23. The Red Rogue of Dawna
One morning, while they were all standing in the courtyard waiting fortheir horses, as they were about to go for a ride, a courier camegalloping swiftly up to the palace and cried:
"Does any one know where Prince Marvel can be found?"
"I am Prince Marvel," replied the young knight, stepping out from amongthe others.
"Then have I reached my journey's end!" said the courier, whose horsewas nearly exhausted from long and hard riding. "The Lady Seseley isin great danger, and sends for you to come and rescue her. The greatBaron Merd, her father, has been killed and his castle destroyed, andall his people are either captives or have been slain outright."
"And who has done this evil thing?" asked Prince Marvel, looking verystern and grave.
"The Red Rogue of Dawna," answered the messenger. "He quarreled withthe Baron Merd and sent his savage hordes to tear down his castle andslay him. I myself barely escaped with my life, and the Lady Seseleyhad but time to say, before she was carried off, that if I could findPrince Marvel he would surely rescue her."
"And so I will!" declared the prince, "if she be still alive."
"Who is this Lady Seseley?" asked Nerle, who had come to his master'sside.
"She is my first friend, to whom I owe my very existence. It is herimage, together with those of her two friends, which is graven on myshield," answered Prince Marvel, thoughtfully.
"And what will you do?" inquired the esquire.
"I must go to her at once."
When they heard of his mission all the party insisted on accompanyinghim. Even the dainty High Ki could not be deterred by any thoughts ofdangers they might encounter; and after some discussion Prince Marvelallowed them to join him.
So Wul-Takim sharpened his big broadsword, and Nerle carefully preparedhis master's horse, so that before an hour had passed they weregalloping toward the province of the Red Rogue of Dawna.
Prince Marvel knew little concerning this personage, but Nerle had muchto tell of him. The Red Rogue had once been page to a wise scholar andmagician, who lived in a fine old castle in Dawna and ruled over alarge territory. The boy was very small and weak--smaller even thanthe average dwarf--and his master did not think it worth while to watchhim. But one evening, while the magician was standing upon the top ofthe highest tower of his castle, the boy gave him a push from behind,and he met death on the sharp rocks below. Then the boy took hismaster's book of magic and found a recipe to make one grow. He madethe mixture and swallowed it, and straightway began to grow big andtall. This greatly delighted him, until he found he was getting muchbigger than the average man and rapidly becoming a giant. So he soughtfor a way to arrest the action of the magical draft; but before hecould find it he had grown to enormous proportions, and was bigger thanthe biggest giant. There was nothing in the book of magic to make onegrow smaller, so he was obliged to remain as he was--the largest man inthe Enchanted Island.
All this had happened in a single night. The morning after hismaster's murder the page announced himself lord of the castle; and,seeing his enormous size, none dared deny his right to rule. Onaccount of his bushy hair, which was fiery red in color, and the bushyred beard that covered his face when he became older, people came tocall him the Red One. And after his evil deeds and quarrelsome temperhad made him infamous throughout the island, people began to call himthe Red Rogue of Dawna.
He had gathered around him a number of savage barbarians, as wicked andquarrelsome as himself, and so none dared to interfere with him, oreven to meet him, if it were possible to avoid it.
This same Red Rogue it was who had drawn the good Baron Merd into aquarrel and afterward slain the old knight and his followers, destroyedhis castle, and carried his little daughter Seseley and her girlfriends, Berna and Helda, into captivity, shutting them up in his owngloomy castle.
The Red Rogue thought he had done a very clever thing, and had no fearof the consequences until one of his men came running up to the castleto announce that Prince Marvel and his companions were approaching torescue the Lady Seseley.
"How many of them are there?" demanded the Red Rogue.
"There are eight, altogether," answered the man, "but two of them aregirls."
"And they expect to force me to give up my captives?" asked the RedOne, laughing with a noise like the roar of a waterfall. "Why, I shallmake prisoners of every one of them!"
The man looked at his master fearfully, and replied:
"This Prince Marvel is very famous, and all people speak of his braveryand power. It was he who conquered King Terribus of Spor, and thatmighty ruler is now his friend, and is one of the eight who approach."
The Red Rogue stopped laughing, for the fame of Spor's terrible kinghad long ago reached him. And he reflected that any one who couldconquer the army of giants and dwarfs and Gray Men that served Terribusmust surely be one to be regarded seriously. Moreover--and this was asecret--the Red Rogue had never been able to gain the strength tocorrespond with his gigantic size, but had ever remained as weak aswhen he was a puny boy. So he was accustomed to rely on his cunningand on the terror his very presence usually excited to triumph over hisenemies. And he began to be afraid of this prince.
"You say two of the party are girls?" he asked.
"Yes," said the man, "but also among them are King Terribus himself,and the renowned Wul-Takim, formerly king of thieves, who was conqueredby the prince, although accounted a hard fighter, and is now hisdevoted servant. And there are two old men who are just alike and havea very fierce look about them. They are said to come from the hiddenKingdom of Twi."
By this time the Red Rogue was thoroughly frightened, but he did notyet despair of defeating his enemies. He knew better than to attemptto oppose Prince Marvel by force, but he still hoped to conquer him bytrickery and deceit.
Among the wonderful things that the Red Rogue's former master, the wisescholar and magician, had made were two large enchanted mirrors, whichwere set on each side of the great hallway of the castle. Heavycurtains were drawn over the surfaces of these mirrors, because theyboth possessed a dreadful magical power. For whenever any one lookedinto one of them his reflection was instantly caught and imprisoned inthe mirror, and his body at the same time became invisible to allearthly eyes, only the mirror retaining his form.
While considering a way to prevent the prince from freeing the LadySeseley, the Red Rogue happened to think of these mirrors, which hadnever yet been used. So he went stealthily into the great hall anddrew aside the covering from one of the mirrors. He did not dare lookinto the mirror himself, but hurried away to another room, and thensent a page up a back stairway to summon the Lady Seseley and her twomaids into his presence.
The girls at once obeyed, for they greatly feared the Red Rogue; and ofcourse they descended the front stairway and walked through the greathall. At once the large mirror that had been exposed to view caughtthe eye of Seseley, and she paused to regard her reflection in theglass. Her two companions did likewise, and instantly all three girlsbecame invisible, while the mirror held their reflections fast in itsmagic surface.
The Red Rogue was watching them through a crack in the door, and seeingthe girls disappear he gave a joyful laugh and exclaimed:
"Now let Prince Marvel find them if he can!"
The three girls began to wander aimlessly through the castle; for notonly were they invisible to others, but also to themselves and to oneanother, and they knew not what to do nor which way to turn.