The Midnight Queen

by Christopher Keene

  Sapphire’s eyes became icy. With a flick of her hand, she tore the blanket from Tytha’s grasp and tossed it back to the Riftling. He pulled it over himself and appeared to settle down a bit, as though drifting off to sleep.

  Tytha flicked her long ponytail back and idled back to the two trackers she used to find them and sat down.

  “So . . . Treffen told me you three are on your way to the Midnight Tower?” one of the trackers asked.

  Sapphire nodded and sat back down. “That’s right.”

  There was a snort of laughter from Gloom and Bloom, which made Sapphire’s hackles rise.

  “And why is that funny?” she asked.

  “Elven warriors, legendary Heroes, and even legions of men have been trying to fight their way to the Midnight Tower for years. Very few return,” Gloom said. “We’ve only just been able to push back the Grim Heralds after they made their latest advance—an advance that killed many elves.”

  “That being said,” Bloom continued, “before that advance, we were closer than we’ve been in years.”

  Gloom raised his hands in surrender, as though it was an argument they’d had before.

  Tytha shrugged. “In any case, we have been instructed to get you as far as the Nether Rifts coast.”

  Emerald frowned. “The Nether Rifts . . .”

  “. . . Where you will see how terrible the front line is for yourself,” Gloom said. “If we took you any farther than that, we would have to stop being Rangers and start being soldiers—just more meat for the Grim Heralds to grind. There’s nothing that we can do in such a place.”

  Bloom inclined his head. “But having a Paladin with us might make the front line less horrible if he gets the other Paladins to show up.”

  “And what are the odds that that would happen after what just happened to their leader?” Gloom asked.

  Otto’s head shot up. “Leader? I daresay, do you mean his injury?”

  Sapphire shook her head. “Stay on the subject, Otto. What are we to do once we get to the front line?”

  Gloom leaned back against the grass, as though ready to go to sleep. “Find some way of passing the hundreds of kobolds and Grim Heralds, then crossing the Scalding Sea to get to the Midnight Tower . . . where, lucky for you, even more horrors await.”

  Tytha sighed. “In any case, it’s getting late. You can cross that bridge when you come to it. Now’s the time for us to sleep.” She looked to the smallest of the hooded elves. “Cree, turn off your staff.”

  Silently, Cree stood and pulled her staff from the ground, spinning it under her armpit as darkness covered the clearing.

  As though the spell was what kept the elves awake, extinguishing the light appeared to make them all fall asleep in a matter of minutes. However, after seeing how the Riftling Warrior had been treated by the Rangers, sleep was the last thing on Sapphire’s mind.

  A Riftling is still a person—an individual—and individuals shouldn’t be judged by their race!

  She stood and crept over to the tree the Riftling had been huddled against. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. The Riftling was no longer huddled on the ground but lay straight and still, his glowing, red eyes piercing the night. His gaze shot to her as she knelt down next to him.

  She whispered, “What’s your name?”

  For a moment, the Riftling didn’t answer. Finally he said, “Aelyph . . .” His voice was low and gravelly. “Aelyph . . . Maleroth.”

  Sapphire grinned, glad she was getting him to talk. “I’m Sapphire, the first child of Kin—”

  “I’m well aware of who you are.”

  Sapphire nodded. “They said they found you close to the Deeproot Tree, but I’ve heard that those with evil in their hearts can go insane the closer they get to it. Why would you travel so far to get to a place that would make you insane?”

  His eyes returned to the sky. “Believe me, going insane was not my intention. I was simply trying to get to a place where the whispers couldn’t reach me, to where they couldn’t catch me and take me back.”

  “Take you back where?”

  “The Goddess Tower.”

  “The Goddess Tower . . . ?”

  Wait, wasn’t the original name of the Midnight Tower the Goddess Tower?

  “You’ve been to the Midnight Tower?” She said this more loudly than she meant to.

  She felt an imposing presence behind her. Suddenly, a green glow lit up the clearing, making Aelyph cringe away.

  Sapphire looked over her shoulder. Cree loomed over them, the green light illuminating her face from below and giving it a haunting look. The other elves stirred and awoke, the spell causing an effect similar to being doused with a bucket of water.

  “Why are you talking to our prisoner?” Tytha asked, scrambling to her feet.

  Sapphire stood and faced the leader of the Rangers without fear. “I was getting answers from him, the one thing you people seemed to be failing to do. If you had succeeded, you might have learned that this man was near the Deeproot Tree because he was trying to get away from the Midnight Tower.”

  Gloom groaned. “Sure, but why did you have to talk to the Riftling in the middle of the night?”

  “Maybe it was urgent,” Bloom said.

  Otto nodded. “And Princess Sapphire, you can’t trus—”

  “I can trust whomever I please, Sir Paladin!”

  Tytha’s eyes narrowed. “He’s my prisoner.”

  “And what did he do to deserve that?”

  “Do I really have to spell it out to you?” Tytha asked. “A Riftling, near our sacred tree! He was obviously up to something!”

  Sapphire instinctively put a hand on her sword hilt as she felt Tytha’s hostility. “So you arrested him just because you were suspicious? When did the suspicions of the Glimmerdusk Rangers suddenly start determining a person’s guilt or innocence? You’ve appointed yourself as judges without a jury!”

  “Step back,” Cree said menacingly, the first thing she had said since they’d met.

  In the heat of the argument, Emerald had snuck up behind Sapphire and put a hand on her shoulder. “Sapphire, calm down. This is not a battle and these are not your enemies, nor is now the time to deal with this.”

  Sapphire turned to see that Emerald had her rifle raised. Sapphire lowered her hand from her sword hilt, and everyone lowered their weapons.

  She met Tytha’s suspicious glare and said, “I apologize. Let us all go to sleep. I promise I won’t talk to your prisoner again . . . until morning.”

  “I’ll trust you not to,” Tytha replied.

  Cree dispelled the light from her staff and darkness once again covered the clearing.

  Chapter 8: Flicker Fire Grove

  Otto had never trekked through the Fae Wood before . . . at least not so far in. Except for a few more truffle pigs that dashed past, he found it odd that no enemy had attacked them since they had entered the canopy of trees.

  He suspected that before the Forgotten King’s death, the Wood was a much more dangerous place. (Now the Heroes just needed to clear the evil in the rest of Crystalia.) He also recalled that he was in the company of five elite Rangers, two princesses of prophecy, and, although tied at the wrists and being tugged along, one Riftling Warrior. Even the most brain-dead monster would have to lack the most basic survival instincts to dare attack them.

  He glanced over his shoulder to see Nier—the tall, redheaded fifth member of Tytha’s team—yank on the rope tied to Aelyph’s bonds, and noticed he wasn’t the only one staring at the Riftling. Princess Sapphire looked more than a little upset over the way the Riftling was being treated by the Rangers.

  Her reaction didn’t make sense to Otto; Riftlings were a conniving and hateful race that would sell their own spawn if it meant achieving power.

  “You know, the Flicker Fire Grove used to be just a retreat for weary travelers. Now it’s probably the biggest settlement in the Fae Wood, even though the Grov
e has mushrooms that produce spores that can create fires in the hollowed trees.” Princess Emerald sounded fascinated by the elven culture. “One could even call it the elven capital, not that they would use such a word for it.”

  “Capital?” Otto asked, snapping out of his reverie.

  Princess Emerald giggled. “I thought you would find that fascinating, Shiny, considering you seem to love that word.”

  She doesn’t have to tease me about it.

  Otto inclined his head as he gazed around the forest. “I daresay that I like many words that express how I’m feeling. However, I try to limit them to how I feel and not to label other people.”

  “You common folk take your names and titles much more seriously than us elves,” Tytha spoke up, traces of amusement in her voice.

  Otto smirked, watching as a large, glowing ladybug climbed down a tree trunk. “This coming from people who call themselves the Glimmerdusk Rangers? And why do you keep calling us . . .”

  He trailed off as the ladybug’s shell lifted to show not just glittering wings, but the slender body of something that looked to be human.

  Otto pointed. “I-I say . . . w-what is that?”

  Bloom and Gloom both laughed boisterously as Nier raised her hand to her lips and started tittering. Tytha shook her head and Princess Emerald rolled her eyes, but Cree just stared stonily ahead.

  “Honestly, you really are a babe in the Wood out here, aren’t you Otto?” Princess Emerald said.

  “What?”

  Tytha shot the twins a look until they stopped laughing before turning back to Otto. “I guess I can’t really blame you. It’s one of the Fae.”

  “Capit—” Otto stopped and shook his head. “My word, a Fae! I’ve read about them, but this is my first time actually seeing one.”

  “The Fae take many forms. Sometimes they take the form of insects or plants.” Princess Emerald laughed. “You’ve probably seen a few Wisps in the forest and didn’t notice them.”

  Frightened by their loud voices, the ladybug fluttered its wings and took off through the trees.

  “On the bright side, at least it didn’t take the form of a piece of fruit. The Fae don’t look kindly on those that try to eat them, and you don’t want to be on their bad side.” Bloom patted Otto on one shoulder.

  Gloom patted him on the other shoulder, still holding the long, cloth-wrapped object over his shoulder. “There’s still time, brother, there’s still time.”

  Otto started to realize that his lack of experience in this place was going to be more dangerous than he had thought. It reminded him of what Princess Sapphire had mentioned of the Rifting Warrior being captured close to the Deeproot Tree. If Aelyph had been doing anything he could to escape those from the Nether, then wandering into a place he shouldn’t go would make sense, even if it was considered sacred.

  “Your prisoner, Aelyph Maleroth, have you heard that name before?” Otto asked.

  The joy drained from Tytha’s face. “Aelyph, no, but Maleroth . . . Maleroth was the name of a Riftling general from years ago that suddenly vanished and was never heard from again. Whether he is the same Maleroth or someone just using his name . . . well, we’ll find out when he’s in the Flicker Cells.”

  “What exactly are the Flicker Cells?” Otto asked.

  Tytha grinned at him. “You’ll see; we’re almost there.”

  They eventually came out of the trees onto a cobbled path. They had been traveling all day, the shadow of the Deeproot Tree getting farther away. The more distance they put between the Riftling and the Tree, the more aware of himself the Riftling seemed to become. If there was any time to be observant of their surroundings, it was now.

  The Rangers led them toward a thick wall of massive trees. Otto wondered how they could grow so close together, until seeing that many of them were actually dead and hollowed out to make tunnels. They entered into the tunnels, their footsteps echoing in the dry walls until they finally exited into a wide, urbanized clearing.

  There were many wooden houses, mostly up in the trees, linked by bridges and lit by the mushroom spores Princess Emerald had mentioned. A dense, elvish community covered the area, and for all its foliage, Otto didn’t think he had ever seen a forest look more like a town before.

  “Welcome to the Flicker Fire Grove. You should be well protected during your stay here.” Tytha gestured to Cree. “Take them to where they will be staying while we escort our prisoner to his cell.”

  Cree nodded sharply and waved for them to follow her. Nier pulled on the rope and Aelyph trudged behind the Rangers in the other direction. Otto strode through the town, moving past sproutlings, elven warriors, and worker elves as the party followed Cree into the crowd.

  Princess Emerald walked up beside Otto. “The Flicker Fire Grove is a bit different from your average elven settlement. It’s a hub for magical exploration, a center of archaeology and antiquities, and a staging ground for Heroes from all across Crystalia.”

  Otto’s gaze drifted over the settlement. “It’s quite the place.”

  He gawked at the many houses in the trees. There were shops and stands for equipment, as well as the hustle and bustle of any normal village. The place had a smoky scent to it, but he couldn’t see what was causing the smell. He frowned as his gaze came to a circle of large mushrooms they were passing. He leaned in close to one of them.

  Like a sudden sneeze, the mushrooms let out a gust of spores that burst into flame as soon as they made contact with the air. Otto jumped back in surprise, checking to make sure he hadn’t caught fire himself.

  “I say!” He checked his surroundings to make sure there weren’t any more mushrooms around him.

  Princess Emerald giggled. “Wow, Shiny, even the sproutlings know not to go near the smother mushrooms,” she chided. “If it weren’t for the recovery salves and lacquers created from the opal lilies in the Blackroot Grotto, a lot of journeymen would have been burnt to death from them.”

  Otto frowned. “Why in Crystalia would the elves create a city in such a dangerous place? Aren’t they afraid some of the huts will catch on fire?”

  “On the contrary, the elves that created those huts have synthesized a fireproof lacquer that stops them from burning. Some have even built their houses around the smaller smother circles so that the flames can warm their homes.”

  Otto recalled what Tytha had said about how they planned to get answers from Aelyph. “They said they were going to put the Riftling in a Flicker Cell . . . What exactly is that?”

  The smile faded from Princess Emerald’s face and she hesitated. Princess Sapphire spoke up, her voice angry.

  “It’s a torture chamber that uses the heat of the smother mushrooms to make the floor and walls of the cell unbearably hot. They believe that once a prisoner can stand no more, they will answer any question the elves ask of them.”

  “That’s barbaric!” Otto cried. “I thought the elves were a carefree and loving people! Why would they create such a thing?”

  Princess Emerald shook her head. “Just like people, there are different types of elves living in the Fae Wood. The ones that live closest to the Deeproot Tree are generally more friendly and carefree, but we are a good three days’ travel from there. This is a hub for explorers, and here the Rangers have less patience for the enemies attempting to take their land. That being said . . .” She looked up in thought. “It was odd that they would act so hostile toward Sapphire.”

  Otto turned back while Cree led them silently.

  Even so, the Flicker Cells sound like a horrible way to interrogate someone that is more than willing to give up any information they have. He gritted his teeth and stared down. My word, what am I saying? He’s a Riftling; his kind would set their enemies afire just to watch them burn!

  Night was falling by the time they reached their accommodations. Cree led them to a massive plant that Otto would have called a tree from its size but for the fact that it looked more like a giant
flax bush, each frond a bridge leading to its own door. It looked like the elven equivalent of the Paladin’s barracks back in Crystalia Castle.

  “Is this also where the Rangers stay?”

  Cree asked, “How did you know?”

  Otto grinned and shrugged. “Just a guess.”

  “Well, you three will be sleeping in those two rooms at the bottom.” Cree pointed to two of the front fronds leading from the base of the flax bush. “Get comfortable and we’ll see you in the morning.”

  Princess Emerald raised an eyebrow. “We have to share a room?”

  Cree’s voice was flat as she said, “Apologies; we have soldiers returning from the Nether Rifts coast and we need all of the rooms we can get. I’m sure you don’t mind bunking with your sister.”

  Princess Emerald sighed. “I guess.”

  Before they could enter their rooms, Princess Sapphire asked, “When is Aelyph going to be interrogated in the Flicker Cell?”

  The smallest flicker of apprehension crossed the Ranger’s face. “Tomorrow, I believe.”

  Princess Sapphire nodded. Otto frowned at the question, not sure why she had asked, but then crossed the bridge-like frond leading to his own room. He opened the hanging leaf-door and went inside. The room was small, with a green protrusion coming out from the wall that he assumed was a desk, and a hammock woven from the flax.

  Rather cozy, if I do say so myself.

  Otto walked into the room and began taking off his armor. Plate armor took a while to remove, but he went about the process methodically. When he finally managed to get it all off and was about to drop his trousers, the leaf-door opened and Princess Sapphire strode in.

  “Otto, we need to—”

  “Knock before entering! My word, you almost caught me with my pants around my ankles!”

  Princess Sapphire smiled, amused, and continued what she was saying. “Pardon the intrusion, Sir Paladin, but we need to talk.”

  Otto nodded and stood. “Very well. Please do, Princess.”

  She strode in and leaned against the desk. “You vowed to my father to protect me on this journey, did you not?”