“Ah,” cried the Earth Fairy, “will you not trust me? Alas! If you do not, the Prince can never disenchant you, for the Wise One has assured him that unless you come to where Prince Radiance now awaits you, the Veil will have no power over you.”
For a moment the Princess regarded the face of the wicked one closely. It bore a kind and innocent look. Still she felt undecided.
“Hasten, Your Highness!” entreated the Earth Fairy. “Hasten, I beg of you, lest its magic be lost to you both.”
The Princess White Flame hesitated no longer. “Lead on,” she said, “and I will follow.”
Rejoiced that she had been able to persuade the Princess so easily, the Earth Fairy passed at once out of the Garden, and away from the Palace of Burning Coals, and close beside her fluttered the white flame of the Princess.
Silently they traveled, and after a time the country through which they were passing began to look strange to the Princess. Yet, though they went on and on, she still saw no sign of Prince Radiance. At last she began to question the Earth Fairy, who always replied that they had but a short distance farther to go.
The lovely flame-colored and yellow trees of the Land of the Fire Fairies had been left far behind; the little birds that make a music in the Fire Kingdom like none elsewhere, were heard no more: the beautiful palaces, the shining gardens, where happy fairies worked and played, had vanished. On all sides rose dull red caves, huge heaps of ash, or high black walls of soot, ugly and forbidding.
Hideous creatures crept away into darkness as they drew near, or peered out upon them from hiding-places as they passed.
Princess White Flame shuddered, and her light grew pale and dim. “Whither are you leading me?” she cried faintly, “Answer truly, for I will go no further.”
The Earth Fairy laughed mockingly. “Well may you ask,” she replied. “Evil for you was the hour when you left your garden to follow me. Behold in me the Earth Fairy—your parents’ enemy and yours.”