Twilight Land Part 35

As for the queen, she had regained her composure, and, bidding the prince wait for her a moment, she hastened to her chamber. There she opened her book of magic, and in it she soon found who the prince was and how the ring had saved him.

When she had learned all that she wanted to know she put on a smiling face and came back to him. "Ah, prince," said she, "I well know who you are, for your coming to my country is not secret to me. I have shown you strange things to-night. I will unfold all the wonder to you another time. Will you not come back and sup with me again?"

"Yes," said the prince, "I will come whensoever you bid me;" for he was curious to know the secret of the statue and the strange things he had seen.

"And will you not give me a pledge of your coming?" said the queen, still smiling.

"What pledge shall I give you," said the prince.

"Give me the ring that is upon your finger," said the queen; and she smiled so bewitchingly that the prince could not have refused her had he desired to do so.

Alas for him! He thought no evil, but, without a word, drew off the ring and gave it to the queen, and she slipped it upon her finger.

"O fool!" she cried, laughing a wicked laugh, "O fool! to give away that in which your safety lay!" As she spoke she dipped her fingers into a basin of water that stood near by and dashed the drops into the prince's face. "Be a raven," she cried, "and a raven remain!"

In an instant the prince was a prince no longer, but a coal-black raven.

The queen s.n.a.t.c.hed up a sword that lay near by and struck at him to kill him. But the raven-prince leaped aside and the blow missed its aim.

By good luck a window stood open, and before the queen could strike again he spread his wings and flew out of the open cas.e.m.e.nt and over the house-tops and was gone.

On he flew and on he flew until he came to the old man's house, and so to the room where his foster-father himself was sitting. He lit upon the ground at the old man's feet and tried to tell him what had befallen, but all that he could say was "Croak! croak!"

"What brings this bird of ill omen?" said the old man, and he drew his sword to kill it. He raised his hand to strike, but the raven did not try to fly away as he had expected, but bowed his neck to receive the stroke. Then the old man saw that the tears were running down from the raven's eyes, and he held his hand. "What strange thing is this?" he said. "Surely nothing but the living soul weeps; and how, then, can this bird shed tears?" So he took the raven up and looked into his eyes, and in them he saw the prince's soul. "Alas!" he cried, "my heart misgives me that something strange has happened. Tell me, is this not my foster-son, the prince?"

The raven answered "Croak!" and nothing else; but the good old man understood it all, and the tears ran down his cheeks and trickled over his beard. "Whether man or raven, you shall still be my son," said he, and he held the raven close in his arms and caressed it.

He had a golden cage made for the bird, and every day he would walk with it in the garden, talking to it as a father talks to his son.

One day when they were thus in the garden together a strange lady came towards them down the pathway. Over her had and face was drawn a thick veil, so that the two could not tell who she was. When she came close to them she raised the veil, and the raven-prince saw that her face was the living likeness of the queen's; and yet there was something in it that was different. It was the second sister of the queen, and the old man knew her and bowed before her.

"Listen," said she. "I know what the raven is, and that it is the prince, whom the queen has bewitched. I also know nearly as much of magic as she, and it is that alone that has saved me so long from ill.

But danger hangs close over me; the queen only waits for the chance to bewitch me; and some day she will overpower me, for she is stronger than I. With the prince's aid I can overcome her and make myself forever safe, and it is this that has brought me here to-day. My magic is powerful enough to change the prince back into his true shape again, and I will do so if he will aid me in what follows, and this is it: I will conjure the queen, and by-and-by a great eagle will come flying, and its plumage will be as black as night. Then I myself will become an eagle, with black-and-white plumage, and we two will fight in the air. After a while we will both fall to the ground, and then the prince must cut off the head of the black eagle with a knife I shall give him. Will you do this?" said she, turning to the raven, "if I transform you to your true shape?"

The raven bowed his head and said "Croak!" And the sister of the queen knew that he meant yes.

Therewith she drew a great, long keen knife from her bosom, and thrust it into the ground. "It is with this knife of magic," said she, "that you must cut off the black eagle's head." Then the witch-princess gathered up some sand in her hand, and flung it into the raven's face.

"Resume," cried she, "your own shape!" And in an instant the prince was himself again. The next thing the sister of the queen did was to draw a circle upon the ground around the prince, the old man, and herself. On the circle she marked strange figures here and there. Then, all three standing close together, she began her conjurations, uttering strange words--now under her breath, and now clear and loud.

Presently the sky darkened, and it began to thunder and rumble. Darker it grew and darker, and the thunder crashed and roared. The earth trembled under their feet, and the trees swayed hither and thither as though tossed by a tempest. Then suddenly the uproar ceased and all grew as still as death, the clouds rolled away, and in a moment the sun shone out once more, and all was calm and serene as it had been before. But still the princess muttered her conjurations, and as the prince and the old man looked they beheld a speck that grew larger and larger, until they saw that it was an eagle as black as night that was coming swiftly flying through the sky. Then the queen's sister also saw it and ceased from her spells. She drew a little cap of feathers from her bosom with trembling hands. "Remember," said she to the prince; and, so saying, clapped the feather cap upon her head. In an instant she herself became an eagle--pied, black and white--and, spreading her wings, leaped into the air.

For a while the two eagles circled around and around; but at last they dashed against one another, and, grappling with their talons, tumbled over and over until they struck the ground close to the two who stood looking.

Then the prince s.n.a.t.c.hed the knife from the ground and ran to where they lay struggling. "Which was I to kill?" said he to the old man.

"Are they not birds of a feather?" cried the foster-father. "Kill them both, for then only shall we all be safe."

The prince needed no second telling to see the wisdom of what the old man said. In an instant he struck off the heads of both the eagles, and thus put an end to both sorceresses, the lesser as well as the greater.

They buried both of the eagles in the garden without telling any one of what had happened. So soon as that was done the old man bade the prince tell him all that had befallen him, and the prince did so.

"Aye! aye!" said the old man, "I see it all as clear as day. The black dogs are the young men who have supped with the queen; the statue is the good princess; and the basin of water is the water of life, which has the power of taking away magic. Come; let us make haste to bring help to all those unfortunates who have been lying under the queen's spells."

The prince needed no urging to do that. They hurried to the palace; they crossed the garden to the stone wall. There they found the stone upon which the prince had set the black cross. He pressed his hand upon it, and it opened to him like a door. They descended the steps, and went through the pa.s.sageway, until they came out upon the sea-sh.o.r.e. The black dogs came leaping towards them; but this time it was to fawn upon them, and to lick their hands and faces.

The prince turned the great stone mill till the brazen boat came flying towards the sh.o.r.e. They entered it, and so crossed the water and came to the other side. They did not tarry in the garden, but went straight to the snow-white palace and to the great vaulted chamber where was the statue. "Yes," said the old man, "it is the youngest princess, sure enough."

The prince said nothing, but he dipped up some of the water in his palm and dashed it upon the statue. "If you are the princess, take your true shape again," said he. Before the words had left his lips the statue became flesh and blood, and the princess stepped down from where she stood, and the prince thought that he had never seen any one so beautiful as she. "You have brought me back to life," said she, "and whatever I shall have shall be yours as well as mine."

Then they all set their faces homeward again, and the prince took with him a cupful of the water of life.

When they reached the farther sh.o.r.e the black dogs came running to meet them. The prince sprinkled the water he carried upon them, and as soon as it touched them that instant they were black dogs no longer, but the tall, n.o.ble young men that the sorceress queen had bewitched. There, as the old man had hoped, he found his own three sons, and kissed them with the tears running down his face.

But when the people of that land learned that their youngest princess, and the one whom they loved, had come back again, and that the two sorceresses would trouble them no longer, they shouted and shouted for joy. All the town was hung with flags and illuminated, the fountains ran with wine, and nothing was heard but sounds of rejoicing. In the midst of it all the prince married the princess, and so became the king of that country.

And now to go back again to the beginning.

After the youngest prince had been driven away from home, and the old king had divided the kingdom betwixt the other two, things went for a while smoothly and joyfully. But by little and little the king was put to one side until he became as nothing in his own land. At last hot words pa.s.sed between the father and the two sons, and the end of the matter was that the king was driven from the land to s.h.i.+ft for himself.

Now, after the youngest prince had married and had become king of that other land, he bethought himself of his father and his mother, and longed to see them again. So he set forth and travelled towards his old home. In his journeying he came to a lonely house at the edge of a great forest, and there night came upon him. He sent one of the many of those who rode with him to ask whether he could not find lodging there for the time, and who should answer the summons but the king, his father, dressed in the coa.r.s.e clothing of a forester. The old king did not know his own son in the kingly young king who sat upon his snow-white horse.

He bade the visitor to enter, and he and the old queen served their son and bowed before him.

The next morning the young king rode back to his own land, and then sent attendants with horses and splendid clothes, and bade them bring his father and mother to his own home.

He had a n.o.ble feast set for them, with everything befitting the entertainment of a king, but he ordered that not a grain of salt should season it.

So the father and the mother sat down to the feast with their son and his queen, but all the time they did not know him. The old king tasted the food and tasted the food, but he could not eat of it.

"Do you not feel hungry?" said the young king.

"Alas," said his father, "I crave your majesty's pardon, but there is no salt in the food."

"And so is life lacking of savor without love," said the young king; "and yet because I loved you as salt you disowned me and cast me out into the world."

Therewith he could contain himself no longer, but with the tears running down his cheeks kissed his father and his mother; and they knew him, and kissed him again.

Afterwards the young king went with a great army into the country of his elder brothers, and, overcoming them, set his father upon his throne again. If ever the two got back their crowns you may be sure that they wore them more modestly than they did the first time.

So the Fisherman who had one time unbottled the Genie whom Solomon the Wise had stoppered up concluded his story, and all of the good folk who were there began clapping their shadowy hands.

"Aye, aye," said old Bidpai, "there is much truth in what you say, for it is verily so that that which men call--love--is--the--salt--of--"....

His voice had been fading away thinner and thinner and smaller and smaller--now it was like the shadow of a voice; now it trembled and quivered out into silence and was gone.

And with the voice of old Bidpai the pleasant Land of Twilight was also gone. As a breath fades away from a mirror, so had it faded and vanished into nothingness.

I opened my eyes.

There was a yellow light--it came from the evening lamp. There were people of flesh and blood around--my own dear people--and they were talking together. There was the library with the rows of books looking silently out from their shelves. There was the fire of hickory logs crackling and snapping in the fireplace, and throwing a wavering, yellow light on the wall.