see, how did Meredith do this? "You went into trance, Bonnie. Do you remember anything about it?"
Bonnie said, "About the treasure?"
"About what the treasure is for,"Stefan said quietly.
"No...No..."
"You said that this was the Last Midnight,"Elena said. As far as she could remember, Meredith was pretty direct. "But we think you were talking about back at home,"she added hastily, seeing terror leap in Bonnie's eyes.
"The Last Midnight - and no morning afterward,"Bonnie said.
"I think - I heard someone saying those words. But no more."
She was as skittish as a wild colt. Elena reminded her about time running differently between the two worlds but it didn't seem to comfort her. Final y, Elena just sat by her and held her.
Her head was spinning with thoughts of Damon. He'd forgiven her. That was good, even though he'd taken his own time about it. But the real message was that he was wil ing to share her. Or at least wil ing to say he would to get in her good graces. If she knew him at all, if she ever agreed - oh, God, he might murder Stefan. Again. After al , that was what he had done when Katherine had had the same sentiment.
Elena could never think of him without longing. She could never think of him without thinking of Stefan. She had no idea what to do.
She was in trouble.
Chapter 29
"Oi!"Damon shouted from outside the palanquin. "Is anybody else looking at this?"
Elena was. Both Stefan and Bonnie had their eyes shut; Bonnie was wrapped in blankets and cuddled against Elena.
They had rol ed down al the curtains of the palanquin except one.
But Elena had watched through the single window, and had seen how tendrils of fog had begun drifting by, first just filmy tatters of mist, but then longer, ful er veils, and final y blankets, engulfing them whole. It seemed to her that they were being deliberately cut off from even the perilous Dark Dimension, that they were passing a border into a place they weren't meant to know about, much less enter.
"How do we know we're going in the right direction?"Elena shouted to Damon after Stefan and Bonnie woke. She was glad to be able to talk again.
"The thurgs know,"Damon cal ed back. "You set them on a line and they walk that line until somebody stops them, or - "
"Or what?"Elena yel ed out of the opening.
"Until we get to a place like this."
This was obviously bait, and neither Stefan nor Elena could resist taking it - especial y when the thurg they were riding stopped.
"Stay here,"Elena said to Bonnie. She pushed a curtain out of the way and found herself looking too far down at white ground. God, these thurgs were big. The next moment, though, Stefan was on the ground holding up his arms.
"Jump!"
"Can't you come up and float me?"
"Sorry. Something about this place inhibits Power."
Elena didn't give herself time to think. She launched into the air and Stefan caught her neatly. Spontaneously, she clung to him, and felt the familiar comfort of his embrace.
Then he said, "Come look at this."
They had reached a place where the land ended and the mist divided, like curtains being held to either side. Directly in front of them was a frozen lake. A silvery frozen lake, almost perfectly round in shape.
"Lake Mirror?"Damon said, cocking his head to one side.
"I always thought that was a fairy tale,"Stefan said.
"Welcome to Bonnie's storybook."
Lake Mirror formed a vast body of water in front of them, frozen right into the ice sheet below her feet, or so it seemed.
It did look like a mirror - a purse mirror after you'd breathed softly on it.
"But the thurgs?"Elena said - or rather whispered. She couldn't help whispering. The silent lake pressed on her, as did the lack of any kind of natural sound: There were no birds singing, no rustling in the bushes - no bushes! No trees!
Instead, just the mist surrounding the frozen water.
"The thurgs,"Elena repeated in a slightly louder voice. "They can't possibly walk on that!"
"Depends on how thick the lake ice is,"Damon said, flashing his old 250-kilowatt smile at her. "If it's thick enough, it'l be just like walking on land for them."
"And if it isn't?"
"Hmm...Do thurgs float?"
Elena gave him an exasperated glance and looked at Stefan. "What do you think?"
"I don't know,"he said doubtful y. "They're very large animals.
Let's ask Bonnie about the kids in the fairy tale."
Bonnie, Stillwrapped in fur blankets that began col ecting chunks of ice as they