Free Clash of the Titans by Alan Dean Foster Page B

information. Even information detailing the layout of a palace. Queen Cassiopeia was well liked by her people. Many of them had sought and been granted audience with her inside the confines of the great palace. A few of these fortunate supplicants had good memories of the physical layout.
    That information was passed on to him with surprising readiness. His innocent face and mannerisms, his curiosity and apparent harmlessness had always stimulated in others a desire to help him, and to show off their own knowledge and wisdom. So he'd had no trouble sketching out a crude plan of the palace's interior and then making use of it.
    Once he almost stumbled into the royal kitchens, a region of wondrous aromas which he'd been loath to depart empty-handed. But he had no time to stop and snack.
    Now he found himself crouching behind an enormous marble urn in a long corridor. Ahead to his right should be a guardroom, and beyond it, storage and cleaning rooms. On the far left at the end of the hall would be a stairway leading up to a square tower.
    He walked softly down the corridor, ever watchful not for the sharks of Seriphos's reef now, but for antagonists of fewer but longer teeth. There was noise from the guardroom, laughter and easy conversation. No one challenged him.
    A single guard had been standing watch by the stairway while Perseus had hidden behind the urn, but now moved toward the guardroom, called by his companions. The soldier hesitated, certain he had heard footsteps. But a careful inspection of the corridor showed no one. He shrugged, turned, and entered the guardroom.
    Behind him the invisible Perseus resumed his walk toward the stairs.
    The doors there were unlocked, the alcove beyond deserted. A second set of doors at the top of the stairs was likewise unbarred. He pushed inward and found himself staring into a chamber larger than he'd expected to find.
    It was sparsely furnished, decorated only by an occasional vase or sculpture. There was a sumptuous dressing table, several mirrors, and an open chest containing clothing. Across the chamber was a raised marble platform and on it, a huge bed.
    The room was cool since the tower's height enabled it to catch the sea breezes which passed over the steaming city below. They blew in through a large open arch. A balcony extended outward from the opening.
    The bed was enveloped by filmy curtains of near transparent silk brought all the way from distant Cathay on the backs of camels and mules. Men and animals had perished so that a princess might be spared the inconvenience of mosquito and fly bites while she slept.
    The door swung farther inward, then closed as if by magic. There were quiet footsteps and the clink of metal on metal. Perseus decided the chamber was safe. There was no other hint of movement within.
    He took off the helmet. If it were possible he wanted the princess to see him as clearly as he hoped to see her. Moving lithely toward the bed while still keeping a wary eye ready for unexpected chambermaids, he mounted the marble platform and parted the pastel gauze.
    Andromeda lay clad in a gown of material only slightly darker, though no less soft, than the screening silks. She was smaller than Perseus had envisioned her after seeing her mother the queen, though clearly no child.
    Her hair was draped loosely across her pillow, forming a golden aura more brilliant than any crown. An air of disturbed innocence seemed to emanate from her sleeping form. Aloof from the murderous ceremonies in the square she might be, but her expression hinted that she was not unaffected by them. Unable to alter those ceremonies, she had withdrawn from the world that countenanced them.
    I will bring you back, he abruptly promised himself. You are too beautiful to hide here in a tower of cold stone. I will see you out in the world again, free to shine like Apollo's chariot, free of the fear I see in your sleeping face. Let me do this for you and I will myself then be forever happy.
    He