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But there was no sign of him, and being satisfied that he was still within the Elf’s dwelling, the Ash Goblin went rapidly to the spot which he had chosen, with eyes fixed upon the door through which the Prince must come. He had not quite reached the place, when suddenly he saw the Elf’s door opening slowly.
Often she has even dared to make my own form flicker and dance before me—not as it is—indeed, but twisted and misshapen to please her own mischievous fancy.” His eyes glinted with malice, and Black Shadow was well pleased to find him so willing to give his help. “Then I will count upon you,” she said rising. “As I have told you, the Prince is now in the Elf’s house.
The Plain of Ash stretches wide and grey between the hovel of the Ash Goblin and the Borderland where the Elf dwells. In the Borderland itself no evil fairy can practice his craft, but the Ash Goblin knew a spot where the Plain meets the Borderland, which all must cross in passing from the Elf’s house to the Wizard’s Cave, or from the Cave to the Land of Shadows.
With quiet confidence he left the shelter of the Cloak of Ash, and in his hand was his fairy sword. It shone with a red glory. The Ash Goblin, crouching upon the ground, keeping his eyes fixed upon the Elf’s threshold, had heard no syllable that had been spoken, nor knew that anyone was near. But now his staring eyes suddenly beheld the place about him suffused with scarlet light.
Once, it is true, they, like the Ash Goblin, had espied the Elf’s door open slowly and remain so for a moment, and they had waited eagerly for the Prince to come forth, but no one had appeared, and presently the door had closed again and had remained fast shut ever since. The Wind, sitting on his rough seat in the Chimney, began to chafe at the delay.
“Go out and search the Plain more carefully than was done by your fellow,” he shouted to another of the Breezes. “It is quite impossible that the Prince should still be in the Elf’s house.” Swift to obey his master, the second Breeze went forth, yet came back in a little while, declaring that he had seen no one but the Ash Goblin, bending over the ground as though intent upon some task.
So, guarded from all his enemies, Prince Ember passed into the Cave of Darkness, not knowing how well the Elf’s good gift had already served him. Close to the mouth of the Cave of Darkness, but cleverly hidden from the view of any passerby, sat a company of Imps.
Black Shadow drank in every word and pretended to be overjoyed. “What is this gift which the Prince is to receive from the Elf of the Borderland?” she asked curiously when Creeping Shadow ceased to speak. “That was not told me,” replied Creeping Shadow. “My duty was but to lead him to the Elf’s door and there leave him.”
As soon as the Wizard’s messenger had departed from him, he despatched a half dozen of his keenest and most agile Breezes to the Chimney Mouth to spy upon the Elf’s house from thence, and bring him word at once the moment the Prince was seen to cross its threshold.
In the spot that he had chosen, the Ash Goblin worked fast and diligently upon the snare with which he meant to entrap Prince Ember, hoping that he might be able to complete it before the Prince arrived. He could plainly see the Elf’s house from where he labored. He believed the Prince to be still within its walls, and he was sure that none as yet had crossed its threshold.
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