Midnight Law

by Geanna Culbertson

  “Yes, turning straw into shiny metal is real quake-in-your-boots stuff,” Blue mocked.

  He grinned at her. “I am referring to my other powers. Magic can never be destroyed. It changes forms and changes hands. When my mother died, I absorbed the two magic powers she’d stolen during her hunting days.”

  A knock came at the door. Rumpel looked frustrated that he’d been interrupted. “Excuse me a minute, will you?” He opened the door. The man on the other side wore black armor with Alderon’s red phoenix insignia on it.

  Crud. One of Nadia’s guys.

  A carriage was parked farther behind the soldier, hitched to some sort of mutant gray horse with the head of a serpent and two-toed taloned feet.

  “What do you want?” Rumpel asked the soldier.

  “The queen demands her latest shipment by Friday instead of Monday. She’s planning an attack on—” The soldier looked around at the four of us and his eyes widened. “I know who you are! Blue Dieda and Jason Sharp. You’re on the queen’s most wanted list!”

  “Really?” Rumpelstiltskin turned and looked at us, even more intrigued.

  The soldier stepped into the room, causing Rumpel to glower. “You are all under arrest. I’m taking you back to the castle.”

  My friends and I glanced at each other. Was this guy serious?

  “You do realize there are four of us and one of you, right?” Girtha said, raising an eyebrow.

  Fear crossed the soldier’s expression, but he puffed out his chest to pretend like he wasn’t threatened. “I will report your presence in Alderon to the queen, and she will send every available soldier and monster after you.” He moved back toward the door.

  “Hold on.” Rumpelstiltskin stopped the man at the threshold with a hand to his arm. “These protagonists are on my land and therefore they’re my prize. Nadia has nothing to do with what I do with them. You will tell the queen nothing.”

  “I don’t think so,” the soldier said, shaking off the little man. He marched toward his carriage. My friends and I weren’t about to let him tell Nadia anything, and we started after him, but Rumpelstiltskin flashed with silver energy then stomped. The earth shook, sending the soldier to the dirt and us stumbling into the furniture. A crack branched from where Rumpel’s foot landed just outside his front door to where the soldier had fallen.

  Rumpel swiftly closed the distance between him and the soldier as my friends and I reached the door. The solider scrambled to get up, but Rumpelstiltskin—still glowing silver—grabbed the soldier’s ankle and flipped him over. Despite our host’s size and the buff soldier’s substantial struggling, the latter couldn’t get free. Rumpel didn’t even seem to be exerting much effort; it was like watching a minnow try to outmatch the strength of a fisherman.

  My friends and I crowded in the doorway watching. I frowned. “Should we intervene?”

  No one answered.

  “Hold on!” the soldier said. “I meant no insult, but these protagonists are very valuable to our queen.”

  “Protagonists are of value to everyone in Alderon. These ones, however, are mine. And I don’t like people trying to take what’s mine.” Rumpel grabbed the man’s other ankle. My heart seized with panic. Between the way Rumpel gripped him and the stories I’d read, my brain put two and two together and suddenly I realized what was about to happen. It was too late to stop it.

  Blue must’ve realized it too because we both reached for the edge of the door and slammed it shut a split second before the awful sound of tearing and screaming rang out. A heavy splattering impacted the door, the front wall of the cottage, and the windows. Although we couldn’t see the gore that had hit the door and wall, the spraying of blood on the windows was enough of a teaser for what had erupted.

  Girtha’s face was white as a ghost. “What was—”

  Chance put a hand on her arm. “One of the powers Rumpelstiltskin absorbed from his mother was super strength. When people broke deals with him, he had a habit of tearing them in half.”

  Girtha pointed toward the door. “Are you saying that he just—”

  The rest of us nodded.

  I grimaced. “We should have stopped him.”

  “We wouldn’t have made it in time,” Blue said, anxiously tugging at her cloak. “We would’ve just been closer to the . . . splash zone.”

  Suddenly the door opened. Our group of four backed up together as Rumpelstiltskin came inside. He cracked his knuckles nonchalantly. The front of his dapper outfit was splattered with heavy amounts of blood, but he didn’t seem to care. He merely took out his pocket square and wiped the splotches of red from his face.

  “Apologies for interrupting our meeting,” he said, shutting the door behind him with a backward kick and stowing his pocket square. “Now where were we? Oh yes, you were all getting a valuable history lesson and I was brainstorming what to take from you in exchange for A) the Midnight Law flame in my possession, B) not turning you over to Nadia, and C) not simply killing you all and shipping my nephew’s body parts to my half-brother in Clevaunt.”

  Girtha took a slight step forward in front of Chance, a small but protective gesture.

  “Here’s a fun thought,” Blue said, crossing her arms and striding out ahead of our group. “Why don’t you stop wasting our time, which you seem to know we don’t have a lot of, and tell us what you want? No riddles. No games. You like to make deals. Make one with us.”

  Rumpelstiltskin smiled and put his hands in his pockets. “I’ve heard of you, Blue Dieda,” he said, starting to pace around her like a predator. “I may not have recognized your face, but I have a thing for names, and the queen of our realm makes a point of ensuring all of Alderon’s citizens know exactly who to hate and why. You, however, caught my attention a while ago.”

  Rumpel stopped twelve inches in front of Blue and stared up at her face. “You’re the protagonist that Nadia and her lapdog Arian deem the most threatening after the legendary Crisanta Knight. You’re a fierce fighter and a wildcard in a lot of ways, but of course, the biggest draw is your Questor Beast powers. I would like a taste of that.”

  It was my turn to take a protective step forward. “You’re not touching her,” I said, fearing he meant to kill her and take her magic.

  Blue shot me an annoyed glance. “Step back,” she said sharply.

  I blinked, surprised. Blue ignored me and knelt down so she met Rumpelstiltskin at eye level. “I’m not afraid of you, little man. You’re not going to kill me. You’re too smart to try. Even with your powers, you can’t take all four of us.” Blue’s eyes glowed reptilian green and she spat to the side to make a point. Her crimson spit expanded midair before it made contact with the floor. When it did, the wood steamed and a twenty-five-inch section of the floorboards evaporated.

  After Blue slayed Camelot’s most legendary monster, the Questor Beast, she’d absorbed an array of its powers—acid spit, the ability to produce fog, and sensing prey by fear.

  Most people would have been horrified by Blue’s deadly spit. Rumpel just smiled.

  “Quite right, which is why I want you in my service. My super strength is a more confrontational power; it makes a big impression when I tear people in half or stomp hard enough to shake the ground and rip a crack through the earth. The second power I absorbed from my mother is a bit less obvious but far more versatile. It is a unique form of verbal magic. When people surrender their name to me—when they verbally acknowledge that they are giving it to me—I have complete power over them for the rest of their lives. No matter where they are, so long as they are conscious, I can speak to them—whisper in their ear like a voice in the back of their minds—and they must do my bidding. I could tell them to steal something, or spy on someone, or kill someone, or even kill themselves, and they must do it.”

  He leaned toward her until their foreheads were almost touching. “I want your name, Blue Dieda. You’ll be mine no matter how far you go.”

  Blue stood straight, shrugging nonchalantly. “Unless I k
ill you. Kind of hard to give me orders if you’re dead.”

  “Indeed,” Rumpel said. “Which is why it’s fortunate that you can’t kill me. In fact, you’ll be interested in protecting me. Once I have someone’s name under my power, I have a piece of their soul. I die, and they die too.”

  Rumpel reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the mystical flame we sought. It expanded in size and practically waved at us.

  “So, what do you say?” Rumpelstiltskin asked.

  Blue bit her lip. I could sense the gears turning in her head. “So all you want for the Midnight Law flame is my name. That’s it? No caveats. Nothing else.”

  “I am a fair businessman, despite what my half-brother and his wife think. One precious item for another. One powerful Midnight Law flame for one powerful name. Just shake my hand and verbally acknowledge that you’re giving me your name and that’ll be that. My verbal magic is inlaid in the exchange of a deal. We shake on it, and it’s binding.”

  Blue cocked her head. Then, much to our surprise, she stuck out her hand. “Fine. I, Blue Dieda, grant you my name in exchange for the Midnight Law flame. Have fun with it.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Blue, what are you—”

  “Leave it alone, Jason,” she said harshly.

  “Blue, seriously,” Chance said, grabbing her arm. “You obviously don’t know what you’re doing. If he has your name, he can make you do anything—attack our school, kill any of us. You’d be like his protagonist slave.”

  “Chance.” Blue glared at him and pulled away from his grip with a forceful yank. “You’re the last person who should be trying to warn me about not knowing what I’m doing. We wouldn’t be in this mess if not for you and Girtha screwing up our last adventure and getting Crisa trapped. So why don’t you keep your opinions to yourself and let a main character who has been in this story since the start, and didn’t just join the cast as a late edition, handle this.”

  Chance’s mouth hung open, speechless. I didn’t blame him. The severe words rattled me too.

  Blue was a good person. She was kind, caring, passionate about fighting injustice, and a fiercely loyal friend. I knew she could be blunt, direct, and snarky. But she genuinely wasn’t cruel or cold. Lately, though, she’d been coming across that way more often, especially to Chance and Girtha. I had been overlooking the behavior because of my feelings for her and because I knew she was struggling with Crisa’s absence, but I was starting to wonder if that was the wrong move. Despite my hopes that given time she could get over her issues, and she’d have the perspective to put her anger aside to focus on this quest, it seemed my fears were justified. The grudge she held against Chance and Girtha was beginning to infect her more deeply.

  “Now then,” Blue said, readdressing Rumpel. She stuck out her hand again. Even Rumpelstiltskin seemed surprised by how readily Blue was agreeing to this, but he held out his hand and the two clasped grips firmly.

  He looked at the rest of us. “All you kids step back, at least six feet. Do it now.”

  I really didn’t want to, but Blue’s glower forced me into submission.

  Rumpel nodded to her. “Go ahead.”

  “I give you my name, Blue Dieda, for the Midnight Law flame,” Blue said.

  Rumpel glowed with silver energy, activating his second power. “We have a—” Rumpelstiltskin paused. Then he abruptly jerked Blue down by the hand, forcing her to her knees. “Nice try,” he said, only inches from Blue’s face.

  He released her hand and flung it aside. “You thought you could trick me? Really? I can’t say if I am more offended or endeared by your gumption, dearie.” He stowed the flame back in his pocket.

  “What’s he talking about?” I asked, grabbing Blue by her arm to help her to her feet. She twisted away from me as she stood.

  “Blue isn’t her real name.” Rumpelstiltskin practically laughed. “Your bold little friend tried to scam me. She tried to give me a name that would have no power over her, and I almost agreed to it.” Rumpel paced the room, amused and shaking his head.

  I looked at Blue, dumbfounded.

  She rolled her eyes. “You were there when I signed Humilde’s contract and it didn’t work the first time. Weren’t you paying attention? Anyway, you didn’t actually think my name was a color all these years, did you?”

  “N-no,” I stuttered. “I mean, your sister’s nickname is Red and you told me her given name is Rachel, but you never told me your real name. You introduced yourself as Blue when we met and after a while I kind of just . . . I didn’t think about it.”

  “How did you know?” Blue asked Rumpel, turning to him. “No one other than my mother and sister know my real name. And a name is just a word.”

  “Dearie, my magic is all about names. Naming something exerts power over that thing’s existence. Promise is just a word. Betrayal is just a word. Love is just a word. And yet, each of these, along with dozens of other words, can hold more power than any weapon. That is why someone giving me their name—the most powerful expression of themselves—grants me power over their soul. When I take newborns from my victims, I name them myself so their existence never knows any power that I haven’t created and they don’t need to give me their names because I already own them. My magic could sense your name wasn’t real as easily as a person with a sweet tooth can detect low fat ice cream.”

  Rumpelstiltskin picked up the teacup he’d long abandoned. “That being said, here’s what we’re going to do.” He took a long slurp before lowering the cup. “Since you weren’t planning on me catching on to your little ruse, Blue, I am going to give you three hours to make your real decision. Unless you want to trade me your actual name now?”

  Blue blinked. “I . . .”

  “Questor Beast got your tongue? Shame. I thought you were more decisive. I’ll see you children at eleven o’clock. Do me a favor and don’t show up before then. The kids serve me brunch at ten, and I do not like my food to get cold.”

  o your uncle’s an evil dwarf who steals names and rips people in half,” I said, sitting down beside Chance.

  We’d left Rumpelstiltskin’s cottage and had sought a safe place on higher ground in the forest to regroup. If we had to buy some time, we needed to do it in an area that had some good visuals so no one could take us by surprise. Who knew what other kinds of villains and hideous monsters were around?

  Blue paced and fiddled with her hunting knife off to the side. Girtha hung out downhill, keeping watch. Chance and I had asked them both to stay within sight.

  “Yup,” Chance replied. “After meeting my ten siblings, I bet you thought you’d seen the extent of my crazy family tree. But nope—there was more. My eldest siblings were almost traded to a magical psycho and my grandfather wanted to behead my mother and her entire village just because she dared to love someone above her station. Surprise; you’re friends with a member of the most messed up family in history.”

  “Hey, I’m not one to judge,” I said, empathizing. “I have a small family, but there are parts I’m not proud of. My brother Jack may be a famous protagonist, but he’s a selfish, egotistical tool and we haven’t spoken in years. And my father abandoned my mother before I was born, so how much of a stand-up guy can he be?”

  Chance looked at me. The shame and embarrassment melted from his face—replaced by concern and curiosity. “I didn’t know that about your dad, Jason.”

  “Father,” I corrected. “Rumpelstiltskin’s right. Words have power and meaning. A father is someone who is half responsible for you being here. A dad is someone who is there for you in all the days after you arrive. My father left my pregnant mom and my brother Jack—who was only five at the time—in the middle of the night. He stole our only horse and carriage and took the family savings with him, never to be seen again. Your grandfather may have done terrible things, Chance, but at least he tried to make up for it later in life. It may not forgive his sins, but at least he took ownership and tried to create some good. You shouldn’t let his mista
kes—or Rumpelstiltskin—get to you.”

  “It’s hard not to considering sometimes I wonder if I really can be forgiven for my mistakes,” Chance said. “That has haunted me since I began trying to change my image at school after being a jerk for six and a half years. But following what happened in Dreamland, that fear of never truly being forgiven, and only being tolerated as a means to an end, has kept me up at night a lot more.”

  “Dreamland?”

  He sighed. “Do you remember when we were in the realm of Nightmare? We all got trapped in that hallucination that was supposed to show what I feared most.”

  I paused. I did recall that. In that hallucination we were at Chance’s funeral. There were hundreds of empty chairs at his ceremony, but the only people who attended were his family members—not a single other friend, schoolmate, or associate in sight.

  “When all of this is over, and we’ve saved Crisa and gotten past this antagonist stuff,” Chance continued, “I wonder if the lot of you will just forget about me. Will I be left to reap what I sowed from so many years of making mistakes and pushing people away?”

  Now I understood Chance’s fear so much better. And I understood how deeply Blue’s words must’ve cut him as a result.

  “Blue didn’t mean what she said,” I tried.

  “Yes, she did.”

  I glanced over at the girl who occupied so many of my thoughts. Chance was right; she did mean what she said.

  I tried again. “That doesn’t mean she was right. We’ve all made mistakes, Chance.”

  “What mistakes have you made?” he asked seriously.

  A few less embarrassing examples came to mind, but then I looked at Blue again and sighed. “Like an idiot, I told my best friend I had feelings for her, thinking she’d reciprocate.”

  “And she doesn’t?” Chance asked, surprised.

  “The part that sucks the most is that I think she does, but she doesn’t want to come to terms with it. I’m trying to show her that I respect her by backing off. You know, stand aside while she asserts her independence and does her solo protagonist thing. That’s the main reason she gave for turning me down—she was worried about having her character and legacy reduced to a romantic relationship.”