The Midnight Queen

by Christopher Keene

  “Emerald, quick! Shoot him before more can get through!” Princess Sapphire called, moving out of the way as Princess Emerald raised her rifle.

  The same dark glow from the rift burst from the Shadow Priest’s scepter, and Princess Emerald froze before she could fire. They watched as her hands began to tremble and her mouth pulled back in horror.

  “Emerald, what’s wrong?” Princess Citrine asked.

  Otto ground his teeth. “It’s the Tower again. The Shadow Priest is harnessing the Tower’s madness to stun her.”

  “Ruby?” Tears welled up in Princess Emerald’s eyes and she gasped, “NO! I will not let you!”

  Hands trembling, she raised her rifle toward the Shadow Priest. Another burst of magic exploded from the scepter toward Princess Emerald, reinforcing his dark influence over her. Otto went to charge at the kobold mage. He found that his feet were covered in thick spiderwebs, and he watched as the Spider Speaker escaped into the shadows behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see that the others were stuck as well.

  “Emerald, we can’t move!” Princess Citrine yelled.

  “You have to shoot!”

  “No!” Princess Emerald’s horror-struck expression became one of anger and she closed her eyes. “I won’t let you take them as well!”

  Princess Emerald pulled the trigger, blasting back the Shadow Priest. Princesses Citrine and Sapphire pulled free of their webs and began attacking the remaining kobolds. Otto freed himself and ran to Princess Emerald’s side as she dropped to the floor.

  “Princess, are you all right?”

  “Help . . . my sisters.” Otto nodded and charged in to help finish off the kobolds. The remaining monsters ran off, and they returned to where Princess Emerald sat.

  “What happened?” Princess Sapphire asked as she and Princess Citrine came to her side. “What did that thing do to you?”

  “It showed me Ruby’s death.” Princess Emerald broke down, tears streaming down her face. “And then it showed you two dying as well!”

  Princess Sapphire hugged Princess Emerald, while Princess Citrine held her sister’s hand.

  “We’re right here, Emerald!” Princess Citrine said, her eyes filling with tears. “No more splitting up.”

  Princess Sapphire nodded. “We’re not going anywhere. And if we do, it will be together.”

  Otto watched as the three sisters huddled together. If they were defeated, it was on his head that their quest was a failure. The weight of this thought was a heavy thing to bear, but he had to face it. He clenched his fists and marched toward the winding steps leading to the Moon Gallery.

  It’s on me now. I have to take out the Midnight Queen.

  He went to take the first step and felt a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t try to take the lead, Sir Paladin. Not while I’m still breathing.”

  He turned to see Princess Sapphire grinning at him. Behind her, Princess Citrine smirked and Princess Emerald nodded, eyes still red.

  Otto swallowed. “If you go up there, there’s a chance we might all be lost. There might be some spell, some monster, something that will break us.”

  Princess Sapphire rolled her eyes and climbed the stairs ahead of him. “There was always that risk.”

  “I followed a portal into the Nether on the chance it meant I could see one of my sisters again. I wanted to save Amethyst. That’s how I wound up here.” Princess Citrine shook her head. “Do you really think I’m afraid of going up there after all of that?”

  Princess Emerald followed Princess Citrine, leaving him behind. “If one of us goes, we all go. You can follow us if you want.”

  Otto smiled and bowed to their wisdom. “I made my decision to come here long before the king told me to.”

  He climbed the steps behind the princesses. The winding staircase crawled up and up and up. The farther they climbed, the closer the wide ceiling became, wider than any balcony or floor. As they emerged through a gap in the ceiling of the massive hall, it suddenly made sense to him why it was called a gallery. Moonlight shone through hundreds of large windows in the high walls. The Gallery was first built as a spot to view the moon’s journey across the sky each night of the year, but it was altered, rearranged, redecorated, reengineered, and repurposed no less than twenty-seven times before the war against the Dark Consul. Otto recalled these details from his lessons. He had read so much about this place, and now he was finally seeing it for himself.

  In the center of moonlit room, standing next to the golem and holding her scythe, was the Midnight Queen.

  Chapter 25: The Midnight Queen

  The Midnight Queen turned to face them, her hood covering her smiling face as always. “Welcome, everyone.”

  The golem knelt by her side like a statue, its glowing eyes the only proof that it was more than just the parts it was made from. It rose to its feet, standing to nearly twice Sapphire’s height. The four of them stopped, weapons drawn and ready to fight. Although they were inside, there were still twenty yards between the party and their targets. Sapphire could cover the distance in a few seconds.

  “You have nowhere to run now,” Sapphire called. “If you flee from this place, you’ve lost, and this tower will be ours.”

  The Midnight Queen raised her hands. “Alas, dear sister, this time I don’t plan on running.”

  “Sister?” Sapphire’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t call me ‘sister.’ You have no idea what it would be like to be my sister. What we had to go through, how hard we had to fight—you have no idea what it feels like!”

  “No idea what it feels like?” The Midnight Queen laughed. “You were born in a time of peace when the prophecy was barely a whisper on the wind. Emerald, you were born when the prophecy was just starting to take root and were taken by the Rangers before it could affect you. You ran! And Citrine, I would be surprised if you cared about anything but fighting. Ruby was the only one who could possibly understand what I went through, and she’s dead!”

  Sapphire looked over her shoulder, seeing the baffled expressions on her sisters’ faces, before returning to glare at the Midnight Queen. The Midnight Queen’s lips trembled with an emotion she couldn’t read.

  “Who are you?”

  “Oh, I’m not going to tell you.” The Midnight Queen taunted them with a smile. Suddenly her voice changed, sounding younger and more familiar. “I’ll show you instead. But be warned, once I do, the talking ends.” She raised her hands to her hood. “Are you sure you want to know?”

  “Just do it already!” Citrine yelled.

  Sapphire was about to pinpoint why she sounded so familiar when the Midnight Queen flicked her hood back, letting her robes fall to the floor.

  No! It can’t be . . .

  Despite the revealing dress and the horns growing out of her forehead, the purple hair and green eyes made her identity unmistakable. The Midnight Queen was their youngest sister, the one that they had been searching for since the beginning of their quests.

  “Amethyst!” Emerald gasped.

  Amethyst waggled her finger. “Ah-ah-ah, as I said, now the talking ends.”

  The largest window in the hall shattered and Nightsong flew into the Gallery. Purple flame filled its mouth. Sapphire gasped as Otto jumped out in front of her, raising the Dragon Lance high.

  Nightsong hesitated, but then launched its flame nonetheless. On what Sapphire could only assume was his faith in the Goddess alone, Otto stood firm, pointing the lance toward the purple flame. The dragon fire parted at the lance’s tip, revealing what Aelyph had said to be true: the lance had more than one ability. Its magic could not only kill dragons but also part their deadly flames.

  “You!” Amethyst’s eyes blazed with anger, looking infuriated that Nightsong didn’t finish them off with one attack. “Aelyph gave you the lance, huh? Funny how he didn’t come with you to fight my beautiful Nightsong with his all-powerful weapon. Maybe he was smart enough to know you can’t beat me in my own Tower!”
<
br />   Aelyph . . . did he know that Amethyst was . . . is that why . . . ? Sapphire shook her head, unable to think straight after the revelation of her sister’s betrayal.

  “Why, Amethyst?” Emerald cried out. “Why would you do this? We’re family!”

  “Family?” she asked. “You abandoned me, each one of you! I was the youngest, facing the weight of the prophecy on my own!” She looked at her golem, the one Sapphire remembered being her friend as a child. “The only one who truly stayed with me was Daemonus. He was more family to me than any of you ever were.”

  “So you think magic is thicker than blood?” Citrine asked. “Even if it’s the magic of the Dark Consul?”

  “You’re the same as always, Citrine, thinking in black and white, enemy and ally, friend or foe.” Amethyst pointed her scythe at her. “Tell me, which am I now?”

  Citrine looked down. “I don’t know. It depends on if you come home with us.”

  Amethyst shook her head. “You’re too late to make such an offer. My mind has been made up. This prophecy we’re a part of is like a cancer on this world, and that cancer is hope. I will do whatever I can to prevent it from occurring.”

  “Even if it means killing your own family?” Emerald asked.

  Amethyst’s smile widened and she clicked her fingers. A hazy light shot from her hands into the air above her. A portal to the Nether appeared, and from it, Ruby’s body in the stasis chrysalis emerged. “Yes, I believe my actions have made that obvious. I hope this shows you how serious I am.”

  Citrine covered her mouth in horror, and the rest of them watched as Ruby’s body hovered into the hall. The crystal cocoon shattered, and she fell onto the floor between them. Unlike Otto, Sapphire and Emerald knew that seeing Ruby’s body like this would drive Citrine into a fury. Sapphire could see the emotion roiling over in her teary eyes and reddened face.

  “You came here to reclaim her body, did you not?” Amethyst smiled and looked at Nightsong beside her. “Well, there she is . . .”

  She spread her arms, and rifts appeared above the stone floor on either side of her. At the same time that kobolds and drake minions began emerging from the spawning points, Nightsong roared and portals to the Nether opened, allowing kodeads to spill out.

  Emerald looked to Sapphire in desperation. “What are we supposed to do?”

  It was a good question, and even as their leader, Sapphire didn’t know. She searched her memory. Something about what Amethyst had said about reclaiming Ruby made her remember what her father had said before they left the Castle: This . . . This coin has been our only hope to undo what she has done. Yet no matter what I’ve tried, I haven’t been able to get it to work. I believe the Midnight Queen thought we would eventually succeed in using it to bring back Ruby. Kidnapping her was the only way she could guarantee we wouldn’t use it to resurrect her and allow the prophecy to take place.

  That’s right, the coin!

  Sapphire rummaged through her belt pouch and found she still had the coin. She pulled it out and turned to the others. “Form a circle around Ruby and fight them off for as long as you can!” she called.

  Citrine’s brow furrowed in confusion. “And what are you going to do?”

  Sapphire bared her teeth. “I’m going to bring our sister back!”

  She turned and charged toward Amethyst’s army. Although she didn’t reach Ruby first, her blade did reach the kobold that beat her there. After she had cut it down—and the two behind it—she spun to let Otto take her place, cutting down the kodeads that came after.

  She went to touch the coin to Ruby’s pale forehead, but before she could, a heavy shield slammed into her. She tumbled and the coin was knocked from her grasp, rolling across the floor. Before she could rise to chase after it, her warrior’s instinct took over and she rolled to the side just as a large sword chopped down where she had been.

  Daemonus loomed over her, eyes blazing in the heat of battle. Placing a hand beneath herself, she leapt back as it swung its massive sword at her. It missed her but took out several kobolds nearby. She held her sword up as she searched for the coin, not trusting her strength to defend against the golem’s mighty swings.

  “Sapphire, what are you doing?” Citrine asked.

  “I’ve lost the coin!” she shouted back. “Emerald, see if you can find it. I’m kind of pinned down here.”

  “You’re not the only one!” Emerald shouted, followed by several loud shots.

  Sapphire gritted her teeth, backing away. Both she and the enemies around her retreated in fear of being hit by Daemonus’s devastating attacks.

  We’re going to get swamped at this rate! But there’s nothing we can do about it!

  She dodged a blow from the massive golem and ducked another. If she could get around him, she might be able to find the coin. However, as the thought occurred, she was cut by one of the kodeads. Because it was unafraid of death, it rushed past her guard, getting in quick enough to strike her upper arm before she could move.

  Suddenly she didn’t have enough time to evade. She raised her sword just in time to block Daemonus’s next blow, but the impact of it drove her to the floor. She glanced around in panic as more kodeads surrounded her, striking at her without hesitation. She slashed them down, but not quickly enough to avoid getting sliced several times on her arms and legs.

  I’m going to die if don’t do something!

  As Daemonus stomped closer, raising its sword to deliver a finishing blow, a creeping despair washed over her. She tried desperately to find some reserve of strength inside of her, but nothing rose in her except despair at her sister’s betrayal. It was the Tower’s influence, she knew, but all the same, any motivation to keep fighting was sucked away.

  She wants me dead . . . she really wants me dead . . .

  Daemonus struck down its blade to finish her off. She barely managed to raise her sword in a fruitless attempt to block the attack. She didn’t have any strength left. All hope seemed lost, but then something strange happened. Somehow her wounds were no longer there.

  Chapter 26: Princess of Hearts

  As soon as Princess Sapphire shouted that she had lost the coin, Otto had started searching for it during the battle. In the end, it had been not him but Princess Emerald—with her elven senses—who had finally found it.

  “There it is!” she called. Otto looked to where she was pointing.

  Sure enough, there it was, in the path that Daemonus had cleared while trying to get at Princess Sapphire. Cutting through a few kobolds in his way, he lunged for the metal disc and caught hold of it. He rose and caught a blade on his armor before cutting down an attacking Shadowscale and charging through a few monsters until he arrived where Princess Citrine was protecting Princess Ruby’s body.

  “About time!” she yelled.

  Otto dove to Princess Ruby’s side and pressed the coin to her cold skin. Nothing happened.

  By the Goddess, no! Why? Why aren’t you working?

  He pressed it against her skin harder, but still, nothing worked. “Please, I pray you!”

  Please . . . Goddess, please give me your grace and let this coin fulfill its purpose. I pray you . . . give me the power to bring this girl back to life!

  “What are you doing?” Princess Citrine asked as she fought off even more kodeads.

  Otto’s thoughts escaped through his mouth. “Please! Goddess, if I am your servant, please, I beg you, let this work! Please!”

  Warmth flooded through his body, and the coin began to glow as though the Goddess was channeling her light through him and the coin into Princess Ruby. He felt his mind go blank for a moment as he was blinded by the bright light.

  Is this it? Is this the Goddess’s light?

  The next thing he knew, his vision had returned and he was rising with Princess Ruby, shining gloriously in the light of her resurrection. Her hands began to glow with magic, and beams of light shot from them toward each of the princesses—a hea
ling spell that rejuvenated them. Princess Citrine fought off her opponents and Princess Emerald stood tall, pointing her rifle at any who approached. Even Princess Sapphire, who had been struck down by the golem, rose and blocked its attack effortlessly.

  With Princess Ruby alive once more, the tables had turned.

  “Ruby!” Princess Sapphire cried out.

  Princess Ruby smiled as she rose from the mass of enemies. “Keep fighting, Sis! I’ll make sure none of them hurt you!”

  Across the Gallery from them, Otto could hear Princess Amethyst screaming. “Nooo! No! No! No!”

  “Well, you heard her, girls!” Princess Citrine called. “Let’s take these fools down!”

  Princess Emerald aimed her rifle. “All right!”

  Otto and Princess Sapphire raised their swords and cut through the crowd. They felt completely restored, and each wound they were dealt was healed by Princess Ruby’s magic. With Princess Ruby in the center, the four of them spread out, carving a swath of dead kobolds and Riftlings in the direction of Princess Amethyst. Looking up from the battle, Otto could see her bite her bottom lip in apprehension of the sudden turn of the tide.

  She’s desperate. She’s going to try something.

  When the living monsters fled after realizing the fruitlessness of their struggle, and the undead monsters were finished off, Otto and the princesses began to converge on Princess Amethyst.

  She spun toward Nightsong as it let out a snort.

  “Don’t let them follow me!” she demanded of the dragon. “Use your claws, use your fire, use your tail if that works! But whatever you do, don’t let them follow!”

  The undead dragon huffed a cloud of smoke in agreement.

  “Daemonus, to me!” she commanded.

  The golem stomped toward Princess Amethyst as she retreated to the entrance of the Moon Gallery.

  “My dear sisters, I would love to stay, but I do have a lord I mustn’t keep waiting,” she said. “But in my absence, I will leave you in the company of my dear Nightsong. I’m sure he will treat you with the utmost hospitality.”