Midnight Law

by Geanna Culbertson

  I felt myself shrink a bit. I may have coined some of those.

  “It bothered me for a long time, and I became a bully because of it,” Girtha continued. “My bitterness was easy for Tara-Mauvrey to manipulate. I got convinced it was better to pick on others before they pick on you. When I was finally free of her influence it took a lot of work to build up my self-esteem to stop caring what others think and take pride in my appearance—accepting and loving it for what it is. I still have bad days, but I have awesome friends and family, and perspective. The latter of which comes from forcing myself to embrace my differences in social situations. I focus on unashamedly showing people my character every day. You can’t hold it against somebody for not being able to form that kind of confidence when they’re all alone.”

  Remorse prickled along my spine and I forgot that I was angry with Girtha for a moment. I’d teased her about her size when she’d been a bully. I never considered that wrong because she was my enemy; however, as a human girl . . . perhaps I should’ve known better. Maybe I should’ve listened at least some of the time when SJ tried to get me to hold my tongue.

  I believed in calling a spade a spade. If someone was being stupid, I’d tell them so. If someone made a mistake, I’d make them aware of it. If someone deserved a verbal dressing-down, I would never apologize for delivering that with gusto. The world could be too sensitive and needed people who were blunt and honest.

  But tearing into someone’s self-esteem, cutting them down—that was different. And it was a monstrous thing to do. That’s how villains were made, both the kind who were like Humilde and her Sea Witch mother, and the prissy mermaids that forced them into this secluded, vengeful lifestyle. If the situation required it, I always wanted to be blunt regardless if people thought I was harsh, but I never wanted to be that.

  I sighed. “You’re not wrong . . .” I said to Girtha. I diverted my gaze from her sad look and gestured for the book. Lonna passed it over and I flipped to page twenty-two and read aloud.

  “Voice Deposit Contract: By signing on the line below, I (‘the speaker’) hereby relinquish my voice to she/he casting the spell (‘the enchanter’) for exactly two hours. As this is a temporary spell, there will be no way to break it. The voice will belong to the enchanter until this period is up. When the two hours have passed, the voice will be returned automatically to the speaker, wherever he or she may be.”

  “What kind of a difference is two hours going to make?” Jason said. “Lonna, there’s no way your cousins are going to surrender their voices, right?”

  “No,” Lonna admitted. “But two hours will give us time to think of a plan. We can visit my cousins and King Tyron at their palace and see if they have any ideas on how to outsmart Humilde; they dealt with her mother before after all.”

  “Don’t you think if there was a way to outsmart a voice-swap contract the Little Mermaid and her family would have done that before?” Chance argued. “Instead of resigning to killing the Sea Witch to break the spell?”

  “They didn’t kill her,” Lonna replied. “They fossilized her. Every Mer person has a magic power. King Tyron can turn things to coral. He used that power to petrify the Sea Witch into a glorified statue.”

  “We’re not killing Humilde or fossilizing her,” Girtha said fiercely.

  I closed the book to read the title on the cover. Book of Speech Spells. I glanced at my teammates. “If there’s one super power I believe in, it’s the power of reading. There is more might in words than in the sharpest knife. You just have to know how to wield them.”

  “You want to do research, don’t you?” Jason asked, head cocked thoughtfully.

  “I say we use the two hours Humilde is giving us to find a better way than trading voices or killing enemies. I know the latter is not very like me, but I think it’s our best shot.”

  “Two hours is a lot of time to waste when we only have about twenty-two left,” Chance replied, checking his pocket watch.

  “We’ll make them count,” I assured him. “Lonna, you keep your voice like Humilde suggested. The rest of us are doing this.” “Shouldn’t Chance make the final call?” Jason suggested. “It’s kind of his quest.”

  “No,” I said. “Crisa isn’t a quest. She’s a person and a friend. And I know what I’m doing. You believe that, don’t you?”

  Jason opened his mouth, but Chance replied first. “It’s fine. I trust you, Blue. We’ll follow your lead.”

  Girtha nodded and so did Lonna.

  I swam forward to address Humilde. “You’ve got yourself a deal. We’ll be back in two hours.”

  Humilde waved at one of her spider sharks, snapped her fingers, and pointed at her desk. The creature used its surprisingly dexterous hairy leg to pluck a long quill from a container on the desk; then it swam over to me. “We both sign the book to activate the spell,” Humilde said, rising from her hammock.

  “Fine. But there’s one contingency,” I responded. “We want to keep this book while the spell is active. Like you said, it’s important to read up on contracts before entering into a deal. If we’re going to do a permanent voice exchange for five royal mermaids, we’ll need to know the extent of how that works. We will bring the book back undamaged. I promise.”

  Humilde shook her head, coming closer. “Absolutely not. That book is a very old heirloom that was passed down to my mother.”

  “Then we don’t have a deal,” I said. “We may want something from you, but you want something from us. You can have it—the voices and the vengeance your heart desires—but you have to lend us this book. Or you can just stay here.” I shrugged. “Get your jollies with that flame and a waning mash-up of other people’s voices.”

  “You’re bluffing.”

  “Doesn’t look like you get a lot of action down here. Wanna test it?”

  Humilde eyed me.

  “Fine,” she said eventually. “All my spell books are made out of magic paper anyway, so they can’t be ruined or destroyed by water, let alone anything else. But I swear if you lose that book I’ll have your spleen, not just your voice.”

  She gestured for me to open the text and I flipped back to page twenty-two. I held it out for her. Humilde carefully pulled the quill from the shark’s grip and signed her name above the “enchanter” signature line. The name glimmered before vanishing and the book flashed with sliver light. She then handed me the quill and waved me away.

  I returned to my friends, took a deep breath, and signed my name—Blue Dieda—over the “speaker” line. The name sparkled and the page shone for a second, but then the text flashed an angry red and my name disappeared. Across the room Humilde shook her head, annoyed.

  “The book only accepts real names, not nicknames or fake names.”

  Oh.

  “What’s your real name?” Chance asked curiously.

  “Don’t worry about it.” I angled away from the others and wrote my real name. My writing glimmered and this time the book flashed with silver energy. When it did, that magic lifted from the page and went straight into my mouth.

  Yikes! I had not been expecting that.

  I grabbed at my neck. It felt like an ice cream scooper plunging down my throat and then scooping up the contents of my throat. Magic ejected out of my mouth again and I saw no blood or body tissue, which I felt like I’d lost in the process. Instead, a glowing silver sphere of light no bigger than a thimble floated in front of me. It shot across the room to Humilde and absorbed into her necklace; one of the mussels glowed brightly for a moment. Humilde smiled. Then she opened her mouth for the first time and spoke like a normal person.

  “I love a fresh voice,” she said sounding exactly like me. “When they’re new like this, I can speak normally; it’s only when the voices fade that the necklace does the talking for me.” She stretched her lips dramatically. “Mary had a little lamb. Fee-fi-fofum. Sally sells seashells by the seashore. Oh yes, this voice is nice and strong.”

  It was weird hearing my voice projecting fr
om another person’s mouth. I tried to speak but nothing came out. I reached for my throat self-consciously. It scared me a little, but I knew what I’d gotten myself into. I straightened with confidence and handed the book to Jason. He, Chance, and Girtha repeated the process. Once Girtha was done, she shoved the quill inside the book and shut it.

  “Well now, it has been a pleasure doing business with you,” Humilde said in Chance’s voice. “I am very excited for how our dealings will conclude. I have been alone for many years, waiting to get what my mother and I deserve. My endurance is about to pay off. Sometimes the right ending to a story requires patience.”

  Humilde waved her hand and the spider sharks crowded around us, as if showing us the door. Then Humilde’s eyes glowed blue and the same color consumed the spider sharks momentarily—causing them to quadruple in size. I drew back in surprise.

  “Run along and talk to your cousins, Lonna,” Humilde said in Girtha’s voice.

  Girtha moved to store the Book of Speech Spells in her backpack, but I put my hand on it and shook my head. I took the text back from her and put it in my own pack as Lonna beckoned us to go.

  “See you soon.” Humilde called in my voice. It echoed around us as we swam out of the cave, causing me to shiver.

  Back in the greater ocean of the abyss, Lonna conjured a current and pulled us along at a rapid pace. “Humilde must have the same powers as her mother,” Lonna commented, glancing back at us. “She could manipulate the size of undersea creatures—make them grow or shrink. I am surprised Humilde has never used that to attack a Mer kingdom like her mother di—”

  Lonna, look out!

  But she didn’t hear me. By the time she registered our looks of horror, the giant mint crab had already dive-bombed us. We barely missed being skewered by one of its appendages. Unfortunately, Lonna got smacked hard by one of its legs. The broken current sent us spinning in different directions. I steadied myself without crashing into anything this time, but injured Lonna went sailing through a fissure in the rock wall, disappearing within its shadows.

  I swam over to it, only to realize this was no fissure and the darkness it held was not from lack of light. There was a black hole in here! The shadowy energy around it palpitated and sparkled even in the low barnacle light of the abyss. I whirled around to locate my teammates, only to find them arriving behind me. I pointed and they nodded, eyes wide as they understood what I’d discovered.

  A roar shook the area. We turned. I didn’t know crabs could roar.

  The massive mint creature had grabbed onto the opposite rock wall and now eyed us with its massive pupils. Without further warning, it pushed off the rock straight toward us—claws extended. My friends and I dove through the black hole into whatever dimension lay beyond.

  More water. Good.

  Unlike in the abyss, the ocean surrounding us in this new world was bright turquoise. Rays of sunshine filtered through the surface. It was daytime here. Wherever here was.

  Girtha was the last of us to pass through the black hole, but an enormous thrashing crab claw followed her. We hastened out of the way as it lashed out. Thankfully the portal wasn’t big enough to allow the rest of the creature through. After a moment of writhing, the claw withdrew from the glittering black wormhole and we breathed out in collective relief.

  “Help!”

  Forget relief; we spun around and spotted Lonna trapped in a large underwater net trolling the sea maybe a hundred feet away. It followed the large shadow of a fishing vessel. Lonna had been ensnared along with innumerable panicking fish.

  We darted after them. As we closed in, Lonna disappeared into the fish until only her arm remained visible, clutching the rope for dear life as the swarm of fish suffocated her.

  We reached the net. I drew my hunting knife and slashed through it. A rush of fish exploded out, pummeling my face and body and sending me tumbling backward. Jason grabbed my arm and pulled me sideways so I’d avoid the rest of the escaping fish. Lonna came out of the net a few seconds later, and soon after the net was empty. The boat continued on, unaware it had lost its catch.

  Lonna took a deep breath. “Thanks, Blue. That was,” she shivered, “so beyond terrible I don’t even have the right adjective.” She looked around. “Where are we?”

  I raised my wrist and activated my Hole Tracker, glad that the watches worked underwater. I was very surprised to see where we were. I looked at Jason and opened my mouth to speak. No words came out.

  Oh. Right.

  I beckoned for everyone to come look as my neck and hands stung strangely. They had been hurting since we got here, and now my wrist felt pain too. I squirmed a bit and tried to shrug it off. I gestured at the holographic map projected by my Hole Tracker. The maps were never that detailed, but they let you know what realm you were in, where other wormholes were, and when the next wormholes in the area would appear. I pointed to the location labeled at the top. Jason raised his eyebrows.

  We were on Earth. In Bermuda. Again.

  “Where’s the black hole we came through?” Lonna asked. “We should get back to Book; you guys are on a deadline.”

  She was right. We turned around, looking for the black hole—but it was gone. My heart sank like a dead spider shark. The wormhole must have closed and disappeared while we saved Lonna. The mermaid didn’t need for us to explain this; the expressions on our faces were enough to convey what had happened.

  I began scrolling through the time settings on my Hole Tracker, trying to ignore the growing heat on my wrist, not to mention the insane stinging of my neck and hands. I massaged my neck a bit in stress as my team looked over my shoulder. We discovered that three black holes would appear tomorrow in this area, the first at 12:00 p.m. That was twenty-six Earth hours from now based on the current time in this dimension, which the Hole Tracker also displayed.

  The holographic map started to flicker. I powered off the Hole Tracker and weirdly when I did the burning on my wrist alleviated, though the pain in my neck and hands remained.

  “Earth time runs twenty times faster than Book time,” Lonna thought out loud. “Twenty-six hours here is equivalent to about an hour and twenty minutes in Book. That’s a lucky break for us, so thankfully you won’t lose much time on your Midnight Law quest and we’ll meet Humilde’s deadline just fine. But we’ll need to find a place to hang out that’s not open ocean for a while, especially if Blue wants to do in-depth research with that giant spell book.”

  She was right. Another fishing boat could come by. We should—

  ARGH!

  I tried to shout, but no sound came out as I reached for my neck. My throat burned and my hands felt like I’d stuck them in a hot pot of tea. I wasn’t alone; except for Lonna, everyone on my team had doubled over, grimacing and grasping at his or her necks. Next to me, Jason’s gills were closing. I stared at my hands watching as the webbing disintegrated like cotton candy in water. Then it felt like suction cups got ripped from my neck and I knew my gills were gone too. My next breath was a mouthful of cold seawater, and I made a break for the surface. Everyone else followed. My head burst through seconds later; the others rose up beside me, all of us panting except Lonna, who blinked her big purple eyes at us.

  “Earth,” she realized. “We’re in a different dimension. Otherworldly magic doesn’t work in other dimensions, right? So the enchantment you were using to breathe underwater dissolved. I guess I can’t use my current powers either.”

  I felt like an idiot. She was right, of course. I couldn’t believe I forgot the rules.

  Land was fortunately nearby. The sun shone lustrously with scarce clouds to detract from it. Several fishing boats dotted the surrounding water—not close enough to spot us, but not far enough away that I felt we were safe. Jason nudged me excitedly, pointing toward a dock not too far off that extended into the water.

  No way.

  I recognized the pier instantly, and the large beach house behind it. We had allies in Bermuda. It had been a while since we’d see
n them, but maybe they would look after us like they had almost a year ago. Jason started swimming for the dock, the rest of us pursuing him.

  When we arrived at the pier, we paused. I held up a hand to Lonna and mouthed the words “Wait here.” She nodded and ducked beneath the dock.

  Our team of four paddled inland until we were close enough to stand on the sand. We righted ourselves and walked up the shoreline. The moment my feet left the water, the SRB on my wrist—which I wore on every quest—sent silver sparkles to dry me off. The SRB was one of SJ’s most practical inventions, and she had made extras so Girtha and Chance could experience its wonder. They looked pleasantly shocked to be clean and dry in seconds, as the bracelets were enchanted to do. Of course, despite the enchantment being potion-based, this also apparently counted as otherworldly magic. My wrist burned sharply when the SRB activated. Once the effect stopped, I pushed back on the bracelet and found a bright red mark on my skin.

  Okay, let’s try for no more magic while we’re here.

  Jason and I led the way to the familiar house. It was a different color than the last time we’d been here, and the roof had been replaced, along with the furniture out front. But it was the same house. I hoped that the residents remained the same too.

  I met Chance’s inquisitive expression with a raised hand and a look that said: wait. Jason and I couldn’t explain to Chance and Girtha why we’d guided them here, but I hoped maybe they were smart enough to put it together. My friends and I had told them about our Bermuda adventures and how we’d met the Little Mermaid’s long-lost daughter Ashlyn and her family.

  The morning sunshine warmed my face and a tropical breeze blew through my hair as we stomped up the sand. The air smelled of saltwater and breakfast sausage. Someone in the house was cooking a morning meal. We climbed up the steps of the front porch and Jason knocked on the door—glass with a wooden frame.

  A woman appeared and opened the door. She wore shorts and had a navy-colored knee brace strapped to each leg. Her curly chestnut hair was pulled back in a ponytail, loose strands framing her face. Though lines had formed around her forehead, lips, and eyes, she was without a doubt the same woman we’d met on our last trip to Earth. Just much older.