So while the Ash Goblin worked busily upon his snare, Prince Ember traversed the Plain of Ash, keeping always in view that black cliff toward which Creeping Shadow had pointed before she had left him. Even from a distance it looked forbidding, yet the bold spirit of the Prince did not quail at the thought of the unknown dangers that awaited him there. Straight forward he went over the long stretches of ash, past high mounds and low grey hillocks, and through shallow vales. As he journeyed he remembered the Elf’s warning, and would not have been surprised if he had been set upon at any moment by any of the foes that had been mentioned to him. But a deep silence filled the Plain, and nowhere did he see anything that could molest him. Never had the Prince believed that there could be a land so empty and so lonely.
He arrived at the foot of the cliff and began to mount the steep path that led to the Cave’s mouth. Up and up he went, still on his guard, but still seeing no foe and hearing no sound. Now on this side, now on that, deep and dark crevices yawned, but his feet went surely and safely on.
In one of these same crevices, Curling Smoke lay hidden, peering out with watchful eyes across the grey expanse, to catch the first glimpse of the ruddy stranger of whom Black Shadow had told him, yet under his very eyes the Prince was traveling and he saw him not.
At length Prince Ember reached the entrance to the Wizard’s Cave. Standing there, he looked first across the Plain and then into the gloom of the cavern, but no enemy was in sight. Quickly he removed the Cloak of Ash and then, as fairy raiment always may when fairy fingers press it, it became as small as a kerchief in his hand. He thrust it to a place of safety in his belt.
If Curling Smoke had but leaned a little farther out at that moment from the dark hollow in the cliff-side where he lay, he must surely have seen him, but crouching low, so that he might not be seen by the one for whom he watched, he saw nothing and did not guess that the Prince was actually within reach of his giant arms.
So, guarded from all his enemies, Prince Ember passed into the Cave of Darkness, not knowing how well the Elf’s good gift had already served him.
CHAPTER IX
Close to the mouth of the Cave of Darkness, but cleverly hidden from the view of any passerby, sat a company of Imps. They had been commanded to keep ceaseless watch at that point for the stranger Prince who was expected soon to appear, and they were instructed to seize him as soon as he attempted to enter the Cave and to bring him bound to their master.