Snow Heart (2 page)

The youth had a tendency to get sick easily as his personal doctor would tell anyone who asked. Alric Macter was a fragile young man even at his age of twenty. Death was just waiting to latch onto Alric.

“You’re recovering,” said Wilhelm Macter while stowing away his gear. He pulled out the vile of clear liquid and slid the needle through its top. Sucking the liquid up into the glass inoculation tube, Wilhelm pulled it out and injected it into Alric’s vein.

The doctor, twenty-five, followed the Head Macter’s attention. He noted the young girl, kneeling in front of the black dog with laughter. Compared to Alric she was his complete opposite.

“You don’t have a collar,” the girl said. Her hand scratched behind its ear tenderly. “Your home must be around here somewhere. If you like, you can stay with me until you want to go home.”

The lab barked in reply.

Alric arrogantly huffed. “How dare she be happy here?”

Wilhelm narrowed his eyes quite some bit. He had never seen this girl and only those of the Macter family could live behind the estate’s walls. Was she a Macter? That didn’t seem likely so, since Wilhelm was the family doctor. It was forbidden for the family to see anyone but him.

“Who is she?” Wilhelm asked when his curiosity could wait no longer.

Just as he did the girl raised her attention from the baying hound. Its howls drew her attention to Alric’s hateful stare. The doctor and Alric sat on the porch watching her—observing her moves with scrutiny. It unnerved the naïve child considerably.

Wilhelm watched as she stood and patted the dog upon the head. “C’mon, boy. Let’s take a walk.” Her smile was too innocent which would only irritate the Head Macter even more, Wilhelm considered. Alric would not appreciate having someone happy on his land. He owned the soul of everyone in the place.

Wilhelm calmly packed his things. He knew intimately how this would play out. After all, making people’s lives miserable was Alric’s main goal in life. It was his career to slip poison into people’s drinks and name off all the symptoms as they died. He smiled widely watching the rope of a noose tighten around the disobedient servant’s neck.

“Grab my clothes,” Alric demanded soullessly.

Wilhelm crossed the room without any reluctance. Alric’s words were law in this world—a world surrounded by thick walls, cut off from the expanding city of Sera vista. Disobeying his authority would only lead to torturous punishment.

Knowing firsthand the pain Alric could inflict, Wilhelm gathered a thick black sweater in his arms and handed it to the youth. Without needing a command, Wilhelm closed the door to the porch then grabbed a pair of black suit pants.

Alric slipped out of the silk robe and tossed it to the floor. He wasn’t affected in the least showing Wilhelm the layers of scar along his back; in fact, the whole Macter family knew the abuse inflicted on Alric as a child. A childhood Alric was completely erased of his memories about. He knew where the scars were from but he didn’t recall it ever happening.

“Does it bother you?” Alric questioned coldly. He slipped on the dress pants, putting his back of scars to Wilhelm perhaps in a taunting manner.

The doctor made no effort to seem caring. “Not at all.”

In a threatening tone he replied, “You should be.” The Head Macter buttoned the rim of his pants completely docile and gentle. Alric was impractically weak looking as he moved; it was utterly too graceful to be human.

“It’s your fault,” Alric whispered. “You never helped me in my time of need.” Alric stared into the shoji door that was slightly lighted by the sun. “You knew it was happening, Wilhelm. Why didn’t you stop it?”

“I could do nothing—”

The youth turned to him. “No. You just didn’t care.”

Wilhelm replied none and simply kneeled to the ground and gathered the robe in his hands. The doctor folded it neatly and placed it on top of the coffee table at the corner of the room.

His heart was calm due to years of practice; Alric did scare Wilhelm but they were on friendly terms, for now.

Alric pulled the sweater over his head, feeling the stretch of his chest against the paleness of his skin. “You’re rather useless to me, Wilhelm.” He forced his arms through the sleeves with a smirk too evil for it to belong to anyone normal. “Don’t worry, though. I won’t replace you. Not anytime soon.”

The youth glowered before stating, “Do I appear improvident to you, Wilhelm? I know quite well what the temperature is like outside; I was sitting out there just a second ago. Or perhaps you are the one too idiotic to realize.”

There appeared to be no other reason for argument or debate. Alric’s mind was made up and once he decided something then it was all too illegal to disagree. Wilhelm certainly wasn’t going to risk his life for Alric.

Wilhelm led the young Macter out onto the porch and around to the front of the house. The field and gardens reached for miles on the Macter estate. Small streams ran through the area and there was even a lake on the farthest side—a lake Alric had hardly been able to go to.

The main house linked nicely to the smaller family houses by mere sidewalks. There were only three gates in the wall that surrounded the place: a gate to the city, a gate to the mountains and another gate that led out to the country side towards another city.

Very few members of the family lived away from Alric. There were those who lived in Meissen in small cramped apartments, barely getting by. Those who did not live among the land did not know of the curse. Very few Macter were granted that privilege to live a normal life. Once they knew the family secret they were hardly given the option of privacy. Alric kept a close eye on every member of his dwindling family.

“How is Rusuto doing?” Alric inquired while heading towards the bridge—a small structure arching over a thin rivulet of nearly frozen water.

Wilhelm held his hands professionally locked behind his back. “Rusuto is going out to the lake this week. He decided on leaving Dan and Angel behind when he goes.”

“Is that so?” The sickly youth draped his arms over the edge of the rail. “Those pathetic orphans.”

Wilhelm vaguely recalled the events that left the two teens fending for themselves. Dan’s mother and father were viciously murdered in the comfort of their apartment. Angel had lived with her aunt, abandoned by the rest of her family. It was when her aunt was taken to illness—left brain-dead—that Angel had no home to return to.

Both children were of Macter decent.

Rusuto felt compelled to take Dan and Angel, children then, when he found them lost in the vast forest behind his home. They had raided his kitchen and when he returned, Rusuto found them frightened and alone. Dan was just seven and Angel a simple five.

Wilhelm always considered Rusuto soft-hearted and far too generous. He was taught to keep away from Rusuto by Alric through pain staking conditioning.

Alric scraped a nail along the wood of the bridge. “What about Danzig?” the youth asked with repugnance.

“Danzig?” Wilhelm tried to recall the conversation he had with the elder man—a man burdened with senile consistency and deteriorating bones. “He said he was coming to see you as soon as he could.”

The sound of joyful laughter made Alric’s stomach twist with disgust. He could not believe the nerve of the person who dared to laugh on Macter land. If anything, they should be crying out in agony. No one had to the right to laugh.

Wilhelm followed at Alric’s heels. The laughter became distinguished and recognizable to Wilhelm even though he had only heard it once in his entire life. The girl, who Wilhelm knew not her name, sat on top of a small mound in the midst of the field. Her hair seemed to shine like honey in the sunlight—even on this cloudy winter day.

Alric’s plotting was to an end. His thoughts were ready and organized to the fine, microscopic point that no sword or needle could ever reach. His thin fragile body held determination while heading up the mound towards the girl he hated from the beginning.

She was bemused only for a second as the dog howled into the air. It whined pulling back its thin floppy ears. Her feet never delayed to pull her off the ground and face Alric head on.

“What are you doing out here?” Alric said in his usual dark tone.

Nieves shifted through attitudes quickly. Being bossed around was not something she took lightly. Strangely enough, Nieves bit back her anger and said, “I’m writing a letter to my grandparents.” There was no reason for her to hate the Head Macter. At least not yet, anyway. Hopefully he wasn’t as cruel as Boris, Nieves thought naively.

“You will appear at my home in one hour,” Alric firmly ordered—no emotion crossing his face. “The servants will prepare drinks.”

Without further words Alric set off to the awaiting Wilhelm at the bottom of the hill. The doctor looked mildly surprised that the youth had invited her—this cheerful young woman—over for tea. There must be some hidden plot to everything.

This was Alric not some generous monk.

“What will you do?” asked Wilhelm after being sure their conversation would not be heard by the girl.

Alric gave a smile he reserved for the pleasure of torturing another. “I’ll give her a little taste of nightshade with that cup of tea. Or perhaps one of my poisons I haven’t used recently.”

Alric laughed—a sound that hardly left his lips. “You actually thought I’d invite her for tea? You amuse me, Wilhelm. Your absurd hope to find goodness in me is quite a waste of time.”

Still, nonetheless, Wilhelm would never stop hoping.

†

The table was set with Alric’s finest dishes, cup and silverware. He even ordered the servants to use his finest table cloth when moving the dining table into his room. He slid into his most comfortable of robes—a white cotton one nicely made for winter—and waited for his latest victim. His heart raced at thinking how she might look after poison entered her veins.

Would she scream after the discovery? Or maybe she’d remain calm about it.

“Alric, sir,” someone on the other side of the shoji door muttered before sliding it open. “Your guest has arrived.”

The youth grinded his teeth with impatience. “Then why are you in here telling me this. Send her in.” He cursed, “Fool” under his breath. “Useless servants.”

“Uh…” the servant seemed rather confused. He turned to the hallway then called out, “Come here, girl. Come here.” He clapped his hands together, beckoning whatever it was forward.

Alric’s expression went hard as the whimpering black dog padded into the room. Its ears were drawn back in subordination but Alric was not moved. In fact, this merely made Alric angry at the feeling of being inferior.

Alric didn’t say a word—not even as the mutt before him dropped the letter clenched between its teeth. He eyed the letter then the whimpering creature.

“Pathetic,” he cursed and the dog went racing for the garden door. Jumping right through the paper and wooden crosshatched frame—it never looked back or slowed down.

Alric’s hatred turned to the nearest person. “Get out! Get to Boris’s house and bring whoever comes home first. I want all of them! I want her here!”

The servant shook with fear, jolting for the exit.

Alric snatched up the letter and eyed the words for quite some time.

“
Dear Head Macter,”
it read, “
NO
.
Sincerely, Nieves.”

For some odd reason, Alric found himself smiling at her boldness.

CHAPTER 3

Nieves found herself waking up under a blanket of stars. In the city it was nearly impossible to even see a single one but here, in this field, the whole sky was twinkling with them. She would have smiled and gazed if reality hadn’t slapped her across the face. It was nighttime and Boris would surely beat her till bleeding for it. She had to get home soon, hopefully before he got home from work—whatever it was he did as a lawyer.