by Lani Lenore
But if that were true, what did he have to lose? Perhaps it was best to simply improvise now.
The pale doll stood back behind the others, peering out from within his hair. His red eyes were on the Master, his left hand was on his blade, and his right hand was on a lever in the wall. Silently, he waited.
4
Anne didn’t know what her breathing sounded like as she stood there rooted to the floor. She had no idea that her heart was pounding at five times its normal rate, or that her blood was pumping so hard it was throbbing at her temples and within her ears. She didn’t know that her palms were sweaty or that her face was drained of all color, for she was only focused on one thing.
That ‘thing’ was standing directly before her.
The woman didn’t know if he was more hideous than she’d imagined, or if he simply met her every expectation. He was a creature from nightmares. He wasn’t bigger than the largest toy she’d seen, but he was certainly larger than Armand and much taller and wider than any of the rodents she’d seen.
This King of Mice–the one they all called Master–was wearing a robe of silk, colored purple, black, and gold. Still, that could not hide the fact that he was a disgusting rat.
Black fur covered his body, and while it had been combed back, it was slick with oil and grime. His muzzle was long and wide, unnaturally, almost like the rounded snout of an alligator. His nose was as black as his hair. His whiskers and hairless tail were exceptionally long, as if those were more attractive traits for a rodent. His hands were not small like rat paws, but they were quite like human hands with long fingers, ending in sharp, pointed nails.
The thing that Anne hated most–the thing that she couldn’t take her terrified eyes off of–were his eyes. They were wide, evilly curved, and the irises were the color of blood, branching off in red veins as if the center was an alien portion that had taken root there.
The rat stepped up to her, walking on two legs and seeming to grow taller with every step. The dolls had left her to stand alone, but she hadn’t even noticed. She didn’t feel his footsteps rattling the immediate area.
A glimpse of teeth emerged from the muzzle as he smiled at her. His clawed hands reached up and rested against the sides of her face, enveloping her head. They were cold and clammy. If he’d wanted, he could have crushed her skull easily between his palms.
“Guten Tag, fräulein.”
Anne only stared at him. She didn’t understand his words, but the flow of them sounded so very familiar. The rat’s voice was a strong growl. The woman knew he had once been a man–some terribly evil horror–but she could hardly fathom how he might have been worse than this. She tensed in his hands.
5
The Master was pleased to see this perfectly shaped piece of living meat. She was as lovely in this tiny state as when he’d looked on at her from below. It was nearly regrettable that he simply could not make her into a doll, but this one would be so much more pleasant in the flesh.
His hands slid down her neck, moving across her bare shoulders and down her arms. So pleasant! So warm and soft! The rat sorcerer felt a stirring in his loins, but he calmed himself. There was plenty of time to partake of her. Augustus looked to her face, admiring how beautiful she was.
Above all else, he loved the fear in her eyes.
“I’m not so cruel,” he said. His words were clear English, hindered only slightly by an old accent. It was proof that he’d spoken this language for quite a while and had learned its tricks. Also though, it was exactly the way Armand had spoken it.
“By now, I am sure that you know why you have been brought here. I don’t expect it has to happen so fast. Pleasantries first, perhaps?”
Anne said nothing. There was nothing within her to say. The large rat grinned.
“First,” he said. “A dance.”
6
The stench was thick, and Armand recognized it immediately. He knew this jester puppet had led him to the right place. The dark, stringent atmosphere could only be a breeding ground for rodents.
He moved into the area without hesitation. The jester, however, slunk back. He was no idiot. He knew where they were.
“I’m not done with you.”
The jester’s attention shifted at the sound of the unfriendly reminder made by the white–haired nutcracker. The larger toy had stopped and turned back to the puppet, his eyeless gaze cold. The jester gulped loudly and emptily. He didn’t quite desire to go any further, but how was he to avoid this situation without revealing the truth of where they were?
“What more could you need?” the jester squawked in his unpleasant voice. “I’ve brought you where you asked.”
Even this small bit rubbed the nutcracker the wrong way. He paced back toward the jester and gripped the toy’s collar with an iron fist. A blade shot forth from an attachment on his arm, and he thrust it toward the puppet’s face.
“I have a certain need here,” he explained, “and until that need is met, you will be my dog. Are we clear on that?”
The marionette in black cringed, but then swiftly put on his most sincere grin.
“Inescapably,” he said.
Armand released the puppet, and Brooke’s blade withdrew.
“I need you to take me into the place where Augustus will be performing his ritual.”
The jester’s eyes grew wide. Augustus? Ritual? He knew his way about in this lair, but he knew nothing of those other things.
“I don’t know anything about that,” the puppet said hesitantly.
The nutcracker’s wooden foot smashed down atop the jester’s cloth one. The shrill–voiced marionette yelled in pain.
“I am trying to find Anne,” the nutcracker yelled. “They took her here to kill her. She’ll be eaten. If you know anything about where this might be going on, you had better tell me and pray that you’re right.”
The jester was stuck. He hadn’t known this was about Anne! Sure, the nutcracker had mentioned Anne earlier, but that was all he had said! Was the woman in danger? The angel–the terrible wretch? This was not good, especially after he’d been leading this soldier straight on to the rat pit.
The truth of it was that he had an idea of where his beloved Anne might have been taken. But how, now, to cover his tracks?
“I might know of a place, but there’s only one way to get there…”
“Show me,” Armand said without hesitation.
7
Anne’s feet nearly refused to move, but the rat insisted upon dancing. There was no music, but they moved across the floor slowly with the large, black–furred abomination dragging her along. He held her against him, and she smelled the strange oil that slicked back his hair. The woman had fallen into a daze now, hardly thinking as his grip held her so she couldn’t escape.
Perhaps her dream had shown her the truth when her legs had turned to porcelain within it. She had become as lifeless and hopeless as a doll.
“I suppose your nutcracker friend told you about me,” she heard the rat King say. “He’s a sensitive one. He dwells too much on the past.”
Anne didn’t respond with words or with movement, but she listened to the words he spoke, meant for only her to hear.
“I know he’s in this house, but I’m sure he thinks I don’t. Those puppets told me that you had been trailing around with him. A guardian? A fine job he did, hm? As fine a job as he did for the last one he was obligated to protect.”
Somewhere in back of her mind, she heard the story that Armand had told her about his past. Clara…and the man who took her from him.
“You probably think ill of me for what I’ve done–for Clara and Armand–but you shouldn’t feel that way,” the rat said gently. “The child was perfect. She deserved to be more. To have her visage immortalized! She was not the only one that I’ve stolen in the past, but she was special. As for Armand, his legacy was nothing worth preserving.”
Armand…
“I had to kill the child to take care of her properly, b
ut I have taken care of her! It wasn’t what I had originally planned, but I have treated her with the greatest of care all these years. I animated her–as God!–and she followed me. Shortly after, I unanimated her once again and, carefully, had her brought along with me all these years that I have traveled. Several decades ago, I brought her back when I could not bear to live without her for another moment. We were in England then, and even though I did not have all I desired, she managed to bring me some degree of joy.”
The rat guided Anne around in a circle and Anne continued to be silent, though inside, she felt a bit angry. He was completely twisted. He had to be, in order to justify all he’d done–to humans and to the toys! They had not asked to be alive! Had not asked to feel pain or sorrow! He was not God. He had no right!
“I hope that you see my point in this,” he went on, unaware of her private thoughts. “Those are the things that a father does for his child. Armand would have never had the patience or the dedication. Then again, I suppose it is exactly dedication that has urged him to track me all these years.”
Bastard…
“I don’t know your feelings for him, but you should know that he is a mistake. There will be no more running. He will not last the night.”
“That’s amusing,” she uttered, finally forcing her lips to move. “He said the same thing about you.”
Augustus faltered in his step for just a slight moment, but swiftly recovered, jerking her up roughly and pulling her tightly against him until she could hardly breathe. She was having a hard enough time as it was with the scarf and the tightness of the dress.
“Hush now,” he said. There was a hidden snarl in his voice. “The time will come for you to bleed, and then nothing will matter at all–except that until your dying moment, you will know that it is your blood that will allow me to crush my enemy.”
8
She fell silent now, but she had already managed to make him angry. He would forget being gentle. She would have the most horrible time of her death. He wouldn’t start at the head. He’d start with the limbs and let her watch him chew the bones.
How dare she stand up to him in Armand’s place! How dare she rekindle thoughts of uncertainty within him! Augustus shouldn’t have doubted that he would destroy Armand easily. When he was strong enough to mutate, his ascended form would be three times the size of the nutcracker–but in a back corner of his mind, there was a knowing that Armand’s anger would be enough to make him invincible. It would be enough to destroy the rat.
Did the Master not have enough problems already? His little Clara was running around with all sorts of wicked concerns, there was still another human girl that he’d not managed to capture yet, and nearly half of his own army had secretly turned against him. All these things were problems of their own, but when the Rat King thought deeply about it, his numerous problems all seemed to point their accusing fingers at one singular trouble.
That trouble’s name was Edge.
The misfit doll was the one who had filled Clara’s head with rebellious thoughts. He had attacked the Lady’s kingdom but had refused to secure the girl. He had, with his alluring nature, convinced many of the rodents and toys under Augustus’ rule to turn and follow his own plans. It had been a mistake to allow Edge to live this long. That problem needed to be remedied.
The rat sent his mind forward to locate that snake in the grass, surprised but not entirely shocked to find the toy in this very room. Edge was silent, but when the Rat King looked through the doll’s eyes, he saw himself. The doll watched him intently.
“Foolish little nothing,” Augustus sent directly into Edge’s mind. The rat saw a slight wavering of Edge’s vision when the toy heard the Master’s voice, but he was not done speaking. It was time that this pawn knew the truth. “Did you think you could hide your intentions from me? I have heard every word that you have spoken to Clara and to others about your plans of overtaking me. I created you! How could you possibly think I could be outsmarted?”
Augustus continued to dance with the woman, his back to the spot where Edge stood. For a moment, the doll made no response. And then, laughter.
It was a rumbling chuckle, unheard by most but echoing clearly in Augustus’s mind. This infuriated him like nothing else. Then Edge opened his mouth, and out of it came words that made the patient rat fly into a rage.
“Everything you saw,” Edge said quietly with a sly hiss, “everything you heard, I planned.”
No. It was impossible! How could the toy make such a claim? Everything had been calculated? Everything? But what would be his gain?
Where there was normally sense and rationale rose up an angry beast, and before the rat even had to strain and command it, the skin at the back of his neck was twisting up and forming a new shape.
Within seconds, the growth had sprouted from the back of his head, slimy and bloody, but alive. Augustus held onto Anne tightly so that she would not try to run, and his second head that had emerged behind him focused on Edge. Its red eyes gleamed with hatred, and it opened its wide mouth, spitting out a mass of fire.
9
Edge was ready for something like this, though perhaps not this specific thing. He smiled at the sight of the growing power that he thought he might one day attain. But the Master’s enchanted fire did not reach him. He had already pulled the lever.
The flames missed their intended target, but did manage to crash into several unsuspecting toys and rodents that stood nearby. The burning victims screamed and screeched, and the room was taken by the smells of wood smoke and burning hair.
Edge leapt out of the way, securing himself, and as the rat’s newly formed head prepared to launch another glowing ball of flame, a large grate in the wall slid open. It was near the place the Rat King had entered the ballroom from, and from within it there was a chorus of hissing sounds. Within that dark, nothing could be seen.
The gathered toys and rodents were scattering now, knowing that they shouldn’t be disruptive, but fearing their master’s new anger over all else. Edge only smiled at it as if this had been part of his plan all along. Augustus saw this with his new eyes. He was lit with hotter fury.
Another huge ball of flaming phlegm was hawked forth, and after Edge had dodged once again, seeing the orb break apart against the tile and continue to burn, he pulled the blade from his back.
The edge of the razor touched the floor, dragging across the porcelain tile. The sound that emitted from that rattled every ear in the room. The screech it made was like a rodent’s cry. Within the deep darkness behind the open grate came the rumbling sound of many feet moving at once, and out onto the floor rushed dozens of rats.
10
With the beasts loose, there was complete chaos within the room. Toys and rodents were fleeing and screaming left and right. The Master had completely lost sight of the treacherous Edge, and while he would have loved to turn the doll into a pile of flaming nothing, he knew he couldn’t very well destroy all of his loyal followers or his beasts. One set of eyes scanned the area, past the rats and their victims, looking for an opening. The other set looked down at the woman he held.
She was staring up at him, her irises trembling in fear. She had seen his second head emerge, and had seen the fire that had formed from his belly. In her grey eyes was the respect that he so richly deserved. Admiring the expression on her face, he smiled evilly.
Something inside Anne snapped.
Perhaps her life never did have much worth, but she could not allow herself to die like this. She couldn’t let him have the pleasure of killing her!
Opening her human mouth, and even as he watched, she sank her small teeth into the skin of his arms that held her. The pain was very real to him, and even through all his concentration, the Rat King yelled out, recoiling from the pain. The woman fell to the floor, out into the midst of the chaos.
When the rat realized what he’d done by separating himself from the woman, he moved forward in an attempt the remedy the situation. Anne strugg
led against her dress to stand and run, and just before the Rat King’s claws reached her, his second head saw Edge.
The doll rushed forward with his blade as if to do battle with the rat, and the Master prepared himself. It would be simple to destroy this foolish one.
A ball of fire ignited in the second head’s mouth. Edge moved toward it, his blade ready…
At the last moment before the fire shot out, the doll used his blade to vault into the air and over the rat’s heads. Both heads snapped at him but neither made contact. Edge landed gracefully on the other side, the woman named Anne had gotten herself up, and without a moment of lingering, Edge grabbed her arm and pulled her off into the depth of the maelstrom.
11
Augustus breathed deeply from two airways into one set of lungs. This was all so ludicrous that he could hardly think straight. The woman and that loathed toy with her had gotten away from him, and it was so easily done–so laughable–that he could not even move to stop it. But what to do now? Let this perfect time for the ritual pass him by and wait until another time? He tried to think. There was too much noise.
The monstrous King of Mice lifted both his heads into the air, and together, his jaws released a roar that contained so much rage that every mouse, rat, and toy that heard it stopped what they were doing and fell down to the floor on their faces, groveling in silent reverence.
With the new silence, Augustus could hear the fleeing footsteps of the woman and the doll where they had escaped through the gate of the rat pit. They would not get far.
The Master raised a clawed finger.
