“How is so great a change as that to be wrought?” asked King Red Flame. “Have you knowledge of such a spell as will accomplish this?”
Dame Grey Smoke shook her head. “No, Your Majesty, not I,” she said. “But there is in the palace, greater knowledge than I possess. It was written long ago in the Book of Spells, that lies locked away in your treasury.”
“True,” cried the King. “Why had I not thought of that? Let the book be brought!”
The King and Queen waited in silence while a trusted messenger was dispatched to fetch it from the treasure chamber where it lay. When it was brought the King drew from his bosom a tiny key, which hung about his neck from a golden thread. As the King unlocked the book, a thin mist of magic floated out from its pages, and circled about his head for a moment before it disappeared. A thrill of awe passed through the watching fairies.
Slowly the King turned page after page, until at last he paused. “It is here,” said he. He and the Queen stooped above the book, reading the strange and crabbed letters written so many ages ago by the masters of fairy magic. When they had read the charm through to the end, the King lifted his head: “None but those who work this charm may see it wrought,” commanded he. Then one by one the fairies passed from the royal bedchamber, leaving the King and Queen alone.
All was silent in the room. The charm had been spoken--the spell had been wrought. The King and Queen stood watching the still motionless form of the Earth Fairy.
At last through her passed a thrill of wakening life. She turned upon her side. Her eyelids fluttered, then opened wide, and her eyes rested in bewilderment upon the two bending over her. From them her eyes wandered to the room about her. She raised herself upon her elbow. “Where am I?” she demanded in a trembling voice.
“You are in the Kingdom of the Fire Fairies,” answered Queen Glow gently. “But do not be afraid. You are safe here, for we have changed you into a Fire Fairy, and there is now no more danger for you here from heat or flame than there is for our own royal selves.”
The Earth Fairy’s face grew black with anger. “A Fire Fairy!” she cried. “I, a Fire Fairy! That must never be. I am of the Earth. How dared you meddle with an Earth Fairy? Let me go instantly. I am going back to my own country--to my own kind.”