"If you want to sneak past the Schloss' soul, you have to fool it into thinking you're one of its regular visitors," the Beast said with all confidence.
"Great idea," Cerené said. "But who enters the Schloss freely without being questioned, other than Jack and me?"
"The Queen!" Ladle chirped.
"Stick to killing, Ladle." Jack nudged her playfully. "Thinking is not Death's business. Or Death wouldn't be killing anyone, really."
"I have an idea," Fable found herself saying. She wasn't sure if she was interfering with the flow of events by interrupting. Maybe she was destined to say this. Maybe reliving the Dreamories never quite changed anything in the future like Babushka had said. "The huntsmen enter the Schloss every day with no one questioning them."
Everyone exchanged gazes immediately. It seemed like they hadn't expected such an idea from Fable. She must not have been useful before.
"You want us to show up as huntsmen?" Marmalade said admiringly.
Fable nodded reluctantly, realizing that she might have changed the events in the Dreamworld.
30
The Queen's Diary
Angel was gone when I opened my eyes. Like every other time when he was about to succumb to the evil inside him, he'd managed to confront it and keep me safe. How long was he going to have such strength? I felt for him so much that my insides ached. I took a deep breath under the faint moonlight, promising myself I wasn't going to look for him now. God only knew where he had gone, far from the humming mermaids.
But that wasn't the end of the night for me.
All around me, the ship had gone insane. Torches had been lit, filling the ship with the ghosts of shimmering yellow light, scattered everywhere. The sailors and the misfits had all embarked the deck. It took me some time to comprehend that I saw.
Everyone knelt, praying. Some had their hats tucked to their chests. Others laced their fingers tightly, heads upward as if in a church, pleading to the something in the night sky.
Walking among them, I could still hear the faint humming of the mermaids. But I couldn't see them again when I peeked over the edge. They seemed to change their colors and hide in the dark. Singing underwater, maybe? A continuous, never-ending—non-memorizable—tune that was the reason behind my lover's agony—and mine.
"Get on your knees." The puffing boy pulled my hand. I knelt next him. There was no point in arguing. None of them would have cared. There was something there up in the sky, and it seemed to have the power to save.
"What's going on?" I whispered to the boy.
"Can't you hear them?" He pointed at the sea.
"Of course I can. I heard them before any of you did."
"No, you didn't," he hissed. "I glimpsed you behind my curtain walking to the rails. We were just all scared to come out. Pretending we didn't hear them. Then their humming seeped through our souls. We had to do something about it."
"Something like what?"
"They'll keep humming until a few of us succumb to their call and throw themselves into the water so they can feed on us." The boy pressed his hands tighter together. He sweated like the other men on the ship. "The mermaids will not stop. Do you hear me?" The puffing boy's gleaming eyes had dimmed. "They won't stop until they have one of us men."
The word "men" sent a lightning bolt to my eyes. I realized I was the only girl on deck. How was that possible?
"Men?" I said. "Where are the other women on board?"
"Taken," the boy said with eyes closed behind clenched hands.
"Taken by whom?" I grasped the stupidity of my question a few syllables too late. The mermaids had taken the women on ship. They had seduced them the way they had wanted me to come with them. "Every woman?" I neared the boy's ears.
"All except you, it seems." He opened his questioning eyes, probably wondering why. I didn't have the answer to that.
"The mermaids asked me to join them too," I explained. "I just. I…" I licked my dry lips. "I don't know how, but I managed not to succumb to their call."
"The sailors say the mermaids are after the men on the boat, really," the boy elaborated. "They thrive on eating a man's flesh. No other sea creature can fulfill that hunger."
"Then why take the women, for God's sake?"
"Women give men their strength," the boy said. "Without them, a man is open to the sea's hunger, and the mermaids' wrath."
Believe in me, Carmilla! I heard Angel call me. That was why he had always asked me to believe in him. Had I given up on him somehow? Did I have to believe in him more than I did? But wait, that meant that Angel was the only man with hope on this ship, if he hadn't escaped yet. I was the only woman left.
"We have to pray." The boy reached for my hand.
"Pray? Not confront the mermaids?" I didn't give him my hand. I had a logical question to ask. I had begun to feel frustrated. Those mermaids and their songs had a dark effect on Angel and the sailors. There had to be something done about it.