Alone, in the deep darkness of her prison, sat the Shadow Witch growing
paler and sadder every day. She was beginning to fear that after all
Creeping Shadow could do nothing to help her, for how could she ever
penetrate to this dungeon, with its thick walls that hemmed her in. She
doubted not that the Wizard kept the entrance to the Cave closely
guarded; indeed he had told her that it was so.
Daily her food was brought to her by the Chief Imp, who grew more and
more impertinent to her. Daily her brother came to taunt her with her
weakness—with his own power over her. Proudly as she bore herself, she
could not but dread his coming, could not but wonder what he might still
have in store for her of punishment and suffering.
Never before had she so hated the evil magic of the Wizard and his
friends; and even her own magic, which she had always used more in
mischief than with evil in her heart, had grown detestable to her.
The longing to escape became so great that she could hardly endure it,
but with each visit from her brother, her hope of freedom became less
and less, so scornfully did he laugh at her when she demanded to know
when she should be set at liberty.
One day, as she sat thinking bitterly of the hardness of her lot, she
heard once again the sound of approaching footsteps, and, immediately
after, the wall parted, and her brother entered. The lanterns of the
Imps who came with him, cast but a dim light in the thick darkness, yet
faint as it was, the Shadow Witch felt herself revive a little. She
gathered up all her strength and rose to face the Wizard defiantly. In
silence the Imps flocked in and ranged themselves along the soot-hung
walls. The Wizard advanced toward his sister with his cruel smile.
“Well, my clever sister,” he asked her jeeringly, “how fares it with you
now, in this pleasant resting-place?”
The dark eyes of the Shadow Witch rested coldly upon his face, but she
vouchsafed him no reply.
“Here, it is true, you have no special opportunity to do further
mischief,” continued the Wizard, “and that is a hardship for you, to be
sure. But you have plenty of time for repentance, which you need far
more. As for your Land of Shadows, word has come to me that your
servant, Black Shadow, holds sway in your absence. Nay, more, that she
rejoices in her power, and is none too eager for your return.”
Still the Shadow Witch made no reply. She did not doubt what he said,
for she knew well the boldness and insolence of Black Shadow, but she
would not gratify him by showing that she cared in the least.
“And Creeping Shadow,” he went on, “that other servant in whom, above
all the rest, you have had confidence, she, also, has joined herself to
Black Shadow, and obeys her in all things.”
“In that I know you speak falsely,” retorted the Shadow Witch. “There is
none more faithful to me than Creeping Shadow. Nothing could turn her
away from her loyalty to me. I have many other servants, also who love
me, and serve me well.”
“She did not show herself loyal when she sought me in my Cave not long
since,” observed the Wizard, stroking his dingy beard with a slow hand.
“At first she did indeed pretend to desire your freedom; at first she
wept and pleaded with me for your release, as though she were in
earnest, but when she found that I gave no heed to her, she cast off all
disguise, and showed plainly that she rejoiced in your imprisonment. She
even went so far as to try to bargain with me to hold you here. She
needed not to bargain, my good sister, for nothing could change my
purpose toward yourself. I have determined that in this prison you shall
find all of home or kingdom that will be yours for many a day.”
“Naught that you can say would serve to convince me that Creeping Shadow
is a traitor,” she answered. “Why should I trust your word in place of
what I know of her? The day of my deliverance may be far off, the way of
its accomplishment may be hard, but I shall be freed at last. For this
my faithful servants work, as you shall find.”
Still the Wizard sought to stir her, to break down her courage. “How
unfortunate it is that you have no prince to aid in this good work,” he
taunted. “Such a prince as Radiance, perhaps—he, whom you ran such risks
to aid. But he has returned to the Land of Fire with his pale princess
and will hardly trouble himself now to release you from the punishment
that you are enduring because of him.”
Proudly the Shadow Witch raised her head, and for the first time since
her imprisonment there were tears in her beautiful eyes. “Whether or no
he remembers me in the midst of his joy,” she answered, “Whether or no
he will succor me in my need, I shall never be sorry that I helped him
to deliver his Princess. He it was who first brought brightness into my
dreary land. He it was, who, for the first time in my life, made me to
know what it is to be noble. Happy am I, then, even here and now, that
it was given me to serve him. Proud am I with a far different pride than
any that I have known before.”
The Wizard heard her in amaze. Had his sister taken leave of her
senses? What had come over the mischief-loving Shadow Witch that she
should speak in this fashion? “You behave strangely, sister,” he replied
sharply. “Can it be that it was something more than the mere pleasure of
outwitting and injuring me that led you to aid this impudent stranger,
enemy to your people and to all who dwell in this land?”
“Ay,” returned the Shadow Witch boldly. “It was indeed something more. I
could not see one so brave and good become the victim of your evil
magic; nor allow his happiness to be destroyed by those wicked ones who
plotted for his destruction. He has awakened me to what we are, and I
tell you now that if once I escape from the power of your dark spell, I
shall bid you and your friends farewell forever. If in my own Land of
Shadows I can cause to spring up a better magic than it has known
heretofore, it will be well. But if that hope proves vain, I shall
forsake my home, and go to that land of brightness and good magic from
whence this prince came, and there learn nobler ways and find a truer
home.”
At these words of his sister, the Wizard burst forth in such furious
rage that his Imps, hearing, shrank back close to the wall of the
cavern, trembling with fright. “Miserable creature,” he shouted. “Is it
not enough that you have brought suffering upon me, that you should go
to the Land of Fire, carrying with you the secrets of all who dwell in
this land? Traitor! Until now I had meant to punish you but for a time;
but now I know that to release you is to prepare misfortune and
betrayal for every one of us. It shall never, never be. You have warned
me in time. You have sealed your own doom. Never, while I have power to
keep you within these walls, shall you escape to carry out your
purpose.”
“You may well say while you have power to keep me,” retorted the Shadow
Witch. “Do what you may, I shall yet be freed. Then I shall go where I
will.”
Still more enraged by her unshaken defiance, the Wizard sprang upon her
and grasped her wrists. He towered above her dark and forbidding. He
gave a sharp command to the Imps, and in an instant they had departed
with the lanterns. In the thick darkness that followed, the Shadow Witch
heard him say nothing more, but she felt that same strange magic stream
from his hands that she had felt on the day that she had first entered
her prison, and she became as weak and helpless as she did before.
When he had gone and the wall had closed behind him, she fell to weeping
wildly; not for Prince Radiance, whom she should see no more, but for
that noble brightness that he had once brought to her eyes, and with the
dread in her heart that it would never be hers.
Yet, even as she wept, ever nearer and nearer to the Cave of Darkness
came Prince Ember, hasting from the Land of Fire upon the glorious
adventure of her deliverance.
[Illustration]