The Enchanted Island Part 15

They walked across the courtyard to the kitchen door, and after knocking several times and getting no response Daimur tried it, and to his surprise found that it was not locked.

He pushed it open and they entered the great kitchen. There was not a soul in sight.

They walked on through the rooms and found them almost bare. Carpets had been taken up, furniture removed, all of the best silver was missing, and the Royal Rose china was completely gone,--so the d.u.c.h.ess said.

What could it mean? And where was Queen Amy, her court and her servants?

It was the same throughout the whole palace. Everything that had any value had been removed, even the embroidered satin bedspreads.

They descended to the cellar and went towards the little room where the d.u.c.h.ess declared had stood the steel treasure chest. The door of the little room stood open and to tell the truth they expected to find the place empty, but what was their surprise to see the chest standing there perfectly solid looking.

"Of course it is empty," said the d.u.c.h.ess with a sniff, as she stooped and fitted the little key into the lock.

Daimur and Redmond lifted the lid, and behold! IT WAS FULL OF GOLD TO THE VERY BRIM!

It was all packed carefully in gla.s.s boxes bound with steel and each box was labeled with the owner's name.

The largest box bore Queen Amy's name, and the royal coat of arms.

They were so astonished that they did not say a word but stood staring at the gold as if fascinated.

Suddenly they were startled by a slight noise behind them, and both Daimur and Prince Redmond involuntarily drew their swords as they turned quickly around.

What they beheld was a frightened looking little creature who gazed at them from behind a large empty packing case in a corner.

"Come here," said Daimur rather sternly. "Who are you and what are you doing here? Are there any other people about?"

The little thing advanced trembling, and then they saw that she was a fair-haired young girl of about eighteen or twenty, but so thin and pale that at first glance she appeared to be a child. She was dreadfully dirty too, and clad in various garments that seemed to have belonged to someone else much larger.

"Don't frighten her, Daimur," said Prince Redmond as he stepped over beside the poor little thing.

"Tell us who you are, and what you are doing here," he said, addressing her kindly. "We will do you no harm."

"I am Princess Helda of Oaklands," she said in a very timid voice.

"And where may that be?" asked Daimur, thinking she was probably out of her head, as so far as he knew no such place existed.

"Alas," said the Princess. "Oaklands is now the Island of Despair,"

and she wrung her hands with a hopeless gesture.

At this answer Daimur was so amazed that he could not say a word, and it was Prince Redmond who asked the Princess to tell them her story, and whether she knew anything of Queen Amy. The d.u.c.h.ess had dried her eyes and stood waiting in silence for every word.

The Princess began in her quiet voice.

"When I was only fourteen years old, my parents, who were King and Queen of Oaklands and very much beloved by their subjects, one day quite by accident, offended the Evil Magician, who had been traveling through the kingdom disguised as a juggler, and entertaining crowds in the streets with his skilful tricks.

"In revenge the Evil Magician enchanted the whole kingdom, tearing our island up from the eastern sea and setting it down in this western one.

He turned my father and mother and their subjects into stones and built a house and wall of them, and changed our beautiful cities into a dense forest.

"Me he could not change, as I wear upon my arm a bracelet placed there by a good fairy at my birth, which guards me from enchantment and harm.

"I lived then in the Magician's house, and his old witch of a housekeeper and her ugly daughter made me do all manner of rough work, and many a time would have beaten me had it not been for my magic bracelet. At any rate they half starved me. I lived in the cellar when I was not working in the kitchen."

"My dear," said the d.u.c.h.ess, "how can you expect us to believe such a story? You say you were fourteen when all this happened. You cannot be more than twenty now, and yet the Island of Despair has been where it is for over seventy years."

"Yes," said the Princess, "that is true, but the Evil Magician does not measure years as you do. On his kitchen wall hangs the year clock. It has only one hand, and the figures on its face run from one to fifteen.

Each figure represents one of your years, but the hand of the clock has to go completely around the dial and reach the figure fifteen before the Magician counts a year. In therefore what has been five years to us in the Magician's house has been seventy-five years to you. That is the reason why the Magician and the witch seem so old to you, who know that they have been living for hundreds of years. They are really not very old after all."

"But how did you get here?" asked Prince Redmond, who was becoming very much interested in the small Princess.

"One day," answered the Princess, "I overhead the Evil Magician telling the old witch to prepare a bed in the cellar for a Queen."

"Good mercy," cried the d.u.c.h.ess. "My dear niece in that dreadful place. Oh, what shall I do?" And she began to weep afresh, but Daimur was so interested in the story that he hardly heard her.

"What happened next?" he asked breathlessly.

"The next day the Queen arrived, so beautiful and so sad. I loved her at once, and was happy to be with her when I might. She told me that she had a chest full of gold in her palace, but that her aunt had the key to it, and that she had mysteriously disappeared. She was afraid she had been murdered. A foreign king, a kind of pirate, had been threatening to invade her kingdom for more than a year, and she had been able to keep him off for a time, but at last she had no more soldiers to oppose against him and he would have taken the kingdom had not the Evil Magician, in the form of a young and handsome knight, offered to lend her as much gold as was in the treasure chest until such time as she could get another key, for she had found that the chest was a magic one and could neither be broken into nor moved from where it stood.

"The pirate king took the money and went away, but in a few months the Evil Magician came back and demanded payment for his gold or that the Queen would marry him at once.

"The Queen refused to marry him and could not pay him, so he took her prisoner to the Island of Despair, as you call it, where he said he would keep her until she consented to marry him and would sign over to him all right to her throne. There she still is if she is alive.

"As for me, the Evil Magician soon found that I was Queen Amy's friend, and fearing that I might help her to escape he had me brought here, where I have been ever since.

"As soon as Queen Amy was captured her cousin Bethel took the throne, and it was to her that I was sent as a servant. How she treated me you can see for yourselves. I have had to do the meanest work, live in this cellar, wear what clothes she threw to me, and eat what I could get from the cook, who on days when she was very cross would give me nothing at all."

"Poor child, poor child," said Prince Redmond.

"And where is Princess Bethel now?" asked Daimur.

"And what has happened to the furniture, and all the plate and china, my dear?" asked the d.u.c.h.ess in a teary voice.

"I am just coming to that part, if you please, madam," answered the Princess.

"At night, when the servants were talking in the kitchen I used to sit behind the cellar door and then I heard all that was said. One night they whispered to each other that the pirate king had come back and that he threatened instant invasion if he did not get more money.

Princess Bethel had sent him all she had in the palace and he went away.

"That kept him off for a time, but before long he came again and then kept on coming more and more frequently until there was scarcely an article of value in the palace that had not been sent to him, or sold to get money to keep him quiet. Princess Bethel was very miserable indeed, and taxed her subjects until they were all reduced to beggary in order to get the money to give him.

"I could not help feeling rather sorry for her, it was such a dreadful existence. The servants had to be dismissed one after another until there was no one to wait upon her but me, and my! How she did scold!

"At last the pirate came just a few nights ago and marching up to the palace gates demanded the chest of gold, which he had evidently just heard about.

"Bethel would gladly have given it to him if she could have moved it, and told him so, at which he and a great many rough sailors tramped into the palace and down these stairs and tried their best to pry it up with crowbars, but with no success of course. When he found he really could not take it, he was so angry that he kidnapped Princess Bethel, saying he would keep her in a dungeon until she found the key for him.

"I was in the darkest corner when the pirates came and kept hidden until they went away. Since then I have not dared to go any further than to the kitchen for some bread and water."

"Dear me, that is very poor fare," said Prince Redmond, "it is no wonder you are so thin. We will have to try and make up for all this bad treatment," and to anyone with two eyes it was quite evident that he had fallen in love with her.