now ...«
She tried to push past me and follow her Prince downstairs. But again I blocked her way.
»I won’t excuse anything«, I said. »You either explain to me how this whole Mardi Gras-thing is related to the murders, or I won’t budge an inch. And by the way, I won’t butch an inch either after you’ve explained everything to me!«
»I wish I hadn’t let you stay the night!« she said, pushed me aside and ran down the stairs. Now that I was back in form, her white butt with the bushy tail triggered certain emotions inside me. More than that. Suddenly the investigative jack in the box jumped out of my soul with such intensity that I was lost in rapture and so keen on the upcoming adventure that I would have loved to personally follow the Prince here and now. Just like in the good old days.
»Don’t you dare come in my way«, Samantha said while rushing down the staircase. I had trouble keeping in step with her. By now we had reached the big salon.
»What is the princely penguin planning to do in the cellar, Samantha?«
We went around the elevator and headed further downstairs towards the basement of the palazzo.
»Cellar? Savoyen isn’t going to the cellar.«
»But usually there is a cellar underneath the ground level of a house.«
»Exactly, and usually there is simply nothing underneath the cellar of a house.«
»I’m fed up with this! Could you maybe please give out information that I can understand without having to find the philosophers’ stone first?«
Again, I forced her to stop. The twitches in her face showed me that she was to burst with excitement.
»Follow me«, she said and didn’t let me hold her from walking downstairs. »These houses were built at a time when Rome hadn’t yet been dissected by legions of archeologists like coroners do to an Egyptian mummy. When raising theses buildings, the clients sometimes came across the mazed system of catacombs below ground that invisibly pervades this city. So they made a virtue out of necessity and had themselves built a secret door to the underground. Who knows when it might come handy, they thought.«
We reached the cellar, which consisted of dark corridors and exposed brickwork, which again indicated junctions towards moldy rooms. My eyes, which according to my nature turn into low-light amplifiers in the dark, detected that the elevator shaft really let further down. Samantha crawled through the lattice and sprang down. Utterly fearlessly, like I just happen to be, I did the same. We landed on our four paws on the top of the elevator, whereat the free fall had felt like almost 10 feet to me. Through slots on the side, we squeezed ourselves inside the elevator cage and left it through the open door.
First of all I noticed the brightness. It wasn’t quite the fireball, but at least it wasn’t total darkness either. From somewhere, light was coming to the underground. We found ourselves in something like a vaulted cellar, in a cold facility, which was built in cyclopean structure, with stones of various shapes and sizes. Instantly the rheumatism-benefiting mold of several ages reached my nostrils, and spider webs tickled my nose. As far as I could see, several round arc-doors let from this place to the catacombs. And from there the light seemed to come.
»Some people rather live in the past, mainly those who are facing death«, Samantha said and rushed towards the light. We passed one of the round arcs and faced a corridor, which didn’t seem to come to an end. Neither hide nor hair of the Prince. Burning torches rose from angular, iron baskets, which were attached to the walls at wide intervals. The guy in front of us must have lightened them.
»Does the word ›theosophy‹ ring a bell, Francis?« Samantha said and set a brisk pace as usual. I panted for air in the corridor behind her.
»Well, Latin and Ancient Greek probably are the only fields I can shine at.« I replied. »Can’t help it when you live with an archeologist who knows the languages of these sunken kingdoms like they were his own. Theo means God, Sophia means wisdom, Theosophy means the Wisdom of God or the Wisdom of Gods.«
»Exactly, known as the divine in man«, Samantha explained, while we got lost deeper and deeper inside the tunnel. The flickering light of the torches didn’t really help to keep the fear inside me within a limit. Quite the contrary, the patchwork of rough-hew pavers, that