Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29 Amy's hands shook as she held the door. She dared to glance back over her shoulder at the others. "Madrigals have wanted to get the family back together since the very beginning," she said softly. "We're descended from Madeleine, the fifth child of Gideon and Olivia Cahill. And—" "They didn't have five children!" Hamilton protested. "They had four!" The others nodded and grumbled, agreeing with Hamilton, not Amy. She swallowed hard and forced herself to go on. "Olivia was pregnant when Gideon died. Madeleine was born after the others fought and scattered. And then it wasn't safe to tell." Amy didn't feel safe now. She tried to finish. "So the Madrigals just want to stop the fighting. They want harmony. Peace. For… for…"

第二十九章艾美扶着门，双手颤抖。 她敢回过头来看看其他人。 “牧歌从一开始就想让这个家庭重聚，”她轻声说。 “我们是玛德琳的后代，她是吉迪恩和奥利维亚·卡希尔的第五个孩子。 而且——”“他们没有五个孩子！”汉密尔顿提出抗议。 “他们有四个！”其他人点头抱怨，同意汉密尔顿的意见，但不同意艾米的意见。 她使劲咽了口气，强迫自己继续说下去。 “吉迪恩死的时候奥利维亚怀孕了。 玛德琳是在其他孩子打架逃散后出生的。 然后说出来就不安全了。” 艾米现在觉得不安全了。她想把话说完。 “牧歌乐队只是想停止战斗。 他们想要和谐。和平。为…………”

She couldn't quite speak the word forgiveness in front of Alistair, who'd helped kill her parents, and Jonah and Ian and Natalie, who'd tried to kill her and Dan. Or even Sinead, who'd never been anything but mean. "Turns out we're the good guys," Dan chipped in. "Oh, right," Ian sneered. "And that's why Madrigals are always stealing other branches' clues, destroying all their plans—" "To keep any one branch from having too much power," Dan explained. "For balance." Amy couldn't tell if anyone believed him. She swung her flashlight forward, through the doorway. The light illuminated another door and another keypad, with a very obvious purpose this time. This keypad held five buttons in a circle, each one labeled:

在阿利斯泰尔面前，她说不出宽恕这个词。阿利斯泰尔帮助杀害了她的父母，还有乔纳、伊恩和娜塔莉，他们曾试图杀死她和丹。 甚至还有西尼德，她一直都很刻薄。 “原来我们是好人，”丹插嘴说。 “哦，对了，”伊恩冷笑着说。“这就是为什么牧歌总是窃取其他分支的线索，破坏他们所有的计划——”“为了防止任何一个分支拥有太多的力量。”丹解释道。 “保持平衡”。艾米不知道是否有人相信他。 她把手电筒向前一挥，穿过门口。 灯光照亮了另一扇门和另一个键盘，这次的目的很明显。 这个键盘上有五个圆圈按钮，每个按钮都标有：

"Look at that," Amy said. "Doesn't that prove the Madrigals want everyone to get along? Because someone from each branch needs to be here before anyone can go on?" Nobody answered. They were too busy surging forward to press the buttons. Alistair and Sinead each seemed to be trying to elbow past the other to get to the Ekat button first. Alistair was also watching Ian and Natalie, and Amy and Dan. Amy's heart sank. He thinks the keypad could backfire, dividing people within each branch, instead of uniting anyone, Amy thought. And he's right. It could. Not with me and Dan, but the others…

“看那个，”艾米说。“这难道不证明牧歌希望每个人都和睦相处吗？” 因为每个分支机构都需要有人在这里，然后才有人可以继续？”没有人回答。 他们忙着向前冲，没时间按按钮。 阿利斯泰尔和西尼德似乎都想挤过对方，先按下Ekat按钮。 阿利斯泰尔也监视着伊恩和娜塔莉，还有艾米和丹。 艾米的心一沉。他认为键盘可能会适得其反，分裂每个分支的人，而不是团结任何人，艾米想。 他是对的。它可以。不是我和丹，是其他人…

The door clicked open and everyone scrambled through, casting suspicious glances at one another. Amy sagged against a wall. She must have accidentally hit some sort of switch because the room was suddenly bathed in light. "Another museum?" Dan groaned. It was. Just like at the other branches' strongholds, Amy thought. Looking at the roomful of display cases steadied her. Unlike the Janus museum, with its amazing art, or the Ekat museum, with its dazzling and horrifying inventions, these exhibits were fairly plain. An ordinary-looking wooden table stood in the very center of the room, as if occupying the place of honor. Amy drifted toward it. The table had a display case on top, containing two sheets of paper: one, clearly ancient, was covered with old-fashioned writing in an indecipherable language— Gaelic, maybe? The other page was crisp and white and typewritten, with a label at the top:

门咔哒一声开了，大家争先恐后地走了进去，互相投来怀疑的目光。 艾米瘫倒在墙上。 她一定是不小心按了什么开关，因为房间里突然沐浴在阳光中。 “另一个博物馆?”丹呻吟着。 这是。就像在其他树枝的据点一样，艾米想。 看着满屋子的陈列柜，她平静了下来。 不像雅努斯博物馆，那里有令人惊叹的艺术，也不像埃卡特博物馆，那里有令人眼花缭乱和恐怖的发明，这些展品相当平淡。 一张看起来很普通的木桌摆在房间的正中央，好像占据了荣誉的位置。 艾米飘向它。桌子上有一个陈列柜，里面放着两张纸：一张显然是古代的，上面写满了老式的文字，用一种无法辨认的语言写成——也许是盖尔语？ 另一页白纸黑黑的，打出来的，上面有个标签：

A TRANSLATION FROM OLIVIA CAHILL'S ORIGINAL ACCOUNTS Amy gasped and began reading: Our family dining table was one of the few items saved from that awful fire in 1507. This was due to mere happenstance, as I had had Thomas and Luke carry it outside earlier in the day so that I might clean and polish it in the bright sunlight. I did not know the darkness that was to come. I look at the table now and can still remember happier times: my husband, my children, myself, all whole and alive, laughing and talking over bean soup or porridge…. I sit at this table with only Madeleine now, her with her bread and jam, me with my sorrows, and I tell her, "Bring them back. Gather them here again." I will not see Gideon again on this earth, but

艾米倒吸了一口气，开始读起来：我们家的餐桌是1507年那场可怕的大火中保存下来的为数不多的东西之一。 这完全是偶然的事，因为那天早些时候我让托马斯和卢克把它搬到外面，以便我可以在明亮的阳光下清洁和擦亮它。 我不知道那即将来临的黑暗。 我现在看着桌子，仍然记得快乐的时光：我的丈夫，我的孩子，我自己，都是完整的，活着，笑着说豆汤或粥.... 我现在只和玛德琳坐在这张桌子旁，她带着面包和果酱，我带着悲伤，我告诉她：“把它们带回来。” 再把他们聚集到这里来。”我不会再在这世上见到吉迪恩了，但是

my dearest wish would be to see Luke and Katherine, Thomas and Jane— and Madeleine and me!— all sitting around this table together. Please, Madeleine, please… The words trailed off, and then there was more, clearly written at a later time: My dearest wish will never be fulfilled. Madeleine's searches bring her news only of deaths, scattered around the globe. I cannot recount them all— the pain is too great. I cannot accept that my children have died so far from me and from one another, in such estrangement. Madeleine tries to comfort me with the notion that now there will be many waiting for me in the next world— happier versions of themselves, more forgiving, less contentious. And, in truth, I long for that. I am an old woman; I am not far from the next world myself. But I still have hopes and fears in this one. I

我最大的愿望就是见到卢克和凯瑟琳，托马斯和简——还有玛德琳和我！所有人都围坐在这张桌子旁。 求你了，玛德琳，求你了……”这些话渐渐消失了，后来又清晰地写了起来：“我最大的愿望永远不会实现。 玛德琳的搜寻只带来了散布在全球各地的死亡消息。 我无法一一诉说，痛苦太大了。 我无法接受我的孩子们在如此疏远的情况下离我而去，离彼此而去。 玛德琳试图安慰我说，在另一个世界里会有很多人等着我——他们会更快乐，更宽容，更少争吵。 说实话，我也渴望这样。 我是一个老妇人；我自己离另一个世界也不远了。 但我仍然对这个充满希望和恐惧。 我