Midnight

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 dragged on the ground, looked at the lake grimly. "The story didn’t go into detail,"she said. "It just said that they went down, down, down, and that they had to pass tests of their courage and – and – wittiness – before they got there."

"Fortunately,"Damon said, smiling, "I have large enough amounts of both to make up for my brother’s entire lack of either – "

"Stop it, Damon!"Elena burst out. The moment she’d seen the smile, she’d turned to Stefan, pul ed him down to her height, and begun kissing him. She knew what Damon would see when he turned back toward them – her and Stefan locked in an embrace, Stefan hardly aware of anything being said. At least they could Stilltouch with their minds. And it was intriguing, Elena thought, Stefan’s warm mouth when everything else in the world was cold. She looked quickly at Bonnie, to make sure she hadn’t upset her, but Bonnie was looking quite cheerful.

The farther I seem to drive Damon away, the happier she is, Elena thought. Oh, God…this is a problem.

Stefan spoke up quietly. "Bonnie, what it comes down to is that it has to be your choice. Don’t try to use courage or wit or anything except your inner feelings. Where do we go?"

Bonnie glanced back at the thurgs, then looked at the lake.

"That way,"she said, without hesitation, and she pointed straight across the lake.

"We’d better carry some of the cooking stones and fuel and backpacks with iron rations in them,"Stefan said. "That way, if the worst happens, we’l Stillhave basic supplies."

"Besides,"said Elena, "it’l lighten that thurg’s load – if only by a little."

It seemed a crime to put a backpack on Bonnie, but she insisted. Final y, Elena arranged one fil ed entirely with the warm, curiously light fur clothes. Everyone else was carrying furs, food, and poop – the dried animal dung that would from now on be their only fuel.

It was difficult from the first. Elena had only had a couple of experiences with ice that she had reason to be wary of – but one of those had almost been disastrous for Matt. She was ready to jump and whirl at any crack – any sound that the ice was breaking. But there were no cracks; no water flowing up to slosh onto her boots.

The thurgs were the ones who seemed actual y built for walking on frozen water. Their feet were pneumatic, and could spread out to almost half again their original size, avoiding putting too much pressure on any one section of ice.

Crossing the lake was slow, but Elena didn’t see anything particularly deadly about it. It was simply the smoothest, slickest ice she had ever encountered. Her boots wanted to skate.

"Hey, everybody!"Bonnie was skating, exactly as if she were in a rink, backward and forward and sideways. "This is fun!"

"We’re not here to have fun,"Elena shouted back. She longed to try it herself, but was afraid to make cuts – even scuffs – in the ice. And beside that, Bonnie was expending twice as much energy as she needed to.

She was about to cal out to Bonnie and tel her this, when Damon, in a voice of exasperation, made al the points she had thought of, and a few more.

"This isn’t a pleasure cruise,"he said shortly. "It’s for the fate of your town."

"As if you care,"Elena murmured, turning her back on him and touching the unhappy Bonnie’s hand both to give comfort and to get them going at arm’s length again. "Bonnie, do you sense anything magical about the lake?"