CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR ZERA’S LAST DREAM
The day after the party, a plan is being formulated. After their talk, Jack and Filomena decided together that they can’t waste any more time looking for the League of Seven before rescuing Zera. They’ll just have to go without the League for now.
And so, that morning the partyers crowd around the breakfast table.
“My head is killing me,” Gretel says.
“The giants’ bumbleberry punch packs a mean wallop,” Rosie says. “Pun intended.”
“What time did we even go to sleep last night?” Alistair moans.
On the other hand, Jack and Filomena, who went to sleep immediately after their chat, are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Filomena fell asleep dreaming of their hand-holding. She and Jack can’t stop smiling at each other. She hopes no one notices.
“Attention, everyone!” she says, bounding over to the breakfast table. “I have an announcement.”
She looks at her bleary-eyed friends sipping their morning teas and juices, rubbing their faces, and stretching their arms. This will not do.
“Jack and I have a plan.”
That wakes everyone up. First of all, Jack is speaking again? That’s good news. Second, they get tingles just hearing the word plan.
“I was wondering when you would say that!” Gretel exclaims. “Don’t be shy. Tell us!”
Jack joins them at the table and stands next to Filomena. “Today we’re rescuing Zera,” he says.
Cue expressions of extreme surprise.
“Here’s how we’re going to do it,” Filomena says. She lays a map out on the table and tells them the plan.
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to Queen Christina’s castle they go. On the walk, Filomena watches Jack and Alistair, who are talking yards ahead. She can’t hear them, but she can see the change in their body language and smiles to herself. Jack’s apologizing. She sees Alistair stop, then Jack stops as well, and the two share a huge hug. She grins. If this isn’t fuel for their rescue, she doesn’t know what is.
When they arrive at Queen Christina’s castle, they break into two groups. Gretel and Rosie go to the front doors, and Jack, Alistair, and Filomena wait in the bushes at the back of the castle with one of Rosie’s brothers. Timothée is his name.
Part of Jack’s and Filomena’s plan included a brother coming with them to act as a guide. Since the brothers had been held in the dungeon, Filomena figures they know their way around and may be able to lead the rescue mission to Zera. The brothers all agreed that Timothée should go. Apparently he has a photographic memory. Filomena hopes it applies to dungeon passageways and not just studying textbooks.
The rest of the merry crew had lives to return to, wives and girlfriends who were waiting for them. Once Timothée was done helping, he would leave as well to pick up where his old life left off before he was turned into a swan.
They figure that, for once, it might be good not to travel in a huge group, so Byron and Beatrice stayed at the cottage. The less obvious this mission can be, the better—and frankly they were due for a break.
In the bushes, Filomena and the three boys hold their breath as Rosie and Gretel use the huge silver knocker on the castle’s front doors. They look chipper, as planned. Filomena had racked her brain for the best sort of distraction. Then she thought, Why pretend when we can use Rosie’s and Gretel’s strengths? So they decided that Rosie and Gretel would act as castle-door-to-castle-door sales reps offering custom-made uniforms for Queen Christina’s staff. Hopefully they’ll get all the servants to collect in one room for fittings. Then Rosie can distract everyone with her inventions while Gretel takes measurements and talks over outfit preferences.
Gretel, in record time, spent the morning quickly crafting samples from whatever garments were lying around the cottage. Bedsheets turned into gorgeous breathable suit jackets. Floral curtains became chic feminine overalls. Rosie especially loves this idea; she can finally get rid of some of the giants’ decor choices.
But will the ruse work? What if the castle staff aren’t interested? Gretel is confident the staff will be head over heels for the uniforms. Filomena hopes her friend is right and that Rosie and Gretel won’t be tossed out head over heels.
From the bushes it appears as though the plan is working. Gretel and Rosie are grinning like two very charming sales reps ready to sell the world. Then Gretel looks over and gives a quick wink. She and Rosie step through the front doors.
Go time.
“All right, Timothée,” Filomena says. “Lead the way.”
The four start sneaking, quiet as can be, through the gardens behind the castle. Filomena tries not to be distracted by the creepy shapes the bushes are pruned into. A skull? Is that a dagger? Yikes. Queen Christina seems to have a rather gothic aesthetic, too. They should introduce her to Robin Hood.
Timothée leads them to a tiny door hidden under a dark green shrub at the back of the castle. He lifts the door, revealing a ladder that descends far, far belowground.
“Good thing you’ve been practicing on Rosie’s loft ladder, Ali,” Filomena whispers.
“I can’t go first!” Alistair whisper-screams back.
“Timothée, you go. Then I’ll go, then you, Alistair, and then Jack,” Filomena decides. The boys all nod, and they begin making their way down, one rung at a time.
The bottom is pitch-black darkness. This they didn’t account for. Filomena wishes she had the headlamp her parents bought her. But then she remembers: She has a built-in headlamp!
Quietly she says the spell that activates the mark of Carabosse on her forehead, and suddenly the dungeon is illuminated. Timothée looks at her in horror (or awe), but there’s no time to explain now. She motions for him to lead the way and he shrugs it off. Filomena guesses that once you’ve turned into a swan, shock value fades pretty fast.
“I’m guessing Zera is being held in the most highly secured part of the dungeon,” Timothée whispers.
The dungeon is like a maze, with small corridors that lead into one another and low ceilings. Alistair is perfectly fine standing upright, but Jack and Timothée have to stoop as they walk. It would have been impossible to navigate this without a guide, Filomena thinks. So even though Timothée’s not in the League of Seven, she’s still glad to have him on their side. The walls are stone and coated with cobwebs and something slimy. At one point, Filomena reaches out to steady herself and has to hold in a scream when her hand touches something that feels otherworldly.
Timothée leads them through a few more tunnels until finally they reach a wall of solid stone. Lily Licks, Filomena thinks. How are we going to get through this?
But before she can give it much thought, Alistair is already working his magic. “OPEN SESAME!” and the whole wall crumbles into sand.
Jack grins and slaps Alistair on the back. “I can’t believe how often that’s come in handy, Alistair.”
Alistair smiles proudly. Timothée looks to be once again in shock. He must be thinking, Who are these people?
“Alistair’s sort of a king of the desert,” Filomena explains.
“Well, not exactly a king,” Alistair says, blushing. “More like an emperor, I guess?”
But their good spirits immediately dissipate when the dust settles and they see what lies within the most secure chamber in the dungeon: Zera.
The great fairy Zera, Jack’s mentor and dear friend, is chained to a wall. She’s slumped over. She looks so weak.
Jack rushes over to her, kneels, touches her face. Filomena’s heart wrenches in her chest. “Zera,” Jack says softly. “We’ve come to rescue you!”
Zera looks up. Her eyes seem to be gazing into a different world. “Hello, my dear Jack. Bravest Jack. Thank you for coming,” she says weakly. All color is drained from her face. “There’s no need to rescue me now. I’m already gone.”
Jack’s eyes brim with tears. “No, no, Zera, that can’t be true. You’re still speaking, you’re still here! We’ll nurse you back to health.”
“My children, you know how my name appears in the prophecies.”
Jack and Alistair look at each other, confused. They have no idea what she’s talking about. But Filomena does. She’s read the words hundreds of times.
“Clever Scheherazade, who spun a thousand and one dreams.”
“Yes, dearest Filomena. You are right. I’ve spun a thousand dreams now. This is my final dream to spin. This last one I must tell you about, and then I will be gone.”
Jack wipes his eyes. Part of him must have known this would happen. “Let us at least take you out of here. A great fairy like you can’t die chained to a wall in a horrid queen’s dungeon. Let us give you a ceremonial burial,” he pleads.
Zera touches Jack’s face, looks deep into his eyes. “Jack, it doesn’t matter where I die. You can’t bury a fairy. When we die, we are reabsorbed into the cosmos, where we remain forever. Just honor me in your actions, dear boy, like you always do.”
Jack bows his head. “Zera, I’m so sorry I failed you. I should have been here sooner. I should have rescued you.”
“I never asked for you to rescue me, Jack. Only for your help. You’ve given your help, and you continue to give it. There is no way in which you have failed me.” She pets Jack’s head. “The only way you can fail me now is to be so hard on yourself that you stop living life. Now, chin up. I have one final dream to weave.”
She waves for Alistair, Filomena, and Timothée to join them on the floor. They sit around her.
“I know where my sister Colette is. I know you’re with her daughter, Rose Red. You must take Rose Red to Colette. She has a message that only she can relay to you. You need to wake her up. Now listen to me carefully: Colette is in a glass coffin in the forest near the giants’ cottages. She is under an enchantment. Only true love’s kiss can break her spell.” Zera lets her breath escape her now, having said what she needed to.
But Filomena promised Rose Red that she’d ask Zera a question. “Zera, if I could ask one last thing of you…,” she starts.
“Of course, my child. Anything.”
“Rose Red. She’s trying to create a talking mirror. She thinks it could be important in the fight with the ogres. She acquired a truth serum from the Winter Witch, but she still can’t figure out how to make the talking mirror come to life. Do you know how?”
Zera chuckles until it turns into a cough. “Colette’s daughter, Rose Red, is brave to have gone to the Winter Witch. That witch is a true judge of character, for she has no allegiances. Rose Red must be truly pure of heart if the witch gave her a truth serum. The answer to her question is this: Each mirror must be animated by a fairy. But a fairy can animate only one mirror. That is why talking mirrors are so powerful.”
Filomena feels the wind leave her sails. “So it’s impossible, then? Because each fairy has already animated a mirror?” she asks.
“It’s true that each fairy has already animated a mirror and that is why there are the thirteen talking mirrors of Never After. However, I have a feeling—a strong, deep feeling—that a princess who carries the mark of Carabosse might just be powerful enough to animate one, too,” Zera explains.
A princess with the mark of Carabosse … Where would they find—wait. Wait! Filomena gasps. “Me?”
“I believe you can, Filomena, Eliana. Now go, my heroes. Go find Colette, go conquer them. I have given you my final dream. Do everything you can with it. For Never After.”
And with that, the light leaves Zera’s face and her body slowly fades, then blinks out, disappearing.