Cinderella Dressed in Ashes ( Book #2 in the Grimm Diaries )
Page 26
“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.
&nb
sp; “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
Other books by Cameron Jace:
The I Am Alive series:
In a future America, teens are ranked from five to nine, according to their self-qualifying results. There has never been a Ten. Those who are ranked lower than five are sent to attend a televised show, where they have to fight for their lives to get ranked.
You get the I Am Alive series bundle books 1-3
HERE
I Am Alive volume 1-3 (YA Dystopian series)
Finally,
You can contact me at
Goodreads
or
Facebook
or
my blog
or
Twitter
@cameronjace
or send me an email
camjace@hotmail.com
(I answer all emails personally)
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
Table of Contents
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