The Shadow beheld him with dread. She feared to speak with him. But one whom she loved was in danger. Without making a sound, she drew nearer until she stood directly before him.
“Sir Wizard,” she cried, “I come to seek my mistress.”
Her voice, echoing through the silent Cave Hall, roused the Wizard from his evil studies. He threw back his head in angry astonishment. “You Shadows grow impudent,” he exclaimed frowning. “Who has given you leave to intrude upon me in my Cave?”
In spite of the indignant glance he cast upon her, Creeping Shadow was not daunted. “I came to seek my mistress,” she repeated. “She herself has bade me do so. Tell me, then, where I shall find her?”
“You seek her here in vain,” declared the Wizard. “I will give you no news of her, neither will I be disturbed. Begone at once or it will be the worse for you.”
“Nay, but I must know what you have done to her,” persisted Creeping Shadow. “It was to follow the Chief Imp, whom you sent, that she left her Garden of Shadows. It was here that she bade me seek her if she did not return. The time has been long, and I have come to obey her commands.”
The sharp eyes of the Wizard flashed with wrath. “What if she be here?” he thundered, smiting shut his Book of Craft. “She is my sister, and when she offends me I shall punish her as I choose. Learn the truth then. She lies hidden in the deepest part of my cavern, in a dungeon so dark that she can work none of her grey magic therein; in a dungeon so remote that none of her servants can ever penetrate to it; a dungeon whose walls are so tightly sealed, so cleverly enchanted, that she will try in vain to make her escape. There she shall remain until I choose to set her free. I have told you. Go now, and let me see your face no more.”
At these words, so remorseless and cruel, a wailing cry broke from the lips of Creeping Shadow. Even a worse fate than she had feared had overtaken the beautiful Shadow Witch. She threw herself in anguish at the Wizard’s feet to plead with him for the release of her mistress, but he would not hear her.
“Go, as I bade you,” he commanded, spurning her from him with force. “Go, lest I summon my servants to bind you fast, and place you in a prison as drear and lonely as hers.”
Creeping Shadow saw that there was no hope, that nothing would move his hard heart to mercy. Moreover, his threat overwhelmed her with terror, for if she herself were imprisoned, there would be none to bring help to her mistress, since none but herself knew that she was in the Cave of Darkness.