Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 08 (18 page)

'I was wondering why you were filling the basket,' replied the
prince.

'Oh!' replied the man, 'I am condemned to do this, for neither I nor
any of my family can die till I have dug away the whole of this
mountain and made it level with the plain. But, come, it is almost
dark, and I shall work no longer.' And he plucked a leaf from a tree
close by, and from a rough digger he was changed into a stately
bald-headed king. 'Come home with me,' he added; 'you must be
tired and hungry, and my daughter will have supper ready for us.'
The prince accepted gladly, and they went back to the palace,
where the bald-headed king's daughter, who was still more beautiful
than the other princess, welcomed them at the door and led the way
into a large hall and to a table covered with silver dishes. While
they were eating, the bald-headed king asked the prince how he had
happened to wander so far, and the young man told him all about it,
and how he was seeking the Land of Immortality. 'You have found
it already,' answered the king, 'for, as I said, neither I nor my family
can die till I have levelled this great mountain; and that will take full
eight hundred years longer. Stay here with us and marry my
daughter. Eight hundred years is surely long enough to live.'

'Oh, certainly,' answered the prince; 'but, all the same, I would
rather go and seek the land where there is no death at all.'

So next morning he bade them farewell, though the princess begged
him to stay with all her might; and when she found that she could
not persuade him she gave him as a remembrance a gold ring. This
ring was still more useful than the box, because when one wished
oneself at any place one was there directly, without even the trouble
of flying to it through the air. The prince put it on his finger, and
thanking her heartily, went his way.

He walked on for some distance, and then he recollected the ring
and thought he would try if the princess had spoken truly as to its
powers. 'I wish I was at the end of the world,' he said, shutting his
eyes, and when he opened them he was standing in a street full of
marble palaces. The men who passed him were tall and strong, and
their clothes were magnificent. He stopped some of them and
asked in all the twenty-seven languages he knew what was the
name of the city, but no one answered him. Then his heart sank
within him; what should he do in this strange place if nobody could
understand anything? he said. Suddenly his eyes fell upon a man
dressed after the fashion of his native country, and he ran up to him
and spoke to him in his own tongue. 'What city is this, my friend?'
he inquired.

'It is the capital city of the Blue Kingdom,' replied the man, 'but the
king himself is dead, and his daughter is now the ruler.'

With this news the prince was satisfied, and begged his countryman
to show him the way to the young queen's palace. The man led him
through several streets into a large square, one side of which was
occupied by a splendid building that seemed borne up on slender
pillars of soft green marble. In front was a flight of steps, and on
these the queen was sitting wrapped in a veil of shining silver mist,
listening to the complaints of her people and dealing out justice.
When the prince came up she saw directly that he was no ordinary
man, and telling her chamberlain to dismiss the rest of her
petitioners for that day, she signed to the prince to follow her into
the palace. Luckily she had been taught his language as a child, so
they had no difficulty in talking together.

The prince told all his story and how he was journeying in search of
the Land of Immortality. When he had finished, the princess, who
had listened attentively, rose, and taking his arm, led him to the
door of another room, the floor of which was made entirely of
needles, stuck so close together that there was not room for a
single needle more.

'Prince,' she said, turning to him, 'you see these needles? Well,
know that neither I nor any of my family can die till I have worn out
these needles in sewing. It will take at least a thousand years for
that. Stay here, and share my throne; a thousand years is long
enough to live!'

'Certainly,' answered he; 'still, at the end of the thousand years I
should have to die! No, I must find the land where there is no
death.'

The queen did all she could to persuade him to stay, but as her
words proved useless, at length she gave it up. Then she said to
him: 'As you will not stay, take this little golden rod as a
remembrance of me. It has the power to become anything you wish
it to be, when you are in need.'

So the prince thanked her, and putting the rod in his pocket, went
his way.

Scarcely had he left the town behind him when he came to a broad
river which no man might pass, for he was standing at the end of
the world, and this was the river which flowed round it. Not
knowing what to do next, he walked a little distance up the bank,
and there, over his head, a beautiful city was floating in the air. He
longed to get to it, but how? neither road nor bridge was anywhere
to be seen, yet the city drew him upwards, and he felt that here at
last was the country which he sought. Suddenly he remembered the
golden rod which the mist-veiled queen had given him. With a
beating heart he flung it to the ground, wishing with all his might
that it should turn into a bridge, and fearing that, after all, this
might prove beyond its power. But no, instead of the rod, there
stood a golden ladder, leading straight up to the city of the air. He
was about to enter the golden gates, when there sprang at him a
wondrous beast, whose like he had never seen. 'Out sword from
the sheath,' cried the prince, springing back with a cry. And the
sword leapt from the scabbard and cut off some of the monster's
heads, but others grew again directly, so that the prince, pale with
terror, stood where he was, calling for help, and put his sword back
in the sheath again.

The queen of the city heard the noise and looked from her window
to see what was happening. Summoning one of her servants, she
bade him go and rescue the stranger, and bring him to her. The
prince thankfully obeyed her orders, and entered her presence.

The moment she looked at him, the queen also felt that he was no
ordinary man, and she welcomed him graciously, and asked him
what had brought him to the city. In answer the prince told all his
story, and how he had travelled long and far in search of the Land
of Immortality.

'You have found it,' said she, 'for I am queen over life and over
death. Here you can dwell among the immortals.'

A thousand years had passed since the prince first entered the city,
but they had flown so fast that the time seemed no more than six
months. There had not been one instant of the thousand years that
the prince was not happy till one night when he dreamed of his
father and mother. Then the longing for his home came upon him
with a rush, and in the morning he told the Queen of the Immortals
that he must go and see his father and mother once more. The
queen stared at him with amazement, and cried: 'Why, prince, are
you out of your senses? It is more than eight hundred years since
your father and mother died! There will not even be their dust
remaining.'

'I must go all the same,' said he.

'Well, do not be in a hurry,' continued the queen, understanding that
he would not be prevented. 'Wait till I make some preparations for
your journey.' So she unlocked her great treasure chest, and took
out two beautiful flasks, one of gold and one of silver, which she
hung round his neck. Then she showed him a little trap-door in one
corner of the room, and said: 'Fill the silver flask with this water,
which is below the trap-door. It is enchanted, and whoever you
sprinkle with the water will become a dead man at once, even if he
had lived a thousand years. The golden flask you must fill with the
water here,' she added, pointing to a well in another corner. 'It
springs from the rock of eternity; you have only to sprinkle a few
drops on a body and it will come to life again, if it had been a
thousand years dead.'

The prince thanked the queen for her gifts, and, bidding her
farewell, went on his journey.

He soon arrived in the town where the mist-veiled queen reigned in
her palace, but the whole city had changed, and he could scarcely
find his way through the streets. In the palace itself all was still,
and he wandered through the rooms without meeting anyone to
stop him. At last he entered the queen's own chamber, and there
she lay, with her embroidery still in her hands, fast asleep. He
pulled at her dress, but she did not waken. Then a dreadful idea
came over him, and he ran to the chamber where the needles had
been kept, but it was quite empty. The queen had broken the last
over the work she held in her hand, and with it the spell was broken
too, and she lay dead.

Quick as thought the prince pulled out the golden flask, and
sprinkled some drops of the water over the queen. In a moment she
moved gently, and raising her head, opened her eyes.

'Oh, my dear friend, I am so glad you wakened me; I must have
slept a long while!'

'You would have slept till eternity,' answered the prince, 'if I had
not been here to waken you.'

At these words the queen remembered about the needles. She
knew now that she had been dead, and that the prince had restored
her to life. She gave him thanks from her heart for what he had
done, and vowed she would repay him if she ever got a chance.

The prince took his leave, and set out for the country of the
bald-headed king. As he drew near the place he saw that the whole
mountain had been dug away, and that the king was lying dead on
the ground, his spade and bucket beside him. But as soon as the
water from the golden flask touched him he yawned and stretched
himself, and slowly rose to his feet. 'Oh, my dear friend, I am so
glad to see you,' cried he, 'I must have slept a long while!'

'You would have slept till eternity if I had not been here to waken
you,' answered the prince. And the king remembered the mountain,
and the spell, and vowed to repay the service if he ever had a
chance.

Further along the road which led to his old home the prince found
the great tree torn up by its roots, and the king of the eagles sitting
dead on the ground, with his wings outspread as if for flight. A
flutter ran through the feathers as the drops of water fell on them,
and the eagle lifted his beak from the ground and said: 'Oh, how
long I must have slept! How can I thank you for having awakened
me, my dear, good friend!'

'You would have slept till eternity if I had not been here to waken
you'; answered the prince. Then the king remembered about the
tree, and knew that he had been dead, and promised, if ever he had
the chance, to repay what the prince had done for him.

At last he reached the capital of his father's kingdom, but on
reaching the place where the royal palace had stood, instead of the
marble galleries where he used to play, there lay a great sulphur
lake, its blue flames darting into the air. How was he to find his
father and mother, and bring them back to life, if they were lying at
the bottom of that horrible water? He turned away sadly and
wandered back into the streets, hardly knowing where he was
going; when a voice behind him cried: 'Stop, prince, I have caught
you at last! It is a thousand years since I first began to seek you.'
And there beside him stood the old, white-bearded, figure of Death.
Swiftly he drew the ring from his finger, and the king of the eagles,
the bald-headed king, and the mist-veiled queen, hastened to his
rescue. In an instant they had seized upon Death and held him
tight, till the prince should have time to reach the Land of
Immortality. But they did not know how quickly Death could fly,
and the prince had only one foot across the border, when he felt the
other grasped from behind, and the voice of Death calling: 'Halt!
now you are mine.'

The Queen of the Immortals was watching from her window, and
cried to Death that he had no power in her kingdom, and that he
must seek his prey elsewhere.

'Quite true,' answered Death; 'but his foot is in my kingdom, and
that belongs to me!'

'At any rate half of him is mine,' replied the Queen, 'and what good
can the other half do you? Half a man is no use, either to you or to
me! But this once I will allow you to cross into my kingdom, and
we will decide by a wager whose he is.'

And so it was settled. Death stepped across the narrow line that
surrounds the Land of Immortality, and the queen proposed the
wager which was to decide the prince's fate. 'I will throw him up
into the sky,' she said, 'right to the back of the morning star, and if
he falls down into this city, then he is mine. But if he should fall
outside the walls, he shall belong to you.'

In the middle of the city was a great open square, and here the
queen wished the wager to take place. When all was ready, she put
her foot under the foot of the prince and swung him into the air.
Up, up, he went, high amongst the stars, and no man's eyes could
follow him. Had she thrown him up straight? the queen wondered
anxiously, for, if not, he would fall outside the walls, and she would
lose him for ever. The moments seemed long while she and Death
stood gazing up into the air, waiting to know whose prize the
prince would be. Suddenly they both caught sight of a tiny speck
no bigger than a wasp, right up in the blue. Was he coming
straight? No! Yes! But as he was nearing the city, a light wind
sprang up, and swayed him in the direction of the wall. Another
second and he would have fallen half over it, when the queen
sprang forward, seized him in her arms, and flung him into the
castle. Then she commanded her servants to cast Death out of the
city, which they did, with such hard blows that he never dared to
show his face again in the Land of Immortality.