“But the Princess!” I cried. “What is the matter with the Princess?”
The sorcerer shook his head sadly. “Somebody always has to pay for these benefits,” said he, “and I’m afraid that when we plucked the feather we took away something we cannot replace. She cannot move nor speak. But I will set to work, and in time I will—”
“Come!” said the young woman. “I will help her! We must take her home! Come at once!”
The sorcerer and myself lifted the Princess between us and carried her down the street toward the cove. The village people and their children followed us, and stood in a throng on the beach as we got into a boat and hoisted a sail.
“Good-bye!” shouted the people, and the sorcerer and myself waved our hands, none too cheerfully; and at that moment we heard a kind of bark from the water beside the boat, and a voice cried, “Sister!” It was the seal. The young woman leaned down toward him and cried, “Brother!”
“Is everything all right now?” said the seal. “What are you going to do about me?”
His sister raised the Princess and showed him the red mark on the Princess’s shoulder, and told him about the plucking of the stork’s feather. Then the seal’s sister said:
“For once you have done a good deed, brother; and if you’ll do another—you know the promise!—two good deeds!—you will be free too. Go! and do not return until you have brought that which will cure the Princess. The milk of the White Walrus who lives in the Far-Alone Grotto on the Twelfth Ice Floe! Do you understand?”
“It’s a pretty good trip,” said the seal, “and I’ll probably have to fight the walruses. But if you say so, why I suppose— When do you think I’d better start?”
“This instant!” cried his sister. “Off with you! And return to us at the King’s castle at Ventamere.”