Gurgi had just then come up with a leather water flask and, hearing Fflewddur's words, began yelping in terror and dismay. Taran took the flask from Gurgi's trembling hand, unstoppered it, and with all haste began drenching the frog. 'Oh, terrible! Oh, horrible!' moaned Gurgi. 'Unlucky Doli! Unhappy dwarfish companion! But how did this froggie swallow him with gulpings?'
Under the stream of water the frog had begun to revive, and now kicked mightily with its long hind legs.
'Skin! Skin!' came Doli's voice. 'Pour it on my skin! Not down my throat, you clot! Are you trying to drown me?'
'Great Belin,' murmured Fflewddur. 'At first I thought it was just a frog who happened to have the same name as Doli. But I'd know that temper anywhere.'
'Doli!' Taran cried. 'Is it really you?'
'Of course it is, you long-legged beanpole!' snapped Doli's voice. 'Just because I look like a frog on the outside doesn't mean I'm not myself on the inside!'
Taran's head spun at the thought of Doli in this form. Gurgi was speechless, his eyes as round and wide open as his mouth. Fflewddur, as stunned as the other companions, had recovered somewhat from his first shock and now dropped to his hands and knees on the damp turf where Taran had set the frog.
'You've chosen a strange way to travel about,' said Fflewddur. 'Did you weary of turning yourself invisible? I can understand how that might be tiresome. But? a frog? Though you do make a handsome one. I remarked on it the moment I saw you.'
The frog rolled up his eyes in utter exasperation and his green-spotted body began to swell as if it might burst. 'Chosen? Do you think I chose this? I'm bewitched, you ninny! Can't you see that?'
Taran's heart skipped a beat. 'Who bewitched you?' he cried, aghast at the weird fate which had befallen his old companion. 'Was it Orddu? She's threatened us before. Did you, too, journey to the Marshes?'
'Idiot! Numbskull!' retorted Doli. 'I've better sense than to trifle with her.'
'Who then has done this to you?' Taran exclaimed. 'How can we help? Dallben surely has power against such enchantment. Have courage! We'll take you to him.'
'No time!' Doli answered. 'I don't know if Dallben can break the spell. I don't even know if King Eiddileg of the Fair Folk can do it. Right now it doesn't matter.
'If you want to help me,' Doli went on, 'dig a hole and put some water in it. I'm dry as a bone, and that's the worst thing that can happen to me? I mean, to a frog. I learned that quickly enough.' He blinked at Fflewddur. 'If that giant cat of yours hadn't found me, I'd be dead as a stump. Where did you ever get such a big one?'
'It's a long story,' began the bard.
'Don't tell me then,' snapped Doli. 'As for what brings you here, of all places, you can explain when there's more time.' He settled into the muddy basin Taran and Fflewddur had scraped out with their swords and filled with water from the flask. 'Ah ?ah, that's better. I owe you my life. Ah? what a relief. Thank you, friends, thank you.'
'Doli, we can't let you stay in this plight,' Taran insisted. 'Tell us who cast this evil spell. We'll find him and make him lift it.'
'At sword point, if need be!' cried Fflewddur. He stopped and peered with renewed fascination at Doli. 'I say, old boy, what's it really like, being a frog? I've often wondered.'
'Damp is what it's like,' retorted Doli.
'Damp! Clammy! If I thought turning myself invisible was uncomfortable, this is a hundred times worse. It's like? oh, don't boggle me with stupid questions! It doesn't matter. I'll manage somehow. There's more important work afoot.
'Yes, you can help me,' Doli quickly went on. 'If anyone can help at all. Strange things have been happening…'
'So it would seem,' agreed the bard, 'to say the very least.'
'Fflewddur, let him speak,' Taran broke in. 'His life may be at stake.'
'Strange things,' Doli resumed. 'Peculiar, unsettling. First, not long ago, word reached King Eiddileg in our realm at the bottom of Black Lake that someone had plundered a Fair Folk treasure trove. Broke into it! Made off with the most valuable gems. It's rarely happened in all the history of Prydain.'
Fflewddur gave a whistle of surprise. 'Knowing Eiddileg, I can imagine he was rather sour about it.'
'Not for loss of the gems,' replied Doli. 'We've more than enough. It's that someone was able to find the trove in the first place; and, in the second, dared to lay hands on Fair folk treasure. Most of you mortals have better sense.'
'Could it have been Arawn or any of his servants?' Taran asked.
'I shouldn't think so,' put in Fflewddur. 'As I remarked only today, even the Lord of Annuvin would be more than cautious with Fair Folk.'
'For once you're right,' Doli answered. 'No, not Arawn. We were sure of that. But we had only one report, incomplete, from a Fair Folk watcher in the Hill Cantrevs. No tidings from the guardian of the way post here? that, in itself, was very odd.
'Eiddileg sent a messenger to scout around and get to the root of things. He never came back. Not a word from him. Eiddileg sent another. Same thing. Silence. Dead silence.
'You can guess who was chosen to go next. That's right. Good old Doli. Anything disagreeable to be done? Any unpleasant task?'
Until now, Taran had never been aware that a frog's face could show such a look of indignation and of being much put upon.
Doli snorted, as well as he was able in his present shape. 'Naturally, send for good old Doli.'
'But you found who did it?' Taran asked.
'Of course I did,' Doli retorted. 'But I failed in the end. Look at me! Now, of all times, of all the useless things to be! Oh, if I only had my axe!
'The Fair Folk are in danger,' he went on hurriedly. 'Terrible danger. Yes, I learned who found our trove and stole our treasure. The same who cast this spell on me: Morda!'
'Morda?' Taran repeated, frowning. 'Who is Morda? How could he have done so? Why would he dare to risk Eiddileg's wrath?'
'Why? Why?' Doli's eyes popped furiously and he began to swell up again. 'Don't you understand? Morda, this foul villain of a wizard! Oh, he's shrewder than a serpent! Don't you see? He's found a way of bewitching Fair Folk! No enchanter has ever been able to cast a spell on us. Unheard of! Unthinkable!
'And if he's gained the power to turn us into animals? fish, frogs, no matter? we're at his mercy. He could slay us out of hand, if he chose. That's surely what happened to the way post guardian, to the messengers who vanished without a trace. It can happen to any of us. To Eiddileg himself! Not one of the Fair Folk can be safe from Morda. He's the worst threat ever to fall upon our realm.'
Doli sank back exhausted by his own outburst, and the companions glanced fearfully at each other. 'What his scheme is, I couldn't discover,' Doli continued at last. 'Oh, I tracked him to his hiding place easily enough. He lives in a sort of enclosure not too far from here. I'd gone invisible, needless to say. But it was making my ears buzz so much, worse than a pair of hornets' nests! In the darkness I thought I could chance turning visible? just for a moment, to escape that awful buzzing. Next thing I knew, there I was, as you see me now.
'Morda could have crushed me then and there. Instead, he mocked my plight. It amused him to see a helpless frog. Then he threw me down among the rocks. He savored my lingering agony more than the mercy of killing me out of hand. He was sure I'd perish in these dry hills, withering little by little to my death. And if by some chance I didn't? what difference could it make? How could a frog hope to prevail against a wizard? I crept away, trying to find water. I kept on until I could go no farther. Your cat found me then. If she hadn't, I can tell you it would have been the end of me.
'One thing Morda forgot,' Doli added, 'one tiny thing he overlooked: I could still speak. I myself didn't know it at the time. The shock of being turned into a frog quite took away my voice for a while.'
'Great Belin,' murmured Fflewddur, 'I've heard of people having frogs in their throats, but never…Forgive me, forgive me, old boy,' he added quickly, as Doli glared at him. 'I didn't mean to ruffle your feelings.'
'Doli, tell us what we must do,' Taran cried, horror-stricken at the dwarf's account. It was not Doli's plight alone that turned his blood cold; he saw clearly the fate in store for all the Fair Folk. 'Lead us to Morda. We'll try to take him prisoner, or slay him if we must.'
