NIGHT, I. Rin [ebook reader with highlight function TXT] 📗

back to the land of your ancestors. It is the kingdom which was captured by the evil Wizard and you have to find the magic crystal there. And finally, you have to find the Book of Destiny. Then you must bring them to me and I’ll tell you what to do...’

 

When they came back to the castle on the same day the King crowned his son. So Swein had become the King of Goblins.

 

Soon the young King assembled a squad and set off to the Land of his Ancestors. We had no news for a long time. Finally, after eight months, some men from the squad returned back to our city. They brought the wounded King with them. Swein was hang-ing between life and death. The soldiers said that Swein had been fighting heroically but the vile wizard used a magic and was able to wound the young King mortally in the main battle.

 

Our King took his son and immediately went to the witch. For some days we had heard nothing and then the King came back and told us sad news - Swein had died. He has been buried in the Valley of Oblivion, which is just next to our city.

 

The witch also was at the funeral ceremony. She had held some mysterious rituals before we placed Swein’s body into the tomb.

 

After the ceremony the witch came up to me and suddenly offered me to assist her and I agreed. Since then I have been helping the witch. And I was there when the Prince Night had come. But my master had sent me home early; so I do not know what had happened there. But I’ll take you to her...”

 

“Oh when will we go?”

 

“Let’s have a rest a bit and then we’ll go!”

 

Lica agreed. Elsa gave her a few pillows and a blanket. The girl put the pillows around, covered with the blanket and fell asleep in the chair.

At the witch

 

 

Angelica did not know how long she had been sleeping but suddenly felt that someone was shaking her shoulder. It was Elsa.

 

“Get up!” she said. “It’s time to go! Just help me with the basket, ok?”

 

Lica nodded. She roused herself and was fully awake. After that she went outside and helped the goblin woman to put the basket on the saddle. Soon they left the City of Goblins and came to the wide valley.

 

“Over there,” the woman pointed, “is the Valley of Oblivion. While we are passing that way you can even see the tomb of our young King.”

 

Indeed, about an hour Lica saw a tall stone building.

 

“This is the tomb!” Elsa said.

 

“Can I go there and see?” Lica asked suddenly.

 

“Not now! It is at least two hours both ways. Moreover the horse is loaded... So come on - on the way back you will go there!”

 

The girl had no choice and agreed.

 

About two hours later Elsa and Angelica came to the foot of the mountains. Here the woman had been leading Lica some secret paths and soon they were at the entrance of the cave.

 

The girl and the woman put the basket down and took it inside the cave, which was quite a well-lit by torches.

 

“Elsa, who is it with you?” Angelica heard a woman’s voice. “Madam, this girl has helped me to lift the basket with roots

 

and stones here. And also she wanted to ask you about something.”

 

It was silence and then the voice said:

 

“Well, let her go to the hall.”

 

Elsa nodded and said:

 

“You see, you’re lucky! She has not turned you away.”

 

She was pushing Lica to the corridor in the far corner of the cave. “You must go along this corridor and then turn right. There

 

you’ll wait for the witch.”

 

“And you?”

 

“She never let me go there. My place is here.” And the maid pushed the girl again.

 

Angelica pulled herself together and went forward. She came into a long narrow corridor, which was also illuminated. On the left of the corridor there were different rooms but Lica remembered that Elsa had told her to turn right. So she came to the first right turn and bend. There was a large room more looked like a big hall.

 

In the middle, on the platform there was a table with burning candles in the graceful candlestick. Also on the table Lica saw a large crystal ball in the small stand. Next to the table there were a few chairs. The girl went and sat down on one of them. A moment later she heard footsteps and a woman entered the room.

 

Angelica had expected to see a decrepit old woman but saw a quite young and pretty one. The girl jumped up from the chair and said:

 

“Hello!”

 

“Hello, my dear,” the woman said.

 

She passed by and sat in the chair in front of Lica.

 

“I am the witch! Sit down and tell me why you have come to my humble abode?”

 

Angelica sat down, plucked up heart and said:

 

“Last year the Prince Night visited you, he needed a potion for the Princess.”

 

“Has not the potion worked?” the astonished witch inter-rupted the girl.

 

“No, the potion has worked! But the Prince...” “What’s wrong with him?” she smiled.

 

“He has changed a lot! He is just a different person!”

 

“So, girl,” the witch snapped, “the Prince is alive and the potion has worked! What more do you want?”

 

“The Prince!” Lica said firmly. “I just want him to be real as before!”

 

The witch winced.

 

“And why do you think that he is not real?” “Why? I’ll explain you!”

 

And Angelica started telling the story from the beginning...

 

She told her about coming to the Prince’s Night ball; about rescuing the Princess and that the Prince declared his love to her but the evil Wizard had torn them apart; and that this year she had been at the ball again but the Prince had not recognized her and how she had gone to the witch...

 

“And now I am here,” she finished her story.

 

The witch thought a little and finally said:

 

“You’re very brave! You deserve to know the truth. Yes, the Prince Night was here last year. He asked me to give him a potion for a blind Princess. To make this potion was very hard work and its price was very high! I warned the Prince about that. But the Prince was a man of honor and he agreed to pay this long price.”

 

“What was the price?” Angelica asked. “The soul! The soul of the Prince...” “So is the Prince dead?” Lica horrified.

 

She tried to jump out of the chair but she felt dizzy and lost consciousness.

 

She came to senses because she felt some nasty smell from the bottle the witch had brought to her nose. Angelica opened her eyes.

 

“Do not be so sensitive,” the cave hostess admonished her. “You must understand that each thing has its price. And it’s not easy to give eyes to the blind. The Prince had chosen it himself nobody had made him. His soul had left his body. But I hadn’t been able to allow his body to be useless! So I had made up something.”

 

“Who is in the Prince’s body now?” Lica asked quietly.

 

“Oh! I have sworn to keep this secret until I die. So do not ask me about that. And now – you have to go! Elsa will show you the way.”

 

The witch stood up and took the girl to the corridor.

Thunderclap

 

 

Angelica came to the first hall of the cave. Elsa had been waiting for her there.

 

“Well, have you found out?” she was curious.

 

Lica nodded.

 

“Then why are you so pale? Bad news?” The girl nodded again.

 

“Well, come on, Madam had ordered to take you outside!” the goblin woman said.

 

She helped Angelica to sit on the horse and showed her the way to the mountains.

 

“Now you have to ride straight on and on!” Elsa pointed. “If you go to the tomb then you’ll have to follow back your footprints. Beware of some enchanted paths in the Valley of Oblivion you may get lost. And do not turn anywhere!”

 

“Thank you, dear Elsa!” Lica said. “If it hadn’t been you, I would have never got here!”

 

She bent down and kissed the kind goblin woman. Elsa was deeply moved and shed a tear. Then the witch’s maid turned around and immediately disappeared among large boulders.

 

The girl pulled the reins and went back. She couldn’t get confusing thoughts out of her head.

 

“Henry was absolutely right,” she thought. “It’s not Edward; it is someone else in his body... But who?”

 

Suddenly she saw the Goblin King’s tomb ahead.

 

Not knowing why Angelica turned there. Fifteen minutes later she was at the entrance of the tomb and got off the horse. The building looking pretty big from the distance, in fact, it was enor-mous. Lica went inside and in the center of circular hall, in the moon light she saw superbly adorned gravestone. In the opposite side, on the wall she saw the portrait of a very handsome young man. The inscription under the portrait said: “The Goblin King Swein I».

 

 

The girl began to examine the portrait and then, as some-thing pricked her, she saw that the young man in the portrait was wearing exactly the same navy-blue suit as the Prince Edward at the ball.

 

“And the grin of his lips! Exactly the same!” Lica remembered suddenly.

 

She came out of the tomb bewildered. Somehow Angelica sat on the horse and pulled the reins. She remembered the ball, Edward, his behavior, his clothes and his smile or rather his smirk!

 

“It cannot be true!” Lica said aloud. “Is the Goblin King Swein in Edward’s body?”

 

Suddenly some trees branches crashed nearby. The girl start-ed and looked around.

 

She was in a strange place... She can’t have gone far away from the tomb. But what Angelica saw were only lots of broken trees all around.

 

“Well, take it easy!” Lica whispered. “What did Elsa say about the ‘enchanted paths’? Oh I remembered! I should have followed my footprints from the tomb, otherwise... Apparently, I have got lost. And where am I now!”

 

The crackle from the fallen trees was louder and she saw a strange monster. It looked like a wolf with long hair, which was walking on its hind legs. The monster bared his mouth and pre-pared to attack the girl.

 

Angelica pulled the reins and the horse was going at full speed among the trees but the monster was chasing her behind.

 

“Well, my dear, come on!” Lica was whispering to the horse in its ear. “Do not let me down!”

 

But suddenly the horse caught its foot and fell down, the girl rolled head over hills.

 

She