Blood, Milk & Chocolate - Part 1 (The Grimm Diaries Book 3) (16 page)

32

Fable's
Dreamworld

Somewhere
near Ladle's house, the Lost Seven prepared their horses. Fable assumed she
should know how to ride horses in the Dreamworld. She was right.

Each of
them named their horse after their last names—all but Marmalade, who named
her horse Moon, and the Beast, who named his horse Beauty. Jack's horse was
named
Madly,
something Fable thought suited him
dearly. Cerené's horse was the Phoenix, and Fable's was Crumblewood, of course.
She decided she would call him Woody for short.

Ladle's
horse was named Rat. Ladle's full name was Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, a play on
"Little Red Riding Hood." Fable learned it was a secret language the
Lost Seven called Anguish Language. They used it to send secret messages to
each other. An example was the name of the town where Fable had been raised,
Furry Tell—an Anguish Language way to say "fairy tale."

Fable
hoped they wouldn't use it in this dream. Or was she supposed to know it in
this dream?

Only the
Beast's horse ate sugar. Marmalade's horse ate marmalade, and Ladle's ate what
she said were squirrel nuts, but they looked like fortune cookies. Jack's horse
fed on white feathers like the one in his mouth at all times. Cerené breathed
into her horse's mouth with her blowpipe for food. Instinctually, Fable grabbed
a few breadcrumbs and offered them to Woody, who nibbled on them with
enthusiasm.

Fable felt
so happy being among the Lost Seven. She thought this was the life she had
wanted to experience long ago.
The hell with the town of
Sorrow in the Waking World.
This dream was better than fairy tales.

***

The Beast
had been the first to put his cloak on. Fable still couldn't see his face. She
realized he almost never showed his face to anyone, thinking he was the
"ugliest of
them
all." The rest of them wore
their cloaks, except Fable, who was too small for hers. She looked silly in it.

Jack told
them that he had heard the Queen was performing a new Weighing of the Heart
ceremony for Shew and all the other girls whose blood she'd bathe in today. Fable
understood that the Queen couldn't bathe in the girls' blood unless their
hearts weighed twenty-one grams—the same reason she couldn't consume Shew's
heart.

"So
why twenty-one grams?" Fable thought she'd take advantage of them
considering her young and naive, and ask as many questions she could.

"Once
you we turn sixteen, all of our hearts weigh twenty-one grams," Marmalade
said. "Right, Jack?" She was trying to be playful.

"Not
mine." Jack bit on his white feather. "I'm too awesome for it to only
weigh that much." He smirked, and threw a rock at the moon in the sky. He
seemed obsessed with it, paying it more attention than Marmalade.

"Awesome."
Fable giggled. Did they say
awesome
in 1812?

"Don't
you know I am so awesome someone will write a book about me one day?"

"When
the soul leaves the body it has to be one of twenty-one grams," Ladle
elaborated, neglecting Jack's conceit. "If not, it won't do good in the
afterlife."

"And
you know that because?" Marmalade seemed jealous of Ladle, maybe noticing
how she and Jack always got along.

"She
is Death, splashy." Jack had called her "splashy" a couple of
times. "I'd not argue with her if I were you." He shared a long gaze
with Ladle.

"It's
something that appealed to the creators." Ladle broke off Jack's gaze to
explain further. "Twenty-one grams is the weight of balance and maturity.
Less and you haven't grown enough to face the world yet."

"And
heavier?" I asked.

"Heavier
has always been an arguable case," Ladle said, pulling a squirrel off her
back. Squirrels and scythes didn't match at all, Fable thought. "A heavier
heart either endures great hardships, is stained by evil, or has been
compromised by magic."

"Magic?
How?" Fable was interested.

"Magic
isn't always good, Fable," Ladle said. "Some dark magic has dire
consequences."

Fable
shrugged when she said that, then she saw Cerené gazing silently at her. Again,
it was as if they shared a secret—but Fable had no idea what it was. It
probably had to do with where she was supposed to have been for the past few
months.

"So
we're just going to walk among the huntsmen?" Fable said. "Do you
think our disguises are good enough?"

"It's
not the disguises," Jack said. "There is a rule among huntsmen that
prevents anyone from seeing another's face. Even the Queen herself is denied
the pleasure of uncovering any of their faces. Only Loki, the head of huntsmen,
can reveal his face."

"That's
a strange rule," Fable said. "Why?"

"Angel
Von Sorrow was the one who hired the huntsmen, before the Queen of Sorrow
turned them to serve her while he was away," Cerené explained. "All
huntsmen are boys. Only boys. It's said that they're all orphans who escaped
from all corners of the world to Sorrow. A myth says they have all crossed
something called the Seven Seas, reaching a Tower of Tales, where they were
ushered to Sorrow as an escape from their pasts. Angel wanted to protect them
from their evil fathers. He used magic to conceal their identities so they
wouldn't be hurt."

"But
they serve the Queen of Sorrow now," Marmalade said.

"She
managed to bind them to her side by dark magic," Ladle explained. "But
she couldn't break the spell so they'd show her their faces. She compromised
their loyalty but not their faces."

"And
I suppose we're going to use that to hide among them," Fable said. "We'll
use that to our advantage since no one dares ask us to show our faces?"

"You're
getting better by the minute." Jack winked and turned his horse the other
way. "Does my hat look good on me?" he asked Marmalade while
adjusting it,
then
rode away before she gave an
answer.

Fable
laughed at his easiness, and watched Marmalade chase him before Ladle did.
Cerené nodded at Fable and said, "Let's go save Shew."

Let's see
when and how Shew and Loki fell in love,
Fable thought, and rode after the
Lost Seven, all of them disguised as huntsmen, to the Schloss. She hoped she'd
succeed in getting Loki's Fleece back.

***

Mingling
with the huntsmen wasn't a big deal. They usually rode near the forest and
never spoke a word unless necessary, or if Loki ordered them. The Lost Seven
used the fact they couldn't uncover each other's cloaks to their advantage.
They also smeared their faces with black mud to ensure nothing showed through
their cloaks. And, of course, they pulled their cloaks down to hide their eyes,
just like all other huntsmen did.

Entering
the castle's garden among the other huntsmen, they were shocked by the vastness
of the event. The Queen had every artist and performer gathered outside,
entertaining everyone. Of course, the elite crowd had been invited inside.

The Lost
Seven rode along, not talking, commenting, or nodding. A few feet shy of the
castle walls, they got off their horses and lined up among the other huntsmen.
Loki, the head of the huntsmen, rode across his crew and said the Queen wanted
them to witness an event of a lifetime. Like Fable had been told, he seemed
even crueler than before. She wondered if she would see his snarky and silly
side when he played bad boy. But this time, Loki didn't smile one bit. He
looked almost…heartless.

"Tonight,
the Queen of Sorrow, She Who Must Be Obeyed, will consume her daughter's
heart," Loki roared, riding his three-eyed unicorn. "Unlike last
time, she will succeed today, and I shall kill the daughter myself if her heart
weighs as desired."

The
huntsmen raised their swords and roared back.

Fable was
reluctant to share in such an insulting moment. Although she had previously
known about Carmilla's brutality, she was shocked at her bluntness, announcing her
intentions publicly with no holding back.

Jack
nudged Fable, waking her up from her inner monologue. Fable realized she had
been the only one who refrained from hailing. She caught up, but a little too
late.

Regrettably,
she caught Loki's green eyes.

Fable had
no idea Loki could exude this kind of evil when he looked at her. She thought
she'd never forget his eyes years later when she had hopefully succeeded in
resurrecting him in the real world. A flicker of a memory flashed before her
eyes as he rode down and approached her. She remembered her town, Furry Tell,
so vividly now. She remembered how she had been born there, and peeked briefly
into her real past as a poor girl in the Kingdom of Sorrow. She remembered when
he'd tried to kill her when looking for boys and girls with "splinters in
their eyes."

Loki
approached her, suspicion sparkling in those threatening eyes. Fable couldn't
break her gaze. She wanted to, but staring evil in the eyes froze the muscles
on her face. How was this the Loki she'd had fun with in the Waking World? He
was surely going to kill her. There was no escape. It looked like she was going
to get killed by Loki in this dream—or have her identity exposed, at
least.

As Loki
treaded with ruthless intuition, Fable swallowed a gasp. She saw he had his red
Fleece wrapped around his hand.

This is
it. This is what I came here for. Could it be that easy?

But
how?
The moment she saw his Fleece was the same moment he was going
to punish her, or expose her, for not hailing at the Princess's demise.

I don't
care.
Fable finally swallowed.
Once he is near enough, I will
snatch the Fleece and run away, maybe hide in the forest. Then Alice Grimm
should show up there again and help me, right?

"Damn
the Queen's daughter!" Jack hailed next to Fable, and raised his sword as
a distraction. "Damn the Snow White Princess!" He seemed to partially
enjoy it, too. It began to show that he certainly didn't like Snow White. Maybe
he just thought of her as a spoiled vampire girl.

The
huntsmen, noting Jack's proximity to Loki, thought Jack's rant was based on
Loki's orders. So they hailed back. Loud enough to distract him from Fable, who
hailed as loudly as she could, "Damn the Snow White Princess!"

Loki, not
wanting to criticize his huntsmen's enthusiasm, walked away from Fable and
shared their moment.

"Thank
you," she whispered to Jack.

"I
really wanted him to get close," Jack whispered. "My hands were
itching to steal his Fleece."

Fable
emitted a laugh.

"I
would have been known as the thief who stole the Huntsman's Fleece," Jack
said. "Can you imagine that?"

Fable
discreetly reached for Jack's hand and squeezed it. "Thank you, again,"
she said, wondering if she'd ever get that close to Loki to get the Fleece. She
wondered if she could use Jack as a thief in that matter, but it didn't seem
right. She came here to get it herself. It was her responsibility.
No one else's.

Some time
later, all huntsmen were invited inside the Schloss. It was the same castle
Fable had seen in the Waking World, only grander and impossible to describe
with words. This was a dream, after all. Everything was much brighter than
Fable's wildest fantasies.

Then they
were ushered to the Queen of Sorrow's private chamber…

***

The Lost
Seven stood last in line inside, their backs to the arched double door from
which they'd entered. In front of them stood Sorrow's monks and religious
idols. Scientists stood honorably before them, closer to the Queen's throne.
The closest row was reserved for the Kingdom of Sorrow's advisors and
magicians. All meant to witness the Weighing of the Heart ceremony.

On both
sides, young peasant girls were lined up, readied for the kill in case their
hearts' weights matched the Queen's desire.

"Poor
girls," Cerené whispered. "All those girls will be slaughtered in the
Queen's bloody bathtub."

The Queen
of Sorrow herself, although far from Fable's poor eyesight, sat on her glass
throne
between Sirenia Lark
, her private singer, and
the mirror where Bloody Mary lived. Fable was more interested in Sirenia Lark
than Bloody Mary this time. She remembered Shew had mentioned her briefly as
the siren helper of the Queen of Sorrow. What did this woman do apart from
playing eerie melodies with her flute? Fable knew Sirenia also sang. Was that
all she did, sitting by the Queen's side?

"That's
Sirenia," Marmalade whispered. She sounded bitter, angry, and sad. "I
should have killed her long ago."

"What
do you mean?" Fable whispered back.

Jack
nudged her into silence. "We're in no position to talk about Marmalade's
past now."

Fable's
curiosity was piqued. Marmalade was a mermaid, obviously infatuated with the
moon. How did she meet Sirenia in the past?