“And you it is, then, who have so cruelly deceived me, and lured me by your false flame from following my Princess,” cried Prince Radiance to the Shadow Witch.
“True enough,” she declared, “and why should I not?” She tossed her black hair from her face, and continued. “I grow so weary in this Land of Shadows, with none but my creeping servants about me, naught but my own grey magic to fill my hours. Seldom does a stranger cross through my land; more seldom have I a chance to look upon the magic of others. All the tricks of my brother, the Wizard of the Cave, I know by heart. I am tired of watching him play them day after day. Why should I not lure you from your path if it gives me an hour of pleasure?”
“Surely you are the friend of the Earth Fairy,” exclaimed the Prince, “and you have led me here to steal my fairy Veil if you can, but be assured you will never obtain it in spite of all your craft.”
The Shadow Witch, who had bent her eyes upon the ground, raised them now, and turned upon the Prince an earnest gaze as though she rejoiced to look upon him. “I am no friend of the Earth Fairy,” she answered quietly. “She is nothing to me. I will tell you fully if you wish to know, why it is that I have brought you here. Of late as I sat unobserved in a corner of the Wizard’s Cave, where my brother dwells, I saw Flying Soot come in, and heard him say that he had work for my brother to do, if he was willing. What could that mean but mischief? I crept close, yet taking care lest I should be seen, and listened keenly that I might lose nothing. Thus I learned all that Flying Soot had to tell him concerning yourself and Princess White Flame, and about the Veil that the Earth Fairy claims that you have stolen from her.”
“Nay,” interrupted the Prince indignantly. “If she says that she tells a wicked falsehood. The magic Veil is a gift to me from the Wise One. The Earth Fairy has never even beheld it.”
“However that may be,” answered the Shadow Witch, shaking out her grey sleeves, “she means to wrest it from you, and my brother has promised to help her. You may take my word for it that his help is not to be despised. I heard Flying Soot suggest also that he should get me to assist in the matter, but the Wizard replied, ‘Nay, you need not trouble yourself to ask her. She can do nothing that is really worth while.’ When he said that, I determined to cheat them both, and as you see, I have done so.”
“Alas, that you should have succeeded,” cried Prince Radiance. “It may be that even now my Princess is in the hands of your wicked brother.”
“Is then this Princess so dear to you?” asked the Shadow Witch softly.
“Ah, yes. So dear that no witchcraft of yours shall be able to keep me from her,” exclaimed the Prince.
“Yet she is no more than a flame, and a voice,” murmured the Shadow Witch.