PIRIN

Shapes veiled by other shapes

Shapes veiled by other shapes CHAPTER IV

In the following days, Nhalfòrdon-Domenir asked to visit the mansions and its gardens. He found that in each room, in each corner of the enchanted haven of King Helewen, an actual universe was disclosed to him. Wherever he set his eyes, Domenir could see marvelous works, fairy-like vistas, and items from far and different places. Halls and chambers looked like art workshops, antiquarian stores, bazaars filled with collections, memories, devices and unique creations, which the landlord had carefully collected throughout the long years of his life. On the shelves, on the furniture, on the ground, hanging from the walls or the ceilings, there was a wealth of sculptures, statues, illuminated manuscripts, journals, diaries, herbal notes, scrolls, ancient maps, trophies, stuffed animals, pots, lamps, chandeliers, unknown musical instruments, busts, tapestries, carpets, curtains and clothes, jewels and works of refined gold-smithing, necklaces, weapons, precious stones, astrolabes, armillary spheres, instruments to measure time and curious inventions… and each of these items told a different story. It seemed, somehow, as though Helewen wanted to keep the entire world in that estate.

And each time Domenir though he had now explored the whole of it, his foster-father showed him things he had missed at first glance, items previously hidden by others, shapes veiled by other shapes.

Thus from an ancient pot a scroll was taken, or by opening the curtains a fresco was revealed, or a hidden niche. By pulling out the drawers of some ancient nightstand in historiated wood, one could take out some old decorated boxes, which contained other boxes, which in their turn contained mysterious items, historically significant. By turning the pages of ponderous manuscripts, there appeared notes, drawings, or dried leaves of rare essences.

Domenir, who had begun with amazement – but kept silent, for his heart was veiled by sadness – as the days passed started to ask questions, desiring his noble foster-father to clarify the fascinating vicissitudes of the wealth of items kept in those rich chambers.

In the estate, without taking account of the building which was used as an annex for the household and the servants, there were dozens of bedrooms besides the landlord’s, offices and ateliers, a breakfast hall, a lunch hall and a dinner hall, two break halls, a workshop, a great library, a small natural science museum, four exhibition halls for artworks, a hall of inventions, a frescoed hall with maps, a private chapel, a theatre with about forty seats, two large living halls and three reading halls, twelve bathrooms. There were also storages, stables, barns, cellars and docks. On the outer walls there were dozens of loggias, balconies, corridors, stairways and porches.

Since the summer was getting warmer and warmer, Helewen could show his young guest also the large gardens of Matir-ath-Adurini, for that was the most advisable period for long walks in the shade of its trees, reflected as green clothes in the quiet mirror of the river; and then to climb the delicate green hills, stopping by to contemplate the vista from the meditative stone of the gazebos watching over the whole park; and smelling the fresh, dripping spray which casual winds raised from the fountains. Every now and then in the large park, one could see gray sentinels of stone silently lurking, scratched emblems of fantastic beasts, mysterious sculptures, still witnesses of a long-lost past.