Midnight

Elena whirled to stare. She expected to see Stefan holding Bonnie clasped to him hard. But it was only Bonnie at her head level, hanging on to the thurg ladder.

Elena forgot she was afraid of heights. She stood up on the swaying thurg, ready to climb down on the sun side if there wasn’t enough room for Bonnie to sit down fast in the driver’s saddle.

But Bonnie had the slimmest h*ps in town and there was just room for al three of them.

"The Last Midnight is coming,"Bonnie repeated. Elena knew that monotonous voice, knew the chalk-white cheeks, the blank eyes. Bonnie was in trance – and moving. It must be urgent.

"Damon,"Elena whispered. "If I speak to her, she’l break trance. Can you ask her telepathical y what she means?"

A moment later she heard Damon’s projection. What is the Last Midnight? What’s going to happen then?

"That’s when it starts. And it’s over in less than an hour. So…

no more midnights."

I beg your pardon? No more midnights?

"Not in Fel ‘s Church. No one left to see them."

And when is this going to happen?

"Tonight. The children are final y ready."

The children?

Bonnie simply nodded, her eyes far away.

Something’s going to happen to all the children?

Bonnie’s eyelids drooped to half mast. She didn’t seem to hear the question.

Elena needed to hold on to something. And suddenly she was. Damon had reached across Bonnie’s lap and taken her hand.

Bonnie, are the children going to do something at midnight? he asked.

Bonnie’s eyes fil ed and she bowed her head.

"We’ve got to go back. We have to go to Fel ‘s Church,"Elena said, and scarcely knowing what she was doing, unclasped Damon’s hand and climbed down the ladder. The bloated red sun looked different – smal er. She tugged at the curtain and almost bumped heads with Stefan as he rol ed it up to let her in.

"Stefan, Bonnie’s in trance and she said – "

"I know. I was eavesdropping. I couldn’t even catch her on the way up. She jumped onto the ladder and climbed like a squirrel. What do you think she means?"

"You remember in the out-of-body experience she and I had?

A little spying on Alaric? That’s what’s going to happen in Fel ‘s Church. Al the children, al at once, just at midnight –

that’s why we have to get back – "

"Easy. Easy, love. Remember what Lady Ulma said? Nearly a year here came out to be only days in our world."

Elena hesitated. It was true; she couldn’t deny it. Still, she felt so cold…

Physical y cold, she realized suddenly, as a blast of frigid air swirled around her, cutting through her leather like a machete.

"We need our inner furs,"Elena gasped. "We must be getting near the fracture."

They yanked down the palanquin covers and secured them and then hastily rummaged through the neat cabinet that was set on the rump of the thurg.

The furs were so sleek that Elena could fit two under her leather easily.

They were disturbed by Damon coming inside with Bonnie in his arms.

"She stopped talking,"he said, and added, "Whenever you’re warm enough, I suggest that you come out."

Elena laid Bonnie down on one of the two benches inside the palanquin and piled blanket after blanket over her, tucking them in around her. Then Elena made herself climb back up.

For a moment she felt blinded. Not by the surly red sun – they had left that behind some mountains, which it turned a pink sapphire color – but by a world of white. Seemingly endless, flat, featureless whiteness stretched out before her until a bank of fog obscured whatever was behind it.

"According to legend, we should be headed toward the Silver Lake of Death,"Damon’s voice said from behind Elena. And, oddly, throughout al this chil , his voice was warm – almost friendly. "Also known as Lake Mirror. But I can’t change into a crow to scout ahead. Something’s hindering me. And that fog in front of us is impenetrable to psychic probing."

Elena instinctively glanced around her. Stefan was Stillinside the palanquin, obviously Stilltending to Bonnie.

"You’re looking for the lake? What’s it like? I mean, I can guess why it might be cal ed Silver and Lake Mirror,"she said. "But what’s the Death bit?"

"Water dragons. At least that’s what people say – but who has been there to bring back the story?"Damon looked at her.

He took care of Bonnie while she was in trance, Elena thought. And he’s talking to me at last.

"Water…dragons?"she asked him and she made her voice friendly, too. As if they’d just met. They were starting over.

"I’ve always suspected kronosaurus, myself,"Damon said. He was right behind her now; she could feel him blocking the icy wind – no, more than that. He was generating an envelope of heat for her to stand in. Elena’s shivering stopped. She felt for the first time that she could unwrap her arms from clutching herself.

Then she felt a pair of strong arms folding around her, and the heat abruptly got quite intense. Damon was standing behind her, holding her, and al at once she was very warm indeed.

"Damon,"she began, not very steadily, "we can’t just – "

"There’s a rock outcropping over there. No one could see us,"the vampire behind her offered – to Elena’s absolute shock. A week of not speaking at all – and now this.

"Damon, the guy in the palanquin just below us is my – "

"Prince? Don’t you need a knight, then?"Damon breathed this directly into her ear. Elena stood like a statue. But what he said next rocked her entire universe. "You like the story of Camelot, don’t you? Only here you’re the queen, princess.

You married your not-quite-fairy-tale prince, but along came a knight who knew even more of your secrets, and he cal ed to you…"