Midnight Law

by Geanna Culbertson

  Jason tilted his chin in the portal’s direction. “I wonder if it’s getting annoyed with us.”

  “The portals take their sweet time showing up as we pass crazy tests,” I replied. “It’s about time we returned the cosmic favor and had them wait on us.”

  “You good?” Mark called as we approached the carriages.

  “Fine,” Jason replied.

  We climbed back onto the driver’s perch. Then Jason gave me a look. “Are we good?”

  I held his gaze. “We’re you and me. That can mean a lot of things, but I know that no matter what, we’ll always be good. As long as you keep being patient with me and I don’t go rogue as much.”

  “I’ll take that. For now.”

  “And later?” I asked.

  He paused. “We’ll figure it out together, okay?”

  I nodded. “I can agree to that.”

  Jason took up the reins of our horse-serpent and our team got going again.

  Not long after, we reached the spot our Hole Trackers said Mark’s black hole would open. We had about fifteen minutes before it did, plenty of time to help the kids out of the carriages. It was endearing to watch Jason interact with the smallest children—lifting the tiny ones up and out of the carriages then placing them with care onto the ground, gently handling the babies with steady hands. He’d always been really great with kids. The Lost Boys and Girls in Neverland wanted him to stay every time we visited.

  “You guys can get going now if you want,” Mark said, gesturing to the green portal that had reopened near the carriages.

  “We made it this far with you. I’d rather not abandon you now. But it’s really up to Chance.” Jason pivoted toward the prince. “He’s been cool about this detour, but it’s his Midnight Law time we’re messing with.”

  “It’s our time,” Chance responded. “We’re all invested in Midnight Law.”

  “We’re not all going to turn to stone if it doesn’t work out,” Mark replied.

  “No, but that’s the easy way out, isn’t it?” Chance said. “If we fail to save Crisa, Daniel and I get turned to stone, and she either gets corrupted or tortured to death by the antagonists. All of you would have to live with that. Seems like the worse option to me.”

  We stared at him.

  I told Daniel that I believed it was important to maintain faith while accepting hard truths and high stakes. I stood by that even in this awful scenario. What Chance said was a scary, realistic outcome, and it wasn’t healthy to deny it. Yet, I looked at Midnight Law the same way I viewed facing off with any monster or enemy. Death and failure were options, but I had the audacity to believe that they weren’t options I would fall victim to.

  Maybe that was cocky. Maybe it was naive. But when you risk your life, if you do so with anything less than complete faith in yourself your chances of success drop substantially. The world was hard and cold; if you didn’t believe you could beat the odds then you had no business in the arena and should sit on the sidelines.

  “What’s torture?”

  One of the smaller girls had snuck up on our group and was gazing up at me.

  “Uh . . .” I blinked, dumbstruck.

  “Look over there,” Girtha said, crouching next to the girl and pointing behind us. “Magic bunnies!”

  “Really? Where?” the young girl asked excitedly.

  “Oh, they hopped behind that tree,” Girtha said. “Come on, why don’t we go look for them together?”

  “Okay.”

  The little girl skipped along; Girtha hung back for a second before she followed. “My older siblings taught me that,” she said. “If a little kid asks you a difficult question, change the subject immediately. They don’t usually notice or care as long as the new subject is more exciting. I’ll keep a close eye on the kids for the next fifteen minutes.”

  “I’ll help you,” Chance said.

  I took out my magic compact. “I’m going to see if I can get in touch with the others and see how their quest is going.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Chance said.

  “So glad you approve,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

  Jason gave me a stern look. I ignored it and walked out of earshot but within sight of the group. Feeling frustrated, I sat on the ground under a tree with a huff.

  I was really trying to bury my beef with Chance and Girtha. The team player thing was key to our success and had kept us alive thus far. But the memory of Crisa’s screams in Merlin’s dreams kept echoing in the back of my mind. They crept up on me constantly—whenever there was silence, or a lull, or I closed my eyes too long.

  That was why it was hard to repress my anger toward Chance and Girtha. Jason could give me all the disapproving looks he liked, but every horrid thing that Crisa had been through since Nightmare was someone’s fault. I placed the blame firmly on them. Doing so helped me cope. And it helped me suppress other nagging, muffled voices at the back of my subconscious that itched like poison ivy.

  I realized I’d been squeezing my compact in my hand so hard that the designs had imprinted on my palm. With a sigh, I flipped it open. “SJ Kaplan.”

  The compact buzzed a few times before my friend answered.

  “Hey!” My eyes lit up. “I’m so happy to see you.”

  “I am happy to see you as well,” SJ said. She glanced behind her. “Hang on.”

  After some murmuring and rustling, SJ’s face reappeared. “Okay, I just wanted to speak with you in private. Where are you? Is everyone on your team okay?”

  “We’re in Alderon if you can believe it, and we’re all in one piece.”

  “Oh goodness! Be careful, Blue.”

  “Relax, we’re on our way out of here in a few minutes. We finished collecting our second flame. What about you?”

  “We are on our way to collect our final flame actually. We are in Wonderland.”

  “That’s amazing! And very cool about Wonderland. That’s a new realm for our ragtag team. What’s it like?”

  “It is . . . a lot to process. And that is saying something considering all the things we have seen and done since we started this quest.”

  “I know what you mean. It feels like it’s been a week. Anyway, I just called to check up on you. I know you can take care of yourself, and I know being overly concerned is more your thing, but I worry about you. We already lost one of the original three musketeers, you know?”

  “I do,” SJ responded. “And the feeling is mutual. You may find that amusing, someone like me worrying about someone like you, but I do anyway.”

  “If by someone like you, you mean a potion-brewing super genius and hero among women, then I don’t see what’s amusing about that in the slightest. Tell Daniel, Mauvrey, and Kai we say hi. I look forward to exchanging stories about our crazy quests when this is over.”

  “We will make a big night of it,” SJ said, musing on the thought. “Snacks, pajamas, the whole nine yards.”

  “I like the sound of that,” I said. “Crisa will too.”

  SJ and I exchanged a sad smile. Even though we were realms, time zones, and quests apart, it was remarkable how speaking with her for a few minutes lifted my spirits. My relationship with SJ had never been as easy as the one I had with Crisa. Her reserved, ladylike tendencies made her harder to get to know when we were younger. However, her friendship had been worth the wait and the work we’d both put into it. She was a different kind of best friend than Crisa or Jason, but she was most surely one of mine.

  “Quick question,” SJ perked up. “What time is it in Book? Our watches are not working.”

  “It’s about one o’ clock,” I responded.

  “Oh, that is wonderful news. We have not been able to tell time in this realm. Strange though, I must be more tired than I thought. I could have sworn I did my math correctly for the other time zones we have been in. It should be much later in Book.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” I responded. I glanced at my teammates a distance away; they were starting
to gather the kids into lines. “I guess I’ll let you go,” I said after a beat. “Tests to pass, deadlines to meet, and all that.”

  “Wait.”

  The alarm in SJ’s voice piqued my curiosity. I studied my friend in the compact. I knew her faces well—her judgmental face, her analytical face, her secretly-wanted-to-laugh face, and so many others. What I saw now was her scared face.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I need to tell you something,” SJ said. “Do not tell the others, not even Jason. It is a secret until I get more information and can figure out what to do next. But I just . . . I need to tell someone I trust because I am genuinely troubled.”

  “About what?”

  SJ took a deep breath. “We have all assumed that the first time Kai met Tara-Mauvrey was in the Portalscape when Tara-Mauvrey had Kai killed. But Mauvrey recuperated a memory of meeting Kai in Camelot before the Portalscape.”

  “What?” I exclaimed loudly.

  I remembered where I was and waved nonchalantly at Mark and Jason, who had turned to look at me. “Everything’s fine,” I called. I darted my attention back to the compact. “What happened when they met?”

  “Mauvrey is not sure. She said that the memory is still foggy, but the conversation had to do with sacrifice, trust, and Crisa.”

  “Holy smokes.”

  “There is more,” SJ said. “We discovered that Mauvrey’s and Mark’s suicidal possessions are caused by Magic Mites—tiny infectious creatures that burrow through the skin. Mauvrey’s has been removed, and I have learned to make the potion that will yield the same extraction on Mark when we get home.”

  “That’s great news,” I said. “Well, the removal part anyway. Mark is here with us now. I’ll let him know.”

  “He is in Alderon?” SJ sounded ticked off. “He should be resting. I cannot cure him of his Portal Acid if he gets himself killed first.”

  “Calm down. Jason already gave him that lecture, but he was vital to getting our last flame and is headed home in the next few minutes via wormhole. We’ll explain more later. Can you refocus please? What do the Magic Mites have to do with Kai?”

  SJ bit her lip.

  “I think Kai may be the one who implanted the Magic Mite in Mauvrey.”

  “Seriously? That would mean that Kai wants Mauvrey to kill herself or die in general.”

  “I know it sounds mad,” SJ said, shaking her head. “But what if Mauvrey knows something about Kai from her Tara days that Kai does not want her to remember? Kai cannot kill Mauvrey directly without giving herself away. But planting a Magic Mite would be a means to get Mauvrey to end herself without the actual perpetrator being connected back to it.”

  A memory flashed into my head and my eyes narrowed.

  “You know something?” SJ said. She could read my faces too.

  “When the others and I were in Nightmare, we all got separated at one point. Each of us got trapped in different fear hallucinations. When we reunited, Crisa was super freaked out when she saw Kai. Like really freaked out. Crisa thought she’d had some sort of awful encounter with the girl. We convinced her that it wasn’t real, a bad dream, but the look in Crisa’s eyes . . . She seemed genuinely afraid of Kai. Then, right before we parted in Dreamland, Crisa said to me, ‘Keep an eye on Kai.’ I thought she meant for me to look out for Kai because the girl is important to Daniel, and Crisa and Daniel are . . .”

  “Crisa and Daniel,” SJ said knowingly.

  “Right.” I nodded. “But do you think she meant it like, be careful around Kai?”

  “I could not say,” SJ replied slowly, the concern mounting in her eyes. “But something is definitely wrong with this story and may call for me to take more drastic measures soon.”

  “You sure there was nothing else?” Jason asked. “It seemed like whatever SJ said really freaked you out.”

  I met his eyes and lied through my teeth. “No, that was my excitement when I found out they discovered the cure to Mark’s suicidal possessions. Good news, huh, buddy?” I slapped Mark on the back. “One less thing you’re going to die from once SJ gets back. Now off you go. You and the several dozen kids you’re babysitting.” I gestured at the black hole that had opened a minute ago.

  Mark pivoted toward the three single-file lines of children waiting behind him. One line had the oldest children, who cradled the newborns. In the other two lines, the kids held hands to form human chains.

  “Okay, everybody!” Mark announced, clapping his hands together twice to get the kids’ attention. “Remember what I told you earlier. Once we step through this portal the most important things are: stick together, don’t wander off no matter what, and don’t be afraid of anything you see in there. It may seem scary and strange, but I will protect you and get you someplace safe. Sound good?”

  The kids cheered. They may have been frightened before, but now that we’d kept our word with the whole Rumpelstiltskin thing, they seemed to trust us and feel genuine hope about what came next.

  We said our final goodbyes to Mark before he stepped into the black hole and vanished. After a moment, he popped his head back through. “It’s all good. Proceed.” He waved the kids forward and the three lines of tiny refugees started to walk through.

  We waited until the last child was gone, free from Alderon. Then we turned our attention to our own green portal floating nearby.

  “You know, we’re taught that every person in Alderon is a villain who deserves to be here,” Girtha thought aloud as we walked toward it. “But we just saved dozens of innocent children who shouldn’t have been here. And thinking about children, what about any kids that the villains trapped in this kingdom end up having? Do they deserve to be stuck in Alderon? There are also the black holes that form in Alderon to unsuspecting dimensions like Earth to consider. Remember how Crisa and Daniel saved a bunch of kids taken from Germany by the Pied Piper?” She glanced at Jason. “I know the peace talks are all about improving the protagonist-commons relationship, but when we get back you may want to bring up the Alderon policy. It could probably use a long overdue revamp.”

  Jason nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  We paused in front of the green portal. “Who wants to go first this time?” Girtha asked.

  “I will,” I said. I rubbed my hands together. “Hopefully we get a new destination this time. Mer, Bermuda, and Alderon were return trips. Mama’s feeling like exploring a new world. See you guys on the other side.”

  I took a deep breath and stepped through, bracing myself for a potentially hard landing. Instead, the loud roar of a waterfall filled my ears and a sun three times the size of our own blinded me. I shielded my eyes as I stepped to the side, getting out of the way of whoever would come behind me.

  A distance to the left, the biggest waterfall I’d ever seen fell from a cliff. Our Midnight Law trail, meanwhile, curved off to the right and entered a forest.

  The wind gusted powerfully, pulling me back. Behind me, I noticed the grass drop off maybe twenty feet away. Were we on another cliff? I walked toward the edge as Jason came through the portal.

  “Blue?” he called.

  I didn’t answer, for I’d reached the edge and what I saw made me speechless. My three teammates joined me and their jaws dropped too. This drop off wasn’t the brink of a cliff. It was the brink of the world.

  The ground we stood on extended maybe fifty feet down, then after that it was just sky. The landmass we stood on floated effortlessly in the air as if it were one of the fluffy white clouds around us. Who knew how high up we were.

  “It couldn’t be . . .” Jason brought up his Hole Tracker map and frowned.

  “What?” I asked.

  I moved to peer over his shoulder, but right then Jason’s holographic map wavered as a spark of electricity snapped at his wrist. A second later, the device shut down on its own. He tried to reactivate it, but it wouldn’t turn on. “It’s not working.”

  I tested mine. Nothing.

  “D
id you see where we were before the map shut off?” I asked him.

  “Yeah.” His face was solemn. “This is The Giants’ Keep.”

  “You mean the place your brother Jack reached by beanstalk?” Chance asked.

  Jason nodded. “Yup. And more importantly for us, it’s the place where he ticked off a bunch of giants by stealing from them and killing the Giant King’s brother. We’re going to want to tread lightly.”

  I huffed in amusement. “Compared to anybody we run into up here, we are always going to be treading lightly.”

  “Not your best joke,” Jason replied.

  “Everybody’s a critic.”

  “Um, guys?” Chance said. “Something’s wrong. The pocket watch we’ve been using for Midnight Law—it’s not working either.”

  “What do you mean?” Girtha asked.

  “None of the hands are ticking forward.” He held up the timepiece and we crowded around to take a look. He was right. All the hands were frozen.

  “Maybe time moves weirdly here?” Jason suggested. “Like in Dreamland or Neverland?”

  “I don’t like this,” I said, crossing my arms. “Without knowing how this time zone works in relation to Book, we’re operating blind. We’ll have no idea how close we are to midnight in Book as long as we’re here.”

  “Well, before we got here we had eleven hours of Book time left,” Jason said. He nodded toward the light trail. “Let’s hustle and try not to die.”

  I shook my head. “That advice is so consistently relevant to us that when we get home we should get it tattooed on our arms.”

  f I could pick out the part of this journey that Crisa would have been most fascinated by, it would have been right here, right now, as we stared up at the biggest boot I’d ever seen.

  It wasn’t just one shoe either. As the sun started to fade from the sky, we came upon a village in an open area of the woods where every building was made from an enormous shoe. There were stylish combat boots the size of apartment buildings, sneakers being used for schools, loafers and oxfords serving as laundromats and office buildings, trainers for two-story homes, and so on.