Alone, in the deep darkness of her prison, sat the Shadow Witch growing paler and sadder every day. She was beginning to fear that after all Creeping Shadow could do nothing to help her, for how could she ever penetrate to this dungeon, with its thick walls that hemmed her in. She doubted not that the Wizard kept the entrance to the Cave closely guarded; indeed he had told her that it was so.

Daily her food was brought to her by the Chief Imp, who grew more and more impertinent to her. Daily her brother came to taunt her with her weakness—with his own power over her. Proudly as she bore herself, she could not but dread his coming, could not but wonder what he might still have in store for her of punishment and suffering.

Never before had she so hated the evil magic of the Wizard and his friends; and even her own magic, which she had always used more in mischief than with evil in her heart, had grown detestable to her.

The longing to escape became so great that she could hardly endure it, but with each visit from her brother, her hope of freedom became less and less, so scornfully did he laugh at her when she demanded to know when she should be set at liberty.One day, as she sat thinking bitterly of the hardness of her lot, she heard once again the sound of approaching footsteps, and, immediately after, the wall parted, and her brother entered. The lanterns of the Imps who came with him, cast but a dim light in the thick darkness, yet faint as it was, the Shadow Witch felt herself revive a little. She gathered up all her strength and rose to face the Wizard defiantly. In silence the Imps flocked in and ranged themselves along the soot-hung walls. The Wizard advanced toward his sister with his cruel smile.

“Well, my clever sister,” he asked her jeeringly, “how fares it with you now, in this pleasant resting-place?”

The dark eyes of the Shadow Witch rested coldly upon his face, but she vouchsafed him no reply.“Here, it is true, you have no special opportunity to do further mischief,” continued the Wizard, “and that is a hardship for you, to be sure. But you have plenty of time for repentance, which you need far more. As for your Land of Shadows, word has come to me that your servant, Black Shadow, holds sway in your absence. Nay, more, that she rejoices in her power, and is none too eager for your return.”

Still the Shadow Witch made no reply. She did not doubt what he said, for she knew well the boldness and insolence of Black Shadow, but she would not gratify him by showing that she cared in the least.

“And Creeping Shadow,” he went on, “that other servant in whom, above all the rest, you have had confidence, she, also, has joined herself to Black Shadow, and obeys her in all things.”

“In that I know you speak falsely,” retorted the Shadow Witch. “There is none more faithful to me than Creeping Shadow. Nothing could turn her away from her loyalty to me. I have many other servants, also who love me, and serve me well.”

“She did not show herself loyal when she sought me in my Cave not long since,” observed the Wizard, stroking his dingy beard with a slow hand. “At first she did indeed pretend to desire your freedom; at first she wept and pleaded with me for your release, as though she were in earnest, but when she found that I gave no heed to her, she cast off all disguise, and showed plainly that she rejoiced in your imprisonment. She even went so far as to try to bargain with me to hold you here. She needed not to bargain, my good sister, for nothing could change my purpose toward yourself. I have determined that in this prison you shall find all of home or kingdom that will be yours for many a day.”

“Naught that you can say would serve to convince me that Creeping Shadow is a traitor,” she answered. “Why should I trust your word in place of what I know of her? The day of my deliverance may be far off, the way of its accomplishment may be hard, but I shall be freed at last. For this my faithful servants work, as you shall find.”

Still the Wizard sought to stir her, to break down her courage. “How unfortunate it is that you have no prince to aid in this good work,” he taunted. “Such a prince as Radiance, perhaps—he, whom you ran such risks to aid. But he has returned to the Land of Fire with his pale princess and will hardly trouble himself now to release you from the punishment that you are enduring because of him.”

Proudly the Shadow Witch raised her head, and for the first time since her imprisonment there were tears in her beautiful eyes. “Whether or no he remembers me in the midst of his joy,” she answered, “Whether or no he will succor me in my need, I shall never be sorry that I helped him to deliver his Princess. He it was who first brought brightness into my dreary land. He it was, who, for the first time in my life, made me to know what it is to be noble. Happy am I, then, even here and now, that it was given me to serve him. Proud am I with a far different pride than any that I have known before.”The Wizard heard her in amaze. Had his sister taken leave of her senses? What had come over the mischief-loving Shadow Witch that she should speak in this fashion? “You behave strangely, sister,” he replied sharply. “Can it be that it was something more than the mere pleasure of outwitting and injuring me that led you to aid this impudent stranger, enemy to your people and to all who dwell in this land?”

“Ay,” returned the Shadow Witch boldly. “It was indeed something more. I could not see one so brave and good become the victim of your evil magic; nor allow his happiness to be destroyed by those wicked ones who plotted for his destruction. He has awakened me to what we are, and I tell you now that if once I escape from the power of your dark spell, I shall bid you and your friends farewell forever. If in my own Land of Shadows I can cause to spring up a better magic than it has known heretofore, it will be well. But if that hope proves vain, I shall forsake my home, and go to that land of brightness and good magic from whence this prince came, and there learn nobler ways and find a truer home.”

At these words of his sister, the Wizard burst forth in such furious rage that his Imps, hearing, shrank back close to the wall of the cavern, trembling with fright. “Miserable creature,” he shouted. “Is it not enough that you have brought suffering upon me, that you should go to the Land of Fire, carrying with you the secrets of all who dwell in this land? Traitor! Until now I had meant to punish you but for a time; but now I know that to release you is to prepare misfortune and betrayal for every one of us. It shall never, never be. You have warned me in time. You have sealed your own doom. Never, while I have power to keep you within these walls, shall you escape to carry out your purpose.”

“You may well say while you have power to keep me,” retorted the Shadow Witch. “Do what you may, I shall yet be freed. Then I shall go where I will.”

Still more enraged by her unshaken defiance, the Wizard sprang upon her and grasped her wrists. He towered above her dark and forbidding. He gave a sharp command to the Imps, and in an instant they had departed with the lanterns. In the thick darkness that followed, the Shadow Witch heard him say nothing more, but she felt that same strange magic stream from his hands that she had felt on the day that she had first entered her prison, and she became as weak and helpless as she did before.

When he had gone and the wall had closed behind him, she fell to weeping wildly; not for Prince Radiance, whom she should see no more, but for that noble brightness that he had once brought to her eyes, and with the dread in her heart that it would never be hers.

Yet, even as she wept, ever nearer and nearer to the Cave of Darkness came Prince Ember, hasting from the Land of Fire upon the glorious adventure of her deliverance.