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he made out the pictures he was even more astonished. |
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Partly because of the mischievous twinkle in Alinor's eyes and partly because of his own curiosity, Simon curbed his first impulse, which was to shepherd Alinor swiftly out of the room. The personsif one could call them thatdepicted were most certainly the ancients who had lived before the advent of Christ. They were a weird brood. The nearest was a woman of astonishing ugliness with snakes all over her head. Beyond her was a man of equally astonishing beauty, until one saw his nether limbs which, hoofs and all, belonged on a goat. Simon would have thought it a portrait of Satan, except that he was playing musical pipes. To the other side was a child with tiny wings on shoulders and heels, bearing a minuscule bow. Beyond the child was a maid whose arms were turning into the branches of a tree while her feet became its roots. There were dozens of others which Simon could not see clearly, each different, except in one thing. None of them, not one, wore even a stitch of clothing, not even the few who seemed to be engaged in quite ordinary business, such as weaving or wrestling. |
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Simon made some carefully indifferent comment and Alinor, stifling her laughter, led him away. The next stop was the Emperor's bedchamber. Here indifference gave way. Simon snorted in contempt at the gilded bed with its cloth-of-gold hangings and spread, at the jeweled cups and pitchers, ewers, basins. The golden urinal made him laugh aloud and comment coarsely that, no doubt, the Emperor thought he pissed sweet wine. |
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"He reminds me of a creature they brought to show the King at Rhodes. The shell was of a beauty hard to believe, traced and fluted, all pale pink and gold and white, but the thing insideugh!boneless and formless, slimy gray, good for nothing except its outer covering." |
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"You are right enough about the creature inside be- |
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