The Nutcracker King (Coming From Darkness #1)

Prologue

Dear Herr Heinrich,

It must be a shock getting this letter from me, after you must have assumed me dead for all these years. I beg you, please do not share this with my sister Luise — I do not wish to cause her more pain, she has lost enough. But I have heard of your reaction to the new story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by Herr Hoffman.

Most of that story is true. I did receive the Nutcracker from Godfather Drosselmeier, and I did help the Nutcracker defeat the seven-headed mouse king. I even gave that odious rat my sweets and dolls to protect the Nutcracker. But the ending, it is not true. It is just a pretty fiction that the Nutcracker told Herr Hoffman when he stumbled into the kingdom (oh how nicely the Nutcracker treated Herr Hoffman! Like royalty, though he thought it was all but a dream!). I was a fool of a girl and did not dare tell the Nutcracker of my feelings for him then. He was, and still is, a doll. He never took me away one year later to be queen — you yourself are a witness, because we met when I was sixteen.

But I am running ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning...

*******

Marie heard a sound and quickly put down her pen. She shoved the letter beneath a stack of papers sitting on her desk in her personal study.

"Who is it?" Marie asked.

"It is I, dear Marie," a female voice intoned from behind the door.

Marie got up and hurried to the door. She pushed it open, coming face to face with Clara, her sister-in-law who resembled the pretty doll she once had. Both of them had the same bright blonde hair, hazel eyes, and kind smile. Indeed, Marie sometimes wondered if Clara really was her beloved childhood doll, here to watch over her. Clara smiled tightly at Marie as she took a bundle of wood from the Hussar standing behind her and passed it to Marie.

"Our dear Nutcracker King was in the Garden when he thought of you. Winter is coming, and he thought you might want a fire to warm yourself. Please, take this."

As soon as Marie held out her arms, Clara dumped the bundle of wood into her arms. It was the colour of dark chocolate, spotted with red. Unlike most branches in the Kingdom, this was real wood. The Princess heaved a sigh as soon as Marie received the bundle and wiped her hands, not even caring that she was inadvertently applying red streaks onto her light yellow dress. She leant forward and said in a confiding manner:

"My brother will probably come in thirty minutes. It would be better if we started the fire before he comes. Would you like me to help?"

Marie accepted the offer and the two of them quickly got a fire going under the watchful eyes of Clara's Hussar. Marie offered to make Clara a cup of tea when the fire was finally roaring in the fireplace, but with a glance at the Hussar who stood watchfully at the door, Clara shook her head, profusely apologising for not being able to spend more time with Marie because she had to change her dress.

Left alone, Marie quickly went to her desk and hid the letter she had started in one of the books on the shelves. Only then did she sit down in front of the fire to wait.

Red flames on brown wood.

Red on brown.

Once upon a time, those colours meant winter to her. Winter, the season of Christmas, when baby Jesus would bring presents, and she would receive new toys and dresses and Godfather Drosselmeier's latest creation. She and Fritz would anxiously wait to be let into the grand drawing room. Upon getting their toys, Fritz would immediately play with his Hussars, and she with her dolls; while her parents, sister Luise and Godfather Drosselmeier looked on happily, talking grown-up mysteries all the while.

But now, those two colours represented horrifying nights. 

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the prologue - I'll be back with the first part of Chapter One on Friday. Do like/comment/add the book to your lists if you enjoyed the story so that more people can find it! By the way, if you want to read the whole story without waiting, you can buy a copy at https://books2read.com/TNK or subscribe to my mailing list (http://eustaciatan.blogspot.jp/p/subscribe-to-my-mailing-list.html) and get the whole story for FREE (the link to the book is in the confirmation email).