Siegfried neighed. “Once you hold the fireflower in your hands, the Evil will no longer be able to harm you. It is powerless against the pure energy of the fireflower. When you’re holding the fireflower, you shall be able to walk right into the long, black shadows. Simply close your eyes, and think of the lost soul whom you wish to save, and you shall find it.”
Hannah took a deep breath. This didn’t sound so hard at all—in theory. If only she didn’t have this fear of being tempted by the Evil, which had already tried to pull her in.
“Be on your guard, and stay away from the thunder. Now go! Before the Evil sees you here with us!”
25
They spent the entire afternoon galloping through the gloomy forest. Other than a few brief rest stops at various springs or berry and hazelnut bushes, they took no breaks. Hannah kept checking the position of the sun to make sure that Irmgard was still speeding northward, but the unicorn was doggedly maintaining the exact direction.
Back in the clearing, in the presence of Irmgard’s fellow unicorns, Hannah had sensed just how much the unicorn longed to return to her herd. Perhaps this mission held the key. She’d gotten the impression that Siegfried, the lead stallion, was very strict, but as the alpha animal, that was probably necessary.
Still, it seemed merciless to exclude Irmgard then and there, as Edeltraud had done, just because she was so forgetful. Hannah could understand why Irmgard had set off to prove something to herself. Hopefully, her quest would help her to drive out the Evil and gain the patience and wisdom required to be accepted as a full member of the herd.
“How will we recognize the fireflower?” Hannah had asked Siegfried before they rode off.
“It grows on the barren ground of the Black Stone and is at most one foot tall. There is only ever a single plant. You will never find it in clusters, and it produces just one flower. That flower is large and a bright, fiery red. In its center gleams the white pearl that you will need to free the soul.”
Hannah wondered if she knew of a flower like that from Ines’s nursery, but she could think of no plant that matched that description. Meanwhile, Siegfried had gone on to say, “Above all, you shall recognize the fireflower by the fact that the Evil will do everything in its power to shield it from you. The Evil itself cannot pick it, nor can it destroy it. It cannot trample or uproot it. It is powerless against the fireflower!”
As Irmgard continued galloping north with Hannah on her back, Hannah was still pondering the unicorn stallion’s words when she saw the mountain looming in the distance. She lifted her head in astonishment. “I know that mountain! It’s there in my time as well. It’s called Rupertsberg—why that is, nobody knows!”
“What do you mean it’s still there in your time as well?” Irmgard whinnied inquiringly.
“Frieda, or Friederike the Enchantress, sent me back in time to the day when Prince Maximilian would experience the transformation for the last time. She thought I would be able to save him.”
“But how could you have done that? The prince was known for his unwillingness to make a quick decision. Even if you had been the woman of his dreams, he would never have married you that same night. She must have known that!”
“She said that I needed to help him find Mirabelle and apologize to her.”
“From the looks of it, though, it didn’t work with you there, either. That couldn’t have been the reason. Tell me everything that happened from the beginning.”
Hannah summarized how the events of the past few days had led her to go to the ball and what Frieda had told her about the circumstances.
“That doesn’t make sense. She takes you away from Anni, Hans, and Mirco?—”
“Leon, Emi, and Marco!”
“Isn’t that what I said? She takes you away from your children, who now are all alone with her, just so you can point the prince in the right direction and hold his hand as he apologizes? No, I don’t think so.”
“But the brick pathway came to a fork that Maximilian said wasn’t there before.”
Irmgard shook her head. “No, no, I remember it differently. There was always a path that went right past Mirabelle’s house. The prince is wrong—I’m absolutely sure of it. Friederike the Enchantress must have had some other reason for sending you to help Prince Otto.”
“You mean Prince Maximilian. But he was absolutely sure he had never seen that path... maybe she hid the second path from him. But why? Well, she’s already very old. Could be she’s not all there anymore.”
“No, no, no! Not Friederike the Enchantress! And she’s not that old, either. Enchantresses grow very, very old, believe me. She’s hiding something from you—I’m sure of it. There must be some reason for your presence. And now she’s sitting over at your place and babysitting your children?” Irmgard laughed as she whinnied. “She doesn’t even like children!”
“What do you mean she doesn’t like children?” Hannah nearly fell off the unicorn’s back with shock. “She rings my bell almost every day to stuff them with candy, and for weeks she’s been offering to babysit.”
“Friederike the Enchantress? No one here would willingly entrust their children to her!”
Hannah turned white as a sheet. “What are you saying?”
“She can be very gruff and forceful. She’s very bossy, and if things don’t go her way, there will be hell to pay! Hardly anyone knows her well, but everyone has heard the stories about her. That’s why everyone was surprised that the role of godmother for Prince Cunibert?—”
“Prince Maximilian!”
“Yes, exactly! Everyone was surprised that she took on the role of godmother for him. The same way that people were surprised that his mother, the Queen, went to see her to ask her to do it. Going to her is dangerous all by itself. You never know if you’ll come back in one piece!”
