"Ah," he said, rubbing his eyes, "I've been asleep, haven't I?"
"Yes," Nedyelka said, "and but for me you would never have wakened. How do you feel, my son?"
"All right," Vitazko said, "except a little strange as if I had no heart."
"You have none," Nedyelka told him. "Your heart hangs by a string from a crossbeam in the castle."
She told him what had befallen him, how his mother had betrayed him and how Sharkan had cut him to pieces.
Vitazko listened but he could feel neither surprise nor grief nor anger nor anything, for how could he feel since he had no heart?
"You need your heart, my son," Nedyelka said. "You must go after it."
Vitazko disguised as an old village piper