Midnight Law

by Geanna Culbertson

  Hearing the name was like a vice squeezing my lungs. I had forgotten for a moment. A dumb, blissful moment. My brain had been trying to protect me and I didn’t blame it. I would have preferred to stay in that state, but that was not a choice I could make. Reality set in quickly and mercilessly. Kai—the girl I had loved for half my life, who’d been my friend for as long as I could remember, and who I’d trusted completely—had betrayed me. She was working with the antagonists. She tried to kill my friends. She set the dominos in motion for Knight getting captured. Even as I thought it, I wanted to shake my head. No, my Kai would never do that. But she did. It happened. Trying to swallow that down, I felt like the Jubjub Bird—filled with a need to vomit out what I’d just absorbed.

  The Bandersnatch came to a halt at the halfway point between the front gates of the palaces. Trumpets and other horns sounded. Mauvrey scurried inside of SJ’s pocket before the Bandersnatch’s face hovered above us—its neck twisted unnaturally. It grabbed me by the jacket like a mama lion might pick up a cub, carried me to the side, and dropped me in a wheelbarrow.

  Two large frogs—each wearing a red dress coat with the same chess piece insignia I’d seen on the flags—manned the handles of my wheelbarrow. SJ was deposited in her own wheelbarrow next to me. Hers was presided over by a pair of large fish floating upright in the air. They wore red jackets featuring the heart insignias.

  Wordlessly, the surprisingly strong attendants lurched forward and our wheelbarrows bolted into motion. My nerves tingled. More feeling was coming back to my limbs. I stretched my fingers as the fish and frogs picked up speed, heading down the thin pathway between the two palaces.

  Behind the palaces our route opened into a large, circular garden rimmed by flowering hedges and enormous topiaries. Magic fountains shot bursts of water that took the form of different animals and insects—dolphins, butterflies, rabbits. Crimson lilies the size of windmills provided shade like umbrellas.

  To the left a series of half human, half playing card soldiers lined the perimeter. The guards on the right of the garden were human-sized moles that stood upright and wore black-and-red regalia. An elevated platform in the center hosted elegant patio furniture and even more elegant men and women in red, white, black, and gold. At the front, two kings, two queens, and two identical guys in their mid-twenties sat at a long table. I didn’t know who the twins were, but the royals’ identities were easy to guess. They were also confirmed a moment later.

  The queens had been talking to a White Rabbit when we arrived and hadn’t paid us attention until the frog footmen and fish footmen cleared their throats and bowed.

  “The Bandersnatch has brought the Queen of Hearts and King of Hearts a new prize,” declared one of the fish footmen transporting SJ.

  “The Bandersnatch has brought the Red Queen and the Red King a new prize,” declared one of the frog footmen wheeling me along.

  The Queen of Hearts was a petite woman with dark red, shoulder-length hair, the ends of which curled up into half-heart shapes. Her gown was decked out in heart and checkerboard patterns like the castle to the left. The golden crown on her head was far too big and made her look like a child playing dress-up, but her green eyes shone with unmistakable authority.

  “Well, now,” she remarked, touching her husband on the arm. He was much taller than his wife, and had dark hair and a mustache with ends that also curled into half-heart shapes. “I love it when Snatchy brings us new heroes to play with. And I got such a pretty one too. Tell me, dear. Where do you hail from?” she asked SJ.

  “I . . .” SJ struggled to sit up. “I, uh—”

  “Oh, and she’s not too bright. That is ideal. It is so hard to find a pretty yet stupidly agreeable girl these days. Perhaps she will make an ideal match for one of my boys. Tweedles!” She snapped her fingers and the twins rushed forward. They wore dark red blazers with black hearts on the chest pockets over white-and-red striped shirts. “My beloved sons, would either of you like to have this girl?”

  They looked over SJ from their elevated platform.

  “She’s a bit scrawny,” said one.

  “And skinny,” said the other. “She’d break too easily.”

  “Might be fun to see though?”

  “We could share her.”

  “I don’t want to share her.”

  “Excuse me!” SJ sat up fully. “No one is sharing me. No one is having me.”

  The Queen of Hearts harrumphed in indignation.

  “How dare you? Any maiden would be lucky to be coupled with my boys Tweedledee and Tweedledum. You are an outrage to me and must be removed from my sight.” She snapped her fingers toward the playing card guards. “Off with her head!”

  The playing card guards started to step forward, but the King of Hearts held up his hand. The guards halted and he leaned toward his wife. “Dear, we’ve already beheaded six people this week and it has been a long time since the Bandersnatch brought us a young woman. If she is a leader worthy of catching his scent, perhaps we shouldn’t be so hasty to waste her.”

  “And what of the boy?” said the other queen at the table. The Red Queen was nearly identical to the Queen of Hearts, but the Red Queen’s red hair was done up in a braided, voluminous style, and she wore a tiny crown. Also, the Red Queen’s eyes were chillingly blood red.

  She gazed down at me. “Child, who are you and how can you be useful to me?”

  “Um, yeah hi. I’m Daniel and my friend and I—”

  The Red Queen waved her hand. “Open your mouth wider and enunciate when you speak so all can hear. Also, when you address me or my husband, always begin with ‘Your Majesty’.” She glanced at her caramel-skinned husband and realized he was asleep in his chair. She sighed and shook her head, then looked back to me. “Continue.”

  “Your Majesty,” I said, a bit irritated. “My friend and I are following that green light trail.” I gestured up at the sky; the trail ended directly above the garden. “There was a flame at the end that we’re supposed to collect as part of a quest we’re on.”

  “Oh, lovely!” the Queen of Hearts exclaimed. “I do love a Midnight Law quest. I was wondering when the hero responsible would show up.” She snapped her fingers at the playing card guards again. “Off with his head!”

  “Wait, hold on,” I started—struggling to sit up, but not strong enough yet to lift myself from the wheelbarrow. “You just said you love Midnight Law quests.”

  “Indeed, I do,” she replied. “The heroes who enact them have the fullest hearts, perfect for my collection.”

  I locked eyes with the White Rabbit standing on the platform with the royals. He looked familiar, but before I could place him the playing card guards closed in around me and blocked my view.

  Then I heard two loud claps. The playing card guards pivoted and backed away a bit as the mole guards hastened in. The Red Queen stood, red and black gown flowing around her. The Red King had spluttered awake from the clapping.

  The Red Queen turned to address the Queen of Hearts. “This hero belongs to me, dear sister. Your attendants brought you the girl, and mine picked up the boy. It is an even split. You may do what you wish with your Bandersnatch prize and I will decide what to do with mine.”

  “Oh, that isn’t fair!” The Queen of Hearts leapt up and squared off with her sister. “You know how I love hero hearts!”

  “So perhaps I will consider trading him to you,” the Red Queen replied calmly. “But only after I understand his full worth myself.” She turned to her mole guards and clapped again. “To the dungeons with him.”

  The Queen of Hearts pounded her fist on the table as she addressed her playing card guards. “To the dungeons with her!”

  The different sets of guards relieved the fish footmen and frog footmen of their wheelbarrows and carted SJ and I away in haste. We glanced at each other with worry as we were pushed in opposite directions.

  The floors, walls, and ceiling of the Red Queen’s dungeon were completely checkered with big gray-
blue and black tiles. The bench and bars of my cell were bright red.

  After the mole guards had emptied me out of my wheelbarrow in here, I lay on the cold floor like a dead fish until I fully regained strength and movement.

  My cell was separated from the rest of the prison by a flight of stairs. It was like I was in the basement of the dungeon, or rather, it was like a dungeon suite. This place was weirdly spacious and even had a foyer area in front of my cell. As good a place as any to deal with the horror that was my new reality.

  Once I was back to normal, I paced for a while trying to make sense of the chaos related to Kai. The stable structure of my life—my past, present, and future—had been decimated by a wrecking ball. The pieces lay strewn all over without order, clarity, or foundation.

  How could she have betrayed us and lied to me so extensively? The girl I once considered the best thing in my life had let her heart become blackened. Had I played any role in that? Why didn’t I see it happening? How could she not have told me about my family?

  That fire had been meant for me. I’d always figured I’d failed to save them, but turns out the only reason they needed saving was because of me. They died in my place. They died when I should have been the one to burn.

  And Knight . . .

  Thinking about her made me shudder. Everything that had happened to her—taking a Shadow, being trapped in Nightmare, and now being a prisoner on Earth—was Kai’s fault and by extension my fault. I had invited Kai into our group. I had let her into every part of my life and she’d set it on fire.

  I felt so much anger and sadness and hate toward her, as much as could fill up a person before they exploded. Yet a big part of me ached from losing her, losing what could have been. Kai and I had shared a dream of a future together—adventure, family, eternity with her hand in mine. To not have that anymore, and so suddenly . . . my brain couldn’t process it. This new reality felt like a bad dream. The kind of nightmare I wished I would sit up in bed from right now.

  No luck.

  I sat on the bench and looked down at the floor. Guilt ruptured like bubbles in the boiling pot that amassed everything I was already feeling.

  I knew logically that I couldn’t blame myself for any of the things Kai had done. She’d acted alone and she had fooled all my friends, not just me. But I had so many unresolved things to figure out, to reconcile with her betrayal, I seriously didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t designed to feel this much. Was anyone? My scowl echoed off the empty walls of my cell.

  I hated being this full of emotions. I’d spent so much of life with my heart in a jar. In recent months I’d started to twist the lid open, but now the protective case had been shattered by the one person who had always been on the inside. My body had become overwhelmed with things that they didn’t train heroes to deal with . . .

  “Rough day?”

  The Cheshire Cat’s head floated in the corner of my cell, his smile glistening. I almost fell off my bench as my blood pressure spiked.

  Cats had put me on edge ever since I lost my family, as I associated that loss with the cat that I’d been distracted with that day. It wasn’t the most logical reaction, but then fear wasn’t known for its pragmatism.

  I stood hastily. “You could say that.”

  The Cheshire Cat’s face got bigger as it floated nearer. “I did say that. Now what shall we say next? Congratulations, I suppose?”

  His head floated around me and I backed up across the cell.

  “Congratulations?”

  “It seems appropriate when a prisoner is set free. Or have you not realized you can walk out of your cage?”

  The Cheshire Cat’s face turned upside down and the rest of his body appeared. He kept spinning in the air as he circled around me. My heart pounded faster and I swallowed. I couldn’t look away from the cat’s hypnotic eyes and smile.

  “Daniel . . .” the cat drawled. “Do you know why a hero is the most dangerous character to bet on? What makes them strong makes them fragile. It’s all a matter of heart. Their hearts. The very thing that inspires a hero to fight is the very thing that can take a hero down. I’ve seen it sooo many times. It’s vexing, and exhausting, and also the thing that inspires one to keep living. Please try not to be a disappointment to that, to them.”

  The cat stopped rotating and floated six inches from my face. “People get their hearts broken all the time and find a way to go on. That is the maddest thing of all, and it is also the most wonderful. As a hero, you’re expected to do the same, but one would hope you could do even more. That you could fight harder and find your way again—for yourself, and those that need you.” Footsteps echoed in the distance, coming from the higher level of the dungeon. The cat locked eyes with me as he floated toward the back wall of my cell.

  “Humans are just heroes who haven’t been tested yet. Perhaps that’s why I like them. Why I like you. Tests are fun, puzzling things. As long as the subjects can endure . . .”

  The Cheshire Cat’s body phased through the wall like a ghost, leaving only his smile behind. That spine-tingling, bright white grin remained on the wall until the door atop the stairs unlocked. The Red Queen marched down. Half a dozen mole guards and an assortment of frog footmen accompanied her. The latter carried a table, two chairs, a tablecloth, and a briefcase.

  The attendants assembled the table and chairs in the foyer area outside my cell and opened the briefcase to reveal a traveling chess set with red and black pieces. They set up the game on the table before bowing and moving off to the side. One of the mole guards unlocked my cell. I hesitated before exiting, feeling suspicious.

  “You have friends in Wonderland,” the Red Queen said, settling herself in one of the chairs. “The White Rabbit who was here on business when you arrived recognized you. Apparently, you crossed paths after the Vicennalia Aurora. He notified the Senior White Rabbit and his son Harold of your presence. They are in my throne room now, having begged for your release and my mercy.”

  “Wait, you mean Harry?” I asked.

  The Red Queen raised a disapproving eyebrow.

  “Your Majesty, do you mean Harry?” I corrected.

  “I believe that is what the young mammal goes by, yes.” She clapped her hands brusquely. One of the frog footmen stepped forward. He had a canteen with him and pulled a thick disk from his coat pocket. He shook it and somehow it popped open into a full teacup. The frog proceeded to pour then offered the cup of tea to the Red Queen. She took it, and took a sip.

  “Our castle prefers to maintain a healthy relationship with the White Rabbits, as we value their services to us. So I heard out little Harry and paid attention to his tales of your great heroics and noble missions.”

  She gestured at the chessboard. The red pieces were in front of her and the black pieces were in front of me. “Do you play?”

  I nodded.

  “Good. I shall move first.” She pushed one of her pawns out and then gestured at the seat across from her. I slowly approached and sat down. Then I moved one of my own pawns. She smiled.

  “Harry told me that the girl you are trying to save with Midnight Law is rather powerful.” She moved another pawn and I did the same. We continued playing at a fast pace as she talked.

  “I could always use a magical favor. I have so many pawns, but having a more valuable player on your side like another knight or another queen is so much more beneficial long term.” She captured one of my rooks with her knight.

  “Your Majesty isn’t wrong . . .” I said. “But never underestimate the seemingly smaller pieces. I grew up as a commoner, not a hero. And I understand how quickly tables can turn. Pawns are only a few moves away from power themselves if you’re not careful.” I moved a pawn and captured her bishop. The Red Queen frowned, not angry, but certainly not pleased.

  “That may well be true.” She moved again. “But I am not here to talk theoreticals, only practicals. As it happens, your flame fell between my castle and my sister’s. We have agreed to let you and you
r friend go, and take what you came for, under two and a half conditions.”

  We exchanged moves and took out one another’s pieces rapidly. We were playing so fast that the frog footmen and mole guards watching us whipped their heads from side to side to keep up.

  “The first condition comes from my sister. She collects heart energy. Whenever she beheads someone, that person’s physical heart is harvested and its energy preserved, much like a fossil or insect frozen in amber. She is fond of hero hearts in particular, but they are very hard to find. This is why she uses the Bandersnatch to hunt down anyone with strong leadership traits.”

  I lost my second rook.

  “There are two ways to collect a heart’s energy,” the queen continued. “Obtain the actual, physical heart, which would require you to be dead, so not ideal for you. Or you go into a trance and complete a sort of transcendental heart-related journey. If you do the latter for my sister, thus gathering a sample of your heart’s energy, she will grant you your freedom and the flame. My blessing for both is contingent on something quite different. I want a favor named at a later date from your magical Crisanta Knight.”

  I paused. I didn’t like the idea of offering Knight’s magic as a bartering chip, but frankly the clock was ticking and I needed to save her and myself. She would understand. She trusted me anyway, so if my gut said I needed to do this then I would listen to it. Plus, she’d made decisions that affected my future without consulting me, i.e. the apparently cursed sword from Avalon I was carrying around. We were friends; we had each other’s backs and had faith in one another to make the tough calls.

  I captured the queen’s last bishop. “Check.” I looked up at the royal. “You said two and a half conditions. What’s the other half?” The Red Queen took a long sip of tea and stared at me expectantly.

  I sighed. “Your Majesty, you said two and a half conditions.”

  The Red Queen set down her cup. “I did say that, didn’t I?”