So, in Roger Zelazny's "Nine Princes in Amber", when Corwin's in the dungeon he tries to figure out how long it would be before it would be noticed, were he to go missing.
[There was an] odor of decaying flesh. I wondered, if I were to die, how long would it be before someone took notice? How many chunks of bread and bowls of slop would go uneaten before the guard thought to check within after my continued existence? ... The death odor was around for a long while. I tried to think in terms of time again, and it seemed that it persisted for over a week.
He eventually escapes by means of a magic drawing, provided by Dworkin, of the Lighthouse of Cabra. Note that in addition to depicting his destination, it was also palpably magical:
I turned quickly and considered the Lighthouse of Cabra before the match failed. Yes, the power was there. I could feel it.
He steps through the magic drawing, ends up at the lighthouse...and stays there for three months?!?
I stayed with him for three months, as I recovered my strength.
This seems impossibly foolish - he knows that his absence will likely be noticed in roughly a week, he's the most important prisoner in the dungeon, he left a magic drawing in his cell both depicting his destination and providing instantaneous transport there, and he's just going to hang out at the other end?!? Not only that, but it works! Nobody figures it out, no army of soldiers surrounds the lighthouse in the night! Is there some detail I'm missing, some note that makes this make sense, or is this as unbelievable as it seems on the surface?
(Also, I sure hope that lighthouse keeper can convince Eric that he had no idea that it was Corwin, else RIP lighthouse keeper.)