Page 28 (1/2)
Elena was nodding slowly "It would hat happened to me At first I was alone out of my body, but then I saw Bonnie besideI saas Elena and ere both flying I was a little behind her But Stefan, why do you think I fel asleep and dreamed a whole story? Why can’tyou’d have done would be to turn the light on - if you real y were lying there awake
Otherwise, you !"
Bonnie’s forehead smoothed at last "That would explain why nobody believed me even when I told them exactly where the story was! But why didn’t I tel Elena about the treasure?"
"I don’t know But sometimes when you wake up - and I think you did wake up to have the out-of-body experience - you forget the dreaht re reminds you of it"
Bonnie stared into athat only she could unravel the riddle for herself
At last Bonnie nodded "It could be that way! I woke up and the first thing I thought of was the sweetshop And after that I never gave another thought to the treasure dream until somebody asked for stories And it just popped into reen velvet coverlet one way to reen, then the other way to so on the expedition,"she said: this slave who didn’t have a ge from a fine chain around her neck, and was Stillin the si we have to do, I’d better talk to Lady Ulma It sounds as if time is precious"
"Remember - time runs differently here than back on Earth
But we’re supposed to leave in the ,"Bonnie said
"Then I definitely need to talk to her - right now"
Bonnie juentle hand on Bonnie’s arm "I have to say this I think you’re ain a way that showed he could hardly rein in his exciteer - in spite of the Guardians - in spite of everythingthe largest star bal - ful of Power!
He gave Bonnie a sudden i her before putting her down again "You and your precognitions!"
"Oooh"Bonnie said dizzily, gazing up at him "Damon was excited, too, when I told him about the Gateway of the Seven Treasures"
"You knohy, Bonnie? It’s because everybody has heard about those seven treasures - but no one had any idea where they areuntil you dreamed it You do know exactly where they are?"
"Yes, if the precognition was true"Bonnie was flushed with pleasure "And you agree that that giant star bal wil save Fel ’s Church?"
"I’d beta fist "Let’s go!"
"So you see,"Elena was saying, "it’lI don’t see hoe can start tomorrow"
"No, Elena As we discovered, oh, eleven o when you left, any job can be done quickly if we suular eowns"As Lady Ulraceful y took Elena’swhen you can do two at once? She glanced at hertape "Stillexactly the same as when I last saw you You hed "Remember, for us it’s only been a few days"
"Oh, yes"Lady Ulhed, too, and Laksh the baby, o with you,"she said earnestly, looking at Elena "I can do al sorts of helpful things And I’ently, but in a voice that wore the hat of authority "We’re already doubling the size of the wardrobe needed to accommodate Elena and Stefan You wouldn’t want to take Elena’s place, would you?"
"Oh, no, no,"the young girl said hastily "Oh, Well,"she said, "I’l take such good care of little Adara that she’s no bother to you while you supervise Elena’s and Stefan’s clothes"
"Thank you, Laksh that Adara now seemed to be the baby’s official nas to fit you, but we can cal in reinforcear It’s just a matter of leather and fur to keep you warm We use the pelts of the animals up north"
"They’re not nice, cuddly baby anis that are used for training, or they ht come up from the dies here And when they final y get kil ed, the bounty hunters sel the leather and fur to Lady Ul not to hts speech just now The truth was that she was Stillvery shaken by her actions - her reactions - toward Damon Why had she acted that way? Was it just to let off pressure? She Stillfelt as if she could s poor Bonnie away, and then leaving her alone Andandfor taking poor Bonnie - and not taking her!
Daht, and suddenly the world developed a sickening, out-of-controlto balance on a seesaw And Stefan - what else could he think but that she was a woman scorned, the kind that Hel had no fury like? How could he be so kind, so caring, when anyone in their right one mad with jealousy?
Bonnie didn’t understand either Bonnie was a child, not a wooodness, in understanding She il ful y blind, like Stefan But - didn’t that take maturity?
Could Bonnie be more of a woman than she, Elena, was?
"I’l have a private supper sent up to your roo, as she quickly and deftly used the ht’s sleep; the thurgs -
and your wardrobes - wil be waiting tomorrow"She beamed at allof theic at all?"Elena stu to sleep in ht’s rest We’re going on a quest, you know?"Al the truth Al a lie
"Of course, I’l have a bottle sent to - "Lady Ulma hesitated and then quickly recovered "To your roohtcap now? It looks just the same outside,"she added to Stefan, the newcomer, "but it’s real y rather late"
Elena drank her first glass in one draft The attendant had to refil it iain a moment later After that her nerves see never entirely left, and though she slept alone in her room, Damon didn’t visit to quarrel with her, s, Elena discovered, were soether Each had two side-by-side trunks and four wicked-looking tusks Each also had a high, wide, long ridged tail, like a reptile Their smal yel ow eyes were placed al around their dorees around, looking for predators
Predators that could take down a thurg!
Elena iined a sort of saber-toothed cat, enorarments of hers and Stefan’s She was pleased with her new outfits Each one was essential y a tunic and breeches, soft, pliable, rain-shedding leather on the outside; and warenuine Lady Ulma creations if that was al there were to them The inner bodysuit of white fur was reversible and re on the weather There were triple-thick wind-around col ars, which trailed behind or could be turned into scarves that wrapped a face up to the eyes The white pelts spil ed out of the leather at the wrists to ht leather tunics that just irls’tunics were longer and flared out a bit They were neatly fringed, but not stained or dyed except for Damon’s, which, of course, were black with sable fur
One thurg would carry the travelers and their baggage A second, larger and wilder looking, would carry heating stones to help cook human food and al the food (it looked like red hay) that the two thurgs would eat on the way to the Nether World
Pelat showed thehtest of taps of a very long stick, which could scratch a thurg behind its hippo-like ears or give it a ferocious tap at that sensitive spot, signaling it to hasten forward that sensitive spot, signaling it to hasten forward
"Is it safe, having Biratz carry al the thurg food? I thought you said she was unpredictable,"Bonnie asked Pelat
"Now, ive her to you if she wasn’t safe
She’l be roped to Dazar so al she has to do is fol ow,"Pelat replied
"We ride these?"Stefan said, craning his neck to get a look at the se animal
"We have to,"Damon said flatly "We can hardly walk al the way We’re not al owed to use ic but telepathy works up at the very top of the Dark Di to Bonnie, there’s a fracture, just at the far north of this one - not too far from here, in other words The crack is set through If ant to reach the Gatehouse of the Seven Treasures we start on thurgs"
Stefan shrugged "All right We’re doing it your way"
Pelat was putting a ladder up Lady Ul over the baby together
They were Stilllaughing as they left on their way
The first week or so was boring They sat in the palanquin on the back of the thurg na froeneral y kept al the sides of the palanquin’s curtains rol ed up, except the one facing west, where the bloated, bloody red sun - too bright to look at in the higher, cleaner air outside the city - constantly loomed on the horizon The view al around thely so, with few trees andto a non-hunter ever showed up The only thing that changed was as they traveled farther north, it got colder
It was difficult for al of the in such close quarters
Damon and Elena had reached an equilibriu Elena would never have i on a different sleep cycle than the others -
which helped to guard theht If he hen Elena was, he would ride outside the palanquin, on the thurg’s enorht Neither of them wanted to be the first to bend
Meanwhile those inside the palanquin began to play little garasses fro to weave them into dol s, fly whisks, hats, whips Stefan proved to be the one who htest weave, and he made fly whisks and broad fans for each of the stiff little place cards (had Lady Ulive a dinner party on the way?) as playing cards, after careful ythem with the four suits And of course, the va tiic Lady Ulma had stocked helped them stretch the time between hunts
When Da a private party and thu his nose at the hosts
Final y Elena couldn’t stand it any longer, and had Stefan float her up the side of the thurg (looking down or cliic Stillworked
She sat down on the saddle beside Daht to be angry with me But don’t take it out on the others Especial y Bonnie"
"Another lecture?"Da her a look that would freeze a fla herself to say "a plea"
When he didn’t answer and the silence beca on a quest for treasure out of greed or adventure or any nor because we need to save our town"
"Froht,"a voice just behind her said "Froht"
Elena whirled to stare She expected to see Stefan holding Bonnie clasped to hi on to the thurg ladder
Elena forgot she was afraid of heights She stood up on the swaying thurg, ready to clih room for Bonnie to sit down fast in the driver’s saddle
But Bonnie had the slimmest hips in town and there was just roo,"Bonnie repeated Elena knew that monotonous voice, knew the chalk-white cheeks, the blank eyes Bonnie was in trance - and ent
"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 Daoing to happen then?
"That’s when it starts And it’s over in less than an hour So
no hts?
"Not in Fel ’s Church No one left to see theht The children are final y ready"
The children?
Bonnie si to happen to all the children?
Bonnie’s eyelids drooped to half mast She didn’t see And suddenly she was Damon had reached across Bonnie’s lap and taken her hand
Bonnie, are the children going to do soht? 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 knohat she was doing, unclasped Damon’s hand and climbed down the ladder The bloated red sun looked different - sed 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 knoas 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 et back - "
"Easy Easy, love Remember what Lady Ulma said? Nearly a year here came out to be only days in our world"