Fable continued to watch, her head spinning, her eyes darting between Shew and Loki. If she stopped them and saved Loki, she would have killed Snow White with her spell. If she approved of this—which she was already doing unconsciously—then… wait. Then what?
The ceremony didn't seem hard for Baba Yaga. Cutting, eating, and exchanging hearts didn't seem like a big issue in the Kingdom of Sorrow. Fable had only agreed to help Baba Yaga to get nearer to Loki and secretly pull his Fleece and tuck it in her pocket. It was so easy. So easy. Looking at Loki's Fleece, Fable couldn't believe it.
But what was the price for getting it? Had this really happened in the past? Of course it had. Everything here was just a memory, like Babushka had said. Fable could barely change anything.
Fable's eyes darted toward the unconscious Cerené, and she wondered if Cerené were so afraid of the Queen of Sorrow that she only faked her unconsciousness. But Cerené loved Shew dearly.
Too many thoughts roamed in Fable's head, but survival was at stake. She knew the Queen was going to kill her once Shew was alive and beating with Loki's heart. She had to be prepared.
Fable waited and watched with amazement as Shew breathed back into life. She looked dazed, and her eyes seemed to reflect a bit of Loki's darkness, but she was alive and kicking.
Then she fell back to her death.
"Shew!" Fable screamed.
The Queen of Sorrow pulled her violently and threw her a few feet back. Fable watched as Shew shrieked back into life, gasping for the air in the forest like a newborn child.
Baba Yaga smiled at the Queen, who camouflaged her satisfaction by yelling. She told Baba to pull Shew into the Queen's carriage back inside the forest.
Fable looked back at Cerené and saw she was gone. So she had been awake all this time, just to make sure Shew was alive again. Smart girl.
Fable didn't hesitate, and stabbed the fat Baba Yaga with her own glinting knife. The poor girl was shocked to the bone. Fable knelt down and held Shew before the Queen could attack her. "Remember, I did all of this for you and Loki," Fable said. "I tried my best."
Shew, dizzy and confused, didn't seem to even know who Fable was.
"Let go of my heart," the Queen growled at Fable. God. She couldn't even say "let go of my daughter."
Fable pulled mud from the earth and threw it into the Queen's eyes. Then she ran hysterically into the dark of the forest.
"Charmwill!" she screamed into the dark. Soon the Queen would catch her. All Fable wanted was to end this dream. She had finally managed to get what she wanted, right? "Please help me. I have what I came here to get!"
"I'm here, Fable," a voice said.
Fable stopped. It was Alice Grimm.
53
The Queen's Diary
Angel and I bought a small boat from a fisherman on an island nearby. Fate, my sorrow bringer, had been unexpectedly generous and pointed him to us. We knew that we couldn't stay on land, or Night Von Sorrow would find us. We bought some food in exchange for a few days' discreet work and then pushed the boat back into the sea, on a new journey looking for the Tower of Tales.
Once in a while, the sirens swam around us and spat on us and tried to scare us. They even hummed their melodies again and again some nights. But having a boat was a blessing. Although some nights were tough, we still could sail away from them.
I wanted to go back and ask Fate why the mermaids were able to still harass us, but I didn't want to remind him of me. Nothing seriously sorrowful had happened to me since. Had he forgotten about me or was he just taking his time? After all, Fate thought that the best sorrows came after the highest of joys. I assumed he was waiting for me to be really happy, and then strike me with misery.
But neither Angel nor I cared. Life didn't change much. It was still dangerous, and promised almost nothing. Who knew what the tides had in store for us? But it was all good, as long we were together.
As long as we found the Tower of Tales soon enough.
One night, when the moon was full, I decided to open the sack. Now that I knew that its purpose was to hold on to something, it didn't really matter what I would find in it.
Angel was asleep when I dug my hand into it like a child fetching a present from his parents. My hands met a round thing. A plate.
I pulled it out. And stared at it. It was a white plate, among other things in the sack. This thing seemed to be the biggest in size.
What's the moon but a white plate? I remembered Captain Ahab's words. You could have summoned the moon yourself.
I grimaced at the thought. Then I gazed at the full moon above. I pulled the plate up and saw they really looked alike. Could it be real? I adjusted the plate so it exactly hid the moon behind it.
"Are you real?" I whispered, embarrassed at what I was thinking. Who'd believe Captain Ahab?
I pulled the plate down, ready to check the rest of the things in that mysterious sack. But then I saw it again. The moon was smiling at me.
Come on, Carmilla. This isn't happening.
Again, I adjusted the plate to hide the moon, and began to play "hide and smile" with it. She was smiling again, but whenever I caught her, she pretended not to.