When Lavender heard that, she cried out overjoyed:
“Oh, sir, if you have a mother, do go and bring her here to us, because we have no mother now.”
A stone would have wept to hear little Lavender speak of her mother in that poor and bare little cottage! A stone would have wept at the thought that so lovely a child should be left all alone in the world, when she turned to Prince Relya and begged him to bring them a mother because their mother was dead.
Again Relya was filled with pity, so that he almost wept. Therefore he bade the children good-bye and went away to fetch his mother.
XVIII
It took Relya seven days to return to his mother. She was waiting for him by the window, and when she saw him coming, lo, there was Relya coming home without sword, Cross, or Girdle. Relya never gave her time to ask questions, but called to her in a gentle voice:
“Make ready, mother, and come with me, that we may guard what is ours.”
So they set out together. And on the way the Princess asked Relya whether he had found the Cross and the Girdle, whether he had raised an army and had reconquered their castle and lands?
“I found the Girdle and Cross, mother; but I raised no army, neither have I reconquered our lands. We shall do better without an army, mother, for you shall see what is left to us of our heritage,” said Relya.
After seven days’ travel they reached the cabin where Lavender and Primrose were waiting for them.