by Cameron Jace
I washed the thoughts away and tried to focus on the Moon’s Path. “What do Van Helsing instructions say?” I asked Angel, who was reading them from the piece of paper the vampire hunter had given him.
“The Moon’s Path is a special road,” Angel began. “The Moon up in the sky painted it especially for us, so we can find the Tower of Tales.”
“Go on.”
“And by that, she is risking not following the rules written by the Creators, as she will keep the rest of the sea in darkness tonight,” Angel read all this, but didn’t look convinced. “Just for us.”
I nodded. Since I had met the Moon once before, I knew she had kept her promise. Maybe she couldn’t come when I called for her, or when I was in deep trouble, but she would help us find the way. I didn’t know about her connection to Van Helsing, though.
“The trail zigzags, but runs from South to North,” Angel continued reading.
“Good. What else? Anything about why I can’t see the Moon itself up in the sky?”
“That’s because the path on the sea’s surface is made from the Moon’s dust,” Angel read from the paper, still skeptical. He raised his head and face to me. “It says here that this is why the Moon is risking her life,” he rolled his eyes at the word ‘her.’ “If we don’t make it soon enough to the Tower of Tales, the Moon’s dust will sink into the sea and the Moon will die.”
I had no words to describe how grateful I was. I had promised her I would pass the sack to Lady Shallot. I was at least determined to keep this side of the promise.
“There is one more thing,” Angel looked worried.
“What is it?”
“We have to reach the Tower of Tales before sunrise.”
“That makes sense,” I said. “Once the sun comes up, the Moon’s dust will be invisible.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “It says here that the Moon will sink to the bottom of the ocean and die. The words aren’t clear to me, but I think it assumes the Moon sinks into the ocean each night. That it sleeps there while the sun is up.”
“And you don’t believe that?”
Angel chuckled, rowing ahead. “I don’t believe any of that.”
I didn’t comment. Angel hadn’t seen the Moongirl himself. I didn’t blame him, although I expected him to believe it since his family’s history was even stranger than a few facts about the moon. I neglected to realize he would be skeptical and asked the question that mattered. “So are we also safe as long as we’re on the Moon’s Path?”
“I didn’t want to worry you about this part,” Angel folded the paper back in his pocket. “It says we’re safe, but apparently the dark sea around us is swarming with mermaids like those we met on the boat and inside the whale.”
I stared in horror at the darkness in every direction.
“If we ever trail off the path, they will get us,” Angel said.
“So they don’t want us to find the Tower of Tales?” I wondered. “Even when your father didn’t mind—whatever his sneaky plan is behind it.”
“The mermaids weren’t sent by my father,” Angel said. “The paper said the mermaids were sent by Fate. Apparently Fate, for the fun of it, wants to keep his promise.”
“To make me spend the rest of my life in sorrow?”
Angel nodded.
And for one unusual moment, I smiled.
“What are you smiling about, Carmilla?” Angel puffed, tired from rowing.
“Because it means that finding Lady Shallot is the joy you and I need in our life.”
Chapter 19
The Queen’s Diary
As much as we both were optimistic about reaching the Tower of Tales, it was almost impossible to arrive at.
The tides raged all around us as Angel tried his best to row through them. I clung to the edge of the boat with one hand, in the other I was holding to the sack. Loki’s coffin somehow didn’t fall out of the boat, but every once in a while it threatened to crash against me or Angel. I had no idea of what kind glass it was made of, but it definitely wasn’t of this world. Sometimes I thought the boy would burst out alive from the coffin and kill us. I did respect his father’s courage to some point, but I somehow feared the boy all the time.
Hang on, Carmilla!” Angel spat out water from the sea. “I will get us there.”
I nodded, trying to make it easier on Angel, but it didn’t look like we were going to make it. The tides of the sea seemed to be on Fate’s side as well. They rocked the boat and never seemed to give up trying to throw us off the Moon’s Path.
At some points the boat would float to the edge of the path and I would glimpse a small portion of the darkness beyond. Mermaids surrounded us everywhere. They were singing their horrible songs. Sometimes they reached for me, inviting me back to meet the witch, but most of the time they were targeting Angel, knowing that without him I wouldn’t be able to row fast enough to get us to our destination before sunrise.
“What did you see in the dark?” Angel asked at one point.
“Nothing,” I lied. “Only darkness.”
I had to lie because I knew how much he feared the mermaids with their unmemorable song. I assumed it had something to do with Angel being a descendant of the Piper somehow. If the Piper made the vampires, and Night Von Sorrow was the vampire king, then the Sorrows were part of the Piper’s family.
Briefly, the thought reminded me of the man my father had told me about. The first Karnstein, our great ancestor, who was one of the children the Piper had caught and sent to Transylvania. It made more sense now. This whole thing was basically a war between those two forces, my great ancestor, the first Karnstein, and the Piper, the father of all Sorrows.
But then again, was the Piper the same man in the dark who let me escape my father’s castle when I was still in Styria? If so, why did he and Night Von Sorrow let me live?
My question was interrupted by a sudden wave. A chain of many consecutive waves actually. They came, hitting like whale’s tail, slapping at our boat.
“Angel!” I screamed. “Hold tight.”
But I was too late. Angel weakened for one breath and everything went astray.
The boat rocked off the trail for a brief moment, but long enough for the mermaids to sing their song.
Long enough for Angel to lose it all again.
Chapter 20
The Queen’s Diary
Angel cupped his ears, crumbling to his knees in the boat, leaving the boat in the mercy of the unmerciful waves of the sea.
There wasn’t much I could do for Angel. I had seen his weakness before, and what really mattered now was the boat. I couldn’t it let trail off into total darkness.
In a flash, I jumped over the glass coffin and toward the other side of the boat. I sat down and started to row myself. Not that I managed to do even half of Angel’s job, but I tried my best.
The water splashed in my face, as if spitting at me, taunting me for trying to keep the boat on the path. I hung on tighter to the oars and kept rowing, trying to pull it back onto the Moon’s dust. At some point I thought the ribs in my chest were going to get ripped apart. I didn’t have the strength of a man as strong as Angel to row the boat, but I had the strength of a woman who had traded sorrow for her lover’s life.
I couldn’t understand how I managed to pull the boat back – later, I learned that my bond with Angel gave me part of his strength.
“I hate for you to have to do this, Carmilla,” Angel hardly spoke, even though we’d returned to the Moon’s Path, away from the singing mermaids. “But I think I’ve lost a lot of my strength in this incident.”
“What do you mean?” I spat against the tides.
“I don’t think I can row any further.”
“And I can’t either,” I shouted, my hands about to give up pushing the wooden oars through the choppy water. “What then?”
“There is only one way I can have some of my strength back,” he said, looking ashamed.
I understood immediately. This was m
y fate. Where was I going to run away from it?
“Do you need me to prick my finger?” I said helplessly.
“No need,” Angel dipped his fangs into my hand and sucked off some of my blood.
This time, he was so in need that I fell to my knees in the process. I can’t explain the feeling, not even now. It’s like the Grim Reaper sucking your life away from you, but then leaving enough energy to rise up again, weakened and almost hating the life you’d been given.
And this time, I clung to the idea of hating the life I’ve been given. I watched the world blur into nothingness, as I faded away next to the boy in the glass coffin.
Chapter 21
The Queen’s Diary
When I woke up, the world had begun to lighten around us. So much light that I was afraid.
I propped myself up onto one arm, looking at Angel. He was all depressed and defeated, sitting by the edge of the boat, staring with poison in his glare at the sun in its infant twilight, about to conquer the world.
“What happened?” I said.
“We didn’t make it,” Angel was too hard on himself. “I swear I could see the tower in the distance, but not matter how hard I rowed I wasn’t able to be faster than the sun. I’m so sorry, Carmilla.”
I snapped and stood up, although I was still weakened. But I had to. I felt like I could find a way out of this.
Staring at the rising sun, I felt like I was racing it. If I were to come up with any solution, I had to do it before its yellow rays filled the sky.
“You said you saw the Tower of Tales before the sun came up, right?” I told Angel. “Can’t you at least point at it?”
“The sun confused me,” Angel said. “I mean I was following the Moon’s dust, which as you can see is now gone.” He pointed at the pinkish morning waters all around us. No trace of the Moon’s Path.
“But the mermaids aren’t there either,” I remarked.
“I always thought of them as creatures of the night,” Angel said.
“Which may be good,” I neared Angel. “Listen to me. I think we can still find the Moon’s Path.”
“How so?”
“It all depends on you believing in me, Angel. It all depends on you not being as skeptical as you are.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Moon is a girl, Angel. I saw her,” I said. “Van Helsing said the Moon sinks when the sun rises.”
“Yeah,” he rolled eyes. “It sleeps at the bottom of the ocean.”
“But what if it really does?” I held him by the arms. “I saw you breathe underneath the water when you were hungry for blood.”
It came to him a moment later, staring right into my eyes to get what I was hinting at.
“Are you suggesting I dive deep into the water, trying to find the Moon before it fully sinks?” he said.
“To find the Moongirl, yes,” I said. “What do you have to lose? It could be our only hope. Bring her up before the sun fully rises. She might know how to help, if she isn’t dead already.” I had no idea what would happen to the sea if the Moon died, but I had no luxury to think of it.
Angel nodded. “I will do it. Not because I believe in it, but for you, Carmilla.”
“Please do.”
Angel kissed me then jumped into the water, while I stood there beside the boy in the coffin, waiting.
Chapter 22
The Queen’s Diary
The few minutes while Angel was underwater felt like years. I was staring at the sun all this time, shouting at it, as if I were mad. In the middle of the sea I wondered if I could stop the sun from rising. I wondered if anyone in this magical world had the power to stop the sun from rising. Ironically, this time the sun had to stop rising for the good of the world.
“I’ve got her!” Angel thrust out of the water, hanging onto the edge of the boat. “Come on, Carmilla. Help me get her on the boat.”
And suddenly, the skeptical man was all hands and knees into believing in the Moongirl.
Underneath the pinkish twilight, I knelt down and helped the girl up. Sadly, the lovely Moongirl had aged a thousand years all of a sudden. I believed Van Helsing when he said she had sacrificed herself to help us find the Tower of Tales. I was forever in her debt, and had no idea how I could repay her.
“I can’t believe this,” Angel brushed his long hair back. “I just can’t believe it.” A tear was threatening to leave his eye.
“I told you,” I touched the girl’s silent body. “I met her before. Was she alive when you found her?”
“No. She was like this. As if she were sleeping. I found her in the middle of the depths of the ocean.”
“Do you have any idea how we can wake her up?”
“Are sure she isn’t dead?” Angel asked.
“She has a pulse,” I said. “But it’s weak.”
Angel glanced back at the rising sun. “What do you think she can do if we could wake her?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure she’ll do her best. She can’t die for nothing, Angel.”
“Well, my blood might help,” He knelt beside her and cut his arm open. I wondered which blood was his and which was mine. With each passing moment, I began to realize the thickness of our bond.
Angel opened her mouth, pouring his half-vampire blood into her slackened jaw. The sun was almost there, blinding the world with its infinite light.
“She’s waking up!” Angel said.
The Moongirl could hardly speak, spitting some of Angel’s blood back out. I had to lower my ear closer to her to hear what she was saying, but I couldn’t make it out.
“Just tell me what I can do to save you?” I whispered to her.
“I can’t be saved,” she finally spoke coherently. “If you want to find the Tower I’ll have to show you the path.”
“Can you do it?” Angel asked.
“If you give me the plate,” she said.
“What plate?” Angel asked.
“You mean the one in the sack?” I wondered.
The Moongirl nodded.
“But I’m supposed to bring the sack to Lady Shallot,” I said. “I promised.”
“This or you will never find her,” the Moongirl said. “It’s time for you two to understand that everything comes with a price. Adulthood isn’t just about passion and excitement. You will need to learn to choose and prioritize.”
“Give her the plate, Carmilla,” Angel urged. “It’s our only chance.”
“And what will I tell Lady Shallot?” I argued, feeling stupid whether I accepted the offer or denied it. “I promised Cerené of Murano Island.”
Angel didn’t wait for me. He stepped up and went to the sack. I stood paralyzed, watching him rummage through it, then pull out the plate. He came back and gave it to the Moongirl.
We both watched her stare at it. “I will say a hymn now,” she said. “And once I do, I will die. I will put my soul into the plate. Then you will throw it into the water. It will fool the sun, thinking it’s only a plate, and show you the path. But it will only last for a few minutes before the sun decides to burn you both.”
“You’re talking as if the sun isn’t on our side,” Angel said.
“It isn’t,” The Moongirl said, about to say the hymn. “But I will only say the hymn, under one condition.”
“Anything you want,” I said.
“You owe me,” the Moongirl said.
“Of course,” I said. “But what do you want me to do exactly.”
“Marmalade,” the Moongirl coughed. “My daughter.”
“Her name is Marmalade?” I was a bit confused. “What about here?”
“You will have to save her.”
“How?” I asked. “Where is she?”
“I can’t say more,” the Moongirl. “She is a moon like me. But once you cross her path, you will recognize her and save her.”
“Save her from whom?” Angel inquired, the sun rising higher in the sky.
“From the Piper,” the Moongirl said. “
Like Van Helsing, we’re all descendants of the Lost Seven who escaped the Piper in 1284.”
Part Two: The Tower of Tales
Chapter 23
The Queen’s Diary
I didn’t quite understand how I’d be saving her daughter, Marmalade, at some point in my future, but I wept for a long time when the Moon itself, died in my arms. She died for a cause. For me and Angel to find the Tower of Tales. And suddenly my journey was burdened by responsibility. Not only to save me and my lover’s life, but a vampire hunter’s son and the Moon’s daughter as well.
It was all surreal, to say the least. Like an infinite dream where everything was possible.
I watched Angel throw the plate in the water, and suddenly it turned into moon dust, painting the way toward the Tower of Tales. For a moment I worried about losing one of the seven items I had promised to pass over to Lady Shallot, but then it was the sun that worried me.
“Why is it so hot all of a sudden?” Angel wondered, rowing toward the infinity-high tower in the distance.
“It’s the sun,” I pointed. “The Moongirl said she is our enemy.”
“I won’t let it win,” Angel rowed faster.
I patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him. More than anything I was happy he believed in the weird, and sometimes sinister, magic of the Seven Seas.
“It’s darkening as we get closer, Carmilla,” Angel pointed ahead.
He was right.
As much as the sun was slightly lowering trying to burn us, the tower was surrounded by a shade of darkness. It wasn’t a bad kind of darkness. It wasn’t black. It was a deep blue. It was filled with glittering stars.
“Row ahead,” I said to Angel. “I think we’re moving into another dimension.”
Angel did.
In another surreal moment, we were parting and leaving the burning sun behind, and gliding through an invisible gate into this magic part of the sea.
When I say magical, I’m almost not giving it justice.