Drosselmeyer: Curse of the Rat King

by Paul Thompson

  The office was, like the hall, empty.

  Fritz crept over to the large desk and unlocked the drawers with a flick of his wrist. He shuffled through the papers but found nothing that listed the General’s name or location.

  He moved over to a cabinet and began to open the drawer, when he heard the door knob turn. Fritz dove behind the large piece of furniture before the Czar walked over to his desk and sat down.

  Fritz started to picture his room but stopped; he couldn’t risk traveling away and having the gust of smoke betray his presence. He squeezed back even tighter against the wall.

  The Czar stood and walked to the center of the room. The hard surfaces of the space carried his voice with acute clarity.

  “Welcome,” he said to someone.

  Fritz hadn’t heard anyone else enter.

  “Thank you,” came the curt, formal reply.

  Fritz froze.

  That was Borya’s voice.

  He flattened against the cabinet, moving slowly to avoid any creaking floorboards. He peeked around the cabinet and nearly gasped out loud.

  Borya stood with his back facing Fritz. Across from him was the Czar.

  A figure, dressed in black, whose face was obscured by a tightly woven shroud, stood between them, his profile dark against the wooden interior of the room.

  A lump on the third person’s shoulder wiggled, then crawled to the other shoulder with a chittering squeak.

  “A rat!” Fritz breathed and quickly tucked back out of sight.

  “Duke Klazinsky is causing me trouble,” the Czar said unceremoniously. “I’d like him gone.”

  “We had to come here just for that?” Borya droned.

  “I think Boroda knows something is going on. I’m not going to chance using your magic mirror and having him discover our arrangement. Until I can be sure, all our meetings will be held in person,” the Czar said authoritatively.

  Fritz felt his pulse quicken.

  “Do you no longer trust Boroda’s loyalty?” Borya said with a hint of amusement.

  “I’m sure you know he got another apprentice?” the Czar said.

  “Yes,” said Borya with a haughty laugh. “The Order gave him the mandate several months back. Looks as if he picked a blundering idiot just to spite us, but that’s neither here nor there. What is it to you?”

  Fritz scowled at the jab.

  The Czar smiled. “Did you also know the apprentice has a brother?”

  The black figure shrugged, causing the rat to lurch and scramble to the other shoulder.

  “And how did you come by this information?” Borya asked.

  The Czar tutted. “So, he didn’t tell you?”

  Borya tightened his grip on his staff.

  The Czar straightened a medal on his chest. “Around the time he told me he would be absent to train his new apprentice, one of my Generals adopted a son. This general served under my brother so, naturally, I keep my eye on him,” he said with a smug grin.

  “The boy had blond hair and green eyes. Hard not to remember that combination—especially in the Central Kingdom where blond hair is such a rarity.

  “The new apprentice had a tiff with my son at school, and when young Nicholaus mentioned that he wanted to gouge out his bright, green eyes with his thumbs, it made me curious, so I started asking around. Sure enough, the boys were adopted from an orphanage here in the Central Kingdom.”

  Borya stood very still. “Very interesting.”

  “The irony of it all is that they were both at Ivanov’s.” The Czar laughed.

  Borya stepped back. “You don’t say?”

  “I do say,” the Czar quipped. “Which brings me to my next request. I am having some boys shipped from Ivanov’s for my annual party. I guess the new apprentice did some damage before he left, and Ivanov is terrified of retribution. I told him you would accompany him in his carriage.”

  Borya motioned to his protégé. “I can have …”

  “No,” the Czar interrupted. “I want him to be with me. I don’t know how much Boroda knows about my parties and would rather have a fighter by my side should he decide to cause trouble.”

  Borya scraped his staff on the floor. “I can assure you, Czar, my skills are …”

  “Rusty, Borya,” the Czar snipped. “Your skills are rusty, as are all the other wizards in your group. I will not repeat my request again. I want you with Ivanov, and I want the Black Wizard with me.”

  Borya said nothing, but the tip of his staff pulsed lightly.

  “Please take care of the Duke Klazinsky problem soon, and then I will contact you again about the party.” The Czar dismissed the two with a wave of his hand.

  Before they left, he called out, “Borya!”

  Borya turned reluctantly, and Fritz scooted back, out of view.

  “Yes, Czar?” Borya hissed.

  “Keep an eye on Boroda.”

  “Boroda will not be a problem for much longer, Czar,” Borya sneered. Fritz heard the contempt drip from Borya’s words and shivered.

  Both wizards traveled out.

  The Czar sat at his desk for a few minutes then exited.

  Fritz traveled home and immediately began to pace.

  “Should I tell Boroda?” he asked out loud.

  “I am unsure, sir,” Doll commented, turning its head toward Fritz.

  “As soon as I tell him, he’ll ask why I went.” Fritz continued pacing as Doll’s head followed his movements.

  “Why did you go to the Czar’s palace? The same Czar I told you to respect and whose idiot son I told you not to pick on?” Fritz mimicked Boroda’s stern voice.

  “I am unsure, sir,” Doll answered the question.

  Fritz paid no attention to Doll. “Because I don’t trust you to keep my brother safe, Boroda. By the way, Borya is planning on doing something to you, but I don’t know what. Also, he’s throwing a party, and my old orphanage is involved but I don’t know how or why. Oh, and I saw the Black Wizard … Yes, I know about the Black Wizard because I was eavesdropping on you when you were talking into the mirror about overthrowing The Order and the Czar. Also, he’s going to kill someone named Klazinsky, but I don’t even know if murder is a big deal to The Order, seeing as we apprentices are your chattel, and our families are little more than offal to you.”

  “What does the Black Wizard look like, Drosselmeyer?” He, again, mimicked Boroda’s voice.

  “Here, let me draw a picture of the Black Wizard for you. Yep, it’s a person in black clothes. Hope that helps you find him, and I hope that you won’t be mad at me and rip my skin off with some spell.”

  Fritz collapsed on the bed, slightly winded. He looked over at Doll, whose unblinking eyes turned in his direction.

  “I can’t tell him yet, Doll. I don’t think he’d understand. I’ll wait and tell him later.” He curled up under his covers. “Is that right? Am I making the right choice?”

  “I am unsure, sir,” Doll replied.

  “You and me, both, Doll,” Fritz mumbled. “You and me both.”

  The students stood huddled on the school field near the woods. A heavy blanket of snow had fallen the night before, and an icy wind cut through their coats. Several students cried out from the gust, jumping up and down and rubbing their arms feverishly.

  Gelé tucked her shoulder into Nicholaus’s arm. Her blonde ponytail contrasted against his black jacket.

  Vivienne stood between Evgeny and Oleg and continued to whisper while McGregor shouted rules and orders.

  “If you see someone from the other side on your territory, stop them!” McGregor shouted.

  Edward raised his hand. “How do we stop them?”

  Oleg mimicked Edward’s voice with a nasal whine and Edward looked down, blushing.

  “Aye, it’s a good question,” McGregor said and pulled out a gun from under his coat. A nearby cluster of students gasped and fell silent.

  McGregor pointed the gun at Andor and pulled the trigger.

  Everyone scream
ed and ducked.

  A blue cloud of smoke billowed around Andor, and he looked down at his chest, where a splotch of blue chalk dotted his coat.

  “If you get shot, you’re out,” McGregor announced. “Each of you will have a gun and three shots. Use them wisely. First team to capture the opposing side’s flag wins. If no one captures each other’s flags, then the side with the most people still in the game wins.”

  He passed out the guns from a large chest as the class tromped by to the edge of the forest. Once the entire class had been armed with the appropriate colors for their particular team, McGregor raised a different gun into the air.

  “You have half an hour.” He pulled the trigger and the loud crack signaled the start of the game.

  Students raced to the far edge of the woods to put themselves as far as possible from the opposite team and to hide their flag in as difficult a spot as they could find.

  Fritz, Marzi, Edward, and Andor hurried back into the woods, out of sight from the rest of the class. Andor took the lead and, with his giant frame, cut a path through the snowy undergrowth. The others followed behind in his footprints. They had walked for several minutes when the woods opened up into a clearing.

  In the middle of the clearing was a giant tree with sprawling branches hung low to the ground.

  “Sweet! A tree!” Edward exclaimed and waddled past Andor.

  He jumped up and grabbed the lowest branch but was unable to hoist himself any farther, so Andor lifted him up.

  “Thanks,” Edward said to Andor.

  Marzi chuckled and walked around the perimeter of the tree. “This would be an excellent tree to duel in.” She spoke too softly for Edward to overhear but loudly enough to catch Fritz’s attention.

  “How so?” Fritz asked her.

  “The network of branches offers plenty of cover to intercept spells and many opportunities to change the direction of your attack with minimal movement,” she explained.

  “If The Order ever did get in a fight, who would win?” Fritz asked playfully.

  Marzi thought for a moment. “It would be tough to tell. Sylvia, Glacinda, and Borya would probably be the first to die.”

  Fritz started. “Why’s that?”

  “They don’t train anymore. They’re lazy,” Marzi answered bluntly.

  “And the rest?” Fritz reached up and snapped off a twig.

  “Eric fights a lot, but I think he would rely on brute strength too much. Andor’s spells are very sloppy, but his hand-to-hand combat is very good.”

  “Does Hanja still train?” Fritz prodded.

  Marzi smiled coyly at him. “That’s none of your business.”

  Fritz laughed. “Fair enough.”

  “I heard about what happened in the boy’s locker room,” Marzi said, continuing to circle the tree.

  Fritz grimaced.

  “Did you get in trouble for hitting Nicholaus the last time?” she asked.

  ”Yeah, it was bad.”

  “I’m sorry,” Marzi said softly.

  “Thanks, but I’d rather not talk about it,” Fritz said.

  “Gelé is ingratiating herself with Nicholaus. I think she wants to take Boroda’s spot in the Central Kingdom,” Marzi said.

  “She can have it. I won’t stop her,” Fritz mumbled.

  Marzi raised her eyebrows. “You’d give up your position with the Czar? The Central Kingdom is the most powerful one by far. The Southern Kingdom is the next, and it’s not even close.”

  Fritz turned to her. “I’m not even sure if I’m going to …” He was cut short by a small fleshy ball thudding into his shoulder. Instinctively, he grabbed it and threw it away from him.

  It was a rat.

  “Nicholaus!” he spat and swiveled around to find him.

  The woods were empty.

  “There’s another one!” Marzi pointed to the ground.

  A rat scampered on Fritz’s foot, and he kicked it away.

  Edward screamed and started to scurry down the tree. A rat jumped from the branches and landed on his back. He swatted at it, lost his grip, and fell. Andor caught him and set him on the ground.

  More rats crawled over the snowy ground toward the group.

  “What is this?” Marzi asked, kicking at a large brown one.

  “Not sure,” Fritz responded.

  “Can we go?” Edward asked, hopping his way to the edge of the tree.

  Fritz looked beyond the tree and his breath caught in his throat. The forest floor was churning as hundreds of rats raced in their direction.

  “Run!” Fritz shouted, and they all launched into the woods, back toward the school.

  The rats clawed through the forest floor after them. They ran deftly over the snowy patches and threaded the underbrush with ease.

  The four students pushed through thorny patches and tree branches, driven faster by the hordes of rats closing in on them.

  Edward screamed in pain and fell. A rat was hanging from his wrist, and several more were climbing over his baggy clothing toward his exposed neck. Blood trickled from his hand as the rodent clamped down.

  Fritz blasted the rats off with a push of magic, then grabbed Edward’s arm and yanked him forward.

  The rats were almost on them. The frontrunners attacked, eyes red and glowing.

  “There’s the clearing!” Fritz shouted.

  They turned and raced toward the open field.

  The rats swirled like a tidal wave after them. The bushes shook with the hordes of rodents running beneath them. Snow fell from the branches as a battalion of rats took to the trees to chase their quarry.

  Andor roared in pain and shook several off his back.

  Edward was heaving, his plump body unable to keep pace. He stumbled on a small bush, but Fritz held him upright.

  The rats overtook Fritz. They pounced, latching onto whatever they could sink their teeth into. Two large rats clawed up his coat toward his face.

  Ignoring the burning in his side, Fritz ripped his coat off and tore through the trees toward the field.

  They finally burst through the clearing. Several students with colored splotches of chalk on their coats looked at them with confused expressions as they exited the tree line and raced toward the center of the field.

  When Fritz realized that they were no longer being pursued, he called to the group.

  They slowed and turned to look at the thicket.

  The rats stayed within the tree line. The roiling cloud of fur thinned as they retreated back into the woods.

  Edward gasped for air.

  “Did something scare you?” Nicholaus smirked.

  He was standing a few feet away, a blue mark visible on his shoulder.

  Gelé and Vivienne looked at Fritz with confused expressions but said nothing.

  Fritz jumped up from the ground, intent on pummeling the smug prince, but Andor held him back.

  “That’s right. Let the ape stop you,” Nicholaus said slowly.

  McGregor fired his gun, signaling the end of class, and the other students trickled out of the woods. He looked around, counting students with his chin and, satisfied that all were present, blew his whistle to get everyone’s attention. “Looks like the red team wins today.”

  The team members exchanged cheers, and everyone began talking at once.

  “Turn in your guns here, and then you’re dismissed!” McGregor boomed.

  Later that afternoon, Andor, Marzi, and Fritz sat in the library turret room. Marzi dabbed Andor’s bite marks with a cloth.

  “What happened?” Marzi asked.

  “I don’t know, but it’s been happening to me all week. This isn’t natural. It has to be magic,” Fritz mused.

  “No one can do magic on school grounds,” Marzi reminded him.

  “We can’t, or we’re not allowed?” Fritz asked.

  “Both,” Marzi replied. “The Order put the enchantment on St. Michael’s a long time ago. Not only can you NOT do magic here, but also, if you try, The Order will find
out, and you can get removed. They take that very seriously.”

  “Does the enchantment include the woods?” Fritz asked as he paced.

  “Yes,” Marzi replied. “The entire forest is covered by the dome.”

  Andor began signing—too fast for Fritz to pick up—and Marzi watched with rapt attention. Her face paled.

  “What?” Fritz asked anxiously.

  “He said that two weeks ago, his house was attacked by a large bear. He said the bear had red eyes like the rats.”

  Marzi watched Andor carefully.

  “He said this bear was also larger than the other bears in the woods near his house.”

  Andor quit signing, and Marzi looked at Fritz. “His axe did little damage to the bear—he had to hack at it many times to kill it.”

  “That’s three of us,” Fritz said shakily. “That we know of. Should … should we tell the others?”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” she replied.

  Andor watched them talk and made a sign to Marzi.

  Marzi signed while she spoke.

  “When we left Minerva Mooncup’s shop last weekend, she told us that she would have been discreet whether she was threatened or not. She also told us to run and tell that to whomever we worked for. It sounded like someone threatened to hurt her if she told anyone what they bought.”

  Fritz looked at Marzi with a blank expression.

  “She said, ‘whoever you work FOR.’ She knew we were apprentices and assumed that whoever bought the morphing blend sent us back to check on her.”

  Fritz’s skin prickled. “Meaning the person who purchased the herbs had apprentices at their disposal.”

  Marzi pointed her finger at Fritz. “A wizard with an apprentice had to have bought the morphing blend from her.”

  “But that could have been any wizard,” Fritz argued.

  “Look at the whole picture, Drossie.” She shook both hands, willing Fritz to understand.

  Andor grunted and asked for an explanation of her last sign.

  Marzi apologized to him for the meaningless gesture and continued. “Not many wizards are powerful enough to capture three large animals, let alone put all those enchantments on them after they’re caught.”