Getting on his feet he pulled himself together, and tried to find out who had thus attacked him. Then the club began to hit him again, and the sound thereof was like unto blows on an empty vault. It seemed to the magician as if showers of boiling water were being poured upon him. He twisted himself about in awful convulsions, and would have liked to bury himself in his palace walls and be turned to stone.
At last, crippled with wounds, he began to hiss like a serpent, and springing forwards breathed upon the princess, filling the air with the poisonous blast.
The maiden tottered and fell, as if dead. Kostey changed himself into a wreath of smoke, and floating out of the window, disappeared in a hurricane.
The fisherman, still invisible, carried the princess into the courtyard of the castle, hoping that the fresh air might restore her to consciousness. He laid her upon the grass, his heart throbbing with hope and fear, and waited anxiously. Suddenly a raven and his nestlings, attracted by the sight of a dead body, and not being able to see the fisherman, came by croaking. The parent bird said to his young ones:
“Come, children, sharpen claws and beak, krâk, krâk,
For here’s a feast not far to seek, krâk, krâk,
This young girl’s corse so white and sleek, krâk, krâk.”
One small bird at once settled down on the princess, but the fisherman seized it and took off his cap, so that he could be seen.
“Fisherman,” said the father raven, “let go my dear birdling and I will give you anything you want.”
“Then bring me some of the Life-Giving Water.”