The poor queen was so terrified by his cruel threat that speech forsook her, and when they arrived at the palace she was mute as some marble statue, and could not contradict the wicked statements which she heard them boldly utter.
Prince Ivan lay dead with his face to the sky, but the wood elves guarded his body, so that neither beast nor bird came near to devour it until the end of thirty days. Then, as the sun was sinking, a raven seeking food for her young, hopped on his breast, and would have pecked at his eyes had not the Gray Wolf galloped up in the nick of time. He knew at once that the dead man must be Ivan, and pouncing upon one of the young birds, would have torn it asunder in his rage.
“Do not touch my little birdling, O fierce Gray Wolf!” entreated the mother piteously. “It has done you no harm, and deserves no ill from you.”
“Then listen,” the Gray Wolf replied. “I will spare the life of your birdling, if you will fly away beyond the thrice-ninth lands, and bring me back the Water of Death and the Water of Life from the crystal stream whence they flow to the great Forever.”
“I will do what you wish,” cried the raven, “only do not touch my little son.” And as she spoke she sped away.
Three days and three nights had passed before she returned to the Gray Wolf, carrying two small vials. One held the Water of Life, the other the Water of Death, and as the Gray Wolf took them from her, he gave a cry of triumph. With a snap of his teeth, he bit the young raven in two, tearing it to pieces before its mother’s frantic eyes. This done, he broke one of the vials, and when he had sprinkled three drops of the Water of Death on the slain birdling, immediately its torn body grew together again. Then he touched it with a few drops from the second vial, and the little thing spread its wings, and flew off rejoicing.
Thus the Gray Wolf knew that the raven had served him well, and he poured what was left of the Waters of Life and Death over the body of the dead prince. In a few moments, life came back to him, and stumbling to his feet, he smiled at the Gray Wolf.
“Have I slept long?” he asked dreamily.
“You would have slept forever had it not been for me,” was the reply. And the prince listened with grieved surprise as the Gray Wolf told him all that had happened.
“Your brother is going to marry your bride to-day,” he ended by saying. “We must hasten to the palace with all possible speed. Mount on my back, and I will carry you once more.”