“What is it that you desire?” he asked ungraciously, for he was no friend to the Shadow Witch and made naught of her servants.
“I bring a message from the Wizard of the Cave,” replied she. “He desires your assistance. Because of an ill turn that she served him, he holds his sister prisoner, and Creeping Shadow, knowing that it would be vain to ask any of the powerful ones in our own land to rescue her, journeyed to the Land of Fire to ask aid of Prince Radiance.”
At the very mention of Prince Radiance, whom he hated, Curling Smoke twisted himself about in a violent rage. “Let him not dare to return here, lest I make short work of him!” he shouted hoarsely. “Let him not flatter himself that he can escape me this time as he did before.”
“It is not Prince Radiance who comes, but another; that one, so Creeping Shadow tells me, who alone is fated to set the Shadow Witch free. Prince Ember is his name, and even now he is close by, in the house of the Elf of the Borderland, there to receive from him, doubtless, something which will aid him to deliver my mistress, and make him proof against any who assail him, or who may seek to prevent his success.”
Curling Smoke laughed loud and disdainfully. “What has the Elf to give that could avail against me and my magic?” he exclaimed. “You amuse me, Black Shadow. Go to that weakling, the Ash Goblin, with such tales, if you will, but do not bring them to Curling Smoke.”
“I repeat only what has been told me,” returned Black Shadow. “Whether or not it is true, I know not. I have come to you for one thing only—to obtain a promise for the Wizard that you will engage yourself against this prince, wherever you may encounter him.”
Again Curling Smoke laughed, and his huge shape swayed boastfully from side to side. “You have little need to doubt my answer,” he replied. “Do I not hate these strangers from the Land of Fire with all my heart? Am I not only too eager for an excuse to do them harm? Return, then, to the Wizard, and say to him that he need have no fear that this prince will escape me. Say to him that Curling Smoke—greatest of all magicians, promises that it shall not be.”
This said, Curling Smoke settled again into a cleft from whence he could watch the entire Plain of Ash. No one could approach him from thence without being seen by him.
Black Shadow assured of the vigilance of this powerful ally, departed at once to seek the Ash Goblin, whose low mean hovel stood at some distance away among the ash mounds of the plain.
So despised is the Ash Goblin that few ever seek his door, and when he heard upon it the sharp knock of Black Shadow, he started with surprise. He crept across the dingy floor, and put his bulging eye to the keyhole to peer through, and discover who stood without. His astonishment at seeing Black Shadow was great, for never had she sought him out before, but he knew that he had no reason to fear her, so he opened to her at once.