The Midnight Queen

by Christopher Keene

  Princess Emerald was the one to break the bad news. “After we all returned from our personal attempts to find Amethyst, Sapphire and I learned that Ruby had been killed.”

  Princess Citrine raised her hands to her mouth. “Oh no!”

  Both Princesses Emerald and Sapphire bowed their heads in sorrow. “We had her funeral and put her body in the crypt. That’s when we found out about the connection between her killers, and that’s why we came here. It was the Midnight Queen. About five days ago, she stole Ruby’s body. We knew then that we had to go to the Midnight Tower to stop her.”

  “You have been trapped in the Midnight Tower how long?” Otto asked Princess Citrine.

  Princess Citrine wiped away a tear. “A couple of weeks. I went in there searching for Amethyst, but I never found her and eventually was overrun and captured. After I managed to escape earlier, getting some help before returning to search again only made sense.”

  “How did you escape?”

  “I was locked in a cell with magical, unbreakable bars, but the floor wasn’t magical.” Princess Citrine raised her palms. “It took me a while, but I managed to break through it with a few strong punches.”

  While the fact that she had punched through a solid rock floor seemed unbelievable, Otto remembered the decaying rock that had crumbled from the Tower in the Fallen Wood and how weak the corruption had made it. He made a mental note to be careful while moving about inside.

  Princess Citrine balled her fists, looking around at the dead Nether Elves. “So the Midnight Queen is responsible for Ruby’s death?”

  “According to the ones that were with her . . . yes,” Princess Sapphire said.

  Princess Citrine looked over her shoulder at the entrance to the Tower. “And she’s in that horrible place?”

  “According to the elves fighting on the front line.”

  Princess Citrine ground her teeth and groaned. “Argh, I just escaped that accursed Tower! Oh, well. I was going to go back myself eventually. If it means avenging Ruby, there’s no time like the present to get my warrior face back on! Let’s go!”

  Princess Emerald grinned. “Well, we didn’t come here for nothing. Let’s go, Sis, Sis, Shiny!”

  They all nodded. Otto didn’t feel all that happy about it, but nonetheless turned to face the dark, looming structure of the Midnight Tower with the three princesses.

  Otto was hesitant to enter such a place of horror. He had traveled so far, yet these steps to the dark doors felt the hardest for him to take. Still, he balled his fists and walked to the stairs anyway. From the way the princesses climbed them ahead of him, they didn’t seem to sense his foreboding. Seeing them approach the Tower so fearlessly gave him strength, and he forced himself to continue until they arrived at the large doors.

  The opening appeared to yawn, the darkness reaching out from it like it had from Crystalia’s royal crypt. Already Otto could hear whispers drawing him inside. The princesses disappeared into the Tower, and if only to keep his promise to the king, Otto knew he had to follow them. He clenched his jaw and entered.

  He stopped, looking around in confusion. He was in the war room of the Paladin’s barracks back in Crystalia Castle. After the darkness of the Tower, the white room with its large marble table shone with a radiance that nearly blinded him. As his eyes adjusted, he was shocked to see someone in white armor standing on the other side of the long table, his face covered by a helmet.

  “Ottovius . . .” The gleaming Paladin lifted the visor, and Otto recognized the face beneath it. “You finally made it. Good job, my son.”

  Otto felt a smile creeping onto his lips but forced it down as the cold memory of what Aelyph had told him returned. “You’re not really here; you’re dead.”

  His father shook his head, and his silver-blond hair began to fall from his head. “You have lost your faith, son.”

  Suddenly the skin on his face shrank, wrinkled, and darkened until it seemed to hang from his bones. Otto’s surroundings became hazy, changing from the bright white of the Paladin’s barracks to the indigo pillars of the first-floor hall of the Midnight Tower.

  “I’m so disappointed in you!” The voice rose until Otto was screaming, trying to escape the shame in his father’s words. “What a pity that the last of our order will also be the most pathetic among us.”

  No, you’re dead, you’re dead!

  “You will fail in your mission, you will fall here, and this Tower will be your grave!”

  Quiet!

  Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up. Ahead of him was a corpse in a suit of rusted, gray armor, but it wasn’t his father. It was simply leaning against the back wall, standing before a steep staircase on the other side of the room. He put his head in his hands and looked down. The wide, checkered floor was scuffed with marks, and his eyes wandered up to the spiderwebs that hung everywhere. The three princesses were looking at him, eyebrows slanted in concern.

  “Otto, are you all right?” Princess Sapphire asked, taking her hand away.

  He nodded. “I-I saw a vision of my father, but I knew it to be false, and when I saw him, it suddenly became a nightmare, and then I was . . .”

  “Here?” Princess Citrine looked around. “You mean it became reality. We appear to be in something very close to a living nightmare right now.”

  “I think everyone will need to be on guard and stay focused on what’s in front of them.” Otto lowered his hands and strode forward, scanning the floor. “We can’t risk any of us being affected by the Tower’s influence while we are fighting here. If you see something out of place, point it out to us to confirm it exists. If you start feeling strange, take a moment to get your bearings. We’re going to have to be each other’s mental compasses here.”

  Princess Emerald raised a hand above her head. “Everyone’s seeing a creepy-looking hall and stairs leading up, right?”

  Princess Sapphire smiled. “Yup.”

  Princess Emerald sighed in relief. “Thank the Goddess; it’s not just me.”

  Otto grinned, feeling a bit better with Princesses Sapphire and Emerald to lighten the mood. “Okay, let’s go. This Tower won’t climb itself.”

  Chapter 23: The Midnight Tower

  After they had entered the Tower, Sapphire felt the dark influence all around her. The four of them shuffled in, gazing at the winding staircase that seemed to go all the way up to the top of the Tower. Aelyph’s descriptions had been accurate. The place was pretty horrible, and from the giant spiderwebs she could see hanging from the stairs, she could tell it was as dangerous as he had warned.

  “Ugh, spiders. I hate spiders,” Sapphire said as Citrine walked past her and took the lead. “Citrine, did you manage to take a look at where to go when you were escaping?”

  Citrine shook her head. “I just remember going up some stairs and trying to get out wherever I could. I think I went through some tunnels and broke through a wall. Does anyone else feel foggy-headed in here?”

  They all nodded.

  “It’s the influence of the Tower,” Sapphire said, remembering what Aelyph had told her. “It only affects those who have not been corrupted, which is why it affected Otto so much. I would be worried if we didn’t feel it. Still, it’s been known to cause madness in those that it affects. I think that as long as we’re aware of this, we can prevent it from messing with us too much.”

  Otto suddenly drew his sword and whirled around, only to find nothing behind him. He turned back and shook his head. Sapphire gave him a concerned look.

  Maybe that’s not so easy.

  “What’s wrong, Shiny?” Emerald asked.

  “Shiny?” Citrine smirked. “Maybe you should’ve called him Twitchy.”

  Emerald placed her hands on her hips. “Citrine! Gosh, don’t call him names like that!”

  Sapphire rolled her eyes at her sister’s fake outrage, then walked over to Otto and put a hand on his shoulder. “How are you doing?”


  Otto put his sword away. “I’m fine. After I saw that vision, this place has been setting me on edge. Probably a good thing, though. Looks like there could be enemies around every corner.”

  “Just so long as you don’t confuse us with them,” Citrine said.

  Emerald shrugged. “He hasn’t so far.”

  “I’m fine!”

  Otto stalked into the hall ahead of them. As soon as he came out onto the center of the moldy, blue carpet, several Shadow Spinners and crawlers dropped from above. The Paladin drew his sword again and began slashing through them, cutting through their webs to make the spiders drop before stabbing them with his blade. Before long, several dead spiders lay around him, and the princesses followed him into the center of the hall.

  “There you go, Princess. Now you don’t have to deal with them,” he said coldly.

  Sapphire grinned and looked at Citrine, hoping she might warm up to Otto a little.

  Citrine rolled her eyes and said, “My hero.”

  Sapphire shook her head, seeing from Citrine’s sour attitude that she wasn’t taken with their new ally in the fight against the Midnight Queen.

  “What are you girls waiting for?” she called as she came to the first landing. “Ruby’s not going to avenge herself!”

  They went to follow her, but a form dropped behind Citrine. At a closer look, it was a white-haired woman wearing a white robe and holding a staff with a purple gem.

  “Sis, behind you!” Sapphire shouted.

  Citrine spun to face the witch, but as she did, the Nether Elf witch cast a spell on her. Citrine blinked as the witch retreated up an almost invisible line of cobwebs. Suddenly a cluster of spiders fell around Citrine, enough to make the ones that had assaulted Otto looked like a welcoming party.

  Sapphire gasped and stepped back. From the way they covered Citrine, she assumed it was a spell that drew them to her. However, Citrine didn’t share her arachnophobia, for she flung herself into the swarm of eight-legged freaks, fists flying at each spider that came near. Despite her efforts, more spiders landed on her, fangs gnashing. She threw them off and kicked out as Emerald began firing at them.

  “Find their spawning point!” Citrine called.

  Otto and Sapphire ran up the stairs, trying to find the nest. They came to a balcony that split off, leading to two different staircases.

  “They’re coming from above,” Otto shouted. “You search the left staircase and I’ll search right.”

  Sapphire nodded and they went in different directions. She found the stairs and began to climb, hoping she wasn’t the one to find the nest. To her misfortune, as soon as she came to the second loop in the stairwell, she spotted a cobweb-strewn spike jutting from the rock under one of the steps.

  She cringed and raised her hands in disgust. “You have to be kidding me. Otto! Otto, I’ve found it!”

  She hoped he would be able to deal with it, since he was taller than her. But when he arrived, it turned out he was not tall enough to reach the nest. After examining it for a moment, he nodded as though the solution were obvious.

  “Okay, get on my shoulders and give it a whack.”

  “What? No!”

  Otto shot her a look. “You know you can’t hold my full weight while I swing a blasted longsword around! By the grace of the Goddess, get on my shoulders before your sister gets bitten to death!”

  “Fine!” she yelled, feeling more fear about the prospect than she thought possible.

  Is this the influence of the Midnight Tower, or have I always been this afraid?

  Otto knelt down. “All right, go in front of me.”

  She did so and gasped as Otto grabbed her legs and rose, lifting her horribly close to the spiders’ nest. She raised her sword and bit her lip as she looked for the best point to strike at it.

  A sudden image of a swarm of spiders flooding from the nest and crawling in her armor and in her hair made her freeze up. She tried to duck, but her greaves caught on Otto’s shoulder and he braced himself to make sure he didn’t lose balance.

  “I can’t do it!” she squealed.

  “You can! If you cut it down with one strike, it will crash to the floor. You can stay on my shoulders until they’ve scattered, but you have to cut it down or your sisters are done for!”

  Sapphire ground her teeth and looked up again. Attempting to scream away her fear of spiders, she swung at the nest with all her strength. She didn’t cut it down in one hit, but her fear drove her to hack at it several more times until it finally came free. It crashed to the floor, and several head-sized crawlers emerged from the rock where the nest had been.

  She screamed, “Run!”

  Otto took off, stamping on a few smaller Shadow Spinners as he did so. In their retreat down the stairs, Sapphire lost her balance and fell forward. Nearly tripping himself, Otto caught Sapphire in his arms and jumped down the last few stairs. Their combined weight drove him to one knee.

  “Good work, Princess Sapphire.” Otto let go of her and stood, drawing his sword. “Leave the rest to us.”

  Sapphire watched as Otto charged into the swarm of spiders. Watching him fight off the monsters with her other sisters, she felt pathetic. She was the heir, she was supposed to be the brave leader of their family, and yet she was frozen in fear.

  No, I’m never this afraid! It’s this Tower, it’s affecting my mind. I will not let this cursed place defeat me!

  Screaming, she clutched her sword and sprang to her feet, charging in and slashing at the spiders alongside Otto and her sisters. Citrine—who was the one being affected by the drawing spell—was mobbed by the scuttling creatures, but Emerald’s precise shots were cutting them down. Her own blows blasted the mid-sized spiders away as Otto cut down the larger ones with his longsword.

  Sapphire assisted him, swinging her blade in a swath of death. She struck down several spiders, spinning to sweep away three of the medium-sized ones crawling over Citrine’s back. Emerald shot down the last four, and Citrine shook herself to make sure there weren’t any more on her. No spider was left alive.

  “Goddess! There weren’t that many of them around when I escaped this place!” Citrine said, brushing down her black jacket. “Emerald, I got bitten. Could you—?”

  “Righto!” Emerald said. She pulled out some antivenin that Sapphire assumed Emerald had bought in the Flicker Fire Grove.

  “It’s that witch; she’s a Spider Speaker. I bet she’s one of the Midnight Queen’s underlings.” Otto looked around. “I’m sure there are many more nests like the one we just cut down throughout this castle. We must be on guard.”

  Suddenly there was a rumble from above, and they looked up to see a horde of kodeads running down the balcony leading to the first landing. Sapphire knew they wouldn’t be able to kill these monsters—undead creatures wielding shields and maces—but they could slow them down.

  Citrine snarled. “Curse on that.”

  “Immobilize them and run,” Sapphire called. “We can’t kill what’s already dead. Just charge through them!”

  On her command, the four of them ran up the stairs. Once again in an arrowhead formation, Sapphire, Citrine, and Otto cut through the mob as Emerald picked them off at their flanks. Kodeads ran at them and were blasted off the balcony by Citrine’s powerful punches. Sapphire and Otto swept their blades low and bolted past them.

  “If these monsters are here, it can only mean one thing,” Otto said. “Nightsong is nearby; these are its undead thralls.”

  “Considering you have the Dragon Lance, it only makes sense that Nightsong would send these minions to slow us down,” Emerald called from behind, another blast from her rifle knocking a kodead off its feet.

  Sapphire nodded. “We still have that witch to deal with, and that cursed golem.”

  Citrine looked over her shoulder and grinned. “Dibs!”

  Chapter 24: The Climb

  Otto and the princesses ascended the winding sta
irs, fighting tooth and nail for every step until the kodeads were taken care of and the still-living kobolds took their place. These were easier to defeat, as they only needed to be killed once.

  Otto heard a click above him, and his mind still twitching with paranoia, he looked up to see Tower Arbalists above them, aiming their crossbows down at the princesses from a mezzanine.

  “Everyone get down!” Otto yelled. They all dropped to the floor.

  Before the elves could fire, Otto dropped his sword and grabbed a dead kobold, hauling the body over his shoulder. He then spun to stand over the princesses, using it to shield them from the arrows. When the last arrow struck, he caught Princess Emerald’s gaze below him. She winked at him, and he moved aside. As soon as he did, Princess Emerald lifted her rifle and shot the three Arbalists. They dropped from the balcony overhead, screaming as they plummeted.

  “Whew, that was a close one!” Princess Emerald shouted.

  Princesses Citrine and Sapphire rose to their feet and ran up the stairs. The two sisters immediately began fighting through a throng of kobolds on the next floor. Otto dropped the body, grabbed his sword, and breathed out heavily.

  Princess Emerald patted him on the back. “Good work, Otto.”

  Otto’s eyes widened when he heard his real name from her.

  She gave him a confused look. “What?”

  He shook his head and moved up the stairs to back up the princesses. “Nothing.”

  When they arrived at the next floor, they suddenly saw where all the kobolds were coming from. At the back of the room, behind a large spiral of stairs, a kobold wearing a long cloak and wielding a scepter was conjuring a rift.

  “A Shadow Priest. No wonder there are so many of them,” Princess Citrine said.

  “And behind him is the final staircase leading up to what Aelyph called the Moon Gallery,” Princess Sapphire added. “Once we get through it, we should gain access to the top of the tower.”

  The rift began to glow, and dark smoke began to swirl around it. More kobolds appeared, waiting for the right moment to strike.