"Kit Reed - Rajmahal" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Kit)

KIT REED

RAJMAHAL

SALLY

The manager tells us that the Rajmahal is very old. He says the palace was built
by a Rajput ruler just to please the princess Mrinal, his beautiful wife. Gary
squeezes my hand and I squeeze back; we are so excited! From the pavilion we can
see the roofs of the palace and the surrounding walls of the fort; we can see
the whole mountainside below and the village at the bottom, at the lip of a
desert that seems thousands of miles wide. Gary and I are alone with the
manager, and he says call him P.K. The twilight is sweet; the view is brilliant,
and for the moment Gary and I can almost forget we're traveling with the
Minneapolis Adventure Club.

The manager says the corrugated ramps in the palace were ridged so the ruler's
elephants could carry treasure--gold, silks, new brides? to this beautiful
pavilion at the top.

Was Mrinal happy with her prince in the Rajmahal? How could she not be happy in
this palace with lacy screens between the rooms and marble underfoot? How could
I not be happy with my boyfriend Gary in a stone wedding cake on a Rajasthani
mountaintop?

Oh, India. Oh wow.

It's like Oz with dust.

And the Rajmahal! To get here, you come through gates higher than eight
elephants standing on each other's backs; the walls are so thick you think, my
God, what were they afraid of, that they made this palace so hard to reach? And
then you think, Whatever it is, is it going to get me? You climb and go through
still more walls; you keep going up! The manager says the hairpin curves are to
confound enemy elephants. You almost give up. Then, bang, you're at the top. It
is so high!

But first you pass through the most adorable little village. Darling kids come
out and laugh and wave. The manager says the villagers have a wonderful
relationship with the palace -- after all, it used to be their park, and before
the owners took it over and began restoring the Rajmahal to its former glory,
they used to wander uphill all times of the day and night to play on the grounds
and throw parties in the ruins of the palace. The manager says, You know how
these people are, but I don't.

Before the owners took it over the Rajmahal was such a wreck it's a wonder the
villagers weren't hurt or worse, plunging into unmarked pitfalls or getting
bopped by rocks or falling into the great big stone hole out front, which the
brochure says is an old water tank. The manager says really the Rajput rulers
put their prisoners of war down there, along with their rivals in love; this