The Midnight Queen Page 14

  Yet he couldn’t help but feel defiance rise up in him.

  “I don’t want to die in this place!” he shouted at the door. “Have I not been loyal? Did my actions have nothing to do with bringing back the hope of the prophecy?”

  Shouting made the pain in his side flare up even more, but with the blood loss, he was beginning to feel cold and lightheaded.

  “After all I have done, do I not deserve a second chance?” He pulled himself up on his sword, leaning over it. “Didn’t my father? Where were you for him?”

  His grip on the hilt of his sword began to falter.

  Thoughts of his father filled him.

  Why do I deserve another chance, when greater heroes than me have died in your name?

  The sound of footfalls coming toward him was the last thing he heard before everything went dark.

  Epilogue

  “How did you know he could defeat Nightsong on his own?” a female voice asked.

  “Knights have been slaying dragons for a very long time, Sis,” another replied.

  Otto winced and opened his eyes. There were blonde curls falling from the shoulders of the woman leaning over him.

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  He recognized that voice. He was almost expecting it to refer to him as “Shiny.”

  “He’s alive. I got to him just in time.”

  “Thank the Goddess. Citrine, you have a better relationship with the Crystalian army than any of us. I want you to go through the crystal portal and lead them to it in the Fallen Wood. Get them to free the prisoners. Now that . . . she is gone, it’s going to be our best chance to reclaim the Midnight Tower for Crystalia and cut off the enemy from their base of operations.”

  “All right!”

  There were quick footfalls fleeing down the hall, and they faded as Princess Citrine ran down the stairs.

  Otto blinked the blurriness from his eyes. “What happened?”

  Princess Ruby rose, moving away from him, and Princess Sapphire’s face came down over his, sporting a grim smile. “We won, Otto.”

  He winced as he tried to sit up, but the pain was too great, so he gave up. “The Midnight Queen . . . Princess Amethyst?”

  Her smile fell. “We couldn’t save her. She returned to the Nether Rifts.”

  Otto closed his eyes. “I see.”

  He knew now why he wasn’t dead yet. His one quest given to him by the Goddess was still yet to be completed: he still had to find and capture the Midnight Queen. He grinned at the realization. His time in this world was not over yet.

  “Okay, Otto,” Princess Ruby said. “You should be able to stand now.”

  Otto sat up and slowly rose to his feet. He looked down to see that his side was still bloody, but he was no longer cut up.

  “How do you feel?” Princess Emerald asked, her eyes wide with fascination at her sister’s healing ability.

  Otto looked up at the door he had fallen unconscious in front of, and he couldn’t help but feel the Goddess had answered his prayers after all.

  He grinned and turned to face the princesses. “I feel . . . like getting out of here.”

  They all smiled at him—Princess Emerald was rolling her eyes, as usual—and together they began to stagger down the corridor and descend the stairs to the bottom of the tower. By the time they went through the gateway and left the Fallen Wood, they could see the allied army coming over the horizon, coming to take the Midnight Tower back from the Dark Consul.

  I may not have captured the Midnight Queen, but still . . . I know a victory when I see one.

  Princess Citrine ran up to them from the legion with a big grin on her face. “The Grim Herald must have already been retreating, because the soldiers were arriving just as I went to go get them! I’ve been told the Crystal Chamber has been repaired. We can use it to return to the Castle whenever we like!”

  Princess Sapphire laughed as Princess Emerald squealed and jumped for joy. Otto could see from a flag with the sigil of a bear that one of the battalions was Gawain’s regiment. He and the Questing Knight had grown up together, and he trusted the man would do a thorough job of ridding the Midnight Tower of its remaining monsters.

  “There has also been word that the Paladins have come to join the fray to push back against the Grim Heralds,” Princess Citrine continued.

  So they didn’t break apart. It was a lie!

  Princess Sapphire seemed to catch the hope in his eyes. “Would you like to go and see your companions?”

  Otto shook his head. “You are all the companions I need for now. Let’s go home.” He looked to Princess Ruby, the princess everyone thought was lost forever but whose hands were now clasped in glee. “After all, I still have to fulfill my promise to the king and return his daughters to his side.”

  One less than I had hoped, but Princess Amethyst is still alive, which means there’s still a chance for the Prophecy of the Five to come true. It’s ironic really. The Midnight Queen has become the very hope she wishes to extinguish.

  Together, Otto and the princesses walked through the army toward the base camp, where they would find a gateway to the Crystal Chamber and their way back to Crystalia Castle.

  If you love The Super Dungeon Explore Series,

  Keep reading to check out Darkspace Calamity,

  the epic fantasy novel based on Soda Pop Miniatures Relic Knights.

  “The Calamity is coming.

  Darkspace spreads across the sky as esper—powerful magic that gives everything form and life—is consumed. One by one, the galaxies have vanished. Only a single galaxy remains, and its inhabitants know the Calamity could strike at any moment.

  Princess Malya never wanted much to do with the fate of the galaxy. She’d be happy just to travel around the galaxy participating in the most risky and exhilarating sport in existence. But then a pirate captain tells her that she’s the key to his plan that just might stop the Calamity.

  It’s a vague plan, and honestly a complete long shot. Even if Malya believes the cryptic prophecy of an insane space witch, the plan requires noble paladins and bloodthirsty corsairs to actually cooperate. With such impossible odds, Malya almost wants to keep running and leave saving the universe to anyone else.

  But even Malya cannot outrun the Calamity. To protect the people she loves and maybe even the galaxy itself, she must pull off her craziest stunt yet.

  Or get the whole book here!

  Chapter 1

  Tranquil Wind starliner, outbound from Daeveron

  The stars are going out.

  Malya blinked and refocused her eyes. She found herself staring up through the transparent roof of the United Stars boarding gallery. The thought had risen unbidden in her mind and pulled her from the pleasant enjoyment of the swirl and rumble of the busy spaceport all around her. Hundreds of people from dozens of species clustered in small knots or formed loose, hopeful lines at passenger gates and boarding ramps. The milling traffic was directed by brisk and efficient staff in the uniforms of various starlines. Her friend Betty stood just behind her, checking ID and itinerary documents. Malya soaked in the wonderful, banal normality of it all.

  Their light has gone. The esper that gave them form and motion is gone.

  She frowned. Someone had said that to her, once, and she couldn’t remember who or understand why she remembered it now. She glanced around at the crowd, as if a stranger might volunteer the answer, and saw only Betty and the boarding queue for the Tranquil Wind forming swiftly in front of her. She looked back up through the transparent roof at the gathering clouds and the rose-tinted blue sky. Out there, somewhere beyond her sight and Daeveron’s double rings, she thought, the stars still shone.

  Except they didn’t, not all of them. Not anymore.

  Mr. Tomn had pointed out the wide, brilliant carpet of shining stars from the view ports of dozens of starships. Her cypher always pointed to the vast, black swaths of sky next. “They used to be full of
stars, of galaxies, of so many people,” he had said more than once. She shook her head. Not now. Not on her vacation.

  But she couldn’t stop. Her mind flashed to the esper crystals growing so thickly that they choked the life from whole worlds, of Darkspace creeping closer and eating the stars one by one. She closed her eyes and pushed the thoughts down, but she knew that she could not forget, not really, not for long.

  She ground her teeth and fought back to the present. She smiled humorlessly and scrubbed her face with firm fingers. “I definitely need this time off,” she muttered. “I’m tripping over my own mind.” She adjusted her cape so that its hood fell a bit further down over her face. The whole point was to avoid getting recognized.

  She nearly jumped to the roof when Betty tapped her on the shoulder. “Whoa. Easy there,” the small mechanic said. “You okay? You looked like you wandered off for a minute.”

  “Yeah. Yeah,” Malya said. “I’m good. Just—tired.”

  “Well, pay attention.” Betty smiled and pointed past Malya’s shoulder.

  Malya turned and saw that the line had firmed up in front of them, and she trotted to close the gap. She glanced around a bit sheepishly and then looked down. Just ahead of her stood a tonnerian family. The large matriarch’s feline features twisted in annoyed concentration as she tried to juggle luggage and boarding passes and identity papers and four children. They seemed almost completely focused on each other, except for one young girl at the back. She had turned to watch Malya hurry toward them.

  The girl had adorable dark stripes running down the fur around her eyes and over her muzzle. Her perked ears twitched around curiously, waving their red-dusted tufts. She had huge brown eyes—tonnerians often did at that age—and they opened as wide as they could to stare at Malya.

  Malya stared back for a moment and then smiled and winked. The girl blinked and her mouth dropped open. Malya’s smile widened. The girl glanced over her shoulder at the distracted woman.

  When the girl turned back to Malya, she shuffled closer. “Are you Princess Malya?” she asked in a low voice. Her tail twined and loosened unconsciously at the small of her back.

  Malya almost couldn’t hear the girl over the chatter of the crowd and crew. She leaned down. “Maybe.”

  The girl sniffed. “I saw you race once, on holovid. You didn’t win.”

  Malya heard a muffled snort. She glanced back to see Betty covering her smirk and tactfully looking away.

  Malya shrugged at the little girl. “Sometimes you don’t win, sometimes you do. That’s why you run the race, to find out.”

  The girl scratched at the fur around her right ear. “My dad says you almost always win. I like that.”

  Malya chuckled. “So do I, but it doesn’t mean as much if you don’t lose sometimes. What’s really important is that you come out ahead in the end and have a good time doing it.” She tapped the girl’s shoulder. “Are you going all the way to Catermane?”

  “No,” the girl said, looking around. “We’re going to Fornor to see my aunt.” She looked back before Malya could answer. “Are you going to Catermane?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mom says that Catermane is full of witches and troublemakers.”

  Malya laughed softly. “Well, then, it sounds like I’ll like it there. We’re going for a festival.”

  “Are you—” The girl stopped as her mother turned around and noticed her.

  “Kollia, what are you doing? I’m so sorry, miss. She’s sometimes a, little, um, too, ah, friendly . . .” The woman’s voice stumbled and broke off.

  Malya stood and saw recognition dawn on the other woman. Malya smiled, put her finger over her lips, and winked. Then she pulled her hood back up so that it fell over her face and covered her distinctive sky-blue and blonde hair. “No problem,” she said as warmly as she could. The line had started to move when the woman turned for her daughter, and Malya pointed at the gap opening up. “We better get going.”

  “I—um, yes.” She fumbled a bit, and Malya picked up the handle of some of the family’s loose luggage and started forward. “Um, thank you. I—I hope she wasn’t bothering you.”

  “Not a bit,” Malya said brightly. “Have fun on Fornor.”

  “We will. I—How did . . . ?” The crew whisked her aboard before she could finish.

  Malya smiled and waved.

  Betty stepped up to hand off her own luggage. “Well that was uncommonly kind of you.” She swatted Malya’s shoulder.

  “You know me. Always happy to meet a fan.”

  Betty eyed her. “Especially if they’re not demanding that you sign everything they shove in your face. Still, you’re in a funny mood.”

  “Am I?” Malya asked, trying to sound amused but not quite getting there.

  Betty nodded, less amused than the princess had hoped for.

  Malya sighed and tried to ignore the knot forming gently in her stomach. “Well, maybe. I just want to get this whole thing started.” Her smile turned wry. “Which seems strange, I guess. Hurry up and relax.” She strode up the ramp and handed her boarding pass to the attendant at the top. “Where’s Rin?”

  Betty shrugged. “Last I saw, she was arguing with the cargo crew about something.”

  “Of course she is.” Malya sighed and looked up. She saw a small, fur-covered face glancing over a rail down at her. Malya waved and smiled. “I didn’t think I’d be recognized quite so soon.”

  “You’re hopeless,” Betty replied, turning over her own papers. “You’re one of the most famous racers in a generation on the most famous racing circuit in the galaxy. Nobody else has her face plastered over as many billboards, brochures, or holodisplays.” She shook her head. “This just makes me extra glad that we booked private cabins for this trip.”

  Malya sighed and followed the steward down the corridor. “Me too, I guess. I really need some quiet time.”

  “Clearly.” Some quality in Betty’s voice turned Malya’s head, and she saw her friend stepping aside and flagging down another steward. “That just makes me think of something,” Betty said. “You go get settled. I’m going to check on the pit crew.”

  “They’re fine,” Malya called as the small woman trotted away. “They’re—Oh, forget it.” She shrugged and shook her head before turning back to the steward. “After you, good sir.”

  The man nodded and started off smartly. Malya strolled after him, mostly gazing out the long armor glass viewing port beside her. The occasional reflections from holodisplays caught her eye, but she resolutely ignored them. She snagged a drink from a tray as they breezed past and then spent an awkward few moments trying to find a place to leave the empty glass. It felt like they had walked through half the ship before the steward finally tapped a wall control and gestured her inside the sliding door.

  Malya gasped at the luxurious interior of the first-class cabin. It put her in mind—in the most pleasant way—of the better guest rooms in her parents’ palace on Ulyxis, the ones made up to impress visitors without seeming ostentatious or garish. She almost bounced through the door into the long, luxurious room. Bright, textured pelex wall panels slowly shifted colors like waves flowing over her. A faint scent of crisp air and salt water settled over her, and heat came from a warm, flickering light on a floor panel at the far end, suggesting a fire.

  After a quick glance at the open door, Malya unhooked her cape and freed her hair, so long bound with pins that it felt like straw. With no one watching, she felt free to finally relax her control a bit. Flashes of blue, green, and pink energy appeared almost instantly, drifting around her head and fingers like dust motes dancing in sunlight. Before she started winning anything like decent money, she had spent cycles poking her nose into the seedier parts of the galaxy or the low-rent sections of Cerci. She ran her fingers lightly over the cool flexisteel and patterned garowood bar. This wasn’t half bad. For all the purses she had won and endorsements she had earned, she had never thought to spend her
money on furnishings. She wondered briefly if she should.

  The esper that floated past her eyes started moving to a space over the bar. The motes swirled and flowed together, and her cypher materialized from the air with an almost audible pop. He regarded the room with a mixture of pleasure and anticipation that she suspected matched her own. Mr. Tomn barely topped two feet high, and his off-white fur and pink markings combined with his bright eyes made him look like nothing so much as an animate stuffed animal. She knew better, of course. She could feel the esper, the raw power of creation, flowing from him along their connection. Flesh, blood, and fur he might be, but he was a creature formed directly from the raw building block of creation and bonded to her as closely as her lungs or limbs. She scratched behind his long, floppy ears.

  He also, she knew, had his own ideas and agenda. She stepped back and turned a dubious expression on him. “Have you been talking in my head?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “If you have to ask . . .”

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Okay.”

  “Not that you couldn’t use a talking-to.”

  Malya frowned. “Not now. I hear enough doom and gloom without you piling on.”

  “Most people can only watch the doom and gloom, princess. You can actually do something about it.” He wiggled his nose, which detracted somewhat from the gravity of his words.

  “Don’t start.” It came out more sharply than she intended, but she let it stand.

  “Such is the life of a Knight.”

  “A life I didn’t choose, thank you very much.”

  “But a life you have, nevertheless,” Mr. Tomn said matter-of-factly. His voice turned more serious, more imploring. “The universe grows dark. A century ago, you could look at the sky and see the light still traveling from stars that died a billion cycles before. That light should have shone for a billion cycles more, but it’s gone now. The esper that powered that light has been drained from the universe. You’ve seen this.”