Author's Note: Ok, this chapter is taken from my other obsession: Assassins Creed. Read and review as always please!
Chapter 46: To the Top
The next room they walked into was huge; as large as an art gallery. In fact the room was filled with paintings. All four walls held four paintings each. Peter walked by each of them and admired them. These were classic paintings. He would love to be able to recreate some of these; if only he hadn't sworn to his friends that he wouldn't duplicate anymore paintings. And if he weren't currently traipsing through the Underworld in search of the Devil. Nonetheless, he could find himself easily lost in each of these paintings and spend hours in this room alone.
"Ok, I'm confused," Mike said snapping him out of his reverie a little. "Why did we walk into an art museum?"
"Look," Micky said pointing at the door on the other end of the room. The exit was 2 large double door of ornate design, perfect for its artistic surroundings. But it also seemed to have a spot for 2 paintings on each door and 1 in the middle. It was like fitting 5 paintings on the door was the key to opening it. "I think we have to fill these holes with paintings."
"Which ones?" Mike asked.
"Above the door," Piper pointed at very ornate lettering that blended almost perfectly with the design. "The fruit of knowledge."
"What does that mean?" Mike asked.
"What's the fruit of knowledge, Mike?" Peter asked staring at the painting in front of him.
"An apple," Mike answered.
"Exactly," Peter answered with a smile.
"There are no paintings of apples in here," Mike said.
"Not just apples, but take a closer look at this one for instance," Peter said pointing at the painting he'd been admiring. It was called "The Fall" and it was a very famous and very old depiction of Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden. "What is she doing?"
"Picking apples from the tree!" Mike said understanding.
"So this is one of the paintings that goes in the door?" Micky asked.
"More than likely," Peter said.
"Ok, what else?" Mike asked carefully taking that painting off the wall and handing it to Davy who carefully put it in one of the slots on the door. When he did, they heard a soft click.
"Atalanta and Hippomenes" Peter answered looking at another one. Mike took this one off the wall and Micky put it in the door. Another soft click. Peter pointed at another one called "Idun and the Apples" and two more entitled, "Judgment of Paris" and "Hercules in the Garden of Hesperides". After three more soft clicks the doors opened to reveal another room in the same style. The paintings here were different however. As was the clue written above the door.
"The power they wielded cut down their enemies," Piper read.
"Not sure what that means," Micky said.
"Swords," Davy answered.
"Exactly," Peter said pointing out 5 more paintings on the walls that depicted a person holding a sword. "Perseus, Greece", "Attila the Hun, Eurasia", "King Arthur", "Sigmund, Norse", and "Joan of Arc, France". In the 3rd room, they encountered even more paintings.
"How many of these are there?!" Davy exclaimed.
"Well, they've really been kind of easy so far," Peter said.
"This one says 'In their hands, the wise lean on a great force'," Piper said.
"That one I'm not sure of," Davy said. Peter examined the paintings and realized what it meant.
"What do you lean on when you have a bum leg?" Peter asked.
"A cane," Mike answered.
"What is a cane for someone with a lot of money or power?" Peter asked.
"A staff?" Davy suggested.
"Yep, so the paintings that show someone holding a staff are "Shabataka, Egypt", "Peter, Jerusalem", "Moses, Egypt", "John the Baptist, Jerusalem", and "Alexander the Great, Macedonia".
"Wow, you really know your art," Piper said. It was taking him merely 5 minutes in each room to identify all 5 paintings, but that was because he'd admired most of them in books or museums in the past. Peter blushed a little as she smiled appreciatively at him and Davy slid the last painting in its place with a soft click. The door opened to reveal the interior of a very large cathedral. The five of them entered it and stood in awe for several moments.
"This place is beautiful," Micky said.
"Yeah," Davy agreed.
"Hard to believe this is in the Underworld," Mike said.
"I think this is a replica of a cathedral in Florence," Piper said.
"I don't see a door though," Davy said. "As much as I'd love to stay here for a while, we need to keep moving. How do we get out of here if there's no door?"
"There's a door," Piper answered. "We just have to find it."
"I don't see anything," Mike said walking through the cathedral. The boys spent about half an hour with Piper looking for a door or any clues as to the way out, but no one found anything. Finally Peter stood directly under the dome at the far end of the cathedral and looked up to find an alcove with a ladder leading from it.
"Why would there be a ladder up there?" Peter asked.
"For someone to climb on," Micky answered staring up at it, too.
"Yeah, but all the way up there?" Mike asked joining Peter and Micky.
"The door must be up there," Davy said.
"Why is it all the way up there?" Mike asked.
"I don't think the door is up there," Peter said squinting to see things in the tiny room that were blocked by the rest of the ceiling. "But I see a lever. Which probably means someone has to go up and pull the lever to make the door appear."
"That's not possible," Mike said. "No one can reach that."
"I could try and climb up there," Micky offered.
"You must be joking," Davy answered. "No one can climb up that!"
"Not directly," Micky said. "But if I can get up to the top of that dome, I think I can jump to that ladder."
"What?" Mike said. "I'm going with Davy on this one; that's just insane!"
"No, it's falling apart a little," Micky said. "There should be some foot and handholds up there that I can climb on. Peter?"
"I see quite a few missing bricks that you could use and some wood beams, sure, but the question is how in the heck are you even going to get over there?" Peter answered. He didn't see a way that Micky could even reach them.
"The chandeliers," Micky said pointing at them. "They're flat on top; I should be able to jump around on them."
"Micky, that's way too dangerous," Davy said.
"Says the man who leapt from a speeding horse," Micky retorted.
"I agree with Davy," Mike said. "Peter, Piper, back us up here?"
"I don't know," Piper said. "It has to be possible in order for it to be a test. No one said the tests were going to be easy or safe. And besides that, someone has to go up there to get out of here. With the charms on that dagger and throwing knife, Micky will be a lot more agile anyway, so he has a better chance than the rest of you to get up there. Unless you want to give up and go home now."
"We've come way too far to give up now," Micky said. "I can do this, guys."
"This isn't like climbing around on the staircase and everything else at home, Micky," Peter said. He knew Piper had a good point, but at the same time, he couldn't bear it if something happened to Micky.
"I know that," Micky said. "But I think I can do this."
"You think?" Mike echoed.
"I can do this," Micky said firmly.
"He has to at least try," Davy said giving in. "Someone does. And Micky is the best climber out of all of us to begin with and now that he's a little more agile, he has a better chance of making it."
"But if he fails, he could die," Mike said. "That's a nearly 300 foot fall from the top."
"Please don't remind me of that," Micky said cringing.
"I don't want you doing it," Mike answered.
"Well, what else do you propose?" Micky asked. "Wanna call it quits and go home?"
"No," Mike sighed.
"Then what other choice do we have?" Davy asked.
"Fine," Mike said finally also giving in. "Just take it easy and be very, very careful."
"I know," Micky said.
"Don't fall," Peter offered. He knew it was probably a really stupid thing to say, but he wanted to say it anyway. Micky just looked at him and smiled.
"Thanks, Pete," Micky laughed before walking to the other end of the cathedral and looking around.
"I think if I start up here," Micky said running up a stack of crates and leaping up the wall to grab a stone border. He used a few holes from loose bricks to pull himself up to the top of a large fireplace nearly 4 times his height. Peter's heart skipped a beat when Micky then leapt a few feet across to the top of a decorative alcove. Then he leapt to the top of an adjacent one before leaping to a wooden beam coming out of a pillar for an arch. From the beam he leapt to the top of one of the chandeliers and somehow managed to keep his balance as it swung a little. Peter wasn't really sure how Micky was doing this and every time that Micky was in the air leaping, Peter held his breath.
He then jumped to the neighboring chandelier and then to another wooden beam behind it. Jumping to another wooden beam and over to a ledge on the other side of the wall looked like a simple walk in the park. Micky then climbed up the wall another several feet with relative ease before leaping over several more wooden beams and swinging on several decorative rods before landing on another chandelier. A few more chandeliers, wooden beams and ledges later, Micky was underneath the dome, but he still had a couple hundred feet to climb to reach the ladder. He was now on the decorative unroofed gazebo-like structure. There were three alcoves around it that arched up to the dome and Micky carefully walked around the top of the gazebo-like structure until he reached the far end of the structure and leapt to the wall grasping a small sconce. Peter's heart skipped a beat as the sconce started to come out of the wall, but Micky quickly leapt up to a conveniently placed piece of scaffolding that led to the inside of the alcove.
"That was close," Davy breathed as though he'd been holding his breath for the last 15 minutes.
"I almost can't watch this," Mike muttered. Peter watched speechlessly and breathlessly as Micky climbed the inside of the alcove up the wooden slats to the top of the arch way. He carefully made his way around to the middle alcove using more wooden beams and up to a walkway where he was able to leap to a curtain rod hanging above a cross. He swung from the rod and just barely caught the bottom rung of the ladder.
"Oh thank god," Piper breathed heavily. She nearly fell to the ground as relief washed over her now that Micky had made it to the ladder in one piece and had started to climb it.
"Please tell me he knows how to get down?" Mike asked making Peter's unease course through him again.
"I'm sure there will be a way," Piper said. "Once he pulls the lever."
"I hope you're right," Davy said. After a moment of silence, they heard a loud grinding noise and turned to see a part of the wall behind the giant cross was sliding away to reveal a door. Mike glanced up to see if Micky had found a way down, but quickly jumped out of the way as the ladder descended quickly to the ground with a loud clang.
"That was actually a lot of fun," Micky exclaimed joining them.
"Fun?" Mike echoed. "We were worried sick the whole time you were doing that!"
"Oh, take it easy, Mike," Micky said laughing. "I guess I just finally understand why people go sky-diving or bungee-jumping."
"Yeah, well, you're never doing anything like that ever again," Mike said dryly.
"You're not the boss of me!" Micky argued but laughed. "Relax, Mike. I was joking. That was fun, but I won't ever do it again. I don't think I could anyway. I was only able to do it this time because of the added boosts."
"Can we just keep going please?" Davy asked from the door. Peter may not have had very much street sense, but he knew his friends well enough to know that Davy was trying to avoid taking sides; he understood the thrill of living dangerously from his stunt on the horse, but he also understood Mike's worry. Mike was their big over-protective brother and sometimes he worried too much, but Peter knew none of them would ever trade it for anything in the world.