The moon had moved to the opposite side of the horizon sky again and the high black mountains appeared in front of them.
"Here the Princess is imprisoned!" Henry pointed to the mountains.
"Is the Prince really still in love with her?" Lica asked gently. "How would I say…" old man hesitated "…it is his duty! And what about love; I would not say anything after seeing how he had looked at you today."
Joy filled Angelica's soul. She remembered Edward's eyes and smiled.
In about two hours our heroes came to the mountains. Very near there was a wide entrance to the cave.
"But there is no moonlight," the girl said quietly. "How can we go in total darkness?"
"I saved some oakum and took a flint with me. And we could find some sticks right now!"
Henry quickly found two sturdy sticks wrapped them with oakum and set on fire. He gave one torch to Lica and the other left for himself. They put baskets at the cave entrance and went inside. The ceiling and the walls of the cave were covered with a thick spi-der's web. Wrapped into spider cocoons birds, small animals and bats were hanging from the top.
"Well at least it's good that there are no people!" Angelica said.
And she and Henry passed on. First the entrance narrowed then widened again and travelers came into a large room. There they saw a lot of bones lying around and some gnawed bodies.
Suddenly they heard some rustle behind. The girl and the old servant looked back and saw a huge house size spider was quietly creeping towards them.
"Run!" Henry shouted and pushed Lica into the side aisle. They were running but the spider did not want to leave their victims. He spit a few balls of web chasing our heroes. Five minutes later Angelica and the Prince's servant ran into another room where a fairly wide stream was flowing in the middle.
"Web is afraid of water! Jump!" the old man shouted.
He grabbed girl's arm and pulled her along. She had no choice and obeyed. While they were running and jumping over the stream the spider's web, following them, appeared. It rolled to the stream but did not jump over it.
"Thank God, you had been right," said Lica barely breathing. But suddenly they heard ramble in the cave and at that mo-ment a strange gray-haired man in a black cloak appeared in front of the girl and the Prince's servant.
"Hello, Henry!" he said. "We haven't seen for ages! You are getting old..."
"Greetings, Wizard! And you've changed for the worse!" the servant parried. "By the way, Angelica, this is the Wizard who kidnapped the Princess from Prince Edward."
"Yes, I am!" the old man giggled. "Many years have passed... I see the Prince has managed to find someone who is madly in love with night!"
And the villain began to examine Lica with curiosity.
"She is very beautiful!" he said finally.
"You do not get distracted," Henry pulled him. "We have fulfilled your condition, so you must return the Princess!"
"Princess? Oh, yes, please! I am not interested in her any-more! But the girl... I need a ransom!" the Wizard croaked.
"What ransom?" Angelica said.
"I want something that you haven't had yet!"
"Please, take it!" the girl surprised. "If I do not have it and feel quite normal then why I need it?"
"Are you sure?" the Wizard laughed in his beard.
"Of course I am!"
The villain clapped his hands and they heard boom again. "All right, take your Princess! But she is not the same as she used to!" the old man burst of laughing.
He whistled and the side wall of the cave moved apart. Lica and Henry saw a tall thin woman who tried going by touch to them.
"What happened?" Henry asked.
"Since being here in absolute darkness she has gone blind!" the Villain giggled.
"What a rascal you are!" Edward's servant wiped at the Wizard.
"Henry!" the Princess shouted. "Stop it! Anyway you can change nothing."
Laughing the Wizard had disappeared in the air.
"Have you recognized me, Your Mightiness?" the old servant said with tragic voice.
"Of course, because your voice has not changed at all! Come on, I'll get us out of these caves!" the Princess replied. "I have ex-plored them well enough."
She was leading Angelica and Henry some known only to her way. And our heroes came out quite far from the place where they had left their food baskets.
"We had better not to come back!" Edward's servant said. "I don't want to meet with the spider again."
Lica and Princess agreed with him.
Without any incidents they got to Sleepy Lake and crossed it. Then Henry untied the horses from the tree, sat with the Princess and Lica mounted on the other. Riders pulled the reins and went across the wide valley to the Nightmare Forest. When they got to the edge of the forest the moon was on the other side of the sky again.
"Hooray!" the old man shouted. "One day has passed! My magi-cal power went back to me! Angelica, I'll turn you into an owl and I will ride with the Princess through the forest. I would have bewitched the Princess but unfortunately she wouldn't have seen where to fly."
"But it is very dangerous!" the girl said. "I will not leave you!" "The less we are, the less we will have nightmares haunting!"
Henry said emphatically. "And never ever argue with the old!"
He muttered something quickly under his breath then took a feather out of his coat pocket and stuck it into Lica's hair.