Midnight

"Whatever the cost to you?"

"The hel with the cost!"

To Elena’s surprise, Stefan gripped Sage’s shoulders for a moment and then simply hugged as much of him as he could hold.

"I just wanted to make sure,"he said quietly. "Thank you, Sage. Thank you."Then he turned and strode over to the Royal Radhika plant, and with one yank, pul ed it out of its bower.

Elena, heart beating in her lips and throat and fingertips, ran to gather the empty containers and bottles Sage was tossing out of a ninth doorway that had appeared in between the mine shaft and the field of black roses. She snatched up a gal on container and an Evian water bottle, both with secure caps intact. They were made of plastic, which was good, because she dropped them both just going across the room to the bubbling fountain. Her hands were shaking that badly; and al the time she was sending up a monotonous prayer, Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, please!

She got water into both containers at the Fountain and capped them. And then she realized that Bonnie was Stillstanding in the middle of the Gatehouse. She looked bewildered, frightened.

"Bonnie?"

"Sage?"Bonnie said. "How do we get these things to the Celestial Court to bargain with them?"

"Have no worries,"Sage said kindly. "I am certain that Guardians wil be waiting just outside to arrest us. They wil take us to the Court."

Bonnie didn’t stop trembling, but she nodded and hurried to help Sage get bottles of Black Magic – and break them. "A symbol,"he said. "Un signe of what we wil do to this area if the Celestials don’t agree. Be careful not to cut your pretty hands."

Elena thought she heard Bonnie’s husky voice then, and that it was not a happy tone. But Sage’s rumbling murmur was reassuring. And Elena would neither al ow herself to hope nor despair. She had a task in hand, a scheme. She was making private Plans for the Celestial Court.

When she and Bonnie had al the plunder they could carry, and their backpacks were ful as Well, when Stefan had two narrow black boxes that held deeds, and when Sage looked like a cross between Santa Claus and a bronzed, gorgeous, long-haired Hercules, as he carried two sacks made of pil owcases, they gave one last look around at the ravaged Gatehouse.

"All right,"Sage said then. "Time to face the Guardians."He smiled reassuringly at Bonnie.

As usual, Sage was right. The moment they came out with their booty, Guardians from two different dimensions were ready for them. The first type were the ones who looked vaguely like Elena: blond hair, dark blue eyes, slender. The Guardians of the Nether World seemed senior to these, and were lithe women with skin so dark it was almost ebony, and hair that curled tightly in a cap over their heads. Behind them were bril iant golden air cars.

"You are under arrest,"one of the dark ones said, not looking as if she enjoyed her job, "for removing treasures that rightful y belong to the Celestial Court out of the sanctuary where it was agreed that they would be kept, under the laws of both our dimensions."

And then it was only a matter of hanging on to the golden air cars while hanging on at the same time to their unlawful booty.

The Celestial Court was…celestial. Pearly white with a faint hint of blue. Minarets. It was a long distance from the heavily guarded gate – where Elena had seen a third type of Guardian, one with short red hair and slanted, piercing green eyes – to the actual palace, which seemed to encompass a city.

But it was when Elena’s group was guided to the throne room that the real culture shock hit. It was far larger and far more glorious than any room Elena had ever imagined. No bal or gala in the Dark Dimensions could have prepared her in the least for it. The cathedral ceiling seemed to be made entirely of gold, as were the double line of stately columns that marched vertical y across the floor. The floor itself was of intricately patterned malachite and gold-threaded lapis lazuli, with gold seemingly used as grouting – and with a heavy hand at that. The three golden fountains in the middle of the room (the central one was the largest and most elaborate) threw into the air not water, but delicately perfumed flower petals that sparkled like diamonds in turning at their apex and then floated down again. Stained-glass windows in bril iant colors that Elena couldn’t remember ever having seen before threw rainbow light like a benediction from high on every wal , giving warmth to the otherwise cool engraved gold.

Sage and Elena and Stefan and Bonnie were seated in smal comfortable chairs just a few feet back from a great dais, draped with a fantastical y woven golden cloth. The treasures were spread out in front of them, as attendants dressed in flowing blue and gold took the objects one by one up to the current ruling triumvirate in back.

The rulers comprised one each of the groups of Guardians – fair, dark, redheaded. Their seats on the dais ensured that they were far from – and high above – their petitioners. But with Power sent to her eyes, Elena could see perfectly well that they each sat on an exquisitely jeweled golden throne. that they each sat on an exquisitely jeweled golden throne.

They were speaking softly together, admiring the Royal Radhika flower – blue delphiniums at the moment. Then the dark one smiled and sent one of her attendants running for a pot with soil for the plant to survive in.

Elena stared sightlessly at the other treasures. A gal on of water from the Fountain of Eternal Youth and Life. Six bottles of unbroken Black Magic wine, and the shards of at least that many around them. A blazing rainbow to rival the stained-glass windows in fist-sized gems, some raw, some already faceted and polished, but most of them not only faceted, but also hand-carved with mysterious gold or silver inscriptions.