488
LEV
KAS SIL
his
most loyal weathercocks at the tower," warned Melchiora.
"They are on guard all night." "I will undertake the task," Isobar
reassured her. "I will wreck all the weathervanes on the palace.
The winds will quarrel and confusion will follow!"
And that
is
what happened. Towards nightfall the
winds
saw that the arrows on the palace weathervanes were pointing in
different directions and they immediately became excited.
"It's my tum to blow" howled the Northeaster, "but the
weathervane shows Southwest! Call the guard and have the
vanes mended!"
Disorder reigned in the palace. The weathercocks rushed
off to look for Isobar, but there was no trace of him.
In the meantime the moon had risen. Catching her pearly
light in his piece of mirror, Amalgam sent down a slender, quiv–
ering, transparent ray. Wherever it touched the earth, John
Greenfingers sowed a handful of his magic seeds. In an instant
powerful shoots twined themselves around the rays and climbed
to the top of the tower.
There were many of these green shoots. They bound them–
selves into a thick, strong rope, and Amalgam was easily able to
climb down to the ground. And when one of the sentries threw
himself at Amalgam, having heard the noise, the Craftsman
blinded him with a ray from his mirror. And so the Master
Craftsmen Amalgam and John Greenfingers escaped from the
palace. It was agreed that Melchiora would wait for them on the
shore where Isobar had already fitted out a small ship with a
loyal crew. But when the fugitives reached the shore, John
Greenfingers was unable to find his daughter and Amalgam
could not find his beloved. They did not know that the sly Once–
Upon-a-Time had locked up the beauty
in
a dungeon during the
night.
Amalgam wanted to go back at once to the palace to free
Melchiora, but John Greenfingers and Isobar the Armorer would
not let him go, thinking that to do so would be unwise and that
Amalgam would only destroy both himself and Melchiora, for
