“It shall be as you say,” the Prince promised her, looking into her uplifted face with tender love.
While they had said these things, Curling Smoke had remained where he was, waiting, as if in the hope that he might make visible, by his mere gazing, those whom he had entrapped. Presently they heard his voice crying aloud through the fog, “Let those beware who defy Curling Smoke. Though they be invisible, they shall yet feel his power.”
Beneath the Cloak of Ash, the Shadow Witch raised her grey sleeves and waved them toward Curling Smoke. Prince Ember, watching to see what she was about to do, saw a creature, as if in answer to the giant’s cry, take shape from among the smoke wreaths that lay along the ground and begin to creep, half hidden by them, toward the giant.
Curling Smoke suddenly beheld it also, beheld it with curiosity and astonishment, for this was neither the Prince nor the Shadow Witch, both of whom he believed to be bound by his enchantment, but a stranger. How he had entered the smoke chamber, he did not know. Remaining, poised watchfully where he was, he kept his glittering eyes upon it, till it should draw nearer.
Before it reached him it began to rise, to grow larger as it rose, and he presently saw that it was a giant like himself, though smaller and less terrible. His head was bent and his face hidden.
Curling Smoke gazed upon the newcomer with indignation. “Who are you, who dare to venture unasked within the bounds that I have set?” he demanded imperiously.
The stranger made no answer, but ceasing to mount, stood poised directly in front of him, with his face still concealed.
“Know you not that I am the Master Magician and have power to destroy you instantly?” shouted Curling Smoke, lifting his huge hand in menace.
Still the creature did not reply.
Instantly Curling Smoke unloosed his terrible Veil that Chokes, and flung it at him. It smote against the drooped head of the unknown, but instead of suffocating him, as Curling Smoke had intended that it should, it floated harmlessly back again and hung itself about the enchanter’s arm.