The Nutcracker King (Coming From Darkness #1)

Chapter 7 Part 1: Nutcracker

It had been three days. Three days without the joy of Marie dancing in Marzipan Castle. What a loss for the Kingdom, and I cut the head off the gingerbread man who dared to snicker when I told him so. Don't worry, the head grew back, but my sisters looked as though they would nag me to death. I left before they could start.

Pushing the wooden doors open, I strolled into the garden. No one would find me here.

"How do you do, Pirlipat?" I asked as I walked towards the pond. It was redder than ever. Pirlipat tried to move her body away, but it was impossible. She just swayed gently. I waded into the pond, breathing in the life-giving iron scent. "How is your wound? We can't have you dying now, what would your people do?"

Pirlipat moaned softly. I picked one of the fruits and held it to her. The clear juice oozed out, but Pirlipat kept her mouth shut. I had no choice but to use my fingers to hold her nose until she opened up and drank the nutrients like a good girl. She gagged a few times, but her cheeks became slightly redder.

"Really," I said, "I see my sisters have not been listening to my instructions. Don't worry, I'll make sure you have enough food to live, even if I have to give it to you myself." I patted her stomach and she bent, trying to lift her head up to spit in my face.

She failed, but I slapped her anyway. A good King cannot show weakness to his enemies. In an even tone of voice, I told her, "behave, Pirlipat. If you're good, you might even get a nice pretty ribbon to tie your hair with. We don't need the blood getting trapped there. Now, I think red is your colour, is it not?"

"Nutcracker! What are you doing?" That piercing voice had to belong to my oldest sister.

No wonder she wasn't married.

"Clara." I forced a smile. "What a surprise. I thought you hated this place."

"I do," she snapped. "But no one else was brave enough to look for you here. You went too far, Nutcracker. Cutting off that man's head, that was unseemly." Clara did a good job of pretending to be brave, but she shuddered at the end.

"Clara, Clara, Clara," I waded out of the pond, moving towards her. She took a step back. "My dear older sister, why are you so angry? When I'm king, I'll make sure you get a good husband, assuming that someone would want a shrew like you."

Clara continued to move backwards as I moved forwards. "Stay back," she said, "I don't want that blood all over me. I um, I just wanted you to know that the people will fear you for this. Not respect brother, fear."

"Good." I smiled at her to let her know I wasn't angry at her disrespect. "Now, I want to talk to you about Pirlipat's feeding schedule. As the oldest, I think you should have all the extra shifts, am I right?"

Clara nodded.

"Excellent. Now, I —" I was about to give her more instructions, but I felt a tug. Could it be?

"Nutcracker?"

"Shush. Can't you see I'm concentrating?" I closed my eyes. The tug was coming from, it was coming from, from the glass cabinet. Because I was still an accursed doll, I was obliged to be present in the house I belonged to whenever one of its occupants was searching for me.

"Nutcracker, I don't hear anything."

"Of course not," I told her. "It's Demoiselle Marie, searching for me. I knew she'd want me back." As I spoke, my feet started disappearing, and I could feel it stiffen as it appeared in the Stahlbaum house. I was going to be pulled back there, with no way to clean up before presenting myself to dear Marie.

*******

When things came back into focus, though, who I saw was not my dear Marie, but the odious Fritz.