The Beast followed—a bit intimidated by the giant above, Fable noticed. He had Shew with him, so everyone else had to follow.
"We can't get the horses into a cave too," Marmalade noted. "I'll scatter them running in every direction, misleading the huntsmen. It will buy us time."
"Hiding in a cave is suicide," Jack mumbled. "There is only one way in and out. Once we're in, if they find us, we'll be easily squashed to death."
Loki's voice seemed to fade a bit. Maybe he was finally riding toward the cottage, which was good. Cerené said the cave was in another direction.
Panting, they finally reached the cave.
It was an ordinary cave inside a very large juniper tree. It was an old tree, perhaps thousands of years old, looking dead and hard as stone. It was also at the bottom of a hill, so it was a good hideout. The opening of the tree only allowed one person through at a time. Fable didn't like that. She wondered why Cerené thought she also knew about this cave. Had Fable been here before?
Just when they got off their horses, they heard footsteps approaching.
"Who's that?" Fable said.
"You think the huntsmen decided to hunt us on foot?" Jack flashed his sword.
The footsteps didn't stop.
And then there stood someone under the thin and faint sunrays passing through the density of the trees.
Jack lowered his sword and smiled. Everyone else did, too. Fable looked and could only see light. Someone walked toward them. Someone who was shining, light coming out in every direction. She couldn't really see who it was.
"Welcome back," Jack said. "Star."
***
"You weren't going to do this without me, were you?" the Star said. It was hard to tell whether it was a boy or a girl. The Star's voice was like some alien code. Fable wondered if he/she had always been this way.
"You're back!" most of them hailed. Fable hailed along. She wasn't supposed to let them know she was from another world.
Ladle ran into the arms of the Star, the aura of light thickening. Marmalade followed, and they both glowed with the Star now.
The welcome didn't last long. They had no time. So they began entering the cave one by one. It was easiest for Fable to get in. She was the smallest. It began to make sense that she had been there before. With Cerené? Alone?
The hardest to squeeze in was the Beast. Jack had to carry Snow White inside the cave—although he had never been exactly fond of her. He still believed Shew was like her mother and would end up biting them, like vampires did.
Marmalade patted the horses away in every wrong direction to elude the huntsmen when they arrived.
She went in last.
***
The cave was dark. They depended on the Star's faint source of light to see. It seemed unable to shine brightly like outside, but still its identity was obscure.
"Where am I?" Shew moaned, waking up.
"You're safe with us." Cerené held her tightly. Being best friends, Cerené's presence comforted the disoriented Shew.
"Can't we sedate her again, so she won't bite us?" Jack scoffed. Ladle nudged him into silence.
A long time after, it was clear the huntsmen had lost them. Only every now and then did they hear Loki's faint shouts, cursing Shew.
"What if they find us now?" Jack said. "They could just spit fire into the cave and burn us." He had expressed his concerns since the beginning.
"I may be able to fight back with my Moutza," said Cerené. "But not for long."
It didn't sound like a good idea. Huntsmen were famous for burning houses with convicted citizens of Sorrow inside. Astonishingly, Cerené turned to Fable. Fable didn't understand. How was she supposed to help?
"Fable might know how to help," Cerené said, piercing her with that eye contact again.
"How so?" Jack said.
It showed that everyone else had always considered Fable the smallest and weakest, which she was in many ways. She was afraid of the Queen's goddamn breadcrumbs, for God's sake. The idea made Fable reach for the breadcrumbs from the Waking World. She certainly wasn't afraid of those. What was going on?
"Can I talk to Fable outside for a moment?" Cerené asked the others. "It's important."
"If it will help our situation," Marmalade said, playing leader again.
"It will," Cerené said. "I promise."
***
"What is it, Cerené?" Fable fidgeted. She remembered Alice Grimm's caution about exposing herself, and worried Cerené would ask her something she had no answer for.
"I know you've been through a lot, and that I shouldn't be asking you this," Cerené said. "But it's the best thing you can do for the Lost Seven. It hurts, but you can save us all."
Fable shrugged. It was a good idea not to talk unless Cerené expected an answer. She let her continue.
"Your Black Art can help us." Cerené held both Fable's hands in hers.
"My Black Art?"
"I know you can seal the cave with dark magic," Cerené said. "You told me you have done this before."