"I"ll try again! After all, what do two boxes on the ear matter?"
So he put his question for the second time, and had the same answer; but the left eye only wept now and then, while the right eye looked ten years younger.
"It really MUST be true," thought Petru. "Now I know what I have to do.
I shall have to go on putting that question, and getting boxes on the ear, till both eyes laugh together."
No sooner said than done. Petru never, never forswore himself.
"Petru, my dear boy," cried the emperor, both his eyes laughing together, "I see you have got this on the brain. Well, I will let you into the secret. My right eye laughs when I look at my three sons, and see how strong and handsome you all are, and the other eye weeps because I fear that after I die you will not be able to keep the empire together, and to protect it from its enemies. But if you can bring me water from the spring of the Fairy of the Dawn, to bathe my eyes, then they will laugh for evermore; for I shall know that my sons are brave enough to overcome any foe."
Thus spoke the emperor, and Petru picked up his hat and went to find his brothers.
The three young men took counsel together, and talked the subject well over, as brothers should do. And the end of it was that Florea, as the eldest, went to the stables, chose the best and handsomest horse they contained, saddled him, and took leave of the court.
"I am starting at once," said he to his brothers, "and if after a year, a month, a week, and a day I have not returned with the water from the spring of the Fairy of the Dawn, you, Costan, had better come after me."
So saying he disappeared round a corner of the palace.
For three days and three nights he never drew rein. Like a spirit the horse flew over mountains and valleys till he came to the borders of the empire. Here was a deep, deep trench that girdled it the whole way round, and there was only a single bridge by which the trench could be crossed. Florea made instantly for the bridge, and there pulled up to look around him once more, to take leave of his native land Then he turned, but before him was standing a dragon--oh! SUCH a dragon!--a dragon with three heads and three horrible faces, all with their mouths wide open, one jaw reaching to heaven and the other to earth.
At this awful sight Florea did not wait to give battle. He put spurs to his horse and dashed off, WHERE he neither knew nor cared.
The dragon heaved a sigh and vanished without leaving a trace behind him.
A week went by. Florea did not return home. Two pa.s.sed; and nothing was heard of him. After a month Costan began to haunt the stables and to look out a horse for himself. And the moment the year, the month, the week, and the day were over Costan mounted his horse and took leave of his youngest brother.
"If I fail, then you come," said he, and followed the path that Florea had taken.
The dragon on the bridge was more fearful and his three heads more terrible than before, and the young hero rode away still faster than his brother had done.
Nothing more was heard either of him or Florea; and Petru remained alone.
"I must go after my brothers," said Petru one day to his father.
"Go, then," said his father, "and may you have better luck than they"; and he bade farewell to Petru, who rode straight to the borders of the kingdom.
The dragon on the bridge was yet more dreadful than the one Florea and Costan had seen, for this one had seven heads instead of only three.
Petru stopped for a moment when he caught sight of this terrible creature. Then he found his voice.
"Get out of the way!" cried he. "Get out of the way!" he repeated again, as the dragon did not move. "Get out of the way!" and with this last summons he drew his sword and rushed upon him. In an instant the heavens seemed to darken round him and he was surrounded by fire--fire to right of him, fire to left of him, fire to front of him, fire to rear of him; nothing but fire whichever way he looked, for the dragon"s seven heads were vomiting flame.
The horse neighed and reared at the horrible sight, and Petru could not use the sword he had in readiness.
"Be quiet! this won"t do!" he said, dismounting hastily, but holding the bridle firmly in his left hand and grasping his sword in his right.
But even so he got on no better, for he could see nothing but fire and smoke.
"There is no help for it; I must go back and get a better horse," said he, and mounted again and rode homewards.
At the gate of the palace his nurse, old Birscha, was waiting for him eagerly.
"Ah, Petru, my son, I knew you would have to come back," she cried. "You did not set about the matter properly."
"How ought I to have set about it?" asked Petru, half angrily, half sadly.
"Look here, my boy," replied old Birscha. "You can never reach the spring of the Fairy of the Dawn unless you ride the horse which your father, the emperor, rode in his youth. Go and ask where it is to be found, and then mount it and be off with you."
Petru thanked her heartily for her advice, and went at once to make inquiries about the horse.
"By the light of my eyes!" exclaimed the emperor when Petru had put his question. "Who has told you anything about that? It must have been that old witch of a Birscha? Have you lost your wits? Fifty years have pa.s.sed since I was young, and who knows where the bones of my horse may be rotting, or whether a sc.r.a.p of his reins still lie in his stall? I have forgotten all about him long ago."
Petru turned away in anger, and went back to his old nurse.
"Do not be cast down," she said with a smile; "if that is how the affair stands all will go well. Go and fetch the sc.r.a.p of the reins; I shall soon know what must be done."
The place was full of saddles, bridles, and bits of leather. Petru picked out the oldest, and blackest, and most decayed pair of reins, and brought them to the old woman, who murmured something over them and sprinkled them with incense, and held them out to the young man.
"Take the reins," said she, "and strike them violently against the pillars of the house."
Petru did what he was told, and scarcely had the reins touched the pillars when something happened--HOW I have no idea--that made Petru stare with surprise. A horse stood before him--a horse whose equal in beauty the world had never seen; with a saddle on him of gold and precious stones, and with such a dazzling bridle you hardly dared to look at it, lest you should lose your sight. A splendid horse, a splendid saddle, and a splendid bridle, all ready for the splendid young prince!
"Jump on the back of the brown horse," said the old woman, and she turned round and went into the house.
The moment Petru was seated on the horse he felt his arm three times as strong as before, and even his heart felt braver.
"Sit firmly in the saddle, my lord, for we have a long way to go and no time to waste," said the brown horse, and Petru soon saw that they were riding as no man and horse had ever ridden before.
On the bridge stood a dragon, but not the same one as he had tried to fight with, for this dragon had twelve heads, each more hideous and shooting forth more terrible flames than the other. But, horrible though he was, he had met his match. Petru showed no fear, but rolled up his sleeves, that his arms might be free.
"Get out of the way!" he said when he had done, but the dragon"s heads only breathed forth more flames and smoke. Petru wasted no more words, but drew his sword and prepared to throw himself on the bridge.
"Stop a moment; be careful, my lord," put in the horse, "and be sure you do what I tell you. Dig your spurs in my body up to the rowel, draw your sword, and keep yourself ready, for we shall have to leap over both bridge and dragon. When you see that we are right above the dragon cut off his biggest head, wipe the blood off the sword, and put it back clean in the sheath before we touch earth again."
So Petru dug in his spurs, drew his sword, cut of the head, wiped the blood, and put the sword back in the sheath before the horse"s hoofs touched the ground again.
And in this fashion they pa.s.sed the bridge.
"But we have got to go further still," said Petru, after he had taken a farewell glance at his native land.
"Yes, forwards," answered the horse; "but you must tell me, my lord, at what speed you wish to go. Like the wind? Like thought? Like desire? or like a curse?"
Petru looked about him, up at the heavens and down again to the earth.
A desert lay spread out before him, whose aspect made his hair stand on end.
"We will ride at different speeds," said he, "not so fast as to grow tired nor so slow as to waste time."
And so they rode, one day like the wind, the next like thought, the third and fourth like desire and like a curse, till they reached the borders of the desert.
"Now walk, so that I may look about, and see what I have never seen before," said Petru, rubbing his eyes like one who wakes from sleep, or like him who beholds something so strange that it seems as if... Before Petru lay a wood made of copper, with copper trees and copper leaves, with bushes and flowers of copper also.