Cinderella Dressed in Ashes

The Grimm Diaries 2

by

Cameron Jace

PROLOGUE

A Splinter of Mirrors

The Children of Hamlin didn’t care for the woman in the luxurious black veil.

She claimed that Charmwill Glimmer sent her to tell them a crucially important story, one that would expose a great secret about the evil in the Fairyworld.

Still, the children didn’t like that most of her face was concealed. They could only see her distant blue eyes and long eyelashes, and the silken white gloves she wore.

“Where is Charmwill?” the lisping girl asked suspiciously. “Why can’t he tell us the story himthelf?”

“Charmwill is on a faraway quest,” the woman said. “It might take him years before he comes back.”

“That explains why he didn’t appear last Christmas,” a boy supposed. “Santa Claus was worried about him.”

Another boy suggested Charmwill was fighting the evil entities that wanted to steal the Book of Beautiful Lies.

“No, that’s not why he’s away,” a girl with gaping front teeth interrupted. “He’s with The Boy Who was a Shadow, right?”

“Something like that,” the woman nodded. Her voice was flat and lacked passion. She wasn’t as cheerful as Charmwill, reminding them of their overly conservative parents in Hamlin. She hadn’t even allowed them to play with her veil the way Charmwill let them play with his beard—and she didn’t have a parrot!

“So do you also have a Book of Beautiful Lies?” a boy asked.

“I’m afraid not,” the woman replied, a bit confused.

“Then how will you tell us your story?” the gapped tooth girl frowned.

“Charmwill helped me memorize it,” the woman answered.

“But Charmwill said stories had to be written down,” a girl from the back interrupted. “He said memorizing stories wasn’t enough, because one person tells the story to another, then another, and then another. In the end, the final story will come out different than the original.”

The mysterious woman sighed. She was doing her best not to burst out screaming, “trust me!” She inhaled all the air she could, “I made sure I memorized this story word for word. It’s an important one,” she tilted her head slightly, gazing at them from behind the fire. There was something strange about her eyes. “May I ask why you all call him Charmwill?”

The children laughed mockingly at her, “because he is the famous Charmwill Glimmer, the best storyteller in the world.” A girl said and raised her hands in the air. Other kids imitated her.

“So he has never told you his real name?” The woman’s eyes dimmed with confusion.

“What are you talking about?” the lisping girl asked. “That is his real name!”

The woman squinted behind the fire. She was thinking while rubbing her chin over the veil. A moment later, her eyes widened, “I was just joking with you. Of course, that’s his real name. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to tell my story,” she rubbed her hands together with fake enthusiasm.

The boys and girls sighed, a bit sleepy, mumbling a ‘yes’ or two between the lot of them. They doubted anyone could match Charmwill’s skills in storytelling, but thought they would give her the chance to try.

She began, “Once upon a time…”

“Is this going to be boring?” the lisping girl asked. “All stories that start with ‘Onth upon a time’ end with ‘And they lived happily ever after.’ It’s so boring.”

“So lame,” a boy commented.

“As if we don’t know how it’s going to end,” the girl from the back said. “That’s why we like Charmwill’s stories. They are different. Full of darkness, humor, intrigue and mystery.”

“Yeth. You never know who’s who in his stories,” the lisping girl said. “And it’s hard to tell who’s good and who is evil.”

“Oh, so you don’t like it when you can differentiate between good and evil?” the woman inquired.

“Charmwill said there is nothing absolutely good or evil,” the girl in the back said. “It’s our choice to make it one way or the other.”

“Indeed,” the woman in the veil looked like she was smiling behind the luxurious fabric. “Evil is a point of view.”

“So why does everyone else tell us happy and clichéd storieth? Who do they think we are? Children?” the lisping girl protested.

The woman in the veil sighed again. It was a longer sigh, and it exposed her lack of patience with children.  Her blue eyes grew more distant as if she secretly loathed them. “When I was your age, I used to love those happy, fluffy stories,” she said, almost regretfully.

“I bet you don’t like them that much now,” the girl in the back said.

“You bet I don’t,” the woman in the veil rolled her eyes. “Like I said, Charmwill told me to tell you this story, so it’s full of all the horrible things you just asked for. In fact,” she leaned closer, the children’s reflection showing in her eyes, waving in the flaring fire. “This particular story has the devil in it.”

A couple of children leaned back as if the woman breathed fire in their faces. The lisping girl bravely stretched her hands to protect the rest.

“So this story is really scary?” the girl from the back asked.

“Very scary,” the woman’s voice changed and her eyes sparkled. “You can tell from the very first sentence. Listen: On a dark and stormy night…”

The wind hissed and puffed around the fire, and the children sensed a dark spirit behind them in the forest.

Slowly, they leaned forward.  Scary was exciting and fun. They were willing to listen.

“On a dark and stormy night in Hell,” the woman in the veil began. “The devil was bored.”

The girl in the back omitted a laugh. It sounded as if she was sneezing. The woman threw her a piercing look and the girl froze.

“The devil, who was nothing but a short and ugly looking troll, spent most of his time trimming his nails, shooting darts, popping his knuckles, and rubbing the three little hairs he had left on his head,” the woman in the veil elaborated. “He tried to fish in one of Hell’s many lakes but the fish came out fried. Nothing eased his boredom until one of his students brought him a gift, a mirror.

“He hadn’t seen such a mirror before, and being infatuated by his own image, the devil played chess with his reflection. It was an intense game. His reflection was smart, and it replicated almost all of his moves and then added its own genius touch. Surprisingly, the devil, who thought he’d never lose a game—for he was master of evil play—, lost to his reflection in the mirror,” the woman’s eyes scanned the children, making sure they followed with attention. The children felt unsettled by her voice. It had enough power to cement their feet to the ground. Her voice was the color of fear.

“Appalled by his reflection beating him in the chess game, the devil asked about the origin of the mirror,” the woman continued. “In his time, humans hadn’t invented mirrors yet. Someone from an unknown realm had sent him this mirror. The students who found it claimed a lady had just flung it while walking in a burning garden.”

“The devil pulled the mirror along and made his students look into it. The mirror turned their faces into ugly shapes like those you see in a funhouse; only this one truly reflected the bad side in people. Amused, he directed the mirror toward a landscape known for its beauty. Instead of seeing beautiful greens, he saw the place as if it were boiling like rotten spinach then combusting into flames.”

“’Whose mirror is this?’ the devil asked.

“One of his students claimed that the mirror whispered to her when she held it. She said the mirror claimed it had a name, the Anderson Mirror.

“The devil began to search for this Anderson but couldn’t find him because there were too many people who shared the name.

“Eventually the devil decided he didn’t care who’d invented such a wicked mirror. He intended to use it, so he walked to the edge of Hell and gazed through his telescope, peering over at Heaven. People were always too happy and giggly there, drinking milk from vines dangling from rainbow colored trees, swimming in milky rivers, and lazily having the time of their lives—well, afterlives in their case.

“Two ideas popped in the devil’s head in the shape of two ugly horns—that’s how he got his horns, by the way. They ended up being permanent tumors on his head. One of the ideas he forgot and could never remember. The other is the one I want to talk to you about.”

The girl in the back snickered again, making two horns with her finger. A few children imitated her. The woman in the veil directed one of her scary looks over the crowd of children again so they would stay silent.

“A big smile shone on the devil’s reddened face,” the woman continued, trying her best to appeal to the children. “He took the mirror and went over to the edge of Heaven, focusing it on people’s faces so they’d see the worst in themselves. He thought it would be a good way to tempt some of the people over there to join him. The devil never believed himself to be evil, actually. He thought all he did was bring out the worst in people, just as this Anderson Mirror did.

“Peering, like a peeping tom, at the pearly gates, the devil lost his balance and dropped the mirror.”

The children, still listening to the story, held their breath.

“The mirror fell all the way down to earth,” the woman stretched her arms like a magician toward the skies.

The children held hands and stared up at the night sky, worried.

“The evil mirror splintered into millions and millions of shards onto the world,” she narrated. “Each splinter tinier than a grain of sand, but filled with enough darkness to consume one’s soul.”

The children blinked their eyes, still staring at the sky above.

“The mirror’s splinters entered people’s eyes without their knowledge. No one got hurt, because evil never hurts in the beginning. It stays with you and grows until its final sting drops you to the floor.”

The children couldn’t take it anymore, lowering their heads and rubbing their eyes as if waking up from a bad dream. Some made their friends check their eyes for splinters.

“Although the troll-looking devil lost the mirror, he was in awe,” the masked woman said. “He didn’t have to do the hard work of making people evil, because the mirror, whose source was unknown, filled the world with evilness. It bothered him at first that he wasn’t the Prince of Darkness anymore but he tried not to think about it. There was greater darkness, pure, penetrating, and shining like a mirror.

“The people with splinters in their eyes were many,” the woman in the veil said. “They didn’t really notice at first but when their eyes glowed with a golden tint, the evil in them surfaced.”

The woman in the veil’s eyes flickered for a moment. She caught her breath and then asked, “Do you know of a woman called Justina?”

“Yeth,” the lisping girl said. “She is the Godmother of Justice. She tried to balance the good and evil in the world with a scale with one pan filled with apples, the other with snakes. Charmwill told us storieth about her.”

“Well, in that particular day when the splinters filled the world, Justina’s scale changed. The snakes on one side of the pan grew bigger and much heavier than the apples, so big that the scales almost broke.”

The children let out a muffled shriek.

“Who made this mirror?” the girl from the back asked.

“That’s the one question that’s been troubling everyone in the world,” the woman in the veil smirked and leaned back, “fairytale characters, the most.”

“Did the splinters reach them, too?” a boy said.

“But of course. It changed the destinies of characters, and turned some of the good into evil.”

“But you said evil is a point of view,” the girl from the back insisted.

“Well, it’s hard to explain,” the woman in the veil said. “Someday, when you grow up, you’ll understand what I mean.”

The children murmured to each other that her answer was typical of grown ups. Whenever adults were caught contradicting themselves they had to give vague answers like: it is hard to explain or you will understand when you grow up. “The effect the splinters had on the Fairyworld was one of the reasons why The Grimm Brothers forged the fairy tales into the happy stories you hate,” the woman in the veil added.

“But there must be some kind of cure,” the lisping girl cried out, “or maybe there is a hero who could rid the world of the evil splinters.”

“There is neither,” the woman in the veil said, sounding happy about it. “People think they can do something about the evil in the world, but they can’t. The splinters are always there. But,” she raised a finger. “There is a myth that the creator of the mirror left a clue somewhere.”

“A clue?” the children inquired.

“Yes.”

“What is a clue?” a boy asked.

“A clue is a hidden knowledge that serves as a solution to a big problem,” she said.

“What does that mean? We don’t understand,” most children protested.

“Shut up. A clue is a clue,” the woman lost her temper, only for a brief moment. “That clue was the secret to controlling the splinters. Of course, both the so-called good and evil folks wanted to get their hands on that clue. The good people thought if they find the clue, they’ll be able to save the world from all its darkness. The so-called evil people wanted to use it on a greater scale. They thought of actually ruling the world if they found the clue. Can you imagine how powerful one would be if they had control over the splinters in people’s eyes?”

“I bet the devil wanted it for himself,” the girl in the back said.

“Very true,” the woman in the veil said. “But I wouldn’t give the devil that much credit. The evil in the splinters was beyond his control. This was a power like no other.”

“What kind of clue did the Creator leave?” the lisping girl rubbed her chin.

The woman under the veil laughed, “I can’t tell you, because like every one else, I want the mirror. Let’s just say it’s hidden somewhere in the Dreamworld,” she whispered.

“That means that the Boy Who was a Shadow can get it,” a boy said. “He is a Dreamhunter.”

The woman’s forehead wrinkled slightly. “How do you know that he’s a Dreamhunter? Did Charmwill tell you that?”

“We also know that he was once a dark boy, a Huntsman, working for the Queen of Sorrow,” another girl said. “She thinks she is smart, but she will lose in the end.”

The woman stood up with anger in her eyes, “How do all of you know this? Charmwill could not have told you that!” she demanded.

“Of course, he didn’t. The last time he was here, he only told us he was going to see the boy,” the lisping girl said.

“Then how did you know?” The children heard the sound of grinding teeth coming from behind the veil.

“We learned some of the stories through this,” one girl stretched out her hand, revealing a piece of purple candy.

“What is this?” the woman tried to snatch it but the girl pulled away.

“It’s the magic candy he gave us before he left,” the girl in the back explained. “He said the candy would make us have happy dreams each night while we slept, but we discovered the candy revealed stories to us from all around the world. One of those was the Boy Who was a Shadow’s story and how Carmilla had his Fleece.”

“You know about Carmilla, and the Fleece, too?” the woman in the veil sounded furious.

“Wait,” the lisping girl leaned back, pulling her friends with her. “How could you not know about the candy if Charmwill sent you?”

“Look!” the girl in the back pointed at the woman, “her eyes!”

The children squinted in the dark, still keeping their distance.

“Oh. My. God,” a boy said. “She has the golden tinge shining in her eyes. She has a splinter from the mirror!”

“She fooled us,” the other boy said. “She isn’t a friend of Charmwill. She’s here to find out about the clue to the mirror. She thinks Charmwill may have told us about it.”

“Damn you all, little horrible children” the woman’s voice gushed. She talked in a darker tone now. A breeze of wind pulled the veil off the woman’s face as if it had hands and was determined to expose her.

“Run!” the lisping girl screamed.

The Children of Hamlin ran away from the woman in the veil, the way their ancestors wished their children had run away from the Pied Piper centuries ago. Although they hadn’t met the woman in the veil before, they suddenly felt they knew her. Her face was engraved in their deepest nightmares. They felt in their hearts that they had inherited her evil image from their parent’s nightmares, and their grandparent’s nightmares, but they didn’t know how this was possible.  They were running away from a great evil who pretended to be friends with Charmwill Glimmer.

Alone in the dark, the Queen of Sorrow pulled off her veil like a devil pulling off his mask. She wiped her dress off as if she’d become dirty sitting around the Children of Hamlin, and cursed them under her breath.

Her pumpkin coach arrived, and a short hunched man with a silver tooth hurried to open the door for her.

“My Magnificent Majesty,” the hunched man pulled off his hat. He wore white gloves and used a crooked cane to hold himself up against the weight of his hunched back, which resembled a sack full of dead children. Igor the Magnificent was the Queen’s driver.

“The best thing about you, Igor, is that your back is arched. It’s like you’re cursed to show your respects forever,” the Queen of Sorrow said mockingly. “I wish every one else working for me was like that.”

“Don’t worry, Magnificent Majesty,” Igor said. “They will all bow for you eventually,” he opened the door, and the Queen stepped up into her coach.

Inside the coach, sat her favorite mirror.

“How did it go, my Queen?” Bloody Mary asked. “Did you find out about the clue to the Anderson Mirror?”

“No, Mary,” the Queen took off her gloves, finger by finger. “But I learned a couple of other things that worry me.”

“And what would that be, Majesty?”

“Charmwill, although dead, communicates with the Children of Hamlin through some kind of candy that makes them dream of things he never revealed to them in his previous stories,” Carmilla said.

“I know this worries you, my Queen,” Bloody Mary said. “But you chopped off his head and buried him in the Sands of Time. We’ve got more important work to do now. Don’t you agree?”

“I sure hope so, Mary,” Carmilla said. “The other thing is that Charmwill never told them who he really is. I wonder why.”

“That’s interesting,” Bloody Mary said. “Charmwill was full of tricks.”

“I’m sure I’ll find why he chose not to tell them his True Name soon,” Carmilla said. “But let’s get back to the important stuff; I need to find the clue to the Anderson Mirror. I have to get my hands on its power.”

“Why don’t we start with the Huntsman? You have his Fleece now,” Bloody Mary said, laughing satisfyingly as the Queen turned her head to look at her. “Maybe he could lead us to it.”

“I already did. I sent him on a mission,” Carmilla smiled proudly, wrapping Loki’s red Fleece around her fingers. “And could you please look the other way, Mary? You’re disgusting.”

1

The Phoenix

The door of the Schloss sprang open, followed by a gust of a sinister wind spiraling in the hallways.

Snow White, sleeping in her coffin, opened her weary eyes. Her heart tightened in a strange way as if some invisible force wrapped a velvet rope around it and started squeezing. Something dreadful was coming her way.

The first recognizable voice was Fable screaming outside the castle.

“Don’t—” Fable shouted.

The sinister and howling wind ate the rest of Fable’s words like a cookie monster, protecting whatever evil was approaching Snow White.

“Wake up, Shew,” the wind laughed. Snow White wondered if she had just imagined the wind talk to her. “It’s time to…” the wind laughed again.

“Stop!” Axel’s voice splintered like shattered glass across the wind’s wings.

Axel and Fable. I remember them. They’re Loki’s friends.

Snow White had been waiting for Loki all day. He’d went to Candy House to meet up with the Crumblewood’s foster mother. He was supposed to return to the Schloss before sunset.  It was midnight.

Snow White heard someone enter the castle downstairs. Whoever it was, he or she were breathing heavily, smelling of uncanny evil—a scent Snow White had worn on her soul for years before Loki’s kiss.

I need to gather my strength and get out of the coffin.

Snow White felt weary, unable to step out of it. She needed to feed but had stopped herself all through the day, waiting for Loki. Although Loki’s kiss had unchained her from the castle’s curse, she still had to feed. Being a Dhampir didn’t mean she wasn’t partially a vampire. She was the granddaughter of Night Sorrow himself and the Chosen One whether she liked it or not. Saints and monks couldn’t take care of the evil that lurked in this world anymore, and spitting in the face of evil wasn’t a good girl’s quest. She had to be one of them, partially evil, and strong enough to face their darkness.

Snow White still had a lot to learn about who she was. Quenching her thirst without hurting people was one of her priorities.

As the intruder neared, she felt even weaker. If only someone had taught her how to use her Dhampir powers. She had been imprisoned in the Schloss for a hundred years.

“Prophecies suck,” she mumbled, grabbing the coffin’s edge. She gathered her strength and climbed out of it, limping her way through as if there was mud on the floor, she made it toward the foggy window. The window was closer than the door, and she was hoping she could see who was causing Fable and Axel to shout with such distress.

Before she could wipe the window with her hand, her foggy reflection sneered back at her. She saw herself in her white dress, the red ribbon in her hair, and her fangs drawn out.

It was a defensive reaction to the threat climbing up the stairs, she thought. How was she ever going to learn how to control herself? She felt the thirst for blood, but not enough anger to strike. If someone approached her, could she feed on them? Even if she had the strength to do it, she wouldn’t. She didn’t want to kill anymore. She had finally found Loki, and she planned to live happily ever after with him.

It’s all because of Loki’s kiss, her darker half whispered. Love is a terrible thing. It makes people vulnerable. Are you prepared to be vulnerable while the world counts on you to save them from Night Sorrow and Carmilla?

Snow White found herself raising her hands and touching her lips.

‘If you don’t believe me, ask your lips,’ Loki had answered her when she questioned if their love had been a dream.

The memory sent an electrical surge through her body, remembering what they had both been through to earn that kiss. Who would have thought that Loki, the dark Huntsman, who had slaughtered more people than he could remember, could be saved?

Where are you Loki? What’s taking you so long?

“Loki!” Fable yelled.

Loki is here? Where? What is going on?

“You don’t know what you’re doing, Loki,” Axel and Fable yelled outside. “You’re not yourself!”

Snow White wiped the fog from the window. She couldn’t see Loki outside, but she saw Axel and Fable running into the Schloss, still yelling at the evil approaching her.

What’s going on?

The evil, protected by the laughing wind, had already reached the hallway. Snow White could feel it. She could hear it taking confident strides toward her room. Whoever, or whatever, Axel and Fable were screaming at was at her door.

“Please, no,” Fable said again, climbing the stairs. “Don’t kill her!”

Is that Loki coming to my room? To kill me? Again?

The evil scent was Loki’s. She knew it well.

She wondered how it was even possible: Loki not remembering who he was. Snow White had been afraid to remind him or he surely would have killed her in the Dreamworld.

She turned around.

Loki was standing behind her, wearing Axel’s hood.

Still resisting the idea that he’d come to kill her, her fangs drew back and the muscles on her face relaxed.

“Loki,” she still liked the sound of his name on her lips. Her eyes widened cheerfully. “You came back for me,” she ran across the room and threw herself in his arms. “You came back for a monster,” she muttered, rubbing her cheek against his hollow chest. Her longing for him blinded her from the obvious. Love tends to blind people and urge them to sleep in the arms of the enemy sometimes.

Although Loki hadn’t spoken a word or shown signs of passion, she pressed her head closer to him like a lovely pillow she could confess all her secrets to.

Finally, the truth hit her like a dagger. She noticed he was frigid, cold, and speechless. His heart wasn’t beating, just like the dead. This wasn’t Loki she was hugging anymore. It was the shell of what was left of him. Loki was gone; the boy behind his eyes had disappeared. This was Loki’s shadow, the Huntsman with the three-eyed unicorn.

She turned away, and then looked into his eyes one more time, wishing she would get a glimpse of the boy she loved. His eyes sent rays of horror into her soul. They were slatted and yellow like a snake, the Queen of Sorrow’s eyes.

She took two steps back, gathering all of her energy.

You know what you have to do, Shew. The voice in her head reminded her. If you’re really the Chosen One, the first thing you have to do is … kill him.

“No,” she screamed. “What happened to you, Loki?” unaware she was close to tripping over the glass coffin behind her.

Loki didn’t say a word. He just kept staring at her, his eyes turning black as night and appearing endlessly hollow with that glimmer of gold.

Snow White had confronted many demons before, but Loki’s stare bored through her and a headache started pounding in her head.

The whiny, funny, and adventurous Loki she knew was gone. This, standing in front of her, was the Huntsman whom everyone in the Kingdom of Sorrow feared.

“Talk to me, Loki,” she pleaded. Another step back, her stomach hurt as if butterflies where being slaughtered inside it. She felt weaker. “What happened to you?”

He looked so powerful, so cocky and sure of himself. His shirt, ripped open, revealed a six-pack underneath, his body had changed from a boy to a man.

Oh my God, Snow White thought when Loki’s hood fell back. She saw his hair had turned platinum blonde again, the color of the Huntsman’s before he’d been unshadowed by Charmwill. He also had his Alicorn in his hand.

Snow White tripped backwards into the glass coffin, unable to take her eyes off him. It was a hard choice. Death in front of her or the grave behind her.

Back to where you belong, Shew. Her inner voice taunted her.

“Come on, Loki,” she forced a crooked smile on her lips. “You’ve killed me before. It didn’t work,” she tried to sound playful.

Axel and Fable were nearer now, calling for him again.

“Mircalla did this to you,” Axel said from the hallway. “I don’t know how this happened but Mircalla is Carmilla Karnstein, the Queen of Sorrow.”

“She controls you through the Fleece,” Fable said, reaching the door with her brother.

Slowly, Loki turned back to them. He waved one hand in the air, sending the laughing wind whipping at them. The wind laughed hysterically as it blew them back into the hallway. Snow White heard them thud against a wall then fall into silence.

Loki met Carmilla? In the real world?

A Dreamhunter’s Fleece was like his soul. She had been next to Loki when Carmilla took it in the Dreamory.

Loki turned to face Snow White; he had a cocky smirk on one corner of his mouth. The sweat caused by Snow Whites racing heart stuck to her dress.

“Loki,” Snow tried one last time. “Don’t you remember me? I’m the one you love.”

Her words had no effect on him. He knelt down and pulled her hair violently with one hand, the way ancient people grabbed their sacrifices before they slaughtered them for the Gods.

Her veins fueled with anger. The smell of his blood was so intense and beautiful she could just suck him dry. Her fangs drew out, feebly without grit or strength to use them.

Strength is not what you are lacking, Shew. Don’t fool yourself. You just cannot bite him.

Loki gave her one last demonic look and staked her mercilessly. It was fast, the Alicorn plunging through her chest, blood spattering on both their faces.

No apology followed like in the past, nor did he show the slightest signs of guilt.

Feeling betrayed again, killed by the one she loved, Snow White gave in as the world faded away.

Before she passed out, she wondered why Carmilla made him stake her. All Carmilla needed now was to find the Lost Seven so she could consume her heart, stay beautiful without killing young girls, and never be threatened by her daughter again. Why would Carmilla make Loki stake her?

This is much bigger than you think, Shew. It is not just about you. This is about the whole Fairyworld.

As the world faded to black, Snow White felt the Baby Tears in her eyes—although they seemed a bit different. Loki must have used them so she wouldn’t be able to manipulate the dream.

Now she had to face another Dreamory. She wondered which one it was going to be. She felt Loki place two Obol coins on her eyes then whisper the Incubator into her ears. The date was 1803.

How was he going to access something she couldn’t even remember?

The incubator presented an even greater challenge, a strange word that meant nothing to her:

The Phoenix.

2

A World Between Dreams

I can control this. The word ‘Phoenix’ has no power over me in my subconscious. I have no idea why Carmilla made him use it. If only I could just control my dream and send Loki to another place. A place where…

Snow White opened her eyes to the bluest morning skies, bespattered with millions of tiny cloudy patches like snowflakes on a blue veil waving over the world. The sun appeared, slowly wiping the sky clean of the imaginary snowflakes. Weaves of the first threads of an upcoming rainbow curved all over the horizon, and the birds welcomed the morning with their songs as the sun kissed her face.

Her closed eyes twitched against the sun's warmth—she’d expected to be sent straight to hellish nightmares. Slowly, her eyelids opened up like a flower trusting the light, and her pupils made peace with the flare. She breathed easier and felt the warmth of the day gently piercing through her and reaching behind her eyes. Snow White felt as if she lay in a bed with a cushiony, slightly bumpy mattress. How was it possible she was in bed and could see the sun and the sky? How could she smell the flowers of endless fields surrounding her, and how were butterflies fluttering over her head as she lay down?

A butterfly with orange wings touched her nose briefly. Snow White propped herself up on her arms and inhaled the image through her eyes as if they were fabulous words from a fascinating poem.

What a beautiful dream. My dream. Or is it that I am dead and went to Heaven?

Finally, she discovered she was actually sleeping in a bed made of willows in the middle of the meadows away form the Schloss. Puckers of purple poppy blossoms were scattered like brocade, lightly tossed in heaps along the green distance leading to a river before a set of hills. Rills of water ran in curvy waves through the field, feeding the river in the distance, with dandelions dancing on both sides. The sun slanted through the gaps between thick trees of the forest to her left and splayed over the field, meeting with the sunrays from above. It made her feel like sitting in a bubble of pure light.

Snow White took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the lovely scenery into her soul. The world was so beautiful around her she wished this wasn’t just a dream because she wanted to stay here forever. Usually, forever wasn’t associated with dreams.

“Shew!” someone waved at her in the distance.

She looked and saw a boy with shoulder-length black hair and a face that somehow lit up from afar. His eyes shone in the distance like an emerald green star falling down in her palms. He moved swiftly like a panther, confident and elegant. The smile on his face was partially welcoming like a long awaited hug, and partially wild like a kid using the world as his playground. He was about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a lot of armor and a sword at his side.

Snow White saw she was wearing a 19th century white dress. She was in the Kingdom of Sorrow, in a place she didn’t remember. Was this another version of the kingdom her dream made up?

“Look what I got you,” Loki knelt down in front of her. “My princess,” he added with flirty eyes.

Snow White couldn’t take her eyes off him, not really caring about whatever he had for her. If he would just bring himself into her arms she would have no need for anything else.

“If you’re going to stare at me that way, you’re going to have to talk to me,” he said playfully, pulling her hand and ushering her to the field. They landed half-buried in purple poppies. “Or dance with me at the next ball in the castle, maybe,” he laughed, and grabbed a bite from a golden apple. It was if the sunrays followed his laugh, splaying onto his face and dimming the rest of the world.

She found an apple placed into the palms of her hands, too. He must have tossed it while she basked in his charm. Carmilla, her mom, had warned her of beautiful boys—after biting the prince, could she blame her?

“If you aren’t going to finish yours,” Loki pointed at the apple in her hand. “I will.”

Typical boy, she thought. Carmilla told her about boys being selfish and eating their woman’s food all the time. Thinking of it now after knowing that Angel fed on her mother’s blood for so long, it seemed plausible.

Loki reached for her apple.

“Get your hands off it,” Snow White pulled away and slapped him lightly on the back of his hand. “It’s my apple.”

“What a princess you are, my princess. No manners at all,” he smirked, locking eyes with her, “all feisty.”

Snow White blushed and looked away. Those eyes were hard to resist. Who said feisty in this time? There was something wrong with this dream.

Looking at the apple, she felt a little confused, as if trying to remember something that was just out of reach. Her gut instinct told her not to bite into it.

She looked back at Loki with his intense eyes locking with hers again. He stared at her forehead, her brows, then skipped and gazed at her mouth. His lips twitched for a moment, and his steady breathing suddenly felt rushed.

His silence was killing her, the way he slowly stared back at her lips in a triangular gaze that he repeated over and over again. Her eyes started to mirror his, examining his lips. The more she did it the more the world around them disappeared and dimmed. She could merely see his face and hear the deafening silence only interrupted by their breathing.

Snow White shifted her eyes abruptly and took a crunchy bite from the apple, killing the tension. Dangerous apples or not, who cared?

This is a dream, isn’t it? How is it so sweet when Carmilla controls him?

“Poison,” Loki said.

“What?” she glared in a muffled voice. The chunk of the apple almost lodged in her throat. She forced it in.

“Your eyes are like poison, my princess,” Loki said, “beautiful poison that could kill me if you stare at me too long.”

“Oh—” she relaxed. “Behave, Loki,” she patted him playfully on the chest of his armor.

“This is me behaving,” he said, leaning forward in his heavy armor, looking adorable. “Trust me.”

Snow White fought the blushing this time. He seemed to enjoy it, anyway, leaning forward to tempt her.

“I can send you to jail,” she warned him with a lying finger. “I am the princess.”

Loki laughed that stargazing, sun-sucking, radiating laugh. “And I shall go to jail,” he bowed his head obediently. “If my princess so wishes.”

Snow White shied away, giggling with a hand over her mouth.

“I am all yours, princess,” Loki brushed a blooming flower over her nose.

“Stop calling me princess, huntsman,” she said.

“I can’t,” he stuck the white flower into the curls of her hair. “You’ll always be my princess.”

“Always?” she asked.

“Always,” Loki nodded and pulled her nearer and kissed her.

Snow White couldn’t breathe. Loki’s move was abrupt and forceful. She could not resist his lips though, not even in a dream. She gave in and kissed him back, eyes closed. He took her hand and placed something in it. A silver necklace with a round pendant.

Snow White felt him close her fingers on it like a guarding seashell, and then he squeezed her hand. She complied almost hypnotically. Whatever that necklace was, she was sure it was worth invading his lips.

Unexpectedly, his lips tasted different; bitter, salty and even … smelled of blood.

Snow White pulled away and saw Loki’s face had saddened, his eyes gazed into hers. He pressed on the necklace one more time and nodded toward it as if not wanting anyone to know he gave it to her.

What was going on? Is the Schloss watching this dream? Is he afraid to tell me something, again?

The dream had felt strange from the beginning and now Loki’s silence worried her even more. His green eyes filled with terror. No, not terror, it was more of regret. He was afraid, but of what?

“One of us is going to do something terrible very soon,” he said.

“What are you talking about?

“When the time comes, do it,” he whispered in her ear. “Choose wisely, and remember that whatever happens, however evil I look, I love you,” he clamped his hand over her mouth as the sun began to fade away from behind the veiled blue sky, dimming the world the way curtains are pulled down to keep the light out of rooms. The poppy field around her paled and died on its own, slowly, the plants fell to their knees as if they were drunk.

“This isn’t the dream yet,” Loki whispered. “It’s the World Between Dreams. This is the real me calling for you, Shew, before things go wrong. This might be the last time we meet the way I am now before the Huntsman in me takes hold.”

Suddenly, some of the plants around Loki glided like snakes all over his body and pulled him down.

“Loki!” Snow White screamed.

“Read it,” he said before the plants covered his mouth, rendering him unable to talk.

As the dream turned into a nightmare all around her, she opened her palm and examined the necklace. What was he trying to tell her?

The necklace was made of wood, shaped in the form of a circle fixed on a horizontal access. Its design looked like a circle from afar. She looked harder and saw some engravings. They looked like letters, but they were undecipherable.  What use was it if she couldn’t decipher it?

She looked back at Loki, pulled by the snakiest poppies down until the earth almost swallowed him. The plants had started wrapping around her legs as well.

This is the World Between Dreams. He had said. It explained why this place seemed so lovely. It was a mental bridge in Loki’s conscious before they descendent down the Dreamworld. He used it to tell her something through a necklace she couldn’t read.

Snow White stared at the skies above, feeling dizzy. It was time to enter the real dream, or rather nightmare. She took one last look at the curious engravings on the necklace. They looked like this:

3

The Slave Maiden

Finally, Snow White woke up in her own dream.

She was standing in front of a mirror in her chamber, alone with blood dripping from her lips. This Dreamory, influenced by the word ‘Phoenix’ was taking place two centuries ago. Her reflection in the mirror was a seven-year-old Snow White.

She had no time to think about whom she had just bitten or whose blood dripped from her lips. What mattered now was that Loki hadn’t appeared yet, and she had an eerie feeling she had no control over this dream. She tried focusing, her tips of her fingers on her forehead, trying to shift the dream to another time or place of her choosing, but she failed.

Of course, whatever Carmilla sent Loki for in this dream, she wouldn’t risk Snow having control over it. Loki must have used another kind of Baby Tears or a different spell that prevented the dreamer from manipulating the dream. Right now, Snow White was another spectator in this dream like anyone else, and the consequences could be dire.

“Shew!” Carmilla burst into the room toward her daughter. Tabula Rasa, her servant, followed her. “How could you?” Carmilla said.

Stiffened, Snow White stared back at her. The golden hue in Carmilla’s eyes reminded Snow White that Angel had turned her into a vampire already.

“And who brought that damn awful mirror in the room?” Carmilla stopped in her tracks, shying away.

Tabula Rasa hurried and adjusted the mirror to face the wall. Snow White assumed that Carmilla hadn’t met Bloody Mary yet in this memory.

“Didn’t we talk about you biting people?” Carmilla shook her daughter violently. “Do you have any idea how important it is for our kingdom to have their kingdom as an ally?”

“What did I do?” Snow White said reluctantly. She felt like an actress dressed for the part, but not having read the script.

Carmilla rolled her eyes and sighed.

“She’s talking about you biting the prince, Princess Shew,” Tabula said, lowering her head with respect.

Oh, we’re back again to when I bit the prince?

“And don’t tell me he was yummy,” Carmilla stabbed a warning finger in the air.

“But he was yummy, mummy,” Snow White tapped her feet, trying to play the part, and trying not to laugh at the coincidental rhyme.

“Mummy?” Carmilla blinked her eyes, illuminating her long eyelashes. “Where did you hear that word? Don’t ever mention mummies around here.”

“Oh,” Snow White put a hand on her blood-dripping lips.

“I don’t care. I want my yummy prince,” Snow White distracted them by playing bratty little princess.

Carmilla stood up again, impatient and disapproving of her daughter’s behavior as if she hadn’t been turned into a half-vampire herself. “Clean her up,” she told Tabula. “I will deal with her later.”

“But I’m afraid she’ll bite me, my majesty,” Tabula said. “I don’t want to end up like the prince.”

Tabula knew our family’s secrets?

Carmilla stared back at the door for a moment as if she wondered what really happened to the prince. Had he been turned into a vampire?  Was he cured or dead?

“I understand,” Carmilla said. “Send one of the Slave Maidens to clean her up.”

Snow White didn’t know what a Slave Maiden was.

“Thank you, my majesty,” Tabula said. “I will send one of the girls to wash the princess.”

“And you, darling, control your cravings,” Carmilla told Snow White. “A prince for dinner should be enough,” Carmilla smirked and looked away. It was as if she were making fun of her. Like mother like daughter, both of them were bloodsuckers.

Tabula followed Carmilla.

Snow White tried to use her powers again to shift from one scene to another in the dream, but all was in vein. She wondered what kind of dream this was. It felt like being stuck in a movie theatre, not allowed to leave your seat until the credits rolled.

It confused her why the word ‘Phoenix’ sent her back to this part in her life. What did the Phoenix stand for?

She decided to look around for a clue, but stopped when the beauty of the dresses in her wardrobe caught her attention. As she rummaged through the wardrobe, she wondered why she had no recollection of the events in this dream. Was this a part of her past life, or was it some kind of a hallucination?

“Princess?” a sweet voice knocked on the door.

A young girl, a year or two older than Snow, entered the chamber. She had blonde hair, tinged fiery red. Shew squinted. The red in the girl’s hair was more of an aura than a highlight. It was almost not there, like some kind of ghost waving around the girl’s head.

The girl was tiny. She wore ragged clothes, which seemed like they had been blue once, now smeared with ashes. She had a reluctant smile, one that would have been beautiful if not wrinkled by the tension and fear showing on her face. She took small and careful steps toward Shew as if she were a Geisha, her head lowered, hands laced with a towel dangling from them. It was obvious she feared the princess.

“I’m here to help you wash, princess,” she knelt on the floor.

Snow White patted her and pulled her up to her feet. Even then, she still had to pull the girl’s chin up so she’d look her in the eyes. An inevitable sadness lurked there.

“Call me Shew,” she said.

“Could I ask you to walk to the bathroom so I can take off your clothes and wash you, Princess Shew?” the girl asked.

Shew complied, almost hypnotically. The girl began wetting the towel and cleaning the blood dripping from her lips.

Something inside Shew told her she knew the girl from before. It was like Déjà vu or a repressed memory. She could almost swear this was a real memory that had been blocked from her somehow.

“What’s your name?” Shew said.

“Cerené,” the girl said proudly as if it was the only thing she owned. Her blue eyes glittered while she explained the proper pronunciation of her name, “Chi-re-ney. You could add a light ‘h’ sound at the end if you like. It makes my name sound like a sigh,” she blinked her eyes once.

“Nice to meet you, Cerené,” Shew said. “I’m—”

“The Princess of Sorrow,” Cerené said with a thin smile. She still looked worried. “I heard the Queen call you Shew like you just asked me to, but I always think of you as Joy.”

“Joy?” Snow White asked.

“It’s a nickname I’ve heard your father use to describe you to noblemen. I heard him say you’re the joy of the Sorrows. I like it.”

“Oh,” Shew actually liked the name, although she hadn’t heard her father call her that. The Joy of the Sorrows was ironically destined to kill all the Sorrows someday. “I don’t think you still believe I’m the joy of the Sorrows, do you?” Shew pointed at the blood on the towel.

“Well, you’re rather monstrous,” Cerené stopped with a hand on her mouth, looking apologetic, the towel slipping to the floor. What had she just said? “I—didn’t’ mean…”

“Don’t fear me, Cerené,” Shew said. “You said nothing wrong. I am monstrous,” she glimpsed at her blood-dripping image in the bathroom mirror.

Cerené backed up toward the wall, “please don’t hurt me.”

“I told you I’m not going to,” Shew said.

“You just said you’re monstrous, and I heard you just bit the prince,” Cerené plastered her cheek against he cold walls of the royal bathroom, which must have been bigger than the size of the small cottage where she lived.

“I’m a beautiful monster,” Shew smiled. She was aware she wasn’t acting like a seven year old, but she tried her best.

So this is Dreamory of me, which I am living all over again from the mind of my older self. I wonder if I changed something from this past, if something would change in the future?

Cerené smiled and eased back when Shew stretched out her hand. There was something about Cerené. She came across as too pure to live among the evil lurking in the Kingdom of Sorrow. Shew watched Cerené pick up the towel and begin washing her again.

“So why do they call you a Slave Maiden?” Shew asked.

“Because I am one,” Cerené said, unashamed. “I’m an orphan. I work for a family with a stepmother and two stepdaughters for a place to stay.  I also work as a maid in the Schloss whenever they send for me, and I clean the School of Sorrow in exchange for bread.”

“What you just said only explains you’re a poor girl, not a slave,” Shew said.

“Girls like me are disposable. We are sent to do jobs that might kill us because we have no family to care when we die. They don’t even bury us properly in a graveyard,” Cerené said casually. “Some of us are used as bait for vampires on the borders. They send us to lure out vampires so your father’s army can kill them. They don’t care about us.”

“My father does that?”

“I like the King of Sorrow a lot more than the Queen but I heard he is heartless when it comes to war,” Cerené said, feeling she was allowed to speak her mind in front of an understanding princess. Shew knew nobody had ever granted her such a privilege before.

“So you were sent to me because if I bite you or kill you—”

Cerené stopped what she was doing and nodded. Both girls locked eyes for a moment.  “And you didn’t mind?” Shew said.

“Mind?” Cerené let out a feeble laugh. “I don’t have the right to mind, princess, or wish.”

“Who said so,” Shew protested. “Tell me what you wish for, and I will grant it to you.”

“You know you’re different from how I pictured you, Princess?” Cerené said. “I didn’t imagine you like this.”

“Neither did I,” Snow White laughed.  She wondered if she was really like that in the past. After all, and although this was a dream, she was a sixteen year old from the twenty first century trapped in a seven year old body in the 19th century, but it was her modern mind that was working here. Although Cerené looked to be eight or nine years old, she talked like she was older too.

“So what do you think of me biting the prince?”

“Oh, well,” Cerené hesitated.

“Speak your mind.”

“Well, I agree he was yummy,” Cerené giggled, covering her ashen mouth with her hands.

“I knew it,” Snow White clapped her hand with Cerené. “So I was right to bite the yummy out of him.”

“In your own sick way, I guess so,” Cerené laughed. “Is he dead?”

“I sure hope not,” Snow White said. “I’d like to bite him again.”

Cerené laughed so hard she fell on the floor. Snow White was happy to make her smile. It was like seeing sunshine in an abyss.

“Come here,” Snow White said, grabbing a towel to clean the ashes from Cerené’s face.

Suddenly, Cerené’s features tensed and she pulled away. “No,” she said. “I can’t wipe the ashes away. I can’t,” she made a fist with one hand.

“Why?” Snow White wondered.

“I just can’t,” Cerené took the towel from her and stood up, preparing to leave. “Would you ask anything else of me, princess?” She asked the question stiffly as if they hadn’t been laughing seconds ago.

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Thank you, princess,” Cerené said and left the bathroom. Snow White leaned against the door’s edge, watching her walk away. What had offended her so much? Snow White just wanted to wipe the ashes away.

Watching her walk away, Snow White noticed Cerené wore strange slippers, slightly hidden under her dress. They looked as if they’d been burned and smeared with ashes. The slippers didn’t look like they were made from leather or anything Snow White had seen before.

“Those are strange slippers,” Snow White said, hoping to stop the girl from leaving.

Cerené stopped then turned around slowly. She looked even more worried now, “they are just a poor girl’s slippers,” she shrugged, “nothing special about them.”

“I didn’t say they were special,” Snow White approached her. “I could give you better slippers.”

“No.” Cerené reverted to her shyness again. What kind of secrets did this girl hide?

Snow White didn’t push her. She already knew these weren’t ordinary slippers, but what was the point of insisting to know?

Cerené stopped at the door on her way out again, “thank you,” she said without looking back.

“For what?” Snow White asked.

“For talking to me like a human being,” she replied and left.

Nineteenth century or not, Shew wasn’t fond of drama, but her curiousness about Cerené almost made her forget this was a dream.

Confused, Snow White retreated to the chair in front of the mirror. Looking at her reflection, she was stunned at what suddenly began to happen.

She was aging, and as she watched in astonishment, her body turned into the fourteen-year-old version of herself.

4

A Garden of Graves

So this is how this dream is going to work, shifting time whenever it wants?

Puzzled, Shew rested her hands on the table, which transformed into strips of black and white, shorter strips of black and longer strips of white. The table was taking the shape of a large piano.

Looking back in the mirror, she saw the whole room change behind her. She was being transported to another time and place in the dream, to a big echoing hall in the castle when she was around two or three years younger than she was in the Waking World.

Finally, the mirror in front of her exploded into ashes that turned into ravens as they flew out of the window, and all she could hear was the annoying sound of a man who she believed was her music teacher.

“This is the wrong note,” the man screamed and pulled his hair. He had hair like Einstein, and wore an oversized tuxedo. “This is a B# not B,” he poked keys furiously.

Shew rolled her eyes, sitting with her hands on the piano. Who was this annoying man? She played several keys trying to comply.

“That is even worse,” the veins in his neck throbbed. He looked like he was battling invisible bees pecking on his face. He was unusually hairy. “This is an A.”

“A is good,” Shew tried to make a joke. “A+ is even better.”

“What?” he glared at her, looking as if he was about to choke her with the piano’s strings, chop her fingers off and use them as keyboard keys. “What is an A+?”

Ignoring the mad man behind her, she read the title of the melody she was supposed to play. It said:

The Magic Flute in G major

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“I’ll never understand why a piece of music named The Magic Flute is played on a piano,” she poked, knowing it would drive her teacher crazy. “It should be played on a flute, Mr.—” she didn’t know what to call him so she glanced back at the transcript and saw his name scribbled at the bottom. “Mr. Oddly Tune?” she scowled. “Are you sure it isn’t Dudley?”

Oddly almost jumped, kicking his feet against the base of the piano.

“She is making fun of you because you’re not firm with her,” the Queen of Sorrow called over the banister on the second floor. “I want her to memorize this song by noon and perform it at the ball we’re having tonight.”

“But that’s impossible, my Queen,” Oddly said. “She's horrible.”

“Don’t call my daughter horrible,” Carmilla said calmly. Oddly sweat beads the size of lemons. “Or I’ll have you hung by the noose.”

“That’s not fair,” he mumbled. “I am a respected musician. I shook hands with Mozart himself."

The Queen shook her head and left the hall, calling for her servants on the other side of the castle.

“Don’t worry, Dudley,” Shew said. “I think I got it. This is an X minor, right?”

“There is nothing called X minor!” Oddly’s face reddened. It deformed as if his cheekbones were cracking from the inside. His back curved awkwardly and his feet grew big, ripping his shoes apart. Hair was growing swiftly all over his feet and face. Mr. Oddly was turning into a werewolf.

What should I do now? Is this memory or just a dream going nowhere?

Oddly, the werewolf grabbed Snow White’s fingers and banged them against the keyboard. “This is an A, you filthy brat,” his eyes yellowed and his fangs showed. The odd white hair on his head smoothed out and grew longer down his shoulders. “And this is a B!” he banged her fingers again.

“That hurts, Mr. Dudley,” Shew said.

“It’s Oddly you irritating princess,” he said in an evil voice that sounded if his throat had turned into a sewer pipe spitting out its guts. “I’m going to break your fingers one by one.  You’ll never play an instrument for the rest of you life.”

“Mother!” Snow White pleaded. Mr. Oddly clamped her mouth shut with his hairy hand. “If you scream, I will hurt you again. Be a good girl and come with me.”

She pulled his hand away. “Come with you where?”

“Night Sorrow wants to talk with you,” the werewolf grinned.

So that’s what the memory is about. I am being kidnapped and taken to my grandfather?

“You know what?” Shew said. “That’s an awful lot of hair,” her fangs grew and she bit him in the neck. She didn’t know if it was part of the memory or her own action, having been overly annoyed by this music teacher. “Mozart this!” Snow White sighed impatiently and kicked him between his hairy legs.

It was interesting, how Oddly dropped to the floor like an electrocuted fly, buzzing a little then turning back into a  music teacher who looked like Einstein. Only this time he was dead. Anyone who entered the room would have thought she just killed an innocent man.

“If this is how my teen years were like, then it was fun. I’m so enjoying this,” she mumbled, wiping the blood from her lips. “I bet I’d be a superhero in school. How come they don’t let me go to school?”

“Because you’d end up biting all the yummy boys,” Cerené said from the end of the hall, still wearing her ragged clothes, ashes covering her face.  She carried a bucket of water and a broom. She had grown to become a beautiful fifteen year old and still wore her mysterious slippers.

“Cerené,” Snow White found herself smiling.

“Let me clean up the mess, princess,” Cerené said, staring at the blood all over the piano keys.

“It’s not my fault. He was a werewolf, I swear.”

“I saw the whole thing, hiding in the fireplace,” Cerené said. “Let’s pull him out into the Garden of Graves.”

“What’s the Garden of Graves?”

“You don’t know what the royal graveyard is?”

“Oh, I was just joking,” Shew said. “Do you think we should do that?”

“There are a lot of people buried in the Garden of Graves already. I guess they are some of your mother’s victims,” she winked at her, implying she knew about Carmilla’s bathhouse slaughters. “There is room for one more hairy man. Hurry up before your mother sees us.”

Snow White made sure no one was coming and started pulling Mr. Oddly outside. “Let’s bury Mr. Dudley,” she said.

“It’s Oddly,” Cerené laughed.

The two girls struggled pulling the large man out to the garden through the servants’ backdoor. It was nighttime and the only light guiding them was the moon. The Garden of Graves was full of purple and yellow poppies. It was the royal family’s graveyard so it had to look classy, “so this is where I’m going to be buried when I die?” Shew mocked herself. Her family was immortal, so this whole garden was bogus.

“I want to be buried in a lovely place like this with all these flowers,” Cerené said casually then dropped Oddly onto a muddy spot and started digging with a shovel. She was unusually enthusiastic about it. Her smile was lovely, but wicked, and a little weird. The ashes sticking to her face and clothes made her look like someone who was up to no good.

That’s one disturbed childhood you had, Shew!

“I see you love burying people,” Shew commented.

“Werewolves,” Cerené corrected her. “I hate them,” her cheek twitched slightly.

Cerené had tied her blonde hair—with the fiery aura—into a reckless ponytail. It looked like she did it with strings from her broom. Shew wondered why Carmilla allowed one of her servants to look so poor and untidy.

“Next time if you want to scare a werewolf away, use red wine,” Cerené suggested.

“Really?”

“I heard it from an old wise woman in the forest,” Cerené assured her. Shew thought it was absurd.

Cerené sweat as she dug the grave. When she wiped the sweat from her face, she accidentally cleaned some of the ashes away. Shew saw Cerené had cute freckles buried underneath.

Then she saw something else that had been hidden under the ashes: a cut on the lower part of her cheek, running thinly toward her neck.

“What is that, Cerené?” Snow White asked, taking the shovel from her. The cut looked like a torturing wound.

“Why do you always ask about what doesn’t concern you?” Cerené stiffened angrily again. It was a brief but alarming behavior, but alarming. Shew had never seen such a sudden change in someone’s mood.

“I’m sorry,” Snow White said. “Let’s forget about it. I’m glad you’re helping me.”

Cerené’s mood lightened up again. She was missing half of one of her front teeth, but Snow White wasn’t going to ask about it.

The two girls finished burying Oddly Tune in the Garden of Graves then covered the soil with flowers. Snow White brought a log and used it as a tombstone, then wrote on it:

Dudley Tunes

He broke his student’s fingers,

And his favorite note was an A+.

“Great,” Cerené clapped her hands as if they had just planted a new tree. “I have to go back to work now.”

“Wait,” Snow White said. “Don’t you want to stay with me for a while?”

“I have work to do, Joy, and then I have to go back to my step-mother’s house. If I’m late, she’ll make me sleep in that horrible room again,” she said.

“What room?”

“Never mind, I really have to go,” Cerené’s lips twitched.

“No,” Shew said. “Stay, please. If you’re worried about the Queen or Tabula asking about you, I will tell them I needed you to help with something. Don’t worry. You’re safe with me.”

“Really?” Cerené held the broom and looked downward.

“Yes. It’s no secret that I have no friends,” Shew said. “Only private teachers visit me.”

“And you end up killing them, too,” Cerené giggled.

She seemed as if she was trying her best to escape the life that got her the scars on her neck and ashes on her face.

“Isn’t that fun, killing your annoying teacher and getting away with it?” Shew played along. “I’m not allowed to go to school or meet a lot of people.”

“Especially yummy boys,” Cerené giggled.

“Yes, that,” Snow White said. “I see you like yummy boys.”

Cerené held the rim of her dress with her hands, pretending she was rubbing something on the earth with her feet.

“You can tell me,” Snow White said. “We agreed you can speak your mind when you’re with me.”

“People don’t like it when I speak mind,” she said faintly. “They usually laugh at me.”

“I won’t laugh.”

“I really like the prince,” she raised her eyes, eager to see Snow White’s reaction. “I like how he is always smiling and neatly dressed. He is such a handsome boy. I also admire that everyone bows to him and wants to please him. That’s why you bit the prince, right? You like him, too.”

“You could say that,” Shew wasn’t sure what the prince meant to her. She remembered she’d fed on his blood many times after the birthday incident, but nothing more—and he hadn’t appeared in this dream so far. Shew wondered if staying trapped in the Schloss for a hundred years made her forget a big portion of her past.

“You want to know a secret?” Cerené leaned forward over Oddly Tune’s grave. “There is someone else other than the prince that I really like.”

“Oh,” Snow White’s eyes widened. She wasn’t faking it. “Is he also rich and famous?”

“Not really,” Cerené said. “But he is strong and everyone fears him.”

“Is that why you like him, because everyone fears him?”

“Yes,” Cerené nodded twice and bit her bottom lip. “But I don’t want to tell you who he is.”

“Why?”

“I just don’t. Do you like a boy?” Cerené asked.

“Yes, but I don’t want to talk about it,” Shew stuck out her tongue. “You know what I really wish? I wish you could be my friend,” although Shew knew this was a dream, she felt right about this moment. She felt these were the emotions she’d experience when she was a child toward Cerené—if she had really met her. She’d always thought she had never made friends in that period, but there was something so real about this dream.

“Friends?” Cerené shrieked, dropping the broom, her voice a little too loud. “Really? Me and you, my princess?”

When Cerené smiled serenely like that, the freckles in her face shone through the ashes, tiny happy oranges shining out through a dark garden of cinders.

“Yes, me and you,” Snow White smiled. Cerené’s happiness was contagious.

“But—” Cerené’s face changed, looking at her feet again. “But this can’t be. I never have friends. And when someone asks me to be friends with them I usually end up crying next to the fire in my room, with cinders all around me.”

“Cinders?” Snow White grimaced, taking a step forward. This was the second time she mentioned that room.

“I told you not to ask about what’s none of your concern,” she snapped again, her freckles buried beneath the ashes.

“Of course, I shouldn’t ask,” Shew said.

“I believe you,” Cerené calmed down. “But what will we do. I don’t think a princess has a lot in common with a Slave Maiden.”

Snow White gazed down at Oddly Tune’s grave and lifted and eyebrow, “I think we already have a lot in common.”

Cerené laughed, “You’re not planning on biting someone else are you? I’m not going to clean up after you all the time,” she winked.

“Let’s do something,” Shew suggested. “What do you do when you have had your bread, your work is finished, and you have a few hours for yourself?”

“I can’t tell you that.” Cerené said. This time, it wasn’t a change of mood. She actually wanted to tell Snow White about what she did when she was alone, but preferred not to for some reason.

“Why not?” Snow White said cheerfully. “We’re friends now.”

“Promise not to tell anyone?” Cerené brought her head closer, whispering.

“I promise,” Shew said.

“I make magic;” Cerené’s eyes darted to the left and to the right.

“Magic?”

“Shhh,” Cerené put her hand on Shew’s mouth. “You have to promise me that you will never tell anyone.”

“I won’t,” Shew nodded. “What kind of magic is it?”

“I can show you,” Cerené said. “But only if you’re patient enough to prepare it with me.”

“Why prepare it? I thought magic was a gift,” Shew said.

“No. Magic is an Art. Many different kinds of arts,” Cerené explained. “I know a special kind of magic that people don’t want each other to know about. It’s a Forbidden Art.”

Snow White grimaced.

“See? That’s why you can’t tell anyone about it. My magic is taboo. It’s thought of as witchcraft created by the devil, but it really isn’t,” Cerené’s heart raced as she talked about it.

“That sounds fabulous. I’d love to see it,” Shew said. “What do I have to do to see you perform the Art?” she hoped this Art Cerené was talking about was what this dream was really about. She doubted Loki was coming to kill her at all.

“First, I have to warn you that every Art has its price. But don’t worry. I’m going to perform it. You could be my assistant if you like.”

“I am so curious,” Shew said. “Please tell me what I have to do.”

“We need to collect the elements needed to accomplish the Art,” Cerené answered.

“Alright. Where could we get those elements?”

“It’s going to be a long journey,” Cerené said. “But we’ll end up in a very special place that very few people have ever laid eyes on.”

“Does this place have a name?” Snow White asked.

“Ever heard about a place called Rainbow’s End?”

5

The Heart of the Art

Shew followed Cerené into the Black Forest to collect the elements needed to create what she called the Forbidden Art.

Under normal circumstances, Shew would have opted out of entering the Black Forest, particularly in a dream like this where the imminent dangers were obviously lurking somewhere between the ears of the Dreamer—she couldn’t forget the fact that she was staked by the boy she loved in the Waking World. Cerené’s story was a great distraction.

Watching the ash-smeared girl, who reminded her of the young girl in Le Miserable’s, run away with that kind of happiness was irresistible.

Cerené climbed a small hill on all fours as if she were an ape. Shew followed the tiny blonde-haired girl with the fiery aura.

“Every magic in this world has rules,” Cerené explained, panting.

“Rules? I thought the whole point about magic was that it broke all the rules. It’s magic!” Shew said, trying to keep up with Cerené’s pace.

“They aren’t strict rules,” Cerené said. “They’re more like guidelines. Whoever has the gift can enhance or add their own flavor to the Art.”

“Why do you insist calling your magic the Art?”

“I feel it’s more of an art. Art can’t be judged. It’s pure. It is what it is. It’s the artist’s—thus the magician’s— creation. It flows like blood through the pores of our souls then manifests itself out onto the world. Think of a painting, a song, or a poem. There is no right or wrong in art, but there are a few rules. Do you understand?” She stopped atop of the hill with her hands on her waist, acting as if she’d won a race.

“I do,” Shew nodded, catching her breath. She didn’t quite understand what Cerené had just said, but she was curious about her and the Art so she decided to comply with every word unless she needed essential clarifications. “So why are we here in the middle of the forest?”

“To create my Art, I need to obtain three elements.”

“Like fire, earth, water, and air?”

“Those were used in the old way to create magic,” Cerené said. “The elements I need are three types of ingredients, two kinds of tools, and one talent. Think of it as a recipe for a special meal,” she counted on her fingers. “We call them Heart, Brain, and Soul respectively.”

“We?”

“I meant ‘I’,” Cerené lied. She wasn’t going to tell Shew who the ‘we’ were. “The Heart is the material the magic is made of.”

“I am listening.”

“The Brain is the tool that mixes and influences the Heart,” Cerené said. “That’s rather easy to explain. If we don’t consult our brains, the heart will lose its way.”

“And the soul?”

“The soul,” Cerené closed her eyes and inhaled the crisp autumn air. “Oh, boy. The soul is the part that can’t be explained, nor can it be described in words. It’s the part that you know exists while there’s no evidence it does. The only way to prove it is when you see the results of the Art with your own eyes. Am I confusing you?”

“Not really,” Shew said. “But I thought you were going to show me magic. The Rainbow’s End, remember?”

“I will get to that, but first, look!” Cerené pointed at a tower in the distance, which they couldn’t have seen if they hadn’t climbed the hill.

“What about it?”

“Each element in my Art is divided into smaller ingredients that help you create the element. The Heart needs three ingredients to be completed,” Cerené said. “The three ingredients are ashes, sands, and lime.”

“Earthly elements,” Shew nodded. She had spent some time reading about magic from books she’d collected from her victims in the Schloss.

“Right,” Cerené said, panting again, not from climbing the hill, but from excitement. “Ashes are easy to get,” Shew offered. “We could burn anything,” she did her best not to mention the ashes covering Cerené’s skin.

“No,” Cerené insisted. “My ashes are special. They are cold ‘soda ashes’ or ‘sodium carbonate.’”

“How do you know stuff like that?”

Cerené discarded the question. “These special ashes can only be obtained from drying and burning certain plants like Saltwort and Glasswort, but we don’t have those here,” she said then darted down the hill like a maniac, toward the tower.

“Wait!” Shew said and followed her. “Where are you going?”

“To get the plant that makes ashes from the tower of Rudaba,” Cerené yelled. “It’s called Rapunzel,” she said and disappeared in the dark.

Shew walked cautiously, calling for her, afraid she’d trip. The earth was muddy underneath her. The tower itself was creepy and dark, shooting aimlessly into the night sky like someone’s mistake.

“Shhh,” Cerené appeared out of nowhere, patting Shew and urging her to kneel. “Here it is. The Rapunzel plant,” she pointed at an orange plant that looked like a sunflower among many of its kind, scattered in an uneven circle around the tower. The plants swung slowly to a slight breeze.  They also looked as if they were alive. Their tiny petals acted as if they were arms.

“Why don’t we just get one?” Shew whispered.

“You will see why,” Cerené giggled. “This is no ordinary plant.”

The two girls waited until a frog hopped by happily in front of one of the Rapunzel plants—reminding Shew how Loki hated frogs. In a flash, one of the once-peaceful plants grew sharp teeth between its petals, snatched the poor frog from midair with its wavy arms and swallowed it.

The plant chewed on the frog and swallowed it down its green throat, as if it was a snake, all the way down to feed the belly of the earth. When other plants sneaked toward it to try to get a piece of the frog, it snarled at them. Once it finished its meal, it spat out the frog’s legs and plastered a merry sunflower smile on its face again.

Shew fidgeted a little, not only because of the Rapunzel plant, but also because of Cerené’s giggles.

“Is this the plant you want to burn down to ashes,” Shew wondered.

“There is no other way. Magic comes with a price, remember?” Cerené said. “Believe me, I love plants and animals, but this one is vicious. If we come near it, it will eat one of our toes. It has a thing for them.”

“So how are you planning to get one?”

“With this,” Cerené pulled out a golden coin from her  dirty dress.

“Where did you get a golden coin from?” Shew said.

“I stole it from the Queen of Sorrow,” she smiled, looking at the trophy in her hand. “I am sorry, but you said you wanted to do something, and this is all I do when I have time.”

“I don’t care about you stealing from my mother. And although I’m not comfortable with it, I wonder why a girl like you wouldn’t buy herself something with that large amount of money?”

“Buy?” Cerené looked confused as if someone had hit her with a rock. “I never thought about it. I only stole the coin to practice my magic.”

“You never thought of buying yourself a new dress, or a good meal?”

Cerené looked dazed. Shew was worried but she also sympathized with her. The poor girl had lived a life down low and got so used to it that when she had a golden coin in her hand she never thought of spending it wisely.

Maybe her passion for the Art was just much greater than all the money in the world. What if she bought herself a nice dress, how would she explain how she got one? She is a Slave Maiden. No one in this damned kingdom will let her shine. They like to see the way she is, ashen, lost, and miserable. In order for the riches to exist, the rags have to exist, too.

“I guess next time I will buy myself something to eat. Great idea,” Cerené patted Shew on the back. “But for now, I’m going to use it to get that plant and practice my magic.”

“Alright,” Shew sighed. “How is this coin going to help?”

“It’s the plant’s weakness,” Cerené explained. “Myth has it that this plant was seeded by an evil sorcerer who craved gold more than anything in the world. The Rapunzel plant is poisonous, and is also cursed with an insane hunger for gold; the same hunger its creator had.

Only one girl, ironically named Rapunzel after the plant, has power over it.”

“Where could we find this girl?”

“I have no idea,” Cerené said. “She isn’t the solution to getting the Rapunzel plant though. This coin in my hand is how I’ll get it.”

“Tell me about it,” Shew demanded.

“Once the plant sees a golden coin in my hand, it will want it so bad that it will rip its roots apart trying to get it,” Cerené explained.

“Did you say rip its roots out?” Shew said. “Which means it will kill itself?”

“I told you it’s a crazy plant,” Cerené said. “You want to know what’s really crazy about it? If you plant it back to the earth after its dead, it grows back alive in an instance. Now let me do what I have to do,” Cerené stood up and ran toward the plant impulsively. She stretched her arm and showed the gold coin the someone would tempt a horse with a cube of sugar.

The Rapunzel plants went crazy, arching their bodies and stretching out their petal arms, wailing like creepy ghosts. The plant closest to Cerené was losing its mind.

“Give me that coin, you filthy ashen slave!” the plant wailed, almost ripping itself apart.

“Say please,” Cerené teased it, avoiding another one sneaking up behind her, trying to eat her toe, but failed. Thanks to Cerené’s unusual slippers.

“I won’t say please to you, daughter of Bianca!” the plant screamed.

“You nasty witch!” another plant screamed in high-pitched tones. “You always come here and take one of us! You make us kill ourselves.”

“I will rip your ashen heart apart,” a third plant said, stretching high enough to bite on Cerené’s knees. A couple of other plants bit parts of her dress off.

Cerené backed off; too far for the plant to reach her, “You’re horrible plants,” she talked to them. “You eat every living thing that passes next to you. What has that poor frog done to you?”

“If you think we’re horrible, you’re just as horrible,” the plant said as Shew tried to pull Cerené away from them. Talking plants weren’t that surprising in the Kingdom of Sorrow.  Weird was just about the norm.

Cerené pulled away from Shew’s grip and dared brush the coin against the plant’s arm then pulled it away immediately. The plant swallowed the trick and stretched out far enough to rip its roots from the soil.

Cerené picked up the dying plant—and several others. They were flopping like fish out of water before giving up.

Cerené she ran away, the other plants cursing her.

“Run away, daughter of Bianca!” the plants snarled.

“Burn! Burn! Burn!” the plants started spitting the food they’d eaten at Cerené and Shew; frog’s legs, chicken wings, and squirrel teeth.

Shew and Cerené ran back to the hill. Cerené acted as if she were just playing, waving her Rapunzel plant in the air with a wide victorious smile on her face, not paying attention to the cuts the plants made on her fingers.

“You’re hurt,” Shew said. “I think we should get back to the castle. I can mend your wounds,” she regretted not snarling with her fangs at the plants.

“I’ve been cut worse,” Cerené said nonchalantly.

“Did the plants cause the same cut on your cheek and neck?” Shew inquired, unable to hold her curiosity. Suddenly, it occurred to her that Cerené hid her scars intentionally behind the ashes. That was why she wouldn’t clean the ashes off her skin, because they’d show the wounds she’d preferred hiding.

Cerené’s eyes dimmed, betrayed by Shew’s question. She stared at her with moist eyes. All the happiness she’d just experience in getting the plants just withered away.

Shew knew the girl was about to burst into tears, but she couldn’t help but ask her.

“You’re horrible,” Cerené screamed at Shew. “You promised not to ask,” she threw the Rapunzel plant in Shew’s face and ran down the other side of the hill, deeper into the forest.

Shew picked up the plant and ran after her. It was a long shot. With each step, Shew felt guilty that she had upset her.

Almost a mile later, Shew knocked Cerené down and held her tightly until she stopped crying.

Finally, when Shew apologized repeatedly, Cerené stopped crying, and slept in her arms the way tired babies do.

Shew brushed her hair gently, leaned back against a tree, wondering about this mysterious girl. She thought she’d never felt so curious and caring about someone like her.

With nothing else to do, waiting for Cerené to wake up again, Shew’s thoughts drifted, thinking about Loki again.

Remembering Loki, she touched the necklace he’d given her in the World Between Dreams—she’d been wearing it since the beginning of this dream. Shew looked at the cryptic engravings on the necklace again:

What does it mean, Loki?

She tried to read it vertically from both sides then she flipped it upside down. Either it was some kind of a symbol or parts of an alphabet. She still didn’t know.

Frustrated, she sighed, looking at the moon above. For a moment, Shew thought she saw the moon smile at her.

6

The Mermaid’s Milk

A little later, Cerené woke up screaming.

Shew held her tighter; assuring her she was in safe hands. Still, it wasn’t the hands that finally calmed Cerené but Shew’s caring eyes looking back at her.

“Friends?” Cerené said.

Shew was surprised these were her first words, “Of course,” she replied.

Whatever unexpected drama was happening, Cerené had found a trusting pair of eyes as a friend for the first time in about fourteen years, and Shew, who’d always thought of herself as a lonely monster, learned that a person who’d been smeared with the ugliness of the world, could still have a beautiful effect on others.

Why do I feel I would kill for Cerené? Is she some sort of a test sent to me to begin my journey?

“Nightmares?” Shew patted her.

“Always nightmares, awake and asleep,” Cerené said.

Shew wanted to ask her about Bianca, whom she’d assumed was Cerené’s mother. She also wanted to ask her what the Rapunzel plants meant by ‘Burn! Burn! Burn!’

“Nightmares don’t matter now. You have this,” Shew pointed at the Rapunzel plant, which Cerené had been gripping tightly while asleep.

“Yeah,” Cerené jumped to her feet. “I forgot. Let’s play! Come on,” she pulled Shew and stared at the moon.

It was a full moon, but it wasn’t smiling at them the way Shew had imagined.

“You know that’s a girl up there?” Cerené said dreamingly.

“A girl?” Shew blinked. “Oh, you mean the old tale about the girl living on the moon?”

“No,” Cerené said. “You don’t understand. The moon is a girl,” she ran around the forest, waving at the moon.

Helpless yet mesmerized, Shew followed Cerené.

“Hey!” Cerené shouted at the moon as she ran farther in a direction leading to a lake. Her voice echoed in this empty part of the forest. “Can you come down for a moment?” Cerené actually asked the moon.

Shew couldn’t believe herself actually checking if the moon was a girl. The way Cerené insisted on it was inescapable. She talked passionately about crazy things in a way that could turn a blasphemer into a believer.

“Is she waving back at you?” Shew wondered if she’d missed something. All she saw was a round and white plate hanging from the sky. Maybe only Cerené could see the moon in girl form.

“No,” Cerené said disappointedly. “She seems sad today. You know she is a busy girl.”

“How busy could the moon be? It just hangs up there, brooding all night,” Shew knew she was harsh, but she needed to talk reason.

“No, she is very busy,” Cerené insisted, stopping by the lake, which was more of a swamp. “She keeps an eye on the good hearted people who walk the forest at night, watching them from above. If they get attacked by one of the creatures of the night, she descends and fights to protect them.”

The idea of the moon being a girl who descended to protect people at night was insane but also beautiful, Shew thought.

So the moon actually had a purpose, to shine on the good hearted, showing them the way?

“So why are we here by this swamp?” Shew asked, remembering that she thought the moon smiled at her. “What does the moon have to do with the Rapunzel plant?”

“To turn the Rapunzel plant into ashes we have to wash it with a certain type of water that only the moon can provide,” Cerené said.

“I thought burning something turned it to ashes, not washing it.”

“Not when it comes to my Art,” Cerené said. “If I burn the plant with plain fire, the ashes will not work for creating my magic. It has to be cleaned with Mermaid Milk.”

“Now this is getting odd,” Shew speculated.

“It’s not really Mermaid Milk. It’s just a fancy name,” Cerené winked at her again. “The moon has a spiritual connection with mermaids. I guess it’s because one is up there in the highest sky and the other lives down there in the deepest of the sea. I read about it in some book. The moon is capable of producing a white liquid, the color of moons, which is mixed by mermaids with water from the sea. That’s Mermaid Milk. It’s what turns this Rapunzel plant to ashes I use in my Art…”

Suddenly, Cerené stopped talking while gazing over Shew’s shoulder. It wasn’t a look of fear in her eyes, but utter fascination.

“Don’t turn around,” Cerené said, gripping Shew’s arm.

Shew could hear something splashing behind her in the swamp.

“Why?” Shew was dying to look back.

“She told me so,” Cerené said, still smiling.

“Who told you so?” Shew didn’t know what to think. Should she be scared, happy, or worried about Cerené’s sanity?

“Why don’t you want her to turn around?” Cerené asked the being in the swamp, but Shew heard no reply.

“She says she doesn’t want to show herself to you,” Cerené explained to Shew.

“She who?”

“One of the mermaids,” Cerené said. “She says you’re a…”

“I’m a what?” Shew pursed her lips.

“No, she isn’t,” Cerené talked to the mermaid—which Shew assumed was imaginary. “Joy is my friend,” she said squeezing Shew’s arm.

“What did she say about me?” Shew demanded and turned around.

With the darkness looming in the Black Forest, and the heavy layer of fog, it was hard to confirm that what she’d seen splashing into the water was a mermaid. Shew saw something flip its tail, but it could have been a big fish in the swamp. Whatever Cerené had been talking to, disappeared underneath the thick layers of the swamp.

“What did she say about me?” Shew turned back to Cerené, demanding an answer.

“Don’t worry about her,” Cerené said. “She said you were part evil and part good, and that you were still indecisive about which side to choose. She rather considers you and enemy to her. That’s why she feared you.”

“How could she think that of me?” Shew said, wondering if all this was Cerené’s imagination, and that Cerené herself was the one who thought that Shew hadn’t chosen a side yet.

Cerené didn’t reply. She had already knelt down with a glass urn filled with white liquid in her hand, pouring it on the Rapunzel plant.

“Where did you get that urn?” Shew was starting to lose her temper.

“From the mermaid, of course,” Cerené said. “Look,” she pointed at the Rapunzel plant turning into ashes in the urn. The ashes looked a bit fiery like Cerené’s aura.

Shew said nothing.  She was sure she hadn’t seen that urn with Cerené before.

“Great,” Cerené said, holding her urn with care as if she had just caught the most precious butterfly in it. “Now we’ve got the ashes. Do you remember what the next ingredient is?”

“Oh,” Shew was speechless, “I forgot.”

“That’s fine,” Cerené said. “Remember I told you the first element of the Art is the Heart, which are the ingredients to make magic. The Heart is three parts; ashes and we’ve taken care of that already. Now we need sand and lime.”

“How are we going to get those?” Shew asked.

“Limestone is easy. Follow me,” Cerené ran into the dark of the forest again.

Shew had never seen anyone so comfortable with the forest before. Usually, people were careful walking in the Black Forest for it was a place full of evil creatures, but not Cerené. She could meet the Boogeyman and shake hands with him then walk on, or possibly convince him to fetch her limestone for her Art.

This time, Shew followed Cerené to the School of Sorrow where she worked, cleaning after the teachers and students had gone home. Cerené told her to wait while she went inside. A moment later, she came back with chalk in her hands.

“See?” Cerené showed her the chalk, happily.

“See what? The chalk?”

“Chalk is basically limestone,” Cerené explained. “With a drop from the Mermaid Milk, we got ourselves the second piece of the puzzle. Now we have ashes and lime.”

“That was easy,” Shew mumbled.

“All of it is easy, even the ashes,” Cerené said.

How was fighting villainous plants to get ashes easy?

“As long as we’re playing, it’s always easy,” Cerené said as if she had read Shew’s mind.

Cerené poured two drops of Mermaid’s Milk on the chalk. She bit the chalk into small pieces, not worrying about the limestone staining her lips and teeth. She put the chalk, now powder, in the urn and mixed it with the ashes.

“You got chalk on your teeth,” Shew remarked.

“Don’t worry,” Cerené said and started rubbing her teeth with powder chalk left on her lips. “Limestone is good for teeth.”

Shew saw that Cerené was right. After rubbing it a couple of times over her teeth, her teeth whitened and shined.

“Let me see that,” Shew took some of the lime on her forefinger. “This is amazing,” she let out a forced laugh. She remembered collecting a book from one of the victims she’d fed on in the Schloss, and reading that toothpaste was originally made of chalk or lime.

What if Cerené ended up discovering toothpaste?

“Why are you laughing?” Cerené wondered.

“This is basically toothpaste,” Shew said.

“What is toothwaste?”

“Paste. Toothpaste is something to clean your teeth with.”

“Toothpaste,” Cerené yayed. “I like that name. You’re good. Nice one. You know this toothpaste doesn’t only whiten your teeth? It also protects it from the Demon Worm.”

“The Demon Worm?” Shew asked then felt a sudden  surge of white light hit her brain. It hurt but it was brief. It made her remember that in her time in the Kingdom of Sorrow people didn’t know much about teeth. They believed cavities were caused by a Demon Worm sent by Night Sorrow. A person with a cavity or ache in his tooth was considered possessed, and the demon possessing him had to be exorcized. “Of course, Demon Worms,” Shew rubbed her forehead. “This stuff can protect you from it. That’s amazing. So tell me, Cerené. We have brought ashes, lime, and now we need sand, right?”

“Sand,” Cerené sighed. “That’s the hardest part.”

Shew felt uncomfortable. If Cerené considers it hard, then it might be too hard.

“But we’ll get it, right? As long we’re together, we can do anything?” Shew said, afraid Cerené would turn gloomy.

“Yes,” she said with starry eyes. “Friends!” she stared at Shew in such an appreciative way it made Shew feel guilty. If she managed to wake up from this dream, she would end up leaving Cerené all alone in the world, and she’d be alone again without a friend.

But there must be another incarnation of you living in the Dreamworld when you wake up, Shew. Remember this IS a memory, only your reactions are different because you’re the only one in this world who knows it’s a memory.

Shew shrugged. She knew she wasn’t the only one who knew this was a memory. Loki, dressed in the evil Huntsman’s soul, knew it too.

Shew washed the thought away immediately. At the moment, Cerené was much more interesting than Loki.

Life isn’t just about love; friends are just as important.

Shew didn’t have friends, neither in the Dreamworld nor the Waking World. She suddenly realized that she needed Cerené as much as Cerené needed her.

You don’t always need people to take care of you. Sometimes you need people so you can take care of them.

“So where do we need to go to get the third ingredient of your Art?” Shew asked, more interested than ever.

“The Field of Dreams,” Cerené said. “Myth has it that it’s owned by the Sandman.”

7

A Field of Dreams

“To get to the Sandman’s Field of Dreams, we have to cross the Juniper Trees and the Wall of Thorns first,” Cerené said after a long walk.

Shew knew about the Juniper Trees. Each tree had a single eye at the end of its branches and used it to spy on intruders in forbidden regions. It was rumored that each tree had a soul of a child trapped in it, children who’d been killed in ancient wars. In comparison to everything else in Sorrow, the Juniper Trees were not to be feared.

What worried Shew was the mention of the Wall of Thorns, which was one of the barriers Carmilla had created with witchcraft to protect them from Night Sorrow’s army—this part always confused Shew. Wasn’t Carmilla already on Night Sorrow’s side after turning into a vampire? She believed that time was going to reveal something about it.

As for the Wall of Thorns, it was a magical thorn bush that cut through the trespassers trying to leave or enter Sorrow. The thorn cut a person to taste their blood and determine whether they were Night Sorrow’s intruders or locals. The tree thought of them as enemies and friends. If friends, it let them pass, whether in or out of Sorrow. If enemies, it tortured them by playing an irresistible musical tune that made one dance uncontrollably and eventually dance themselves to death in the thorn bush.

No intruder had ever passed through the Wall of Thorns—at least, none heard of—and few locals dared their way out.

Cerené’s suggestion was madness itself.

“Wait,” Shew grabbed her hand. “We’re not going to pass through. We’ll die and you know that.”

“You have to trust me, Joy,” Cerené said, and kept walking.

“Stop calling me Joy,” Shew stopped walking.

“Why? I love the name. You are my Joy in this Kingdom of Sorrow.”

“Cerené,” Shew called out. “Please stop.”

“Alright, princess,” Cerené stomped her feet. She wanted to walk farther. She wanted to play, and Shew was spoiling the fun. “I am all ears.”

“You know we’ll die if we cross the Wall of Thorns, right?”

“No, we won’t,” Cerené set her urn on the ground and folded her arms. “One can die easier by living in the Kingdom of Sorrow.”

Shew said nothing. Cerené hit the jackpot with that last sentence, but there was a difference between dying and suicide.

“All you need is to trust me,” Cerené unfolded her hands and started pleading like a child. “I wouldn’t hurt you, ever. If you’re worried about Night Sorrow’s army, let me tell you that this spot in the Wall of Thorns doesn’t lead directly to the outside. It leads to the Field of Dream which also called the Field In Between. I don’t know much about it, but if you see it, you will love it.”

“The Field in Between what?”

“I wish I knew, but it’s a place that is neither inside of Sorrow nor outside. Like I said, I had nothing to do in my spare time without friends or caring people but read. I read all the books I found in the school’s library, dusty books, books with no cover, and vintage books that had been handwritten,” Cerené said. “Have I lied about anything I told you about before?”

“What about the thorn bush?” Shew said reluctantly.

“What about it? We’re locals, not intruders. It will see us as friends, not enemies. We’ll pass. It’s just a little scratch. You’ll bleed, but not too much. Look!” Cerené pulled up the bottom of her dress and showed multiple scratches on her thighs. There were a lot and Cerené had just realized just how many by showing them to Shew. Some wounds never show, not even in the mirror, until we see them in the expressions on the faces of people we love. “Wow, that’s a lot of wounds,” Cerené uttered and laughed out of discomfort.

Shew wondered if this was the right time to ask her about her wounds.

It wasn’t.

Cerené was too happy with her magical adventure, and Shew didn’t want to spoil it for her.

“All right,” Shew nodded hesitantly. “Let’s do it.”

A while later, Cerené walked through the Wall of Thorns like a ghost through a curtain. She was tiny and thin—Shew believed she’d become so used to pain that the thorns scratching her body didn’t mean anything to her. She watched trickles of blood dripping from under Cerené’s dress before she disappeared behind the bushes into the Field of Dreams.

“See? I am here already,” Cerené said from behind the bushes.

Shew couldn’t see her. She only saw a magnificent light peering through from behind the bushes. In her mind, the light had no certain color. It was like nothing she’d even seen before. It was just magnificent.

A first reluctant step drew Shew closer to the thorn bush. The first cut was the deepest. The thorns sliced through her white and expensive dress and stained it with blood immediately. It was as if her dress craved blood.

Why does it have to hurt so much like in the real world? This is a dream for God’s sake!

Shew’s second cut was alarming. The thorn bush went crazy and slashed at her face slightly.

Why did she provoke the thorns, and why was that eerie flute playing nearby?

“Shew!” Cerené yelled. “What happened? I can’t see you. Why is that Dark Tune playing? How is this possible?”

Shew was speechless. She could feel the melody possessing her soul. The stories she’d heard about the Wall of Thorns were true. The music from the flute was part of Mozart’s the Magic Flute, the piece Oddly Tune was teaching her right before he turned into a werewolf.

What does this mean? Shut up! There is no time to understand. You should focus on WHY the music is playing. The Wall of Thorns only detects intruders.

“What is going on, Shew?” Cerené cried out beyond the thorns. “I’m coming for you. Wait!”

“No!” Shew managed to say, resisting the urge in her feet to dance in the thorn bush. “Stay where you are, Cerené!”

Shew, in the middle of her panic, wondered if this was why Loki didn’t come to kill her. Maybe the Queen of Sorrow figured out a way for Snow White to kill herself. If so, that would have been some genius plan, to send her back to a memory in her childhood were she should have died naturally.

Nonsense! Shew breathed in deeply as the thorns crawled and spiraled around her with their needle-sharp edges waiting for her to start dancing.

The Queen of Sorrow can’t kill me because I split my heart into seven pieces, and she needs to find them. Maybe Cerené is one of the Lost Seven. Maybe this is what this dream is all about.

She wanted to bend down and scream at her fidgeting legs, which desperately wanted to dance against her will.

The Lost Seven mean nothing at this point, because you’re not sixteen years old yet. She can kill you right now before splitting your heart. You know that if she changes the past in the Dreamworld, the future will change in the Waking World.

Shew raised her hands slowly and clapped her ears so she wouldn’t hear the Dark Tune.

It didn’t work.

A couple of thorns slashed at her hands.

“Why in the name of Sorrow is this music playing?” Shew let out a loud scream.

Then it hit her right in the face.

Of course, the music had to play. Shew wasn’t purely a local. It was true she was born in Sorrow, but in her blood, ancestry, and family tree, she was an evil Sorrow, a real one, a descendant of Night Sorrow, the most vicious vampire in the world. That is why the mermaid told Cerené she feared Shew at the lake that she hadn’t decided whose side she was on. To the Wall of Thorns, Shew was still an enemy.

She wondered how her father ever crossed over to fight the Intruders. He was also a blood descendant of the Sorrows. In many ways, they were both locals of the kingdom but also intruders. The Wall of Thorns decided to treat her as an intruder, and to kill her. At the time of this memory, she wasn’t immortal yet—and how about Carmilla, or was she immune because the wall was her own magic?

Shew couldn’t resist anymore and began dancing to Mozart’s Magic Flute. Although she gave it her best shot, the pain was too strong and she began to faint, her throbbing eyes flickering her way to her last visions of life. She was dying in her own dream, which meant she would stay in a Sleeping Death forever in the Waking World, a coma that no kiss could cure.

Carmilla had won after all.

8

A Never Ending Dream

Fable’s eyes flung open.

It was already daylight, and Axel was still sprawled on the floor next to her. He looked rather funny; his mouth was wide open as if waiting for someone to feed him a sandwich while asleep.

She gazed up at the Schloss’ ceiling, wondering how long she had been unconscious. Her head was heavy, and she couldn’t remember what exactly had taken place.

All she could remember was a vague bang in her head and someone—or something—laughing at her.

She felt weak and hungry, and for the first time she was glad Axel brought his food-stuffed backpack with him. She crawled over, accidentally kicking Axel’s head.

Opening it, she looked for a bag of Tragic Beans or maybe a Reluctant Jelly, but found none. She found a single Poisoned Apple but stopped before grabbing it.

What’s the point of eating an apple that makes you faint while you’re already feeling dizzy?

Axel’s backpack was full as if he was going for picnic. Some of the food was new to her.

The first thing she pulled out was a small box labeled Dr. Rumpelstein’s Awful Pudding. The idea was to eat through the rotten pudding in hopes to win a gold coin. If don’t find it, you’d end in Sorrow’s clinic for pudding-poisoning. If you happened to find the gold coin, you’d probably end up in Sorrow’s Clinic, too, only you have enough money to pay for it this time. Fable decided to pass. She hated anything Rumpelstein anyways, which reminded her suddenly of Lucy.

She threw a look around, but Lucy was nowhere around.

There was a bag in Axel’s bag labeled Talking Mushrooms. Fable threw it away, wondering if it was the reason behind Axel’s non-stop talking.

Then she found a bag of Princess Pees, which she thought sounded fine. The name Princess Peas suited it better, but what the heck, this was Sorrow.

Finally, she found a bag of Sticky Cinnamon Frogs, which came with bugs or bugs-free. The picture on the cover showed a frog with a long red tongue snatching a flying bug.

“Yuck,” she said. “Loki would have hated this.”

Fable’s eyes widened.

Loki! I remember now. His laughing wind knocked us down. I was trying to stop him from killing Shew.

“Wake up, Fable,” she knocked on her head as if it were a coconut. “You’ve got a job to do.”

She remembered running after Loki, trying to stop him from killing Snow White.

“Axel,” she shook her brother. “Wake up!”

“What is it?” Axel moaned. “No school today.”

“Axel! We’re not in Candy House. We’re in the Schloss. Wake up,” Fable unpacked a bag of Sticky Cinnamon Frogs and spilled its contents on him. The frogs were alive, croaking and hopping all around Axel and licking his face. They must have thought he was one big bug.

“What did you do?” Axel woke up, snapping. “What a waste of food. I was going to eat them later.”

“We need to save Snow White,” Fable sneered at him.

“Isn’t that the seven dwarves job?” Axel stretched his arms, still moaning.

“What are you talking about? Not that Snow White; the other Snow White?” Fable frowned, adjusting her glasses.

“Snow White isn’t even real, Fable,” Axel said. “Go to sleep.”

“Wake up or I’ll snap witchcraft on you,” Fable pulled him by the sleeve. “Remember, we were trying to stop Loki because the Queen was controlling him by using his Fleece?”

“Oh,” Axel blinked, munching on one of the poor frogs. “I remember now. It’s kind of hard not thinking of all of this as a dream—but anyways. Mircalla fooled us all. I wonder why she’s been taking care of us all this time?”

“I bet we have something that is valuable to her,” Fable said, “But right now we have to concentrate on saving Shew.”

“Now you’re not making sense,” Axel burped. “Why would we want to save a shoe?”

“Shew, Axel,” Fables pulled his food away. “Remember Loki said her mother called her Shew?”

Axel nodded, “Yeah, sorry. Forgot again.”

“And where is Lucy?” Fable wondered.

“Lucy?” Axel said her name as if he were in love with her. “I don’t know. I remember the Queen playing Loki like a marionette and leading him back to the Schloss. Then you chanted an incantation that freed us from being bonded to chairs.”

“That’s right,” Fable said. “Then we ran after Loki. I haven’t seen Lucy since.”

“Maybe she went with the Queen,” Axel said. “Didn’t you notice how much she is infatuated by her?”

“That could be. It’s time to take action,” Fable said, turning around and walking toward Shew’s room. “We have to help her.”

“Wait,” Axel said in the hallway. “Loki must have staked her and entered her dream by now. How are we going to save her, or save him?”

“All we have to do is pull the stake out of Shew, and she’ll wake up immediately,” Fable said. “As for Loki, he told you to break the mirror if we can’t wake him up. It should break the connection in the Dreamworld.”

Reaching Shew’s room, they both stopped.  They  didn’t expected what they saw.

Instead of finding Loki and Shew sleeping side by side, they found the Dream Temple encircled by a protective purple light, which they couldn’t see through.

“Is that a Star Trek teleportation system?” Axel rubbed his eyes.

“Of course, not. Shut up, Axel,” Fable approached it reluctantly. “I wonder if I could walk through it,” Fable mumbled.

“No,” Axel hurried after her. “We don’t know what could happen to us inside. We don’t know what it is. We could be pulled into the Dreamworld, and we’re neither Dreamers nor Dreamhunters. This is too dangerous for us.”

“What kind of dream is this?” Fable said. “This isn’t like the dreams we saw Loki enter before. It’s daylight, and he entered the dream a little after midnight. It’s been way longer than forty two minutes.”

Axel didn’t answer her. He pulled out a cell phone and started scrolling through it.

“What are you doing Axel, isn’t that Loki’s phone?”

“It is,” Axel nodded proudly. “I picked it up after he left Candy House. It has all the information Loki copied from his Dreamhunter’s Guide.”

“Finally, you did something smart,” Fable said. “Found anything?”

“Actually, yes,” Axel said, trying to avoid Fable’s stare.

“What is it?”

“I found a page where this purple gate is mentioned encircling the Dream Temple,” Axel said.

“And?” Fable got impatient.

“It only happens when the Dreamhunter’s Fleece is in someone else’s possession,” he said, reading from the phone.

“We already know Carmilla has Loki’s Fleece,” Fable puffed. “Tell me something I don’t know, Axel. Is it safe to pass trough it?”

“Not at all,” Axel said. “It says here that passing through it into the Dream Temple could lead to insanity.”

“What? Why?”

“Because this purple light means this dream is Locked,” Axel read.

“What does that mean?”

“Loki didn’t write much about it, but wait,” Axel scrolled the pages. “It says here that a Locked Dream is a…” he raised his eyes to Fable, looking worried.

“Axel?” Fable titled her head.

“It means this is a never-ending dream,” Axel pronounced slowly.

“What does that mean?”

“It means it’s not controlled by the timing of the Hourglass Waker, nor can the Dreamer shift between time and place like Shew used to do in her previous dreams,” Axel said.

“That’s crazy,” Fable said. “And what is this purple thing?”

“It’s the protector, or Locker, of this dream. That should be obvious, Fable.”

“Yeah?” Fable had her hands on her waist again. “But there must be a way to wake up from any dream, even if it’s never ending. Magic always solves problems like these. Does it say anything about that?”

Axel raised his head from the phone and shrugged, “It doesn’t,” he looked away from her, not wanting to tell her what he’d just read. The only way out of this dream was insane, and it was going to upset Fable so he decided not to tell her now.

“Are you keeping something from me, Axel?” Fable demanded.

Knowing that Fable’s next move was to snatch Loki’s phone from his hand, Axel deleted the part he didn’t want her to read.

“What did you do, Axel,” she pouted, snatching the phone.

“Nothing,” he shook his head and went on munching on a frog.

“Are you sure, Axel?” she asked politely, staring at the purple light and wondering if she was insane enough to pass through it.

Axel watched it closely. He knew his sister was crazy enough to walk through the light. And if she had read what he just read, she’d have had even more reasons to walk through. It was his job to protect her, and he wouldn’t let her know the only way this dream could possibly end. Even as much as he admired Loki and feared Shew, what mattered most was Fable.

“Are you sure we should trust whoever wrote this Dreamhunter’s Guide?” Fable said, scrolling through the pages, ”I mean everything here seems incomplete. I’m sure every kind of magic has a solution, but I just couldn’t find any here.”

“Why wouldn’t we trust the writer?” Axel said. “It’s the same guy who wrote every other article in it, signed as V.H.”

9

Of Tears and Sand

Where do people go when they die in their dreams? Do their dreams die with them? Do they fall one dream lower in the levels of the Dreamworld?

Shew remembered Loki talking about the Dreamworld being six levels deep, and that this level was just One Dream Under. She wondered what Six Dreams Under felt like, and if she had been transported Two Dreams Under when she died in the Wall of Thorns.

Why is this level of the Dreamworld full of ashes, and why am I still conscious if I died in my own dream?

Shew lay on her back, staring at the blue sky above. It was barely visible, blocked by a veil of endless ashes. They looked like a large black dress filled with tiny holes that occasionally let the thin light of the moon pass through.

Ashes stuck to Shew’s hands as she tried to wave some of them away.  She coughed. They were getting in her mouth, too.

She propped herself up on her elbow, discovering she’d been transported to a cornfield glowing with a faint magnificent color—a bright shade of gold.

Is this the afterlife? A cornfield?

A breeze of wind passed through Shew like a ghost, rattling the plants and brushing her skin. She needed to stand up to get the whole picture.

On her feet, she saw the cornfield was huge, encircled by the Wall of Thorns on all ends, all except a small gap in the distance that had burned to ashes. The wind puffed the ashes and sent them hanging in the air all over the corn.

“This is the Field of Dreams,” Shew mumbled. “How did I get here? Who burned the Wall of Thorns?”

Shew turned around in a full circle, looking for Cerené but couldn’t find her. Shew summoned her as loud as she could. Her voice didn’t even echo, blocked by the ashes saturating the air.

“Oh, dear God,” Shew said. “Don’t let anything bad happen to Cerené.”

Shew ran like a mad girl through the Field of Dreams. Had Cerené passed out and become buried in the corn? The cornstalks stood high enough that she had to crouch down to look for her.

Shew ran in every direction. The cornfield was like a maze. Its yellow color was alarming to the eyes, misleading, insinuating a sense of being eternally lost, in contrast with the black ashes falling from above.

Suddenly, Shew stopped in front of something amidst the cornstalks. She’d never seen anything like it. There was a girl lying on her back, floating upon a small puddle of water. The girl wore a red dress, hands folded upon her chest like a mummy.

Shew knelt down and saw the girl was breathing and in a deep sleep. She had never seen someone sleeping so deeply, as if dead.

You slept like this girl once before, Shew. Try to remember. The whole Snow White story is about a moment when you slept in a coffin and were kissed awake by a prince. This girl reminds you of yourself!

Shew quieted the voice in her head. She couldn’t remember being kissed by a prince, nor sleeping in a coffin in the forest—the only coffin she’d known was the glass one in the Schloss.

There were two glass urns on the sleeping girl’s sides, just like the one Cerené was holding. One urn held a small amount of water in it, the other was filled with grains of sand which were more greenish than yellow.

Shew looked closer. The sand was rather sticky, and when she curiously tasted the water, it was salty—she spat it out.

Looking back to the girl, she saw that some of the same greenish sand stuck to her sleepy eyes.

“Hey!” Shew shook her. “Wake up. Did you see Cerené? Do you know if I am alive or dead?”

The girl didn’t respond. She was a comatose sleeping beauty.

Strides away, she came across another girl dressed in red, sleeping on a bed of water with urns on her sides.

A few steps later, she found another girl, then another.

The Field of Dreams was filled with girls.

“Cerené!” Shew yelled, panicking now.

Somewhere amidst the corn, Shew heard a voice chanting what seemed like nonsense. It was Cerené. The quality of her voice implied she was shivering.

“London Bridge is falling down,” Cerené chanted as it to a baby in a cradle. “Falling down. Burning down.”

“Where are you, Cerené?” Shew yelled, still running hysterically and avoiding the sleeping beauties she came across.

“Ring-a-round the rosie. A pocket full of posies. Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down,” Cerené was hallucinating. She sounded like she had suffered a blow to her head or something. “London Bridge is falling down.”

“Keep singing,” Shew said. “It’s the only way I can find you.”

“Burn. Burn. Burn,” Cerené chanted. “I’m a pleasure to burn.”

Finally, Shew found her.

Cerené sat in the middle of the cornfield, showered with ashes falling from the sky. She had her knees pulled to her chest, her hands around them, and her head rested awkwardly on her knees. She was naked, but covered with her own protective arms and the ashes stuck to her skin covering her bruises from the past. The fiery aura in her hair was stronger. Her hair itself looked strange, bigger and lush.

Shew approached cautiously as Cerené hummed her eerie songs.  She was shivering with teary eyes.

Touching her would be foolish, Shew thought. The girl had a temper, and all Shew wanted to do was help her. The least she could do was cover her with some clothes.

Shew ran back to one of the sleeping beauties and undressed her.

One girl’s dignity is another one’s shame.

Shew didn’t leave the sleeping beauty totally naked, she left her lying in her corset. She noticed the girl had her own bruises as well underneath, but there was no time to investigate that part.

Shew ran toward Cerené with the dress.

Her hair had changed into normal again, blonde, uncombed, and less fiery.

She knelt in front of her and looked into her eyes so she would recognize her and allow her to put the dress on.

If I could only understand why you’re crying now.

Cerené’s watery eyes scanned Shew’s ashen face like an infant looking for its mother.

“You’re alive?” Cerené squeaked then jumped to hug Shew. “You’re alive, Joy! I thought you were dead.”

Shew fell on her back, tangled in Cerené’s arms.

Cerené was sad because she thought I was dead?

“When the Wall of Thorns caught on fire, I thought you died,” Cerené explained, holding Shew’s face with her hands. “I searched for you everywhere. Where have you been?”

Shew remembered she woke up in the middle of the Field of Dreams, oblivious of how she got there. Who knew what really happened? Who burned the Wall of Thorns down and saved her? She doubted she’d get answers from Cerené. She had been saved as well, just like Shew, and neither had any recollection of what happened.

Resisting the tears in her eyes and Cerené’s overwhelming emotions, Shew patted her back and sat straight.

“You need to get dressed,” she showed Cerené the dress.

“Oh,” Cerené blushed as if she just noticed she was naked. “My dress caught on fire so I took it off, I guess.”

Shew didn’t question the authenticity of her story.

Cerené put on the dress, which was too big for her and ran like a little child through the field, celebrating the new dress.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s the color of fire!”

“You have any idea what happened, Cerené?” Shew stood up and asked politely. She wondered why Cerené saw red as the color of fire and not blood.

“What happened?” Cerené turned around, blinking as if trying to remember. “You mean the Wall of Thorns?”

“Yes, Cerené. Who saved me? What set it on fire?”

“I—” Cerené looked as if she was really trying to remember. “I don’t know. You started dancing and were about to be killed. I wanted to help you, but you said I should stay away. I didn’t know what to do. I kept screaming, calling your name. I even tried to find you but the thorns stopped me, and then suddenly…”

“Suddenly what, Cerené?”

“The Wall of Thorns caught on fire, and I … think I passed out.”

“Listen, you’re alive,” Cerené said. “That’s what matters.”

“You’re right about that,” Shew said, knowing she could have just died in her dream. “What really bothers me is that the Wall of Thorns considered me an intruder. I mean, I love Sorrow. I was born here. I’m the goddamn princess.”

“Your father is Night Sorrow’s son, Joy,” Cerené said. “You and your father are still a threat to Sorrow unless you control yourself, and take sides. That’s what the mermaid told me about you.”

“I’ve already chosen a side,” Shew said. “I will fight for the good of people, against all evil.”

“I don’t think it’s that easy,” Cerené told Shew. “I mean you still feed on people’s blood. Don’t worry though, I’m sure the Wall of Thorns will accept you eventually. Besides, now that you crossed it, we can get the Heart’s third ingredient. Sand!” she waved her hands in the air.

“How so?” Shew had no choice but to go with the flow.

“Let me show you,” Cerené ran to a spot where she had hidden her glass urn and Shew followed her.

They walked toward one of the sleeping beauties then knelt down and brushed her hair softly. “Isn’t she beautiful?” she said in awe.

“All of them are beautiful,” Shew said. “Who are they?”

“The Sleepers,” Cerené said matter-of-factly. “They keep the Field of Dreams alive.”

“How is that possible? They’re sleeping and they look almost dead.”

“That’s because each one of them is enchanted to sleep for a hundred years,” Cerené explained.

“How so? And Why?”

“They are girl that had been killed by Carmilla,” Cerené explained. “Someone, probably the Sandman himself, brought them here. That’s why you’d notice they have bruises and wounds underneath their dresses. Some of them have bite marks on their throats.”

“Why did the Sandman bring them here?” Shew was curious.

“To resurrect them,” Cerené said. “The Field of Dream is a magical place of Art. It can resurrect the unrightfully killed.”

“But they are sleeping, Cerené,” Shew noted.

“Remember when I told you magic has a price?” Cerené said. “In order for them to live again, they have to sleep in the cornfield for a hundred years. They pay their price by feeding the field, and they wake up a hundred years later and get a second life. Until then, they are safe here,” Cerené looked at the Field in Between which was encircled by the Wall of Thorns from all sides.

She followed her gaze, spotting the part where the Wall of Thorns had been burned, “What will happen to the gab in the Wall of Thorns?” she said.

“I think it will grow back on its own once we leave,” Cerené said. “Come, let me show you what these girls are doing here,” she pulled Shew down to kneel beside her.

“You mean the price they pay for a hundred years until they wake up?” Shew wondered.

“You see the urns on both sides, one filled with water, the other with sand?” Cerené pointed.

“Yes.”

“The Sleepers are all dreaming. Think of them as plants in the Field of Dreams. They feed the Field of Dreams with their dreams. When they dream, they have either good dreams or nightmares. Those who have nightmares cry and produce the Tears of Beauty. Those who dream happily produce grit in their eyes, the way we all do when we’re asleep. The sand is called the Sands of Beauty.”

“What’s the use for the sand and the tears?”

“When the urns are full of water, the water spills over, seeps into the earth and helps the corn grow,” Cerené said.

“And the grit in their eyes—I mean the sand,” Shew inquired.

Cerené grabbed a fistful of grit in the urn and showed it to Shew, “this no ordinary sand. It’s the third ingredient of the Heart element,” she poured a big amount of it in her glass urn. “The element of the Heart has been completed.”

“This seems very strange, Cerené,” Shew said. “I mean the Field of Dreams, the girls, and the sand from their eyes.”

“It’s not strange. It’s beautiful,” Cerené said. “This sand belongs to the Sandman himself. He owns this field.”

“You told me about that.”

“You know the Sandman who came into our rooms when we were just kids and poured sand in our eyes while we slept so we could dream? Where do you think he gets his sand? Here, from the Field of Dreams.”

“Is the Sandman around now?“ Shew whispered curiously. “I mean I’d like to see him.”

“Grow up, Joy,” Cerené said. “He is the Sandman. We can’t see him. It would spoil the point of his existence.”

Shew thought the story was promising considering she lived in a world where Snow White was a vampire and traveling between dreams was possible, however, she didn’t remember hearing anything like that when she was a child. The idea that the Sandman saved the girls her mother slaughtered seemed noble, but she thought feeding the field for a hundred years was a long price to pay.

Think of it, Shew. The girls will be given a second life. They wouldn’t mind sleeping for a hundred years.

She decided the Sleepers weren’t her priority. Cerené was. What worried her most was how Cerené knew about evil Rapunzel plants, the Fields of Dreams, and the Sandman.

“Listen to me, Cerené,” Shew held her by the shoulders. “I have never met someone who knew about these things. I need to ask you how you know all this.”

“I told you I read a lot of books in the school’s library,” Cerené answered casually. “Did you know its real name is Bedtime Stoories?” she snickered. “The two ‘o’ letters in the middle represent the secret pair of eyes that stare back at you from the bookshelves. They belong to a blind man called the Skeliman.”

“I am sorry, Cerené, but I don’t believe you learned this from Bedtime Stoories,” Shew said, not paying attention to any of the fluffy details mentioned. She wanted to know how Cerené got her precious knowledge. “If the secrets you know were so easy to find, I am sure I’d have met someone in my family who knew about them. I’m the Princess of Sorrow, remember? My family created this kingdom. I am sorry but I dare call you a liar because I am sure you didn’t learn any of this from the books in the library.”

Cerené rubbed the rim of her urn while avoiding Shew’s eyes. Shew lifted her chin gently to face her.

“All right,” Cerené sighed. “I learned all this from Bianca,” she said with an undertone that implied shame, as if Bianca was bad.

“Who is Bianca?” Shew needed to confirm her suspicions.

“My mother,” Cerené titled her head and her lips twitched again.

Be careful when her lips twitch, Shew, or she will lose it again.

“I thought you were an orphan.”

“I am,” Cerené said. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I will understand. All you have to do is trust me like I trusted you in passing the Wall of Thorns,” Shew didn’t comment on the fact that she shouldn’t have trusted her, but she knew that Cerené had meant no harm.

“My mother is dead!” Cerené stood up, sparkles of anger floating in her eyes again.

“So she taught you all of this when you were younger?” Shew stood up. She had to pressure her to learn more about her.

“No,” Cerené stomped her feet. “I told you that you wouldn’t understand. Bianca died a long time ago, when I was about three years old.”

“This doesn’t make any sense, Cerené.”

Cerené said nothing.

“If Bianca died that long ago, how did she tell you all of this?”

“In my dreams,” Cerené said, her back still facing Shew.

“I see,” Shew nodded, although this wasn’t a satisfying conclusion at all. Was her mother a ghost, another Dreamhunter, maybe? “Do you have an idea what Bianca’s last name is, or what she did for a living?”

“She…” Cerené started shuddering. “She…”

Shew knew she had pressed her too much, but she wouldn’t stop now.

“People said she was some kind of a witch!” Cerené turned back, on the verge of exploding. The ghostly breeze chilled the cornfield and lightning struck somewhere in the distance, illuminating the ashes hanging in the air. “Are you satisfied? She burned things, many things. She even burned towns. They burned her back by the stake! They way they had burned a humiliated so many witches. Burn! Burn! Burn!” Cerené, hugging her urn, ran away toward the Wall of Thorns, her red dress fluttering over the yellow corn and beneath the ashes.

“Great job, Shew,” Snow White mumbled, angry with herself. She shouldn’t have pressed her that hard. She should have been careful since Cerené had run away last time when She asked too many questions.

Watching Cerené run, crying, shattered her heart.

Frozen in place, Shew watched her disappear behind the gap in the Field of Thorns. There was no point in running after her this time. Cerené was hurt and she doubted she could help her.

The ghostly wind spiraled again around her feet, and she felt unsafe, alone in the field among the sleeping beauties. With Cerené gone, Shew had the feeling  she was being watched. Something other than the girls hid in the cornfield, maybe in the Wall of Thorns itself. Shew began walking slowly toward the gap, wondering if it was Bianca.

Each of her steps echoed in a dreamy sort of way. She dared not look back but was sure someone was following her. She swallowed hard.

Her steps quickened.

Who’s behind me?

She began running, the footsteps behind her following her.

Shew stumbled over one of the sleeping beauties.  In that moment it occurred to her that whoever was behind her wasn’t chasing her, they were following her.

On her feet, she turned around to face whoever it was.

Remember you’re the Dhampir. You shouldn’t be scared.

Shew saw nothing but yellow corn, ashen skies, and blurry thorn bushes afar.

“Loki!” Shew screamed from the top of her lungs, thinking he was the one after her, “what are you waiting for? I’m here!”

Nothing.

No one called back, no evil Huntsman.  Shew let out a sigh and turned around. She walked slowly toward the gap in the Wall of Thorns.

She could hear the steps behind her again.

Running, she passed through the gap in the Wall of Thorns—the gab was large and the nearest thorns weren’t close enough to slash at her. It occurred to her that she could have passed through the wall if she’d ran through with a fast horse.

Finally, Shew entered the Black Forest. She managed to look back briefly and finally saw someone in a black cloak in the distance. Whoever it was, they were not riding a unicorn, but followed her on foot and stopped once she looked back. From such a distance, recognizing this mysterious person was impossible.

Silently, they stood watching, expecting and waiting. Their silence crept across Shew’s skin, giving her Goosebumps.

She turned and ran as fast as she could, hoping she could remember the way back to the Schloss.

Fifty strides later, she tripped over a log, bumped her head and fell unconscious. Her pursuer approached.

10

The Girl with One Glass Shoe

Shew opened her eyes, not to the person following her in the black cloak, but to the Queen of Sorrow.

Shew understood immediately that she had awaken in another time because Carmilla had her favorite mirror next to her, which meant she’d met Bloody Mary already.

All other mirrors in Shew’s room had been covered with white blankets so they wouldn’t reflect Carmilla’s true nature. Shew watched her check out her crown and her braided hair in her beloved mirror. Bloody Mary wasn’t present.

“We need to talk,” Carmilla said, sitting by the edge of Shew’s huge bed.

Shew sat straight up without uttering a word. She thought she’d better listen to what Carmilla had to say first.

“I know you’re lonely, Shew,” Carmilla said. “Because you’re part vampire we have been forced to separate you from everyone for your own good. Soon you are going to be cured. You just need to be patient.”

Shew was a Dhampir who needed to feed, but Carmilla was a vicious murderer of young girls.  Shew was ready to scream at her and tell her that her situation was nothing compared to the queens, but held back.

“However, this doesn’t mean I will allow you to be friends with that Slave Maiden. What was her name again, Tabula?” Carmilla clicked her gloved fingers without looking at her.

“Chi-re-ney,” Tabula answered, her hands rested upon each other in front of her, her chin almost touching her chest.

“Yes, Cerené, what kind of name is that?” the Queen rolled her eyes. For some reason, Shew thought the Queen knew Cerené, but was pretending otherwise. It was that devious sparkle in her eyes.

Uncomfortable by Shew’s suspicious stare, the Queen’s face changed, now acting as if the name rang a bell in her mind. “Isn’t that an Italian name?” she said with a smirk.

Italian? Shew grimaced. Cerené is Italian?

“You ever heard of the Roman Empire, Tabula?” Carmilla said.

“I heard the king mentioning it,” Tabula said. “He said it ended up being something called Italy. What does it mean my majesty?”

“Italy is a shoe-looking island,” Carmilla brushed something off Shew’s mattress with the tips of her fingers. “There is a myth that says the Creators of the World shaped Italy after a glass shoe. A rather romantic notion, some would argue.”

Shew didn’t understand why Carmilla was glaring at her. It seemed like she wanted Shew to read between the lines she spoke.

Why does she know such things about a Slave Maiden, and what is so special about a foreign land shaped like a shoe?

“But why did the Creators of the World shape it like that?” Tabula asked. “That’s rather strange, shaping a kingdom after a shoe, not romantic at all.

Shew knew Tabula was an immigrant from exquisite lands in the Eastern Realm of the world where raising a shoe in someone’s face was considered an insult.

“Wrong question, Tabula,” Carmilla said. She was checking her fingernails, breaking her gaze with Shew. “The Creators are always right. They always have a reason for everything that happens, even our suffering.”

“Then what is the right question, if I may ask my majesty?” Tabula said.

“Why one shoe, not two, would be a good start,” Carmilla’s lips waved into a slow smile. “Didn’t you ever notice that most important things in life come in pairs?”

“What do you mean my majesty?” Tabula questioned cautiously, a little worried why the Queen was having an actual conversation with her. Carmilla rarely talked to her servants. Even today, she wasn’t actually conversing with Tabula. She was sending Shew a message through Tabula.

“Most things in life come in pairs,” Carmilla repeated. “Shoes, couples, eyes, night and day, sun and moon, and even good and evil come in pairs. I guess it is the universe’s mysterious way of trying to create balance. Why only one shoe then? Don’t you agree, Shew?” she gazed back at the Princess of Sorrow.

Shew said nothing. She quietly wished the Queen would leave so she could investigate this dream further, but no one had ever dared to leave when Carmilla was speaking.

“I’ll tell you why,” the Queen finally said. “There is an old story I was told when I was a kid in my father’s castle in Styria. It was a story of a poor girl who lived with her stepmother and stepsisters. Of course, like any other boring fairy tale, her stepsisters were evil and the poor girl was naïve,” Carmilla rolled her eyes. “One day, the poor girl wanted to attend a ball to see a cute prince she had a crush on—remember the yummy prince, Shew?“ However, the evil stepmother and the two nasty sisters didn’t let her attend the ball. Do you know why? Because the poor girl was much more beautiful than her sisters were. The villainous stepsisters feared she would catch the attention of the prince, so they trapped her in a small, cramped room covered with cinders of its fireplace, and went to attend the ball. It’s no secret that the rest of the story is agonizingly predictable,” she sighed with one gloved hand on her heart. “A Godmother—there’s always a Godmother—” she leaned forward, whispering and winking at Shew, “the Godmother appeared and helped the poor girl with her dress and a coach so she could attend the ball.  Of course, the prince fell madly in love with her without even asking her name. Love at first sight, you know. The girl had to get back home before midnight; afraid her stepmother would punish her and lock her inside the ash-covered room in their home again. And finally, we come to the most important part when she leaves a single shoe behind,” Carmilla’s eyes glittered, talking slower, and examining Shew’s face.

Shew thought it was amusing, compared to the way Carmilla had told the beginning of the tale. She’d been talking fast with no attention to details or passion in her voice, as if she were reading a grocery list.

“It was a single shoe that eventually led the prince to find his lost love. He walked around town, asking every girl he met to try on the shoe promising he’d marry her if it fit—some stupid prince, I must say.”  Shew wondered why the Queen told this tale if she thought it was so predictable and hated it so much.

“Some stupid prince indeed,” Bloody Mary suddenly appeared in the mirror, growling in her gushy voice.

Shew leaned back in her bed and looked away. Bloody Mary was young, but genuinely ugly and scary.

“Shut up, Mary,” the Queen said firmly. “Go back to whatever hell you came from. You’re scaring my daughter.”

“As you wish, my Queen,” Bloody Mary vanished from the mirror and Carmilla checked her beauty in it once more.

“So where was I?” she questioned, adjusting her crown.

“Stupid Prince, my majesty,” Tabula said. “I assume he found the poor girl eventually.”

“Ah, yes. One of the evil stepsisters, being unable to accept the fact that the prince liked her stepsister better, cut her toe off. Can you believe that? The little brat cut her toe off so the prince would choose her. I am always incredulous about the way girls are portrayed in these tales, helpless, disadvantaged, and afraid to be alone and never married.”

“You’re right, my majesty,” Tabula commented. “Women should be much stronger. What a horrible thing this stepsister did.”

“Well, let’s not be too harsh on the little brat,” Carmilla waved a hand in the air. “I did worse than cutting someone’s toe off for Angel—I’ve given him my flesh and blood. Right, Shew?"

Shew nodded, worried about the Queen’s suggestive implications.

Of course, you’ve done worse, you child killer!

“So where was I again?” Carmilla wondered.

“The girl cutting her toe off,” Bloody Mary snickered from inside the mirror without showing herself.

“I know you love this part, Mary,” Carmilla said. “So although the world conspired against the prince and the poor girl’s pure, puppy, pitiful love, he finally found her in the home of her stepmother.”

“Didn’t the shoe fit her stepsister?” Shew finally interacted.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Pigeons warned the prince about the stepsister and urged him to look at her foot after she had tried the shoe on. The prince saw that the stepsister was bleeding from the cut, and immediately knew the girl was an imposter.”

“She got what she deserved, my majesty,” Tabula said.

“Yes, she did, but we’re not talking about the stepsister. She is by no means the main character here,” Carmilla said. So, in the end, love, in its most clichéd state, finally prevailed in this little Italian bedtime story. And the Creators clapped their hands, applauding the girl who went from rags to riches and won the prince’s heart,” Carmilla clapped her gloved hands elegantly, her palms barely touching.

“So what’s the point of this boring story, mother?” Shew dared to ask.

“I’ve always loved how impatient you are, Shew. You know impatient girls always get what they want, don’t you?” Carmilla said. “Here is the point of this glass shoe story—I told you the Godmother had given her a pair of glass shoes, didn’t I? Long boring story short, the love  between the prince and the girl made the Creators cry,” she pretended to wipe tears from her eyes, the way pantomime actresses did in old black and white movies. “So the Creators decided that to honor their love, they’d redesign the landscape of Italy into a shoe, an epitaph to the single shoe that saved the love of the shoe-crossed—I mean star-crossed—lovers.”

“So this is basically the story of how Italy came to be,” Tabula said. “I understand now.”

Shew wondered if Carmilla was talking about Cerené. But how was that possible? This story happened centuries ago. Maybe she was talking about Bianca, or Cerené’s ancestors.

“So back to that Slave Maiden,” the Queen said. “Her name means ashes in Italian. Suits her fine, actually,” Carmilla said. “She is a low life, will live a low life, and will die an even lower life. I’m only telling you this story so you’ll know the only thing she wants is to meet a prince. She wants to get rich without deserving it. Her friendship with you isn’t real. She’s playing with you. I won’t allow you to be fooled by a Slave Maiden like her.”

Shew wasn’t going to argue. She was now even more curious about Cerené.

“I don’t want to hear that you’re talking to her again, understood?” Carmilla said.

“Of course, mother,” Shew finally said, wondering where Cerené was at the moment.

“Hmm,” Carmilla leaned slightly forward, looking in Shew’s eyes as if trying to see behind them. “Politeness is not one of your virtues, princess. I wonder if you’re trying to fool me. You know the consequences will be dire if you don’t do as I wish,” she patted Shew’s cheeks.

Carmilla’s words left Shew confused. Carmilla was putting on some kind of show, the same way she warned her about Cerené’s fake act of friendship. She knew Shew as stubborn, and that warning her would only encourage her to break the rule and meet Cerené again. Why would Carmilla do that?

“You know I make sure you feed, so you don’t want to keep away from me, believe me,” Carmilla said then showed her a small liver-shaped box. “Look what your mother brought you,” she said, opening the box.

Shew looked inside the box and felt dazed; her body leaned forward against her will, her fangs drawing out.

She was staring at a fresh liver.

“It’s ripe,” Carmilla said. “And it’s young,” she licked her lips. “I want to feed you the best, dear.”

Shew pulled the liver up to her mouth and bit into it, sucking the blood dry. She didn’t know how the liver had been preserved. It was more like a bag filled with blood. The blood quenched Shew’s thirst, and she felt guilty for liking it.

This was a dream, a memory, nothing more, she told herself. The Queen was feeding her, awaiting her sixteenth birthday when she could either turn her into a vampire and fight on the side of Night Von Sorrow or kill her and eat her heart if she disobeyed.

“Good girl,” Carmilla said, a little iffy about the drops of blood spattered on her face. She was planning to feed her dangerous daughter day by day until her birthday arrived.

“I will be sending Dame Gothel to you later today to weigh your heart,” Carmilla said. “Be kind to her, and don’t bite her like last time,” she patted her daughter gently then wiped some of the blood from her lips with a red napkin.

Who the heck am I? What does being a Dhampir really mean? If I fed on so many people in the past, and if I killed all those teenagers in the Schloss, how can I be forgiven? How can I be the good one?

The blood had entered Shew’s veins like a drug, and she liked it. It was her nature, and it explained why the Wall of Thorns wanted to kill her. She was a Sorrow after all, and she had a big choice to make, to stay a Sorrow or fight the Sorrows.

“What do you mean by weighing my heart?” Shew asked.

Carmilla’s face knotted slightly. The Queen had a minimalist way of showing facial expressions as if not wanting to wrinkle her beautiful face. She had been working hard—killing girls and swimming in their blood—each week to stay beautiful. She wasn’t going to allow it to fade so easily, just to please her daughter with a tender smile. “Your heart needs to be weighed each week. No more questions asked. I offer you food and shelter and private schooling like a good mother. In exchange, I’d like you to do as I say without too many questions. Are we clear?”

Shew nodded.

Carmilla’s tone was scary. She smiled flatly at her obedient daughter then stood up slowly, taking her time. She never did anything in a hurry. She rubbed her dress gently as if she had caught germs from sitting on her daughter’s bed then turned and walked out of the room.

“And don’t worry about Mr. Oddly Tune,” she said from the hallway. “May he and his laughable name rest in peace.”

Shew grimaced. How was it possible to keep anything from the Queen?

“Would someone prepare my bath?” she ordered other servants outside.

“Why does she have to weigh my heart, Tabula?” Shew asked in the absence of her mother.

“Ah—” Tabula stuttered, unable to look Shew in the eyes. “I’d better be going, princess.”

She watched as Tabula clutched the Queen’s mirror and left with it, closing the door behind her.

Shew walked to uncover one of the mirrors in her room and inspect her image. She was a mess.

“Who the hell am I?” she muttered again. “And why can’t I remember why they weighed my heart? How is it even possible to weigh someone’s heart?” she scowled at her own image. Although her reflection looked like her, it also looked like a stranger. People tend to think of themselves as good and kindhearted, until they look in the mirror and discover they have blood on their hands. Of course, that’s when they decide to go buy another mirror.  For a long time, Shew stood in front of the mirror, imprisoned by the silence of her room.

Suddenly, she could hear something crackling in the walls. It was a strange sound, as if someone was walking inside them. Alert, she scanned the large chamber with her eyes.

11

The Princess and the Pauper

The sound kept increasing.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a pair of black boots behind the curtains. Someone was there, eavesdropping; maybe the black cloaked person from the Field of Dreams.

Shew stood frozen at first, but quickly decided she had enough and hurried to pull the curtain open and expose this mysterious person.

When she was halfway across the room, she heard someone call for her from behind.

“Joy!”

Shew froze in place and turned around. She saw Cerené tucked away in the unlit fireplace with a broom in her hand. It was Cerené who’d made the noise in the walls, she was sneaking in through the fireplace like usual.

“Stop staring and come over and help me,” Cerené said.

Shew lent her a hand. Cerené threw her precious broomstick into the room first—it was a strange broomstick, heavy and made of some kind of iron. Shew pulled on Cerené with all her might and dislodged her from the fireplace, spreading ashes into the luxurious chamber.

Cerené looked like she’d been working in the coal mines.

What was new? This was Cerené, all ashes, all the time.

“Thank you,” Cerené said. “You should make one of your many servants clean that fireplace of yours.”

“But of course, Cerené” Shew nodded, bowing her head and letting out a giggle.

“It’s full of dead squirrels. If you persuade the Queen, I can really clean this mess,” Cerené said. “How can a castle so beautiful have such an awful fireplace?”

“What were you doing in it anyway?”

“I wanted to surprise you,” Cerené picked up her broomstick and smiled at her. Shew couldn’t see much of Cerené’s face except her teeth.

Shew suddenly remembered there had been someone behind the curtain. Cerené had distracted her unknowingly.

When she turned around to look for them, they were gone. She pulled the curtain back and looked out the window, but she didn’t see anyone she didn’t recognize.

“Looking for something?” Cerené asked.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry.”

“So you like my surprise?” Cerené said.

The way she asked melted Shew’s heart instantly, “I do like your surprise, and I’m glad you’re not mad at me anymore,” she responded with a sincere smile. “However, you need to bathe. You look buried in all that ash.”

“You don’t look bad yourself in all that…” Cerené held her smile. “Blood.”

Shew laughed from her heart. So did Cerené. Although one of them was a princess and the other a maid, they both had a lot in common.

In the middle of laughing, Shew saw a newer scar on Cerené’s neck. This one was a different scar. It was a bite mark that Cerené tried to hide underneath the ashes.

“Who did this to you?” Shew broke her laugh and gently grabbed Cerené by the neck. “Talk to me, Cerené. I’m not going to let go without you telling me about this. Who did this to you?”

“I am a Slave Maiden, remember?” she pulled herself away, holding onto her broom like a cane.

“What are you talking about?” All kinds of obscene scenarios flashed in front of her eyes. What did they do to her? Who were they?  “I thought Slave Maiden meant…”

“It means I am a slave. I only do what my masters demand of me,” Cerené said, “even when they want to feed. Why is it so hard for you to get it?”

“Who’s been feeding on you?” Shew grimaced.

“Who do you think? There are only two insane people in this castle,” Cerené said, wiping her face with Shew’s bed sheets. She did it spontaneously, unaware of the consequences the Queen had in store for Shew.

“Two?” Shew wondered. “You mean the King and the Queen?”

“I mean you and the Queen,” Cerené blew her nose in the bed sheet.

“Are you calling me insane?” Shew smiled.

“Everyone thinks you’re some kind of a monster,” Cerené said. “I know it for sure. I helped you bury one of your victims.”

“Oddly Tune was no victim,” Shew bent forward. “He was a werewolf. How many times do I have to remind you?”

“You drank his blood, Joy,” Cerené said, wiping her teeth with the bed sheet. “But I don’t hate you. Being a monster is good. I expect you to be strong enough to stand in the face of those want to hurt you,” she said. “And maybe those who hurt me,” she said under her breath, but Shew heard her.

How could I not admire a Slave Maiden who sits on my bed, treats my bed sheet like toilet paper, dares to call me what I really am, and then tells me that she forgives and doesn’t hate me?

Shew sat next to her, “Does the Queen feed a lot on you?”

“I don’t know. Whenever she needs to,” Cerené said, pulling out her glass urn from under her dress. She had wrapped it around her waist, covered it with curly leaves, and knotted it with vines from the trees.

“You know she slaughters young girls and swims in their blood, don’t you?” Shew said, trying to sound as tender as possible. The imagery of what the Queen did sent a cringe through her soul.

“I know. I’ve seen it,” Cerené said.

“You have?”

“I have figured out most of this castle’s secret doors and pathways,” Cerené’s eyes glittered.

“I can imagine,” Shew said. “I’m wondering why the Queen spared you, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious? She doesn’t hesitate in bathing in any peasant girl’s blood,” Shew said. “So why hasn’t she killed you?”

“Maybe she thinks I’m good at housework?” Cerené suggested, her eyes darting aimlessly, trying to figure out why. “I could be a senior servant like Tabula one day.”

“I doubt that is her intention,” Shew said.

“Do we have to talk about this?” Cerené asked. “I came to show you my magic!” She held her glass urn up in front of her.

“I want to see your magic,” Shew assured her, but she was still thinking about why Carmilla spared Cerené. It crossed her mind that even if Cerené decided to expose the Queen, no one would believe her. She had no one to tell, no one respected her, and if her mother had been a burned as a witch, it was easy to accuse Cerené of being like her. It made sense why Tabula had sent her to wash Shew after biting the prince.

In the Kingdom of Sorrow, Cerené was a nobody. She could’ve been killed without anyone missing her.

“Are you still thinking about why the Queen spares me?” Cerené broke the silence.

“So you actually have an idea?” Shew said.

“Yes,” Cerené looked sideways, inspecting for intruders then leaned forward, “the Queen wants my Art!”

“Oh?” Shew raised her eyebrows.

“You think your Art is that valuable?”

“You have no idea,” Cerené’s face lit up from behind the ashes, titling her neck upwards, and making both her hands into fists. “My Art is astounding!”

“Alright, then it’s time for you to show it to me.” Shew would have preferred if Cerené just told her what the Art was. The things Cerené had shown her were fascinating, though. It was reasonable to think the Art was worth the suspense and the wait. What could Cerené possibly have that the Queen would desire enough to spare her life?

Shew’s thinking confirmed the Queen’s phoniness when she warned her not to mingle with Cerené. In fact, the Queen must have told her the Italian fairy tale for a reason, something to stir Shew’s thinking.

“Remember when I told you my Art is made of a Heart, a Brain, and a Soul?” Cerené said. “There are two Brains, the tools for my Art, one of them can only be obtained from a house in the Black Forest.”

“House?”

“An evil house,” Cerené leaned in, whispering.

“Huh? Evil house,” Shew said. “If it’s such an evil house, why would it help your Art?”

“There is something special in the house, something we need.”

We? Shew thought. Although I am barely contributing to anything, I like the idea of ‘we’.

“What kind of something special?” Shew wondered.

“A furnace!” Cerené exclaimed. “One where children are cooked.”

12

A Trail of Breadcrumbs and Candy

Cerené called it the Candy House, an abandoned house on the top of a hill beyond the forest.  She described it as the second most haunted house in the Kingdom of Sorrow.

“If this is the second, what is the first?” Shew asked, following the tiny ashen girl into the dark of the forest. The way Cerené guided her through the secrets of Sorrow, reminded Shew of an imaginary childhood she should have experienced. Had she not been a prisoner of the Schloss by her father King and mother Queen, she should have experienced the kind of adventures Cerené did. The girl might have been poor but the world was her playground. Nothing could’ve been more fun than a childhood of exploring the doghouse in the garden and pretending it was a rabbit hole to another dimension. Of course, in Sorrow she didn’t need to pretend anything. Surreal and imaginary was normal.

“The most haunted house in Sorrow is the Schloss itself,” Cerené said, ducking to avoid a bending tree branch—trees acted mostly like humans in Sorrow, using their branches like arms, tickling you, playing with you, and sometimes doing things that were more sinister.

“The Schloss is not haunted,” Shew squinted her way through.

“Oh, yes, it is,” Cerené said. “Did you know your cellar was a dungeon used for torturing enemies and that the Schloss had been seen in others places around the world before your father even built it in Sorrow? It’s a Genus Loci.”

“What’s a Genus Loci?”

“All the things I just mentioned about the Schloss before. Basically, it’s a place with a soul of its own. Pay attention, Joy.”

“Oh,” Shew said. “I get it,” Trust me, you don’t have to tell me about the Schloss.

“The fact that you and the Queen live in the house makes it haunted already,” Cerené chuckled nonchalantly.

“I’m not offended by what you just said, thank you very much,” Shew let out half-a-laugh. Shew began regretting she had told Cerené to speak her mind. The girl was too frank to be honest.

“Don’t shake hands with the trees by the way,” Cerené said without looking back. “It’s a trap.”

“Shake hands?” Shew saw two tree branches taking the shape of human wooden hands and shaking each other as if they were friendly. One of them turned to Shew and offered her a hand. Shew snarled at the tree branches. She scared them so much that they ran away on eight branches, like spiders on eight legs.

“What have you done?” Cerené peeked back from between the bushes. Her ashen face was barely visible. Only her blue eyes and white teeth showed—the toothpaste had been working its magic.

“I snarled at them,” Shew said impatiently. “I’m fed up with all the scare. I think it’s time I use my powers.”

“No, you shouldn’t,” Cerené objected. “They already fear you. Many things in the forest fear you. They know who you are, and it scares them.”

“I don’t remember the Rapunzel plants or the Wall of Thorns being scared of me,” Shew said.

“The Rapunzel plants are said to be watered by the devil. That’s a different story. The Wall of Thorns hurt you because it is scared of intruders. By reacting the way it did meant it’s actually scared of you, too, the way bees sting a person if they fear them,” Cerené whispered. “Now that you scared the trees, we have nothing to hide in. That was the whole point of walking in their shade.”

“If everything here is scared of me, why aren’t you scared of me?” Shew drew back her fangs.

You’re my friend, Joy,” Cerené said. “And sometimes you’re weird but I forgive you.”

“I’m weird?” Shew felt insulted. She had been dealing with all kinds of weird Cerené had gotten her into since they met.

“Do I have to remind you again that you bit a cute prince and killed Oddly Tune, Joy? That’s weird,” Cerené rolled her eyes and turned around, arching her back like a sneaky cat on her way to catch a rat. “Come on, we have a long walk ahead of us.”

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

“We’re following the breadcrumbs on the ground,” Cerené said. “Look at your feet.”

Shew saw a trail of breadcrumbs, indeed. They were scattered randomly on the ground, creating a snaky trail in the distance.

“Is that like a secret sign that shows the way to the Candy House?” Shew said.

“An evil witch lives in Candy House, she likes to eat children, and she lures them to her house with the trail of breadcrumbs,” Cerené explained.

“What’s so luring about breadcrumbs?”

“When you’re poor, breadcrumbs left by a witch on the ground are luring, trust me,” Cerené said. “Besides, there is candy scattered on the ground, too.”

“Who leaves shiny candy like that on the ground? Is this candy poisonous?” Shew asked.

“No, it makes you faint,” Cerené said, climbing a small hill. “It’s devilishly enchanted candy. This candy and each brick, window frame, door, and even the roof of Candy House is made of delicious colorful candy.”

“Is there anything else you want to tell me about the forest?” Shew asked, now that Cerené seemed to be the expert.

“Yes,” Cerené said. “Watch out for the Forbidden Color. You know what that is, right?”

“I know red is a forbidden color in Sorrow,” Shew said. It had been one of the mysteries she hadn’t figured out—or maybe she just couldn’t remember it like she couldn’t remember Cerené. No one was allowed to wear red in Sorrow. Even the red fruits like apples and vegetables like tomatoes were golden. Rumor had it that they were the color red outside of Sorrow. “You want to enlighten me with something else about that fact?” she wondered.

“Of course, I want to enlighten you,” Cerené said, sniffing the air around her as if Candy House had a certain smell she would identify. “Red is forbidden because it’s the color of Death.”

“Death has a color?”

“Death wears a red cloak and holds a scythe, walking around the Black Forest,” Cerené stopped and turned around, making sure Shew wasn’t going to take this lightly.

“I don’t suppose Death is also a girl?” Shew mocked her.

“You’re damn right, she is,” Cerené glared. “A woman actually. She wakes up everyday with a list of people she has to collect their souls and roams Sorrow, looking for them. Once she finds them, she chops off their heads,” Cerené swung her broom in the air. “Pomona, the Goddess of Fruits and Vegetables prohibited all plants from being red, even apples and tomatoes.”

“That’s why apples and tomatoes are red in Sorrow?” Shew was skeptical, but it was the only explanation she’d ever heard so far. “Why did Pomona do that?”

“Because if red is nowhere to be seen in Sorrow, then it’d be easier to catch Death,” Cerené said. “I heard these were the Queen of Sorrow’s orders. She wants to catch Death itself, among other things,” Cerené rolled her eyes, and walked farther.

“But how were the Sleepers dressed in red in the Field of Dreams? Is there significance to that?”

“The Sleepers are dead girls, killed by your mother,” Cerené explained, not looking back. “They wear red because if order for them to die, they must have been visited by Death. The red rather marks the spot, which in our case are the Sleepers, until they wake up a hundred years later. And if you’re going to ask me how I escaped beyond the Wall of Thorns wearing the red dress, I took it off once I entered the Black Forest. Now stop asking question. You talk too much.”

“Whatever you say, Cerené,” Shew mumbled.

“Stop,” Cerené waved her hand. “We’ve arrived.”

Shew stopped, looking over Cerené’s shoulder. There was a house made of candy in the distance. It varied in colors from purple, yellow, orange, and red. It glittered with pumpkin lanterns with zigzagged smiley mouths and swayed slightly in the  nighttime breeze.

“You said we had a long walk ahead of us,” Shew licked her lips, tempted to taste the house.

“That’s strange,” Cerené said. “It should have been. I guess the house changed places just as the Schloss does. I told you it’s haunted. I even heard there was a doorway inside that transports you straight to the Schloss.”

“Let’s go,” she dashed in front of Cerené toward the candy.

“Wait! It’s messing with your head,” Cerené ran after Shew, slapping her hands before reaching for the house. “Did you hear me?” she shook Shew harder. “The house is messing with your head. Once you eat from the house, you will faint. I just told you that.”

Shew felt as if waking up from a dream within a dream. She blinked twice to make sure she was herself again. The house surely had and effect on her.

“What does she need all those children for?” Shew asked.

“Like I said, she eats them, mostly the boys,” Cerené pulled Shew away from the doorstep. She crouched so they wouldn’t be exposed if someone opened the door. “As for the girls, you should be able to guess what she does with the young, ripe and beautiful ones.”

Shew took a moment to think about it. She gasped as the answer hit her.

“Yes,” Cerené nodded. “She sends them to the Queen, your mother, to feed on them so she can stay beautiful forever,” she made a silly face when saying ‘beautiful.’ “That’s horrid,” Shew gazed at the door over Cerené’s shoulder.

“What’s not horrid in your family?” Cerené shrugged her shoulders. “No wonder you’re called the Sorrows.”

“Again, I’m not insulted in any way,” it was Shew’s turn to shrug her shoulders.

“News has been exchanged in Sorrow recently about a number of peasant girls disappearing in the Schloss,” Cerené elaborated. “So the Queen came up with the plan to use Baba Yaga’s hunger for young people to supply her with plenty of them. Once the Queen drinks and bathes in their blood, she sends the bodies back to Baba Yaga to stew them and eat them. Baba Yaga likes the flesh but spits out the bones.”

“Baba Yaga?  What an unusual name,” Shew remarked.

“Of course she has to have an unusual name,” Cerené said. “She eats children!”

The two girls started laughing.

What’s there not to laugh about, Shew thought. This whole dream with Cerené was made of mountains of silly upon mountains of sillier, mixed with a great deal of blood and scary stuff. It was just like life in the Waking World, a set of unfortunate incomprehensible happenings that made no sense. The best way to come back at life is to laugh at it.

“I heard her name resembled the voices she makes when chewing,” Cerené elaborated. “Baba is the sound she makes when she gulps: babababa! And yaga is the sound she makes with her mouth when she tries to chew the bones: yayayaga!”

She also noticed Cerené’s laugh was more infectious and bigger than anyone she had ever met. She laughed as if it was her last day on earth. Her mouth stretched, and her eyes became bigger, her two cute dimples showed from underneath the sticky ashes—and of course, her freckles popped out.

Looking down the hill, Shew noticed a small village in the distance, “do the people in the village down there know about this house?” Shew wondered.

“I don’t think so,” Cerené said. “They are nice people. The village is called Furry Tell. There is a funny story behind the name—“

Suddenly, the door of Candy House sprang open.

13

A Sack Full of Dead Children

A nose appeared from behind the door.

It was a crooked nose, bigger than the biggest carrot they’d ever seen, and slightly dented in the middle. Baba Yaga’s deformed face came after, creeping out under the thin beam from the pumpkin lantern above her. Her face reminded Shew of crumple pies, covered with bumps and sticky juice. Baba Yaga’s face looked like a face someone had nibbled on many times.

“It’s her,” Cerené whispered, shivering and holding Shew’s hand. “The shawl she wears is made of cracked children’s bones.

“Don’t worry,” Shew said.

Shew watched as Baba Yaga began to step out of the house. She walked as fast as a dead turtle. Her body was round, like a cauldron with a head. Her feet protruded from under her feathery cloak. Shew gasped as she noticed Baba Yaga had chicken legs and chicken feet!  She thought they must have been the creepiest feet in the world.

“Why is she taking so long to come out of the house?” Shew whispered, noticing that Baba Yaga, with her crooked nose and chicken legs, looked like a giant evil bird.

“It’s the sack that’s slowing her down,” Cerené whispered back. “The sack on her back is full of sedated girls. She’s on her way to the Queen.”

Shew saw Baba Yaga bend her already-arched back lower and pull a sack twice her size through the door. She walked down three wooden steps on the porch, flapping her eerie chicken legs as the children’s heads thudded against the floor.

Baba Yaga seemed more comfortable with pulling the sack behind her when she got to the grass. As she walked, she smoked a cigar.

“You want to know what the cigar’s tobacco is made of?” Cerené said. “It’s Rapunzel ashes!”

Shew shook her head and listened to Baba Yaga sing as she pulled the sack down the hill:

Hush little children, don't say a word.

Baba’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird won't sing.

Baba's gonna cut and slice its wings.

The birds in the trees fluttered away immediately. Her voice made the squirrels run; abandoning their precious nuts, and it made snakes come crawling out of the trees. The witch took another drag from the cigar and sang again:

Hush little girls, don't you cry.

Baba’s just sacked you and you don’t know why.

Hush little girls, now say goodbye

Baba’s gonna eat ya, ’n tonight you’ll die.

“Sometimes when she needs more money, she sends some of the boys to Georgie Porgie, the Boogeyman,” Cerené added. “He likes to make children cry, and he pays well for the children’s tears.”

They watched as Baba Yaga disappear in the dark, then Cerené and Shew dashed into Candy House and closed the door behind them.

“You’re sure she’s not coming back now?” Shew said.

“No, it’ll take her some time to reach the castle,” Cerené said, hiking the stairs down to the basement.

Wherever Cerené went, Shew followed, even if it was into Hell itself.

Cerené, still holding her glass urn against her chest and her broom in one hand, ushered Shew through a maze of candle lit corridors in the cellar, which looked like a small dungeon. They passed through rooms that had bars like jails where Baba Yaga kept the children. The prison-like rooms were empty now that she had the children in her sack outside.

“Come on, hurry,” Cerené demanded. “Don’t act like a princess walking on eggshells. It doesn’t suit you.”

“This place looks like Hell,” Shew commented.

Cerené crouched under a lower ceiling leading to a bigger room. Finally, she stopped and pointed at a furnace in the middle of the space. She looked excited.

Shew couldn’t believe Cerené was happy about this place. The smell was unbearable. Something had been burning recently, probably the children Baba Yaga ate. She wondered about the people in the Waking World who thought fairy tales were fluffy stories that made children sleep and what they would do if they knew the Brothers Grimm forged the happy stories.

Cerené patted the furnace gently then looked back at Shew, “beautiful, isn’t it?”

The furnace was rusty, brown, and covered with green sticky vines that snaked slowly around it. It had dead frogs plastered to it like stickers on a refrigerator. Its door had two holes that looked like eyes staring back at Shew. Behind the eyes, she only saw the blackness left from burning children.

Shew wanted to play along and pretend it was beautiful, but she couldn’t do it. The cellar of Candy House was the scariest place she had seen.

“I guess it’s time to show me your magic, Cerené,” Shew sighed, praying Cerené’s magic would not turn out to be something wicked. She hoped it was as fascinating as she’d claimed it to be after all they’d been through. It would be painful to discover that Cerené was just another lunatic stained by evil.

She is just like you, Chosen One. You are made from evil clay, designed to fight your own kind. In a world so bleak like Sorrow, who do you think can face the darkness and lead people to the light? Cerené with her naivety and hurt she’s suffered? Axel and Fable, two teenagers still trapped in the paradise of childhood?

“Aren’t you excited to finally see my Art?” Cerené knelt down and lay her heavy broom aside. She opened her glass urn and smelled it as if it were an exotic perfume. “Do you still remember the elements needed to conjure the Art?”

“Heart, Brain, and Soul,” Shew showed her she was paying attention. “The Heart is ashes from a Rapunzel plant, the sand is from the eyes of one of the sleeping beauties in the Field of Dreams which is property of the Sandman himself, and the lime is just chalk from school.”

“Toothpaste!” Cerené celebrated while mixing the ingredients together in the urn. She watched them glow slightly purple as Cerené decided to wipe her teeth again with some ‘toothpaste’ she’d saved.

“Now what?” Shew was curious.

“Now this,” Cerené held the iron broomstick. “You think it’s a broomstick, right?”

“It is a broomstick,” Shew dared her.

“Nah. I just had to fool the Queen of Sorrow and all the other servants into thinking it’s a broomstick,” Cerené smiled proudly. “And it’s not a witch’s broomstick either—”

“What is it then?”

Cerené cleaned the iron broom with the tip of the red dress Shew had dressed her with in the Field of Dreams—she was wearing a ragged blue servant’s dress Tabula had given her today.

After cleaning it, Cerené pulled the broom up to her mouth and blew into it, producing a sound like a heavy fart. She blew into it one more time then peeked with one eye into the hole of her tool. “You still don’t know what it is?”

Impatiently, Shew shook her head into a no.

“A blowpipe,” Cerené whispered. “The first part of the tool, the Brains, is the furnace we came all the way for. The second part is the blowpipe, a magical one, in fact.”

“What does a blowpipe do?” Shew said.

“It’s better than a magic wand!”

14

A Breath of Magic

“Better than a magic wand?” Shew wondered.

“A blowpipe is even better than a magic wand. I’ll show you in a minute,” Cerené held the blowpipe underneath her armpit and clapped her hands together three times. The furnace lit up. “This isn’t my magic by the way. I saw Baba Yaga do it.”

“At least she didn’t say ‘Open Sesame,’” Shew mumbled—another thing she’d read in one of her victims’ books. Cerené didn’t quite get what she was talking about.

Under the shimmering fire of the furnace, Cerené smeared one end of the pipe with the Heart’s purple and sticky mix. It stuck to it looking like a liquid lump. She gazed one last time toward Shew, winked at her, and pushed the sticky end of the blow pipe into the furnace, holding the other end with the two folded layers of the red dress.

Swoosh went the mixture once it met with the fire from the furnace. Slowly, it turned into a molten concoction, and the purple color turned into a hellish orange like the surface of coals on fire.

“Beware!” Shew warned Cerené as the fire flickered.

Although the blowpipe was too long and a bit heavy for Cerené, she titled her head back, smiling with a sweaty face at Shew.

“Why are you smiling in God’s name?” Shew’s face knotted.

“You care about me?” Cerené asked, almost losing balance.

Shew shrieked, but Cerené adjusted her small feet awkwardly as if walking the tight rope in the circus.

For the first time, Shew finally understood what was so strange about Cerené’s shoes. They were made of … glass.

Shew furrowed her eyebrows.

The black texture she couldn’t identify before was as flexible as rubber but looked like dirty glass in the shimmering fire.  She could tell they were glass because of the way their surface reflected the shimmering light of the fire from the furnace.  Momentarily, she thought the shoes were made of Obsidian stones, but no, this was glass, an unusually flexible type of glass that fooled the observer into thinking they were poor quality leather.

There was something else about the shoes, nonetheless. It was what had caught Shew’s attention here in front of the furnace. When Cerené was about to lose balance from tilting her head back and holding the heavy blowpipe, the shoes helped Cerené keep her balance. Cerené’s shoes were not ordinary in any way.

“Don’t you worry, Joy,” Cerené gritted her teeth, gripping the blowpipe with both hands as if she were pulling a stubborn fish out of the water. “I’ve done this many times.”

Having gained balance again, Cerené pulled the blowpipe out and placed it on what looked like a butcher’s table, the glowing molten mixture glued to the blowpipe’s far end.

Cerené knelt down and started blowing from her end into the blowpipe, shaping the molten into a bubbly looking mold. The molten breathed like a frog’s throat when she blew. The fiery substance looked as if it were alive; submitting to the amount of air Cerené blew into it through the pipe.

“Wow,” Shew said. “How do you do that? What is that?”

Cerené took a deep breath, tired after blowing, “You’ll see in a second,” she said. “Could you pull a rock from the floor and run it over the mold?”

“What?”

“Just do it,” Cerené said. “While I blow into the pipe, shape the mold however you like. Did you ever carve wood or work with clay?”

Shew said nothing. She felt embarrassed that she never had.

“Don’t worry,” Cerené understood. “Use your imagination to make this into whatever you like. I will see what shape you’re thinking of and then I will breathe into it to create what you’re imagining. I’m very good at it.”

“I can’t.”

“Just think of something. Make it into a vase or cup,” Cerené’s cheeks had reddened like coals from under the sticky ashes on her face.

Although Shew didn’t know what this was, she picked a rock and started molding the fiery clay-like thing. She worried briefly about the unbearable heat, but then started doing as Cerené had directed her.

The rock’s sharp edge cut through the molten like a knife through butter. Cerené rolled the blowpipe on its axis while Shew shaped her imagination into existence. She found herself creating what looked like a cup. When the molten began taking reasonable shape, she cut a bit too deep. A sticky part of the mixture thumped like thick mud onto the floor.

“Ooops,” Shew stepped back, watching the molten crawling on the floor like lava from a volcano.

“Ooops?” Cerené raised a single eyebrow. “I like the way you invent those silly words. “Ooops, sounds like someone suffering from a hiccup,” she amused herself one more time. “Don’t worry. You’ll learn how to do it. I have made the same mistake.

“Other artists think that at some point when the new creation is hot, for the shape to hold it needs to cool down, but I know better,” Cerené said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this is my Art, Joy. I don’t need to cool it because when I breathe into it, it becomes alive,” Cerené said.

“Alive? You mean this glass is alive?”

“You haven’t seen anything yet. This is only the beginning,” Cerené said.

“Are you aware that you’re literally playing with fire?” Shew couldn’t help but wonder if this was the reason for Cerené’s wounds. Maybe she just burned herself playing with fire.

“Playing with fire!” Cerené jumped in  place, shaking the mold. “Never thought of it like that. Isn’t it enchanting?”

“It is,” Shew said, staring at the piece of the molten she’d shaped into a cup.

“Now, come hold the blowpipe so I can show you the real magic,” Cerené handed her the pipe.

“There is still more to show than this?”

“You have no idea. Hold the pipe about one third away from my end for balance. I will blow into it now,” Cerené said. Then she took a deep breath closing her eyes. She squeezed her fingers and took an even deeper breath. “If I pass out, don’t worry,” Cerené said.

“Pass out, why?”

There wasn’t enough time to get an answer. Cerené blew into the pipe with all her might, eyes closed again. Her face and ears reddened, and her cheeks bubbled like shimmering light bulbs. It looked like she was blowing into it with her very essence, with her own soul.

Soul? She said the third part was the Soul! That’s her talent. She completes the magic with her breathing.

While Cerené breathed into the pipe, the molten grew increasingly bigger like a balloon about to explode, except this one was getting more flexible like warm clay she could shape with her breath.

Cerené blew harder without stopping for a breath. The molten color changed from orange slowly to blue. It was a lovely light blue like the color of clear skies, waving like a ghost among the darkened walls of the cellar.

Shew struggled to hold tightly to the blowpipe. Cerené’s mouth was fixed on the other end of the pipe, eyes still closed as if she were shaping the mold with her imagination.

The blue changed into lighter shades, almost transparent with a glittering surface like some kind of see-through diamond.

Isn’t it beautiful? Shew remembered Cerené saying about the furnace. The furnace was as ugly as the witch who owned it, but the molten was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. It was mesmerizing to see evil fire assist the glowing molten mix take shape and turn into something more resilient and sparkling.

“Cerené,” Shew uttered, lost in the beauty of the transparent diamonds sparkling inside the witch’s hellish basement. “This amazing Art of yours I’m looking at, what is it exactly? “

Cerené stopped blowing for a moment. She took a deep breath, eager to reply, “This is glass, Shew, the Forbidden Art, and I’m a glassblower.”

15

The Forbidden Art

Shew didn’t quite understand what Cerené meant by the Forbidden Art.

She only knew that glass was more popular in this time in Sorrow and the rest of the world. Glass was as precious as gold or diamonds was in the Waking World. It was so precious that people killed each other for it.

Why would it be a Forbidden Art? Shouldn’t glassblowers like Cerené be cherished?

The molten glass at the end of the blowpipe took the shape of a flower with seven petals in the middle of Baba Yaga’s cellar. Shew was in awe.

How did the petit ashen girl acquire such a gift? Why did she live the life of a Slave Maiden when her name should have been praised all over the world for her talents? No wonder the Queen of Sorrow spared her. She must know something about this.

The stunning, flaring, glass flower shone bright in the cellar. Shew noticed it produced an irresistible aroma, like lilies.

Finally, Cerené opened her eyes, inhaling all the air she could into her lungs. The pain in her chest didn’t matter as much as her masterpiece. She took the blowpipe from Shew and plugged her mouth into it again, blowing even more. She looked like a pied piper playing a huge flute. Instead of melodies waving out of the other end, it was Cerené’s magic in the shape of precious glass.

“It’s getting bigger,” Cerené said after inhaling one more time. “I’ll take it outside,” she climbed the stairs up to the ground floor. Shew walked beside her and opened the Candy House’s door for her. Cerené stepped outside, her magical glass flower hanging at the end of her pipe like a kite.

“Don’t worry. It’s not getting heavier,” Cerené said, coughing. “I could build a glass castle with it and it would still weigh as much as a balloon.”

Shew was speechless, unable to take her eyes off the ever-expanding creation at the end of Cerené’s blowpipe, now lighting the outside of the whole Candy House like an enormous Christmas tree with flickering diamonds.

Cerené stopped blowing the pipe and ran down the hill with her flower above her and the full moon behind her. The flower, although glass, passed through trees like ghosts, illuminating them from the inside like x-rays. It sparkled like silver fireworks in the sky.

“Did you see that?” Cerené said.

“I can’t believe it,” Shew said, running after her.

“Did you really see that?” Cerené repeated. This time Shew understood she wasn’t talking to her.

Cerené was talking to the moon.

Shew raised her head, and this time, she was sure. The moon up in the sky was smiling at Cerené—maybe Shew, too.

It wasn’t evidence that the moon was a girl, but it was smiling. Shew couldn’t believe she’d spent her life imprisoned in a castle awaiting her sixteenth birthday. Who would have thought that such beauty existed in the Kingdom of Sorrow?

“Now look at this,” Cerené blew again. The flower started transforming into something else, something more curvy and detailed; a crystal sea horse.

“Unbelievable!” Shew yelled, jumping in place.

“Wait a while and see how far this goes,” Cerené smiled. She was happy Shew liked her Art. Shew assumed that Cerené did this on her own, without ever sharing it. “As long as I can still breathe, there are no limits to my imagination.”

Slowly, the glittering sea horse moved its head and bent down to look at Shew. It had real crystal eyes, and its smile looked like a crescent moon.

“Cerené?” Shew was a little worried. “Did it just come alive?”

Cerené nodded, unable to talk and catch her breath at the same time.

“I’m Splash,” the sea horse said.

Shew clamped her hands on her mouth with disbelief.

“I’m Shew,” she offered her hand.

“No, you aren’t,” Splash rubbed his nose against her hand. “You’re Joy.”

Shew’s eyes widened. She gazed back to Cerené for clarification.

“Part of making the glass through my own breathing is that it represents my psyche,” Cerené said. “I see you as Joy, so it believes it, too.”

“I’m Joy,” Shew said to Splash, lending her hand.

Splash’s eyes sparkled, and then bowed a little lower, “do you know what your next move is, Joy?”

Shew giggled, not quite comprehending.

“Look for the Phoenix,” Splash nodded.

Shew’s heart raced, “What is the Phoenix, and how do you know about it?”

“The Phoenix is a who, not a what,” Splash said. “And is a key to a big treasure.”

Suddenly, Cerené coughed, unable to breathe properly. She starting losing balance again, and her shoes weren’t helping much.

“Tell me what you know,” Shew demanded from Splash, her eyes on Cerené.

But she was too late. Without Cerené blowing with her soul in the pipe, Splash’s sparkles dimmed, and he wasn’t capable of talking.

“Hey. Let me hold the blowpipe for you,” Shew ran to help Cerené.

Cerené elbowed Shew away. She was a bit violent about it. It was a sudden and unexpected move while both of them were having the time of their lives.

“What’s wrong? Let me help you,” Shew insisted, wishing Cerené could rest and then blow again so she could learn more about the Phoenix from Splash. “You’re tired from blowing. Let me do it.”

“No,” Cerené let out a hollow cough. She looked like she wanted to shout but was too weak.

Cerené fell to the floor and passed out, letting go of the pipe, Splash’s glass image fading into the background of the night.

Shew didn’t care about Splash now. She held Cerené and let her rest on her knee, as she tried to wake her up. A few seconds later Cerené woke looking exhausted.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she told Shew, her eyes throbbing.

“It is, but what matters now is you. What happened to you? Why didn’t you let me blow the pipe?”

“Because I care about you,” Cerené said.

“I know you care about me, but why didn’t you let me blow the pipe to help you?”

“The Forbidden Art has a price to it,” Cerené explained. “You have to pay a part of your soul to obtain it, or everyone would perform it,” Cerené said.

“What kind of price?”

“Each breath I blow into the pipe is a breath deducted from my life,” Cerené said.

“You mean…”

“It shortens the magician’s, I mean the artist’s life,” Cerené nodded. “Not just that. Every time the artist practices the Art, they are one step closer to insanity.”

“Then why do you do it?” Can’t you see you’re too young to die or go insane just because you want to play?” Shew shook her as if trying to wake her up from a nightmare.

“I’m not too young for anything,” Cerené stood up, still feeling weary, picking her blowpipe up like a soldier refusing to give up in a battle. Splash had turned into a blackened piece of molt, a dead piece of glass, cold without fire or soul in it. “I love doing my Art. It’s all I have. I’m not worried of losing years in my life as long as I have now to live.”

“Listen to me,” Shew stood up. “This is not right, Cerené. You have to stop practicing this Art.”

“Why?” Cerené’s temper flickered again. “What if I lose a couple of years of my life? People like me usually die young, or worse, live too long and endure pain and humiliation,” she pointed at her scars and the recent bite marks. “I am going to live my life the way I see fit.”

“What about going insane?”

“Ha!” Cerené let out a bitter laugh. “Look around you, Joy. This is Sorrow. It is insane.”

Shew didn’t know what to think. She had seen Cerené’s Art and how magical and addictive it was, but what kind of price was this? How could every breath you give be a breath taken from you? Who taught Cerené such an Art?

“Besides, you haven’t seen my magic in color yet,” Cerené said. “I can make a huge butterfly with colorful wings as big as the night sky.”

“Really?” Shew couldn’t resist the idea.

“Really,” Cerené nodded. “Remember when I said I’ll take you to Rainbow’s End? That’s the place where we can mix the Art with all kinds of colors—”

An awful singing voice interrupted the quest to go to Rainbow’s End. It was Baba Yaga. She’d returned, unexpectedly. She’d probably seen the Art lighting the night from afar.  They saw her sack bobbing behind her as she climbed the hill in their direction.

Baba Yaga continued singing, licking her lips when she saw them.

“Run!” Cerené pulled Shew’s hand and they ran up the hill.

A little farther up Shew saw Cerené slowing down.

“I lost my shoe!” Cerené panicked.

“Can’t you walk without it? Why are you limping?” Shew said.

Looking closely at Cerené’s bare feet, Shew didn’t need to wait for an answer. Someone had cut Cerené’s toe on her left foot. The unusual shoe helped her walk better.

“Who did this to you?” Shew asked. Then it was clear that Cerené lost one of her toes to the vicious Rapunzel plant. Every magic has a price to it. Cerené must have made herself this unusual shoe to help he walk.

Cerené ran back down the hill in the witch’s direction, looking for her shoe, and, as usual, Shew followed.

Hysterically, Cerené went looking for her shoe without noticing that she was two strides away from Baba Yaga.

Shew watched the old witch smile and drool at her victim approaching her. Shew sped up, passing Cerené, and snarled at Baba Yaga. Cerené didn’t even notice, passing both of them and traveling further down the hill, still looking for her shoe.

Baba Yaga let Cerené pass because she’d been intimidated by the princess with fangs, but when Shew didn’t bite, Baba Yaga smiled slowly, showing her dagger sharp yellow teeth.

“If you’re going to show your fangs, you better use them,” she laughed.

Shew looked puzzled. The witch was right. Why hadn’t she just bitten her?

“You’re a monster, but you don’t have it in you,” Baba Yaga said. “You’re too weakened, probably by love. It does that to people. Your reluctance to face evil will have dire consequences, because you’re neither good nor bad. You’re nothing. A Dhampir needs to transcend beyond the chains of love to get hold of her powers,” she grabbed Shew by the neck and lifted her from the ground. Shew tried to free herself but the witch’s grip was choking her.

“Let me go!” Shew snarled at her one more time.

“I’ll admit that you scared me in the beginning, but the good in you prevents the dark side to blossom,” Baba Yaga said. “What a shame. I would have loved to see that dark in you, but now I am going to have to eat you.  Your mother will never know.” Baba Yaga opened her mouth wide and prepared to bite Shew.

“Get away from her!” Cerené had found her shoes. She raised her blowpipe in the air, aiming to hit Baba Yaga but hit Shew instead when the witch moved.

The hit, although accidental, was hard. Shew fell to the ground. Cerené, although tiny, hit hard.

Helpless, she stared at the moon above. She hated that she was weak. How could Baba Yaga tell her that she wasn’t strong enough when the Wall of Thorns considered her an intruder? As she fainted, she thought of the decision she had to make soon; either stay softhearted and forget about being the Chosen One, or embrace her darkness and use it to face all evil. She had to learn how to fight fire with fire, or die in this dream and forget about it.

The world faded to black around Shew. Cerené was screaming from the top of her lungs.

16

A Bird of Fire

When Shew woke up, the sky was filled with ashes, and the sound of flickering fire surrounded her. Trees were on fire. Plants were on fire. And even the air was saturated with it.

Ashes in the sky again, dancing a song of evil.

Shew checked her head, the wound wasn’t serious but she was bleeding. She stood up slowly, her eyes blurry, making everything look hazy as if the world was melting slowly around her.

A couple of breaths later, she understood that her vision was just fine. The world was really melting around her. Lava-like molten crawled down toward her from the top of the hills. It glided slowly over the grass, burning it as it crossed over, taking irregular shapes.

Shew raised her head, looking for the source of the lava creature, and saw it was the witch’s house. It was melting like ice cream in the sun. The Candy House was on fire. Cerené sat with her hands wrapped around her knees, both tucked against her chest.

She was humming those scary rhymes again. London Bridge is falling down and Ashes, Ashes and Burn, Burn, Burn.

Cerené’s hair was the color of fire, almost burning, shaped like a bird’s wings, fluttering above her head as ashes fell down from the sky.

“Look for the Phoenix,” Splash’s words still echoed in Shew’s ears, and she thought she was looking at it.

17

A Puzzle of Seven Cards

“Stop it, Fable,” Axel said. “You’ve been walking back and forth forever.”

“What do you want me to do, Axel?” Fable stopped at the edge of the purple light encircling the Dream Temple. “This dream is locked forever, and we can’t do anything about it. I’m not going to wait here until this purple wall comes down by itself a hundred years from now,” she turned and gazed at the light again.

“And I’m not going to lose you to this Dream Temple. I have big plans for you. We’re going to have a great life. You could be the greatest witch in Sorrow. I could be … hmm … the owner of the biggest restaurant. Which reminds me, I was thinking we could go grab a bite at the Belly and the Beast, what do you think?”

“Why don’t you stop thinking about food for just one tiny second in your life!”

“There’s no such a thing as a tiny second, Fable. It’s either a second or it isn’t,” Axel said. “Besides, food is good. Haven’t you heard the wise man’s saying, ‘good food, good mood’?”

“Did you ever notice that most so called wise men are fat?” Fable snapped.

“We need to feed so the blood circulates in our body and we can think clearer,” Axel defended his cause.

“People feel sleepy after they eat, Axel,” Fable said. “You just don’t know it because you eat all the time. You’re living on the dark side of the moon.”

“Whatever you say, sis; I need to energize myself so I can look through J.G.’s diary,” he flipped through the diary they had found in Bedtime Stoories. “This is all so confusing, a diary that belongs to a J.G. and a Dreamhunters Guide that is signed by a V.H. Who are these people, and how are they related to each other?”

“I’m sure J.G. is Jacob Carl Grimm,” Fable said, happy her brother forgot about food.

“Or someone who wants us to think this is J.G.’s diary,” Axel winked.

“Don’t read too much into everything,” Fable said. “Why are you suddenly reading this diary? Did you give up on Loki’s Dreamhunters Guide?”

“I didn’t, but I can’t find anything more useful in it at the moment,” Axel said. “And he has the original Book of Sand with him in his pocket.”

“And we can’t even get that unless we cross this stupid purple light,” Fable sighed. “See, what I am talking about. I need to walk past the purple light.”

“No!” Axel demanded.

“Let me just touch it,” Fable said. “It might not even be passable.”

“I said no, Fable. Don’t make me use my Kung Fu skills to stop you,” Axel said.

“Why do you have to be the older sibling?” Fable mumbled. “Why wasn’t I born first?”

“Because I tricked our parents into bringing me into the world first,” Axel said.

“Really?” Fable stuck out her tongue. “So seriously, you didn’t find anything else in Loki’s phone?”

“Why are you asking me? You have it.”

“It’s all about the stuff Loki already told us about,” Fable said; “the Dreamworld being six levels, everything about the Waker, the Dream Temple, and even the fact that  you could break a dream by breaking the mirror, if only we could get inside.”

“I told you no.”

“So be honest, Axel. Did you read something and deleted it from Loki’s phone,” Fable played nice. “Tell me what it is, Axel. Please?”

“You’re imagining things,” Axel looked away so his facial expression wouldn’t expose his lie. “There wasn’t anything else that could help.”

“OK,” Fable sighed. “Then what are you looking for in J.G.’s diary?”

“It’s a bit strange if you ask me,” Axel said. “You remember this is the diary that hinted at Snow White being evil and manipulating Dreamhunters, right?”

“So?” Fable wondered.

“So it’s hardly trustworthy if you ask me,” Axel said. “Either Jacob Grimm was mislead thinking Snow White was the evil one, or he really hated her.”

“That’s new to me,” Fable rubbed her chin. “Are you saying that Jacob Grimm is on the dark side?”

“Could be. We don’t even know who is on the dark side,” Axel considered.

“What do you mean?” Fable said.

“I mean whose side do you consider Loki to be on?” Axel said. “One minute he is fighting the Queen and saving Snow White. The next he is on the Queen’ side.”

“Loki’s on our side,” Fable insisted. “He is good at heart.”

“And how about his past?” Axel said. “Remember the Queen telling us he is the Huntsman who killed countless people in Sorrow?”

“The Queen is lying,” Fable said.

“If you say so,” Axel said.

“Let’s get back to the J.G. diary,” Fable suggested. “You were saying Jacob wasn’t on our side.”

“I’m not sure, but maybe Jacob and Wilhelm are on different sides of the coin—that’s how they were in real life, anyway. Everything I read in this diary suggests there is a great conflict between the two brothers.”

“You mean something happened to them after forging the fairy tales that pitted them against each other?”

“Although it’s not clear why they forged the tales, I think it’s a pretty plausible idea,” Axel said. “This might be a war between both writers. Don’t ask me why.

“One of them is the good one and one is evil. I like that,” Fable said.

“Except that it’s not really clear who’s good and evil in this world,” Axel chewed on the words.

“What do you mean?”

“Look, don’t fire back at me, but I think everything is grey here,” Axel said. “I mean Shew is the Chosen One who’s supposed to save the world, but she did kill many teens in her time in the Schloss. And don’t support her by saying she was influenced by the curse. There is no excuse for killing innocent people.”

“She is innocent,” Fable defended Shew. “Believe me, there must be an explanation for this. Maybe all those teenagers were evil.”

“I know you’re Snow White’s number one fan, Fable,” Axel said. “I mean you know how much I like Loki, but he’s no different.  He was the Huntsman.”

“The next thing you’re going to tell me is that the Queen isn’t purely evil,” Fable rolled her eyes.

“Well,” Axel shrugged, “actually, yes.”

“What are you saying, Axel? OK. I get it. You’re hungry. I am sorry. I should’ve let you eat because you’re not thinking straight.”

“Why? The Queen fought until her last breath for her daughter. You can’t say she didn’t go through a lot.”

“If you’re really good, you’ll die before giving into evil,” Fable protested. “You’re only saying this because Lucy said that.”

“Which reminds me again,” Axel scanned the surroundings, “where is she?”

“Forget about Lucy,” Fable said. “We’re wasting time. Let’s get back to Jacob Grimm’s diary. Did you find anything else that might be useful?”

“Not really,” Axel said. “Other than him disliking Snow White, almost everything here hints he was desperately looking for the Lost Seven.”

“What are the Lost Seven?” Fable said.

“Remember when Mircalla, I mean Carmilla, told us Loki’s story in the kitchen?” Axel said. “She mentioned that the reason she can’t get her hands on Shew’s heart is that Shew had split it into seven pieces giving a piece to each of seven friends of hers—whatever that means. Those are called the Lost Seven.”

“So the seven dwarves in the Grimm’s Snow White story weren’t actually dwarves?” Fable adjusted her glasses. “They are just seven friends called the Lost Seven?”

“Sounds like it,” Axel said. “In some parts of the diary they are called Pilgrimms, with two m’s. Get it?”

“I like it. It’s an interesting name,” Fable adjusted her glasses. “It means two important things. One is that they are like pilgrims on a quest. Two is that they are connected to the Brothers Grimm. But if they’re connected to the Brothers Grimm, how come Jacob Grimm doesn’t know who they are?”

“That’s why I am suggesting Jacob and Wilhelm are on two different sides of the coin,” Axel said.

“It’s starting to seem more plausible,” Fable said. “But tell me, Axel. Why would the Grimm Brothers forge the Lost Seven and say they are actually seven dwarves?”

“For one, to hide the identities of the Lost Seven,” Axel said. “That’s pretty obvious.”

“Can you elaborate, Professor Axel?” Fable adjusted her glasses.

“Don’t make fun of me,” Axel warned her. “I’m thinking the Lost Seven are seven well known fairy tale characters,” Axel said proudly, “Little Red Riding Hood maybe, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty for instance. That’d be so cool.”

“Why not? It makes sense to me,” Fable said. “What’s the second reason?”

“The second reason is something beyond the range of our understanding,” Axel said.

“And you think I should consider that a discovery?” Fable had her hands on her waist.

“I know it sounds silly, but let me tell you, this isn’t just about the Queen of Sorrow wanting to get Snow White’s heart,” Axel said. “This is much bigger. If this was only about fairy tale characters being immortal and living among us, I’d have assumed this is only about the Lost Seven and Snow White’s heart. However, this includes Jacob and Wilhelm Carl Grimm, the people who wrote the books in the first place. Have you ever seen a mystery where the writer and character actually meet? This is much bigger, believe me.”

“I’m really happy we’re on the same page in this, bro” Fable said enthusiastically. “What are those?” she pointed at drawings in the book.

“These are the seven items belonging to the Lost Seven, a plate, breadcrumb, a chair, a knife, beans, a fork, and a cup,” Axel said. “Like in the forged Snow White tale, remember when the dwarves enter the cottage and each one asks who moved his cup and so on?”

“Yes,” Fable said, “so what?”

“If the Lost Seven are a substitute for the dwarves, then each item should lead us to one of them,” Axel said.

“Are you sure?” Fable said.

Axel nodded.

“So what we have to do is link the item to the character and we learn who the Pilgrimms are?” Fable asked.

“Not that easy, sis,” Axel said. “Believe me, I tried. The only item that makes sense to me is the beans.”

“Really? What fairytale character is connected to beans?” Fable scratched her head.

“Remember Jack and the Beanstalk?”

“I hate that story,” Fable said. “Jack is annoying and he’s a thief.”

“Don’t say that,” Axel said. “I adore him, and I’d like to meet him.”

“I am sure he’s as hungry as you,” Fable teased him. “So why is Jack connected to beans, again?”

Axel shot her a disbelieving look. “Jack owned beans that when planted grew a very tall beanstalk!”

“Oh, sorry,” Fable said. “I told you I hated the tale. But wait!”

“What is it now?” Axel sighed impatiently.

“There were no beans on the dwarves table in the Snow White fairy tale,” Fable said.

“There were vegetables,” Axel said. “Beans are vegetables.”

“They are? Did we learn that in school?” Fable wondered.

“You don’t learn that beans are vegetables in school, Fable,” Axel said. “You might learn that Shakespeare is a poet—but even that you got wrong; you think he is a wizard.”

“He is a wizard,” Fable insisted. “He just didn’t want the likes of you to know it. Anyway, did you notice the breadcrumbs being one of the items?”

“I did, so what?”

“Sounds very much like you, Axel,” Fable said. “Maybe you’re a fairy tale character and you don’t know it,” she laughed.

“Of course, I am,” Axel said proudly. “I am Axelus the Great. Besides, I eat a lot of food. I don’t leave breadcrumb trails all over the place. That would be you, actually.”

“How dare you? I clean up after you all the time,” Fable drew a finger in the air as if it were a sword.

“OK. OK.,” Axel raised his hands like a white flag. “We’ve got more important things to discuss now. Since you like this part of J.G.’s diary, let me show you something really crazy here,” Axel said, pointing at certain pages in the middle of the diary. “I keep seeing these seven pages, and I’m unable to understand its content.” Axel showed her seven consecutive pages in the diary resembling tarot cards.

“What is that?”

“It seems to me that J.G. failed to connect the Lost Seven to the items so he continued his research until he came upon an incomplete drawing of seven tarot cards,” Axel said “He’d probably seen them somewhere and copied them. He says they are clues to the Lost Seven.”

“Is that the Grimm Reaper?” Fable adjusted her glasses, pointing at a drawing of a red-cloaked girl with a scythe. “How could the Grimm Reaper be one of the Lost Seven?”

“It says ‘Reaper’ on top, and it’s not just any reaper,” Axel commented. “This looks like a girl reaper. Ever heard of anything like that?”

“No,” Fable said. “Did you ever hear about a fairy tale with a Grimm Reaper in it?”

Axel shook his head no.

“What’s on the next card?” Fable wondered.

Axel flipped the page, showing a tarot of a witch.

“A witch,” Fable chewed the words. “And what’s that at her feet?”

“Looks like breadcrumbs,” Axel assumed. “See, the witch looks like you, not me.”

“She’s cloaked. Why do you think it is a she? You can’t tell,” Fable said.

“Whether a she or a he, I think I know who it is,” Axel said. “Remember Hansel and Gretel?”

“Of course,” Fable giggled. “I love that tale. It’s my favorite. I love Gretel, but despise Hansel.”

Axel shrugged, lost in the page in front of him.

“You and I really make a good Hansel and Gretel,” he said absently.

“Nice one,” Fable said. “And we have a Candy House…” suddenly, she stopped. The resemblance was too weird. She gazed at Axel, both sharing an intense moment with appalled eyes. Could it be they were Hansel and Gretel? The thought lingered in the air for a while.  Both of them were speechless.

Finally, they broke the tension with a big laugh, “you and me, Hansel and Gretel,” Fable said, “that’s impossible.”

“You’re right about that,” Axel said. “I guess I was hoping my sis was one of the Lost Seven so I’d eat for free at the Belly and the Beast.”

“So what’s the next card,” Fable demanded, wanting to skip this uncomfortable moment.

The third tarot showed a thief. It was a boy, wearing a green hat, and a smirk on his face. It had Thief written on top of the page.

“He looks funny,” Fable raised an eyebrow. “I’m curious about him. Are those beans in his hand? If that’s Jack, I changed my mind. I like him.”

Axel flipped the page, not wanting Fable staring too long at the cute boy. “And here we have…” Axel raised an eyebrow now.

“A moon?” Fable laughed. “How could the moon be one of the Lost Seven?”

“Maybe J.G. didn’t know much about this Pilgrimm,” Axel said. “This could just be a clue.”

“OK. Flip to the next page, maybe we’ll find something that really makes sense,” Fable said.

The next page showed a beast so ugly Axel twitched his lips, preferring not to look at it.

“The Beast,” Fable mused. “I can’t even tell if it’s a boy or girl. Why would Shew share her heart with such an ugly creature?”

“The next one is a Star,” Axel flipped to an almost empty page that only had the word star handwritten in the middle. “How convenient, one of the Lost Seven is the moon, and the other is a star. This J.G. lost his mind.”

“And who’s the seventh of the Lost Seven?” Fable flipped the page herself. “What is this?” she looked as if someone had just burst her balloon.

“The Phoenix,” Axel stared at the picture of a bird with purple wings, the bird looked as if it was burning. “You know what a phoenix is, right Fable?”

“Of course, I know. I do your homework, Axel,” Fable said absently.

“You do my homework but you don’t know that beans are vegetables,” he mumbled.

“A phoenix is a bird that burns at the end of its life then rises again from its own ashes,” Fable explained.

“Like Zombies,” Axel giggled. Fable was too entranced by the picture of the Phoenix to comment. “Why do I think this is a big clue?” Axel said.

“It is,” Fable said. “But I don’t know what it means.”

“I’m not following,” Axel replied.

“When we were chasing Loki, I heard him mutter something to himself repeatedly, as if he was trying not to forget it,” Fable raised her eyes, meeting Axel’s. “He kept saying, ‘The Phoenix.’”

“So?”

“I have no idea,” Fable said. “All I know is that according to this J.G., she is one of the Lost Seven,” Fable turned back to the Dream Temple protected by the purple light. “Loki isn’t there to kill Snow White. He’s there for the Phoenix,” she uttered her discovery.

“So the Queen sent him to kill the Phoenix?” Axel said.

“Why kill her?” Fable said. “She probably wants to find her to collect Shew’s first piece of heart. Are you sure there isn’t anything else about the Phoenix in this diary.”

“Um,” Axel flipped through the pages. “The only other mention of the Phoenix is an article here where J.G. explains his frustration about the Phoenixes.”

“I don’t follow,” Fable said.

“He says that the Phoenix is the only one of the Lost Seven that he knew the real name of—he is very big on the power of what he calls ‘true names’,” Axel said. “He writes that whenever he has his hands on manuscripts with the Phoenix’s real name, he is confused by other manuscripts that call her something different.”

“So the Phoenix is a girl,” Fable said. “Do you have those names?”

“Wait a second,” Axel flipped. “I have come across them but the writing was too small and almost wiped out—here it is,” he handed Fable the diary.

“I have dyslexia, and you’re handing it to me?” Fable said, already reading it.

“You read smaller fonts better than me,” Axel argued.

“OK,” Fable drew her glasses closer. “One of the names is Cerené—I am not sure how to spell it. And at some point he thought her name was Ember. And then at some other point he thought her name was…” Fable raised her eyes to meet Axel. She looked like she’d seen her dead mother.

“What is the name?” Axel said. “You’re freaking me out.”

“Cinderella,” Fable said. “Carmilla is after Cinderella!”

“How can she be after Cinderella by making Loki enter Shew’s dream? Shouldn’t he be entering Cinderella’s dream wherever she is?” Axel said.

“I don’t know, Axel,” Fable breathed rapidly in front of the purple light. “This locked dream has to end so we know. Are you sure it wasn’t mentioned how a locked dream ends in Loki’s phone?”

Axel pretended he didn’t hear her. He wasn’t going to tell her what he’d read. It was death itself.

18

Rainbow’s End

Although Shew believed Cerené was the Phoenix, the knowledge didn’t answer all of her questions yet.

Who was the Phoenix, really? Why did she have to look for her?

At least, the dream made much more sense now. This dream wasn’t about the Queen wanting to kill her. Loki used the Phoenix Incubator because Carmilla wanted to take Shew back to her relationship with Cerené, thinking Cerené would lead her to the Phoenix.

What was the point in reminding Shew she had a dear friend in her childhood called Cerené, and why didn’t she remember that part of her childhood?

She had figured out Cerené was Cinderella. That wasn’t the hard part. A girl covered in ashes, lived with a stepmother and stepsisters, slept in a dark room next to cinders, and had one precious glass shoe she couldn’t live without. It had to be her, only she wasn’t the kind you’d expect to read about in a picture book in the Waking World. Cerené was the real flesh and blood Cinderella. She had a feeling that whatever she’d learned about Cerené was trivial.

Cerené wasn’t the kind of girl who dreamed of attending the king’s ball and meeting the prince. She was not waiting for a Godmother to dress her in the most beautiful dress and send her a pumpkin coach. She was a young girl who had surpassed all the evil bestowed upon her by enjoying the one thing she did best, the Forbidden Art.

The Art was Cinderella’s getaway, the computer game boys played escaping into their own imaginary world, the embroidery medieval woman excelled at as they wove threads into canvasses of beauty. The Art was Cerené’s drug that took the pain away. It was her hope to live another day; it was the glass shoe she’d left behind, the way Hansel and Gretel left their breadcrumbs, so happiness could retrace her steps and find her one day.

Still, Shew wondered who saved her each time she was about to die. Was it Cerené? Was Cerené capable of creating fire? If so, why didn’t she tell Shew about it? If Cerené could create fire they wouldn’t have had to go to the furnace in Candy House. It couldn’t be Cerené.

Shew thought of Bianca again. There was no other explanation. Bianca was the person in the hood who chased Shew. She was Cerené’s guardian angel, and she burned whoever hurt her daughter.

However, that would only explain what happened near Candy House, Bianca saving her daughter from Baba Yaga and burning the place down, but who burned the Wall of Thorns? The wall was no threat to Cerené. Was it possible that Bianca protected Shew, maybe because she wanted Shew to take care of her daughter?

There were too many questions leading nowhere. The one thing that made sense was that Cerené was one of the Lost Seven Shew had split her heart with, which was also a useless piece of information.

Shew had no recollection of how she split her heart or how she did it. She knew she split her heart because of a solitary memory of the day Carmilla cursed her and trapped her in the Schloss after failing to find the Lost Seven. Carmilla had been asking her about the Lost Seven and how she managed to split her heart with them, not knowing that Shew didn’t remember doing so in the first place. Shew had no explanation why parts of her memory were lost.

Now, at the Rainbow’s End, Shew watched Cerené play with her blowpipe at the reservoir, which was a lake of pure light, shimmering with the main seven colors of a rainbow. This was the place Cerené had promised to take her to see from the beginning, the place they’d gone through hell and back to reach, the only place where the Forbidden Art could be colored. And it was beautiful.

Cerené had showed Shew how she dipped molten glass into the colored lake of light. All she had to do was pick the color she desired. Cerené loved a mesh of colors so most creations came out the color of rainbows.

She also created a huge butterfly with flapping fiery wings, but then killed it when she was out of breath. Cerené’s most amazing creation was smaller butterflies she blew from her pipe, fluttering their wings into the world, as if the blowpipe had been their cocoons. The Butterflies had a long lifespan, not demanding Cerené’s continuous breathing because they were such light creatures. It took them about ten minutes, fluttering freely in the lake before their light dimmed and they turned to stone and fell into the lake.

In her awe, Shew called Cerené the God of Small Things. She was able to create life through her pipe, only it was a short-lived life. The Gods must have chosen Cerené for a reason. But for some other reasons, decided they wouldn’t allow how to create a full life.

Shew smiled, watching Cerené run with her blowpipe under the rainbow. She wondered if all Gods were like her, creators of magnificent things, yet as lost as Cerené. What if the Gods created the entire world by using their imaginations to overcome their pain?

While Shew was watching Cerené play, she heard girls singing a nursery rhyme in the distance. They were tapping their feet and jumping rope somewhere behind the trees. Shew thought they sounded like the creepy girls Loki had told her he’d heard in Sorrow. They were singing a new song:

Cinderella dressed in ashes,

one glass slipper and some matches,

burned the world all down in ember,

ash to ash and sin to cinder.

Shew closed her eyes, wishing the voices would go away. She’d never known who the girls were. She feared their rhymes, though, and thought they always foretold a sinister future.

Instead, she watched Cerené happily play in the reservoir, remembering how they had gotten here after Candy House had melted.

Cerené had shown Shew the way to Rainbow’s End. They had walked in silence for about an hour. Cerené had gotten her single glass slipper and now walked normally. Baba Yaga had escaped, and Shew dared not ask about what had happened while she was knocked out. Splash had told her to look for the Phoenix, and here she was, walking side by side with her. Hell, the Phoenix was Shew’s best friend.

They had passed by the small village of Furry Tell,  but Cerené demanded they shouldn’t stop there.

A match made in Hell—I mean Heaven—I must say.

“What are you doing, Joy,” Cerené said, standing in the middle of the reservoir blowing her pipe and mixing the molten with the Rainbow’s colors.

“I’m coming,” Shew said, waking up from the recent memory. She walked over and stepped into the lake of light. It felt ticklish at first,  like she was standing in a mist.

Rainbow’s End was actually a rainbow’s end. Shew didn’t know where the other rainbow’s end was, but she was sure they had one end of the rainbow in Sorrow. If that didn’t say enough about their kingdom, then she didn’t know what would.

For a moment, Shew pitied her own mother, Bloody Mary, and Night Sorrow. Whoever had surrendered to the hate and darkness in their souls could not have laid eyes on Rainbow’s End. How could succumb to darkness  once you saw this place. She looked up at the arching rainbow curving away in the sky beyond the midnight trees. The rainbow was visible in the dark.

Cerené had melted her mix with the fire that had been burning Candy House and continued blowing it all the way to Rainbow’s End. It broke Shew’s heart that her friend was closer to death with each breath she blew, but there was no reasoning against the happiness in Cerené’s eyes, even when it meant being one step closer to death.

Cerené breathed to keep the fire alive so she could mix it with the rainbow from the lake. It was the only way to color her magic glass art. She said that ordinary glassblowers in the world used quartz and other natural colored stones—Shew knew nothing of these stones. But Cerené explained that she was no ordinary glassblower. She was a Keeper of the Art.

Now, all the huge glass flowers she created were colored like butterfly wings. She’d breathed a glass castle for them, which they spent some time inside, but it didn’t last long after the fire died. Cerené had even blown a small rocking boat, which floated upon the Lake of Light—Shew didn’t question how—but that fire died too. When all her molten fires ended, Cerené wasn’t going to go back to get fire from the furnace in Candy House, not today.

If only Cerené could create fire, her powers would have been complete, and would have created her own wonderland to live in.

“Do you have any idea why you have been given that talent?” Shew asked while they sat on top of a hill next to the Rainbow’s End. Cerené had played all she wanted and was exhausted. Where they sat, the rainbow was an arm’s length away.

“It’s magic, not talent,” Cerené said. “But I don’t know why. Must there be a reason for magic? Its fun, and I love it.”

“Were you cursed when you born or something?” Shew said playfully. “I know I was cursed.”

“You were?” Cerené wondered.

“It’s a long story. I’d rather have to make my own choices than walk in the footsteps of a destiny I was made to fulfill.”

“So you’re not just a lunatic vampire like your mother?”

Shew laughed, “No, there is actually a logical reason for my existence.”

“I wish I knew of the reason of my existence,” Cerené said absently. “But I don’t care. I am having fun,” she snapped.

“You think we’re good friends, Cerené?” Shew said with caution.

“Friends forever,” Cerené giggled.

“So could I ask you something without you being upset?” Shew said.

“Something like what?” Cerené was as reluctant as Shew.

They locked eyes for a while, the moment freezing and time stopping. Shew thought it was finally the right time she’d ask Cerené for some clarifications without her getting upset. She inhaled deeply, and tried to ask Cerené as gently as possible.

“Like where you’re from for instance? I promise I will listen without judgment. I’m not going to question your answers like I did in the Field of Dreams.”

“I was born on Murano Island,” Cerené said casually. She’d been feeling much better since she’d arrived at Rainbow’s End. She felt safe here, the place where her art took its optimum form.

“Murano? Never heard of it. Where is it?”

“Near Venice,” Cerené said without elaborating.

“That’s where?” Shew knew it was in Italy—another thing she’d learned from one of her victim’s phones in the castle. She still wanted to hear it from Cerené.

“Italia,” Cerené’s eyes widened. “It’s practically an island,” she lowered her head to whisper something to Shew. “It’s shaped like a shoe,” she made an invisible shoe with her fingers.

“Oh, really?” Shew said, trying to solve some of the puzzle, and figure out what Carmilla had to do with this.

“They say a prince lost a poor girl he loved, but found her through the glass slipper she left behind,” the story seemed to mean the world to Cerené. “The gods honored their love by shaping Italia after a shoe.”

“That’s a fabulous story,” Shew pretended she hadn’t heard it before. “Any idea who the prince or the girl is?”

“It’s a fairy tale, Shew. Be reasonable,” Cerené said. “Sometimes you strike me as naïve.”

“So you speak Italian?” Shew changed the subject.

Embarrassed, Cerené shook her head no, “I don’t know how.”

“You’re an immigrant, right?”

“You make it sound like an insult,” Cerené’s eyebrows narrowed.

“Not at all,” Shew said. “I think everyone in Sorrow is an immigrant, except my father and mother. How did you come to Sorrow then, and with whom?”

“I really don’t remember. I must have been very young. I have some memories of the ship I came on though.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I remember hiding underneath fish on a smaller boat for days so they wouldn’t find me,” Cerené said. “I must have had someone with me, but I don’t know who, because I was very young.”

“You remember why you were hiding?”

“I am probably an illegal immigrant,” Cerené’s lips twitched, just slightly. “I do remember the ship’s name for some reason though.”

“That’s interesting.”

“Jolly Roger, that’s its name. There was a man with a hook instead of a hand on it, but that’s all.”

“That’s a rather a detailed memory for someone who doesn’t remember much,” Shew remarked.

“Like I said, I must have been very young. You know when we first met, I’d been here for a year or so,” Cerené said.

Shew tried not to look surprised, but everything around her seemed connected. How was it that Cerené had traveled on the Jolly Roger, and why didn’t she have any other memories of her journey?

Jolly Roger was the name of the ship Shew and Loki embarked on in the Jawigi Dreamory. It was the pirate ship that attached Angel and Carmilla’s ship in the middle of the ocean when they were escaping Night Sorrow.

Shew didn’t comment on the Jolly Roger. She preferred to hear Cerené’s story.

“Once I arrived in Sorrow, I was sold as a slave to…” Cerené lowered her eyes, and looked like she didn’t want to say. “Some family you know.”

“Does your family live in the forest?”

“It’s not my family,” Cerené gritted her teeth, looking at Shew. “I have to live with them or I won’t be allowed to stay in Sorrow as an immigrant. They threaten to expose me as being an illegal immigrant if I don’t do as they say. You know what’s ironic about this? Not that I am afraid they’d deport me, but that I don’t know where to go if they do.”

“Wouldn’t you want to go back to Murano Island?”

“I should want to, but my gut instinct tells me not to,” Cerené said. “I don’t know why I get that feeling.”

“I see,” Shew nodded, making sure to ask her questions slowly, watching Cerené’s temper. She wasn’t going to ask her again how it was possible to know her mother while she was too young to remember her. “Can you tell me about…?”

“Bianca?” Cerené smiled unexpectedly. “She taught me how to become a glassblower.”

“She was a glassblower herself?”

“The best, she’s my mentor,” Cerené laced her fingers together. “She could create over a hundred glass artifacts in one day. She had the rarest talents and breathing methods. She knew every stone, every ingredient and mix. She knew of metals that no one had ever heard of. I once saw her turn iron into glass.”

“Wow,” Shew said. “She must have been extremely respected and appreciated.”

Cerené’s lips twitched again. She curled her fingers together, “Not really,” she said. “You see, my mother originally lived in Venice, a famous city for its lagoons and glassblowing among other things. But as much as glassblowing was a wonderful art, it was also a threat to the locals.”

“A threat?”

“Like I showed you, it needs a lot of fire. Houses in Venice were made of wood. Once in a while the glassblowers lit a house on fire, accidentally.”

“So the locals considered a glassblower a danger to their houses?”

“Not just that,” Cerené seemed reluctant. “Venetians thought of fire as a bad thing and that it came from the deepest pits of hell. Burning someone’s house was a serious sin because fire was loathed. It is true that they had plenty of water to extinguish the fire since the city floated on it, but in contrast, it had a significant meaning to the Venetians. God had created them a nation of water. Fire was their enemy. They feared it and all kinds of superstitions were attached to it.”

“I see,” Shew said. “So your mother’s art wasn’t appreciated.”

“It’s ironic because glass was one of Venice’s most profitable incomes—very few understood that fire was an essential part of making it. Visitors came from all over the world to see and buy our glass,” Cerené explained.

“I assume the Venetian authorities prohibited anyone from exposing the secrets of making that kind of beautiful glass art,” Shew said.

“Yes, that’s true. But how do you know?”

“Because there is always big talk about glass in the Schloss,” Shew said. “My mother spent a lot of money to import glass from all over the world. It’s very expensive and rarely as good as Venetian art, which is almost impossible to acquire. In addition, glass in general is very precious in Sorrow. You must know that.”

“I know,” Cerené nodded in a way that led Shew to think she knew much more than just that.

“So how did your mother cope with the conflict of people in Venice hating and loving glassblowers at the same time?” Shew asked.

“At some point, priests accused glassblowers of communing with the dark side. They said that only an evil art would need that amount of fire to be created,” Cerené said. “They believed that the fire that lit Hell helped in creating fabulous art. So, to some extremists, glass was the art of the devil.”

“That’s absurd.”

“This whole life is absurd,” Cerené sighed. “They were concerned that the production of glass in Venice had increased immensely, especially my mother’s and some of her friends.”

“You just said your mother could create more than a hundred glass artifacts per day,” Shew said.

“And it didn’t cross your mind why?” Cerené said. “As amazing as her talent was, she couldn’t produce that amount of fire needed in a single day. It was impossible.”

“How did she do it then?”

“Well, the Venetians extremists explanation was that she had access to a volcano that fed Hell itself,” Cerené said.

“Let’s skip the ignorant beliefs,” Shew said. “I want to know how your mother really did it.”

It took Cerené a moment to permit the words to come out of her throat, “My mother wasn’t just any glassblower. She was a…”

Shew held her breath. She suddenly thought she knew the answer.

“A Phoenix,” Cerené said, her eyes darted away from Shew’s as if it was a sin.

Shew exhaled. She knew this was going to be the answer. The same way she and her mother were vampires in different ways, Cerené and her mother were Phoenixes in their own individual ways. She still needed to know what a Phoenix did exactly.

“A phoenix is originally a bird that rises from the ashes after it burns,” Shew said. “I don’t quite understand what your mother was.”

“A Firebringer, some call her a Firemage,” Cerené said.

“I don’t follow.”

“Well, the right description of a Phoenix, especially when you’re a glassblower, is artists with the breathing talent to make glass, but few of them also have a certain power.”

“Which is?”

“They could create fire at will,” Cerené said.

19

Pandora’s Box

“Bianca could create fire at will?” Shew asked. “That’s why she could produce so much glass, I guess.”

“It’s a gift from the Creators,” Cerené said.

“The same Creators who’d shaped Italy after a shoe?”

Cerené nodded, “It’s a very rare gift among glassblowers. I heard only seven women in the world had this power among the ages. Three of them were in Venice. My mother was one of them, and I don’t know anything about the other two.”

It was on the tip of Shew’s tongue; asking Cerené if she had any idea if her mother had burned the Wall of Thorns and Candy House. She was just grateful Cerené opened up to her without a temper, and she wouldn’t risk changing that at the moment.

“Unfortunately, the story doesn’t stop here,” Cerené said. “To the extremists, who influenced the church, creating fire was considered an act of witchcraft. Venice was very skeptical—and secretive—about the art of making glass, and a rumor began to spread. It warned of witches who had the ability to create fire from hell, and were soon going to burn the city. The locals believed it, and decided to burn the witches.”

“But why would they? Nothing burned but houses. Why would they foretell the burning of Venice?”

“Teatro Le Fenice, Venice’s most famous opera house, burned the day after,” Cerené said.

“Le Fenice? I haven’t heard about it.”

“It’s very famous. Check out the history books. The Venetian Carnival took place all around it later,” Cerené said.

“I assume the city went rogue,” Shew said.

“The hunt for the witching glassblowers began, and all glassblowers in Venice suffered a great deal of humiliation, and were burned at the stake for years. I’m sure you’ve heard about falsely accused witches being burned at the stake.”

“Ignorance and stupidity, the true apocalypses of the world,” Shew commented. She had heard all about the burning of witches in Lohr where her father was originally from.

“Eventually, the governors of Venice decided to solve the matter,” Cerené said, sounding bored. Although she was bursting with knowledge, it meant the least to her. Unlike Shew, all Cerené wanted was to make Art.

“They decided to catch all glassblowers and send them to the Island of Murano. It was the best thing to do to stop the killing and save the secretive art from spreading all over the world.”

“And that’s how you came to be born in Murano,” Shew said.

“My mother was pregnant when she was banned to Murano,” Cerené said. “She told me someone advised her to name me Cinder before she was deported.”

“Why Cinder?”

“My mother’s life could have been summed up with the word ‘cinder’,” Cerené said. “She was always covered in ashes from the cinders and the fire she created—or the things she accidentally burned. My mother had even decided to call me Cinderella to make it sound more girlish.”

“Then why is your name Cerené?” Shew asked, knowing the answer already.

“Cerené means cinder in Italian,” Cerené said. “I also dream sometimes that my name is Ember. I don’t know why, but I like Cerené best.”

“Ember is a derivative of cinder, ashes, and fire,” Shew commented. “So when did your mother die in Murano?”

“Sometime after she gave birth to me,” Cerené said. “I don’t remember much in Murano, just that that single image of the ship taking me away.”

“You have one hell of a story, Cerené,” Shew considered. “I’m sure there is so much more to it, if you could only remember. So how come you can’t make fire like your mother, don’t you think you should’ve inherited it?”

Cerené’s face reddened, out of fear, not shyness. She shook her head  ‘no’, eyes wider than usual, “I wish I did,” she said. “I tried to create fire with my mind many times, but failed.”

“With your mind?” Shew hadn’t imagined how Bianca created fire.

“That’s how I saw my mother do it in my dreams,” Cerené said. “She showed me how to make glass, and she made sure I got better. She tried to teach me how to create fire with the power of my mind, but I couldn’t do it. One time, she told me she’d never seen someone who could mold living glass like me, if I could only create fire like her.”

“How did she try to teach you to make fire? I mean, is there a process to it?”

“It’s actually a bit funny,” Cerené giggled. “I’m supposed to stretch the palms of my hands like this,” she held out her arms and almost face-palmed Shew. “Then I should focus my mind, thinking about fire, and say ‘Moutza!’”

Cerené repeated the word ‘Moutza’ a couple of times, and Shew looked around her to see if something burned around them. It was clear by now that Cerené wasn’t capable of creating fire. She couldn’t have burned the Wall of Thorns or Candy House.

“See? Nothing,” Cerené was disappointed, shrugging her shoulders. “I really wish I could make fire. Can you imagine how powerful I’d be?”

Shew thought she saw a golden tinge in Cerené’s eye when she said that. She knew she had that golden tinge in her own vampiric eyes when she killed in the Schloss.

“You don’t need the fire power, or the Art,” Shew said. “You’re very special the way you are, Cerené.”

“I am?” Cerené questioned, wondering if Shew meant it as a compliment. “I’d like to think so. The reason I want to acquire the power of creating fire is that Art is rarely respected or feared. Just look at me. I can create magic itself, but if I talk about it, I will get hurt. I’ve read about so many unappreciated artists in the world. A poet could write a mesmerizing poem, a singer could sing the most heartfelt song, and a painter could paint the most beautiful picture, but without power where would they be in this world?”

“You mean that having the Art without power is like clapping with one hand?” Shew nodded.

The most important things in the world come in pairs, Shew. Your mother might be the devil himself, but when she speaks, you should listen carefully.

“That’s right,” Cerené said. “Sometimes I wonder what will become of me if the Queen or this family I live with find out about my Art.”

“I imagine they’d sell you for the highest price,” Shew joked.

“Or worse,” Cerené said. “Torture me, trying to figure out how I do it. Not to mention that we both know that people kill for glass these days,” Cerené said. “Do you see now what I’m talking about? If I had power, I wouldn’t be feared, and I wouldn’t need the Art in the first place. I could have such a different life.”

“I’m sure you’ll have a great life,” Shew said, ruffling her ashen hair. “Moutza!” she tried her luck, stretching her five fingers in the air. Cerené put a hand on her heart and fell back; pretending Shew had killed her with a spear from her hands.

Shew laughed, “get up, silly.”

Cerené could not stop laughing. Shew had not laughed like that with a girlfriend for a long time, almost a hundred years, she guessed.

“Sometimes, when I say ‘Moutza’ over and over for hours trying to create fire, I think I’m going crazy. Seriously, who’d say something like that?”

“You have any idea what it even means?”

“I don’t think it has a meaning,” Cerené said. “Moutza sounds funny. You notice how awkward your lips look like when you say ‘mou’ then when you say ‘za’ your eyes get bigger and your eyebrows act surprised,” Cerené propped herself up on her elbows, gazing at Shew again. Her gaze dimmed slowly and she scratched her temples.

“What now?” Shew was worried again.

“Can I tell you a secret, Shew?”

“We talked about this,” Shew said. “You can tell me anything,” it meant a lot to Shew that Cerené had asked her that. After being all secretive and vague, Cerené now asked her if she could tell a secret. It was interesting how some introverted people, opened up once they felt safe with someone.

“Bianca always assures me that I am important, that something big will happen in this world because of me,” Cerené said. “But once she told me I’m like Pandora’s Box.”

“What is that?”

“It’s a myth about a box where all the evil in the world had been imprisoned,” Cerené said. “One day, Pandora, a girl who had been given the box and warned not to free the evil inside, opened it out of curiosity, and darkness veiled the world.”

“Evil? You?” Shew inquired. “That doesn’t make sense—”

Suddenly, Cerené sat straight up with scared eyes. Something was wrong.

“What’s wrong, Cerené?” Shew was worried and too tired to face more dangers. She had had enough of this dream.

“Can you hear that?” She bent over and put one ear on the hill’s grass, listening to the earth.

“What is it?” Shew sprang up. “Has Baba Yaga found us?”

“I hear the hooves of a horse,” Cerené looked up at Shew. “Yes. I think it’s a horse.”

“You can hear it through the earth?

“It’s approaching us,” Cerené said.

“Where?” Shew looked around her. They were high enough they should be able to see anyone approaching. She squinted harder against the dark, and she only saw a faint fire in the distance. She knew what it was. The town of Furry Tell they’d passed by on their way from Candy House to Rainbow’s End. They’d been nice and peaceful people, who’d offered them food and shelter, only Cerené proffered to keep going.

Cerené stood up abruptly, locking eyes with Shew. The look she gave was a mix of fascination and horror, “It’s not a horse Shew.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s a three eyed unicorn. I can tell unicorns when I hear one. I used to wait for the three eyed unicorns for hours to see…”

“To see what, Cerené? You’re worrying me.”

“Remember when I told you there was someone else I like better than the prince?” Cerené held Shew by the shoulders.

Shew nodded, the puzzle slowly coming together.

“He is coming,” Cerené said. “I know I shouldn’t like him but I do. Maybe it’s because he’s powerful and everyone fears him.”

“Who is coming?” Shew shook Cerené. The thought of knowing what Cerené was talking about scared her.

“The Huntsman, Shew,” Cerené said. “I’m afraid he’s going to kill everyone in Furry Tell.”

20

Fable’s Charm

“Axel,” Fable said while her brother wasn’t paying attention. “Axel!” she shook him

“What is it?” Axel’s eyes were glued to Loki’s phone again. He’d decided to reread the Dreamhunters Guide in case he’d missed something. “I’m think I’ve figured out something.”

“Like what?” Fable asked.

“I think,” Axel raised his head, posing like a genius inventor, “that I know who Loki’s father is.”

“Really?” Fable said. “Who is it?”

“Let me just think about it for a minute,” Axel walked back and forth in the room. “It’s kinda impossible, but there is no other explanation.”

“Come on, Axel. Tell me,” Fable insisted.

“Not now,” Axel raised a finger. “I need to research something on the internet first. Then, if it all falls together, I swear I’ll dig Sherlock Holmes up from his grave so he and you will both know what a genius detective I am.”

“Sherlock Holmes is dead?” Fable wondered, “So sad. I thought he was really cool.”

Axel’s face reddened. He approached his sister as if he was about to eat her.

“What’s wrong, Axel?” Fable backed off. “There’s still a bag of Sticky Sweet Bones somewhere.”

“I am not hungry, Fable,” Axel grunted. “I’m angry. Sherlock Holmes isn’t even real. He is a character in a book!”

“Oh, that?” Fable laughed, “as if Snow White and the Evil Queen aren’t!”

Axel felt confused, “Well—I—never mind,” he waved his hands angrily. “We’re not going to fight over imaginary people who are actually real.”

“You’re right,” Fable patted him. “Since you’re not going to tell me who Loki’s father is, let me tell you something.”

“Ah. You were trying to say something,” Axel said. “So what is it?”

“This is a bit, if not totally, crazy,” Fable began. “So bear with me and be patient please.”

“What is it, Fable?” Axel knotted his face on purpose, trying to play Fable’s dad. “You’re not going to tell me you’re in love with someone and want to go on a date. You’re too young for this.”

“No, that’s not it,” Fable was unusually polite.

“So what is it?”

“I think I know how to free Loki from Carmilla’s Fleece,” she said. Axel wondered why she’d been so calm.

“You do? That’s awesome,” Axel said.

“It’s not that easy,” Fable said. “Let me tell how it works first. Carmilla controls Loki through the Fleece, right?” she said. “I don’t know what a Fleece is made of but I think of it as part of Loki’s soul. In this case, Carmilla is controlling him the way you control a dog with chains, creating some kind of connection, controlled by one of the two sides.”

“Can’t you just skip the details,” Axel said. “Let’s just save him now, and I promise I will do my homework myself for a week as a reward.”

“It’s not that easy, Axel. Please listen,” Fable said. “I know of a spell that can break almost any kind of bond.”

“Which will metaphorically cut the Fleece? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes,” Fable said. “Only in magic, it’s done in another way. The spell I know will bond me with Loki.”

“Now you lost me.”

“It’s simple. It is like possessing someone’s body. A lot of clairvoyants do it,” Fable said.

“How does it work?” Axel said.

“Basically I will have to stay very close to this purple light, and hopefully if the spell works, I will be part of Loki’s body. Not for long, but long enough to bring him back to his senses,” Fable said.

“I can’t permit you to be alone with Loki,” Axel said, “and certainly not inside his body!”

“It’s only spiritual, Axel,” Fable explained.

“You mean you can’t kiss?”

“No!”

“OK then. So how is this going to bring him back to his senses?”

“Don’t you get it? Carmilla controls his soul through his Fleece. His soul is what controls Loki’s body. If I enter Loki’s body for a brief time, I will break the connection.” Fable said. “Loki’s Fleece will be useless because she will be connected to me, and she can’t control me through Loki’s Fleece. It has no effect on me.”

“And what will you do in that brief time?” Axel asked.

“I’ll be able to pull the stake from Shew, I guess,” Fable said. “It doesn’t matter. I am sure I will figure it out then.”

“No, I can’t let you do this, Fable,” Axel objected. “This is too dangerous.”

“Please don’t talk me out of it, Axel,” Fable said. “I want to help Loki, and the thought of doing the spell already scares me, so I need your encouragement.”

“You said it yourself,” Axel said. “This is a dangerous spell. It means your soul, or whatever that is, will be inside  the Dream Temple. Didn’t I tell you being inside leads to insanity while the dream is locked?”

Fable lowered her head, unable to utter a word. She really wanted Loki’s and Shew’s love to prevail. This crazy fairy tale world wouldn’t mean much to her if she lost any of them.

“Listen to me, Fable,” Axel walked toward his sister and hugged her. “I might be harsh on you sometimes, and I know I am not the best brother in the world, but I can’t bear the thought of living without you. I love Loki and Shew, but think of it, Fable. This is not our fight. We’re not one of those fairy tale characters. We are simply two nerdy orphans and we only got each other. Do you understand?”

“I do, bro,” Fable hugged him tighter. “I just wanted to help. I can’t stand it being here, not knowing what’s happening in the Dreamworld.”

“That’s my sis,” Axel said. “Besides, what would Itsy and Bitsy do without you?” he hated his sister’s spiders, but if it made her laugh he didn’t mind pretending to love them.

“You hate my spiders, Axel,” Fable said.

“Who said that? Just wait until we get back, and I promise you I will feed them both myself.”

“And you need to let Itsy sleep next to you in bed,” Fable had to take advantage of the moment.

“But of course,” Axel gritted his teeth behind her back, imagining all the possible ways to choke both spiders, “as long as I don’t have any girls sleeping over.”

Fable hit him lightly in his stomach, “I just remembered it wasn’t going to work anyway.”

“How so?”

“I need Loki’s full name to posses his body, We call it true name in magic. Each person has a true name that without the spell doesn’t work,” Fable explained. “I remember he told us that Blackstar wasn’t his real name. It was given to him by Charmwill, which makes me curious to know if you really discovered who his father was.”

“OK,” Axel said and went back to grab his phone. “I will tell you now about my genius discovery, but first you have to tell me more about true names.”

“It’s easy,” Fable said. “Remember the old Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale every one heard as a kid?”

“Of course,” Axel said. “I always suspect it has to do something with Professor Rumpelstein. The names are similar.”

“Maybe, but that’s not the point,” Fables said. “In the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, which I assume you know well, the imp who has stolen a firstborn promised his mom he will return her child only is she could guess his true name. And then later she does, and has control over him and is able to kill him.”

“So?”

“So we all though this was just a story when this is a part of true magic,” Fable said. “To make a spell work on someone, especially very powerful spells, the witch or the performer needs to know someone true name, which usually their real name. But in the a world like a Kingdom of Sorrow, I assumed a true name is something even deeper than that. I am just assuming.”

“And I learned something new from my sister today,” Axel said proudly, scrolling his phone. “Now, in order to tell you my new discover about Loki’s father, I need to send one last message to Genius Goblin. I need to ask him something. The man is a guru.”

21

A Massacre in Furry Tell

Shew and Cerené watched the horde of Huntsmen invade the small town of Furry Tell. Their black cloaks fluttered in the wind hardly resisting their unicorns’ intensity.

The unicorns were hornless with a third eye where their horns had been cut off, all but Loki’s, the leader of all Huntsmen. His unicorn was black, and instead of a third eye, it had a horn. Shew recognized it immediately because it was Loki's famous Alicorn.

Wherever Loki rode his unicorn, the laughing wind spiraled around him. It was like a second conscious, a ghostly black wind that waved like a guardian curtain, showing face and hands. It talked like a human, and it applauded Loki each time he chopped off one of the villager’s heads.

"I can’t believe my eyes," Shew looked away from the blood and gore Loki was spreading in the town. At least, she’d seen him from far away. She didn’t think she could take it if she had been closer.

“That’s horrible,” Cerené muttered, changing her mind about her fascination with the Huntsman whose blonde hair fluttered from under his hood as he rode and killed through town.

“Furry Tell is such a small community. Hundred people or more, maybe,” Shew said. “Why would he kill them so heartlessly?”

“He wouldn’t do it unless the Queen of Sorrow demanded it,” Cerené said. “I heard he tends to kill ninety nine people whenever he raises his sword. He calls it his lucky number," she said.

“Why ninety nine?” Shew wondered.

"I heard the Queen of Sorrow made him the master Huntsman after he'd killed ninety nine vampires on his own in a battle on the borders. But that was some time ago when he was still that cute boy in the king’s army," Cerené said.

Shew wondered where Angel was in all of this. She remembered Angel had been away for long periods while fighting the Intruders, sometimes for a whole year. He’d always been proud of Loki. That’s why Loki had been so close to the royal family, and why Angel had assigned him to protect her personally later. She thought it was an unwise move by Angel to assign Loki as her guardian. Loki was one of the youngest and bravest fighters in his army. Demoting him to a position where he protected the princess didn’t make sense. Maybe he’d been worried about Carmilla hurting Shew, and he thought that Loki would be the perfect protector for the princess. How could Angel forget about Loki’s past, being a son of an angel and demon?

Ironically, it was exactly what Carmilla needed.

Shew turned back to look at the Furry Tell massacre. Loki was killing unapologetically. She wondered if he’d known why he was doing it. Had he just become a marionette played by Carmilla, the puppeteer?

He never missed someone’s head, not once. His chops were swift and he never looked back at the heads that rolled on the ground. Some of the other huntsmen picked up a head and started kicking it with their feet while the laughing wind clapped among them. Shew was too shattered to notice that she was witnessing one of the earliest soccer games in history.

Loki’s face wasn’t visible underneath the hood, and Shew still wished it wasn’t him. What if she pulled the hood down and discovered that it wasn’t him, wouldn’t that be the best thing that ever happened to her?

You know it’s him, Shew. Don't try to change it. You can feel it in your heart. Even if you can’t remember everything, you never forgot him. He tried to kill you in the Queen's name when you were sixteen. Only you don't remember how he fell in love with you after that.

"Listen," Shew said. "Stay here, Cerené. I’m going down to Furry Tell."

"No! You stay here."

"I have to go. Maybe he remembers me," Shew said.

"Of course, he remembers you. He is in the Queen's service. Why wouldn't he remember the princess?"

"I don't mean it like that. I mean remember—" Shew held her tongue. She was going to mention that Loki should remember she was the one he loved. Maybe if she managed to kiss him, she'd save him like he’d saved her in the Schloss.

"There is nothing we can do, Shew," Cerené pressed her hand. "I don't think I like him anymore after what I just saw. I mean hearing about someone killing and being powerful is one thing and seeing him do that is something else. How could he kill so many people? There are women with their children down there. He is just like the Queen, and my stepfamily."

“Do you have any idea why they’re raiding this village?" Shew asked.

"I can't hear them from here,” Cerené said. “I could try the earth again.”

“Not necessary,” Shew said, about to run down to Furry Tell.

“I wonder why the huntsmen are gathering so many children," Cerené pointed.

Shew stopped. Cerené was right. Loki was killing the elders in Furry Tell as the huntsmen gathered the younger ones in the middle of the village. The children knelt down with their hands behind their backs while the huntsmen checked them out one by one. They pulled the children violently by the hair, sniffing them and looking into their eyes.

"What’s going on?" Shew said, hesitating again. Should she just run down and face Loki, or?

Stop hesitating!

"I wish I knew," Cerené replied. "Look, he is letting one of the children go."

"Where?"

"That blonde girl!"

It was true. Shew wondered why the huntsmen freed one of the children. She noticed they let another one go, then another one. The huntsmen yelled something, the same phrase over and over.

“Can you hear what they are saying?” Shew asked Cerené.

“Wait,” Cerené knelt down and put her hand on the ground again, trying to listen to figure out what the huntsmen were yelling. Shew wondered if that was normal or one of the powers Cerené possessed. “I think they’re saying something like ‘winter in their eyes’,” Cerené said.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Shew said. “Why would they say that?”

"I’m sure this is how the words rhyme, but maybe it’s something that sounds like ‘winter in their eyes.’ I can’t be sure,” Cerené stood up again, unable to listen to the massacre anymore.

Furry Tell was swimming in blood, and Loki finally got off his unicorn, walking among the children. They lowered their heads while shivering and pleading for forgiveness.

Loki said nothing. He pulled a girl’s hair and cut a slice of it with his sword, and used it to wipe his sword clean as kicked a victim’s head and sent it rolling into a well.

“I will stick to liking the prince,” Cerené mumbled.

Shew said nothing. She was tongue-tied. She’d just realized that if she failed in bringing Loki back to his senses, they were destined to become enemies in this dream. As long as Carmilla owned his Fleece, he was one of those she was prophesized to kill.

Unless she found a way to bring him back.

Be honest with yourself, Shew. If you could save him, could you forgive him for the things he’s done in the past, the people he killed, the children he is about to kill right now?

Shew shrugged, dazed by the thoughts in her head. Why wouldn’t she forgive him for the horrors he’d done in the past when he’d forgiven her for all the blood she’d shed in Sorrow. She had killed hundreds of teenagers in the Waking World, and yet she was prophesized to be the Chosen One. Was it possible that becoming the Chosen One wasn’t a quest, but a redemption for her past sins?

“Cerené,” Shew turned to face her. “Are you sure this veiled Huntsman is Loki?” it was illogical to ask, but love was blind, and wishful thinking was its middle name.

Shew wished she’d gone def before she could hear Cerené’s inevitable answer, “Of course, it’s him, Shew,” Cerené said confidently. “It’s him, the Huntsman. The ever famous Loki Van Helsing.”

22

The Name of the Huntsman

“But Van Helsing is just a character in a book,” Fable had never looked so shocked before.

“He is a character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula to be precise,” Axel said. “And yes, the characters in the books have just all jumped out in our faces in Sorrow. It’s so crazy I’m worried I’d discover I am Humpty Dumpty eventually.”

“Stop taking this lightly. This is crazy. I need you to explain how you discovered this in the first place,” Fable said. “Then I will decide whether I still want to be part of this crazy world or not.”

“For a start, you should ask yourself why most articles written in the Dreamhunters Guide were signed by a V.H.,” Axel said.

“V.H.,” Fable considered, “Van Helsing.”

“Loki told me that Charmwill Glimmer gave him the Dreamhunters Guide because it was written by his father,” Axel said. “That’s why Loki cherished this book.”

“Van Helsing is Loki’s father,” Fable circled the purple light, thinking it over. “So Van Helsing was an angel, a Dreamhunter?”

Axel nodded, folding his arms.

“Could you please remind me who Van Helsing was in the first place, as a character I mean?” Fable said.

“Abraham Van Helsing, was a titular character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” Axel explained. “In the book, Dracula is the villain vampire that no one was able to kill. Van Helsing helped a group of people kill Dracula after a great hunt. Van Helsing was an expert with vampires, and it was never really clear why.”

“Did the book say he was a Dreamhunter?” Fable said.

“Of course, not,” Axel said. “Don’t you get it, Fable?”

“What am I supposed to get?”

“That ‘Dracula’ must have been forged, just like the Brothers Grimm tales,” Axel said, “I bet most of the books in the world were forged, hiding some kind of a secret history, disguised in the pages of novels, fairy tales, and fables.”

“That can’t be,” Fable shook her head.

Axel thought it was amusing how Fable refused to believe it when she still considered Sherlock Holmes was real and Shakespeare was a wizard. He didn’t make an issue out of it, though. He was focused on his own discoveries. “Remember when I told you about Carmilla Karnstein’s name before she trapped us in the kitchen, and how it was also mentioned in historical novels?”

“Yes,” Fable said. “You claimed there was this old novel called ‘In a Glass Darkly’, written by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. One of the book’s novellas was called ‘Carmilla.’”

“Exactly,” Axel said. “In fact, the antagonist of the book is a ruthless vampire girl; her name was Carmilla, and she came from the House of Karnstein, a well known family in Austria.”

“Our Carmilla, the Queen of Sorrow?” Fable tiptoed.

“I surely believe so,” Axel said. “Some historians say that Carmilla, the novella, is the very first documented vampire novel ever, even before the famous Dracula—well, there were a couple older books about vampire, but Carmilla was the first to stir questions by historians about the nature of vampires,” he stopped to make sure Fable followed. “Flipping through the book on my phone, I discovered that Carmilla was portrayed as feeding on a young girl named Laura.”

“Why is that of importance?”

“Because Laura herself never turned into a vampire and never died. Carmilla was feeding on her to stay alive,” Axel said. “Doesn’t that sound like our Carmilla who bathed in the blood of young girls to stay alive? The Queen of Sorrow is Carmilla Karnstein, the first documented vampire woman ever.”

“But the stories and timelines aren’t exactly consistent,” Fable rubbed her ear, thinking and analyzing.

“We’re not going to discuss this again, are we?” Axel dared her eyes.

“I know, I know,” she waved her hands in the air. “All these books have been forged. They are bits and pieces of the reality we were led to believe was different. It’s as if some books were forged and some were hidden clues disguised in novels.”

“Written in codes and innuendos for geniuses like me to figure it out,” Axel said.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Humpty Dumpty” Fable teased him.

“Is that so?” Axel craned his neck and squinted one eyes. “How about this discovery? Remember when Loki told us Shew called her mother ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’?”

“I remember that one,” she said. “I thought it was very lame. I mean this really sounds like antagonist’s name in a Harry Potter book.”

“What if I told that it was the other way around? What if I told you that She Who Must Be Obeyed, aka Carmilla Karnstein, aka Mircalla, and aka the Queen of Sorrow has lived long before any of those books you mentioned were ever written?” Axel said.

“Can you prove that?” Fable hated when her brother was a smartass, but right.

“Look,” Axel showed her his most magnificent reference ever known to him: the internet, of course.

“Are you going to show me another book with the name She Who Must Be obeyed in it?” Fable pursed her lips.

Axel nodded confidently, “In 1886, a prestigious writer named Henry Rider Haggard, wrote a book that has never been out of print till this very day. The book is called ‘She.’ It’s about two travelers exploring the unknown African territories at the time. In their journey, they encounter a primitive race of black natives, enslaved by a mysterious white Queen, Ayesha, who reigns as the all-powerful ‘She’ who killed so many of them that the land was covered in red blood.”

“So what? All those color references could be a coincidence,” Fable inquired. “And her name is Ayesha. It doesn’t prove anything.”

“No, her name isn’t just Ayesha,” Axel said. “She’s known to be ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed.’” Axel slammed his chubby hand on the phone as if it were a precious treasure map.

“Are you saying this is Carmilla again?” Fable wondered. “And that this writer, like most of the others, wrote her history, disguised in a novel, to hint at the Queen of Sorrow’s existence?”

“Definitely,” Axel said. “There is even a part in the book where the author hints that she was feeding on her slaves, probably trying to tell us she was a vampire. This stuff happened 1886, in between the hundred years of Sleeping Death to all fairy tale character. We know that Carmilla has power over a small part of the Dreamworld called ‘Jawigi’, and that she must have had her way out of it while everyone was asleep, living far away in Africa until the other fairy tale characters woke up.”

“I really need to sit down,” Fable said, crossing her legs like and Indians flute player on the floor. “My head is going to explode.”

“If the Queen of Sorrow is all of those people,” Axel had to prove he was right. “Why wouldn’t Van Helsing be Loki’s father?”

“Carmilla’s story is different,” Fable wasn’t convinced. “It’s a bit too confusing. I was barely keeping up with fairy tale people being real, now the vampire lore, too?”

“It’s not that strange if you ask me,” Axel said. “If you accepted Shew being a vampire, then it shouldn’t surprise you that the Huntsman is connected to Dracula. The Huntsman was sent by the Queen to kill a vampire after all. Be it a Huntsman or Abraham Van Helsing it’s not that different.”

“OK, Axel,” Fabled inhaled. “Just let me digest this a little bit slower. I understand the V.H. thing, but this could still be a mere coincidence. Why would Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, do that?”

“Because, like the Brothers Grimm, he was forging the real history of vampires and fairy tales—which of course, no one would have ever thought they were connected,” Axel said. “I keep telling you that and you never listen.”

“And I suppose you’re going to tell that you don’t know why he forged it, the same way we still don’t know why the Brothers Grimm forged it.”

“That part is true,” Axel raised a finger in the air. “But what if I told you that Bram Stoker confessed forging the Dracula book to his liking, that it was a true story, and that he had to rename characters to protect them?”

“Now you’re crossing the line. No author would even admit that,” Fable said.

Axel said nothing, but a big smiled filled face, making way though his cheeks.

“You can’t prove that?” Fable challenged him.

“I can’t?” Axel accepted the challenge, surfing the internet on Loki’s phone. “Now look at this,” he urged Fable to come see.

“Bram Stoker’s Icelandic Version Preface for the 1901 version,” Fable read from the internet. “So?”

“So read it,” Axel demanded. “It’s a limited edition, printed by the author himself.”

“The reader of this story will very soon understand how the events outlined in these pages have been gradually drawn together to make a logical whole,” Fable began reading. “Apart from excising minor details which I considered unnecessary, I have let the people involved relate their experiences in their own way; but, for obvious reasons, I have changed the names of the people and places concerned. In all other respects I leave the manuscript unaltered, in deference to the wishes of those who have considered it their duty to present it before the eyes of the public,” Fable looked back at Axel, shrugging.

“I am quite convinced that there is no doubt whatever that the events here described really took place, however unbelievable and incomprehensible they might appear at first sight,” Axel continued reading. “And I am further convinced that they must always remain to some extent incomprehensible, although continuing research in psychology and natural sciences may, in years to come, give logical explanations of such strange happenings which, at present, neither scientists nor the secret police can understand.”

“Is that true?” Fable said with eyes wide open.

“Need I read more?” Axel said. “In this rare version, the author confesses that the novel is almost-true, only altered in certain places to protect the characters somehow. I bet this is the same reason the Brothers Grimm forged their tales. Maybe they were protecting some, the Lost Seven for instance. This is almost typical of Shew’s story. Everything you read in the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves fairy tale is partially true, but in an eluding way so the secrets stay hidden but the real characters can read between the lines.”

“You are talking about novels with imaginary characters being true all over the world,” Fable considered. “Does that mean I cam meet the real Mr.Darcy?”

“Why not?” Axel shook his shoulders. “The novels we read everyday, turned to be fabrications of reality. There is even more. Listen to this: In the Dracula novel, Abraham Van Helsing claims that his wife went insane after their son’s death.”

“Babushka isn’t insane,” Fable said.

“All ghosts are insane to me,” Axel said. “But that’s not the point. Abraham later explained that his wife was dead to him. Remember, the novel must have been forged, so this was a subtle indication of Loki’s ghost mother.”

“But Loki isn’t dead,” Fable said.

“No, he actually was,” Axel said. “He was shadowed by the Council of Heaven, which is how the council executed a Dreamhunter. That’s dead to me. Charmwill brought Loki back from the dead, unshadowing him, to give him a second life, remember?”

“I’m still not so sure about this, Axel,” Fable scratch he head and sighed. “But if Loki is Van Helsing’s son, what does that contribute to the story?”

“I’m not sure either,” Axel shrugged, “but I don’t think I’ll ever look at the world the same again. The next things I know you could be Gretel.”

Fable gazed back at the purple light. Something about the light made her look at it repeatedly. Her desire to pass through it was increasing each moment they spent in the Schloss. The purple light was messing with her head. She had decided not to try to save Loki by using her dangerous spell because she didn’t know his True Name anyways.

Now that she knew his True Name—if Axel’s theory was right—, she wasn’t sure. The purple light was calling her, and she wanted to enter the Dream Temple and save Loki more than anything now.

If only she could figure out what her brother had deleted from Loki’s phone?

Fable let Axel continue on rambling about his theories, but she wasn’t really listening. That purple’s light effect was too imminent to neglect.

What was going on with her?

Suddenly, Fable began feeling dizzy. She rubbed her head and balanced herself, but almost fell past the purple light.

“Fable?” Axel wasn’t sure what was happening. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she stuttered. “It’s like…”

“Like what? Answer me.”

“It’s like Déjà vu or something,” Fable’s eyes throbbed. “I feel as if I’m seeing something from another world,” she began choking and shivering. “I feel something bad is going to happen.”

“To who?” Axel asked, holding her tight. “To Loki? To Shew?”

Fable tried not to look into her brothers eyes. What she felt was scary and it didn’t make sense to her. She swallowed hard and told him what the feeling told her, “I feel something bad is going to happen to me.”

23

A Grimm Girl

Shew and Cerené watched as the local’s horses escaped the dark Huntsmen in Furry Tell.

Loki had been walking among the children for a while as if looking for something. He pulled each one by the hair and stared into their eyes the way the other huntsmen did before.

Her eyes were focused on Loki Van Helsing. She’d always known who he really was so Cerené’s remark didn’t surprise her at all. Shew was told that Frederich Van Helsing had been her father’s most trusted physician, and that he’d been present the night she was born. Was Frederich another Dreamhunter who sympathized with vampires? She had no idea what his relation with Abraham or Loki was exactly. She was only sure that Abraham Van Helsing, Loki’s father, was a Dreamhunter who was once banned for loving Loki’s mother, a demon.

“You remember when I was about to tell you a funny story at the Candy House before Baba Yaga showed up? The one about how Furry Tell’s name came to be?” Cerené said.

“What’s that?” Shew said absently.

“Furry Tell is actually another way of saying Fairy Tale,” Cerené explained. “I know it’s crazy but there is a secret language called ‘Anguish’. It’s said that someone created it to communicate with a woman he was prohibited to love. To speak the language you say words that sound alike but have different meanings. I don’t know who invented it but he is said to be from Furry Tell.”

“That sounds like a fun language,” Shew said, mildly interested. Having a chat with Cerené while Loki was about to kill one of the children wasn’t the best thing to do. She was hoping Loki was only looking for the children with ‘winter in their eyes.’ She supposed he should leave the other children be and ride away.

“It’s a fun language,” Cerené said. “For example, you know that rhyme ‘Mary Had a Little Lamp’?”

She nodded. She wished Cerené would stop talking.

“In Anguish language it would be called: “Marry hatter ladle limb,” Cerené giggled.

“What?” Shew said.  She thought she noticed someone she knew amidst the children below, but she wasn’t sure.

“Itch fleas worse widest snore,” Cerené giggled again. “It means: whose fleece was white as snow.”

She ignored Cerené, squinting to see who the children were.

“So the whole rhyme in Anguish Language would be:  Marry hatter ladle limb, Itch fleas worse widest snore. An ever-wear debt Marry win Door limb worse shorter gore,” Cerené couldn’t stop laughing.

“Cerené!” Shew hissed, and raised a silencing finger toward her. It was rather irritating how Cerené had been acting since they’d reached Rainbow’s End. A bit childish, Shew thought.

Cerené shrugged and tried to see what Shew was climbing down the hill for. She had no choice but follow her, trying to be quiet.

Down in the village, Loki came upon another boy he thought was worth sparing.

“Winter in his eyes,” he said as he set him free—Shew could hardly believe this was Loki’s voice; calm and confident without the slightest hint of compassion.

The huntsmen took the boy and ushered him to a carriage that had just arrived. It was the Queen’s pumpkin carriage. The spared boys were going to be transported to the castle.

“Why are the children with ‘winter in their eyes’ going to the castle?” Shew muttered.

“Maybe it’s ‘glinter in their eyes’, not ‘winter’,” Cerené suggested.

“Is that even a word?” Shew sneaked toward one of the horses that had fled Furry Tell. The horse didn’t move, unafraid of her. She had always been good with horses. It was one of the few advantages of  imprisonment in the castle. She was allowed to ride white horses around the castle at night while huntsmen circled her so she would not escape. Angel had been her personal teacher when he was around.

“I don’t know,” Cerené shook her shoulders. “I don’t go to school, you know. I just clean it. Maybe it’s some kind of Anguish Language like I just told you.”

Shew pulled her close behind the horse as it walked slowly near the village.

“I hope Loki’s not collecting children for the Queen to slaughter,” Shew whispered.

“I don’t think so,” Cerené said. “They are sparing both boys and girls. The Queen only swims in the blood of girls. They treat the boys they spare with care. I’d worry about the others who don’t have ‘winter in their eyes.’”

"Please, no!" they saw a boy pleading. He was a bit chubby and he was crying. "My mother and father aren't home. They left town this morning and said they'll be back tomorrow. I’m supposed to take care of my sister. Please don't kill her. I’m supposed to protect her."

"You can't even protect yourself, child," the laughing wind roared and slapped the boy on his chubby cheeks, left and right.

"Who's your sister?" Loki spoke.

"That’s her," the boy said, and pointed at a pigtailed girl.

"Stupid boy," Cerené gritted her teeth. "If you want to protect her, you shouldn't point at her."

Shew omitted a quiet shriek as she had climbed down the hill, suspecting she knew the boy and the girl.

"My sister's name is Gretel," the boy said.

Loki walked over to Gretel and poked her with the tip of his sword in her shoulder, drawing a small trickle of blood out. "Look at me," he said calmly. "Are you Gretel?"

Gretel nodded without raising her head.

Once Shew saw her, she identified her as Fable. She remembered when Fable bravely fought Big Bad in the Schloss. She admired her for that. Loki had told Shew that Fable believed in her every step of the way.

She wasn’t surprised that Axel and Fable were Hansel and Gretel. Loki had told her that Charmwill had hinted to that fact. All the talk about Candy House and food hinted more at it—Shew really hoped Baba Yaga wasn’t their witch mother. That would be awful.

All Shew could think about were the consequences of Loki killing Fable. Would she die in the Waking World if he killed her in the Dreamworld? She thought she would, because if Fable dies around 1812, how could there be a Fable in the present day? The rules that apply to vampires should apply to her, or?

"Get your hands off me," Gretel was saying. "You're the Queen's bastard."

"Shut your mouth," Axel pleaded. “Or he’ll kill you.”

"One day, I’m going to be a witch and I will curse you, Huntsman," she spit in Loki’s face.

Gretel wouldn't die in the Waking World if Loki killed her here because it wasn’t her dream, Shew thought as she walked slowly. Only if someone dies in their own dream, they die in the real world. She wasn't sure she was right about that, though.

"I can't let that happen," Shew muttered. "I have to save this girl."

"You know her? Is she your friend, like me?" Cerené asked.

“Yes,” Shew said, ready to get on the horse.

“Then let me come with you,” Cerené said. “I can help. I’ll fight with my blowpipe.”

Before Shew was able to consider Cerené, one of the huntsmen saw her and Cerené. He stood staring at them, his face hidden under the hood, from afar. Strangely enough, he didn’t tell the others about Cerené and Shew. He walked slowly toward them without saying a word.

“Who is that man?” Cerené said, aiming her blowpipe like a sword. “It’s times like these when I wish I could spit fire, just like a dragon.”

“It’s the man who’s been chasing me,” Shew was about to shriek, “the one who pursued me every where, in the Wall of Thorns and in my room in the castle.”

“What are you talking about?” Cerené said.

“It’s my pursuer, Cerené,” Shew said. “I think it could be your mother.”

“My mother? That’s impossible,” Cerené objected. “You’re mistaken. Why would Bianca hunt you?”

Her stalker was close now. There were no yellow glinting eyes showing from beneath his hood like the others, though. His silence and confidence was alarming.

Shew was going to get on the horse, pull Cerené up with her and then escape. But she unexpectedly realized she wasn’t afraid of the person following her. It was an unexplainable feeling. She was actually curious to know who it was.

Could it be Loki? Could it be that the other Huntsman isn’t Loki?

Fable’s voice, cursing Loki, brought Shew back to her senses. There was no time for curiosities. She had to fight and save Fable from Loki. Shew snarled with her fangs at her hunter.

“The Huntsmen are stronger than you,” the hunter said, now close enough to talk. The mysterious individual turned out to be  a girl. But it wasn’t Bianca because she sounded too young and Cerené didn’t recognize her voice. “The only way to save Fable is tell Cerené to run as far as she can, out of your sight.”

“Who’s Fable?” Cerené said. “And who are you?” she snapped at the girl in the black cloak.

“How will that save Fable?” Shew coped, having no time to ask who the tracker was. If a person, especially a girl, knew Fable wasn’t from this world, she thought she’d trust her. Was it Charmwill Glimmer?

Charmwill is not a girl, Shew! You’re losing it.

“Think about it,” the girl dressed in black said. “Every time Cerené runs away from you, the dream shifts. When she left your room in the castle, the dream shifted to Oddly Tune’s scene. When you upset her and she ran out of the Field of Dreams, the dream shifted and you woke up in your bedroom.”

“What dream?” Cerené questioned.

“I know you’ve been questioning who’s controlling this dream,” the pursuer said. “It’s Cinderella. Cerené, the Phoenix.”

“How do you know my name?” Cerené tiptoed with anger. “Only my mother called me Cinderella? How do you know?”

“If Cerené runs out of your sight now, the dream will shift and Loki won’t kill Fable,” the pursuer said, ignoring Cerené. “Now please tell her to run. She will only listen to you.”

“Run,” Shew told Cerené. It was an impulsive move, but she wanted to save Fable. In truth, and although she knew Fable cherished her, she wasn’t really saving Fable. She was saving Loki from the aftermath of killing Fable in the Dreamworld—that’s if she ever managed to get his Fleece back.

“You believe her?” Cerené said. “She’s a liar—”

“Run!” Shew snarled at her. “Please!”

“I will see you later, right?” Cerené asked.

“Of course, and we’ll make more Art,” Shew tried to be as calm as possible. Fable was already screaming in the back.

Cerené, still clinging to her blowpipe ran as fast as she could.

Shew saw her disappear in the dark, staring at the covert new comer and hoping she was not lying to her.

The cloaked girl was right. She began feeling a bit dizzy, and considered a sign that the dream would shift soon.

But before that happened, Shew asked the girl one last thing, “who are you?”

“My name is Alice,” the girl pulled the hood back. “Alice Wilhelm Carl Grimm. I was sent here by Wilhelm.”

24

A Slash from the Past

“Fable!” Axel screamed and ran toward his sister as she had suddenly collapsed on the floor.

“What’s wrong with you, sis?” Axel pulled her up into his arms, holding her tightly. Like usual, he tried CPR with her, still convinced he was good at it, but she was breathing, just not responding well. Her eyes turned half-white and then she began shivering.

Axel slapped her on the cheek a couple of times, all the while apologizing for it being too hard. He offered her Sticky Sweet Bones, trying to force them into her mouth, thinking she fainted from lack of eating. For a moment he even blamed himself for eating too much and leaving too little for her to eat.

“How many times have I told you that you were too skinny?” Axel was about to cry. “You never listen to me. What’s wrong, Fable? Answer me.”

Fable, still shivering, was hallucinating and saying something Axel couldn’t understand. All kinds of ideas popped in his head at once. Should he pull his sister out of the Schloss and get her to a hospital? But how could he?  The Black Forest was too far away from the hospital to carry her the whole way, and although Carmen was just outside, she only worked when Loki drove her.

“OK,” Axel inhaled deeply. “I get it. You’re trying to worry me so I will confess to deleting the part in Loki’s Dreamhunter Guide about how to unlock the dream. If you wake up, I promise I will tell you everything,” he pleaded.

Fable was still shivering, mumbling undecipherable worlds.

“Please Fable, please!” Axel said. “All right, I’ll tell you what was written in Loki’s phone. The only way to unlock the dream is to—”

Suddenly, Fable gripped Axel’s arm so hard it whitened around her fingers. She tilted her head toward him and looked at him with white eyes as if possessed by a demon.

"Get your hands off me," she bellowed as if Axel was standing a great distance from her.

“What’s going on, sis?” Axel cried. “What’s happening to you,” he gazed sideways at the purple light, and saw it was throbbing with a bluish tint. “I bet it’s all because you’ve been too close to that stupid light. I told you not to stay close, sis. When will you ever listen to me? When will you ever learn that I love you more than anything?”

Fable’s neck twisted backwards as if someone had pulled her hair. This time, she looked like she needed his help, hanging onto him. The color of her eyes changed to a bluish purple, the color of the Dream Temple’s protective light.

"Get your hands off me," she repeated. She sounded weakened and hurt then she uttered other incoherent words about a little boy, a little girl, and a Huntsman.

“What are you saying, sis? I don’t understand!” Axel held her tighter, unable to understand what was happening. He noticed Fable was bleeding from her shoulder as if some invisible force had punctured it with the tip of a knife.

Finally, she uttered a coherent sentence, but he didn’t know what it meant.  At least the words were understandable, "You're the Queen's bastard!" Fable howled in outrage. “Get out of Furry Tell,” she added in one last breath before her head and arms fell back.

25

The Name of the Necklace

After her encounter with Alice Grimm, Shew thought she’d wake up in her room again, but she didn’t.

She woke up in the World Between Dreams.

She was standing in the middle of the poppy fields as a soft wind circled her with its tender touch. The world was beautiful again, and she longed to stay there forever. She stretched her arms to her sides and let her head fall back, inhaling her surroundings as the sun kissed her softly on the forehead.

It’s going to be alright, Shew. Nothing can go wrong as long as you’re here.

She wondered how the World Between Dreams was so much better than the dreams themselves. There was no hint of darkness, no implication of evil, and not the tiniest scent of malice. This was Shew’s personal and discreet wonderland, a place better than life and death, better than reality, a place of her own imagination—Loki’s imagination.

“You’re not paying attention, Shew.”

In the distance, she saw Loki, dressed in white like an angel, but also spattered with thin, almost invisible, lines of blood. The sun shone directly on his face. Shew couldn’t see it clearly. The light was too glaring, but she’d known him from his voice, from the way he walked, and from his scent. It wasn’t an evil scent this time. It was a weakened one, desperate and confused.

“Loki,” she said. “Why am I here again?”

“I’m trying to tell you something,” Loki’s voice was shattered like shards of glass lost in the air.

“I know,” she took a step forward.

“Don’t come near me,” he urged her. “I might look handsome from afar, not so much if you come closer and see my face.”

“Listen,” Shew stopped, arching her back a little as if her body disobeyed her, wanting to get closer to Loki. “I’ve seen what you have done, the children you killed. I remember you, Loki. I know about the darkness that’s weighing on your shoulders. But guess what, we’re all like that. We all have done bad things.”

“Not like me,” Loki said, his voice colorless, not evil, but dead as if his vocal cords were hollow pipes.

“No, you don’t understand. We’re all like you. You’re just making a big deal of it because you’re a half-angel. Everybody in Sorrow is like you, everybody in the world. None of us is pure goodness,” Shew shrugged. She thought she should be the last one giving him advice. In fact, she sometimes felt as guilty as he did.

“You’re talking too much,” Loki said. “I can’t hold this World Between Dreams for long. I’m bound to Carmilla through the Fleece. Anything I do, she sees. All but this World Between Dreams because it’s a special and private place deep within me,” Loki explained. “So don’t waste time, listen to me.”

She nodded obediently.

“Like I said, you’re not paying attention in this dream,” Loki said. “Did you read the necklace I gave you?”

“I tried, Loki,” she said. “Believe me, I tried, but it’s not making any sense. Why can’t you just say it?”

“Love is not about words, Shew,” Loki said. “If you can’t use your heart, mind and soul then love means nothing. It’s just like when Cerené showed you that her magic needed Heart, Brain, and Soul. If you use these things, you’ll be able to read the pendant on the necklace.”

“I’m trying, Loki,” Shew almost stomped her feet. “But it’s unreadable,” Shew felt a burning in her eyes. She was resisting tearing up. She raised the circle-shaped pendant on the necklace closer to inspect it. “It looks like an engraving, and I tried to read it in every which way.

“That’s because you’re only looking at what’s right in front of your eyes, Shew,” Loki said as his image began to fade. “We always think the truth lies just in front of us.  It’s the same when we judge people by their looks, a building by its façade, and a book by its cover. If we only take the time and flip things around, we’ll see a clearer picture. You’re not looking at it deep enough. It’s much easier that you think.”

“Loki, you sound so…” Shew couldn’t believe this was the boy whose favorite phrase was ‘My name is Loki Blackstar and I’m here to kick your ass.’ So there is something else to the necklace that I’m not seeing? I promise you I’ll find it,” she took it off and placed it in the palm of her hand, still unsure about what he was hinting at.

When she raised her head back to ask him, Loki was gone. The World Between Dreams was ending for the second time, and she hadn’t made good use of it.

As it faded, it crossed her mind to flip the necklace on its back. That’s when she saw the flipside of the puzzle. Another indecipherable engraving:

The world spun around Shew, and she was ready to go back to the Dreamory, wondering if she’d meet Alice Grimm again. She wanted to ask her what the heck was going on.

26

A Way Out

“It’s alright, Shew,” the voice said. “You’re safe now.”

Shew forced herself to see through the blurriness, already recognizing the voice. It was Alice Grimm, the mysterious girl sent by Wilhelm.

“Just breathe in and out, slowly, and your heart rate will ease. You’ve been through a lot in this dream,” Alice said. “You’ll be alright. I promise.”

Alice’s face began taking shape in front of her. She was Cerené’s age, blonde with an ordinary smile and fair skin. She had simple features that made her look almost like every other girl in the Waking World. Alice wasn’t immortal or a fairy tale character. She was only seventeen years old, and she had that Waking World vibe about her. She could tell Alice had not seen much of the old world. If she hadn’t been a descendant of the Grimms, she’d still be thinking Snow White was that giddy girl lost in the forest awaiting Prince Charming’s kiss.

Unlike Shew, Alice hadn’t experienced war or killings. Alice hadn’t been there when TV was first invented—Shew was trapped in the castle but a teenager had stolen a set and brought over to please his girlfriend. Alice hadn’t been there when man landed on the moon, or when they first invented sliced bread—Shew remembered it clearly because it happened in 1912, exactly a hundred years after her doomed sixteenth birthday.

“Where am I?” Shew said, touching the back of her head. “I don’t suppose any other Chosen One faints quite the way I do,” she muttered.

“We’re in Carmilla’s bathhouse,” Alice said. “You’re in the Queen’s bed where she gets her massages by her favorite goblins.”

“And where she slaughters all the innocent girls,” Shew added.

“I didn’t want to bring it up,” Alice said. “Don’t worry. No one is using the bathhouse at the moment. We’re alone, but we have to move fast.”

“So this is how this dream works, whenever Cerené leaves me, I get transported to another time?”

“Yes, because Loki used the Phoenix Incubator. It’s practically Cerené’s dream, seen through your eyes,” Alice said, “a neat and devious trick on Carmilla’s part.”

“So Cerené was really my childhood friend?” Shew asked.

“Very true,” Alice nodded.

“Then why don’t I remember her?” Shew said.

Alice hesitated for a moment, “because Cerené is one of the Lost Seven you split your heart with.”

“I already figured that out,” Shew sat up, stretching her neck against the pain. “Tell me something I don’t already know.”

“Charmwill Glimmer,” Alice said then pursed her lips.

“What about Charmwill?” She wondered.

“He helped you forget the identities and stories of the Lost Seven,” Alice explained. “He used one of his Oblivion Spells on you when you were sixteen.”

“Why did he do that?”

“It was with your permission,” Alice sighed and leaned closer to her, “to protect them from the Queen of Sorrow. Charmwill was worried Carmilla would easily pressure you as a mother, or even read your mind. The only way for her not to know, was if you didn’t know.”

“Then why did I re-remember Cerené in this dream? Shouldn’t she be wiped out of my memories?” Shew said.

“Good point,” Alice explained, sounding as if she was in a hurry. “In fact, you should have met some of the Lost Seven in this memory, but you couldn’t remember them because they were wiped out of your memory. In Cerené’s case, Loki, with Carmilla as guide, used the Power of Names on you to bring back Cerené’s memory. He used the name…”

“The Phoenix, I get it now,” Shew said.

“Exactly. That’s why Charmwill’s spell broke, and you’re remembering everything that happened between you and Cerené in the past.”

“Does this explain why I am not capable of seeing the moon or mermaid who gave Cerené the Mermaid Milk?” Shew wondered. “Are they one of the Lost Seven, maybe?”

“Could be,” Alice said. “I don’t know who the Lost Seven are. I only know Cerené is one,” Alice said.

“Which brings us to you, Alice,” Shew eyed her. “I really have to ask how you know all of this.”

“I told you I’m Alice Grimm, a descendant of the Grimms,” Alice sounded impatient about it.   Shew had a sneaking suspicion Alice wasn’t telling her everything she knew. “Wilhelm Grimm sent me to help you,” she said.

“Why Wilhelm? I noticed you never mention Jacob, Aren’t you a descendant of him, too?” Shew questioned.

“I am,” Alice said, “but Jacob is on the Queen’s side. Wilhelm is on ours. It’s a very old war between the two, but we really don’t have the time to talk about it.”

Shew didn’t care about the ticking clock in Alice’s head. As far as Shew knew, she had no reason to hurry. Shew intended to ask Alice a lot of questions, but then she noticed something that got her angry and instantly she wanted to choke Alice.

Alice was wearing the necklace Loki had given her; the pendant was dangling down her chest.

“What is Loki’s necklace doing around your neck?” Shew did her best not to draw her fangs.

Sensing the anger on Shew’s face, Alice retreated against the wall. She didn’t look like she intended to give it back though, “I’m not your enemy, Shew,” Alice said. “Calm down. I’m here to help you, and you’re not making this easy.”

“I don’t care who you are. Give me the necklace!” Shew demanded. “Why do you even have it?”

“I was trying to read it for you. It’s one of the things Wilhelm sent me to do,” Alice said. “I will give it back to you if you listen to what I have to say.”

“I’m not listening to any of your crap!” Shew was astonished at her own reaction. Loki’s necklace meant a lot to her and this dream.

“Please trust me. I know why Loki was so vague in the World Between Dreams.”

“You what?” Shew’s anger eased, just a little, out of curiosity. “How do you know about the World Between Dreams? He said it’s a private place.”

“It is a private place,” Alice said, and leaned a bit forward. Shew had underestimated her, thinking she was just an ordinary girl from the Waking World. “I only guessed he met you there because of the necklace. Wilhelm  taught me that such a place exists deep in our minds. The World in Between Dreams is a personal place in Loki’s psyche. Very few people have access to it. They have to be people he loves dearly. There are usually only three to five people in each one’s life who can enter. And here is the good news about the World Between Dreams; Carmilla can’t see it,” Alice explained.

“He told me the same thing, but I don’t understand why it’s so important that Carmilla can’t see the World Between Dreams,” Shew’s anger had flown out the window.

“It’s because Carmilla can see everything else going on in this dream.” Alice said.

“Everything?” Shew’s brows furrowed. She was  looking around, feeling as if she were trapped inside a snow globe in a witch’s hand.

“Every bit of it, through Loki’s Fleece,” Alice said slowly. “It’s like she’s looking through a crystal ball. All except the World Between Dreams. Thank God that the only way she can interfere in this world is through Loki.”

Shew sat on the edge of the window, trying to analyze every crazy detail she’d learned so far.

“But there is a catch about the World Between Dreams,” Alice said. “Whenever Loki’s inner soul reaches for you through this world, he can’t do it for long because she’ll notice his disappearance from her crystal ball. She has her own way to bring him back if he disappears, and torture him every time his soul longs for you.”

“Then why doesn’t he use the damn World in Between Dreams to freakin’ tell me what he wants to tell me?” Shew asked.

“Don’t you get it? Sometimes lovers prefer if their partners read their minds or pick up on the hints they send them, without having to be told” Alice’s eyes showed compassion when she said it, as if she wished someone  loved her the way  Loki loved Shew. “What’s the point of a relationship if two people have to explain everything to each other?”

“But I can’t read the damn necklace,” Shew’s face tensed and she did her best not to cry. It only took her a moment before she gathered her strength and stared back at Alice. She stood up again and gained her composure. She was stronger than she thought. “All right, I want my necklace back after I listen to you. So please tell me something useful,” she demanded.

“I will tell you something useful. It’s the one thing I wanted to tell you from the beginning, but you doubted me and kept asking too many questions,” Alice said, raising her eyes to meet Shew’s. “I will tell you how to wake up from this dream.”

“Finally,” Shew sighed with relief. “I’ve been trying to wake up from this dream since forever. Why has it been so long? I keep telling myself Axel and Fable should’ve broken the mirrors in the Dream Temple and disconnected the Dreamworld, but I don’t understand why this hasn’t happened yet.”

“It’s because they can’t,” Alice explained. “This dream is locked with a spell. Neither the dreamer nor the Dreamhunter controls this dream. Still, I can tell you how to wake up from it.”

“Come on, tell me,” Shew urged her. “I really wonder why you haven’t told me until now, since you’ve been following me for a while now.”

“Had I told you earlier, you wouldn’t have remembered Cerené or understood important information about your own life. And you wouldn’t have listened to me,” Alice said. “The only way to break free of this dream is going to be a hard decision for you.”

“OK? Can you just spit it out? She demanded. “In plain English please, and without riddles, how can I wake up from this dream?”

Alice shrugged, and her penetrating stare softened. What she was going to tell Shew was going to shatter her to pieces.

27

A Cruel Choice

“Enough, Axel,” Fable said.

Since she’d woken up after her shivering seizure, he’d been feeding her everything from his bag. To Axel, the only way to help someone or elevate their mood was food.

“OK,” he said. “Don’t be so grouchy. I was worried about you.”

Fable on the other hand woke up feeling different in ways she couldn’t explain. She’d asked Axel about her hallucinations and he’d told her all about the Queen and Furry Tell. Never had she felt so connected to an otherworld. She had experimented with all kinds of magic before, but this was different.

“So you want to talk about what happened?” Axel wondered.

“Like I said, I think I was there in the Dreamworld with Loki and Shew,” she couldn’t stop glancing at the purple light.

“Did you actually see them?” he asked, still skeptical. He didn’t know why Fable believed she was in the Dreamworld. Maybe she was hallucinating out of hunger, lack of sleep, or the incredible adventures they had been on since Loki’s arrival to Sorrow.

“I didn’t see Shew,” she turned and faced Axel.

“And Loki?”

Fable looked as if she was afraid to speak Loki’s name, “I did,” she lowered her head.

“What’s wrong, Fable?”

“Loki,” she said softly. “It was horrible.”

“Take it easy, sis,” Axel said. “We don’t have to talk about it now.”

“I have to talk about it!” Fable snapped, raising her head again. Axel noticed her temper had increased since the shivering.

“OK,” he said. “Tell me whatever makes you feel better.”

“Loki was so evil, Axel,” Fable said. “I saw him as the Huntsman, working for the Queen.”

“It was him you were calling a Queen’s bastard?”

“Yes,” Fable said.

“So you were really there in the Dreamworld with him, two centuries ago?” Axel scratched his head.

“In a small village called Furry Tell,” Fable said. “He almost…”

“Almost what?”

“He almost killed me, Axel.”

“Loki. Killing you? He is crazy about you. You’re probably his only human weakness,” Axel said.

“That’s what hurts,” she said. “He had the Queen’s yellow snake eyes, just like when he was in the kitchen with Carmilla.”

“Why did he want to kill you?” Axel said.

“I don’t remember exactly,” Fable said. “It was a strange seizure. I felt like I was there in the Dreamworld but I also felt like I was here in the Schloss. I can’t explain it."

“Are you keeping anything from me, Fable?” Axel wondered. “I feel like you’re lying to me. There is something you’re not telling me.”

“Why would I lie to you, Axel? You need to stop being so suspicious of everything.”

“It’s just that I feel you’re different since what just happened.”

“I’m trying to remember, Axel. Why can’t you understand that?” she touched the small wound that Axel had taken care of.

“Don’t worry,” Axel said. “I took care of it. I stopped the bleeding.”

“Thank you, bro,” Fable said. “But the bleeding was the least of my worries.”

“I’ll take that as a thank you,” Axel rolled his eyes.

“Think about it. I was hurt in the Dreamworld, and bled in the Waking World. That was really scary,” Fable said.

“Are you saying Loki did that to you?” Axel stood up. “I am going to kick his sorry ass when he wakes up,” he made his hands into fists and stared at the purple light.

“If they wake up,” Fable commented.

Axel fidgeted, not meeting her eyes.

“Don’t you think it’s time to admit you deleted the part about how this dream could be broken?” Fable eyed Axel without hesitation.

Axel said nothing, tapping the phone in his hand. He had no doubt Fable was going to do whatever it took to find out how to unlock the dream.

Was it time to tell her? She would not like the answer.

“Do you know what it means that I am wounded here in the Waking World?” Fable pressed harder. “It means that I’m already connected to this Dreamworld somehow.”

“And I wonder how,” Axel confronted her with another suspicious gaze.

“How should I know? Didn’t you see me have a seizure a while ago? What’s gotten into you,” she stood up, still feeling weary. “Someone could kill me in the Dreamworld, and I’ll end up dead here.”

“This is all gibberish, Fable,” Axel said. “Why would you be in the Dreamworld? You’re not one of them. There is no place for you in the Dreamworld. What happened to you is some kind of magic or something, probably because you keep circling this stupid purple light. I told you to keep away from it.”

“You’re right, Axel,” Fable lowered her tone. “It doesn’t make sense that I was in the Dreamworld. I am not a fairy tale character. I have never been that special,” she let out a tight laugh. “But what if one of them is reaching out for us? Maybe they need us to help them. Remember when Loki said you should break the mirror in case they don’t wake in the previous dreams? Now, that we can’t reach it, they could be sending us a message with their minds. What if, Axel?” She walked closer to him, talking politely. “How would you live with yourself if you learned that they needed our help and you stood here, eating your useless food, and doing nothing?”

“I agree with you, Fable,” he said. “I would do anything to help, Loki. You know he is my only and best friend—I don’t care so much about Shew, to be honest. But I can’t help Loki, not even with the information I deleted from the phone—” he realized he was too late. He’d spilled the beans already.

“So you admit deleting how Loki and Shew can unlock the dream,” Fable said.

“Yes, I did,” Axel waved his hands and walked away from her toward the purple light. “So what?”

“So if we’re not going to be able to help them anymore, why can’t you just tell me?” Fable said.

“I guess I have to get it off of my chest,” Axel said. “But you’re not going to like it.”

“It’s been a very unlikable day,” Fable said. “I can live with one more letdown.”

“In order to break free from a locked dream,” Axel turned to face his sister. “The Dreamer or the Dreamhunter has to kill the other to break the spell. Only one of them can wake up alive.”

28

A Splintered Clue

“Are you crazy?” Shew snapped. It wasn’t as if killing the Huntsman was easy, but the thought of even trying to hurt Loki was unacceptable.

“I know it’s hard, but you will stay trapped in this dream forever if you don’t do it,” Alice tried to pat her on the shoulder but Shew pushed her away. “Carmilla has locked this dream with a spell, which means the Dreamworld’s connection is too strong for the Waker to wake Loki up. Even Carmilla can’t do anything about it—she probably didn’t know that, or else she didn’t care.”

“I don’t care either,” Shew brushed Alice away and walked closer to a window, longing to breathe some air of logic.

“Alright, Shew,” Alice lowered her voice to ease the tension. “I need to tell you a little story, if you don’t mind.”

“I thought you didn’t even have much time,” Shew said. “Now you want to tell me a story?”

“It’s the only way to explain the consequences of you staying trapped in this dream,” Alice said. “And what Cerené’s real role is.”

“Cerené?” Shew considered. Even in her darkest hour, she couldn’t resist knowing more about her enigmatic childhood friend. “You have my attention,” she nodded.

“It’s a simple story, just like any other fairy tale,” Alice said, “only much darker.”

“Loki likes those,” Shew mused. “I’m all ears.”

“Since the beginning of time, a mysterious artifact called the Anderson Mirror has been of interest to the forces of the so called good and evil sides,” Alice said.

“Why are you calling them ‘so called’?”

“Because there is no absolute good and evil,” Alice said.

“Also, mirror and glass hadn’t been invented until recently, Alice” Shew interrupted again.

“In our world, yes,” Alice said. “But not in the cosmic world. The Anderson Mirror has existed since long ago. It’s even rumored that Justus Von Liebig, presumably the first man to invent a shiny silvered mirror, was actually trying to replicate the Anderson Mirror,” Alice stopped for a breath. She started walking back and forth in the bathhouse like a teacher in a lecture, lacing her hands together. “No one ever knew who created the mirror or  what its purpose was. All we know is that it reflected the worst in people.”

“The worst? You mean the way the mirrors in my room show my mother’s true ugly nature?” Shew asked.

“Not exactly,” Alice said. “Ordinary mirrors show the Queen’s nature because that’s what mirrors are supposed to do. The Anderson Mirror shows a person’s darker side whether he is good or bad. It just shows the worst in people. Period.”

“Why would the world fight over such a mirror, then?” Shew wondered.

“The quest for the mirror wasn’t as bloody in the beginning as it is now, before it fell into the hands of the devil,” Alice explained.

“Oh, there’s even a devil in this story,” Shew didn’t know what to believe anymore.

“He’s an ugly troll. Long story short, the devil broke the mirror accidentally and its splinters spread all over the world,” Alice explained.

“So?” Shew shook her shoulders, disinterested.

How could this have anything to do with me?

“The splinters, tinier than a grain of sand, entered people’s eyes and hearts,” Alice said. “Each person with a splinter carried part of the darkness of the mirror within him, and so an army of darkness spread all over the world,” Alice continued.

“This really sounds like a dark fairy tale,” Shew said. “Why does it sound so incredibly familiar?”

“Because, the story was briefly hinted at in Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen,” Alice said. “Hans was another famous fairy tale writer like the Brothers Grimm,” Alice said.

“So the Anderson Mirror is named after him, and its creator isn’t necessarily called Anderson?”

“True,” Alice said.

“I thought our world was only related to the Brothers Grimm?” Shew speculated.

“Our world is related to everything, trust me,” Alice said. “But that’s beside the point. Anderson could have hinted to the story, or even forged it like the Brothers Grimm. My version is the accurate and real one, if you‘ll stop interrupting me.”

“Go on, then,” Shew said. “Let’s see where this is going,” her liking of Alice decreased with each passing minute.

“The carriers of the darkness usually have a golden tinge in their eyes. It shines very briefly and goes unnoticed unless you look hard enough. The children of those carriers inherited the darkness, and so the army grew all over the world,” Alice stopped, gazing sharply at Shew. “Do you understand what I‘m saying? The only way to identify the carriers is to look in their eyes for a splinter from the mirror.”

“Winter in their eyes!” Shew almost jumped, uttering the phrase. “It wasn’t ‘winter’ but ‘splinter.’ The huntsmen in Furry Tell were looking for children who were carriers of the darkness,” Shew was certainly interested now.

“And they were sending them to the Queen so she could have a bigger army and complete the darkness,” Alice nodded.

“Carmilla,” Shew sat on the edge of the window. Her mother wasn’t just a vicious Queen feeding on young girls. She was collecting the darkness from all over the world, wanting to become the Queen of All Darkness. “And you said forces of the so called good and evil wanted this mirror?”

“True. Imagine how powerful you’d become if you owned such a mirror. If a good person gets hold of it, he could rid the world of a great pain. If a bad one, like the Queen, gets it, well….I think you know what she’d be capable of already. It would greatly help her quest to find the Lost Seven.”

“But the mirror is broken into pieces,” Shew said. “Searching for those children with splinters in their eyes all over the world is absurd. It’s impossible.”

“Searching is what the Queen did until she found a better solution, and believe me, she’s very close to getting her hands on it,” Alice said.

“What kind of solution?”

“It’s been told that the nameless creator of the mirror created what he called a ‘clue’ on how to find it,” Alice said. “A clue that if found, will grant its discoverer the power of all splinters and thus all carriers of the darkness in the world.”

“What kind of clue? A scripture, maybe?” Shew suggested.

“No one knows what the clue is yet, but a few people in the world know where the clue is hidden,” Alice said, her eyes oozing with seriousness.

“Where would you hide a clue that grants power over all the darkness in the world?” Shew rubbed her chin. She was killing time, really, until Alice answered her.

Alice stood still, not answering, waiting for Shew to put the puzzle together.

“Would they hide it in the pit of a deep volcano in Hell?”

“No, Shew,” Alice said. “The creator of the mirror is much more sophisticated than that. The creator hid the clue inside a girl.”

“I’m not following?” Shew was about to make fun of Alice, but then she swallowed hard. The answer hit her and it felt like a ball of fire burning in her chest. She raised her eyes slowly to meet Alice.

The answer was on the tip of Shew’s tongue, but Alice uttered it for her, “the clue is inside a girl called the Phoenix, a teenage glassblower from Murano who can create life by blowing into a pipe,” Alice said. “Cerené holds the clue to the Anderson Mirror.”

“That’s why Bianca told her she was like Pandora’s Box,” Shew said absently. “Cerené holds the key to the darkness of the world.”

29

An Insurmountable Spirit

“So it’s not just about Cerené being one of the Lost Seven. She holds something very precious to my mother,” Shew said.

Alice nodded, “the Queen has no idea of how your relationship with Cerené blossomed two hundred years ago. You and Cerené were secretly best friends because no one would have accepted a princess befriending a Slave Maiden. The Queen had always kept Cerené safe from the bathhouse slaughters, though, because she’d been told that Cerené might hold the clue, although she could never prove it at the time.”

“Since I hid my relationship with Cerené from the Queen, who told her about the clue?” Shew wondered.

“Bloody Mary,” Alice said.

“What does Bloody Mary have to do with it?”

“I heard she has a personal history with mirrors, but I don’t know what it is,” Alice said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s connected to the Anderson Mirror. She is a prisoner of a mirror, remember?” Alice said.

“Makes sense,” Shew replied.

“And now that Carmilla is watching the dream—probably watching us now—she’s learned about your story with Cerené. She knows about Cerené’s abilities, her history, and that she is the Phoenix. All she needs is to find Cerené in the real world and track her life’s beginning in Murano. The clue Cerené is holding inside her should be revealed in Murano.”

“Are you saying that now that my mother knows what she wanted, this dream means nothing to her anymore?”

Alice nodded.

“Let me ask you this, Alice,” Shew said. “If Cerené’s story is so complicated, are the stories of the other Lost Seven also complicated?”

“It’s not like the Queen’s quest is to find each one of them and rip out the piece of your heart from their chests,” Alice said. “Each one of the Lost Seven has a unique story, one that usually ties them to real historical events where they will have their own archenemy. They are real people like you. They lived for a long time, and some of them are even known historical people,” Alice explained. “In order for Carmilla to obtain the pieces of your heart, she’ll have to delve deeper into each one’s story. In Cerené’s case—and by that I mean Cinderella—she will have to rid her of the clue she holds inside.”

“Poor Cerené,” Shew said.

“It’s her fate. We all have to face our fate someday, and only you can save her,” Alice said.

“I’d do anything for her,” Shew said. “Tell me how.”

“The Queen will look for Cerené in the Waking World to get the clue to the mirror out of her,” Alice said. “Who knows what the Queen would do to her? Cerené’s only hope is you, Shew. You have a choice to make.”

“I have to wake up by killing Loki.” She said what Alice already knew.

“It’s the only way, Shew. It’s also part of proving you’re the Chosen One, to sacrifice everything that means something to you and save the world, even if it’s the one you love.”

“Can’t you see I don’t want to be the Chosen One, Alice,” Shew said. “I want to enjoy my life as a teenager like Cerené does. I learned so much about life, spending time with her. I want to ‘follow my bliss’ like Charmwill used to tell Loki. I want to find my Chanta. I want to free myself from foretold prophecies, and I want to find my own Art.”

“But you are the Chosen One, Shew,” Alice said. “Even if you forget it, your enemies won’t. They will come after you and kill you. Now, we’re seriously wasting time.”

The bathhouse’s door sprang open suddenly. Shew found herself standing in front of Cerené, who was peeking her head in from behind the door.

Shew and Alice watched her partially hide behind the door with her blowpipe ready to attack. Her eyes darted sideways before she asked, “Are you alright, Joy?”

“I am, Cerené,” Shew smiled, sniffing her tears away. “You could come in, you know.”

“A lot of blood had been shed in this room,” Cerené said. “I hate it. I should clean it.”

“But you’ll be safe with me,” Shew said with open arms.

“You mean you’ll be safe with me,” she said closing the door behind her. She had another long case with her. It looked like it had a long musical instrument in it along with a small bag. It looked too heavy for her.

“Let me help you,” Alice said.

“No, not you,” Cerené’s face knotted then turned to Shew, “are you alright? Did this girl hurt you?”

“Not at all,” Shew laughed, glad her best friend sensed her uneasiness with Alice.

“How so?” Cerené eyed Alice from top to bottom. “She is one of Loki’s huntsmen.”

“She isn’t, trust me,” Shew said. “So were you looking for me or did you just think you’d eavesdrop on what was going on in the bathhouse?”

“Of course, I was looking for you,” Cerené said. “I just finished cleaning and thought you must be hungry so I stole you food from the Royal Kitchen,” she giggled at the accomplishment, and handed her the bag. “Here, you look pale. You need to eat.”

Alice and Shew exchanged looks, trying not to smile.

“I’m the princess, Cerené, remember?” Shew said. “I don’t need to steal food from my own kitchen.”

“Oh,” Cerené said. “I forgot. Honestly, I didn’t steal it. A boy in a green hat helped me.”

“A boy in a green hat?” Shew squinted. “Are you referring to the thief who steals from the castle and gives to the poor? The Queen surely would want to catch this one.”

“His name is Jack Madly, but don’t tell anyone,” Cerené whispered. “I met him in the fireplace,” Cerené winked and bit on her lip.

“A match made in the fireplace—I mean Heaven,” Shew said. She remembered Jack, not that she’d known him well. He was the notorious sixteen-year-old thief who stole from the Schloss, only because he loved to make the Queen mad. Some knew him from Jack and the Beanstalk, a famous story about pissing off a giant and stealing his gold.

“You think he likes me?” Cerené wondered. “But nah. Not my type. I like the prince, or maybe—” she was going to say Loki but stopped, remembering what he’d done in Furry Tell. “Jack stole the food, but I stole this,” Cerené pulled out a box of liver, property of the Queen of Sorrow. “Don’t be embarrassed. I will look away while you indulge in your monstrous cravings. It’s like going to the bathroom; you don’t want to see anyone see you poop.”

Alice let out a laugh, unable to hold back. Shew found herself giggling at her warmhearted friend.

“What are you laughing at?” Cerené snapped at Alice, waving the case in the air. “This is between me and my friend. You’re not friends with her. Are you, Shew?”

“Alice? Of course, not. Alice is not my friend. She is only helping.”

Cerené smiled. Shew was worried if she’d told her otherwise she’d burn Alice in the furnace.

“So what’s that in the long case?” Shew asked.

“This is my gift for you,” Cerené looked happier than a woodpecker with a handful of trees. “I made it myself,” she knelt down, laid her blowpipe aside, and opened the case.

Something glittered from inside the case, something long and shiny, a handmade sword.

“See?” Cerené, still kneeling down, held the sword with both hands, presenting it to Shew like a Samurai swordsmith to a king.

Shew and Alice were both enchanted at the beauty of the sword. Cerené had forged it from her molten glass, using the Heart, Brain, and Soul. Shew couldn’t avoid thinking this sword had Cerené’s breath in it. It had part of her life in it. Shew had been given emeralds from across the ocean before, diamonds from the heart of Africa, and even exclusive mirrors and masks from Venice. But never had she been gifted with such a valuable sword. The glittery blade looked as if Cerené’s breath waved upon it. She wondered if she’d be holding a piece of her best friend’s life in her hand if she held it.

“Beautiful?” Cerené wondered, afraid Shew wouldn’t like it.

Shew nodded at a loss for words, her eyes shiny.

“Friends!” Cerené squeaked like happy doe-eyed girls in a Manga. The word ‘friends’ cut through Shew again. It made her want to stay in this dream forever, and slay dragons to take care of Cerené.

Shew held the sword by its grip. The Pommel was glass. She held it in front of her, feasting her eyes with its beauty, feeling spiritually connected to Cerené.

The blade was made of glass, not any glass, but Cerené’s secret ingredient glass. The edges were sharp enough you could feel a light cut in your eyes if you stared at it too long. The glass itself wasn’t transparent. It was white, milk white.

“You used Mermaid’s Milk on it?” Shew wondered.

“All of it,” Cerené bragged, standing up. “It gives it incredible strength. I wanted the sword to look like you.”

“Like me?” Shew wondered.

“Black hair, white skin, and blood red lips, so its grip is black and the blade is white.”

“But I don’t see any red?” Shew wondered, carefully flipping it around in case she missed something.

“I thought I didn’t need to add red. That will be your part,” Cerené giggled. “The red on the sword will be the blood of your enemies.”

“But I’m not going to use this sword,” Shew said. “I don’t plan to kill anyone.”

“I think you will,” Alice said, her eyes reminding Shew of Loki. “The perfect sword for the perfect ending,” she whispered behind Cerené’s back. “We’re wasting time.”

Shew realized that this was part of her memory when Cerené designed the Chosen One’s ultimate sword. She had once heard her father say ‘if you’re going to show me a sword, you better use it.’ Suddenly, she remembered all the training her father gave her. She’d been trained to ride horses and kill with her sword. Her father had prepared her for war.

So my power isn’t just my silly fangs and scary looks?

“You have to kill Loki,” Alice insisted again behind Cerené’s back.

Shew shook her head ‘no’, and Cerené noticed.

“What is she telling you?” Cerené said. “Don’t listen to her. She isn’t your friend.”

“If Cerené leaves again, you will be shifted to the memory of your birthday, and you don’t want that to happen,” Alice spoke aloud, neglecting Cerené’s confusion. “The only way to wake up from this dream is to kill Loki, or he will kill you on your birthday. You still don’t remember how you met the Lost Seven or how Loki fell in love with you because of Charmwill’s spell. If you’re transported to your birthday scene, it’s unlikely you can survive it.”

“Now she’s talking about dreams and Loki and all kinds of madness again,” Cerené puffed. “She is crazy.”

“I will not kill Loki,” Shew gritted her teeth with the sword in her grip.

“No, you will. You have to get back to the Waking World and find a way to go to Murano,” Alice whispered the ‘Murano’ word, pointing at Cerené. “You need to go to where you can find out what the clue is,” Alice looked up as the bathhouse’s door sprang open again.

Shew and Alice stood paralyzed as the Queen of Sorrow appeared slowly in front of them.

“Shew?” Carmilla inquired. “What are you doing in the bathhouse?”

“I—” Shew stuttered.

“I asked you a question, Shew,” Carmilla’s demanding voice stirred the air and sent shivers into the princess.

Shew wasn’t concerned about explaining her intrusion into the Queen’s forbidden bathhouse. She worried how she’d explain Cerené and Alice standing next to her. Trying to stall, she turned at Alice but was surprised to find she wasn’t there. Then she turned to look for Cerené, who was also gone.

The fluttering curtain by the window suggested they’d escaped. Cerené must have escaped, fearing the Queen. Alice must have followed trying to stop her or Shew would be transported to the next part of the dream.

“Answer me!” Carmilla was in her face now.

Shew felt dizzy already, knowing that she was about to be shifted to the next part in the dream. She wanted to seize the moment and tell the Queen to go to hell. A perfect line before she escaped this scene. Unfortunately, Shew was too late. The dream had shifted and Shew was worried she was the one going to hell.

30

The Weighing of the Soul

Shew was standing in front of the Schloss. The world around her was quiet as if everyone had died.

It was noon. The beautiful sun slanted its rays upon the huge curvy design of the Schloss’ facade. Shew held the rim of her dress with both hands and entered the unguarded castle. She was expecting a surprise celebration for her sixteenth birthday—her intuition told her this was the day Alice had mentioned.

Inside, the Schloss was strangely vacant. She could find no one. The blue curtains covered every enormous window inside. The curtains looked like wall tapestries with golden curvy drawings, and they blocked the sunlight from peering at the wide hallways. A single, stubborn sunray still managed to peek its way through the thin gap between the curtains, slicing the brownish walls with thins lines of gold.

Shew nudged her toes free, kicking her shoes in the air, each shoe landing on one of the cushiony chairs on both sides of the hallways. They were made of mahogany and cypress with tulip poplars. Everything in this part of the dream was detailed and sharp.

She lifted her dress up with both hands again and walked barefoot beneath the shades of the curtains. She felt comfortable walking barefoot. The sound of her feet flapping on the marble floor was her only company.

The castle’s residents must have hid somewhere to surprise her, she told herself. Important day or not, it still was her birthday and she was longing for celebration. In fact, it was Shew’s last birthday. She knew she’d never grow older than sixteen.

The further she walked in the hallway the more the silence grew on her. Silence usually made her feel uneasy. It made her think that life had stopped, and she feared it would stay that way forever. The silence in the huge castle was deafening today.

Where are Cerené and Alice?

As Shew swallowed, a butterfly broke the silence, fluttering before her eyes. It had blood-orange wings with black spots all over.

Shew followed the butterfly’s path as it fluttered underneath the thick curtains shielding it from the sun. It looked like a ballerina dancing on air in the shades of her private dreams. The butterfly continued its flight up high toward the mosaic cross-arched ceiling. Shew watched it with fascination as if it were her first time in the Schloss.

Looking ahead again, Shew realized she was walking toward Carmilla’s private chamber, a special place she’d built while Angel was away. It featured Carmilla’s individual throne and it was a part of the castle where no noblemen were allowed—she’d only allowed the Huntsmen in when one of the Slave Maidens resisted.

Shew’s bare feet walked her, almost hypnotized, to the huge double-sided, heavily engraved door leading to the chamber with Carmilla’s throne.

There was a circular handle on the door, made of shiny brass. It was the shape of a snake curved all the way around so it’s mouth looked like eating its own tail. She grabbed it and pulled the head apart from the tail. The door opened on its own, the sunshine widening Shew’s pupils.

The butterfly fluttered into the large place, which was illuminated with the light coming through the huge windows on the left and right.

Shew stood at the threshold, examining the place behind the door. It had a bluish golden hue to it with a cross-arched frescoed ceiling even higher than the hallways. The large windows were framed in gold, and were so large that a carriage could pass through them, allowing infinite amounts of golden and dusty sunlight to fill the space.

A few feet away from Shew, a red carpet led the way up to the throne where her mother, Carmilla, sat elegantly, chin up, with a conservative smile on her face.

Light didn’t hurt vampires like Carmilla after all.

Carmilla’s throne, made of black obsidian stones, had her full name engraved on top:

She Who Must Be Obeyed

Queen Carmilla Karnstein.

The Queen of Sorrow.

The throne was framed with engravings, some that Shew had known of and knew how to read, and some written in the same undecipherable language Loki’s necklace was written in. Few of the readable names Shew could read now were Mircalla, Carmilla, and Ayesha, all among a number of other name that didn’t mean anything to Shew.

Looking at Carmilla, Shew thought her mother was born to be a queen, unlike her who never felt she fit the role of a princess.

Carmilla’s golden, voluminous hair trailed down her shoulders. Part of her hair was braided into a headband at the top. Of course, it was also attached by a braid to her thin crown on her head, except that this time the hair waved like an Uraues poisonous snake, protecting the crown from harm as if it would lash out and bite whoever dared to take the crown from her.

Everything was so vividly detailed in this part of the dream, Shew couldn’t take her eyes off her mother. Carmilla had icy blue, cat eyes; devilishly innocent, seductive, and smart. Thin eyebrows crowned her majesty’s eyes. Her eyelashes, black like raven feathers, were so beautiful they looked fake—they weren’t.

Carmilla had her hands rested upon the sides of the throne and two panthers with green eyes slept at her feet. The panthers weren’t sedated. They behaved out of fearing the Queen of Sorrow.

The Queen’s favorite mirror stood at her side, along with a thin old woman with milk-white hair at the other.

In front of the panthers, three steps down, stood Shew’s birthday cake, three feet high, all white like a wedding cake, topped with dark chocolate with red cherries scattered on top.

On both sides of the red carpet leading to the throne, stood a number of peasant girls. They were young, ripe, and beautiful.

The girls were the first to break the tension and welcome Shew with their eyes, standing firm in their place, somehow afraid to move because of Carmilla. They had their hands laced behind their backs and heads bowed down a little, wearing their own poor dresses.

Immediately, Shew scanned the girls, looking to see if Cerené was among them. A sigh of relief escaped her when she didn’t find her. It made sense. The Queen wouldn’t sacrifice the Phoenix’s blood, no matter what.

Shew knew all these girls were going to be slaughtered and the Queen was going to swim in their blood. Finally, Shew broke the tense silence by stepping into the chamber.

The girls started clapping and Sirenia Lark, the Queen’s favorite singer, started humming while playing her magical harp. Sirenia was a siren who Carmilla had met on her journey with Angel, escaping Night Sorrow. She used to lure men with her voice and eat their flesh. The Queen liked that.

Shew walked among the girls, tenderly glancing at them one by one.

You have to save those girls, Shew.

When she reached the three steps before the panthers, Carmilla signaled for her to stop. The Queen stood up slowly, and the girls held their breath, pulling their feet together and adjusting their dresses.

Carmilla’s presence sucked the air out of the room; even Sirenia held her breath and stopped playing the harp. The two panthers jumped up straight from their eternal sleep and padded slowly next to the Queen as she descended from her throne.

Carmilla walked as if she were a panther herself. Even the sunshine disappeared where she laid her foot on the floor, pretending a horde of clouds had blocked its path, leaving the candlesticks to provide the light.

Carmilla’s hair floated over her shoulders as she walked. She stopped before Shew.

“You’re a princess now,” Carmilla said in a voice submerged in womanhood. “Being sixteen,” Carmilla followed, not bowing down to face her daughter. “It’s a special day for you, Shew,” she stretched her long arms to hold Shew by the shoulders, then hesitantly knelt down and hugged her. “But before celebrating, we need to weigh your heart one more time. Dame Gothel!” She summoned the woman with milk-white hair.

“Majesty,” Dame Gothel paid her respects.

“Did you weigh all the girls’ hearts?” Carmilla asked.

“All but one, majesty,” Dame Gothel said.

“Then weigh it here in front of us before we weigh Shew’s heart,” Carmilla demanded and returned to her throne.

Shew heard the girls whisper something so she took some steps back, trying to listen. She heard them mention that in order for the Queen to swim in a girl’s blood and benefit from it, the peasant’s heart had to weigh twenty-one grams. This, or the Queen wouldn’t slaughter the girl but would keep her for later.

So that’s why she wants to weigh my heart. Unless mine is twenty-one grams, it’s no use to her.  Why twenty one grams?

Shew watched as Dame Gothel laid a peasant girl on a special table with a scale underneath. The girl resisted for a moment but gave up eventually, intimidated by Bloody Mary’s voice, cursing her from the mirror.

“Could you explain out loud how the weighing process goes, Dame Gothel,” Carmilla demanded. “We’ve never told Shew about the process before,” Carmilla followed.

She wondered if they had sedated her before they weighed her heart in the past.

“But of course, majesty,” Dame Gothel sounded neutral. She didn’t sneer or try to look evil. She was doing her job. “First, we let the girl eat the Sanguinaccio cake,” Dame Gothel pulled a cake heavily topped with white cream and showed it to Shew. “It’s a rare recipe from Italy, an exotic land beyond the Missing Mile.”

“Shew already knows about the shoe-shaped island,” Carmilla nodded at her daughter. “Continue, please.”

“Before we feed the cake to the girl, we have to cut her arm slightly,” Dame Gothel made one of her servants cut the girl’s arm with small knife, collecting the drops of blood into a cup, which looked a little bit like Cerené’s, only it wasn’t glass. Dame Gothel took the blood and spattered it upon the Sanguinaccio cake as if pouring sugar on a pie. “Now the cake is ready for the girl to eat,” Dame Gothel said. “But first we have to check the girl’s weight on the scale underneath the table,” she explained. “And then I will feed her the Sanguinaccio cake,” she let the girl only take a bite from it. The girl fell asleep instantly.

“And what happens when she eats the cake?” Carmilla said.

“She dies,” Dame Gothel said bluntly, pulling out a snake from somewhere under the table.

“What?” Shew took a step forward but stopped when Dame Gothel waved the snake at her. “You can’t do that!” Shew grunted.

“Don’t mind my daughter, Dame Gothel. Continue,” Carmilla waved her hand as permission to proceed.

“Now, we check the weight of the scale underneath the bed,” Dame Gothel said.

“Explain why to my daughter,” Carmilla said.

“The weighing of the heart is actually the weighing of the soul,” Dame Gothel began. “The soul, or the Ka, how ancients like to call it, is a mystery even to the greatest wizards and mentors. We don’t know how it looks like, how it smells, or even what it really does. But we knows that it’s somewhere in the heart. The soul leaves the body when it dies, and thus the body ways less. The difference between the weight of the body before and after death equals the weight of the soul. If it’s twenty one grams, then the girl is ready for sacrifice. I see the difference isn’t twenty one grams yet for this one, majesty,” Dame Gothel pointed at the poor girl on the bed.

“This is crazy,” Shew protested. “She’s dead. What good is it if you know how much her heart weighs?”

“Within forty two minutes after she dies from biting the cake, she still can be resurrected,” Dame Gothel said. “Do you want me to resurrect her, majesty?”

“Please do,” Carmilla authorized.

Dame Gothel tapped her snake’s head before it spat poison into the girl’s face. Unlike the usually deadly poison, this one brought the girl back to life.

The servants helped the girl sit back up and leave the room.

Carmilla gazed back at Shew with a slight smug smile on her face. Shew got the message. Carmilla was giving her a choice. Either swim in the girls’ blood or fully turn into a vicious vampire, part of the Sorrow’s family, or Carmilla would have to rip out her heart. Of course, she couldn’t rip Shew’s heart out unless it was twenty one grams, which meant she had to have her heart weighed now.

Shew glanced back briefly. The chamber was a huge ambush. A couple of huntsmen stood by the door behind her, and she guessed others waited for her outside if she managed to escape. She had nowhere to go.

“What do you say, princess?” Carmilla said. “You could stay one of the Sorrows, surrender to your nature and family ties, or you could be stupid enough to think you’re the Chosen One.”

Shew’s only hope was to allow Dame Gothel to weigh her soul and hope it weighed less than twenty-one grams. What would happen if it weighed enough?  All Carmilla had to do was prevent Dame Gothel from bringing her back with the snake’s bite.

Stay strong Shew. If you have really managed to split your heart in the past, then you found a way out of this chamber.

It crossed her mind that maybe Charmwill would interfere and save her from this room. He was there for Loki, and she thought he might do the same for her. In her heart, she knew Charmwill was dead, and she didn’t know if the dead still appeared in the memories of the Dreamers.

As all of these thoughts were spinning in her head, the Queen was becoming impatient.

Two huntsmen grabbed Shew from the back and pulled her toward the weighing table. Carmilla had decided Shew was never going to submit.

Snarling at the huntsmen wasn’t enough. They were strong men who fed on darkness itself. One of them strapped her mouth shut with what looked like a dog’s muzzle and she couldn’t free herself from the other’s grip.

Shew didn’t give up. She kicked one of them between the legs, but all he did was moan a little. Then she punched him in the face, seized his short moment of dizziness and banged his head against the other huntsman.

The girls let out a sound of wonderment, impressed by the princess.  Soon a couple of other huntsmen entered the chamber. Shew, still muzzled, ran right toward them, the huntsmen barely stopping her. She pulled one’s cloak and began choking him with it, even when the other huntsmen started grabbing her. Shew’s grip was firm. She wondered where the sudden surge of strength came from. No one had ever been able to face a huntsman.

“Brave,” the Queen of Sorrow smirked, adjusting her neck to see the action from her throne. Discreetly, she admired her daughter’s strength and stubbornness.

The huntsman finally freed himself and another knocked Shew down, punching her with his scabbard. Shew fell back, her lip bleeding. Another huntsman, angered by her behavior, decided to teach her a lesson and raised a hand to slap her.

“No!” the Queen of Sorrow snapped for a second, doing her best to stay in her throne. “You don’t humiliate my daughter unless I say so,” she followed. The huntsman looked puzzled, his hands hanging in the air. “Hang him by the noose,” Carmilla demanded.

A number of the other huntsmen entered the room and took him away to kill him.

However, this didn’t stop the Queen from signaling to the three huntsmen left to pull Shew toward the weighing table. They lay the princess on it and held her by the legs and shoulders as Dame Gothel approached with her deadly Sanguinaccio cake. She didn’t need to cut her arm. She used the blood dripping from Shew’s lip.

Shew was still kicking and swearing, too many hands holding her down.

“You still have a choice,” Carmilla said, still sitting, and patting one of her panthers at her feet. “Look at all those beautiful girls you can taste.”

“I’m not going to feed on poor children,” Shew growled behind the muzzle. “I could have been one of them. You can’t do this.”

“I can do anything,” the Queen said. “I could even bring the sun and moon down if I desire. I just like them the way they are.”

Dame Gothel smudged the cake against the thin bars of the muzzle, stuffing Shew’s mouth. Shew tried spitting the cake out, but it was too big. She kicked her feet but the huntsmen were stronger.

“Pretty weak for a Dhampir Princess,” Bloody Mary said from inside the mirror. Her voice was full of envy, hate, and malice. She was a young girl with such demonic hatred drooling from her tongue. Shew remembered Alice telling her that Bloody Mary had her own story of how she came to be who she was. Shew wondered who trapped her in the mirror and why. How could she have such influence over Carmilla?

“Don’t worry, Mary,” Carmilla said, her voice uncannily caring. “Soon after I kill the princess and enjoy her heart and liver, I’ll have enough time—youth and beauty—to learn the secrets of the Anderson Mirror from the ashen girl.”

The cake’s taste was already on Shew’s tongue. She wondered what Bloody Mary had to do with Cerené and the Anderson Mirror. Why was the Queen telling Bloody Mary not to worry?

As Shew faded into darkness, she wondered if Bloody Mary had a splinter in her eyes.

If Bloody Mary didn’t have a splinter of the mirror in her eyes, then who would?

Shew was too late to figure out the connection. She thought Bloody Mary was right. What kind of Dhampir was that weak? Wasn’t she prophesized to kill all vampires? How so when she couldn’t save herself?

Shew gave in to another Sleeping Death, one that she was unlikely to wake up from.

31

A Conversation with Death

Shew hadn’t died in a dream before, so she didn’t know what to expect.

She thought she’d see herself leave her own body and fly like angels in the air, watching how her body lay still on the weighing table. Last time when she thought she was dead at the Wall of Thorns, it turned out she’d been saved by a mysterious someone. No one was going to save her this time.

Will I never know if my soul weighed twenty-one grams? Instead of having an out of body experience, Shew found herself locked inside her own body, unable to move. It was as if she were trapped in the carcass of her flesh and bones, watching the world from behind the bars of her eyelashes.

She couldn’t hear anything, nor could she see her soul flying in the air. She had no choice but hope her soul didn’t weigh twenty-one grams so Dame Gothel would bring her back for a later test like the girl before.

But how long did she have to wait? How could she count forty-two minutes while she was dead?

She remembered Loki’s kiss, the way he fought for her in the castle. She remembered when she teased him in the seven-year-old birthday dream, the flirty time they had in their last dream together. They had laughed, cried and bantered with each other. Loki almost died for her in the octopus bathtub. He didn’t give up, though. He followed her to the Queen’s pumpkin coach then shouted his silly ‘Ora Pedora’ and used his Chanta. Shew wondered if she could believe in the Chanta like him. It seemed unlikely. Loki had managed to fulfill his journey and learn who he really was. Shew was still dancing on hot coals. Neither did her feet get used to heat nor did she find a way to cross to a cooler place.

Right now, she was dead, walking the thin rope between before and after.

Charmwill crossed her mind somehow. Other than mourning his death, she thought Loki was lucky having the old pipe-smoking mentor. Someone who’d stand beside him each step of the way, but not interfere unless necessary. Why didn’t she have someone like that? A Chosen One needed a mentor like Charmwill. She wondered if there was a Godmother coming to save her now. Why was she so alone?

When she had first learned that Wilhelm Grimm sent Alice to her, she thought Alice was some kind of mentor. But what kind of mentor stole the necklace given to you by your lover?

She wondered if it was better to die instead of trying to solve the endless riddles of the world she lived in. Everyone she met seemed to have an agenda and a complex story. She had always thought her destiny was going to be crystal clear: here are the bad guys, and there are good; shoot the bad, help the good, audience clap as the curtains fall down.

But her life in Sorrow was far from black and white, and solving a riddle, only meant the birth of another. For instance, how could she and Cerené have been on the same pirate ship, the Jolly Roger? Could that have been a coincidence? Everything seemed connected in the most mysterious ways in Sorrow.

Shew laughed in her mind—her lips had paled and were not hers anymore. She was laughing at the idea of dying without knowing who she really was, and what she was capable of; the worst torture of all.

She gave in to the dimness of her mind, the curtain of afterlife draping down on all living things, listening to the faint and distant voice of Dame Gothel, saying, “Twenty-one grams, majesty.”

Shew wanted to scream but she had no mouth. She felt someone moving her body, and she predicted they were taking her corpse to the bathhouse for the Queen to feast on her heart and swim in her blood.

But then she felt the emptiness around her as if everyone had simply left the chamber, probably preparing the bathhouse and then coming back to pick her up. They had no reason to worry about the princess’ corpse. It wasn’t going anywhere.

Although her paralyzed eyes were fixed on the ceiling, she saw someone in front of her, a woman in red with a scythe in her hand.

Oh, Great, hello Mrs. Death.

“You know who I am?” Death spoke. She had a sweet voice actually, and it helped a lot that she was a woman. Maybe she’d understand Shew better.

“The cookie monster?” She couldn’t help the sarcasm. You don’t meet with Death every day. Shew didn’t think leaving an impression was a bad idea. The woman in red didn’t respond.

So I offended Death. What is she going to do. Kill me?

“You know how many other souls I have to collect today?” she said bluntly, not appreciating Shew’s cheesy response.

“Busy day, huh?” Shew’s mind responded. “Can’t you just mass murder them all?” she said.

Death’s face looked liked it changed a little. She was trying not to smile.

“I mean how about tsunamis,” Shew couldn’t stop talking. “Earthquakes and volcanoes, they’re your doing, right? I always liked plagues. You just send the rats out into the world and go have a cigarette while the disease spreads. By the end of the day, everyone’s dead. Neat.”

“You talk too much,” Death said, banging her scythe against the floor.

“Are you going to cut my mind’s tongue?” Shew said, wondering why death felt like a hallucinogenic drug.

“Stop it, princess,” Death said. “I’m not necessarily going to take your life today.”

“I knew it,” Shew said. “You can’t kill me. I’m the Chosen One. It’s predictable that I won’t die. I’ve watched a lot of movies on teenager’s laptops, trapped in the Schloss.”

“You’re being silly, which actually means you’re trying to cover the fact that you’re sorry because you haven’t been strong enough,” Death said. “And if you think Death is the worst that could happen to you, then you’re greatly mistaken.”

“There’s something more painful than death?” Shew wondered. “Stupidity?”

Why does death feel like I’m high, smoking a hookah above the clouds?

“You know what’s worse than Death? Living a life of suffering and wishing for it,” Death said in a raspy voice with the kind of intensity Shew had initially expected Death to utter.

“So will you spare me? I spared a boy once,” Shew said.

“You spared him because you loved him,” Death said. “I don’t love you.”

“I am sure you don’t love anyone,” Shew said.

“I spared your mother the day you were born,” Death said.

Hearing this, Shew didn’t feel like joking anymore, “You did?”

“Do I look like I am joking?”

Hearing that from Death, Shew couldn’t argue, “of course, you aren’t. But I have the feeling you want to compromise.”

“Your mother was going to die giving birth to you,” Death explained. “I gave her a second life to take care of you.”

“It doesn’t look like she appreciated you saving her, I must say,” Shew commented.

“If I give you a second life, will you appreciate it?” Death said. “Will you stop your reluctance?”

“I could lie to you and you anything you want to hear right now,” Shew said. “You know that, right?”

“If you lie, you’re lying to yourself,” Death said, and turned around, walking away.

“Wait!” Shew said. “Aren’t you going to save me?”

“Of course, I won’t,” Death said, not looking back.

“But you promised!”

“I promised nothing,” Death said. “You were wondering why you had no one like Charmwill Glimmer in you life, someone who’d teach you how to be a Chosen One. Unfortunately, this isn’t how things happen in the Kingdom of Sorrow.”

“Then how am I going to learn?” Shew yelled. Ironically, her pain increased with every step Death took away from her.

“You should have learned a lot already. Everything you see, everyone you meet is for a reason,” Death’s voice was fading to grey. “Don’t worry. You won’t die, not this time. You’ll be saved, but not by me, but someone who loves you.”

Death’s words didn’t ease Shew’s feeling of betrayal. Mrs. Death came here, jumbled her thoughts for a while, and left her be. Shew didn’t understand the purpose behind her conversation with Death. Who loved Shew enough to save her? Loki was as good as dead to her, and she couldn’t think of anyone else but her father. She knew nothing about his whereabouts, and doubted he would show up all of a sudden. Shew assumed this was actually the end. Death had only been laughing at her.

Then something touched Shew’s lips.

32

A Secret Revealed

“Did you know that fairy tale folks call us Minikins?” Axel said, reading from Loki’s phone again. He’d been researching for the last hour, reading from the diary and surfing the internet. “I heard Loki say it, but wasn’t sure he meant us. It’s a little insulting if you ask me.”

Fable wasn’t responding. She was still circling the purple light, and Axel didn’t know what she was really thinking.

“And listen to this,” Axel thought a lot of interesting information would cheer her up, “in J.G.’s diary he mentions a special cake called Sanguinaccio.”

“What about it, Axel?” Fable only replied to keep him talking.

“It’s a real Italian cake. I mean real as in you can go to Italy and order it some place,” Axel said. “That’s weird.”

“What’s so weird about an Italian cake?”

“It’s topped with kidney or pig’s fresh blood and is served as a dessert,” Axel said. “That’s a real cake Italians eat, although it’s mentioned that most restaurants won’t serve it and claim it’s a myth. They call it Bloodylicious.”

“And we thought Shew was an outcast, being a blood sucker,” Fable said, still circling the light with weary eyes. “Why is it mentioned in J.G.’s diary?”

“I have no idea,” Axel closed the book. “This man’s quest for the Lost Seven led him to some weird stuff. And listen to this. He thinks the Phoenix, which we assumed is Cinderella, was mentioned in other fairy tales, too.”

“Do we know of these fairy tales?” Fable said absently.

“One is called The Little Match Girl, a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson,” Axel flipped through the pages.

“I know that one,” Fable said, her hand on her stomach. She looked as if she was in pain. “I love it actually. It’s about a poor girl who tries to sell matches, and no one buys them from her, so she burns them up on by one in hopes to get warm in the freezing cold.”

“Do you know that she dies in the end?” Axel said, reading from the diary. “What kind of fairy tale is this?”

“One that Charmwill Glimmer would tell,” Fable said. “How is it connected to Cinderella?’

“I have no idea,” Axel said. “The girl died for God’s sake. She can’t be Cinderella. And here is another one. He also thinks Cinderella is The Girl Without Hands, another creepy fairy tale.”

“I never heard that one,” Fable said. “I assume it really has a girl with no hands, right?”

“It does,” Axel said. “And then at the end of he notes, he thinks Cinderella, which is also Ember, Cerené, The Little Match Girl, The Girl Without Hands, and the Phoenix was born in Murano Island.”

“Where is that?”

“A Venice-like island, which is actually near Venice where glassblowers had been imprisoned and banned centuries ago,” Axel said.

“That’s interesting,” Fable considered. “Cinderella, being famous for her glass slipper, to come from an island of glassblowers.”

“What’s more interesting is that the glassblowers once lived in Venice, and then were banned because of the amounts of fire and cinders they produced and threatening the destruction of Venice,” Axel said. “What really drives me crazy is how Cinderella is all those people J.G. mentioned. It just doesn’t make sense,” Axel closed the book, noticing his sister still wasn’t well. “What’s going on Fable?” Axel wondered. “Have you sensed anything else about the Dreamworld?”

“Not at all,” Fable said. “But it’s driving me crazy.”

“I am afraid if I tell you why, you’d snap at me,” he remembered the Dreamhunter’s Diary mentioning that whoever walked through the purple light could end up insane.

“I know what you’re thinking, Axel,” Fable said. “You think it’s just something that happened because I am exhausted. You don’t believe that I have actually peeked into the dream.”

“That’s exactly what I am thinking,” Axel said. “It’s all psychology, believe me. I read about it.”

“Yeah, how so?”

“You’ve been thinking about the spell to get into Loki’s body since we woke up,” Axel folded his arms. “It’s been on your mind all day. But you wouldn’t do it because it is dangerous. Therefore, your mind played tricks on you, making you think you saw into the Dreamworld. How else can you explain how you only saw Loki and not Shew?”

“I really have nothing to say to your stupid theories,” Fable rubbed her arms as if it were cold all of a sudden. “You just think you know it all.”

“Trust me, I know what I am talking about,” Axel said. “You wanted to do anything to go save Loki, but like you said, you had to know his real name to use the spell. And when you didn’t, you went into some kind of denial and your mind created an alternative reality for you. I told you I read a lot about the subject.”

“What are you talking about?” Fable still rubbed her arms, slightly shivering. “I know what Loki’s real name is now. Loki Van Helsing. Actually, it’s Loki Abraham Van Helsing. You told me that.”

“Oh,” Axel’s eyes widened. “I did. Just forgot. There is too much information in my head today.”

“And I had even more reasons to use the spell and enter Loki’s body when you told me that the only way to break the locked dream was for one to kill the other,” Fable said.

“So my psychoanalysis didn’t work?” Axel rubbed his chin then pulled his phone out to surf the internet. He needed to look up where his analysis went wrong.

“But the thing is,” Fable said as Axel was scrolling. “I didn’t need to wait until you told me about how the dream can be broken.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be with you in a minute,” Axel scrolled through the phone.

“Please pay attention, Axel,” Fable’s jaw started to shiver. “Can’t you understand what I am telling you? Look at me.”

Slowly, Axel raised his head. He watched his sister who looked even worse than before, and his mind began replaying the day’s events again. He thought about everything that had happened since they had followed Loki to the Schloss.

Everything came together now. He knew why Fable was shivering, and what she was trying to tell him. For the first time, he  believed she had crossed to the Dreamworld. She did really meet Loki as a Huntsman.

But how could she? He gazed at her, disappointed and worried.

“How could you, Fable?” he said softly. “And when did you do it?”

“While you were consumed by reading  J.G.’s diary,” Fable said. “I recited the spell to myself. It wasn’t that hard, and it worked.”

“You are connected to Loki in the Dreamworld now?” Axel had no intention of yelling at her. He pitied her. She was suffering already, looking ill from using the spell.

“Yes,” Fable nodded. “But it’s like an ‘on and off’ thing. I can only see him when he shows up in Shew’s dream. When he doesn’t, my vision is blank, and I can’t see anything.”

“I’m so disappointed with you. What have you done?” Axel said. “Look at you. You look like you’re going insane.”

“It’s messing with my mind, Axel,” Fable spit uncontrollably. “The problem is that I’m not even in Loki’s body. I can only see him.”

“Forget about Loki, now,” Axel said. “Tell me what I can do. Is there a spell that could save you?”

“I don’t know,” Fable said. “I need to cross the purple light into the Dream Temple.”

“No, you won’t,” Axel blocked her, his back to the light. “What you have done to yourself is enough. I’m going to take you to a hospital now.”

“Hospitals have no cure for magic spells, Axel,” Fable said, trying to peek over his shoulder at the purple light. “If I went that far, let me into the Dream Temple. I will posses Loki’s body and break his connection with Carmilla. Maybe then, one won’t have to kill the other.”

“I said no,” Axel pulled her away from the light. Fable was weak enough. She didn’t resist him. “Look what’s happened to you from using the spell, and you haven’t entered Loki’s body yet. Who knows what happens then? I have no interest in Loki and Shew coming back if you’re dead.”

Fable insisted one more time. Axel slapped her hard enough she fell back in his arms, helpless and unable to move.

“I’m sorry, sis,” Axel said, holding her tight. “I can’t let you inside the Dream Temple.”

33

A Breath of Life

Shew wasn’t sure at first because she thought she was numb, but apparently someone had been touching her lips for some time.

A breath of air tickled her lungs. The air was warm. Shew felt it fill her veins as her hearing and vision slowly came back.

This must be it, she thought. The kiss of life again. Could it be Loki?

Whoever touched her lips didn’t taste of Loki’s. Was it the prince she’d bitten when she was younger?

Now that her soul returned to her body, she knew that whatever touched her lips tasted of metal. She was sure it wasn’t a kiss. The magic wasn’t in the metal on her lips, but in the breath filling her soul.

She opened her eyes, eager to see who resurrected her. Who else would it have been, but Cerené?

“Hurry up, Joy,” Cerené urged. “They’re preparing the bathhouse for the Queen’s ceremony so she can consume your heart. We’re still in the chamber. They all left and I sneaked in through the fireplace,” she pulled off her muzzle.

“You saved me,” she hugged her, unable to express her gratitude enough. “I think you’re my Chanta or something.”

“I’m your Chanta, really? What’s a Chanta?”

“I understand now,” Shew said. “I’m not alone.  I have a mentor, except it’s not an old man with a stick and white beard. It’s you.”

“You’re talking too much, Shew,” Cerené said. Shew remembered Death and Loki before telling her the same thing. “You have to escape the castle now. Here is your sword,” she gave her the glass sword she’d designed for her. “I named it Joyuka Snotari. You know like all those legendary names of swords sent to the huntsmen from the Far East?”

Shew took the sword, and the first image that hit her was the blood of her enemies on it.

“I have your favorite unicorn tied up outside the window. You can escape on it,” Cerené said.

“I won’t escape,” Shew said. “I will fight.”

“Don’t be impulsive. You still need to learn a lot. You still need to find your own Art,” Cerené said. “There is a cottage in the forest that I know of.”

“What cottage?” Shew wondered, already heading for the window. “Is it safe?”

“I found it once and hid in it when running from my stepsisters,” Cerené explained. “It’s my secret place from the darkness in Sorrow. I don’t know if it’ that safe, but its secret is that you can only get if someone guide you to it. It’s like Candy House; it changes places. I met a kind old man there once who told me I could go hide in the cottage anytime I like.”

“What old man?” Shew turned around.

“When you get there, you’ll see there are other people using it. I haven’t met them, but don’t fear them. They look lost like you and me.”

They look LOST like you and me.

The words rang in Shew’s head. This must be them, The Lost Seven.

“You didn’t answer, Cerené. What old man?”

“His name is Charmwill. Love his name, but I don’t think you’ll see him again. I just met him once. Just go now,” Cerené pushed her. “I’ll find you.”

“How?” Shew asked. “How am I even supposed to find the cottage?”

“Ah. I forgot,” Cerené walked to one of the bigger candlesticks in the chamber. She pulled out one of her mixes and let it heat. She attached the molten to her blowpipe and breathed into it. She ran back to Shew, and blew her pipe onto the world outside, “the butterfly,” Cerené pointed at the butterfly fluttering out into the world, just out of her blowpipe. It looked like the one Shew had seen in the hallway. “It will usher you to the cottage through a secret path. Hurry and follow it before it dies. The life I gave it won’t last long.  Take my bag also. I think it will help you.”

“What’s in the bag?”

“You’ll see as you ride,” Cerené replied.

Shew took the bag, ready to follow the butterfly. Although she could hear the servants’ footsteps outside, she turned back to Cerené, needing to ask a question.

“How did you resurrect me?” Shew asked.

“I heard Dame Gothel say she could bring your soul back within forty-two minutes with her snake,” Cerené said. “I thought I’d use my breath through the blowpipe and see if it worked.”

“Every breath you give is a breath taken from you,” Shew reminded her.

“Yes,” Cerené giggled. “I thought if I’m going to give my breath away, I’d give it to someone who deserved it, instead of butterflies and sea horses.”

“You gave me your life, Cerené,” Shew said. “Those breaths you gave will shorten your life severely.”

“Life comes and goes, Joy,” Cerené said. “Friendship stays,” she raised her blowpipe like a victorious leader to her troops. “Now go. I have to escape through the fireplace, too.”

Shew jumped out of the window and landed on her unicorn. She rode it away with tears in her eyes.

34

A Path of Butterflies

Shew rode away.

She galloped down the hills, heading back to the fields before the forest, looking for the butterfly she’d missed when talking to Cerené.

Hordes of horses and three-eyed unicorns were coming after her. Dame Gothel and the servants urged the locals of the kingdom to help them hunt down the princess. They persuaded them that Shew was a vampire on Night Sorrow’s side. Regretfully, Shew snarled at a couple of locals trying to block her way, making Dame Gothel’s lie believable. Shew had no time to prove  otherwise. She had to find the butterfly.

The poppy fields spread wide in front of her. She rode her unicorn across the fields as the weather changed all of a sudden. The sky darkened slowly into purple-reddish patches and snow began to fall, burying the lovely poppy flowers with a thick layer of white. Her unicorn struggled in the snow and the dark but still kept on going.

What is happening to the weather?

The thought reminded Shew that she had been capable of controlling the weather to her liking in the Waking World. It was one of the Sorrow’s powers. She must have learned to control that power later after she’d split her heart because it was beyond her capabilities now. Carmilla had changed the weather, trying to slow the princess down.

The weather slowed the locals down, but not the huntsmen. They were getting closer.

Still looking for the butterfly, Shew opened the bag Cerené had given to her. A wicked smile crossed her face when she saw its content. The bag was full of chalk and dead Rapunzel plants. Shew knew what to do with them.

Finally, Shew saw the butterfly, fluttering her feeble fiery wings against the cold. She admired the butterfly’s courage in this stormy and darkened weather. It put a brief smile on her face. Shew stretched out her hand, hoping it would get the message and rest upon her palm, but the butterfly wasn’t there to take shelter in the warmth of her hand. She was there to show her the way.

Shew followed the butterfly into the Black Forest.

She began marking trees with chalk on her way. It was Cerené’s gift to her so she could find her way back if she needed, and also to have some kind of a map to get to the cottage in the future, in case Cerené couldn’t create guiding butterflies for her.

A little later, the butterfly stopped by a tree. It kept circling around a certain leaf buried in the white snow.

“What?” Shew asked, her heart beating fast as the distant voices of the huntsmen worried her. “What do you want from me? Just show me the way to the cottage.”

The butterfly continued circling, its wings getting heavier. Shew worried it would die. She knew butterflies were Cerené’s longest living creations, but they died eventually like everything else.

“You want me to pick up the leaf?” Shew reached for it, watching the butterfly land on the back of her hand.

“You want me to be gentle?” Shew said impatiently.

She moved her hand slowly over the leaf, brushing the thick snow away. Underneath it, there were seven caterpillars. Shew’s heart almost stopped. It reminded her of another suppressed memory of Angel Sorrow’s infatuation with butterflies. The King of Sorrow had kept caterpillars safe in his garden, taking care of them. He’d been fascinated by their life cycle, watching as their cocoons as the fought their way to a new life.

You have no time for this! That damn voice inside Shew’s head growled. Forget the butterflies and run for your life.

“I know what to do,” Shew told the butterfly, burying her inner thoughts in the same dark place in her mind they came from. She imagined what Cerené would have done if she were in her shoes.

“We’ve got seven soon-to-be-beautiful passengers on board,” she told her unicorn, wrapping the caterpillars in their own protective leaf and tucking them in a safe place in her dress.

The butterfly flew higher, swirling with gratitude then began leading the way to the cottage again.

Then Shew heard the sound of approaching huntsmen. The butterfly froze in its place.

“Don’t worry,” Shew told it. “I think I know what to do,” she pulled a fistful of Rapunzel plants out, remembering when Cerené told her they would come to life again if planted back in the earth. She got off her unicorn and started planting the vicious plants everywhere, creating a shield against the huntsmen when they arrived.

“We’re going to rip off your toes!” One of the plants screamed at Shew.

“Can’t you just be grateful and shut up?” Shew complained, making sure not to walk near them. The plants were dark by nature and knew no manners.

“What good is it being grateful?” Another Rapunzel yelled at her, trying to eat her foot. “We’re from hell!”

“Nice to meet you,” Shew mumbled, having planted plenty of them already. “Now do your job well and bite all those huntsmen and unicorns’ feet or legs or whatever it is that you do.” She jumped back on her unicorn and rode away, following the butterfly to the cottage.

She could hear the huntsmen’s unicorns tumble and moan behind her as she sped farther into the forest. This should keep them away from her for a while.

Deeper beyond the trees, the Black Forest became much darker. Thick and curvy Juniper trees moved over her head, almost blocking all light from the sky, except a tiny moonbeam sneaking through.

“Hey!” Shew shouted, waving at the moon behind the trees. “Are you really a girl? Could you help me? I know you might have something to do with the Lost Seven.”

The moon didn’t reply, nor smile.

“Of course,” Shew mumbled, riding along. “Who am I to get an answer from you? Only Cerené does.”

Deeper and deeper into the forest, Shew saw large golden fireflies, giving way with their glowing light. Then the butterfly stopped again. Shew pulled her unicorn to a halt.

“What is it now?” Shew asked. “Are you lost?”

The butterfly wasn’t lost. It was dying. Shew watched it dim and harden into a black piece of ashen glass then drop like a stone.

She watched it, speechless, as the world around her in the forest seemed to squeeze her with its darkness. She got off her unicorn and patted it for assurance.

“It’s going to be alright,” she whispered.

Looking beyond the wavering dark, Shew saw pairs of red oval eyes staring back at her. She pretended she hadn’t seen them. She was only worried how she’d find the cottage now.

The light from the fireflies turned out to be helpful. Shew walked carefully over the mushy ground underneath her, stepping over stones for safety. There were hissing sounds all around her, and she wondered if they were animals or ghosts. She drew out her fangs in hopes to scare whatever meant her harm.

“Happy birthday to me,” she muttered.

Shew’s voice made her feel a bit safer. Foolishly, she decided to sing a birthday song to herself, pulling her unicorn along. She rested the leaf of caterpillars on a thick branch filled with other caterpillars and cocoons. It seemed like a safe place.

“You’re much safer here,” she told them. “The huntsmen could find me and kill me any moment.”

She came across a small lake filled with frogs.  They jumped out on the lake’s edge, croaking. She suspected they liked her birthday song, but listening carefully, she learned they were singing with her.

“Loki is right to hate your croaking,” Shew mumbled but didn’t mind their company.

As she rode deeper and deeper into the forest, she began feeling safer. She hadn’t found the cottage, and assumed the huntsmen had lost their way after whatever evil the Rapunzel plants bestowed on them. She still marked some trees on her way as she hummed her little birthday song.

Eventually, she came upon a spot in the forest rich with enough moonlight as if someone had drilled a hole of white light through the thickness of the trees above.

Then … everything froze to the sound of a pair of clapping hands.

Shew turned around and saw the red eyes had disappeared. The tree branches had stretched back as far as possible, and the fireflies hid in their shade.

Before Shew could catch her breath or question anything, a silhouette of a boy appeared under the light of the moon. It was if he were the center stage of the evening in the forest. He walked confidently toward her, slowly like a panther watching his prey. Then he stopped and leaned his shoulder against a tree, clapping again.

“One more time, please,” Loki said, waving his hands theatrically in the air. He looked like Loki but smelled like a monster; a cute, arrogant, and wicked one. He had his hood pulled back, his beautifully deceiving platinum blonde hair dangling down his shoulders, “sing it one more time, but with feeling,” he smirked.

35

A Wit of Swords

Shew’s unicorn took a couple of strides back.

“Loki,” Shew whispered to herself with longing.  Unlike her unicorn, Shew took a foolish step ahead, then her brain took over and she stopped. Her heart was yearning for Loki, but she had to find a way to resist his charm. This wasn’t the Loki from the World Between Dreams.

“Please don’t hurt me,” Shew said, buying time until she decided what to do.

“Love hurts, princess,” he titled his head and  flashed his irresistible smile.

“So you remember loving me?” Shew wondered aloud.

“Of course,” he said. “Not,” he added. “I know you like me, princess. Always did. I don’t blame you. What’s not to like about me,” he asked nonchalantly as he chewed on a dead Rapunzel plant.

“You found me because of my singing,” Shew blamed herself.

“Beautiful voice you have, princess,” Loki leaned back against a tree, sniffing the Rapunzel plant. “Wrong song. Nothing’s going to happy about your birthday.”

“You’re right about that,” Shew agreed, her eyes looking for an escape. “You know this is a dream, right?” she stalled again, hoping he’d remember.

Loki said nothing, and began trimming his fingernails with his knife.

“Believe me, Loki,” she pleaded. “We’re both stuck in a dream, and we can only wake up if one if one of us kills the other,” she almost bit her tongue.  The last words were agonizing. She shouldn’t have told him that.

“Now that’s interesting,” he puffed air at his nails. “Would you want to have the privilege of trying to kill me first?”

“Argh,” Shew thought. It was useless conversing with him, “you are not you who you think you are. Are you even listening to me?”

“Here is my advice to you, Princess of Sorrow,” he gazed back at her. “You’re much more fun when you’re silent. Now how do you prefer to die?”

Slowly, Loki walked closer to her. He stopped midway, his eyes scanning her face. For a moment, she thought he remembered her, or at least sensed something was wrong. Then his stare intensified again, and sent a chill through her spine. It was almost as scary as the Queen’s eyes when she got angry.

Shew didn’t know what to do. She had no Rapunzel plants and no magic. Had she tried to run away, he’d have caught her. She’d seen him killing in Furry Tell. He was fast and merciless.

“What are you looking at?” She sneered at him, pretending she wasn’t afraid. She made sure she straightened her back and held her chin up.

“It’s a shame I have to put such a beauty to sleep,” he said, rubbing the tip of his sword gently on her face. It didn’t sound as sincere as she’d hoped. Shew pushed his sword away and he did not resist.

The situation drove Shew crazy. Looking at him weakened her. She would have preferred an ugly enemy she could just kill without thinking. Loki’s charm was disarming.

Loki kept approaching slowly. Like the Queen, he took his time with his prey.  He knew he’d win in the end.

In her defense, Shew took a huge chance. She walked over to him and slapped him on the face, “behave when you talk to me. I am your princess,” she said lamely, trying to pose like her mother. “Kneel before me, Huntsman.”

Foolish! Damn foolish. What’s wrong with you?

Loki took the slap then wiped it off his cheek as if it were a spit. He gazed back at her, admiration sparkling in his eyes, “Tsk Tsk,” he wiggled his forefinger, staring at her lips. “Not a smart move.”

“Listen to yourself,” she said. “Who says ‘tsk tsk’ in the 19th century? This is a dream!”

All of Shew’s talk about dreams meant nothing to him. He kept staring at her. For a boy set on killing her, he seemed infatuated with her courage and his eager pace slowed.

“Even though the Queen of Sorrow is waiting for me to return with your heart and liver, I’m immensely enjoying this,” Loki said, circling around Shew, his hands behind his back. She could feel his eyes scanning her body, his nose sniffing her scent. “I like a girl who isn’t afraid of me,” he said. “That’s why I’m going to give you a chance to run,” he stopped right in front of her again. “If you escape me, the Queen will hang me by the noose, and you will get your freedom. What do you think about that, princess?”

Shew didn’t think it was a good idea. He knew that if she ran, he would catch her. If this was how the game was going to be played, then she thought she’d better raise the bar. People only die once. What the hell!

She decided to offer him an even bolder solution, “How about we fight?” She took some steps back, pulled Cerené’s glass sword from its scabbard, and raised it in front of her. He was too far from her to swing at him.

“A brave and crazy princess,” Loki rubbed his chin. “What more could a man ask for?” he locked eyes with her again then let out small laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” Shew demanded.

“You’re standing in an awkward position,” he raised his eyebrows.

“Stop talking and fight like a man!” She shouted. Loki approached her with two hands in the air, promising he wouldn’t attack her. “May I?” he said, offering to help straighten her position.

Shew thought it was the perfect moment to strike, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. How did she expect to fight him?  She didn’t have the heart for it.

Loki positioned her legs and her arms as if he were a teacher. She, let him, helpless to his advances. When he did, another mild headache hit her. This time, she remembered Angel von Sorrow teaching her how to fight when she was a child. It was an image of them swinging swords in the castle’s garden, Angel teaching her how to ride unicorns, and training at night. She felt the knowledge Angel had given her rush back into her veins.

Loki sniffed her while positioning her. She could tell he liked her scent. She elbowed him in the rib so he’d back off a little.

“How about we fist fight in the mud instead of using swords?” Loki said playfully, walking backward, still facing her. “This way we could get to know each other better.”

“You wish, Huntsman!” Shew sneered, unable to escape his piercing look.

Foolishly, again, Shew waited for a signal to start the sword fight. What was she expecting, a blast of a horn?

Loki surprised her and made the first move. He took a swift step back, pulled out his sword, and slashed at her as if he were an elegant painter with a long brush, putting his final touch on his portrait.

Shew shrieked, eyes closed, waiting for the pain to seep through her body as she realized where he’d cut her. The wind that swooshed with the sword’s swinging almost cut through her neck, but nothing really hurt.

Eyes still closed, she heard him whistle. He was a good whistler.

Shew opened her eyes, and saw he’d only slashed at her dress, leaving her with a bare shoulder.

“I like this cut better. Gives me something to look at,” he winked with his chin up. “Now, shall we?” he took his position, parting his legs, one to the front and one to back.

In her anger, Shew swung at him without even aiming. The sword barely touched his face, and a thin drop of blood trickled down his cheek.

Loki brushed the blood from his face and gazed back at her, amused, “this is going to be fun,” he said and then…

He swung his sword at her. Shew’s reflexes weren’t bad. She swung back at him, both their swords clinking in the forest. Cerené’s glass sword was just as strong as Loki’s metal. Their movements were fast, and she remembered her father’s training. They worked their arms and legs like dancing on coal.

“You’re a jerk.” Shew attacked, forcing him to retreat.

“And what is it about jerks you like so much, princess?” Loki smirked again, swinging with care and enthusiasm. He watched her move as if watching a ballerina dancing her final swan song.

She didn’t comment. She preferred to hurt him as a response to his answer.

“Impressive for a bratty princess,” Loki considered, his eyes shining like a kid with a new toy.

Shew wondered if he wasn’t giving her his best shot, just toying with her. She knew he was a much better fighter—one of the best. She attacked him again, and he responded smoothly. Her moves became more stiffened, like that of a panther on the prowl.

This should be my chance, Shew thought. I better wound him badly and run.

Don’t chicken out this time princess.

Loki jumped backward, somersaulting in the air, showing off. He landed on his feet. “Can’t do that, can you?” he teased then swung at her instantly.

Shew swung continuously with great force. Her anger and frustration fueled her moves. Loki found himself withdrawing.

He used his somersault technique again, but not to show off this time. He had to evade her nerve.  He landed on a tree branch, a couple of feet high. The branch moved like an elephant’s trunk, curving and lifting him even higher as if it were enchanted. He stood there with hands on his waist, laughing at her.

“That’s cheating,” Shew shouted, looking up.

“Sue me!” Loki said, teasing her, looking more like Robin Hood than a dark Huntsman.

“How did you do that?” Shew asked.

“Jealous?”

Shew sighed at how childish Loki seemed in this dream. Was this the Huntsman she just saw torturing children in Furry Tell, or was her personality having an impact on him?

Shew decided to replicate his move and jumped onto a tree branch nearby.  Surprisingly it lifted her up to him.  The trees were tangled like a huge nest over the forest.

Loki didn’t wait for her to adjust to her new elevated surroundings. He just attacked.

Shew responded, careful she wouldn’t fall.

“Show me some fangs!” he demanded.

“Are you trying to provoke me,” Shew swung back.

“No,” Loki said. “I’m trying to kill you, princess.”

“Don’t push your luck, Queen’s bastard,” Shew said, still swinging. She slashed at a lock of his beautiful hair.

“The last girl who called me that got what she deserved,” Loki took a step back and stopped. He snatched his lock of hair from mid air, looking upset. He even tucked it in his pocket, “bastard or jerk?” he gazed back at her, playfully. “Make up your mind.”

Again, Shew doubted they said ‘jerk’ in the 19th century, but out of sheer silliness, Shew snarled at him. It didn’t scare him. He got closer and swung his sword again.

“Nasty,” he said.

—clink.

“Bastard,” she swung at him.

—clink.

“Vulgar,” he swung back, both of them working their feet in the moving tree branches.

—clink.

“Arrogant,” she tried to swing harder.

—clink.

“Bratty princess,” he stopped her and pushed her back.

Shew held onto a vine and swung with it through the air, landing far from him.

Loki stood puzzled, amazed by her acrobatic endeavor. “Monkey!” he said, and grabbed another vine, following her move.

She jumped back on the ground, and Loki followed.

The swinging continued with swords clinking in the dead of the night.

Loki slashed at her dress again, baring her other shoulder.

“You like my dress, huh?” she sighed and hit harder.

“Delay killing me for too long, and you’ll end up naked princess,” he raised an eyebrow.

“But alive?” Shew pressed her sword against his with all her might, their faces close now. Loki was taken back by her words and stare. He looked puzzled, wondering why he liked her so much. Shew didn’t mind if the only way to outlive him was seducing him. She’d spared him once, and she’d expected him to spare her.

“Nice try,” Loki pushed her back, changing his mind. “I eat girls like you for breakfast.”

“Not if I slit your throat the night before,” Shew grit her teeth, and … again … she swung hard.

“I’m just stalling,” he said. “I’m enjoying this tremendously. Did you know I could swing with both hands?” He winked at her.

“You just can’t admit I’m stronger,” Shew said.

Loki wasn’t provoked. He was really enjoying this, and Shew knew it, but it was going nowhere. She wasn’t going to spend all night bantering with him.

“So tell me, princess,” he said, “if you could be anything you want to be, what would that be? And don’t say princess,” Loki spoke as he swung with one hand the other resting on his waist.

“Not funny,” she said, as her arm began hurting. “When will you understand that Carmilla has you by the balls?”

“Balls?” Loki was stuck with her face to face, sword to sword, each one pushing their sword against the other. Their faces reddened.  “I don’t have balls.”

“Of course, you do,” Shew omitted a laugh and pushed him away. “You’re just two centuries too old to realize you do.”

In a swift and accurate move, Loki pushed her back and slashed at her lips.

Shew stood paralyzed.

She’d actually felt the tip of the sword on her lips, like a paper cut. If she’d doubted he was going to kill her for a moment, she had to reevaluate the situation. This was his first true warning.

“Shhh,” Loki had his forefinger on his lips. His stare wasn’t funny anymore, filled with sinister mockery. He was just a charming mass murderer.  It was at this very moment she sensed that he had enough of having fun with the feisty princess he’d admired briefly.

Strike, Shew, strike! One more moment of hesitation and he’ll kill you.

Shew slashed hard at Loki’s arm. When her sword met his flesh, she didn’t pull away. She cut hard through it like a cake. Her guts churned from the inside, but she had to do it. She thought the wound would slow him down and allow her to escape on her unicorn.

Loki held his arm and looked at it as if no one had ever dared to injure him before. He returned his gaze to her, and Shew feared his wrath even more. He had the same look in his eyes he had when he was at Furry Tell.

Out of fear, she slashed at his other arm, forcing him to drop his sword.

Loki glared at her with snake-yellow eyes now. A tight scream escaped him briefly, but then he swallowed it. He was not going to show he was in pain. Still, he sank to his knees from the pain.

Shew did her best not to feel sorry for him, imagining he was someone else.

In his pain, his veins surfaced on his neck and arms. As Shew looked closer she noticed that they weren’t his veins, but his Ariadne Fleece running through his body. Carmilla, wherever she was, must have pulled it harder, urging him to get up, and he did, empowered by the Fleece.

For the first time, Shew realized she wasn’t only fighting Loki, but Carmilla Karnstein as well.

Loki stood up. There wasn’t the slightest sign of playfulness on his face.

He was going to kill her mercilessly.

Shew walked backwards, slowly, unable to take her eyes off him. Where would she go? There was no way she could outrun or escape him.

Loki slashed at her hand, but she managed to hold on to her sword. She raised her hand against the pain and plunged the sword into his stomach.

He bent forward and gripped the blade with both hands, glaring back at her as his hair fell over his eyes.

“Not good enough, princess,” he smiled against the mild pain, but unable to raise his voice.

Afraid he’d part her from her sword, Shew pulled it back, slitting his palms while he still clenched to it.

Loki stretched his back, stretched his neck, and cracked his bleeding knuckles one by one. He took a deep breath as if the pain meant nothing to him. His strength was unimaginable, “feels much better now,” his said, bleeding from his stomach.

Shew realized that killing him wasn’t going to be easy. She turned around and headed toward her unicorn, praying Loki’s wound would slow him down.

It didn’t.

“Going somewhere?” she heard him come after her.

Shew continued toward her unicorn, not looking back, but her unicorn had started running away. For a moment, she didn’t understand, then she realized it must have been running from the huge silver light that was now shining in the sky.

Shew, chasing the unicorn, thought the light might have been the moon, even though it wasn’t a white light. It was like the reflection of glass, as if the part of the sky had turned into an enormous mirror reflecting its light onto the forest. She had no time to look. Loki scared her more than the light.

“Ahhh,” Loki screamed behind her. She heard him fall back on the ground, giving her a fraction of a second to look at the glaring light.

She tilted her head and saw a dragon, a glass dragon.

Shew stopped, afraid of it the same way the unicorn feared it. Looking sideways, she saw the floating glass dragon had knocked Loki down. The look of terror on Loki’s face was priceless. He had never seen anything like it—hell, she hadn’t seen anything like it either.

The dragon was the size of Splash, Cerené’s water horse, and it was made from living glass. It was both beautiful and scary. Its eyes were diamonds, and it breathed orange fire at Loki who crawled on all fours away from it.

A little lower, the dragon’s tail was attached to a blowpipe. Cerené’s blowpipe.

There was nothing to doubt anymore, Cerené was what Charmwill Glimmer was to Loki. She used all of her breath, urging the dragon to fire at him.

“What kind of witch are you?” Loki shouted at Shew, raising his sword to fight the glass dragon.

“Cerené,” Shew yelled. “You’re going to die if you keep breathing. Let the dragon fade, and escape with me.”

“I’m glad I found you,” Cerené panted, giving up on the pipe, the huge dragon dimming a little.

“Did you follow me?” She wondered.

“No,” Cerené said. “I followed the chalk marks on the trees and the Rapunzel plants all over the forest. It wasn’t the smartest of moves, Joy. Even though the Rapunzel plants helped slow down the Huntsmen, the chalk on the trees was how Loki must have tracked you.”

“And my singing, too,” Shew added.

“Now the Queen is sending other huntsmen for you.”

“Why did you risk your life coming for me again?” Shew walked to her and grabbed her arm. Loki was fighting the diminishing dragon behind her. Soon it was going to die.

“I had to give you this,” Cerené pulled out Loki’s necklace, and smiled.

“I hope you didn’t hurt Alice,” Shew said, looking at the necklace one more time. She still couldn’t read it, but she put it back on.

“I don’t care about her,” Cerené said vaguely. “Come on. We have to hide in the cottage,” she pointed behind her.

Shew squinted harder, looking for it, “how did I miss it,” she wondered.

“Doesn’t matter,” Cerené said. “It’s our only hope, although it’s not going to be as safe as I thought, now that Loki found you. The whole idea about the cottage was no one could find it. But we have no choice now.”

They ran toward the cottage, holding hands; Cerené held her blowpipe with the other hand while Shew carried her newly tested sword.

36

The Cottage and the Wolf

Shew and Cerené entered the cottage.  Cerené turned to lock the door behind them while Shew hurried to lock the windows.

Shew’s first impression was like Déjà vu again. She had been there before, but she couldn’t remember the details. If Cerené met Charmwill here, then the cottage was part of her erased memory. She expected to come across clues to the Lost Seven.

The cottage was small and separated into two levels. Three creaking wooden steps led to the higher level, which was occupied with seven beds. They were big beds, used by real people, not dwarves.

The lower level was smaller, lit by pumpkin shaped lanterns, and mostly occupied with an oval-shaped dining table. It was an old table, its surface filled with cracks and engravings. She hurried to it, comparing the cracks to Loki’s necklace.

Still, nothing made sense.

Shew wondered again how such scribbled engravings could hold an important message. She could neither read the engravings on the front or the back of the pendant.

Another thing that caught Shew’s attention was the absence of chairs. There was only one chair while the table that was big enough for eight people. She brushed the tips of her hands over the chair’s back, hoping she’d remember something, the way she remembered her father’s training.

Again, nothing. It was just a chair.

On the table, Shew saw five items: a knife, some scattered beans, breadcrumbs, an empty plate, and a fork. The image of each item gave her a momentary, but acute, migraine. With each item, an image flashed. She caught the image of a boy with a green hat, a girl in a red cloak, and a moon. The rest of the images were unclear. Shew was almost sure these were the Lost Seven, and that each item belonged to one of them.

Why hadn’t she seen an image of Cerené, and what was her item?

Shew altered her gaze between the items and chair for a while. Her gut feeling told her the chair was the sixth item—that’s why there were no other chairs in the house.     “They belong to the others I told you about,” Cerené said, pointing at the items on the table. She had begun nailing logs on the windows as if preparing for a zombie attack. “I haven’t been lucky enough to meet them,” she added with a nail between her teeth.

“Is one of the items yours?” Shew asked.

“No,” Cerené said. “I have what I need here,” she lifted her dress, showing her the glass urn underneath. Shew wondered why Cerené hadn’t pointed at her blowpipe.

“And where is the old man, Charmwill?” Shew said.

“Like I said, I only met him once. Funny man, and  a funny parrot!” Cerené sucked the blood out of her finger. She’d hurt herself while hammering. “Come help me, and stop talking. We can’t let Loki get in.”

“This doesn’t look like a safe place, Cerené,” Shew commented, rummaging through a box of nails and looking for a hammer.

“I know,” Cerené considered. “But don’t worry. We’ll make it.”

Shew found a hammer and started nailing. She wasn’t enthusiastic about it. Keeping Loki out wasn’t going to be that easy. She kept wondering why Cerené brought her to this cottage. It didn’t look safe. Her first hit with the hammer landed on her finger, too. She let out a scream.

“You need to be tougher,” Cerené giggled.

“You just hurt yourself a second ago,” Shew defended herself.

“That’s true, but I’m not the Chosen One,” Cerené winked.

“How do you know I’m the Chosen One,” Shew’s face tightened. “I never told you.”

“Charmwill told me,” Cerené sighed. “Can you stop talking now and do some work?”

“Why is everyone else telling you things all the time?” Shew wondered. “Is that why you keep coming  rescuing me, because you think you should care for the Chosen One?” Shew said.

“Yes!” Cerené snapped again. “Are you happy now? I am supposed to take care of you, the same way you will take care of me. Bianca told me so, and Charmwill told me so. Why is it so hard for you to accept that I am here for you?”

Shew said nothing, and continued hammering. Cerené was right. They were two lost girls with no elder to take care of them. Both were damaged, yet blessed. The Chosen One took care of the Clue, and the Clue took care of the Chosen one. It was like nothing Shew had read in history books before. This was Shew’s and Cerené’s special journey, and they had to do it their own way. Love was not always the answer and friendship was just as important.

The two girls nailed a board over every window for extra security. Cerené had pulled off planes from the beds and used them as logs, and then she blew out the candles and dimmed the cottage.

Finally, the two girls sat on the floor with their backs against the wall, staring at the cottage’s door. Cerené  cleaned her blowpipe, but Shew didn’t bother cleaning her sword.

After some time had passed they assumed Loki wasn’t coming for them. Either the glass dragon had killed him or Loki had no idea they were in the cottage. Anticipating silence surrounded the two girls, accompanied by their own breathing.

“Do you think I will able to create fire one day?” Cerené asked in the dark.

“I would like to think so,” Shew said. “You’re still young. Maybe you’ll acquire the talent later.”

“And maybe the Creators are worried I’d use it the wrong way,” Cerené said.

“If I were one of the Creators, I’d gift you with every power available,” Shew said.

“Don’t try to glasscoat your words, Joy,” Cerené said. Shew supposed the phrase meant something like ‘sugar coat.’ Glass was as precious as gold and sweet as sugar to the people of Sorrow—and probably Murano at the time. “I know how weird I am. I’m not a fool,” Cerené confessed.

“You’re not—”

“Stop it, please,” Cerené said. “I am fine with who I am. I don’t care if others think I’m an outcast. It might be hard to believe, but I believe in myself.  I deserve a happy ending, a prince and a ball where everybody looks up to me. But frankly, sometimes I also feel like the Creators are doing the world a favor by not gifting me with the ability to create fire, or—” she shrugged.

“Or?”

“Or maybe I’d burn them all,” Cerené said. “I’d burn the Queen of Sorrow for what she does to the children and me; I’d burn my stepfamily for hurting me, Loki the Huntsmen, Baba Yaga. It’s an endless list, really.  The world is full of evil.”

The girl who thought the world was full of evil was the same girl who held a clue to it all.

“Then you’d have missed the whole purpose of why the Creators gifted you with fire—if they ever did that,” Shew said. “Why burn the world if, with fire, you could create almost every living thing; the dragons, the sea horses, and the butterflies.”

“Good idea, Joy,” Cerené said. “I’d like to create plenty of those … after I burn the others. Let’s start all over again. The world needs a new beginning.”

Shew shrugged; glad it was dark. She did not want to see Cerené’s expression now, because she didn’t want to know if she wasn’t joking.

“Moutza,” Cerené whispered in the dark.

Shew laughed, “Did it work?”

“Of course not. You see any fire?” Cerené said. “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could light a candle with my mind now?”

“Keep trying, Cerené,” Shew said. “Who knows? One day, it might work. Tell me something by the way,” she fidgeted in her place. “Did your mother or Charmwill tell you anything else?”

“Bianca tells me a lot of things. I forget half of it most of the time,” Cerené said. “I usually remember when something in my real life reminds me of her words.”

“I meant did she tell you anything else about me?” Shew said.

Cerené’s voice disappeared in the dark for a while, and Shew felt like a blind girl looking for answers.

“Cerené? I asked you—”

“I know. You asked me a question,” Cerené cut her off. “Well, not everything Bianca says is always true.”

“Did she tell you anything about a ‘clue’?” She scooted nearer.

“A clue? What do you mean?”

“Remember when she told you were like a Pandora’s Box, did she elaborate?” She said.

“If she did I don’t remember,” Cerené sighed. “She did tell me something else about you,” she sounded reluctant.

“Please tell me,” Shew said eagerly.

“She told me that I would be doing a great service by saving you repeatedly.”

“That’s about you. What did she tell you about me that you’re trying to keep from me?” Shew insisted.

“She told me that on the other hand, you won’t be capable of taking care of me,” Cerené said. “But that’s just Bianca. Like I said, not everything she tells me is true.”

“Did she explain why I wouldn’t be able to take care of you?” Shew didn’t like Bianca at all now.

“She said you will have a lot on your mind in the beginning of your journey,” Cerené said. “She basically said that you’ll be focused on your love life so much that you won’t do many things you are supposed to do.”

Shew didn’t like what she’d just heard. She was going to take care of Cerené and she wasn’t going to fail. She leaned back, thinking about it.

“Really, don’t listen to Bianca,” Cerené broke the silence. “She talks all the time. Once, she joked that in order for Chosen Ones to become Chosen Ones, they had to be saved repeatedly by unchosen ones,” Cerené laughed. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

“It’s very true,” Shew said. “In fact, I know a mentor who died to save a Chosen One before. Do you know that the old man you met here is dead?” Shew thought she could try to explain to Cerené what was going on. Maybe she could believe her.

“What man?” Cerené sounded upset in the dark. “Charmwill? You know him? Is he dead? How do you know that?” her breath puffed against Shew’s face.

“It’s a complicated story,” Shew said. “I could tell you all about it.”

Unexpectedly, Cerené grabbed Shew from her dress, “Tell me, how did he die? That can’t be,” she said.

“Calm down, I can explain.”  Shew didn’t realize Cerené liked the man she had only met once that much.  She was over-reacting.

“Where is he? Take me to him,” Cerené insisted. “I know how to save him.”

“He is dead, Cerené,” Shew said.

“I know how to save him,” Cerené repeated, and it sounded as if she were crying. “He told me how.”

“Oh,” Shew said. “You mean you could resurrect him with the blowpipe? How’s that? Carmilla chopped off his head. That cake didn’t kill him—“

“Not with the blowpipe, Joy. Take me to him, Shew,” Cerené went crazy. “Now!”

“That’s impossible. I can’t really explain right now,” Shew was going to tell her that this was a dream and that she had to wake up from it first. “How can you save him, then?”

“I know his True Name,” Cerené whispered. “He told me that I could stay in the cottage and be safe if I kept his true name a secret in me.”

“Charmwill’s name isn’t Charmwill?” Shew wondered.

“His real name is one of three elements needed for his own Art!” Cerené said. “And his Art can resurrect him.”

“You mean we can resurrect Charmwill Glimmer? That’s great news,” Shew said as the sound of an axe banging against the door horrified her.

The two girls plastered their backs against the wall, flashing their weapons in the dark, no words escaping their mouths.

The same axe came slicing through the cottage’s door again, the crack making way for a thin moonbeam into the room.

“What should we do now?” Cerené held Shew’s hand.

“Don’t worry,” Shew said. “I will take care of you,” she squeezed Cerené’s hand tighter. The hell with Bianca. I will take care of you.

A third hit sliced through the door, enough for Loki’s eyes and nose to show through the crack. He sneered at them, his hair dangling down his eyes.

“Piggy, Piggy!” His voice oozed all kinds of evil. “Come to papa!”

“Moutza!” Cerené took a step forward and waved her hand with an open palm and five stretched fingers at Loki.

Nothing happened. Loki mocked her back with glaring eyes, “Moutza Moutza!” He wiggled his eyebrows.

It seemed like he was spiraling down into madness with each passing moment as Carmilla continued to control his veins with the Fleece.

“What’s happened to you, Loki?” Shew screamed. “You were such a kind young boy!”

“I ate a frog for breakfast,” Loki raised his axe and slammed the door, spitting a frog’s legs from his mouth. “He kept telling me he was a prince, but I didn’t care. Could that be the Loki you want, piggy piggy?”

“You hate frogs!” Shew protested.

“I hate you too, princess,” Loki hit the axe. “Doesn’t mean I don’t wan to eat you alive, piggy.”

“Stop calling us piggies!” Cerené protested, ready to swing with her blowpipe.

“But why? I’m hungry as a wolf,” he yanked a big part of the door away, and stuck his whole head inside the cottage, wiggling his tongue. “If you don’t let me come in, piggies,” he impersonated the wolf in the famous fairy tale, “I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down.”

Cerené giggled all of a sudden. Loki’s madness amused her.

“Shut up Cerené,” Shew pulled her back.

“Who’s your little piggy friend?” Loki titled his head, flashing his fakest smile, his hair dangling down his forehead.

“She’s the one who created the dragon that kicked your little butt,” Shew answered.

“Is that so?” he said. “Two hearts and livers are always better than one.”

Shew raised her sword and swung hard at his neck. It was time to chop this annoying version of him off.

Loki pulled back immediately, and Shew ended up slicing the air, her eyes finding Cerené’s, who seemed disappointed with her.

“What?” Shew yelled.

“You know what, Joy,” Cerené frowned. “You didn’t swing hard enough at him. You could have chopped his head off if you wanted to.

“Is this what Bianca told you about? Are you in love with the Huntsman?”

“Of course, not,” Shew snapped, pulling Cerené by the hand. “Come here, I’ll prove it to you,” she ran back to one of the windows and pulled out all the logs as she listened to Loki breaking down the cottage’s door.

Shew and Cerené jumped out and ran toward Shew’s unicorn. As they mounted it, Loki had entered and already reached the window.

“Huntsmen!” he screamed from the top of his lungs, summoning them.

Shew didn’t see the dark cloaked Huntsmen with their three eyed unicorns nearby, but she could hear them approaching, shaking the earth underneath her and Cerené. She whipped at her unicorn with her hand and rode away.

37

Soulbound

“Axel,” Fable opened her eyes slowly. Her brother had been feeding her water and Bram Jam—a special and limited Belly and the Beast offer: one Bram Jam, simply a jam and butter sandwich, and a Dracola, the worst fizzy drink in Sorrow because it tasted like blood. You could get a large or medium Dracola. Hell, you can even get it blood-free, but it tastes awful.

“Are you feeling better, sis?” Axel said.

“Yes,” she held his hand to help her stand up. “Much better, thank you for slapping me,” she mocked him.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Axel said, “you were going crazy because of that stupid spell.”

“I think its effect is gone,” she said. “Thank you again, bro,” she kissed him on the cheek.

Axel was stoked. It was the second time she kissed him on the cheek in two days. The first was when he’d pushed Snow White’s coffin into the Schloss yesterday. He swore he’d not rub his cheek for some time, afraid the kiss’s effect would wear off.

“What are you reading?” she asked him.

“Nothing new,” he said. “All kinds of gibberish mentioned in this J.G. diary. I am on weird part which says that there is glass urn that holds the Chosen One’s redemption.”

“Whatever that means,” Fable commented. "Listen, bro. I really need you to do one more thing for me,” Fable said, her smile blossoming. She adjusted her glasses and looked nerdy, just the way Axel liked.

“Shoot, sis,” Axel said proudly. “I’m willing to do whatever you want.”

“I want you not to be mad at me,” Fable said, taking a step back.

“I could never be mad at you,” Axel said.

“Believe me, this time you might be,” Fable said.

“I could never—” suddenly, it was clear to Axel. He saw Fable run back to the purple light and walk through it.

“I am sorry, bro. I won’t be long. I’m going to save Loki, and come back,” was the last thing she said before she disappeared inside the Dream Temple.

38

A Girl with no Hands

Shew panted, her heart racing and kicking in the top of her chest as she rode away.

Cerené clung to her silently from behind, embracing her with two small arms. Shew could feel Cerené’s cheek on her back.

How could Bianca say I would not take care of her?

Shew rode through the Juniper spying eyes, the tree that wanted to shake hands, and the owls watching with wide eyes from the trees. Unlike Loki, she didn’t talk to animals. She had no Charmwill to save her. She didn’t even have supportive quirky friends like Axel and Fable. All she had was Cerené, but Cerené had saved her too many times already. It was time for her to make a stand, and protect Cerené.

She whipped her unicorn with the palm of her hand again, riding away and heading nowhere.

The Huntsmen followed, breathing heavily, hungry for her. Even their three-eyed unicorns were hungry for her.

Shew slashed at the curving tree branches and penetrated her way through. She came upon the lake of frogs again and didn’t hesitate riding through it. The first time she saw it, she thought the lake should have slowed Loki down because he would have to find a way around it. Now that she had seen him eat a frog, she knew the lake was useless. This wasn’t the old frog-fearing Loki anymore.

The lake wasn’t deep and the frogs sang to her in their croaking voice, ‘Happy birthday to you.’

Happy bloody birthday to me, Shew thought.

Suddenly they arrived at the foot of a hill and there was no way back.  The only way to go was up.

“Hang on, Cerené,” she patted her hands clinging to her waist. “I’ll take care of you.”

The road up the hill wasn’t easy. Her unicorn struggled, but Shew begged it to keep on going.

“You can do it,” she whispered in its ear. “You’re no loser.”

Fear, in its most imminent manifestation, chained Shew’s soul. The worst thing about fear was the thinking. The more she thought about what could happen to her and Cerené if they were caught, the more the fear spread over her body like a crawling tattoo of Goosebumps.

“Be optimistic, Shew,” she told herself. “You can do it. Pretend you believe in the Chanta.”

No one’s helping you here, Chosen One. Her damn voice nagged her. Everyone looks up to you. They expect you to set an example, to be an idol, and an inspiration.

Shew fought the steepness of the hill, cursing the gravity that tried to pull her back down. She begged the sky to help her and pull her up the hill. Shouldn’t things like that happen in fairy tales?

“Damn all fairy tales for making me think living a real life was going to be a walk in the park,” she mumbled.

“Can you ask the moon to help you?” Shew said to Cerené, fighting her way through.

“She doesn’t want to,” Cerené said. “She says this is your moment to shine brighter than the moon!”

“Easy for you to say, hanging up there like a plate dangling happily from the sky,” she spat her words up at the moon. It seemed she’d offended someone up there because at that moment it started to rain heavily.

“Want to me to get off the unicorn and stall them?” Cerené spat rain at her.

“No!” Shew pulled Cerené’s arms tighter around her. “You don’t leave my sight. Understand?”

“I’m sure if I try harder, I can breathe fire like dragons at them,” Cerené said.

“Please, no,” she patted her hands again. When was Cerené going to realize that she wasn’t capable of creating fire like her mother? “Just stay with me, or they will eat you alive,” she told Cerené.

Shew urged the unicorn to fight its way up, “I can’t be the Chosen One. It surely is a mistake,” she mumbled. “How can I be when I’m always running away from something?” She had to run away, save herself and Cerené.

The unicorn struggled even more. The rain and snow complicated everything. The poor unicorn didn’t know whether to trot through or be cautious of slipping.

“Rain, snow, and bad weather,” Shew grunted. “Next I’m going to get a damn tsunami in my face…”

Shew’s unicorn stopped atop of the hill.  Speaking of tsunamis, there was nothing on the other side but the endless Missing Mile ocean, and it was a straight shot downwards to reach it. A large wave crashed against the rocks at the bottom as Shew sat paralyzed, looking at the endless water ahead.

“This can’t be,” she said, fear taking over her completely. Cerené’s eyes bulged out, speechless as her friend. They gazed back at the waving hordes of black cloaks and unicorns closing in, and then back at the ocean.

“What are we going to do now?” Cerené asked. “You think we should just jump in the ocean?”

“We could,” Shew said. “But that doesn’t guarantee we’ll live.”

“My mother said, you’d be immortal when you turn sixteen,” Cerené said.

“I’m not sure I’m immortal yet,” Shew said. “I don’t feel immortal. Maybe I have to split my heart first or something,” she said under her breath. “Even if I were immortal, you could die, Cerené,” she said.

“It was going to happen sooner or later,” Cerené said. “I’m glad I met you before I died.”

Shew squeezed Cerené’s hand tighter, “I’m glad I met you. You taught me how to live—in a very weird way, I suppose,” she turned her unicorn around, facing her approaching killers.

“What are you doing, Joy?”

The Huntsmen were in her face, only a hundred strides away. The Huntsmen were like time, and time was the greatest serial killer in history, it always arrived, never tick too soon, or a tock to late.

Shew took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and imagined the future. She imagined passing through this moment. She imagined surpassing all the pain, crossing over to a land of lilies and singing birds where she and Cerené were playing in the field. She imagined all the beautiful things that could happen later. It helped her lift some of the moment’s weight off her shoulders.

Then she opened her eyes.

Shew felt as if she was seeing the world with new eyes, the eyes of the future. If she were to cross this very dark hour, she had to see further than the length of her sword, further than the horizon, further that what logic and physical shortcomings permitted, and further than the imaginable. It was the only way to cross this moment: to long for the prize and reward of the future.

Cerené was shocked to see the Huntsmen slow down, a little cautious of Shew. Their yellow eyes dimmed a little. They were watching Shew watching them, and the air was charged with anticipation.

The hunter had become worried of the hunted, because the hunted was one step away from becoming the hunter.

Slowly, the Huntsmen made way for Loki’s unicorn, appearing from the middle. He stopped a stride ahead of them and pulled back his cloak. No amount of rain could wash away the darkness that stained him. He was bleeding from his scars caused by Shew and the glass dragon.

“I’ve never really had to go this far to kill someone,” he spoke. “Still, everything dies in the grip of my hands eventually.”

“I’m not in the grip of your hand, Loki,” Shew spoke back with the same seriousness and intensity.

“You will be,” he nodded. “Look at you, princess. You got the ocean at your back and me in front. Death doesn’t come any closer than this.”

“If I jump off this cliff and die in the ocean,” Shew said, “death will be yours because the Queen will kill you for not getting my heart.”

“I’m a good swimmer, princess,” Loki said. “I’ve even pulled a ring from the belly of a whale,” he said.

“Unlucky her who needed that ring,” Shew smirked.

“I’m no woman’s man, dear princess,” Loki said. “I’m not interested in you anymore. I’m not even going to give you the honor of killing you myself. I’ll let my hungry Huntsmen do it, just the way the Queen let’s her cats take care of the rats in the castle. You’re all alone now, princess. Who do you think will stand up for you?” He turned his unicorn to leave taking the same path he’d come from.

Loki disappeared, and his Huntsmen began approaching. Cerené’s heart beat so fast that Shew could feel it pumping on her back.

Instead of freezing, every step forward the Huntsmen took, Shew equaled it with another step forward. She wasn’t afraid of them anymore. If the Huntsmen were fear itself, she’d decided there was no better moment to face it.

About fifty strides away, the Huntsmen stopped. They pulled their cloaks back, showing their ugly disfigured faces, staring at the bold princess who stared back at them.

Cerené swallowed hard.

Each passing moment Shew looked at them, she gained more strength. Fear was just a coward like all of us sometimes. Dare look it in the eyes long enough and it will bow with respect.

A flat smile shaped the Huntsmen’s faces. It was like: really, are you looking back at us? Who do you think you are?

Shew made sure she did not flinch for a second. She raised her sword in the air, and one of the Huntsmen took a stride back. It was the beginning. Rights were taken step by step. Wars were won drop by drop of blood.

Another Huntsman stepped back. Shew could see the confusion building up on their faces.

She took a step forward and uttered one word, “Me,” she was answering Loki’s question when he asked her who’d stand up for her. “The worst thing about fairy tales is that they make you think you have to wait for the prince.”

The Princess of Sorrow, realizing she needed no mentor, no Chanta, no moon, rode down the hill and attacked.

It would be hard to explain what really happened. Shew swung her sword as if the Queen had really eaten her heart, and the heartless girl left was nothing but a beautiful monster. Shew was merciless, chopping off heads with one strike just as Loki did in Furry Tell. Everything her father taught her crystallized before her eyes. She even imagined herself wearing her father’s armor, killing the Intruders. Every trick, every maneuver, and every heartless swing was in the name of her father whom people feared all over the world.

She stroke as if she were one of them, evil, heartless, and a darkness eater. This was what she was meant for, to be one of the and yet kill them.

She rode the unicorn down the hill, killing whoever was on her left or right. No one dared block her way.

Cerené closed her eyes most of the time. Even when the blood of Huntsmen spattered on her face, she didn’t open them, grateful to the rain for washing it away.

Shew got wounded, but she didn’t bother to look. She was determined to be as strong as Loki.

Pain, wounds, and aches were an illusion, only manifested by the colors of bruises and blood, but it had no roots; pain was a figment of one’s imagination.

Only one thing could stop her: Death. Even then, she had found it arguable.

Slash, swing, chop, scream, slash, swing, and never look behind.

Fight fire with fire.

Her sword and fangs were Shew’s fire. Her fangs only scared the Huntsmen away. She wasn’t going to waste time biting them one by one. But her sword, made of white glass, energized by Cerené’s breath, was her Art. Some people’s art was a painting, some their knowledge, some their caring for their families. But the Chosen One’s Art was different. It was the cruelty she had to use to make things right, the darkness she used to bring the light, and her individuality in gathering a nation. Shew would have simply ridden back and given her heart to the Queen. She didn’t need one anymore.

Like a maniac, she ended up chasing the Huntsmen as they toppled and ran away from her down the hill.

“She really is the Chosen One,” one of them yelled, fleeing the scene.

Shew ran freely into the forest, away from them. She didn’t bother gazing back at the dead she’d left behind.

“You’re bleeding,” Cerené said. “Let’s stop. I can mend your wounds.”

However, there was no stopping. One single three-eyed unicorn was chasing her now. She could smell his deviously beautiful scent. It was Loki, coming to avenge all those Huntsmen she’d just killed.

“Can you kill him?” Cerené asked, grabbing her shoulder.

Shew’s warrior eyes softened a little. She still wasn’t sure, even after all those she’d just slaughtered, “if I kill him, he will never wake up again,” she said. Cerené looked confused. “He isn’t like the Huntsmen. He is like me, filled with darkness and confusion, not knowing what to do with it. All that he’ll sacrifice for me, being banned from Heaven and saving me, will be for nothing if I kill him.”

Cerené had nothing to say. She wasn’t going to ask Shew about this dream she always talked about. She only sensed Shew’s reluctance for a moment and got off the unicorn, running toward Loki. Cerené decided she’d stand up to him, not to defend herself, but to defend the Chosen One.

“No!” Shew reached out for her. “What are you doing, Cerené?”

“My job, I have to protect the Chosen One,” she yelled, running at the coming horse. “You take care of me, I take care of you, remember?”

Before Shew could catch her, Cerené stood foolishly in front of Loki’s approaching unicorn, stretched out one hand in the air and yelled ‘Moutza!’

Cerené closed her eyes, thinking if she focused strong enough, she could create fire and burn the evil Huntsman.

Shew was approaching to pick Cerené up, not intimidated by Loki, but then let out a shriek as she glanced up at him.

She was too late.

Loki, angry Shew had killed most of his Huntsman, raised his sword at Cerené who still had her eyes closed, trying to create fire with her mind.

Sadly, he was closer to Cerené than Shew, who could not believe her eyes. Loki’s sword had landed a blow on Cerené.

Cerené opened her eyes, disappointed she could not create fire, and glad she wasn’t dead. When she saw what had happened to her outstretched hand, she looked puzzled. A fountain of blood squirted in the air. Cerené looked at Shew with pleading eyes, wondering if this was really happening to her.

Loki had cut her hand off.

“I told you not to leave me!” Shew yelled at her and bent over to pull her up on the unicorn.

As stubborn as Cerené was, she pulled away from Shew and ran toward Loki again, stretching out her other arm, and screaming, "Moutza, you Queen’s Bastard!”

Loki let out a small demeaning laugh, and waited until the little ashen girl approached him.

“This first one was for thinking you could kill me,” Loki said. “This is for being stupid,” he simply chopped her other hand off, and rode away again.

“You little piece of shit!” Shew screamed at Loki and ran toward Cerené, trying to pull her up. This time Cerené wasn’t stubborn. She had that heartbreaking look in her eyes as if questioning how this could possibly be her fate. Shew pulled her up before she fainted.

All she could think of now was saving Cerené. Looking to the left, she noticed they were near the Wall of Thorns. She remembered when Cerené told her that each sleeping beauty in the Field of Dreams was a girl who had been killed. In order to live again, they had to dream and provide sand and tears for a hundred years, and then they could come back to life revitalized.

Shew didn’t know how to resurrect people through the blowpipe, nor did she know about the power of True Names. The Field of Dreams was her only choice to save Cerené. Cerené was dying in her hands.

To go to the Field of Dreams, Shew had to pass through the Wall of Thorns.  Shew rode toward it, not giving a damn about the thorn bush. If she rode fast enough, she should be able to pierce through it. Even if she didn’t, she’d give in to the thorn bush and allow the unicorn to take Cerené to the Field of Dreams.

As she rode, she noticed Loki following her again, but she intended to be faster. Once she entered the thorn bush, a couple of thorn vines crawled around Cerené and the unicorn, sniffing them. They slashed slightly at them, and sniffed their blood. Finally, they let them go.

I’m so close. I can make it to the Field of Dreams.

When the vines sniffed Shew, it took them some time before they slashed at her, tasting her blood.

Instantly they went crazy.

“Can’t you understand that I’m not the enemy,” Shew shouted. “Stupid thorns!”

Shew had come to a point where shedding blood had become really insignificant. She felt the thorns cut at her arms, her legs, and her face. It didn’t matter as long as there was the slightest hope to save Cerené.

If only she could ignore Mozart’s Magic Flute playing in her ears.

Somehow, she did this time.

Being seduced by music was only meant for the weak, not Chosen Ones when they’d learned their powers. The thorns had to do more than cut her skin to stop her.

Finally, Shew crossed to the other side into the Field of Dreams. Her dress was soaked with blood from every pore in her body

She stopped near one of the sleeping beauties, and eased Cerené down off the unicorn. She was hardly speaking. Shew located a free puddle of water and laid Cerené in it. She went back, undressed one of the girls in red, and dressed Cerené. She placed a glass urn to her right and one to her left, wondering if she’d done it the right way.

“Did I make fire?” Cerené muttered.

“Don’t talk now,” She urged her.

Cerené was already fainting. She had no more words to say, disappointed she didn’t live long enough to make fire. She held tighter, not knowing what else to do. She was waiting for a sign. Maybe she’d see Cerené crying sand and tears like all the other sleeping beauties, which would mean Cerené was saved.

“Tay,” Cerené tried to talk gain, her eyes white, not staring at Shew.

“Say nothing,” Shew held her face, trying not to think about the fountain of blood spurting out her arms. She suddenly remembered reading a gruesome fairy tale called the Girl Without Hands in the Schloss when she was imprisoned.

Who are you, Cerené? Who are you, really? Cinderella, the Phoenix, the Girl Without Hands, or my mentor?

“Tay,” Cerené’s tongue twisted. “Take,” she pointed at her glass urn tied to her stomach under her dress.

Shew took it, not knowing what Cerené wanted her to do with it. It looked like the other urns to her left and right. Cerené wasn’t talking anymore. She only pointed at the Wall of Thorns then fell back completely.

“Piggy, Piggy!” Loki shouted from behind the wall, his voice void of sarcasm.

Even if it was going to delay saving Cerené, she had to get rid of him.

Kill him, damn it. Kill him!

Shew took the glass urn and rode her unicorn back to the edge of the wall. She wasn’t going to run through it again. She’d been bleeding for some time, and she was getting weaker.

Loki was already in the middle of the Wall of Thorns, crossing it slowly on his unicorn. Shew felt maddened by the fact that Wall of Thorns considered him a friend and let him pass. She rode close to the edge of the thorns, looking Loki in the eyes.

“This is for Cerené,” she said, and threw her sword like a spear, right into his heart, wiping the nasty smirk off his face. “And this sword has a piece of her in it.

Loki fell back instantly and his unicorn ran away. Shew couldn’t see what happened to him from behind the thicket of  thorns, but she was worried. She’d stabbed him in the stomach before and he didn’t die. There was no assurance he’d die when a sword plunged right through his heart.

A moment had passed without him even cursing or talking. Could it be that he was dead? It looked like it.

She turned around, back to Cerené.

“Peek-a-boo,” Loki’s voice called her from behind, sarcastic and full of himself again. She turned around and saw his head from above the thorns. The Fleece reddened it. Loki had been saved by the power of the Queen again. “I see you,” he said, pointing two fingers at her and back to his eyes.

She wasn’t sure if he had pulled the sword out or not. It was hard to see his chest from behind the thorns, and there was no way she was going to enter the Wall of Thorns again.

“It’s been a rough day,” he said, wiping Cerené’s blood from his mouth. “And you owe me a heart and liver, princess,” he was walking toward her, about to cross the Wall of Thorns.

Shew stood swordless, without ideas, and almost void of any strength left. Ironically, it was at this very moment when she’d decided that killing him was the right thing. The Loki she had loved and always known was gone, just like any other relationship gone to hell, one of the two lovers had simply died. Foolishly, it had taken her the whole dream to figure it out. Nevertheless, the heart had reason the mind didn’t know of.

At this moment, Shew’s heart was on Cerené’s side and she had to kill that beast standing in front of her.

While Loki was approaching, Shew stood with nothing but Cerené’s glass urn in her hands. What was she going to do with it, throw it at him? If she only knew what Cerené wanted her to do with it?

“Isn’t it ironic that the so called Chosen One herself can’t pass through the Wall of Thorns without being cut everywhere,” Loki said, approaching slowly. Of course, he was having the time of his life. He must have known there was no way out of the Field of Dreams, and she had decided she wasn’t in the mood to take more slashes from the Wall of Thorns.

“Stupid Wall of Thorns,” Shew said. A couple of insulted vines tried to reach out for her. “It doesn’t understand that you’re the enemy here, Loki Van Helsing.”

“Stupidity,” Loki considered, now extremely close. “What a beautiful thing. If the Wall of Thorns wasn’t stupid, we wouldn’t be in this situation now, where I’m going to rip your heart out with my own hands.”

A couple of another insulted vines crawled around Loki, unhappy with how he talked about them. She watched them with eager eyes and wished they’d avenge Cerené and kill him.

“Get off, stupid thorns,” Loki hushed them away. “They can’t hurt me, even when I am not good to them. You know why? Because like everything else in the world, they are stupid,” he sneered back at Shew. “Look at you, princess. All soaked in blood,” he mocked her. “I hope you still have your heart and liver intact.”

It was the first time the word ‘blood’ sounded sweet to Shew. She remembered when Dame Gothel spattered the cake with the girl’s blood in the weighing-of-the-soul chamber, and finally understood what the glass urn was for. She understood why Cerené insisted on her taking it.

Slowly, Shew squeezed the blood soaking her dress and partially filled the glass urn with it while Loki kept approaching and talking.

“Even if I keep insulting the thorns all day, they can’t hurt me, because guess what,” Loki waved his celebrating arms next to him, only five strides away from Shew, “to the thorns, I am a friend.”

“Not anymore,” Shew said, as she raised the glass urn and spattered Loki with her enemy blood.

It was if the thorns had waited for this moment  eagerly, sprawling their vines around Loki’s outstretched arms as the music began to play. The reaction on Loki’s face was priceless. All he had to do was give in to Mozart’s seductive tune, and then he’d kill himself in his own dance of death.

Thankfully, Loki loved music; it was a good way for him to die.

“Stupidity,” Shew mocked Loki, and watching the thorn which were about to kill him. “What a beautiful thing.”

She didn’t know if she’d just become heartless, or if it was because this was a dream, but she didn’t cry over Loki. It didn’t make sense. Maybe he really managed to make her hate him in this dream, or maybe it was all because he’d killed Cerené. Shew was confused. All she felt was the power of the Chosen One inside her. It was a grey kind of power. It wasn’t simply black and white or good and evil. It was dark power that could be molded to its owner’s liking, the power of making an instant decision. The Loki in this dream, who was controlled by Carmilla deserved to die. He might have not deserve  death on another day when he was himself, but today either Shew or the Huntsman could live. Shew chose herself.

As Shew began to walk away, Loki’s face changed. His snake eyes turned back to blue, and his blonde hair began fading into his natural black color again, the color Charmwill had given Loki when he unshadowed him. It was the color that was associated with Loki when he was to being the boy she loved.

Shew didn’t understand at first. She thought it was one of Loki’s tricks, but the innocent look in his eyes was real.

“Shew?” he wondered as if he’d woken up from a long nightmare. He looked at the vines wrapping around his arms. He looked like he’d never seen this place before. “What’s going on?”

“Loki?” Shew grimaced, confused. “Is that really you?”

“Where am I?” Loki’s voice suddenly sounded feminine. It was Fable’s voice.

“Fable?” Shew squinted “What the hell is going on? Are you Loki or Fable or who?”

“I’m Fable,” Loki said, confusing Shew even more. “I used a spell to possess Loki’s body. He isn’t bound to Carmilla now. Tell me what I can do to save this dream. I can’t stay long, but I want to help.”

“It’s too late for that. Get out of Loki’s body, Fable,” Shew yelled at her. “Right now!”

“Why?” Fable asked.

“Because he is going to die!”

Shew’s shouting made Loki’s voice return to normal, “help me, Shew,” he said. “I don’t understand.”

Shew stepped back, her eyes full of tears. Her heart ached as the real Loki talked to her. There was nothing she could do. The music had gotten into him, and he began moving his feet uncontrollably.

Fable had managed to enter his body a breath too late.

The Wall of Thorns was having fun with him, and Shew preferred not to watch. Death was all around her.

Shew turned around, telling herself she walked out on the Huntsman, not Loki. She didn’t know how she’d be able to live with herself if she thought otherwise. But then Loki’s words came like a dagger behind her back, “you didn’t read the necklace?” he pleaded.

Shew fell to her knees, Cerené dead in front of her in the distance, and Loki eaten by the thorns behind her. She only felt a little better when his dark voice returned and he started cursing her while the thorns tortured him.

Shew’s torture was never-ending, even when she knew in her heart that this long and heartbreaking dream had finally come to an end.

She walked to Cerené who was dead and pale already. She brushed her hair, asking her for forgiveness, “Bianca was right after all,” she whimpered. “I couldn’t take care of you.”

She cried her heart out as she started dizzying. She was about to wake up to a lonely world without Cerené or Loki. She supposed her suffering was her destiny.

A single image broke her sobs in one last trick of fate. She saw Cerené eyes creating sand, and then she saw her cry Tears of Beauty, which glided down her cheek and into the glass urn. And she saw her growing hands again while asleep. The Field of Dreams was real. It worked.

Shew’s eyed widened, and she felt slightly better, brushing Cerené’s hair again, “I understand now why Charmwill wiped my memory of you,” Shew whispered to her. “In order for Carmilla not to get access to the darkness of the world, the Clue had to be put to sleep,” she kissed Cerené’s forehead. “I’ll see you in a hundred years,” she said as the sky began raining tiny shards of glass.

39

Back to Candy House

Shew sat on the couch in Candy House, pushing the remote control’s buttons.

She wasn’t looking for something to watch. Just killing time. Each click on the button, a new channel appeared on TV that meant nothing to her. Like most people who watched TV in an attempt to escape reality, Shew was trying unsuccessfully to forget about Cerené.

It amazed her how she realized that remembering Loki wasn’t heart wrenching like remembering the ashen girl. Maybe because Loki’s darker side was too evil to neglect, or because he’d pushed Shew so hard she had to kill him. But that wasn’t it. Shew knew the real reason. She couldn’t forgive him for killing Cerené, cutting her hands so cruelly, even if it had been predicted in one of the Brothers Grimm fairytales. The look of betrayal in her eyes still haunted Shew. That look, when Cerené was wondering how she could die before knowing who she really was, and before she could create fire by will.

What did Cerené do to deserve this?

Shew couldn’t even forgive herself. They were supposed to take care of each other, and she hated that Bianca was right. You’re not going to able to take of me the way I take of you. And after all, Cerené died because of Shew’s reluctance to kill Loki in the beginning.

Click. Another channel.

Click. All TV channels sucked she wished she’d never been introduced to that hollow box. She had lived a hundred years without it in the Schloss, and it didn’t feel like she’d missed much.

Shew was lost. Quenching her Dhampir thirst didn’t trouble her much, although she was paling out since she got back from the Dreamworld.

The door banged open upstairs, and Fable came down, walking to the refrigerator. Since she’d been into Loki’s body, she wasn’t feeling good, let alone entering the Dream Temple and crossing the purple light. She was greatly shocked by her experience with Loki trying to kill her in Furry Tell.

Loki tried to kill Shew as well, so she thought the two girls could talk about it, but Fable didn’t want to. Since they came back from the Schloss Fable yesterday, Fable had occupied herself with the silly task of teaching the alphabet to her favorite tarantula—he had only been capable of writing the word ‘dork’ in the past, only because he wanted to madden Axel.

“Concentrate, Bitsy,” she told him as she rearranged the colored alphabet magnet sticking on the refrigerator.

Bitsy didn’t speak, but he was able to crawl on the refrigerator’s surface and arrange the letters. Fable would tell him to write ‘I love flies’ or ‘Axel is a dork’ and he’d crawl vertically on the refrigerator’s surface and arrange those magnetic letters.

“Smart, Bitsy,” Fable cuddled Bitsy in her arms.

Shew let out a feeble smile, listening to Fable.

Then the door to Candy House sprang open and Axel entered with a couple of his nerdy friends. They were holding Shew’s glass coffin and pulling it inside.

One of his friends, wearing over-sized glasses seemed iffed by the weight of whatever was inside the coffin.

“Hang tight, nerdfighter.” Axel encouraged him as they parked the coffin on the wooden floor of the living room. “Hye. Hey. Hellelujah,” Axel hailed, high fiving each of his friends. “No one can know about this,” Axel warned his friends with a serious forefinger. “We don’t capture an extraterrestrial everyday.”

“Sure, Axel,” one of his friends says. “Or the government will haunt us down. I’ve seen it on History channel.”

Shew, sitting on the couch, exchanged glances with Fable standing by the refrigerator. They didn’t quite understand what was in the coffin.

“Sure, boys,” Axel smiled back at them and showed them out. “Just keep your mouth shut and don’t tell anyone I caught an alien,” he closed the door and turned back to Shew and Fable and opened the coffin.

“You told him there is an alien in the coffin?” Fable said, pointing at Loki’s corpse inside it. He was suffering from his coma-like Sleeping Death after Shew had killed him in the Dreamworld. Axel had painted him green, and even had two antennas sticking out of his head.

Shew snapped and came closer, “What did you do to Loki?”

“You convinced your friends Loki is an alien?” Fable said, her mouth wide open.

“It’s not really easy smuggling a corpse around town,” Axel puffed. “Carmen didn’t work, and the two of you are acting like girls out of some sad soap opera. You’re welcome by the way.”

“I need to clean Loki and take care of his corpse right now,” Shew was about to kneel down.

“Wait,” Axel said. “Loki can wait. I have something important to tell you.”

“Not more important that Loki,” Shew said.

“How about I tell you something important about Cerené,” Axel said, knowing Shew would change her mind. “I thought so,” Axel cocked his head. “Now you girls sit on the couch while uncle Axelus the Great solves all puzzles for you. Most of them, actually.”

Hesitantly, Fable and Shew sat down. Axel had been good with his researches so far, so they thought they’d listen to what he had to say.

“Now look, girls,” Axel said, pulling out his most precious books, Loki’s Dreamhunter Guide and J.G.’s diary. “I’ve listened to all you two had to say about the Dreamworld, Cerené, the Queen of Sorrow, the Art, the Clue, Murano, Baba Yaga, the Wall of Thorns and all your blah blah blah.”

“Get to the point, Axel,” Shew sighed.

“The truth is there is no ‘point’,” he said. “Actually, I have no idea what is really going on. All I know is that I’m surrounded by fairy tale people, and frankly I enjoy discovering who they are and how they are interconnected to each other and our real world history. Well, most of them are lunatics, but who isn’t—no offence, Shew, but you know you scared the hilly billies out of us in the Schloss.”

“Could you just skip all this mumbo jumbo,” Fable said. “Tell us what you know.”

“Here is what I know,” Axel rubbed his hands. “On my way here with my fellow nerdfighters, members of the awesome Harum Skarum forum, and dear friends of Genius Goblin, I replayed all you told us happened in the dream in my head. I mean I understand that everyone is searching for the Lost Seven, and that the Phoenix is one of them, but some things you said were really strange and needed analyzing.”

“Did that help?” Shew wondered. “Did you come up with a way to bring Cerené back, maybe,” she said out of wishful thinking. She’d left Cerené to sleep for a hundred years.

“The amazing news is I did figure out something even more important,” Axel said. “Everything you told me about Cerené, her Art, that she is glassblower, and her mother didn’t really interest me. However, two things did,” Axel scratched his chin. “Murano and Moutza.”

“What about them?” Shew asked.

“Doing my genius research, I discovered that Moutza is a traditional gesture of insult among Greeks,” Axel explained. “It’s done by extending all fingers of your hand and presenting the palm toward whomever you want to insult.”

“So?” Shew frowned. “It’s probably a coincidence.”

“Not when it was used in older times, reportedly in different regions in Europe in rituals of burning witches by the stake,” Axel’s eyes widened. “Witches who could make fire,” he leaned forward.

“Are you serious?” Shew said.

“Not just that,” Axel continued. “The witch was usually seated on a horse, facing backward, while they smeared her face with something dirty to humiliate her before they’d probably banned her or killed her. You know what that dirty thing was?”

“Blood?” Fable uttered, and Shew started worrying about her.

“Cinder,” Axel said proudly.

“Cinder?” both girls considered. Shew took a moment to comprehend the connection.

“Remember when Cerené told you her mother wanted to call her Cinder or Cinderella?” Axel said. “In J.G.’s diary, he mentions that the Phoenix is also called Cinder—one of her many names. Cinderella was her name inspired by the Phoenix and the way its ashes rose back from after it burned.”

“But what does that mean exactly?” She wondered.

“Like I said, I don’t really have a ‘point’ but I see the connections,” Axel said.

“Which means you have nothing useful to tell us,” Fable sighed.

“Easy on me, sis,” Axel said. “Wait until I tell you about Murano Island.”

“Murano is the island Venetian glassblowers were banned to,” Shew said. “And where Cerené was born. What about it?”

“According to the story by the mysterious Alice Grimm you met—which I am really curious about—, the creator of the mirror hid his clue to control it inside Cerené, right?” Axel said.

“That’s right. A clue that grants its discoverer power of the all splinters in the world,” Shew explained.

“I kept thinking about when this really happened,” Axel said. “I mean for something that created a conflict between the so called forces of good and evil since the beginning of time, how could Cerené be the clue?”

“I don’t understand,” Shew said.

“I mean Cerené is about your age,” Axel said. “The creator couldn’t have made the mirror and the clue in the late 18th century. It must have been since hundreds, if not thousands, years ago. I don’t know what when the beginning of time is exactly.”

Shew felt like hit with a pebble in her face. Axel was right. Cerené was too young to be the clue. But maybe the clue passed through Cerené’s family. Maybe she inherited it from Bianca, and Bianca inherited it from her own mother.

”So I researched this Murano incident when glassblowers had been banned out of Venice for creating too much fire,” Axel said. “It’s a true incident, one of the most important historical events in the history of Venice and glassmaking. But do you even know when this occurred?”

“When?” Fable asked.

“1291,” Axel clapped his hands together. “That’s almost eight hundred years ago.”

“But that’s…” Shew’s face tightened.

“Impossible, I know,” Axel said. “But it isn’t, really. J.G. talks about the mirror in his diary. The creator, in order to make sure the clue never died, needed to create an immortal girl who carried it among centuries. But then, he must have learned that immortal could be killed in their dreams, so he had to make the girl even more eternal and undying that immortals.”

“What would that be,” Fable said. “Nothing is more undying than immortals.”

“Of course there is,” Axel objected. “There is something more eternal and legendary than any immortal you have ever thought of.”

“Spit it out, Alex,” Fable said while Shew thought she’d already known the answer. “What is it?”

“A Phoenix,” Shew answered on Axel’s behalf.

“Exactly,” Axel nodded. “Someone who’ll rise again from the ashes if burned. That’s why the creator made the clue a Phoenix so whenever she dies, she rises from the ashes again, and thus the clue lives forever and never dies,” Axel now clapped continuously, congratulating himself. “J.G. mentions here that he suspected that every time the Phoenix died and woke up, she woke up someone new, stripped of her past life’s memories, only very few information lived on with her when she was reborn, but nothing that had to do with whom she was before.”

“Cerené?” Shew wondered. The Slave Maiden, the cinder girl whose every breath she gave was a breath taken from her life? No wonder she didn’t care. Deep inside, she must have felt she can live this over and over again. That’s why she knew so many things Shew didn’t know about. Not only because Charmwill and Bianca talked to her, but because Cerené lived for so long that some knowledge like making glass stuck to her memory.

“The real Cinderella is not that helpless maid who longs to meet the prince in the ball,” Axel said. “Her role in the world is as equal and important as the Chosen One. The sad part is in order for her to protect the world, she’d better not know who she is or she’d start searching for the clue herself. Who knows, maybe if she find it, she’d decided to turn to the dark side.”

“Cerené would never do that,” Shew defended her.

“You of all people should know what darkness can do to people,” Axel said, “Remember the eerie songs you said Cerené sang whenever the world burned around her?”

“Yes,” Shew said. “Strange songs about London, ashes, and burning things.”

“I’m not sure but it looks to me like these are songs about things that had burned all along history and Cerené had been there when it happened,” Axel suggested. “She must have lived around every burning incident in history. The London fire, 1666, I would guess. That’s why she was singing London Bridge is Falling Down, which is rumored to have been about the London burning event,” Axel started counting on his fingers. “Ashes, Ashes which is part of the ‘Ring Around the Rosies’ nursery rhyme. It is said that this rhyme describes the incidents of the Black Death plague that killed most of the world. The plagued people were burned alive so they wouldn’t spread the disease. Fire, again. Remember when she told you about Le Fenice, the famous Venetian opera? It’s been burned through history as well. My guess is she was one of the burned. Cerené must have even seen when Rome burned, and when—”

“Enough!” Shew said. “Each time you mention her dying I feel like choking. Why should suffer something like that?”

“It’s her destiny, I guess,” Axel shook his shoulders.

“Does that mean, she isn’t dead?” Shew asked Axel. “Does it mean that she will rise again and will not sleep for a hundred years in the Field of Dreams?”

“I honestly don’t know, Shew,” Axel said. “I have so many questions in my head. Like who are the members of Cerené’s stepfamily? Why is she related to every burning incidents in history? Who burned these places, and why was she always there?”

“Which should answer who repeatedly saved me from the Wall of Thorns and Candy House when it burned,” Shew said.

“That’s if whoever saved you was actually saving you,” Axel pointed out. “It could be someone who was saving Cerené because she is the Clue, not you.”

“So what now, Axel?” Shew said. “There are too many mysteries, and I need to solve them to get to the Lost Seven before my mother.”

“In order to do so, we need someone to help us get to…” Axel said.

“To Murano,” Shew interrupted, and Axel nodded with approval. “Now that Carmilla knows who Cerené is and where she is from, she will go after her, whether in a Dreamworld or real life.”

“I’d really like to Murano with you,” Fable said. “I hope they have Venetian carnivals there where you wear those fantabuluos masks.”

“I’d like that, too. Never have tasted Venetian food. But I’m afraid that going to Murano isn’t easy at all,” Axel said. “I mean to travel back in time to the incidents in Murano in 1291, we’ll need to find Cerené first and enter her dream like Loki did with Shew…”

“And we have no clue where Cerené is in the Waking World,” Fable agreed.

“And even if we do, we’ll need a Dreamhunter to enter her dream,” Axel said, glancing briefly at the comatose Loki.

“Which we also don’t have,” Fable said.

“This brings us to square one again, where there is only one person who could help us,” Axel said.

“Charmwill Glimmer,” Shew and Fable uttered in the same breath. “He must know of a way to get us there, and I bet he could answer a lot of questions,” Shew said.

“Didn’t Cerené tell you there is a way to resurrect him?” Fable asked Shew.

“She said Charmwill told her his True Name when she met him in the cottage, and that it would help resurrect him if he dies,” Shew answered. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to learn it from her.”

“Because Loki chopped off her hands,” Fable said, Loki’s name sounding bitter on her tongue.

“There is really nothing we can do without knowing Charmwill’s True name,” Axel said, glancing at Bitsy arranging the alphabet magnet on the refrigerator. He arranged it after Charmwill’s name this time.

40

The Guardian

Pickwick had been lost without his master for sometime.

Sorrow didn’t seem to be the town for him, and he couldn’t befriend anyone. Not because people were necessarily bad, but Pickwick was worried someone would get close enough to him and gain the secret to unlocking the Book of Beautiful Lies. Pickwick’s main purpose in life was protecting the book after Charmwill had been killed by the Queen of Sorrow.

Even Loki, who should have become Pickwick’s master after Charmwill’s departure, hadn’t been around for some time. Last time Pickwick checked, he saw Loki locked in a coffin in Candy House, looking like a Sleeping Beauty awaiting his resurrecting kiss.

Axel, Fable, and Shew forgot about Pickwick the Parrot. No one fed him or played with him. He knew that it was unlikely they would care for him when they’d only known him for two days, but he was used to his master taking good care of him. Even Nine the cat and Mr. Squirrel ate Pickwick’s food and were mean to him.

Pickwick fluttered his lonely days over Sorrow, picking up the food left in the Belly and the Beast’s garbage, still hoping his master would return. To be precise, he was trying to resurrect Charmwill.

In the old days, Charmwill had told Pickwick how some people were blessed with a second life, but only if a dear friend knew of their True Name, which was essential to the resurrecting process. Pickwick, like Cerené, did know Charmwill’s True Name. Ironically, he was mute and could not utter it.

Bored, Pickwick fluttered his way to the Schloss. It was a scary place, and Pickwick wasn’t brave. His main power as a mute parrot was being secretive, not courageous. He decided to turn around and flew back to Sorrow, passing by the Black Forest, the Swamp of Sorrow, and Buried Moon Cemetery.

Pickwick fluttered over Candy House for a while, wondering what everyone was doing. He stood by the window, watching Fable staring at the alphabet magnets on the refrigerator. She had Bitsy organize them after Charmwill Glimmer’s name. Bitsy was proud of himself, standing on her shoulder as she was wondering what Charmwill’s True Name could be.

Pickwick was about to lose his mind. If he could only speak, he could have told Fable about the name. It was an easy name, right in her face. Why couldn’t she see it?

In his frustration, Pickwick knocked his beak three times on the window.

“Pickwick!” Fable said, happy to see him. “Where have you been?” she opened the window for him and cuddled the parrot. “Bitsy, say ‘hi’ to Pickwick.”

It was obvious that the two didn’t like each other the least. Pickwick clawed himself atop of the refrigerator and pointed at Charmwill Glimmer’s name.

“I know. I know,” Fable said. “We all want to know his True Name so we can bring him back. Bitsy wrote it by the way. Isn’t he adorable?” Fable kissed her tarantula. Pickwick wiped his mouth with his wing on her behalf. “I really wish I could figure out Charmwill’s True Name,” she added.

Frustrated, Pickwick started pecking at the alphabet magnets with his beak, trying to rearrange them. He was going to write Charmwill’s True Name, but Bitsy got angry he messed up his writing and attacked Pickwick on the refrigerator.

Pickwick tried to push Bitsy away in a fight o hair and feathers. Finally, Pickwick knocked the tarantula down with a firm hit with his forehead. He began knocking his beak on the alphabets again. The letters were loose and he couldn’t arrange them with his beak the way he wanted.

Fable still seemed confused, “Are you trying to tell me that you know Charmwill’s True Name, Pickwick?”

Pickwick rolled his eyes, and let out a long sigh.

“What is it? Tell me,” Fable shook him by the shoulder as if he were human. She wrinkled his feathers, which he combed and took care of everyday just in case he met a parrotess—he thought of himself as a parrot prince so his princess had to be a parrotess.

Having been shaken enough, Fable recognized her stupidity. Pickwick was mute. She stood in front of the refrigerator and started rearranging the letters herself.

“So Charmwill’s name is anagram to his True name, the way Mircalla is an anagram for Carmilla?” she squinted, asking Pickwick. She thought she was good with anagrams, thanks to her dyslexia. But still, she couldn’t figure it out.

Pickwick fluttered all aver the room, happy Fable got it finally. He kissed her with his beak on the cheek—he always had a problem with that part, and wondered how he’d execute his first kiss when he met the parrotess of his dreams. Then Pickwick flew over, checking on Axel. He had no doubt Fable would figure out the anagram in a while.

Pickwick saw Axel playing some Zombie game on his TV. He landed on the couch next to Axel, wondering if he’d let him play. Killing zombies on the screen was fun. Besides, Axel was on one player mode since Loki was in the coffin.

Pickwick began pecking the remote with his beak, then trying to control it with his claws. It was a hard task.

The harder task was facing Axel who continuously shushed him away and told him to go sit next ever-annoying Itsy.

Pickwick decided Axel was an ass. He thought they should have named him Assel or something, and swore the first thing he’d do when he could speak again was tell him that.

It was almost sunset, and Shew sat outside by the porch.

Fluttering outside, he saw she was holding Loki’s necklace in her hand. Silently, Pickwick watched her trying to decipher the writing on the front and the back of the pendant. She tried everything that crossed her mind, and still nothing made sense. Even Pickwick couldn’t interpret the pendant’s meaning.

Axel kicked the front door open and stood on the porch as Pickwick tried to avoid him as if he reeked of rotten apples.

“I discovered something new,” he told Shew. “J.G. claims only three of the Lost Seven are here in Sorrow. The other four are still trapped in the Dreamworld.”

“So?” Shew asked.

“So Axelus the Great has to find them and save them,” Axel had his hands in his waist. “Why do I feel like I should have been the Chosen One?”

“You eat too much for a Chosen One,” Shew joked, still staring at the pendant.

“I’d roll the pendant on its axis if I were you,” Axel said. “If you do that, the two images will overlap and create a new readable image. It’s an old trick. Everybody knows that.”

How had she never thought of it?

Pickwick, clinging to a nearby tree branch, watched Shew roll the pendant. The front and back engravings, powered by the speed of rolling on the axis, merged and formed one coherent sentence.

The front:

And the back:

It was clear as night and day.  Right there in front of her. They were like a jigsaw puzzle. All she needed was to connect them together.

Even Pickwick raised an eyebrow, reading the message Loki had been trying to send Shew all along.

Shew read the words and started crying hysterically. She was shivering hard with the pendant still in the palm of her hand. How could that be, she thought. She didn’t’ need to feel this right now after she’d killed Loki.

But before she could deal with the conflicting emotion of what she’d read on the pendant, Fable shouted from inside…

“Oh. My. God.” Fable shrieked. “I freakin’ know Charmwill’s true name!” she sounded strangely confused, though.

Axel dashed back through the door, and Shew followed, tears sticking to her eyes.

Pickwick followed them both, wondering how they’d feel about the discovery. He knew that knowing Charmwill’s True Name was going to be a shock. It was true that it was going to help them resurrect him, but it will raise more questions about the Dreamworld and what really happened to fairy tales.

“How could that be?” Fable said, pointing at the rearranged letters of Charmwill Glimmer.

Bitsy jumped on the refrigerator again, wanting to rearrange Charmwill’s name. He thought the name he was reading was so wrong. It just couldn’t be.

Pickwick  picked up Bitsy with his beak and threw him away, plastering on the foggy window, giving time to Shew and Axel to read Charmwill’s name.

“Is this an anagram for his name?” Axel’s face knotted, unable to comprehend.

“But that makes no sense?” Shew said, still hanging onto Loki’s necklace. “Charmwill Glimmer, Loki’s Guardian, is actually…” she couldn’t pronounce the discovery.

“Fable?” Axel pulled her by the shoulder. “Are you sure? Did you maybe add a or subtract an alphabet?”

“No, I didn’t,” Fable pulled his hands away. “The same way Carmilla was an anagram for Mircalla, Charmwill Glimmer is an anagram for Wilhelm Carl Grimm.”

End of Cinderella Dressed in Ashes

Book #2 in the Grimm Diaries

Next book will be

Blood, Milk, and Chocolate

Book #2 in the Grimm Diaries

From the Queen of Sorrow’s point of view.

Afterword

Since the beginning of this series, the awesome readers and fans helped me break tons of rules, starting from the idea of prequels and ending with a series that could be read through many parrarel books and on my many different levels of perception.

To celebrate this unusual style, Cinderella Dressed in Ashes doesn’t only end with a twist, but one that you will have to solve. Loki’s message should be easy to figure out. If you figure it out, send the answer to the following email:

jawigi@live.com

All ‘right’ answers will be chosen to enter endless giveaways from necklaces and artwork made by other fans for the series, free paperback editions, and free advance copies for the coming books in the series.

Psst. If you know the answer, don’t tell anyoneJ

List of the Grimm Diaries Prequels available so far:

The Grimm Diaries Prequels 1- 6

Including the following Prequels:

1 Snow White Blood Red

narrated by Snow White Queen

2 Cinder to Cinder & Ashes to Ashes

narrated by Alice Grimm

3 Beauty Never Dies

narrated by Peter Pan

4 Ladle Rotten Rat Hut

narrated by Little Red Riding Hood

5 Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

as told by the Devil

6 Blood Apples

narrated by Prince Charming

The Grimm Diaries Prequels 7- 10

7 Once Beauty Twice Beast

as told by Beauty

8 Moon & Madly

as told by Moongirl

9 Rumpelstein

as told by Rumpelstiltskin

10 Jawigi

as told by Sandman Grimm

The Grimm Diaries Prequels 11- 14

11) Children of Hamlin

narrated by the Devil

12) Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale

by Jack Madly

13) Ember in the Wind

by the Little Match Girl

14) Jar of Hearts

by the Queen of Sorrow

The following quotes might be too many, but if you come back to them after you finish reading the book, I believe you will appreciate them even more.

‘Evil is a point of view.’

~Anne Rice

‘Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.’

~Hans Christian Andersen

“Love is like death, it must come to us all…but never can it be cheated, and never will it be forgotten.”

~Jacob Grimm

“…for obvious reasons, I have changed the names of the people and places concerned…”

~Bram Stoker

in his  preface to the 1901 Icelandic edition of Dracula.

Content

Cinderella Dressed in Ashes
The Grimm Diaries 2
by
Cameron Jace

PROLOGUE A Splinter of Mirrors

1 The Phoenix

2 A World Between Dreams

3 The Slave Maiden

4 A Garden of Graves

5 The Heart of the Art

6 The Mermaid’s Milk

7 A Field of Dreams

8 A Never Ending Dream

9 Of Tears and Sand

10 The Girl with One Glass Shoe

11 The Princess and the Pauper

12 A Trail of Breadcrumbs and Candy

13 A Sack Full of Dead Children

14 A Breath of Magic

15 The Forbidden Art

16 A Bird of Fire

17 A Puzzle of Seven Cards

18 Rainbow’s End

19 Pandora’s Box

20 Fable’s Charm

21 A Massacre in Furry Tell

22 The Name of the Huntsman

23 A Grimm Girl

24 A Slash from the Past

25 The Name of the Necklace

26 A Way Out

27 A Cruel Choice

28 A Splintered Clue

29 An Insurmountable Spirit

30 The Weighing of the Soul

31 A Conversation with Death

32 A Secret Revealed

33 A Breath of Life

34 A Path of Butterflies

35 A Wit of Swords

36 The Cottage and the Wolf

37 Soulbound

38 A Girl with no Hands

39 Back to Candy House

40 The Guardian

Afterword