CHAPTER VI

THE PALACE OF THE BRONZE KING

And what, during all this time, was happening to Ruth? We have left her a long time, and our thoughts naturally wander back to her, for we can no more forget her than David can.

The old Cobbler and his wife treated her very harshly after David left. They made her work twice as hard, for in a way they held her responsible for his disappearance. She grew very, very unhappy; for she was very lonely, and she longed to know what had become of her dear friend and playmate. One day--it must have been at least a year from the time David left her, and it may have been several years; it seemed so to her, anyway--she knew that the same _season_ had come round again, for the forget-me-nots in the meadow were in bloom, and the air was filled with the soft light and gentle fragrance that she had always remembered as belonging to that last sad, beautiful day that they had spent together. She had left her work unfinished and had wandered through the fields and meadows to the hillside where they had rested and David had shown her the Blue Bird.

She sat down on the soft grass. A bunch of forget-me-nots that she had gathered in the meadow drooped and faded in the heat of her hand. But even as they faded and their frail breath went from them, their odour filled the air; and as Ruth closed her eyes in thought, it seemed to her that David must be near.

This happened, as it chanced, at the very moment when David found the faded forget-me-nots in his hunting-case, and their thoughts really were together, though at the time neither realized or knew it to be so.

All at once a great, deep, pure desire came over Ruth. She opened her eyes and listened. There was no Blue Bird singing for her. She lifted the drooping flowers to her lips. “Dear Flowers,” she whispered, “can you not help me? I will leave this spot where all is sadness; I will go in the direction David went; perhaps I can find and help him. Anyway, I will seek and strive.”

She rose, stretched her hands toward the great bright sun, and prayed that her footsteps might be guided aright. She stooped to lift the tiny blossoms that lay beside her and, searching among them for the largest flowers, tucked a spray into her dress. Then she started down the hillside in the direction David had taken so long ago. She followed his trail faithfully as far as she could recall it. But when she reached the point where he had disappeared, her mind became confused and bewildered.

Her trail was to be a hard one indeed, for she was following only a vague memory, whereas David had followed an ideal so clear and vivid that it had expressed itself in living song. She pushed bravely on, though, for she was not one to turn back after starting out. She longed to find David, or at least to know of his welfare; and she had no desire to return to the Cobbler’s cottage again.

The sun set, and it grew dark save for the stars overhead, which gave little light in the depth of the forest. At last, exhausted, she

sat down under a large tree and fell fast asleep. She slept all night long and far into the morning. The night was warm and dry, with no chill in the air, and she awakened much refreshed. The sun was almost in the zenith when finally she rose and started on her way. Soon, coming to a sparkling mountain brook, she stopped to drink of its cool waters.

She had just risen from a large rock by the water’s edge and stood shaking the clear drops from her finger-tips, when the sound of voices startled her. She turned; and there through the trees behind her rode on prancing horses a party of huntsmen, their spears and knives glittering in the sunlight.

She attempted to hide in a neighbouring thicket. But it was too late: one of the party had spied her.

“Yeho!” he called gaily to his comrades. “What have we here?” And he pointed to where poor Ruth stood. In a moment he had ridden up beside her.

“What do you here?” he asked in a harsh, gruff voice. “Drinking from the King’s own stream and eating berries and other fruits in the King’s own woods! Who gave you permission to wander here?”

“No one gave me permission,” answered the frightened girl. “I did not know that I was in any King’s land. I am a poor Seeker, seeking for the Blue Bird and David. Have you seen either? Surely, if you have met them, you will tell me in which direction they were going? I did not know that I was taking that which belongs to another, and I am sorry with all my heart. Ask the King to pardon me. I will go on my way and will eat no more fruit nor drink more water till I am sure that I am beyond the great King’s border lands.”

“Ask the King to pardon you, yourself,” answered the huntsman roughly. “For here he comes.”

As he spoke he pointed toward an open meadow, across the smooth surface of which a man came riding on a great black horse. As he drew near, Ruth saw what a strange looking person he was. His face was round and full, and its colour was that of burnished bronze. His hair was of the colour of flame, and it grew in shaggy locks that hung about his neck like tongues of fire hanging upside down. His eyes were like burning live coals under thick, bushy eyebrows of a dull gray, like ashes after the fire has gone out of them. His voice when he spoke sounded like the roar of a blacksmith’s bellows.

“Who is this girl?” he asked.

Poor Ruth was frightened, but, summoning all her courage, she answered by telling him for whom she sought.

“A Blue Bird, indeed!” said the King. “If my huntsmen come across any such, you may be very sure they will make quick work of it! It would make a dainty dish to set before their King. As for that young David, he had best keep off my land. All who are found trespassing upon my kingdom are put to death at once. It is only because you are a girl, and a very fair one at that, that your life has been spared; these men of mine would have killed you long before I came upon them, had you been that young David of whom you speak, instead of the pretty lass that you are! As it is,” he added with a rough, coarse laugh, looking toward his huntsmen, “we will spare her and take her to the Palace. She will make a merry plaything for us all; and, if the fancy takes me, she shall become my wife and the Queen of my vast kingdom.”

Ruth shuddered at these words, and looked hurriedly about her to see if there were not some way by which she could escape. The man who had first spoken took her roughly by the arm and led her up beside the King’s great black horse.

“You shall ride behind me on my black charger,” said the King. As he spoke he drew off his gauntlet and offered her his hand to help her as she sprang from the ground to the great broad back of the powerful beast. She noticed that his hand was bronze-coloured like his face; and as she put her own cool, soft little hand into it, its fierce and almost burning heat made her feel faint. But she knew that she must not lose consciousness, for then she could not know what was happening to her or whither she was being taken. Once more she mustered all her courage; and as this strange procession journeyed through the forest toward the Palace, her lips moved in prayer.

Within a few minutes she found herself a prisoner within the Red Palace of the great Bronze King.