by Cameron Jace
"We should take Shew somewhere safe," Fable said. "We need to figure out if she should be cared for in a special way after the spell." Fable didn't know, but she imagined this would have a dire impact on Shew. "For now, the Queen needs to kill the seven of us to consume her heart. We've made it."
Most of them smiled at her. They had done something extraordinary and puzzling, a great obstacle to the Queen getting her hands on the power she wanted. They were proud of themselves, and proud of Fable. Marmalade wasn't the leader anymore. It was Fable everyone was looking up to now. And it scared her so much.
The Lost Seven began pulling Shew outside, astonished by the few huntsmen waiting for them. Most of them had feared the lightning and escaped. The ones who had stayed struggled with their horses on the muddy ground.
The Beast took care of a few. Ladle took care of the rest, as no sword matched the power of her scythe. Her quirky smiles scared a few huntsmen, indeed.
Jack stole a few horses.
Cerené promised to deliver Shew wherever they decided to meet. Jack offered to check his treehouse. If the giant was gone, it would be the best place to hide and take care of Shew. Fable never understood how the giant came and went.
Fable took her own horse, as she still needed to look for Loki and get the Fleece. Was she powerful enough to do that? Was she wicked enough to confront him with some kind of Black Art now?
The Beast tied Shew to Cerené's horse—he would have preferred to take Shew himself, but Cerené was too emotional about it.
The preparation took a while. The huntsmen weren't giving in easily, although Ladle did a good job of stalling Loki.
The plan had to change.
Jack told them to ride away toward the Swamp of Sorrow, misleading the huntsmen into following them while Cerené and Fable took care of Shew and rode to the treehouse.
"Here." Jack tucked a few magic beans into Fable's hand and squeezed. "Plant it like I did when we escaped the goblins, and climb up the tree. Hopefully the giant isn't up there. I will follow up with the others once we get rid of the huntsmen."
Fable nodded, as she tucked the beans in her pockets.
"Don't get addicted to those beans!" Jack winked, turned around, and slapped a huntsman on his back, enticing him to follow him.
Fable couldn't tell Jack that she wouldn't know her way back to the treehouse. She relied on Cerené knowing the way. Cerené was the one with Shew's body on her horse, anyway. Fable followed the Phoenix toward the treehouse.
***
Fable rode as fast as she could, torn between Shew's safety and Loki's Fleece. She prayed she'd come across Loki, and that she would have a powerful kind of magic with which to confront him.
It wasn't long before she heard him cursing on his three-eyed unicorn behind them.
"Witches!" he roared behind her and Cerené.
It seemed that Loki hadn't fallen into Jack's trick, and had his eyes set on wherever the Princess of Sorrow went. Fable was both scared and grateful. Scared of the Huntsman, but grateful she'd have a chance to get the Fleece from him.
"Faster!" Cerené shivered, afraid of the boy who had once cut off her hands. "Faster!"
They rode and rode, panted and sweated, cursed and screamed. Fable's plan was to reach the treehouse, plant the beans, and help Cerené and Shew climb up. Then she'd turn and face Loki. She was sure he knew the forest well. He wouldn't give up easily.
But Cerené didn't seem to really know the way. Loki was closing in. The plan had to change once more.
"You go ahead," Fable told Cerené, as she slowed her horse. "Take those." She handed her the beans. "Take your time to find the treehouse. I will stall Loki."
"What?" Cerené panted. "Why?"
"Just do it." Fable was firm. "I will confront him." The words didn't make sense, but she had to. Even with all the magic she had supposedly learned, how was she going to confront the head of huntsmen?
"Are you sure?" Cerené said.
"Yes." Don't make me change my mind. I have to get that Fleece. "Now go!"
Reluctantly, Cerené rode ahead. She might have done it for Shew, to save her first. But she looked suddenly scared of Fable, of the way she shouted at her and told her to go.
Fable took a deep breath and tried her best not to think too much. This had to be done. She came here for the Fleece. She turned her horse around, looking to collide with Loki head to head. In a million years, she would have never thought of herself being that strong.
43
The Queen's Diary
The face that looked back at me was an ugly face with fangs and green eyes. It was so scary that Angel pulled back.
How was I supposed to not be scared?
This wasn't my face. It was the mermaid's face.
"Hello, Carmilla," said the mermaid. The leader I had met at the Pequod. She didn't look as beautiful this time. She looked like a monster of the sea, deformed with demonic eyes and ill skin.
I raised my head and saw tens of mermaids behind her, surrounding us inside the whale. I fell back, appalled by the mermaids' numbers and ugliness.
But none of that concerned me the most, at least not now. I turned back to look at Angel. The horror on his face…it was like he had looked Death in the eyes. It puzzled me how a strong man like him had this kind of weakness. But then again, who was I fooling? The mermaids themselves didn't scare him. It was what they could do. The songs they could sing.
They began singing that unmemorable song again. Humming it happily as their faces turned back into the beautiful girls of the sea. They braided their hair and swam in unison as they hummed the song, as if they were entertaining a king and queen in some castle in the water. Their giddy looks added to the horror. How do you fight someone who looks so beautiful?
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he was someone else.
I crawled back to Angel and buried his head in my chest, clapped my hands on his ears. He was like a child, a pale one, shivering in my bosom. I was like his mother now, trying to lie to him and tell him that the world wasn't full of monsters.
"You'll be all right." I patted him. "I promise."
"No, he won't." The leader mermaid snickered, shielding her mouth with manicured hands. "He is going thirsty, Carmilla."
"What do you mean?"
"I wouldn't hold him so close if I were you." She continued snickering. "Because sooner or later, he will want your blood, darling."
They were right. I knew it, but still held to my shivering lover. I pulled him nearer, hoping my love would heal him. Didn't Amalie Hassenpflug say something like that?
A tear crawled out of my eyes, ever so painful.
Who was I fooling? Didn't I see Angel in the ship before, when he was almost ready to hurt me? Back then, I was almost going to let him. But with the secret he wouldn't tell me, I didn't feel the same. I wanted my safety. I wasn't sure if I'd give him my blood. I wasn't a vampire, like Night Von Sorrow claimed.
Looking at the water, filled with tons of mermaids singing, I realized I had no place to go.
"Give in, Carmilla," the leader mermaid said, reaching out her hands again. "She wants to see you. You belong to us."
Everyone seemed to think I was one of them. Only I wasn't sure whom I belonged to.
"Go away!" I shouted. "Leave us be. Who are you?"
"My name is Lark." She bowed her head, as if I were her queen. "Sirenia Lark at your service, Majesty."
44
Fable's Dreamworld
"Loki!" Fable screamed back at him, titling her head as she rode. Cerené was scared to death, refusing to leave as she had been ordered. Fable hated her for not leaving, but there was nothing she could do. Cerené cared for everyone too much. "Remember me?" Fable shouted at Loki. "You killed everyone in my town, Furry Tell!"
This time she totally remembered it. A big part of her memory began to come back. The hardest was her hate for Loki. How in the world did I hate him so much in the past? It's the right f
eeling, but feels so wrong.
"My pleasure." He smirked, glowing out of the shadows. "Sue me if I offended you."
"I will do worse!" Fable gritted her teeth, doing her best not to chicken out. This isn't the real Loki, Fable. It's some monster in the past. Ironically, if you hurt him in this dream and take his Fleece, you will be saving him in the Waking World.
"Ha! If so, why don't you get off your horse and fight me, witch!"
"Nah, that won't let you glimpse the darkness you shed on my town," Fable said, as she struggled with her horse. It seemed scared of Loki. "I will burn your heart out." She was just buying time until she glimpsed the red Fleece wrapped around his wrist.
Finally. That's what I came for.
Loki laughed again, too confident he would get her, and the Princess slumped on Cerené's horse behind Fable.
Fable turned around and hissed at Cerené, "You're sure you can lead us to Jack's treehouse?"
Cerené only nodded, her eyes fixed on Loki. Fable realized how much Cerené feared him, the boy who'd cut off her hands before. Why didn't you just go, Cerené! Fable thought. But then again, how could she return to Jack's treehouse if Cerené didn't stay? Also, Shew's body was bait for Loki.
"Look," Fable hissed. "It's going to be all right. Just speed toward the treehouse. I will follow you and make sure he can't hurt Shew before we get there. Once we're there, the Beast, Ladle, Jack, the Star, and Marmalade can kill Loki. It will be seven against one."
"Six against one." Cerené shivered.
"I understand." Fable nodded. "Now, run!"
"We split her heart among us!" Cerené felt the need to yell at Loki before she turned away to run.
Brilliant. Now he knows what we did. And I thought I was more inexperienced than her.
Fable didn't wait for Loki's reaction, and rode away, following Cerené.
"You're lying!" Loki screamed, his voice shattering like cursed glass.
"We did." Cerené couldn't stop spilling the words as she rode ahead. "Among the seven of us. You will have to get it from us all."
"You filthy witches!" Loki's temper was now uncontrollable. He rode after them, panting like a predator. If he caught up, killing them would be the least that'd satisfy him.
Fable panted, too. It wasn't like she had planned out the best solution to get her hands on the Fleece. It had all been random acts from the beginning. But she had just realized she was one of the Lost Seven a few hours ago. This was all too much.
She followed Cerené into the dark of the forest. It seemed to get darker and darker the more they rode. Loki still pursued them.
"Why is it taking so long?" Fable said to Cerené.
"I—" Cerené stuttered as she began to detour in all kinds of directions. "I think… The trees changed their places. This is wrong. The forest is working against us."
"What?" Fable's heart paced. Loki seemed to be so close now. "Are you saying…?"
"I think we're lost," Cerené said, naively stopping her horse, all the fear in the world painting her face.
Fable was shocked. Why did Cerené stop? She didn't seem that fragile in Shew's Dreamory. What had happened to her? So they were lost now?
Fable looked behind her, imagining Loki only steps away.
45
The Queen's Diary
The first two days, I was able to stay with Angel on the same raft. We had little food, but he had long stopped eating, as all he must have thought about was blood. He had weakened into a paler version of himself, burying his head either in my arms or his to avoid listening to the mermaids.
Their humming song echoed in the whale, and they took pleasure in taking intervals of silence, only driving us crazier. Sometimes they sang in unison, sometimes individually, in every possible tone and tempo. They only stopped to sink into the water for food, or giggle while combing each other's hair.
Sometimes, Sirenia swam nearer and talked to me, advising I should give up on Angel and come with them to meet the nameless witch who seemed fascinated with me.
I didn't give in, but I cried a lot. Part of it was sharing Angel's misery, as I was nurturing him like a baby, and another part was me being devastated by my own weakness. How could I not swim? How wasn't I strong enough to kill the mermaids? And if I was so weak, why did everyone know who I was?
The third day, Sirenia educated me about who the mermaids really were. They weren't mermaids. They were sirens. They looked very much like mermaids. They lived all across the Seven Seas and played all day. And they had one thing on their mind. Eating.
But sirens liked to sing, too. They had beautiful voices. Singing gave them strength and longevity. When I asked her why they couldn't just sing and leave us alone, Sirenia explained: in order to sing and live long, they had to eat. Only one type of food helped: human males.
"You're lulling and eating the flesh of man to sing?"
"What would you do if you knew there was a flesh that grants you immortality, Majesty?" Sirenia said. "We also discovered that our music lured mostly men. Rarely did women give in to our power. We used to keep to ourselves and live on abandoned islands in the Seven Seas. We used to sing by the fire all night until our voices seduced sailors. They came in willingly to our island. We played with them for a little while before we killed them and ate them."
I didn't know if I should believe her. I didn't know if I should believe anything I heard. Was there such contradiction in life? Beauty that was nothing but a beast? Killers who killed, not because they were plainly evil, but to survive and live longer?
"Why have you left the islands, then?" I said. Angel was still sleeping in my arms. He had lately acquired a habit of fainting from the pain of music.
"Because of the damn Moongirl." Sirenia rolled her eyes. "She began killing us one by one, Majesty."
"Stop calling me Majesty." It felt insulting being praised by an evil siren like her—no matter her excuses, I still considered her malevolent.
"But you're my Majesty, My Queen." She smiled. The mermaids smiled. "Always will be. You just don't know it yet."
"What do you mean by that?"
"He still didn't tell you, did he?" She pouted at Angel in my arms.
"Tell me what?"
"About the prophecy?" She exchanged pitying looks with the other sirens.
"What prophecy?"
"Hmm… I guess I have to tell you myself, then." She shook her shoulders. "There is the prophecy of a girl, a Karnstein, who will love and marry the son of the vampire king, a Sorrow. This girl will have a pivotal role in history."
"Go on." I thought I had begun to put the pieces together already, but I was wrong. More was to come.
"It was said that she will have the power to end the drought of seven years," Sirenia said. "That's why our nameless witch cursed your land into a barren womb, unable to produce apples."
Silence consumed me. Was I cursed or was I blessed?
"The day that girl is born, no other mother in the land will deliver their babies. Their birth will be either delayed or they will be born dead." Sirenia was happy about it. A dark fairy tale, like the one the Grimm Brothers wrote years later.
"So that's why she cursed our land in the first place?" I mumbled, as if the mermaids couldn't hear me. I was inside my head. Inside my childhood memories, looking for more answers.
"Indeed," Sirenia said. "The nameless witch wanted to find you for her own reasons. Night Von Sorrow kidnapped you later for the same reason."
"Because I was the prophecy girl who'd fall in love with his son," I commented absently.
"Night Von Sorrow wanted to turn his son into a fully transformed vampire, and bite you as well, because the prophecy said that would be the best way to get rid of you, Majesty," Sirenia said. "As it was told, you're stronger than anyone thinks, even stronger than what you think of yourself. Killing you wasn't going to work. But turning you into one of the Sorrows was going to end the curse."
"That's why they lied to Angel and told him they thought I wa
s a vampire," I said. "They wanted to tempt him into biting me. Trying to make it easier on him."
"I don't think Angel believed that," Sirenia said. "He was only questioning why you can't look into a mirror—which, frankly, none of us know." She gestured at her army of sirens, now silent, not singing, listening to a bedtime fairy tale, as dark as they had always meant it to be.
"Is that why you're not hurting me?" I asked. "You want to pressure me"—I remembered Cinder's words—"so I give in and come with you, to save Angel."
"The same way he fought for you until now," Sirenia said. "You have no idea what he went through in those two years. Tortured, exiled to a tower under the sun, and beaten each day, to force him to end the prophecy by biting you. In the end, he decided he couldn't live without you, and that he would protect you forever." Sirenia pursed her wet lips, pouting at Angel again. "But what a pity. Look at him. So weak, sleeping like a beautiful princess." She snickered again.
"Why am I so important to the nameless witch, then?"
"That, also, we don't know," Sirenia said. "She"—Sirenia neared the log and whispered—"is very demanding, but also patient enough to get what she wants the way she wants it. She has lived since very long ago, and has nothing but time on her side."
I brushed my hands into Angel's hair, contemplating what to do. Soon we both wouldn't be able to stay on the same raft. Soon he would be thirsty and want to bite me against his will. I couldn't even escape to the water I feared the most. Was I supposed to give in and go with the sirens, only to save Angel—and myself? A stepping stone in our journey, maybe, until we could meet again and find the Tower of Tales. But why should I keep sacrificing myself—first for my land and family by not staring into mirrors, and then for the one I loved by surrendering to a nameless witch who definitely wanted to hurt me?
"You haven't told me why it was so important a Karnstein married a Sorrow," I said to Sirenia.
She eyed me, as if it had been only common sense. "But, Majesty, don't you know?" She winked. "Your offspring. Another girl will be born, the daughter of Carmilla Karnstein and Angel Von Sorrow."