ter appointing a regent of the kingdom, she set out attended
only by a maid who knew all her secrets. Once she had left the palace
she quickly began to work her spells, to discover under what form
Geirlaug and Grethari lay hidden. Happily, the princess had studied
magic under a former governess, so was able to fathom her
step-mother's wicked plot, and hastily changed herself into a whale,
and her foster-brother into its fin. Then the queen took the shape of
a shark and gave chase.

For several hours a fierce battle raged between the whale and the
shark, and the sea around was red with blood; first one of the
combatants got the better, and then the other, but at length it became
plain to the crowd of little fishes gathered round to watch, that the
victory would be to the whale. And so it was. But when, after a mighty
struggle, the shark floated dead and harmless on the surface of the
water, the whale was so exhausted that she had only strength enough to
drag her wounded body into a quiet little bay, and for three days she
remained there as still and motionless as if she had been dead
herself. At the end of the three days her wounds were healed, and she
began to think what it was best to do.

'Let us go back to your father's kingdom,' she said to Grethari, when
they had both resumed their proper shapes, and were sitting on a high
cliff above the sea.

'How clever you are! I never should have thought of that!' answered
Grethari, who, in truth, was not clever at all. But Geirlaug took a
small box of white powder from her dress, and sprinkled some over him
and some over herself, and, quicker than lightning, they found
themselves in the palace grounds from which Grethari had been carried
off by the dragon so many years before.

'Now take up the band with the golden letters and bind it about your
forehead,' said Geirlaug, 'and go boldly up to the castle. And,
remember, however great may be your thirst, you must drink nothing
till you have first spoken to your father. If you do, ill will befall
us both.'

'_Why_ should I be thirsty?' replied Grethari, staring at her in
astonishment. 'It will not take me five minutes to reach the castle
gate.' Geirlaug held her peace, but her eyes had in them a sad look.
'Good-bye,' she said at last, and she turned and kissed him.

Grethari had spoken truly when he declared that he could easily get to
the castle in five minutes. At least, no one would have dreamed that
it could possibly