The Nutcracker Bleeds (48 page)

When
the rat finally raised its head, its eyes locked upon her.
That
was when
she shuddered.

It
took a few moments, but the girl finally realized–after he stood–that this
enormous, bloody rat before her was in fact the King of Mice. He didn’t look
much like a ruler to her–no crown or fancy robe–though as she stood there
thinking about it, she wasn’t quite sure what she’d expected. At times, she had
imagined an image like this, with the rat being nothing but a disgusting
monster. Other times, she imaged him in a grand suit and sitting on a throne
like she had done. Now, she saw that she got a mixture of both.

When
she saw him, even with his grotesque face and blood–covered claws, her resolve
did not waver. She stood proudly before him like a ruler–as an Ellington would
have if she had been one any longer. He seemed to recognize this in her,
pleased by it, moving away from his chair until he came to stand before her. He
was nearly twice her size.

The
monstrous rat looked at her, licking his fingers clean but not bothering to
wipe his mouth.

“So
good to finally meet you, Lady Sovereign,” he said with a disrespectful sneer
that she did not like. Blood stained his teeth.

“How
is it that you have come by this one?” the Master asked his servants, though
not taking his eyes off of Olivia. “From what I last heard, she was very well
protected.”

One
of the mice took it upon himself to respond.

“Sh–she
came with us–s–s willingly.”

The
rat did not seem surprised to hear this, though it was uncertain what he was
thinking. The Lady Sovereign stared at him, and the Rat King leered at her.

“Is this
true?” he asked her, his voice so elegant and musical. “Why would you choose
such a thing?”

“I’m
not worried,” she said flatly, staring into his bloodshot eyes.

Her
gaze seemed to make the rat snicker. He clenched and unclenched his hands.

“Surely
you were informed of the dangers for you here. Why would you take such a risk?”

Olivia’s
voice did not waver. “Armand will rescue me.”

The
rat looked at her incredulously, his grin fading for the moment. He tilted his
head a bit in confusion for her words.

“Armand?”

The
beast broke out in a burst of laughter, sharing looks with his servants until
they saw that it was alright for them to share in the hilarity as well. Olivia
was not shocked that the Rat King knew who her hero was, but she was unsure
about his amusement. She had been serious. Did he not know?

“You
certainly have not heard the stories then,” the rat exclaimed, laughing so hard
that he could hardly breathe. “Of how your Armand is good for
nothing.
How he’s only a failure in every aspect. Even if he did manage to come for you,
he’d never be able to pull himself together past his petty emotions enough to
get the job done. He didn’t even come for the other woman! Why would you think
he would come for you?”

A
long string of bloody saliva dripped from the Master’s mouth and dropped onto
the floor. Olivia tried to hide her fear and distaste, but the rodents around
her shifted uncomfortably. Their master’s outburst was uncharacteristic, and it
frightened them deeply. What was the purpose of it? This laughter and these
loud proclamations? Was he angry for this? Had the toll of his plans crashing
driven him mad? Was he
afraid
? Because there was something else there
aside from plain amusement, and Olivia shuddered to imagine what.

5

Within
Augustus’s mind, he knew he was losing grip. Long ago, the line between man and
rat had become blurred, but he had kept control of his faculties until now.
This mental slip was Armand’s fault. It was this girl’s fault. It was Anne’s
fault, and Edge’s. It was
not
his own fault. He was a man within a rat’s
body. A
man
. He was not a beast. Armand was not a man. He was a
nutcracker. A nutcracker could not possibly defeat a man, and Augustus was not
going to be bested.

Here
before him, he had the perfect solution to his problem. He needed no fancy
ceremony or preparation. He could have simply opened his mouth and devoured
this girl before him. It would be done, and he would grow stronger. He knew it
was the smart thing, but he could not resist a more fulfilling idea. He’d been
munching away on every newborn rat he could fit into his belly. He felt much
stronger. The Rat King could stand to waste a bit of time.

“This
is ridiculous,” he sneered, shaking his head. “All for a nutcracker’s love?”

He
turned around to look upon the child sovereign. She didn’t appear hurt, only
angry. This made his own anger grow.

“But
I’m a fair rat, and since the Lady has amused me so, I’m in good spirits! I
like a gamble every now and again,” he hissed. “I have something that will be
just right for you, in fact. I call it
das Skeresa
.”

The
mice around Olivia hushed at the mention of this, shuddering in their skin. The
girl did not know what this meant, and so she could not be afraid. The rat went
on to explain.

“It’s
a device of execution, but the grand thing about it is that it can be rigged to
snap only after a certain amount of time. But don’t worry. If your
Armand
comes to save you, I’m sure that there will be no worries.”

Olivia
glared.

“He’ll
come,” she insisted, and the belief behind her words made the rat glower more
harshly than he had in a long while.

“So
be it,” Augustus growled, moving forward.

“But
master…the ritual,” one of the mice protested.

The
huge, dirty claws reached down and gripped the girl, lifting her off the floor,
and the rat began to carry her away. Olivia did not scream, and the rat did not
care.

“It
can wait,” he said, “for
this
.”

1

Anne
couldn’t remember a time in her life when she’d ever questioned what she wanted.
When she was young, she’d known she wanted more than a seat on the lower–class
rung of society, working in textiles and hardly able to make ends meet with a
family and several kids. A destined life, avoided.

Moving
to the city with her aunt of average wealth had not been the end of her
problems, and she couldn’t say she was happy there, but she’d managed to avoid
life in the church, despite misfortune. It wasn’t much, but when she’d met with
Mr. and Mrs. Ellington as a potential caretaker for their disturbed daughter,
she understood how she could have that
more
which she desired. She’d
always known the truth about herself and had made sure that she was able to
embrace all of her qualities, good or bad.

Now,
sitting in the dark of the music box where Armand had left her, Anne knew she
was unsure for the first time. She told herself she would have to go forward
with her life, but how could she? Anne contemplated this until she began to
shiver, though she wasn’t sure if it was because she was distressed or because
she was cold for tossing the wretched ceremony dress into the corner of the
box.

She
sat, hugging her knees with her hair falling down over her body, warming her
slightly. There were many feelings pressing on her at that moment. There were
grand feelings of fulfillment that made her want to simply stretch out and sigh
in contentment, but
because
of those feelings, she felt sick with worry
and sadness.

The
woman knew what she had to do–return to her old life–but there were reasons why
she didn’t want to do that. Life was not any simpler here, but in a different
way, her rightful existence was just as harsh. Here, she was running for her
life, but she didn’t have to fake who she really was…other than not being
recognized as flesh. Olivia was happy here, and perhaps this was where the girl
belonged.

Aside
from all that,
Armand
was here.

He
was a toy now, but he was certainly the one she had thought she’d never find.
He could be terrible at times, but he was what she deserved. He was the one for
her in this world and in any other. Anne knew she would never love anyone else.
Could she live without him now that she’d found him? Only time would tell, but
he was the one she would take with her to her grave, even if they could not be
together.

She
thought about their intimacy, reliving what she’d felt even though it had been
over for a while now. She closed her eyes and hugged her bare shoulders. What
was going to happen the next time she tried to make love to a man who didn’t
have wooden hands and metal ridges against his arms that warmed with her own
body heat? Would it be possible to enjoy it at all? Would she think about
him
?

Footsteps
in the dark outside the box changed the route of her thoughts, and when she turned
toward the furthest wall, she saw Armand jump in over it. He’d taken his
weapons and gone scouting for enemies, just to be safe before they ventured
forward. The sight of him lifted her mood, but made her equally sad again. She
rose to meet him.

He’d
brought her back another doll’s dress. It was a dark, burgundy color with
puffed sleeves and laces up the front to tie it on. It wasn’t too fancy and it
wasn’t too long. Anne wasn’t picky. In fact, she hardly looked at it at all.

“There’s
a vent not far that will take us straight out into the hallway,” Armand told
her as she took the dress from him and began to put it on.

“How
will we find out for certain how to break the curse?” she asked, her voice
muffled through the material sliding over her head.

“I
was doing some thinking,” he said, adjusting the leather straps that held his
weapons, “and to be honest, I’m not sure that there is a way to know for
certain.”

At
those words, Anne’s head emerged from the dress, and when she only stared at
him in disbelief, he began to tie up the front for her as he continued
speaking.

“I’ve
tried many times with the mice, torturing them to try and get them to tell me
what they know, but they only tell me the same few things over and over again.
I don’t think we can get much more out of them, because I don’t think that they
know as much as I’d hoped.”

Anne
wondered if she should have been upset, looking up at Armand. She’d not even
noticed that her dress was hanging properly now. How could they accomplish
anything if it was impossible to find out? What good would it do to find out
more about William and Todd, or even to do anything but die and rot if there
was no way to reverse this curse? Then again, wasn’t it her desire to stay with
Armand that was ripping her in half on the inside?

“However,”
Armand said, bringing her back to him. “I can think of a couple who might know
a bit more about this curse.”

The
woman looked up at him and shook her head, not following his words.

“The
doll Clara, or perhaps that misfit,” he explained.

“Misfit?”

Armand
turned and began to walk toward the wall of the box.

“Some
unfinished product of the toymaker,” he clarified. “It was in Olivia’s room
after the rodents had already invaded, and it attacked me, so I can only assume
it is working with my enemy.”

Anne
nodded, but his mention of the misfit meant little to her beyond that it might
know the secret of her curse. She didn’t know that the very misfit in question
was that one she considered to have saved her life when she’d been locked in
the unrelenting embrace of the Rat King.

“So,
we’ll be off to find them then?”

She
reached for Armand’s hand. When it did not accept hers, she looked down to see
that, instead, she had accidentally gripped the dismembered arm that she had
first seen on the floor of the box where she had awoken. It was now attached to
Armand’s arm, clenching with wooden fingers and aligning itself with the
forearm. As if it was a dead human arm, Anne withdrew her fingers swiftly from
it.

“It’s
Brooke’s,” Armand told her, noticing. Sorrow filled her eyes at the memory of
the fallen soldier. Armand didn’t explain that the arm was still conscious. He
simply let Brooke be dead to her. “I can use the blade.”

Brooke…
Poor Brooke…
His hand touched the side of her face, pulling her to look at him. Anne stared
into his empty eyes where the bloodstains started and ran down the wood. She
sighed, but it was steady.

“I’m
fine,” she insisted gently. “Are we off to find…
her
…or the misfit?”

“I think
it would be in our best interest to identify the situation in the house with
your two plotting gentlemen.”

Anne
shivered at the mention, remembering that it had been those two who had pulled
her away from Armand and led her to be captured, but she also remembered the
things that she had heard them say.

“I
did find out some things,” she said, trailing off as she folded her arms and
looked toward the ground.

“Yes?”
he urged after she was unknowingly silent for too long.

“The
men are trying to murder Agatha–Olivia’s mother,” she informed him. “I heard
them say something earlier on about her getting worse, and then again about her
death seeming
natural
. I know the woman has been sick for a bit, so I
only assume that they must be poisoning her slowly, but they said that soon she
would be dead. Beyond that, Todd is planning on taking Olivia away with him
after her mother is dead, though I can’t imagine that Euan would allow that.”

Armand
listened impassively, at hearing of those events. They didn’t mean anything to
him personally.

“What
do you want to do about this situation?” he asked, crossing his arms.

The
question took Anne by surprise. She looked up at him, not sure what he meant.

“Pardon?”

Armand
had decided he wouldn’t urge her on one way or the other. She would see all her
options soon enough. He dropped his arms.

“We’ll
look around,” he said. “Perhaps they’re still about.”

The
nutcracker climbed out of the box and helped Anne out as well, aiding her as
they made their way down from a shelf in the toy room–which was also Pirlipat’s
ruined kingdom. The grate in the wall was already broken, so the two of them
had little trouble passing through and stepping out into the dim hall. The
cat’s eye marble had been lost somewhere in the tunnel when Anne had been abducted,
so her human eyes did as well as they could through the lack of light.

As
they walked, Anne contemplated what she needed to do about her situation.
Agatha would be killed if she didn’t do something, and though she didn’t care
for the woman personally, being in a house with murderers and pretending that
she didn’t know was a bit more than she thought she could handle. The men might
get away with what they were doing unless she could find some evidence against
them. What better way to do that than when she was small enough to creep
around?

It
would likely be in William’s office that they would find something, or perhaps
in Todd’s luggage…

Abruptly,
Armand held out his arm, blocking her path and forcing her closer to the wall. It
wasn’t long before she heard the footsteps treading quickly and heavily down
the hallway. The ground beneath her shook with their approach. Shortly after,
there came the sound of a second set of footsteps. These moved faster, as if
trying to catch up with the first, and then around the corner appeared Todd.
William was right behind him, reaching out to grip the youth’s arm.

“Have
you lost your mind?” William questioned in an angry whisper, pulling Todd back
and forcing him to turn. “You can’t go storming through the house like this.”

“I’m
telling you, Anne is up there with Olivia, or maybe they locked the door just
to pretend that she’s still there, but they’re actually gone.”

William
shook his head. Anne looked on from the floor, trying to concentrate on
everything they did. Todd was blaming her for something? Had they found out
that Olivia was missing? Her heart jumped into her throat.

“Why
would Anne do that?” William asked the flustered young man.

“What
if she found out what we were doing?” he asked. Then he crossed his arms and
looked at William accusingly. “Did you tell her?”

“Of
course not,” the man replied, taken aback. “I’m not that much of a fool.”

“You
know,” Todd began. “It would be so easy to just pin this all on her. If we
could actually let it be
murder
, no one would question that it wasn’t
Anne. She has every reason in the world to have done it. Besides, poisoning is
a woman’s crime. It’s perfect.”

Anne
gasped shortly at the notion. How dare Todd even mention such a thing! To try
and frame her for murder? William, however, didn’t take too well to those
words. He gripped Todd’s collar and pulled him closer.

“I
don’t want to hear another word about that,” he said menacingly. “I told you
that Anne was to be left out of this. You know what I wanted in the first place
was to make her my wife.”

“Fine,”
Todd relented, pushing William’s hand away, “but if she’s done something to
Olivia, I won’t let this go lightly.”

“Let’s
just look around and see if we can find Anne elsewhere,” William suggested. “I’ll
get a key and we’ll see if we can get into Olivia’s room. Just try to be calm.”

Todd
sighed heatedly, but he nodded.

“I’ll
look downstairs,” William said, starting off. Todd lingered a moment before he moved
off in the opposite direction along the second floor corridor.

At
her place on the floor, Anne had to lean against the wall to steady herself.
Had that man just said what she’d thought? After Agatha was dead, he was
planning on making her his wife? To give her the life that she’d wanted over
all else for so long? Her legs felt weak. She stared at the floor looking
troubled, and she seemed to forget that Armand was there at all.

Armand
didn’t make any comments about what he had heard. In fact, he didn’t even look
at her.

“Let’s
follow the angry one,” he suggested flatly.

2

The
small feet of the girl doll, Clara, treaded on through the shafts and into the
lair she called home. She’d left the Lady’s Kingdom after Edge had not returned
to give her any news about Anne. Bored with the lag in the battling between the
toys and mice, she had gone out to see the situation for herself. All the while
though, Clara wondered if she truly wanted Anne anymore.

Was
it worth the trouble? Especially now that she’d found something she liked
better? Certainly, Edge was not as soft and fleshy as Anne, but what did that
matter? So he was as hard and cold as glass. Could Clara say she was any
different? She only knew she couldn’t imagine being without him. Would the Master
approve? Perhaps. She didn’t know,
but she needed to know that Edge was
alright, even if Anne was not.