Then they began their journey along the windings of the corridor, that stretched away and away into a gloom that seemed to have no end. Yet the place where they trod was bright about them, made so by the ruddy glow which streamed from the figure of Prince Ember. In the warmth and cheer of it the Shadow Witch glided happily, and as they left her prison farther and farther behind, she became more and more her former self, and again felt stirring to life within her that old-time power of magic of which she had been so long deprived.
They came at length to the wall which the Wizard had set to mislead his sister. Seeing nothing to arouse their suspicions, they went straight on. After traveling for some distance, however, Prince Ember all at once became aware that it was not the way over which he had gone with the Wizard and his servants. He stopped, and began to look sharply about him. On every hand it was unfamiliar to him.
The Shadow Witch saw that he was troubled, but she could not guess the reason. “What is it?” she asked anxiously.
“When we left the prison,” he answered, “we took the way by which I had come to you. There was no other. But now it is not the same.”
“There has been no place where we could have turned aside,” she assured him. “Nowhere has there appeared any other way open to us.”
“And yet we have gone astray,” the Prince insisted. “There can be no doubt of it. All that I see now, I have never seen before.”
“You are sure of it?” asked his companion.
“I am sure of it.”
The eyes of the Shadow Witch flashed with sudden understanding. “It is the enchantment of my brother,” she declared. “Lest, perhaps, I should escape him, he has closed the true way, and left this open as a trap for me. Be sure that it leads not to the Cave Hall, except through dangers into which he believes that I will not dare to venture.”
“Be these dangers what they may,” replied Prince Ember, “I will, by my good magic, overcome them all. And now, since there is no way but this, let us go upon it without tarrying.”