Claus: The Trilogy

by Tony Bertauski

  “You’re supposed to knock!”

  “Sorry.” Pawn averted his eyes.

  “What do you want?”

  “I thought you might want the news about Jocah.”

  “Mama?” Jack peered around the spitting fountain.

  “Yes, Excellence. She’s arrived.”

  A shiver rifled through Jack’s belly. He forced himself to breathe.

  “Say that again,” he said.

  “Um, your mother. She’s arrived at the palace.”

  Pawn and Jack stared for several long moments. Pawn thought maybe his Excellence had turned solid.

  “You serious?” Jack said.

  “Um, yes.”

  “Don’t mess with me, man!” Jack pointed at him and shook. “You know what happens when elven mess with me. You tell me the truth, is she here or not?”

  “Yes, Your Excellence. She’s in the receiving area where–”

  “DON’T TOUCH HER! Nobody touches her or talks to her or looks at her, you understand? You put her in isolation and you leave her there until the ceremony.”

  Jack’s face and body were the color of an overripe raspberry. He struggled to catch his breath. He wasn’t a doctor, but he’d be willing to bet his temperature was up to minus thirty. He hadn’t been that warm since he was in third grade and Darlah Iceridge tried to hold his hand.

  Pawn turned to leave.

  “Where you going?” Jack called out.

  “I’m going to pass along your orders.”

  “Oh, yeah. All right.” Jack, suddenly aware he was half-naked, ducked behind the fountain again. “Send a tailor down. I’m going to need something new and ready for the ceremony tomorrow. Do it now.”

  Jack squatted by the basin and polished the ice with his palm, the dead cod-eyes staring. He was still thinking of Darlah and the way her fingers felt.

  C L A U S

  62.

  Nog was above the ice, looking into a sky smeared with charcoal.

  It was a calm day, the subzero temperature nibbling at the end of his nose. A tear formed in the corner of his eye. That wasn’t unusual. The cold affected his eyes that way, especially when he stood that still on a winter’s day. They were near the winter solstice, when the world was at its coldest.

  But then maybe, this time, there were more tears than usual.

  A small dot eased into the dark sky. Tiny and red, it arched over the flatness of the Arctic landscape. Nog watched it coming down like an asteroid and–

  BOOM!

  –land on four legs.

  Rudy shook the snow off his expansive rack and snorted. The reindeer’s eyebrows were pinched and expectant. He felt the tension in Nog.

  Something was about to go down.

  Nog anchored the small sleigh to Rudy’s hindquarters.

  He carefully tested the buckles and ran his hand along the back side of the sleigh. He checked the bag on his hip to make sure everything was in working order. When the time came, he would have to grab without looking, and if the wrong thing came out… well, then, the day would end.

  Nog raised a black hood toward the reindeer’s nose.

  Rudy tossed his head, smacking Nog onto the ice. He would not tolerate covering his nose that was burning brighter than ever. Nog picked himself up and brushed himself off. He reached inside his bag and pulled out a small speaker that fit neatly in his palm. He spoke into it and told Rudy of their plan.

  He described the way he and Jessica would need to drop quickly to the palace under the cover of night.

  He instructed how important it was to arrive in secrecy.

  Rudy kept his head held high. His nose was a source of pride. It burned for all those who had lost to the villain by the name that every reindeer and elven alike cringed to hear.

  The Cold One.

  He would not defile it with a hood.

  Nog finally gave up and put the translator (something he’d just invented) away.

  They would come in hot.

  Nog sat in the sleigh. The seat next to him was empty.

  The North Star had poked through the veil of night, twinkling like a beacon. All was dark except for the landscape, the snow glowing by the red of Rudy’s nose. It looked angry and dangerous. It looked like blood had been spilled.

  Nog focused on the star. He hoped his darling was looking up at that moment. That his Merry was seeing the North Star, that perhaps they could share its visage one last time despite the miles that separated them.

  Jessica crawled from the ice.

  Her movements were slow, methodical and trancelike. She dared not move suddenly or with excitement. That would risk disturbing the emptiness of her mind. She let her senses guide her to the bench next to Nog. He did not look at her as she slid onto the cold, hard surface.

  She folded her hands on her lap, eyes cast down.

  Nog held the reins.

  As the ice shot away from them, as they rose through the sky like a shooting star, she would not allow thoughts to find a place to land in her mind. She remained open and empty. She couldn’t let the thoughts disturb the silence.

  There was only one thought that threatened the peace. One thought that rained heavily in her mind.

  We’re coming for you, Nicholas.

  C L A U S

  63.

  Jocah’s room was larger than the one she’d become accustomed to using since the Fracture. She sat on a bench for much of the time. She slept on a cot only once.

  Occasionally, she heard a slot open and a tray shoosh over the floor with bowls and eating utensils. She left it there until the slot opened again and a hand reached in to pull the tray out and replace it with another one.

  She needed an empty stomach to calm her nerves.

  She had begun to quiver.

  It had been so long.

  So long since she had seen her son.

  Janack.

  She was surprised to find that she yearned to reunite with him. There was so much left undone. And when she was aware of this, the fear dissolved into a warm openness. There, she felt love.

  She was right where she needed to be.

  She was beginning to tire.

  Perhaps, she thought, she would sleep again, but the walls and ceiling began to quake with a steady beat. Flakes of ice shook loose from the ceiling and fluttered to the floor as the rhythm buzzed beneath her feet and in the palms of her hands resting flat on the bench.

  It felt like music.

  The door opened.

  No one was there to greet her. It just slid open on its own. Jocah waited but, still, no one came for her. And the beat that thrummed through the cell was louder in the hall.

  Jocah gathered the loose shawl that was draped over her shoulders and pulled the ends over her chest. She stood, feeling the aches deep in her joints and a warm swirl of excitement in her belly.

  She stepped into an empty hall.

  To the left, it was dark.

  To the right, brightly lit. The corridor descended at a gentle slope, bending to the left. She couldn’t see the end.

  She stepped out, placed her ancient feet flat on the ice, the soles old and scaly and not as slick as they once were, and began to slide down the corridor.

  The farther she went, the louder the music.

  C L A U S

  64.

  The reins dug into Nog’s palms.

  It was difficult to breathe. Rudy had leapt higher than he could ever remember a reindeer leaping. They had cleared the low cloud cover; they soared above it with the sky filled with stars.

  Rudy tipped to the left, gliding into the clouds until condensation crystallized on the sides of the sleigh. He drifted just inside the clouds so they had cover.

  Far below – lit up with a thousand points of light like a galaxy on the ice – was a mountain.

  New Jack City.

  Nog felt the edges of darkness creep into his vision as he struggled to get enough air.

  Jessica was settled into her seat, eyes closed, breathing
deeply and slowly. She maintained her focus while they glided closer to their destination. They were almost there. About to reach the drop off point when–

  AAAAIIIII!

  New Jack City’s alarm sounded.

  Rudy fell like a boulder.

  Nog’s cheeks fluttered.

  Jessica – eyes wide with terror, gripping the bar at the front of the sleigh, fear blossoming out of control – screamed.

  Nog pulled back on the reins. They were coming in too steep. They needed to land quickly, but at this angle nothing would survive. He leaned into the seat, the reins cold and hard and taut.

  “Slow, Rudy!” he screamed. “SLOW, RUDY!”

  But the howling wind ate up his words and the reins did nothing.

  They would crash.

  They would leave a hole in the ice and sink to the bottom of the ocean. They wouldn’t feel anything.

  Nothing.

  It would end that fast.

  Details blurred.

  The palace and the lights and the endless dusky ice merged with Jessica’s screams until – at the last second – the sleigh bent beneath them. Nog and Jessica slid from the bench and flattened out on the floor of the sleigh.

  BOOM!

  They hit something hard.

  BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

  Jessica and Nog bounced around like a child’s game of jacks, landing on one another until the sleigh tilted to the right. Jessica was below Nog. He recognized that the sleigh was about to tip. He heaved his body in the other direction.

  WABOOM!

  SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHH!

  On two rails, the sleigh began to slow before coming to an immediate stop, throwing Nog and Jessica violently into the front of the sleigh. Nog was seeing stars inside his head.

  There was jostling.

  Jessica’s voice.

  “NOG!” she screamed. “Wake up!”

  Nog opened his eyes, saw her panicked face and a black sky behind her. He sprang up.

  “I’m up, I’m up.”

  They were at the foot of the palace.

  They were exactly where he wanted to be, the secret entrance – the one that he and Merry had used to sneak inside even before all the rest of New Jack City was built on top of it… it was still there! It looked like a large snowball wedged against a flat wall, but if it was pushed just right, it would dislodge–

  “Nog!” Jessica cried again.

  Nog reached into his bag without looking and pulled out a silver sphere etched with lines.

  He tossed it.

  Snow and ice swirled up. Frosty emerged with fists as big as icebergs. He slammed them into a charging six-legger.

  C L A U S

  65.

  The map joggled on Merry’s lap as Vixen hit an air pocket, tossing her, Tinsel and Jon around. She steadied her hand, noting where all the lights were located in relation to their destination. The lights represented the other sleighs.

  They were exactly where she wanted them.

  She closed the map, satisfied. They were on schedule, just as she planned. She wanted Rudy to lead her sleigh. He was the fastest and would get them to the palace first so she could distract them from the others. Tinsel told her that Nog and Jessica were using him to relocate.

  Vixen was plenty fast.

  They could still land first.

  They would lead the charge to bring down the Cold One.

  Merry checked the map again as the palace came into view on the horizon.

  All was in order, except…

  One reindeer was out of position. She quickly counted and counted again. There was one too many.

  And it’s heading right for us!

  A red light streaked past them, shaking their sleigh as it passed.

  “RUDY!” Tinsel shouted.

  The red nose disappeared behind them.

  What’s Rudy doing here? And why is he going in the other direction?

  And then she heard it.

  The alarm had already been set off. It was a high-pitched whine that could be heard for miles. She checked the map and no one had landed. But someone was already there.

  And she knew where.

  There, at the base of the palace, six-leggers were clustered around a brutal snowstorm. Someone released an abominable!

  Merry recognized the location.

  “Tell Vixen to veer right,” Merry shouted, pointing at the battle.

  “That’s not our landing point,” Tinsel said.

  “DO IT NOW, CHILD!”

  Merry leaned to the right as the sleigh tilted.

  Plans change.

  Nog wasn’t going in alone.

  C L A U S

  66.

  Nog and Jessica were thrown off the sleigh as Rudy swung around, whacking three six-leggers across the ice.

  YELP!

  Another three felt the brunt side of Rudy’s antlers.

  Frosty roared.

  “Get the other side!” Nog fumbled with the reins.

  Jessica ran around and tried to unhitch him. They were tossed to the ground twice – once a very close call with snapping jaws, close enough that Jessica felt its fetid breath on her cheek – but they managed to unhook the sleigh.

  Rudy leaped toward the oncoming herd, swinging his rack like massive paddles, swatting them down like puppies. What he didn’t get, Frosty pummeled. Slowly, Rudy and Frosty moved to the boulder.

  The snow was red from Rudy’s nose.

  And bludgeoning antlers.

  Nog pushed on the boulder.

  Frozen.

  How long had it been since they used this entrance?

  Jessica saw what he was doing and helped push, getting on her knees for leverage.

  Nothing. Stuck, solid.

  CRACK!

  Rudy swung around and smacked it.

  With the palace at their backs, Frosty was keeping the six-leggers away. Rudy reached back and smacked it again.

  CRACK!

  Nog felt it tremble.

  They pushed.

  Rudy reared up and snorted like a belching machine.

  CRACK!

  The snow boulder moved, sucking wind into the dark tunnel behind it.

  They pushed, but it wouldn’t budge more than a few inches. It wouldn’t be enough to fit a broomstick. They leaned into it again. Nog stepped back.

  “What are you doing?” Jessica shouted. “PUSH!”

  “Hold on.” He reached into his bag. His palm pulsed with blue light. “This isn’t going to feel good.”

  Jessica didn’t have time to ask why.

  The light leapt out of his hand and enveloped them like gelatinous goo. It was warm and comfy.

  And then it started to squeeze.

  And SQUEEZE.

  SQUEEZE!

  Jessica couldn’t breathe. She felt her eyes bulge like she’d been run through a clothes wringer.

  And then she was inside.

  Jessica’s eyes filled with water.

  She gulped at the air while Nog peered down the black mouth of the steep tunnel. He reached into his bag and pulled out something the size of a snowball that wriggled like a rat. He dropped it on the floor and Jessica saw it split into seven smaller versions of gray-haired wiggly things and jet into the darkness.

  The snarls of the six-leggers were closing in.

  The wind howled as Frosty rolled the snow boulder back in place. Just before it closed and the sliver of light was shut out, just as the wet smack of antlers met another six-legger’s ribs–

  Nog screamed.

  “GO!”

  There was the whoosh of an enormous reindeer leaving the ice.

  The clack of the snow boulder snapping closed.

  The slap of Frosty’s sphere hitting Nog’s hand.

  In darkness so black they couldn’t see each other, Jessica reached for Nog’s hand and felt the cold, etched sphere of Frosty already there. Nog placed it in his pocket and pulled her closer.

  Down they went, sliding into the dark.

 
The snarls of six-legged beasts faded.

  C L A U S

  67.

  Jack adjusted the thing knotted around his neck.

  The tailor called it a bow tie. He said he was inspired by the warmblood’s memories – now downloadable for free – and thought Jack would look smashing in it.

  Jack leaned closer in the mirror and straightened it. Smashing? Well, if I do say so myself, I am quite a catch.

  He smiled a blue smile.

  He thought, perhaps after the ceremony, he might have a drink at the café and see if any of the ladies would like to dance. Or whatever elven were up to when they weren’t working. What do they do?

  He stepped back and stroked the silky lapels and turned to see the jacket tails dragging on the ice. He flipped them up to see what the pants looked like. Nice and snug, showing off his round posterior. He likey. He told himself not to punish that tailor, he had taste. Who knows, there might be another ceremony where he would need to look this… what was it… ah, yes.

  Smashing.

  His nerves sprang when the music started.

  It was a solid rhythm, one of Jack’s favorite songs. Really hard, something to get the juices flowing.

  Boom-boom-clap. Boom-boom-clap.

  The walls shook.

  He could feel it enter the soles of his feet, run through his groin. He reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out a set of dark glasses, something the tailor adapted from the warmblood’s memories. Actually, the glasses in the memories were clear, but the tailor darkened them so they looked… cooler. Jack slid them up his nose and over his eyes. He walked away from the mirror and turned with his finger and thumb cocked back.

  “Hey there, fella,” he said. “You ready to party?”

  He cleared his throat. That sounded stupid. Sounded whiny and just… dumb. He walked up to the mirror and started again. He walked away, was about to turn–

  “Your Excellence.”