6
AT THE END of the hallway, next to the formal living room, was a large room where few people came these days. It was a large echoing space with an elaborate mosaic floor. The room itself had been added onto the house when Father was a boy. It was a round stubby tower a bit over two floors high. It had a domed ceiling adorned with murals where a spear of light traversed the dusty air. Two days a year, it would fall exactly on the metal plaque in the middle of the room.
Ellisandra and Jintho used to sneak in there as children and run around the middle of the hall-like room, stamping their feet as hard as they could and listening to the echoes.
A gallery level ran along the sides halfway up the walls. All the walls on both levels were lined with shelves which contained thousands and thou
