Two years passed, and Giles, who had found no opportunity of escape,
began to lose hope of doing so. Never again, he feared, would he see
Phyllida. One day, with Eye-o and Ear-o by his side, he sat on a great
boulder and gazed gloomily down on the plain. Spring was just ripening
into early summer, the plain was at its very greenest and loveliest, and
here and there a little blue wood-smoke hung over the tiny villages.
Giles thought of Phyllida far, far away, and a terrible loneliness
poured into his heart. Eye-o and Ear-o sitting beside him, their long,
strange arms clasped about their knees, looked on with sympathy.
Presently Ear-o's right ear turned itself about, and after a moment's
silence, the elf said:--
"I hear voices telling of war. I hear the Robber King of the Black Lakes
summoning his terrible army. He is preparing a secret attack on the
people of the plain."
"I see him! I see him!" cried Eye-o. "He is talking to the Grand
Chamberlain Scelerato."
"Listen," said Ear-o; "he is saying, 'We will sweep the land at dawn,
steal the grain, and destroy every village to its foundation.'"
"I see the robbers gathering," said Eye-o. "They are hiding in the dark
pine forests, lest they be seen by the people of the plain. The sunlight
pierces here and there through the thick branches and shines on the
breastplates of the armed men."
At this terrible news, Giles was stricken to the heart with anxiety and
fear. What was to become of Phyllida and the people of the plain? If he
could only hurry down the mountain and warn them! If he could only
escape! And he looked round eagerly, as he had looked a thousand times
before, for any avenue of escape; but his gaze met only the great
precipices of the mountain and the guarded stairs.
What could he do? His heart became like ice, and he feared to gaze upon
the plain lest he see the smoke of burning villages. All night long he
never closed his eyes. At dawn he rose and hurried to the top of the
gate which overlooked the cloud-bowl. For two whole weeks, not a cloud
had been allowed to roam the sky, and it seemed to Giles that the mists
were angry, and that a darkness brooded upon them. Turning toward the
plain, Giles saw, at the edge of the land, a little glow of fire. The
robbers had invaded the plain!
Presently Eye-o came clambering up the steps.
"I see a village in flames," said the elf. "The inhabitants are fleeing
down the roads. The news is spreading, and the people of the plain are
hurrying to seek refuge in the mountains."
"Oh, where is Phyllida?" cried Giles.
"She is on the highway with Jack and Jill and their children, hastening
toward the Valley of Thunder," answered the elf.
Suddenly Giles stood up, and throwing his arms high over his head,
uttered a loud shout. "I can save them," he cried. "Let us send a storm
against the robbers. Hurry, let us prepare the worst tempest that ever
was seen."
And away he ran to the hail-stone caverns, and carrying bag after bag to
the brim, emptied them all into the weather-bowl; he then tossed in a
dozen skinsful of the fiercest storm-winds, and ended by casting in all
the jars of thunderbolts that were to be found in the cavern. You should
have heard the crash of the crystal vases on the rocky floor of the
weather-bowl, and the hiss with which the lightning escaped and hid in
the rolling edges of the clouds. The great bowl roared and trembled, the
clouds massed together and grew dark; lightning played over the black
crests of the thunder-heads. From the top of the gate, Giles took one
satisfied look into the prisoned tempest, and then hurried down to unbar
the door.
Through the gates, like wild herds, poured the clouds, and rising in the
air, were caught by the spreading storm-winds and whirled madly over the
sky. The thunder roared as no mortal had ever before heard it or ever
will hear it again, and the tempest sailed away to break in all its
anger over the heads of the robber army. So terrible was the noise that
the enchanted mountain trembled to its very foundations.
Hearing the roar, the Shepherd of Clouds himself was roused and ran down
to the cloudbowl; but so dark was the mountain-top that he lost his way,
and narrowly missed falling down a precipice. The mountain elves,
terrified by the confusion, ran hither and thither like ants whose nests
had been opened. Crash went the thunder! Rumble, rumble, rumble, room,
rrrr-rang bang! bang!
Once he had seen the storm break over the robber army, Giles, taking
advantage of the darkness, noise, and confusion, determined to make one
more effort to escape. Down the endless stairs he hurried, splashing
through the falling rain, down, and down, and down. Once at the bottom,
he was lucky enough to find the path out of the chasm, and hurried along
it to the mouth of the Valley of Thunder.
He was free! The terrible storm had spent itself, and the sun was
beginning to shine on the thousand rain-drops caught in the matted
grass. A rainbow formed just as Giles approached the plain, and the
little birds came out to shake the rain from their feathers.
Now, in the secure shelter of an overhanging cliff, were to be found
those people of the plain who had fled to the valley for refuge; and
when these poor worried folk saw Giles coming down the valley, they
recalled the prophecy that a king should come to them out of the valley,
and hailed Giles as their king. Best of all, Phyllida herself ran out,
and threw her arms about her husband. As for the robbers, the storm had
overwhelmed them and swept them all into the river. There, I am glad to
say, they turned into little fishes.
When the Shepherd of Clouds found that Giles had escaped after making
all this disturbance, he was very angry, and rushed to his lightning
closet to hurl some thunderbolts at him. When he got to the closet,
however, he found that Giles had used every single bolt, and that the
cupboard was empty. Consequently, he had to wait till the end of summer
before he could get some new lightning, and by that time, he was so busy
arranging the autumn frosts that he quite forgot about Giles.
So Giles and Phyllida became King and Queen of the people of the plain
and lived happily ever after.