'I will go forth and seek him,' replied the Prince without wavering. 'If he is stronger than I, then you will see neither me nor my wife again; but, if I prevail, we will return to you.'
So the Prince set forth on his quest; and after three days' journey, he came to a beautiful city. And, as he rode beneath the walls of a castle, he heard a voice from a window high in the tower, calling to him. He drew rein and dismounted; then, as he advanced into the courtyard, a girl came running towards him.
'O my brother!' she cried; 'you have come at last!'
It was his eldest sister whom he had found so easily. They embraced and kissed, and then she led him into the castle.
'And your husband?' he asked as they stepped aside into a dimly-lighted antechamber; 'who and what is he?'
'He is the Dragon King,' she replied in a whisper; 'and he is no friend of my brothers. Yet I will hide you, and then ask him what he would do if you sought me out.'
That evening, when the Dragon King came home on whirring wings, there was no sign of either the Prince or his charger. Yet he raised his nostrils in the air and sniffed.
'I smell a human being,' he said. 'Confess, woman; who is it?'
'No one,' replied she. But he was certain about the matter, saying that his senses had never yet deceived him, though a woman might.
'That is nought,' said she. 'But, tell me; if my brothers came to look for me, how would you take it?'
'If your eldest brother came here,' replied the Dragon King, 'I would eat him raw. Your second brother I would stew gently over a slow fire, or, if he were nice and fat, I should roast him to a turn; but your youngest brother--him I would spare.'
Then said she, 'O King, my youngest brother, who is your brother-in-law, is here in your castle. I will summon him.'
It was a great meeting between the young Prince and the Dragon King. One would have thought that they had known each other for years. They embraced and wished each other health and long life; and then they sat down to a sumptuous banquet quickly brought in by winged attendants, who were evidently of the uneducated dragon classes;--indeed, though richly attired, they looked like slaves.
In the course of conversation the Prince happened to mention that he was on the track of one Bashtchelik, who had run off with his wife against her will.