hadow most of all. I must bid them farewell and tell them why it is
that I depart from them to return no more."

So they left the confines of the garden and turned their steps toward
the Palace of Shadows. They had not yet reached it, when its mistress
saw a pale figure approaching through the tall shrubs that lined their
way.

It was Creeping Shadow, stealing sadly along the paths once dear to her
mistress, thinking of Prince Ember who had promised succor, a promise
which she had begun to fear he had not been able to keep. "Alas! what
hope could there be after all?" she thought, "that this Prince should be
able, single-handed, to meet and conquer such powerful enemies as the
Wizard, and his many evil friends?" She shook her head doubtfully, yet
even as she did so she lifted her eyes to look once more along the
familiar path by which she had hoped her mistress might return.

"See," exclaimed the Shadow Witch to her lover. "She comes, my good and
faithful servant, still seeking, still hoping!"

At that moment Creeping Shadow saw her and gave a loud cry that rang
through the spaces and reached even to the palace halls. She rushed to
throw herself at the feet of her mistress, to clasp her knees in an
ecstasy of thankfulness and rejoicing. "Mistress, dear mistress!" she
exclaimed, "At last, at last, you are here!"

And now from the palace doors and from everywhere, the Shadows came
gliding swiftly, to burst into exclamations of joy when they saw, in
their turn, who it was that had come.

Among them came the traitor, Black Shadow, hastening to learn whether
what she had believed to be impossible, had, in spite of her treachery,
been brought to pass. She saw Prince Ember and her mistress surrounded
by the welcoming Shadows, saw that her plots had been in vain.

She would have turned at once to flee to the Wizard, to make known to
him what had happened, had she not been arrested by the voice of her
mistress speaking strange words, words such as she had never thought to
hear.

"I have come to show you that I am set free," said the Shadow Witch,
"have come, also, to bid you, my loyal servants, farewell."

A murmur of astonishment went up from the listening Shadows. What could
such words mean?

The Shadow Witch continued. "I have found light and joy and true
happiness by the side of this good Prince, and I can no longer pass my
days in this grey land of mine with its grey magic." She would have
spoken further, but a b