Eliza felt her entire world crumbling. She realised why she was so easily able to find the map to the Forest of the Shadows. She also knew why there was no lock on the hatch door that led to the tunnel below the castle.

'It was you. All this time. You were the shadow following me. You were in my room and wrote that message.'

The Wiseman has arranged everything according to their evil plan. They set a trap in which she fell willingly.

'Why, Constantin?' whispered Eliza, tears dripping on her face. 'Why did you do this?'

'Why?' cried the Wiseman. 'For this was the only way to gain what is rightfully mine. It was the only way I could become the master of this Kingdom.

'You see, Princess, a long, long time ago, my father was King over these lands. But instead of making me the heir of the Kingdom, he chose to leave it to my brother and his descendants. Only because he thought I was too cruel and with a lust for power. For years, I have roamed the earth and my trace was lost. I came back when no one knew who I was anymore and I made up a plan to regain what was mine in the first place. I couldn't do this by myself for I didn't have an army. So I went looking for help. I found it in the Shadows led by Witch Guzma. I made sure to accompany the Prince in his travels and make sure he would die.

'But when I was planning to kill him, someone came up with the idea to visit a mill in a neighbouring country, where they ground the finest flour. The miller had a little girl who played around all day with the young Prince, but which her father would not leave her out of his sight. I wouldn't suspect it was your father's mill. When night came, you both slept under the careful watch of your father. This is how I've lost my chance of killing the Prince.'

Eliza couldn't believe her ears. She remembered the joyful little boy, hair black as the darkest cloud, who spent the night at the mill many years ago. How come she never realised it? Maybe the boy had a different name, and she never knew he was the Prince. Without ever knowing, she had saved his life.

'Well, in the end, things fell on the right path,' continued Constantin. 'In the end, you ended up doing what another girl could never succeded. You made the Prince fall in love with you. Which made it easier for us because he started listening to your opinion. Witch Guzma, now a princess, will take care to convince the Prince to go back to his conquering habits. So the upcoming spring, the Shadows will come back to invade the Kingdom, this time for good. And Guzma and I will become its ruthless leaders.'

The two of them laughed, and they caught up in a grotesque dance as if the world belonged to them.

All of a sudden, the doors of the library flew open and Prince Gabriel came in accompanied by his guards.

"What is going on here?' His eyes fell on Eliza's ugly face. 'Who are you and what are you doing here?'

The Witch threw herself in his arms: 'She is Witch Guzma, my darling, the leader of the Shadows. If it wasn't for Constantin showing up, she would have killed me.'

'Don't listen to her, please!' said Eliza with her old voice. 'She is the real Witch Guzma and I am under this spell that made me look like her.'

The Prince slowly pushed the witch away from his chest.

'Don't listen to her!' said the Witch. 'Order for her to be locked up! We cannot let her get away!'

'Gabriel, please, listen to me!' begged Eliza. 'Remember when you told me about the sceptre? The sceptre you broke, blaming it on the cat. How could I know about it if I am not the Princess?' Gabriel hesitated for a moment.

'Careful, Majesty!' she heard Constantin's firm voice. 'She can read your mind.'

After giving it one second's worth of thought, the Prince gave the signal, and the guards surrounded Eliza.

'Throw her in the western dungeon!' he ordered. 'Make sure she does not escape!' In vain tried Eliza to break away, in vain she cried. The merciless guards dragged her outside.

'Don't trust Constantin!' she managed to cry before the doors closed behind her.

●

The western dungeon was built a long time ago so that no witch could ever escape. It was entirely made of rock crystals that weakened the witches' powers. They were brought from all over the world. At first glance, they looked like ordinary stones. But they weren't. Each crystal had a hole in it. A hole made by humans, time, water or magic. Nobody knew for sure. All they knew was that no witch had ever escaped such a dungeon. This is where Eliza laid, trying to clear her mind. But the poor girl was not a witch, so the stones had no influence on her. The only thing she knew was that sooner or later she was going to die. Either burned on a stake. Or stoned to death... At least, that's what she read about how the witches were killed.

She was shivering by the thought. She couldn't die like that, so meaningless. The Dark Kingdom, her country, her parents, and all the people she knew were in danger. She didn't care about how she would die. But she couldn't let her loved ones at the scrutiny of evil.

'Fairy godmother, where are you?' she whispered. 'If you were with me all along, where are you now, when I need you the most?'

She couldn't even finish her thought when she heard a murmur and steps in front of the dungeon. She saw the guard leaving his place and then she heard some strange thuds. When she looked through the keyhole, she saw Nanny Ana looking for the key in the guard's pockets. Then, the heavy dungeon door opened and Tommy jumped on her lap.

'I'm so glad to see you both,' sobbed Eliza, hugging the nanny. 'What are you doing here?'

'Hurry, child,' the nanny rushed her. 'There's no time to spare. The potion won't keep him asleep for long. You have to leave.'

'Where could I possibly go?'

'You must find the Dawn's Fairy,' said the Nanny. 'Go to the Forgotten Realm; ask the Fairy to give your youth back because that's the only way the Prince would believe you. Then come back swiftly, for the Kingdom is in danger.'

She gave her a bag of grub and some iron boots.

'The mountain road is long and arduous, you'll need them.'

Eliza put them on and hurried towards the Castle's exit, covered in a black cloak. The boots were heavy, and the girl could barely drag her weak, old legs behind her. When the Nanny managed to squeeze her through a hidden hole in the wall, Eliza looked back for the last time.

'Take care of Tommy,' she said to the Nanny. 'And... the Prince,' she added. Then she went on her way to the Forgotten Realm.

●

The road to the Forgotten Realm was harder than she imagined. It was said that the place was the only one where all the fantastic creatures fled when humans took over their land.

In their greed, the humans forgot they could live in harmony with the other beings, magical or not, and took over the entire land, bit by bit, only for themselves. Not much was known about the magical beings that used to inhabit those lands. No one even knew if they still existed. There were old writings about their powers. That was all. Because they haven't been seen in hundreds of years. And all humans that entered the Forgotten Realm remembered nothing about what they saw; as if someone had magically wiped all their memories. Eliza knew the way to the Forgotten Realm. She read about it in an old book she once found in the Prince's library. But she had no idea how hard it would be to get there. Winter was almost over, yet it seemed not going away so easily. The cold and snow were making her old body turn stiff. The grub the Nanny gave her was over quickly, and Eliza had to find roots and dry leaves she could eat.

Every so often, when the blizzard started, she would find shelter in caves and managed to get warm by a whimsy fire made from dried splints someone must have somehow left there; as if a guardian angel was watching over her. Then, she would continue her journey, always keeping in mind that the moss always grows on the north side of the trees. And she was happy that she went through as many books from the library as she did. Without the things she learned there, she would have been dead already.

After climbing steep paths, she noticed the scenery was beginning to change. The cold wasn't so ravishing. The sun was sometimes throwing one of its spears of light, warming her and giving her strength. The snow was slowly melting and Eliza could have sworn she was being followed by hundreds of eyes, hidden by the trees along the path. Sometimes, with a glimpse of an eye, she could see how the trees took strange shapes of half man, half beast creatures. She could hear the sound of hoofs, wings flapping above the trees and bird songs she had never before heard in her life.

And she walked, and she walked, a thousand miles if just an inch... When the iron boots began to wear off, the Princess knew her journey was soon coming to an end.

She made her way through the bright greenery that was almost blinding her, when suddenly before her, a fairytale world spread out. The most beautiful flowers were shining under the sun in all the colours of the rainbow, luring her with their smell. Winged horses were flying over the fragrant meadow, while a myriad of fairies, leaving behind them a trail of magic dust, were flying along, brushing and braiding their mane. Strange creatures, half men, half horses or oxen, seemed to guard this entire incredible world. Gnomes were yielding different tools in front of their homes built in the trunks of old trees. Birds and butterflies were flying over the flowers that bowed under their wings.

A mighty waterfall dropped in rainbow-coloured sparks and Eliza knew it was actually the strength and life-giving Fountain of Youth. She had arrived. 

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