"She is the youngest," Jack told Marmalade calmly. "Sometimes I think it's unfair to drag her into this, so be gentle." Fable liked how Jack didn't lose his temper, although he seemed to be blaming Marmalade. "Fable"—he turned to her—"here is what happened. On Shew's sixteenth birthday her heart did weigh twenty-one grams at the Queen's measuring table in the castle. Luckily it turned out that her heart could lose its weight within seven days. When Loki fought Shew in the forest, he wounded her. She also bled more crossing the Wall of Thorns, which led to her heart's weight decreasing. It wasn't twenty-one grams anymore, so consuming it would be pointless. The Queen managed to hunt Shew down and imprison her in the Rapunzel Tower, waiting for her heart to weigh twenty-one grams again."
"Oh." Fable tried not to look shocked at the details. A few things made sense now. The events of this dream were days or months after Shew's Dreamory. Cerené had been mysteriously resurrected, like she was supposed to be, as she was the Phoenix, although no one knew the details. And Shew's heart wasn't twenty-one grams again. "And Loki? Shew killed him, right?" Fable had to check, and wished it wasn't true, or there would be no Loki and Shew moment.
"She did." Marmalade sounded calmer, realizing she had been harsh on Fable. "But Loki is a Dreamhunter. A half-angel. He doesn't really die. He gets what they like to call 'unshadowed.'"
"Unshadowed?" Fable squinted.
"Angels are buried in the water of the Missing Mile in the Seven Seas," Marmalade explained. "They can stay there forever and be considered dead, unless someone bails them out or convinces the creators to bring them back. The Queen of Sorrow manipulated someone and brought him back. Don't ask me how. They say he returned even worse than before."
"All this happened while I was away?" Fable asked, trying to complete the puzzle in her head.
Cerené nodded, and gazed at Fable again, as if reminding her not to spill the secrets of where she had been. Why did only Cerené know about Fable's past? It seemed not to matter now. "See? We have to go get Shew from the Schloss ourselves, even if it means confronting Loki and the Queen of Sorrow herself."
"Entering the Schloss is almost impossible," Marmalade said. "It's not only guarded by Loki's cruelest huntsmen, it's guarding itself in many ways. The Schloss has a soul."
"To get in, we have to sneak past its soul." Ladle seemed not to have a problem with the Schloss.
"I approached it once," Marmalade said. "Just from afar, and felt a dark presence that scared me away immediately. This is more than mere magic. The Schloss seemed timeless, like an immortal who has lived a thousand lives." She looked paler now. "Some say the Schloss is alive, that it has lived a million lives before, in a million different places across the universe."
"True," Cerené said. "It's such a scary castle, disguised as a beautiful mansion for the King and Queen. But I was in the Schloss many times. I know every part of it. I can enter through the chimneys and I know a few mazes inside. It's like a whole world of secret tunnels. Besides, we've got Jack. No one has stolen as much from the castle as he has. He gets in and out like a ghost."
"Guilty as charged." Jack raised a hand. "Did you see the Queen's comb I stole? It tickles when you brush your hair." He chewed on his feather. Jack struck Fable as being nonchalant about Shew. Somehow he seemed not to like her much. Fable made a mental note to investigate that later.
Marmalade eyed him, hands on her waist. Their relationship didn't seem to flow, Fable thought.
"I'm in," the Beast finally said. "But this will not go smoothly. There will blood, and there will be killing. You better be prepared."
"We have you, don't we?" Cerené smiled in his direction. It confirmed Fable's suspicions that the Beast was big and strong. "And we've got Death." She turned to Ladle.
"I'm not allowed to kill unless ordered by the Tree of Life," Ladle said, pouting. Fable assumed the Tree of Life told Ladle whom to kill each day. "I shall not kill without being told to."
"How about killing the huntsmen by accident?" Jack winked at her. "You were about to chop my head off accidentally a few minutes ago." Jack glanced upward briefly. "We can always fool the man up there with a few killings."
Ladle giggled, then blushed. Fable thought Ladle and Jack would make a better couple.
"Make Jack stop, Beauty," Ladle told the Beast.
The Beast laughed from the dark. "Jaaack!" was all he said. Jack nodded back with respect.
"And you?" Marmalade said to Fable.
Fable shrugged. Although she had felt really feisty in the Waking World this morning, she doubted she had any talent for fighting. She wondered about the power she possessed that Cerené had told her not to speak of. "I don't think I can fight," she said feebly.
"Do you know of any magic tricks?" Jack winked at her. A few laughs scattered in the air. They weren't mean laughs. They just seemed to be close friends, and making fun of each other would be taken lightly.
"I know magic?" Fable said. Of course she knew magic. That was why she was obsessed with it in the real world. But would any of her silly spells help in the Dreamworld?
"Joking, little doll." Jack grabbed her legs and pulled her high. He flipped her on his back like a father would when playing with their child. Everyone smiled again, and Fable blushed, landing on her feet.
"We all will take care of you, Fable," Ladle said. "But I'm sure you can help somehow in the castle."
"So," Marmalade said, playing leader again. "How are we getting inside the Schloss?"