“I believe so. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to a sail over to another town to read a fairy tale to some kids,” Charmwill checked his watch, turned around and walked into the darkness.
It was hard on Loki watching him leave, but he knew it was inevitable. He had to finish this journey on his own now. There was one last thing he needed to ask him, though.
“Hey Charmwill, how about Axel and Fable?” Loki tiptoed although Charmwill had disappeared in the dark.
“Don’t you get it yet?” Charmwill asked from behind the curtains of the night, his voice fading away. “Axel and Fable, their father is a woodcutter, and they live in a Candy House? Axel is always hungry, and eats too much candy, and Fable is fond of eating bread. It doesn’t get easier than that to know who they really are. Even their names, Axel and Fable, rhyme with characters from a fairy tale. Don’t you think?”
20
A Prison of Pearls
The night settled its wings and caressed the Schloss.
Even though it posed so beautifully with its pearl windows, Loki knew it that the Schloss was looking back at them. He could feel its presence and anger like a ghost’s cold breath on your cheek late at night.
There was a faint, low drone coming out of the Schloss’s walls, a rumble of rejection, poisoning the air in the Black Forest. It was the same drone he’d heard when Snow White told him that she needed saving.
“Can you feel this?” Fable panted like a clairvoyant who was trying to commune with the castle. “The castle doesn’t want us here tonight. It knows we’re here to help Snow White this time.”
“I can feel it,” Loki nodded, although the idea of not killing Snow White wasn’t a given fact yet. He’d promised himself he’d enter her dream to help himself with the decision.
Inside the castle, the chandeliers swayed slightly above their heads, like a pendulum or an iron maiden ready to slash them at any moment. The dangling crystals clanged together like warning bells, a last chance signal to the intruders. There were faint sounds of nails scratching against the walls, which they all dismissed as the Schloss playing with their minds.
Everything else in the prison castle vibrated slightly; the walls, the floors, and even the suffocating air they were breathing.
“This place is creepy,” Lucy whispered, standing by the entrance behind Loki. Her voice was unusually thin. “I’m so not entering it.”
Fable led the way, walking ahead of Loki. She was staring at the ceiling and the walls, her eyes trying hard to pierce through.
“How did we miss that this place is actually a prison? It explains why Snow White never attacked someone outside the castle,” Axel said, standing as close as possible to Lucy.
“Which makes me wonder why your father and the town’s council want Snow White dead,“ Fable turned to face Lucy.
Lucy shot her a flat stare.
Although the questions were piling up, Loki didn’t comment. If Snow White had no power outside of the castle, why did they hire him to kill her, and why was she worth ninety-nine vampires? Was it possible that the town’s council didn’t know about the castle being her prison? Were they just worried because they couldn’t stop their teens from trespassing into the castle?
“How should I know?” Lucy said. “All I know is that he’s following the town council’s orders, and asked me to go search for Loki because somehow the council believed he could kill her,” Lucy said.
“How about that new principal you told me was coming to Rumpelstein High?” Loki said. “You said she’d only accept the job if the vampire princess was killed.”
“It’s true. My father said she wanted to use the Schloss as a tourist attraction,” Lucy replied.
“What kind of principal has such powers over the town’s council?” Fable said. “Who is she? What’s her name?”
“I don’t know her name,” Lucy shrugged her shoulders. “Again, all I know is that she’s a prestigious woman and will also become the town council’s new chairwoman.”
“Chairwoman and principal? Who is this woman?” Axel was curious.
“I think I know,” Fable rubbed her chin.
Axel and Loki turned their head to Fable while Lucy tapped an impatient foot.
“The Wicked stepmother, of course,” Fable announced.
“Stepmother?” Lucy said. “Are you serious?”
“You know, Snow White’s Wicked Stepmother who poisoned her with the apple in the story?” Fable said. “Somehow, they live among us, and now she’s going to be our school’s principal and town’s chairwoman. She wants the princess dead so she can remain the fairest of them all.”
“Wow,” Axel said with an open mouth. “Your mind is more messed up than mine.”
“What a happy family,” Lucy commented.
“I tell you what,” Axel said. “Since the Stepmother is coming to town, and we’re going to have a whole lotta adventure ahead of us, why don’t we go back and get us a good meal at the Belly and the Beast, then talk this over?”