The prince waited until he was out of sight, and then he turned the horse loose and started back toward the castle, for even the dragon’s threat could not keep him away from his dear princess.
When he had come within sight of the castle again he hid himself and waited until the next day when the dragon had ridden away. Then he went up to the castle and hunted through the rooms until he found the princess.
When she saw him she began to tremble with fear and wring her hands. “Why have you returned?” she cried. “Do you not remember that if the dragon finds you here he will tear you to pieces?”
“Listen, dear one,” said the prince. “I will hide myself behind the curtains, and when the dragon comes home you must find out from him where he got his coal-black steed, for I can easily see that unless we find a match to it we will never be able to escape from him.”
This the princess agreed to do, and they talked together until they heard the dragon returning, and then the prince hid himself back of the curtains.
When the dragon came in the princess pretended to be very glad to see him, and at this he was delighted, for always before she had met him with tears and reproaches.
After a time she said, “That is a very wonderful horse that you have. Do you suppose there is another one like it in all the world?”
“Yes,” said the dragon, “there is one and only one, and that is the brother of my steed.”
The princess asked him where this wonderful steed was to be found, and the dragon told her it belonged to the old gray woman who had but one eye and lived at such and such a place. “She has twelve beautiful horses standing in her stable,” the dragon went on, “but this steed is none of them. It is the lean and sorry nag that is crowded away in the furthest stall, and no one to look at it would think it worth anything, but all the same it is the brother of my horse, and to the full as good as he is.”