tight Passage
  The passage through rock ends here, and begins to tunnel through soil
  instead where it heads northeast.
  
  There is also a sinister door, leading west.
  
  You can also see a cord and an inscription here.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             313
  Time passes.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             314
  You give the cord a hard yank. Somewhere above you a very deep bell tolls.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               315
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               316
  You climb into the pale light...
  
  Rose Garden
  Only one kind of rose grows here, a pink only just distinct from white.
  This strain creeps over the ground and climbs the walls of the cloister.
  
  In the middle of the garden a way slopes into the ground, reminding you of
  the entrance to a burial mound.
  
> >   Cloister Walk                                             317
  Cloister Walk
  A pleasant cloister overlooking the rose garden to the north. You have
  walked it many times, seeking to waste the excesses of time at your
  disposal.
  
> >   Parliamentary Chambers                                    318
  Parliamentary Chambers
  Despite its grand name, this is one of the smaller chambers of the castle,
  because the kings were never inclined to brook too much advice. On each
  side of the room are two neat oak benches, seating for perhaps thirty men
  -- and, more rarely, women, and a few characters who could not be called by
  either term.
  
> >   Parliamentary Chambers                                    319
  There is a scuffle, and a presence unfolds itself from where it was
  waiting, unseen, on the benches. It comes towards you and circles you, and
  you have the idea -- more imagination than eyesight -- that this was once a
  tall, thin man of considerable power.
  
  It says a few words in the bastardized Italian of the state of Medici-
  Credenza, and you hear the scrape of wood and stone from somewhere below
  you: a door opening.
  
  Then the presence vanishes.
  
> >   Parliamentary Chambers                                    320
  You are carrying:
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Parliamentary Chambers                                    321
  From here, you can head east and west.
  
> >   Cloister Walk                                             322
  Cloister Walk
  A pleasant cloister overlooking the rose garden to the north. You have
  walked it many times, seeking to waste the excesses of time at your
  disposal.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               323
  Rose Garden
  Only one kind of rose grows here, a pink only just distinct from white.
  This strain creeps over the ground and climbs the walls of the cloister.
  
  In the middle of the garden a way slopes into the ground, reminding you of
  the entrance to a burial mound.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               324
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             325
  Tight Passage
  The passage through rock ends here, and begins to tunnel through soil
  instead where it heads northeast.
  
  There is also a sinister door, leading west -- and currently open.
  
  You can also see a cord and an inscription here.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          326
  Lucrezia's Study
  Little survives here, enough to suggest that a number of books were burned
  and glass tools smashed. You can only guess at why, or by whom.
  
  But the dominant item is the vast image of Lucrezia at a wardrobe fitting
  of some kind.
  
  There is also a sinister door, leading east -- and currently open.
  
  A single pile of notes remains.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          327
  Lucrezia stands, imperiously, in what is now the empty bedroom, while a
  gnome-like shoemaker at her feet customizes pair after pair of shoes to her
  misshapen--
  
  You look away, unnerved, towards a less disturbing element, the leather
  tambourine in Lucrezia's hand.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          328
  Lucrezia stands, imperiously, in what is now the empty bedroom, while a
  gnome-like shoemaker at her feet customizes pair after pair of shoes to her
  misshapen--
  
  You look away, unnerved, towards a less disturbing element, the leather
  tambourine in Lucrezia's hand.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          329
  Spiky, erratic handwriting on a variety of mystical and magical topics
  pertaining to the castle and the spiritual status of the inhabitants.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          330
  The shoemaker so busily fitting Lucrezia in the portrait does not seem to
  have been sufficiently interesting to warrant a record in these notes,
  though perhaps the terms of his engagement will be found in the contract
  book.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          331
  There's nothing about you here, which is no surprise, considering that the
  author of these pages was dead centuries before your arrival.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          332
  Though the notes are of her writing, they are for the most part not about
  her: she was not a diarist, but an experimenter.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          333
  You can discover no specific references to the Beast; though your hazy
  impression from his conversation is that he never knew Lucrezia, she having
  been generations before him.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          334
  About the pen there is a considerable raving: "Many tests of fire, water,
  pressure, torsion, acid, and poison have failed; even gunpowder and holy
  water have not sufficed to ruin it; nor do I now believe that it can be
  destroyed, but suppose that, being plucked from the wing of the old man my
  father, it partakes of his same eternal nature. Therefore the arrangement
  must be dissolved in some other way."
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          335
  Mostly some speculative notes about the possibility of voiding contracts
  through some loophole of demonic legalism. You don't entirely follow it. At
  any rate, to judge by this, she had obtained a kind of mastery over the
  crypt-spirits by use of her magic shoes. And there is also a reference to a
  room upstairs, behind the ivory door.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          336
  You are carrying:
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          337
  Made for something with cloven hoofs. They bear evidence of having been
  adjusted to their current size by a shoemaker, and perhaps (therefore)
  could be again.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          338
  The shoes, according to these pages, symbolize their wearer's right to
  tread in and be master of the territory of the dead.
  
  "For which reason I wear them always to funerals and in graveyards", remark
  the notes conversationally, "the which habit has greatly offended some of
  the noble ladies through the cause of the shoes not being a suitable color
  for such occasions." Before you can build up much sympathy, Lucrezia
  continues: "Therefore in recompense I enslaved two of these ladies to my
  personal service and gave a third to my son to be his concubine until
  better manners and humility attend them all."
  
  Some additional function for the shoes is suggested by the papers --
  something about the preservation of memory or a connection to those who
  wore them previously -- but it seems that even Lucrezia did not understand
  this very well. ("And for this reason I am determined never to let them
  fall into the hands of another, but to have them burnt on my pyre at the
  moment of my death, lest those that follow after learn my secrets.") That
  scheme didn't work out for her, evidently.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          339
  Lucrezia stands, imperiously, in what is now the empty bedroom, while a
  gnome-like shoemaker at her feet customizes pair after pair of shoes to her
  misshapen--
  
  You look away, unnerved, towards a less disturbing element, the leather
  tambourine in Lucrezia's hand.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          340
  You are carrying:
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  341
  You head east to tight passage. Then northeast to rooted room. Then up to
  rose garden. You climb into the pale light...
  
  , emerging into rose garden. Then south to cloister walk. , emerging into
  cloister walk. Then west to the parliamentary chambers. , emerging into the
  parliamentary chambers. Then west to the state rotunda. , emerging into the
  state rotunda. Then west to the lower bulb. , emerging into the lower bulb.
  Then up to the upper bulb. , emerging into the upper bulb. Then east to the
  gallery of still life. , emerging into the gallery of still life. Then east
  to the white gallery. , emerging into the white gallery. And then east to
  the bellroom.
  
  Bellroom
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have
  slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs.
  Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar itemsare a leather
  tambourine, a silver bell, and a little gold dinner bell.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  342
  (the leather tambourine)
  You acquire the leather tambourine, and assess it curiously.
  
  A hoop stretched with good-quality leather.
  
> >   Empty Bedroom                                             343
  You head south to the private parlor. And finally southeast to the empty
  bedroom.
  
  Empty Bedroom
  Like a monk's chamber compared to every other part of the palace, just bare
  walls now. Here your father stayed, when he made his ill-fated journey to
  the castle. The Beast told you this, on your first visit.
  
> >   Empty Bedroom                                             344
  A brisk wind fusses about your feet, then does something to the shoes,
  resizing and slightly reshaping so that they might have a hope of staying
  on you.
  
> >   Empty Bedroom                                             345
  You slip your feet into the shoes, and feel less alone. Mere sentiment, you
  think; but then there is the brush of a thought other than your own. The
  crypt. Under the Law Library. There are sources of power there which even I
  have never understood.
  
> >   Empty Bedroom                                             346
  Made for something with cloven hoofs, but so large that you could wear them
  as a kind of awkward sandal. They bear evidence of having been adjusted to
  their current size by a shoemaker, and perhaps (therefore) could be again.
  
> >   Empty Bedroom                                             347
  From here, you can head northwest.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            348
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads north to the bellroom.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Crystal Bedroom                                           349
  Crystal Bedroom
  A fantasia of gleaming and glittering, chandeliers and mirrors: all that
  shines or reflects has been moved here, into this room that you inhabit,
  which he never enters.
  
  The south end of the room is most dazzling, because of the daylight from
  the balcony.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes:
  affection, longing, guilt; amusement at your innocence and anger at your
  blindness; frank desire. Such a tangled, terrifying mess of emotion that
  you barely recognize yourself in the mirrors.
  
  Sorry. The thought is sleepy and not entirely comforting.
  
> >   Gilded Balcony                                            350
  You step out into the rain.
  
  Gilded Balcony
  A ridiculous filigreed balcony that is like nothing so much as a birdcage:
  and from here you can see all the way across the moat, across the forest,
  the plain, to the edge of the sea, only by staring long enough in any
  direction.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes:
  Thought the cage metaphor quite unsubtle; but I thought you might like it
  anyway, being able to see all that distance. This room is built above the
  watchtower down below, you see, part of a vertical line of power.
  
> >   Crystal Bedroom                                           351
  Crystal Bedroom
  A fantasia of gleaming and glittering, chandeliers and mirrors: all that
  shines or reflects has been moved here, into this room that you inhabit,
  which he never enters.
  
  The south end of the room is most dazzling, because of the daylight from
  the balcony.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes:
  just a suppressed agitation this time, and some emotions you might not be
  willing to call love. I won't hurt you.
  
> >   Private Parlor                                            352
  Private Parlor
  A sitting room of the family, in old times, and familiar territory to you
  now as well. Your bedroom is just south; other bedrooms, mostly smaller, in
  other directions.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads north to the bellroom.
  
  You can also see a bentwood table (on which is a jigsaw puzzle) here.
  
> >   Upstairs Helical Staircase                                353
  Upstairs Helical Staircase
  A dizzying prospect, the spiral of steps down to the ground.
  
> >   Ground Floor Helical Staircase                            354
  Ground Floor Helical Staircase
  The steps rise from here towards the upper rooms, and open out onto the
  bare courtyard.
  
  An obscene gargoyle sits where the finial of the banister should be.
  
> >   Central Courtyard                                         355
  Central Courtyard
  Open to a grey sky, from which a light rain falls. You have never seen the
  courtyard otherwise: it rains in every season, winter or summer, no matter
  what lies beyond the moat.
  
  The castle proper opens both north and south, and to the east a helical
  staircase ascends to the roof.
  
> >   State Rotunda                                             356
  State Rotunda
  Built for the bureaucratic offices of the palace. Inlaid in the floor is
  the map of all the lands that once this palace commanded; and from the
  stains and driblets of wax, it is clear to you that someone at some time
  thought it useful to set a candle at the map's center, and observe the
  result.
  
> >   Parliamentary Chambers                                    357
  Parliamentary Chambers
  Despite its grand name, this is one of the smaller chambers of the castle,
  because the kings were never inclined to brook too much advice. On each
  side of the room are two neat oak benches, seating for perhaps thirty men
  -- and, more rarely, women, and a few characters who could not be called by
  either term.
  
> >   Cloister Walk                                             358
  Cloister Walk
  A pleasant cloister overlooking the rose garden to the north. You have
  walked it many times, seeking to waste the excesses of time at your
  disposal.
  
> >   Cloister Walk                                             359
  From here, you can head north, east, and west.
  
> >   Rose Garden                                               360
  Rose Garden
  Only one kind of rose grows here, a pink only just distinct from white.
  This strain creeps over the ground and climbs the walls of the cloister.
  
  In the middle of the garden a way slopes into the ground, reminding you of
  the entrance to a burial mound.
  
> >   Rooted Room                                               361
  Rooted Room
  Cut as an afterthought through earth and the underside of the garden, and
  therefore muddy and soil-scented.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             362
  Tight Passage
  The passage through rock ends here, and begins to tunnel through soil
  instead where it heads northeast.
  
  There is also a sinister door, leading west -- and currently open.
  
  You can also see a cord and an inscription here.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           363
  Father's Regret
  The home of fathers who died before their children were born.
  
  Tokens of binding are stored here: bones and bits of hair, relics, hearts
  scientifically dried, and many other things, culled through the centuries
  by the masters of this place, in drawers.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           364
  The drawers are numerous, but there is only one that opens without
  sticking.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           365
  You open the drawers, revealing an ivory key and an elephant harness.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           366
  It is not all ivory, of course, just a metal shaft with ivory in the
  handle.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           367
  You acquire the ivory key.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           368
  The harness refuses to budge, in a way you associate with the stone
  gargoyle.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           368
  You can't see any such thing.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           369
  You are carrying:
    an ivory key
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          370
  You head northeast to tight passage. And then west to lucrezia's study.
  
  Lucrezia's Study
  Little survives here, enough to suggest that a number of books were burned
  and glass tools smashed. You can only guess at why, or by whom.
  
  But the dominant item is the vast image of Lucrezia at a wardrobe fitting
  of some kind.
  
  There is also a sinister door, leading east -- and currently open.
  
  A single pile of notes remains.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes:
  Interesting. They never let me in here. But then, Lucrezia wanted to bring
  the family to ruin, so perhaps that is why.
  
> >   Lucrezia's Study                                          371
  You acquire the pile of notes.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             372
  Tight Passage
  The passage through rock ends here, and begins to tunnel through soil
  instead where it heads northeast.
  
  There is also a sinister door, leading west -- and currently open.
  
  You can also see a cord and an inscription here.
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             373
  You are carrying:
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Tight Passage                                             374
  You discover nothing of interest in the pile of notes.
  
> >   Father's Regret                                           375
  Father's Regret
  The home of fathers who died before their children were born.
  
  Tokens of binding are stored here: bones and bits of hair, relics, hearts
  scientifically dried, and many other things, culled through the centuries
  by the masters of this place, in drawers.
  
> >   Central Crypt                                             376
  Central Crypt
  A relic-storage place for all the bits of men and women -- and creatures --
  bound to the Kings over many centuries. Only brute animals are free of
  binding, since they have no souls; which is why there are no dogs in the
  castle, no horses, no songbirds.
  
> >   Central Crypt                                             377
  Bones are built into the walls, often no more than fragments.
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         378
  The floor sounds progressively stranger as you walk toward the middle of
  the room.
  
  Debtor's Paradise
  The graves of men who died before resolving their debts.
  
> >   Apprentice's Workshop                                     379
  As you walk out of the room, you notice that your footsteps sound odd.
  
  Apprentice's Workshop
  A mausoleum for apprentices who perished before their terms of indenture
  were complete.
  
  A decaying ladder leads up.
  
> >   Virgin's End                                              380
  Virgin's End
  The resting place of maidens who died before marrying those to whom they
  were engaged.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes:
  They died without marrying those to whom they were betrothed, but not all
  died maidens. Impossible to tell the tenor of that particular thought. Not
  all of them are to my account, I hasten to add.
  
> >   Virgin's End                                              381
  You are carrying:
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Translation Room                                          382
  You head south to the central crypt. Then up to the law library. , emerging
  into the law library. Then north to the lower bulb. , emerging into the
  lower bulb. And then west to the translation room.
  
  Translation Room
  Endowed with a deep power that dissolves into ready vernacular even the
  most ancient and secret scripts of the Law Library.
  
  You can see a quill of Mephistopheles here.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          383
  With some effort, you find the contract, which turns to be one of a large
  number of contracts involving young women. These all occur towards the end
  of the book, shortly before your own.
  
  In fact, this is the very last contract recorded before your father's and
  yours: a young woman named Yvette, brought to the castle -- though she was
  betrothed to a lord already -- to "serve" the king. You have the impression
  that the contract book is leaving out a good deal, such as why Yvette was
  associated with the girdle, and what she was doing here. Perhaps in the
  papers there will be something.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  384
  You head east to the lower bulb. Then up to the upper bulb. Then east to
  the gallery of still life. Then east to the white gallery. And finally east
  to the bellroom.
  
  Bellroom
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have
  slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs.
  Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar itemsare a leather
  tambourine, a silver bell, and a little gold dinner bell.
  
> >   Records Room                                              385
  You head west to the white gallery. Then west to the gallery of still life.
  Then west to the upper bulb. And finally west to the records room.
  
  Records Room
  Where all the papers and histories are kept, not only for the royal family,
  but for kin in every kind and direction.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes: We
  have always retained an extraordinarily good secretary and historian. If
  there is any good in this damned arrangement...
  
> >   Records Room                                              386
  It takes some searching, but you find it eventually. The king in these
  parts was accustomed to bring young ladies to the castle when his wooing of
  them was unsuccessful, whereupon they were under contract and unable to
  resist him.
  
  This he did for many years, snatching away men's brides; until one day he
  stole Yvette. She was only a humble milkmaid, but so beautiful she was
  betrothed to a lord, etc., etc., and moreover her great-great-grandmother
  had been Lucrezia the Enchantress (oh dear), so she possessed a magical
  girdle of surpassing power.
  
  When she discovered what was about to happen to her, while she was still on
  the drawbridge of the castle, she cursed the king to become a mere beast,
  so that the spell would never be lifted until someone loved him who was not
  under magical contract. What was more, this person would need the power of
  that same magical girdle...
  
  There is even a small woodcut of the grieving Yvette, carrying a cow bell
  and looking downtrodden.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                387
  Upper Bulb
  In the upper chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  below; indeed for all you can tell the flow might be eternal.
  
  Nearby an ivory door leads southwest.
  
  And here Beast lies, sprawled on the ground as if he'd fallen.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     388
  Gallery of Still Life
  Natural light from the south -- coming in from the courtyard, you suppose,
  though you are too short to see out -- illuminates a series of still life
  paintings on the north wall: one showing the Wedding Treasure when Lucrezia
  arrived from Medici-Credenza, the other rather fancifully entitled Supper
  with M.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads east to the white gallery.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             389
  White Gallery
  Of more recent construction than many another portion of the castle, and
  therefore light and airy, and a pleasant place to spend a few hours.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads west to the gallery of still life.
  
  Placed where it will have the most light on the board for the longest time
  is a mechanical chessplayer.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  390
  Bellroom
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have
  slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs.
  Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar itemsare a cow bell, a
  leather tambourine, a silver bell, and a little gold dinner bell.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  391
  You acquire the cow bell, and assess it curiously.
  
  Much like the ones you used on the cows at home.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  392
  You ring the bell, but those who might hear and heed it are not close
  enough.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             393
  White Gallery
  Of more recent construction than many another portion of the castle, and
  therefore light and airy, and a pleasant place to spend a few hours.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads west to the gallery of still life.
  
  Placed where it will have the most light on the board for the longest time
  is a mechanical chessplayer.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     394
  Gallery of Still Life
  Natural light from the south -- coming in from the courtyard, you suppose,
  though you are too short to see out -- illuminates a series of still life
  paintings on the north wall: one showing the Wedding Treasure when Lucrezia
  arrived from Medici-Credenza, the other rather fancifully entitled Supper
  with M.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads east to the white gallery.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                395
  Upper Bulb
  In the upper chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  below; indeed for all you can tell the flow might be eternal.
  
  Nearby an ivory door leads southwest.
  
  And here Beast lies, sprawled on the ground as if he'd fallen.
  
> >   Records Room                                              396
  Records Room
  Where all the papers and histories are kept, not only for the royal family,
  but for kin in every kind and direction.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          397
  You head east to the upper bulb. Then down to the lower bulb. And finally
  west to the translation room.
  
  Translation Room
  Endowed with a deep power that dissolves into ready vernacular even the
  most ancient and secret scripts of the Law Library.
  
  You can see a quill of Mephistopheles here.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          398
  A worked bronze gong, according to this, controls a shape-shifting djinn of
  considerable size and destructive power, which resents the terms of its
  enslavement and would be overjoyed to take revenge.
  
  This djinn has taken many forms in the past, but most frequently disguises
  itself as an elephant.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  399
  You head east to the lower bulb. Then up to the upper bulb. Then east to
  the gallery of still life. Then east to the white gallery. And finally east
  to the bellroom.
  
  Bellroom
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have
  slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs.
  Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar itemsare a worked bronze
  gong, a leather tambourine, a silver bell, and a little gold dinner bell.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  400
  You acquire the worked bronze gong, and assess it curiously.
  
  A heavy thing that you have never seen rung. The upper surface is hammered
  with the sign of an elephant.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  401
  A heavy thing that you have never seen rung. The upper surface is hammered
  with the sign of an elephant.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  402
  You are carrying:
    a worked bronze gong
    a cow bell
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  403
  You hesitate. He told you not to play idly with the bells whose purposes
  were unknown to you, you see...
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  404
  You strike the gong, but to your disappointment, nothing happens.
  
> >   Gallery of Historical Paintings                           405
  You head south to the private parlor. Then west to the upstairs helical
  staircase. Then down to the ground floor helical staircase. Then west to
  the central courtyard. Then south to the entrance hall. Then east to the
  scarlet gallery. And finally east to the gallery of historical paintings.
  
  Gallery of Historical Paintings
  Here on the north wall and the south are paintings of historical events
  from times past: the assassination of King Elzibad in 1248; the arrival of
  Princess Lucrezia from the Italian State of Medici-Credenza in 1545.
  
  The gallery goes on, echoing, both east and west.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes:
  amusement. Poor old Elzibad. Though I suppose it wasn't so funny at the
  time. Remind me to tell you-- but I may not have the chance, I suppose.
  
> >   Gallery of Historical Paintings                           406
  You strike the gong, and there is a faint sound, not the full-throated bong
  you might expect. In the portrait, the elephant turns its painted head to
  look at you, and it smiles; lifts its foot a little and stomps harder, as
  though to say, "here is how tyrants are ended."
  
> >   Gallery of Historical Paintings                           407
  You ring the bell, but those who might hear and heed it are not close
  enough.
  
> >   Gallery of Historical Paintings                           408
  There are various records of the conferences Lucrezia had with various
  friends, family members, and servants, by ringing bells in the presence of
  her magical mirrors.
  
> >   Crystal Bedroom                                           409
  You head west to the scarlet gallery. Then west to the entrance hall. Then
  north to the central courtyard. Then east to the ground floor helical
  staircase. Then up to the upstairs helical staircase. Then east to the
  private parlor. And finally south to the crystal bedroom.
  
  Crystal Bedroom
  A fantasia of gleaming and glittering, chandeliers and mirrors: all that
  shines or reflects has been moved here, into this room that you inhabit,
  which he never enters.
  
  The south end of the room is most dazzling, because of the daylight from
  the balcony.
  
> >   Crystal Bedroom                                           410
  You ring the cow bell, and a heavy fog coalesces around you; then at the
  mirror there forms the image of an exceptionally beautiful young woman,
  wearing a green girdle.
  
  "It is a long time since I was called," she says, pressing her nose and
  fingers to her side of the glass and looking at you with interest. You see
  around her neck the burn of a noose, and guess uneasily at what she did to
  herself. She looks at you with plain curiosity.
  
  "So you're the one?" she asks. "Did you know that he carried me over the
  drawbridge into the castle, and made me slave to his wishes even though I
  was betrothed to another? and that for the breach of contract my father
  died impoverished?"
  
  You say nothing. You have not known him to be like that; but many human
  lifetimes have passed since Yvette was alive.
  
  She shrugs one shoulder. "If you can love such a creature, then I will
  leave the green girdle for you on my grave; you come take it and kiss him,"
  she says.
  
  Then she fades from view.
  
> >   Central Crypt                                             411
  You head north to the private parlor. Then west to the upstairs helical
  staircase. Then down to the ground floor helical staircase. Then west to
  the central courtyard. Then north to the state rotunda. Then southwest to
  the law library. And finally down to the central crypt.
  
  Central Crypt
  A relic-storage place for all the bits of men and women -- and creatures --
  bound to the Kings over many centuries. Only brute animals are free of
  binding, since they have no souls; which is why there are no dogs in the
  castle, no horses, no songbirds.
  
> >   Virgin's End                                              412
  Virgin's End
  The resting place of maidens who died before marrying those to whom they
  were engaged.
  
  You can see a magic girdle here.
  
> >   Virgin's End                                              413
  From here, you can head south, southeast, and southwest.
  
> >   Virgin's End                                              414
  You acquire the magic girdle, and assess it curiously.
  
  It is the green girdle familiar to you from paintings here; a possession of
  Lucrezia's.
  
> >   Virgin's End                                              415
  You put on the girdle, securing it around you. It fits unexpectedly well.
  
> >   Central Crypt                                             416
  Central Crypt
  A relic-storage place for all the bits of men and women -- and creatures --
  bound to the Kings over many centuries. Only brute animals are free of
  binding, since they have no souls; which is why there are no dogs in the
  castle, no horses, no songbirds.
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         417
  The floor sounds progressively stranger as you walk toward the middle of
  the room.
  
  Debtor's Paradise
  The graves of men who died before resolving their debts.
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         418
  The windchimes are silent now that they've been taken down.
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         419
  The floor thuds hollowly under you.
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         420
  You are carrying:
    a magic girdle (being worn)
    a worked bronze gong
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         421
  You settle the helmet over your head, and there is a roaring in your ears
  at first. But then the sharpened hearing begins to feel natural again.
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         422
  You hop experimentally across the floor, the helmet amplifying your
  sensitivity to every sound, so that you are able to distinguish the exact
  flagstone at which the hollow thudding becomes most resonant.
  
  On a bit of investigation, this stone turns out to be loose.
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         423
  A trapdoor -- well, really, a hinged flagstone, not much different from the
  rest of the floor to which it belongs.
  
> >   Debtor's Paradise                                         424
  You open the trapdoor.
  
> >   Dank Room                                                 425
  Dank Room
  The air is clammy and unpleasant, and clogs in your lungs.
  
  Nearby an open trapdoor leads up to the debtor's paradise.
  
> >   Press Room                                                426
  Press Room
  Liquid squeezed from the surrounding earth here flows out through a
  fountain, then soaks back into the ground below.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes:
  mostly loathing and fear much stronger than your own, but whatever he knows
  does not come through to you.
  
> >   Press Room                                                427
  The liquid is sludge-black where it pours in quantity, but where it runs
  thin, it appears red.
  
> >   Press Room                                                428
  Despite its unappealing appearance and the rankness of the air, it does not
  smell as vile as you expect: more bitter.
  
> >   Press Room                                                429
  Overcoming dislike, you taste a bit of the liquid, and find it more bitter
  than wormwood. All anguish and regret and the knowledge that it was once in
  your own power to make things come out better. But perhaps it is not too
  late after all.
  
> >   Press Room                                                430
  Even your own breathing is magnified when you wear the helmet, so you must
  concentrate past it...
  
  The windchimes are silent now that they've been taken down.
  
> >   Press Room                                                431
  You are carrying:
    a magic girdle (being worn)
    a worked bronze gong
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet (being worn)
  
> >   Law Library                                               432
  You head south to the dank room. Then up to the debtor's paradise. Then
  north to the central crypt. Then up to the law library. , emerging into the
  law library. Then north to the lower bulb. You walk far enough in to get a
  view of sand falling in a huge hourglass. Though it is only a thin stream,
  it sounds louder than it should: the noise, magnified by your helmet,
  becomes too much to bear, and you retreat.
  
> >   Law Library                                               433
  You lift the helmet from your head, and the sudden quiet feels like going
  deaf.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  434
  You head north to the lower bulb. Then up to the upper bulb. Then east to
  the gallery of still life. Then east to the white gallery. And finally east
  to the bellroom.
  
  Bellroom
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have
  slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs.
  Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar itemsare a cow bell, a
  leather tambourine, a silver bell, and a little gold dinner bell.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             435
  White Gallery
  Of more recent construction than many another portion of the castle, and
  therefore light and airy, and a pleasant place to spend a few hours.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads west to the gallery of still life.
  
  Placed where it will have the most light on the board for the longest time
  is a mechanical chessplayer.
  
> >   White Gallery                                             436
  You are carrying:
    a magic girdle (being worn)
    a worked bronze gong
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     437
  Gallery of Still Life
  Natural light from the south -- coming in from the courtyard, you suppose,
  though you are too short to see out -- illuminates a series of still life
  paintings on the north wall: one showing the Wedding Treasure when Lucrezia
  arrived from Medici-Credenza, the other rather fancifully entitled Supper
  with M.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads east to the white gallery.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                438
  Upper Bulb
  In the upper chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  below; indeed for all you can tell the flow might be eternal.
  
  Nearby an ivory door leads southwest.
  
  And here Beast lies, sprawled on the ground as if he'd fallen.
  
  When you look at the Beast this time -- it must be the influence of the
  girdle -- you see him as more animal than human, though you long ago
  learned to discern a man's expressions on his face.
  
  I was afraid of him, says the memory of Yvette in your head, as though
  she's trying to justify herself to you. There are other thoughts as well,
  murkier; but you are left with the impression that she killed herself, in
  the end, not because of her family's misfortunes or the lord she was
  separated from; but because she was carrying a child, and feared that it
  would be born some kind of monster.
  
> >   Smoke-Damaged Chamber                                     439
  (first opening the ivory door)
  (first unlocking the ivory door)
  (with the ivory key)
  
  Smoke-Damaged Chamber
  Though not actually burnt, the walls are stained with smoke, especially at
  the south end. This mess has partly obliterated what was once a detailed
  mural on the west wall.
  
  Nearby an open ivory door leads northeast to the upper bulb.
  
> >   Burnt Frame                                               440
  Burnt Frame
  A corner tower severely damaged by fire, so that there is only framework
  between you and the sky.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes: A
  spectacular but unsuccessful attempt. My fur was singed and foul-smelling
  for weeks.
  
> >   Burnt Frame                                               441
  A conical roof, stripped down to the skeleton.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             442
  Black Gallery
  Lined with neat rows of inscrutable -- one might almost say pointless --
  objects.
  
  There's a broken beam (charred at each end) and a gold ring (with signet,
  though you do not recognize the symbol); a preserved goat, a stuffed boar,
  a parrot perch; an inkpot, a white apple, a cane, a glass leaf, a silver
  buckle, a copper snake, a homunculus, a green cloth swatch, and a dark-
  colored pendant.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             443
  A very very curious object.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             444
  A very very very curious object.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             445
  A very very very very curious object.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             446
  neat rows: A discouraging prospect -- moving everything from this room is
  really work for about a dozen strong spirits from the contract book.
  
> >   Armory                                                    447
  Armory
  From the looks of things, immediately above the Guard Tower. An assortment
  of weapons, most of them hundreds of years old and no longer useful, are
  collected here, though from the gory appearance at least a few of the
  daggers have been sharpened and tried in the relatively recent past.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             448
  Black Gallery
  Lined with neat rows of inscrutable -- one might almost say pointless --
  objects.
  
  There's a parrot perch (evidently much used) and a gold ring (with signet,
  though you do not recognize the symbol); a glass leaf, a copper snake, an
  inkpot; a white apple, a stuffed boar, a preserved goat, a cane, a silver
  buckle, a homunculus, a green cloth swatch, a dark-colored pendant, and a
  broken beam.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     449
  You head west to the burnt frame. Then north to the smoke-damaged chamber.
  Then northeast to the upper bulb. And finally east to the gallery of still
  life.
  
  Gallery of Still Life
  Natural light from the south -- coming in from the courtyard, you suppose,
  though you are too short to see out -- illuminates a series of still life
  paintings on the north wall: one showing the Wedding Treasure when Lucrezia
  arrived from Medici-Credenza, the other rather fancifully entitled Supper
  with M.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads east to the white gallery.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     450
  A table tastefully laid with possessions of power or personal worth,
  brought by Lucrezia as gifts from her father: an inkpot, a helmet, a green
  girdle stitched with vines, a curious pair of cloven shoes.
  
> >   Gallery of Still Life                                     451
  You are carrying:
    a magic girdle (being worn)
    a worked bronze gong
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key (which opens the ivory door)
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             452
  You head west to the upper bulb. Then southwest to the smoke-damaged
  chamber. Then south to the burnt frame. And finally east to the black
  gallery.
  
  Black Gallery
  Lined with neat rows of inscrutable -- one might almost say pointless --
  objects.
  
  There's a green cloth swatch (torn from a much bigger piece) and a silver
  buckle (without a mate); a dark-colored pendant, a parrot perch, an inkpot;
  a white apple, a stuffed boar, a preserved goat, a cane, a glass leaf, a
  copper snake, a homunculus, a gold ring, and a broken beam.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             453
  You acquire the inkpot, and assess it curiously.
  
  A very very very very curious object.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             454
  You are carrying:
    an inkpot (empty)
    a magic girdle (being worn)
    a worked bronze gong
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key (which opens the ivory door)
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             455
  About the inkpot, the notes are their most cryptic, and the quality of the
  handwriting has also declined so that you suspect the author of having been
  either elderly or sick. "Of this article, which my father gave me, I
  believe I have finally uncovered some use. For though it will not hold ink
  of the ordinary kind, it perfectly contains that which flows beneath the
  burial ground, consisting of the regret of all inhabitants..." Etc., etc.
  
> >   Black Gallery                                             456
  An inkpot of dark material. Inside there remains only a red-black crust of
  dried ink.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               457
  Lie Library
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and
  containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three
  aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand (on which is a storybook) here.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes: Ah,
  now here's an interesting little locale. Lucrezia had it built. She was
  always her father's daughter, you perceive. It is so powerful that it makes
  false the things that are brought in -- I used it once to void a lady's
  marriage contract --
  
  The thread of thought stops. On second thought, that is not a story I am
  proud of.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               458
  A collection of fanciful tales "which were once true but are no longer". It
  is stamped across the front as having been inducted into the Lie Library.
  
  You read: Once upon a time, there was a young Russian girl whose mother
  died, leaving behind only a painted wooden clapper which made a loud noise.
  When the girl's father married again, the second wife was very cruel and
  miserly... (etc. at some length); but whenever the girl was lonely, she
  took the wooden clapper to the mirror in her mother's bedroom and clapped
  it loudly; and her mother's spirit would appear to her and advise her...
  (And so on, for several dozen pages of adventure, ending in marriage to the
  Tsar.)
  
> >   Lie Library                                               459
  You are carrying:
    an infernal inkpot (empty)
    a magic girdle (being worn)
    a worked bronze gong
    a pile of notes
    an ivory key (which opens the ivory door)
    a candle (providing light)
    a stool
    a great contract book
    a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
    a sceptre
    an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
    some iron windchimes
    a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
    some discarded embroidery materials
    a shackle
    a helmet
  
> >   Lie Library                                               460
  Carvings around the outer edge of the stand indicate how one should use it:
  a small tonsured figure places a book on the stand, then rings a bell;
  whereupon a librarian, bearing the traditional shackles and sheets of a
  ghost, appears to take it away.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               461
  The runes are unfamiliar to you, but you know what the book is: a record of
  all the contracts of all the souls enslaved to the king of this castle.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          462
  You head west to the smoke-damaged chamber. Then northeast to the upper
  bulb. Then down to the lower bulb. And finally west to the translation
  room.
  
  Translation Room
  Endowed with a deep power that dissolves into ready vernacular even the
  most ancient and secret scripts of the Law Library.
  
  You can see a quill of Mephistopheles here.
  
> >   Translation Room                                          463
  The contract records that the librarian -- a relatively recent innovation
  at the castle -- is controlled by a glass bell.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               464
  You head east to the lower bulb. Then up to the upper bulb. Then southwest
  to the smoke-damaged chamber. And finally east to the lie library.
  
  Lie Library
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and
  containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three
  aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand (on which is a storybook) here.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               465
  You put the great contract book on the book return stand.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  466
  You head west to the smoke-damaged chamber. Then northeast to the upper
  bulb. Then east to the gallery of still life. Then east to the white
  gallery. And finally east to the bellroom.
  
  Bellroom
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have
  slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs.
  Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window,
  lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar itemsare a glass bell, a cow
  bell, a leather tambourine, a silver bell, and a little gold dinner bell.
  
> >   Bellroom                                                  467
  You acquire the glass bell, and assess it curiously.
  
  Thick glass with a clapper on a chain.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               468
  You head west to the white gallery. Then west to the gallery of still life.
  Then west to the upper bulb. Then southwest to the smoke-damaged chamber.
  And finally east to the lie library.
  
  Lie Library
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and
  containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three
  aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand (on which are a great contract book and a
  storybook) here.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               469
  You summon the librarian, who comes and looks at the contract book: you see
  this as a sort of fog. It frowns at the condition of some of the pages,
  then searches the front and back of the book; then, grimacing, it takes out
  a red seal like those used in the empire of the Chan. It is about to mark
  the contract book property of the Lie Library, when it discovers that its
  seal ink has dried up: so the stamp has no efficacy. Disappointed, it
  vanishes again.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               470
  You put the infernal inkpot on the book return stand.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               471
  You summon the librarian, who comes and looks at the contract book: you see
  this as a sort of fog. It frowns at the condition of some of the pages,
  then searches the front and back of the book; then, grimacing, it takes out
  a red seal like those used in the empire of the Chan. It is about to mark
  the contract book property of the Lie Library, when it discovers that its
  seal ink has dried up: so the stamp has no efficacy. Disappointed, it
  vanishes again.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               472
  You acquire the infernal inkpot.
  
> >   Press Room                                                473
  You head west to the smoke-damaged chamber. Then northeast to the upper
  bulb. Then down to the lower bulb. Then south to the law library. Then down
  to the central crypt. Then south to the debtor's paradise. Then down to the
  dank room. And finally north to the press room.
  
  Press Room
  Liquid squeezed from the surrounding earth here flows out through a
  fountain, then soaks back into the ground below.
  
> >   Press Room                                                474
  You fill the infernal inkpot from the fountain, trying to get as little as
  possible on yourself.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               475
  You head south to the dank room. Then up to the debtor's paradise. Then
  north to the central crypt. Then up to the law library. , emerging into the
  law library. Then north to the lower bulb. , emerging into the lower bulb.
  Then up to the upper bulb. , emerging into the upper bulb. Then southwest
  to the smoke-damaged chamber. , emerging into the smoke-damaged chamber.
  And then east to the lie library.
  
  Lie Library
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and
  containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three
  aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand (on which are a great contract book and a
  storybook) here.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               476
  You put the infernal inkpot on the book return stand.
  
> >   Lie Library                                               477
  You summon the librarian, who comes and looks at the contract book: you see
  this as a sort of fog. It frowns at the condition of some of the pages,
  then searches the front and back of the book; then, grimacing, it takes out
  a red seal like those used in the empire of the Chan.
  
  It inks this carefully from the inkpot, then stamps inside the front of the
  book:
  
  
                         PROPERTY OF THE LIE LIBRARY
                                DO NOT REMOVE
  
  ...whereupon the contracts inside begin to unravel and dissolve into the
  merest stories.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                478
  You head west to the smoke-damaged chamber. And finally northeast to the
  upper bulb.
  
  Upper Bulb
  In the upper chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is
  below; indeed for all you can tell the flow might be eternal.
  
  Nearby an open ivory door leads southwest to the smoke-damaged chamber.
  
  And here Beast lies, sprawled on the ground as if he'd fallen.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                479
  All the servants of the castle are now released, and none will serve you.
  
> >   Upper Bulb                                                479
  As you do, you can't help remembering -- because of the girdle -- how many
  women before you this king imprisoned against their will. And why should he
  deserve to be forgiven, merely because he has been less cruel to you than
  to the others?
  
  When you lift your head, he is his proper self: a man, about forty-five.
  Handsome, perhaps, but in the style of the lord mayor, not someone you
  would have aspired to wed. His face has perhaps softened a little since his
  youth, but he is still recognizably the same person.
  
  His fingers stretch in experiment. "Dear virgin mother. You did it. The
  servants are free?"
  
  You nod.
  
  "Good girl." He touches your cheek affectionately; then freezes. "And
  you're wearing Yvette's girdle. I suppose you heard her story, in that
  case." He sticks out his jaw. "You can go now. It won't kill me, this
  time."
  
  You draw a breath and give him your answer.
  
  
  
      *** You have restored the King and freed his servants ***
  
  
  
  Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, or QUIT?
> > 