I shrieked, my hands on my face, feeling defeated. I'd lost my sack. What was I going to say to Lady Shallot when I met her? I never even got to know what was in the sack. I never even got to know what Captain Ahab meant when he said that I could have "summoned the moon" with my sack. Why had I forgotten about this in Hook's presence? Captain Ahab must have been playing games, because no Moongirl came to save me from Hook, who had been laughing mockingly at her.
My cries sounded hollow again, as if the world was closing in on me, and I was some worthless genie in a bottle of life.
"Carmilla." Angel sprang out of the water. His smile was euphoric. He looked healthier and stronger, actually. He pulled out a pair of fish and laid them on the raft.
"Angel?" I cried out, and threw myself in his arms.
Angel laughed, as I was choking him. He struggled to pull himself up on the raft. "I brought you food," he said. "I thought I'd leave you to rest."
"What happened?" I couldn't pull myself away from him, and squeezed him tighter.
"Nothing much," he said cockily. "Fate decided to send a few tides and tornados after us, so I breathed some air into your lungs and sank into the deepest seas until he gave up."
I hit him lightly on his chest. I knew this was a lie. His body was full of scars, which meant there had been much, much more, since his body usually healed quickly.
"You gave in to your darkness to save me," I said, running my hands through his long black hair.
He nodded. He wasn't proud of it. "I had to, or Fate would have killed us. You won't believe the kind of powers I realized I have."
"Is that why you look so healthy?"
"I drank so much blood, Carmilla," he said, ashamed of what he'd done, but also feeling well. "Fish, Fate's men. I didn't know I could survive for that long underwater. Apparently vampires do enjoy some great powers."
I wasn't really happy with this, but I couldn't complain. I could hear the drone of evil in him enjoying the darkness that had helped him save me. It was confusing, but better than selling my soul to Fate.
"Here," he said, and pulled the sack from under the raft. He had tied it to a rope. I took it and hugged him, all hope returning to me. Hope of a better life, hope of tomorrow, and hope of surpassing all the obstacles to the Tower of Tales.
I realized Angel's darkness wasn't always a bad thing.
"So we still can reach the Tower of Tales." I kissed him hard, trying to suck all evil out of him.
"Wow." He blushed. "Yes, love. I promised you that we'd reach it. I'm sorry I gave up on you on the Pequod. It's just that my biggest weakness is the song that the mermaids played."
"Come to think of it, do you know what this song is, and why I can't memorize it?"
"It's an ancient tune, once played by a man called a Piper," he said. Nothing new to me. "He is supposed to be the man who created vampires. Why? I don't know. How? I also don't know. Just a few men on earth know how to play it, as one can only learn it from wicked witches. They say it takes years to master, and it can only be played with a Singing Bone."
"A Singing Bone?"
"Like the one Captain Ahab used as a pipe," Angel said. "It seemed he had found it on his sails across the sea, but never knew how to play it, so he just used it as a pipe."
"So it's not just a flute with seven holes?"
"You noticed it has seven holes?" He looked admiringly at me. "Legend says, each hole holds a musical note that leads to one of the…"
"…Lost Seven," I said. "Did this have anything to do with the musical scale?"
"How so?"
"There are seven main notes in music." I had been taught when I was a pampered child in my parents' palace. Austria was crazy about music. "Actually twelve, overall. But seven main notes to produce music. I was wondering if it had to do with the melody played from a flute with seven notes and inspired by seven people."
"I don't know, love," he said. Apparently Angel didn't know much about music.
It was pointless talking about the Lost Seven now. Who knew who they really were? And I didn't see how this would help us find the Tower of Tales. Knowing more about the Singing Bone was a necessity, since its music had turned Angel to a monster. It was an obstacle. "So why is it called a Singing Bone?"
"Legend has it that in ancient times when a man was killed, you didn't need to investigate his killing and have proof of it," Angel said, now running his hand through my hair. "All you needed was to crush his bones and make a flute with seven holes out of them, and then it would sing the killer's full name."
"Really? It was that easy in old times?" I laughed.
"Like I said, I'm not sure," Angel said. "All I know is that the first one to use it for another purpose, like driving rats away, was the Piper. I really am not comfortable talking about him, my father, or the mermaids." Angel kissed me again then pushed me lightly so I was on my back and he was on top of me.
"Angel." I blushed, happy he was in such a mood. "We're in the middle of the sea."
"Sea?" He squinted, then laughed. "No, love. We're not in the sea anymore."
I furrowed my brow. "What do you mean?" I thought he was playing with me, just to get closer. I wasn't going to make love to the man I loved on a raft in the middle of a sea.
"We're inside a whale, love," Angel said. "Strangely, it's the safest place I have found."
40
Fable's Dreamworld