Part 13 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER XV

With what happiness Prince Ember and the Shadow Witch resumed their journey! All the way before them seemed a way of brightness, though it led across a Plain as grey and desolate as it had been before; but they knew that no perils lay in wait for them, and that every step led them safely on.

While the Shadow Witch talked gaily with the Prince, she turned to him a face as radiant as though a light shone through it from within. Ever and again her laughter rang out low and clear, not the echoing, mocking laughter, known so well to the evil fairies of that land, but a laugh of rippling music, as if all sweet sounds, all gentle whisperings of the fire were caught up and gathered into it. The Prince listened to it with keen delight. Of all the notes of gladness that he had ever heard, it was to him the loveliest; and she herself, gliding tall and beautiful beside him, he could never tire of gazing upon.

They came at last to the Land of Shadows. Its pale trees and gardens lay before them, and in the distance they saw the Palace of Shadows lifting its grey towers against the sky.

They had spoken less and less frequently as they drew near it, and the laughter of the Shadow Witch had ceased, for her heart had grown heavy, and her mind was filled with troubled thoughts. Soon Prince Ember would leave her to return to his own home in that fair land which she so much longed to behold. He had left it to come to her deliverance, and at first sight of him she had known that her heart's love could never be given to anyone but him. That he loved her in return, she did not doubt.

His eyes had said it, the tones of his voice had revealed it a hundred times. Had he not called her more than once his ”dear Shadow Witch,” and given himself to danger for her sake again and again?

Yet he said no word of taking her home with him-of making her his bride; and so her eyes were sad, and her heart was full of pain at the thought of the parting which was now so near at hand. She did not dare to speak, lest her grief should break forth uncontrolled.

Who was she, she told herself, the mischievous Shadow Witch, a creature of grey magic, to be the bride of such a one as this bright, this glorious Prince, whose magic was all n.o.ble, whose land was all joy and brightness? In her mind she had no picture of that land. She had seen only Prince Radiance and his White Flame and this Prince Ember, yet she could guess from these, its bright inhabitants, how marvelous the Land of Fire must be.

She bowed her head humbly as she thought of it. Its greatest glory, its n.o.blest Prince could never be for her but she was determined that when he had gone from her, she would forsake her own home and would seek the confines at least of the Land of Fire, and there live in a little of its brightness-there learn what she could of its good magic. This much she must do, for her old life, her old ways, were now more than ever intolerable to her.

Prince Ember, seeing her silent, guessed nothing of her thoughts. To him she was most dear and beautiful, the only one whom he could ever wish to win.

They had reached the foot of her garden, and the Prince stood still. The Shadow Witch paused also, and waited in silence.

Prince Ember took her hand and kissed it. ”Lady of the Shadows,” he said, ”we have come at last to your domain in safety.”

The Shadow Witch caught her breath painfully, for she felt that the moment of farewell had come. It was as if she could not bear it.

The Prince drew yet nearer. ”Dear Shadow Witch,” he whispered, ”I cannot leave you, so do I love you, yet I cannot stay with you here in this grey land. Go with me, then, to my own bright country. Go with me, there to be my bride and princess.”

No answering words rose to the lips of the Shadow Witch. Her face was turned away, and her eyes hidden. But a moment since she had been silent because of overmastering sadness. Now, for very joy, she was dumb. In her humility she dared not grasp at once at the happiness held out to her.

The Prince leaned to her in fear, lest he should have been mistaken, lest perhaps she did not love him as he had hoped and believed. ”Speak,”

he besought her. ”Ah, speak, my dearest. How can I go without you? How can I leave you in this land-a land too sad and grey for such a one as you? All the brightness of my own country is without meaning for me henceforth, if I have not you to share it with me as my heart's true love.”

Wooed thus, the Shadow Witch hesitated no longer. She turned to him in a flood of love and longing. She stretched her hands to him, trembling with the fulness of her joy, and her voice came again. ”Prince of my heart,” she murmured softly. ”Most dear and glorious Prince, where could my home be ever, if not with you?”

Prince Ember caught her to his heart, and silence fell once more between them.

For a little while they tarried in the borders of the garden, clinging to each other in their first great joy, and the dim alleys and dusky trees took on a brightness till now unknown to them from these two figures radiant with a pure and innocent love.

At last the Shadow Witch remembered all that she must leave behind.

”Listen,” she said, and her voice was very gentle, ”I have been long gone, and my servants still wait for their mistress. They love me and are faithful. They will mourn for me when I have left them-Creeping Shadow most of all. I must bid them farewell and tell them why it is that I depart from them to return no more.”

So they left the confines of the garden and turned their steps toward the Palace of Shadows. They had not yet reached it, when its mistress saw a pale figure approaching through the tall shrubs that lined their way.

It was Creeping Shadow, stealing sadly along the paths once dear to her mistress, thinking of Prince Ember who had promised succor, a promise which she had begun to fear he had not been able to keep. ”Alas! what hope could there be after all?” she thought, ”that this Prince should be able, single-handed, to meet and conquer such powerful enemies as the Wizard, and his many evil friends?” She shook her head doubtfully, yet even as she did so she lifted her eyes to look once more along the familiar path by which she had hoped her mistress might return.

”See,” exclaimed the Shadow Witch to her lover. ”She comes, my good and faithful servant, still seeking, still hoping!”