Page 54 of Return of the Nutcracker Prince

“Klaus is out there.He can rescue us!”

Zelda just gave her a pitying look and patted the space next to her.“Take a load off, Princess.You’re going to need your rest.”

She wasn’t sure how long, but some time later, six mouse soldiers appeared in front of their cell.“Come,” was all their leader said to them in that squeaky mouse tone.Alaric, Galiena, and Clara were all cuffed with iron that must also dampen magic, and led out of the dungeon.The soldiers forced Zelda to stay behind.

Mice were everywhere.They had pillaged the castle kitchen and never made it past the hallway, laying about and gorging themselves on the palace food.Clara kept her chin steady, as did her parents-in-law.

The soldiers herded them into the throne room.More mice filled the room, not just soldiers this time, but some civilians as well.And there on the dais, laying across the Sugar Plum Fairy’s throne, was eight feet of Mouse King.

The seven-headed demon regarded them while leaning on his elbow, his massive tail snaking down the steps to the floor below.His three blind mages stood behind him, their unnerving gazes each looking in a different direction.Yet somehow she knew they were watching their prisoners.

“Well, well, well,” the king boomed, and all chatter ceased.His voice differed from the others.No squeaks at all, but it slithered in her ear.She suppressed a shudder.That creature was unnatural.

“If it isn’t the Sugar Plum Fairy,” he continued.“Or should I say the Sugar PlumFailure!”His subjects squeaked at his joke, and Clara clenched her hands at their laughter.He rose to his feet and towered over them.“I am the King of Sweets and Toys now!”

Galiena shook her head.“This land will never recognize you, Ferdinand.Nothing you do can change the magic of this realm.”

“Silence!”

But the queen had more to say.“This is not what the Goddess intended —”

“The Goddess?”He hissed from a second head.“The Goddess which granted you magic and not me?I care not what she thinks!” A third head roared with the Mouse King’s fury.

Then he calmed immediately, as if turning the gas off to a lamp, and the center head spoke once more.“I merely brought you here to return something of yours.”With that, a pair of soldiers thrust something into the center of the room.No, not something.Somebody.

He picked at his nails, already bored.“I’m a father, too.I wouldn’t want you to worry about your preciousboy.”

Clara was too busy swallowing around the lump in her throat to shudder at the idea of the Mouse King having kids.She bit back a sob at the sight of Klaus, unconscious and bloody at their feet.Only the soldier’s claws grasping her arm held her up.

“What did you do to my son?”Galiena spat.

“He lives.Fornow.”The creepy mouse waved one of his paws.“Take them away.”

One soldier threw Klaus over his shoulder and they returned the four of them to the dungeon.

Her hollow chest echoed with the knowledge they had failed.

Klaus woke to a gentle hand stroking his face, his head pillowed against familiar thighs.Ignoring the throbbing in his head, he opened one eye to see his beloved.Unlike last time, however, they weren’t outside, and he hadn’t had a visit from a Healer.His whole body could attest to that.The other eye refused to budge, and he swept a hand cautiously over his face.It was swollen shut.

“You’re awake,” said Clara.

“I swear we’re going to do this someday when I’m conscious.”

“Well, you’re conscious now, son.”Father?

Klaus bolted upright as his mother called out his name.Then he groaned as all the aches and pains hit him at once.He felt like a walking, talking bruise.Torchlight flickered from outside the bars of a cell door, throwing strange shadows through the dungeon.His parents sat on a bunk across from him and Clara.

“Not you, too?”

Galiena nodded solemnly.“Ferdinand has control of the Land of Sweets and Toys.”

“Are you alright?”Clara touched him gingerly.

“I’ve been better.”He cupped her tear-streaked face.“You’re well?”

“Exhausted, and utterly magic-less.But yes.”She leaned into him as tears ran anew.“I was so scared when they brought you out.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead.“They’ll have to do better than that to keep me from you.”But his words rang hollow.He had failed miserably — again.

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