the Wind waited.

Such a great length of time had passed since they had taken up their
vigil at the Chimney Mouth, that the Breezes themselves were beginning
to be uneasy, and to suspect that by means of some enchantment the
Prince had actually escaped them.

Then they bethought them of the moment when the Elf's door had been
seen to open and shut without anyone coming out of it, and they were
troubled, and wondered whether they should, perhaps, have made the
matter known to their master at the time.

Finally, one of their number, bolder than the rest, summoned up his
courage and went and told the Wind of it.

"What!" shrieked the Wind, rising in a tempest of rage. "Can it be that
you saw anything so important as this and brought me no word of it?
Magic has been at work! This Prince has without doubt escaped me. Even
at this instant he may be upon the Plain under the very eyes of my
watchers!"

Hurling the messenger from him, the Wind rushed down to the Chimney
Mouth. He buffeted to right and left the Breezes who stood there, and
whirled out upon the Plain to see for himself whether or not what he
suspected was true.

It so happened that Prince Ember and the Shadow Witch were crossing the
Plain directly in front of the Chimney Mouth at that instant.

Then what the Elf of the Borderland had feared immediately came true.
The keen eyes of the Wind pierced the spell of the Weaver elf. His rough
blasts shattered it. Snatching the fairy Cloak from the shoulders of the
travelers, he beat it quickly back into the loose ashes of which it had
been woven, and drove them off and away into the wide spaces of the
Borderland, there to settle down at last wherever they would.

Thus were Prince Ember and the Shadow Witch revealed to the gaze of
their most powerful enemy.

The Prince needed none to tell him who this new foe was, nor did he
quail at sight of him, though he knew that he might well fear for his
companion and himself. Quickly he thrust the Shadow Witch behind him,
and with his Sword of Fire in his hand awaited his coming.

With a loud howl the Wind was upon them. Against this terrific onset the
Prince held firm, and as the Wind dashed himself upon the Sword,
thinking to wrest that from him, also, it leapt to life, a broad and
beauteous sheet of scarlet flame, that rose in an ascending barrier high
and yet higher at every buffet that it sustained. The more the Wind
flung himself upon it in fury, the greater it w