Although the wicked queen’s plan was to turn them into ugly birds of prey, her magic didn’t work. Instead the princes turned into eleven beautiful wild swans. All at once they flew through the windows of the palace, over the kingdom, to the forest beyond. They hovered over the peasant cottage where their sister, Princess Eliza, had been sent. She did not see them. They had no voices so they could not speak to her and tell her of the wicked queen’s curse. So they flew far away and took shelter in a cave in a thick, dark wood. They were far away from their kingdom and from the wicked queen