Instead of finding Loki's Fleece, Fable was running away from him. But the Lost Seven needed her. They needed her help. It didn't matter how many times she was told she was one of them. She couldn't quite grasp it. Having the chance to help the legendary fairy tale characters every kid read about in the Waking World was beyond her comprehension. She only knew one thing. It felt so good, and at the moment, she really hoped Cerené was right. She really hoped she had some power to help others, and she wondered how everyone would view her if she could help.
Fable pressed her eyelids together harder, executing the witch's spell, unaware of the price she would pay later.
It didn't work.
She recited it over and over again.
Sweating.
I am a loser witch, just like my mother.
A hissing wind began to shape outside the cave, the same laughing wind she had seen wrapping its arms around Loki when he entered the Schloss in the Waking World to kill Shew a few days ago. It spiraled closer and closer and then orbited in front of the cave's opening. It began sewing spider webs onto the opening from outside. So dense and so real.
She struggled with her hands and body as the magic seemed to shatter her insides into pieces, and felt her intestines ache, as if a snake was spiraling inside her tubes.
Is this really happening?
It wasn't just that she had conjured that wind with the spell. She could feel herself change inside. She didn't know whether her memories were partially coming back, or if she had been hexed by some otherworldly force. What the hell happened to me when I was in the forest?
Finally, the wind escaped the cave, and Fable dropped to her knees with a thud.
"Fable!" She could feel hands reaching for her. "Where did you learn this kind of magic?"
"A spider web on the cave from outside." Fable glimpsed Ladle staring at the cave's opening with utter fascination. "That's some spider web, so thick it would take days to spin it. It means the huntsmen can never assume we're inside. I want to learn magic!"
It was minutes before Fable fully regained her senses. She sat with her back to the cave, feeling parted from something. She had been parted of her innocence and joined the Black Art, whatever that was. Spontaneously, she reached for her hair. It wasn't a surprise that her pigtails were gone. Her hair felt like strings of hardened bushes over her head.
"Cerené breathed a little life into you." Jack patted her and smiled. "You're back, my awesome friend." Jack had never called anyone else "awesome" before. There had always been one awesome person in the world, and that would be Jack Madly himself. Fable knew this because her memories began to come back, slowly.
The Lost Seven mended her, as well as taking care of an unconscious Shew, for a few hours. She could see the sun had set outside—the few shafts of thin light had disappeared.
Fable listened to them speculate that it should be safe to leave the cave now. They just didn't want to pressure Fable with another incident of magic right away. They could wait until she was strong enough to perform it again and part the spider webs. But there was nothing to eat or drink, and no ways to take care of Shew in here—the Weighing of the Heart's sedative seemed to keep her in a semi-conscious state all the time. The cave could be a death trap.
Fable didn't mind performing the ritual again, but it was those flashes of memories that bothered her. Memories of her escaping something in the forest. Something so evil she couldn't bring herself to fully remember it. She also thought the memories brought back some of her powers. A certain power seemed imminent, crossing her mind and blurring her sight even more. She couldn't really understand this. Her mind told her that she would have this power soon. It wasn't the cave power. Another, darker power she had almost lost her eyesight to. Was that why she had poor eyesight?
"I can hear the huntsmen," Ladle said.
"I heard Loki's voice a couple of times in the last hour," Marmalade said. "I am also thirsty."
"Listen. I can hear them circling our area," Jack said. "It's like they know we are here, but can't tell exactly where. How's that possible?"
"They will never leave without finding us. At least Loki won't," Cerené said.
Silence roared in the cave for a long time. How was that possible? How was it that everything Fable had done meant nothing now? True, Loki wouldn't find the cave with the spider web on it. But how long could they survive in this tight space without sunlight, food, or drink?
***
"Can someone remind me why the Queen needs the heart so much?" Jack asked, fed up with all they'd been through to save the princess.
"She needs it to relieve herself of a curse," Marmalade said.