The Secret Passage — El pasadizo secreto

The King ordered himself to call the architect who was directing the works of the new palace that was being building on the slopes of the Blue Lake mountain. He wanted to know how and where the secret access would be projected from the royal apartments of the palace located on the mountain of the Green Hills, to the secret room that would be located at the eastern end of the future palace. No one should know of the existence of that passage. The architect explained to the King in great detail the underground layout that this important work would follow.

Shortly after that day, the architect requested an urgent audience with the King. In the course of the excavation work, a strange and huge cave had been discovered that seemed to have no bottom. When the workers threw a stone to try to guess its depth, the stone did not return the sound that would be heard when hitting the floor or walls. There was simply no obstacle in ita fall. That unfortunate discovery did not allow them to continue the excavation. The King ordered the architect to lead him to the grotto. Once there, the flickering light of the torches illuminated what appeared to be the empty socket of a huge eye. The King asked for a torch to be thrown. He wanted to see the walls of that basin. The light coming from the torch found no projection on any surface, it was as if the cave pit had no walls. Then an inexplicable event occurred. The torch, instead of falling into the void, slowed down and hung about twenty meters from the surface. That was his explanation for not having been able to hear the stone hit the ground. The stone had also been suspended in space, like the torch.

El Rey se ordenó llamar al arquitecto que dirigía las obras del nuevo palacio que se estaba construyendo en la falda de la montaña del Lago Azul. Quería saber cómo y por dónde se proyectaría el acceso secreto desde los aposentos reales del palacio situado en la montaña de las Verdes Colinas, hasta la estancia secreta que se situaría en el extremo oriental del futuro palacio. Nadie debería saber de la existencia de ese pasadizo. El arquitecto le explicó al Rey con todo lujo de detalles el trazado subterráneo que seguiría aquella importante obra.

Poco tiempo después de aquel día, el arquitecto pidió audiencia urgente al rey. En el curso de los trabajos de excavación, se había…