by Cameron Jace
There was a long silence. A really long silence. And Fable sympathized with them. One had to think such a thing over and over again. Fable had witnessed the moments that changed the course of fairy tales. The reason for the Queen's hunting of them all.
"I like it," Ladle said.
Fable smiled. Of course, Ladle was quirkily fearless. Why wouldn't Death carry someone else's heart?
"If I cut Shew's heart out and split it among the seven of us," Fable said, "each one of us will have to live with a heart three grams heavier."
"Three grams heavier?" Marmalade said, as everyone remembered they had talked about the consequences of a heavier heart in Jack's house earlier. "But we said we're not sure what happens to those with a heavier heart."
"I am utterly confused," the Star said. "Are we going to cut the poor girl open?"
"It's not like that," Fable said, although she wasn't sure. She tried to express the inner thoughts she had as spontaneously as possible. "No cutting is involved. It's a dark spell, one the universe will not approve of. A spell against the norms of life. But if we want to help Shew, this is all I know." And I don't know how I know it.
"What does that mean, 'a spell against the norms of life'?" Marmalade squinted in the faint light.
Loki's threatening voice outside urged them to decide.
"I have no idea." Fable truly didn't know. "I never tried the spell before. I just know you're not supposed to do it."
"Who taught it to you?" Jack asked.
Fable looked at Cerené.
"I don't think we have time to delve into that," Cerené said. "Either we spilt Shew's heart or we fight outside."
It seemed that none of them had anything to contribute.
"How is this done?" Cerené seemed to be the only one who understood. Maybe it was her unconditional love for Shew, or her prior experience with the Art. Magic was a consequential art. It came with a certain baggage that only practitioners understood.
"We prick Shew's finger," Fable said. "Then we must prick ours. Each one has to mesh his or her blood with Shew's. Just a little bit will do. Then we hold hands and circle her, while I say my incantation."
"Just like that?" Ladle asked.
"It's not going to be easy," Fable warned them. "The transformation will be the greatest pain any one of us has ever endured."
"Why are we doing this, again?" Jack scoffed. "She is a ruthless vampire girl."
"She is the Chosen One," Cerené said. It was the first time Fable had learned this. "It is mentioned in a prophecy that she will end the reign of vampires."
"So each one of us will have a chunk of the Chosen One's heart in us?" Ladle chirped.
"As I said, I don't know how the spell works." Fable had to go through the burden of repeating what she wasn't sure of.
"You mean you don't know how the forbidden spell works at all?" Jack said.
"I know how it works, but don't know the consequences of each one of us living with a heavier heart for a while. We're not supposed to have a heavier heart. It's against the universe's orders."
"Well, good luck to all of you. I'm pretty awesome with my heart." Jack stood up. "I'm out of this."
"Stop!" Marmalade called out. It was a foolish endeavor, as her voice was too loud this time. Everyone waited to see if someone outside had heard her.
The panthers' breaths were audible now. They were sniffing the earth around the cave. It was too late to hesitate any more.
"Come out, wherever you are," Loki sneered outside.
None of them uttered a single hiss, wishing he'd just give up and look somewhere else.
"That's it. I'm fed up!" Loki lost it after a long silence. "The hell with the Queen and her daughter," he roared. "I don't have to bring her the heart and liver. Personally, I just want to kill the bratty Princess."
What did he mean he was fed up? None of them had an answer to that.
Then it came, shockingly fast: "Burn down this place—the trees and the caves. Right now!" Loki ordered his huntsmen. "Let's burn every living thing in this area, whether they come out or not."
41
The Queen's Diary
As it turned out, Angel didn't choose the whale. In many ways, it seemed to have chosen us. Angel told me that while he was struggling to protect me against the raging sea, he sank as deep as he could, and waited until it calmed down. Luckily, no mermaids followed us, because they had fled from Fate's wrath. Fate being a monster with a child's brain played in our favor. But for how long?
"So all the lines I saw in the night were the whale's curvy ribs from inside?" I lay in Angel's arms, contemplating whether being here was romantic or morbid. Did I have to worry if I could ever leave this whale? Could this be our new kingdom?
"Exactly," Angel said, brushing my hair. "Right here we feel like we're not moving, but the whale is swimming in the Seven Seas."
"But this water under the raft is deep," I remarked.
"It is." Angel laughed. "There is fish, too, and shells at the bottom. It's like the whale is a sea of its own. Which is why we should be careful."
"Why?"
"All these fish somehow came in through the whale's mouth, I guess," he said. "Meaning, who knows what the sea could throw in here?"
"I see." I tried to look as far as I could to glimpse the whale's mouth's opening, but this thing seemed immense, and the lights were dim—strangely, the inside was lit by fireflies, glowing a random gold light here and there. Either the whale had its mouth shut or it was much bigger than I could imagine. "But Hook controls the whales at sea."
"Not this one," Angel said. "When I swam around, I found there have been many other people before us here. You can tell from the carvings on the whale's bones."
"Do you think they escaped Fate, too?" I said.
"Hard to tell, but the whale saved them from the evil in the sea one way or another. The writings suggest that. Some claim to have slept here for seven years without need to eat or drink. But they're just stories."
"I wonder where these people are now?"
"I wish we'd meet a survivor so we can know where to go from here," Angel said. "There is a common name I came across many times on the wall's ribs. I have no idea what it means, but it's always capitalized and found among other names of people who have been here. Maybe that's the name of someone we should look for."
"What name?"
"Moby Dick," he said. "Funny name, right?"
"Strange name," I said. "You think it's a man's name? Maybe it's a message?"
"If it is, I don't know how to interpret it," Angel said. "I really don't care about this. I just want us to rest and then sail this small raft out to the Seven Seas. We have to find the Tower of Tales, like I promised."
I tried to talk, but Angel put a finger on my mouth.
"Shh," he said. The gold in his eyes flickered, but in a good way. "I have put you through a lot and we have to reach our destiny. My father will not give up on hunting us. We might have less time than we think."
"You think he would chase us here?"
"He won't give up, Carmilla," Angel said. "He can't."
Before I said anything, I remembered the mermaids claiming Angel hadn't really been honest with me.
"There are things I haven't told you, Carmilla," he confessed. "I still want you to trust me, though."
"What didn't you tell me, Angel?" I turned and faced him.
"If I tell you, you will run away, afraid," he said. "Trust me. And I don't want to lose you."
"Do you think I can go anywhere now?" I said, my eyes briefly scanning the immense structure of the whale. It was as big as a cathedral. "I can't swim. I can't stare and see my face in water. I am helpless, Angel. What are you keeping from me?"
"Remember when I was away for two years, after you were held captive by my father?"
I nodded.
"I really wanted to be with you, but…" Angel shrugged, something he never did. "I learned a few things that would happen if we'd be together."
"Well…" His face was really near, but his eyes were distant, although looking straight into mine. "First of all, my father thinks you're one of us."
"What?" Even though I loved Angel dearly, my reaction was a bit insulting to him. I backed away a little. What did he mean by "one of us"? Angel himself wasn't one of them. "That's nonsense."
"I never got to know why exactly he thinks so, but…" He shrugged again. "If you think of it, some parts make sense."
"What are you saying, Angel?" I said. "You aren't one of them. Neither am I. We choose to be who we are." Then I realized what he was trying to say. "You think I'm a vampire?"
"A half-vampire, maybe," he said. I was shocked. "Or have a susceptibility to turn into one."
"I can't believe my ears."
"Look at it this way. You can't look at mirrors, like us."
"Because of a curse by some nameless witch—"
"That nameless witch can only curse vampires, Carmilla." He looked like he regretted telling me. "I asked around, and everyone confirmed she only had power over vampires—and half-vampires; anyone who has vampire blood in them."
"How can you be sure?" Shocked didn't nearly describe what I felt. "What's her name, the witch?" I remembered the mermaids asking me to meet her.
"No one told me," Angel said. "Remember that I'm an outcast. I rarely lived among vampires. I don't know the lore or the history. Not accurately or detailed. And there is the blood, milk, and chocolate thing."
"What about it?" I didn't need to recite the incidents in the vampires' dungeon to remember it.
"I have no idea what the significance is, or why they submerged you in it," he said. "But it should hurt any non-vampire. It should drive them insane, which didn't happen to you. Anyway, I tried to keep away, because whatever susceptibility to turning into a vampire you had, I didn't want to be the one to trigger it. I had been resisting becoming a vampire myself, and you don't know what it does to me. You don't know how many times I want to bite you, to have your blood, and hold myself back. If I hadn't just fed from the sea, I wouldn't be able to hold myself from you."
I was too lost and confused to say anything.
"But I came back for you, two years later, because I couldn't live without you, Carmilla." He leaned in to kiss me. I pulled away.
"This doesn't make sense, Angel," I said. "You're holding back something else. The mermaids told me you held some big secret from me."
"The mermaids?" Angel seemed offended.
"I feel it," I said. "My love for you, my bond to you, and all this we're going through. Captain Ahab knowing who I am, and asking me to leave his ship. Fate dying to make me sell my soul to him. Why am I so important? The fact that I brought apples with me into the world. Your father wanting you to 'have me'? All of this intensified when I met you. What are you keeping from me, Angel?" My voice echoed inside the hollow whale, so loudly I thought it shook a little—maybe it thought of my voice as some undesirable gas or something. "Who am I?"
"You're my True Love." Angel grabbed my arm, his eyes moistened and almost teary. Tears that were meant to conceal the truth from me.
I felt furious all of a sudden. This moment held echoes of my childhood anger when I'd asked my mother to call me "the beauty of them all." I wasn't myself. That unexplained darkness in me rose again. I pulled my hands away from Angel and crawled on all fours to the edge of the raft.
"Carmilla," he called after me.
I didn't turn back, and he didn't stop me. I was going to see my reflection in the water. I didn't care anymore—I know I have said that a thousand times—not after all I had been through and after all that'd been kept away from me, even by my dearest ones.
Here it was. I bowed over the edge, about to break all the rules that chained me. It didn't matter if my land—or my parents—burned in hell.
I knew it would take some time to find a good spot to see my reflection clearly in the water. I tried to be near a tribe of fireflies, and used their golden light to help see my reflection. I scanned the water for the calmest spot with most light. Angel tried to grip my feet, pulling me back, but I slid away. I wasn't going to be kept a prisoner in the name of True Love anymore.
My eyes widened, as the water wasn't reflecting anything back. That damn water and that damn light conspiring against me. I bowed closer, my heart racing, afraid I'd fall into the water and die—who died from a fear of water? What was this kind of life?
Finally, the water began to form a face. I steadied my hands, kicking Angel away with my legs. I knew he wasn't going to force me—he could easily have held me back with his strong hands.
The face in the water seemed to come closer, come to light, to clarity.
I smiled.
My reflection smiled back, growing bigger.
I looked.
It looked back, eyes a bit bigger than usual.
My nose was bigger, too.
My face…
Oh…my God…
How was that possible?
Was that how I looked?
Who was that staring back at me?
Part 3
True Love & Lies
42
Fable's Dreamworld
Jack jumped back, pulled Ladle's scythe, and used the tip of it to cut his finger immediately. "Well," he sighed, "I never thought I'd do it, but let's see if the Chosen One's heart is good enough against burning fire. I'm not going to die this young."
Jack's influence was instantaneous. Everyone pricked their fingers and meshed their blood with Shew's. The grass and trees were already crackling outside. The shimmer of fire was slanting through the spider web.
Fable asked them to hold hands and close eyes. She was holding Jack's hand to the left and Marmalade's to her right.
The incantation was hard to spell; it seemed to be in a language no one had ever spoken. Fable just recited what her mind told her to, as if she had been possessed by her older self. She was reciting it from a memory she didn't quite remember, if that made any sense.
Like every other type of magic, it came with a price—one Fable could feel immediately.
An unexplained darkness began ruling over her. She could feel her soul changing again. And she wondered if she'd ever go back to the Waking World the same pigtailed, clumsy girl she was before.
It was a horrible thing to do, but it was the only way out. This, or the Lost Seven would be soon killed by the huntsmen.
She really hoped this was a memory relived, and that she wasn't messing with anything from the past. She convinced herself that two centuries ago she had used evil to defeat evil. No wonder most of the Lost Seven lived horribly ever after. She was curious about what happened to each of them after that day.
Fable recited the spell and asked them to repeat after her. Her insides ached again. Every pore in her had let that cruel darkness seep through her fragile soul.
The sky split somewhere nearby, and a loud lightning bolt hit the ground. It wasn't the fire's doing or natural causes. It was the dark spell, summoned from an abandoned corner in the pits of hell. The earth beneath them trembled, like a light earthquake rushing all over the Kingdom of Sorrow. Fable could hear one of the huntsmen outside say, "It's the whale! Someone has upset the whale!"
So Sorrow's whale had always been here? Did the spell upset him? What am I doing? God help me.
Fable wondered if the spell shook everything in Sorrow, even the Queen's throne.
Shew's body shook violently. Her back arched forward, as if she were being lifted from the floor by an invisible force. Blood seeped out of her nose, and then another lightning bolt struck.
Fable hung tough. She didn't stop reciting for a second. She wasn't going to give up now, although the pain was strong. If they were going to pay for doing this later, at least it had to be done efficiently.
And it worked.
Fable could feel an eminent heaviness in her heart. A disti
nct weight. Something unmeasurable with human scales. She was sweating. So were the rest of them. Even the Beast shivered in the transformation.
"Where are you, Princess of Sorrow?" Loki was going mad outside. Although he had ordered the burning, the shaking of the earth must have driven him crazy.
It certainly maddened him when the third lightning bolt came down with rain, putting out his fire.
"What kind of witch are you, Princess?" Loki screamed, and Fable thought she heard a woman's voice next to him. Was it possible that the Queen of Sorrow had arrived outside?
Would she risk it?
Fable's body was shattering into pieces from the inside. Lifting her head for a moment, she saw Cerené bleeding from her eyes. Each one had different levels of tolerance. It amused Fable how strong Jack was. Ladle was the strongest of all, but that wasn't a surprise.
The lightning stopped.
Their hands parted as they fell to their sides and bent their bodies over the floor.
Loki was still shouting, madly looking for Shew, angered by the falling rain that seemed to put all fire out. Fable could faintly hear that the woman next to him wasn't the Queen. She couldn't tell who she was, but she could hear parts of what she was saying.
"This isn't natural," the woman shouted. "This is Black Art. The kind no witch should practice. Whoever did that has cursed each and every one who participated."
Inside the cave, they had barely begun catching their breath.
"Is it done?" Cerené asked.
Fable nodded.
"I feel it." Ladle patted her chest. "I feel her heart in me."
"If it had only rained before we started this," Jack murmured.
The weakest was Cerené, but she had an exquisite smile on her pale face. "I feel Shew's presence in me, too. I feel like I'm bonding with her. I love you, Princess," she said to the comatose girl. "Do you feel it, Jack?"
"I feel I could use a big meal of beans." Jack stood up.
"So what now?" Marmalade asked.
Fable saw the spider web was gone. Not just that. Several new cave openings in different directions were visible in the rain.