They passed through a heavy wooden door that was lifted by two Royal Guards. The Royal Guards stationed at night were still required to be in their prim and formal uniform, but unlike those in the day, they were allowed to move and slack off a bit.
“Thank you,” the curator said as the guards let them in. “If you come here during the day, those guards would have to pose stiff.”
After the door, they passed through the antechamber, with two converted rooms on each side, with “closed” signs hung over their doors and glass windows. “To your left is the smaller ticket and administration office... Of course it’s closed. To your right is the souvenir shop,” the curator said. “Lots of goodies there. Oh I just love to shop there. If I only have money,” he grinned.
“The souvenir shop contains unique stuff,” Daki said. “Well, aside from the usual fridge magnets and replicas, if you go to the back of the souvenir shop, there is a passageway to the lower level where they sell hams, cheese, beef jerky, and preserves made in the castle.”
“Ah those,” the curator said, “those are the goodies that I really dig. But more on that later. This way please,” he the pointed the way forward to the larger chamber inside the castle. “This is the Marble Room of the castle, where public audiences, dances, and other receptions were held. Now it’s just usually tourists who wander here.”
The Marble Room is a large multistory chamber, with an inlaid mosaic marble floor, towering marble columns reaching up to the castle’s architectural arches, and marble walls, all made from the same pink marble that the Royal Palace in Lamback was made of. The walls had beautiful relief sculptures adorning its walls, and the painted ceiling features scenes from Dallicanian mythology. There were several rooms leading from the chamber. “These rooms,” the curator pointed to them, “house the treasures of the castle, artifacts, and other things that the tourists view. We are going to go to those later. To your right is a corridor – it leads to servants’ quarters and the basement, and other living rooms. Off limits to tourists of course.”
In front of them is a pair of converging grand staircases, also made of pink marble, leading to more rooms in the second floor, whose doors are also visible from the chamber. Flush to the wall, between the convergence is a tapestry hung from the ceiling and reaching the floor. “The stairs and the second-floor rooms are off-limits to visitors.”
“And the tapestry,” Daki commented. “Well, except for us.”
The comment is always puzzling to first-time visitors. Daki and the curator urged them to go with them towards the tapestry. The lower part of the tapestry depicts a sword battle in vivid reds and browns, which smoothly transitions to the upper level's radiant blues of the sky where the gods of Dallicanian pantheon look on and ensure victory down below. “Beautiful scene from Dallicanian history,” the curator added, and then parted away the side of the tapestry to reveal a hidden corridor behind it.
“This is the Sardonyx Passage,” the curator said, and then flipped a hidden switch. The corridor was then illuminated with pinkish light shimmering from behind the semi-translucent sardonyx walls.
“It is such a beauty,” Malaya said. “The sardonyx lets the light through, but at the same time tinges it red from the sard and yellow from the onyx.”
“Let’s go in,” the curator said as he stepped into the Sardonyx Passage and the rest followed him. “The Sardonyx Passage connects the two main wings of the Castle. The Bagbag, or East Wing, is the one open to tourists. The Baytang, or West Wing, is open only to the Royal Family, their visitors, and staff.”
“We could’ve just went around outside the castle, you know, the path between the walls and the castle, but this one is more exciting – the Sardonyx Corridor can’t be illuminated when tourists are in the castle for security reasons. But since we are here at five-thirty AM, we can open it.”
At the end of the Sardonyx Corridor is another spacious chamber, albeit smaller than the Marble Room. The curator opened the light switch and the chamber became illuminated in beautiful golden light. The room was as richly decorated as the Marble Room – only in amber, gold leaf, and mirrors. “This is the Amber Room,” the curator remarked. “Now you see why tourists don’t have access to this,” he joked.
The Amber Room’s grand staircase is richly decorated, with gilded railings and back-illuminated sardonyx steps like in the Sardonyx Corridor. “The stairs go up to the private rooms of the Palace. You can only access those from this staircase.”
“My room is over there,” Daki pointed out one of the indistinguishable golden doors. “Malaya’s is over there.”
“Let’s now go to the rooftop,” the curator said as he led the way. The group ascended the sardonyx stairs, traversed the interior balcony that overlooked the Amber Room, and then turned on another corridor tucked between the end of the balcony and the wall. “This corridor leads to the part of the castle where the staff lives,” Daki said.
After a minute of walking, the curator touched a section of the wall, and then opened a false wall that hid a stone staircase. “This is the escape staircase to the rooftop. For emergency situations,” the curator said.
“I didn’t even know that existed,” Malaya said. “I always used the Soldiers’ Staircase.”
“Me too,” Daki agreed.
“Well, the Soldiers’ Staircase is really for soldiers and people to be able to go to the rooftop and be able to defend the castle. But this staircase is for the Royal Family to be able to escape should they be trapped here in the lower floors.”
“I see,” Malaya said. "Why weren’t we told of that?”
The curator shrugged. He opened his powerful LED flashlight, and then walked up the stairs. At the top, he opened a tightly closed hatch, and they group emerged onto the rooftop of the castle.
The flat castle rooftop was made of stone, with a low crenellated parapet surrounding it. Six two-story towers rise from the rooftop, one of them containing a bell. These towers formed the last defense of the castle and are meant to be shelters against an attack. Now they can also be used for gatherings.
A covered tent has been set up at the center of the rooftop, with some set tables underneath it and a now working coffee maker.
“I think this coffee are for us,” the curator said as he led the group towards the table.
“Oh yes,” a young woman remarked as she emerged from the door of one of the towers. She was carrying a tray with several white ceramic pitchers and several cups. She curtsied a bit when she saw the twins. “Those are for you, Your Highnesses.” She laid down her tray on one of the empty tables. “And these are hot chocolate, plain green tea, and mango tea. The breakfast is being cooked, it will be served in a while.”
“Thank you,” Daki said.
“Oh, you don’t know how much I love these that I don’t know which to drink,” the curator told them eagerly. “This is coffee from Talampas – the Red Plateau area. Really lovely. And famous too.”
“Also, I also love this one: hot chocolate. It’s not your usual hot chocolate you buy commercially. This is a cacao drink made traditionally and artisanally, using cacao beans from the common cacao and its three related species that grow in Dallicania. Such a rarity nowadays, because it takes so much effort turning the beans into a drink.”
“This one is green tea. I think these is Kaliraya tea, yes?” The curator asked, and the servant nodded. “These are grown in the uplands of Kaliraya, near the border with Esplandia. I assume you have things similar to these.”
“But what makes this next thing unique are the mangoes. Mango green tea.” The curator opened the lid of the pitcher and smelled the aroma. “Isn’t that smell lovely?”
“So get your drinks now as we wait for the sunrise.”
The group pulled some chairs onto the rooftop to wait for the sunrise. The view from the roof of the castle was breathtaking. To their left was East Dallicania, and from the lights that were still on, one can trace the Amaya River valley and its cities. In front of them was the Red Plateau, shaped like a trough with two mountain ranges flanking it, and with the Angat River emerging from its mouth near the Lamback conurbation. To their left were West Dallicania, the Angat River, and its cities. Behind them were the plains of East and West Dallicania, the Central Mountain Range, and Esplandia behind it.
At a few minutes before six o’clock, the sun began to rise to their left, at the east. The dark blue of the skies were replaced with the bluish-purple as the rays of the sun began shining. The reds and oranges began to be reflected from the clouds that are now located above the castle, and finally the sun itself arose from the horizon, over the sea. As the sun rose, the sun became illuminated with its bright light, and its heat dissipated the clouds hugging the mountain into mere fog.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Daki remarked. “Very comforting, makes waking up early worth it.”
)
