Лиза Смит - The Return - Midnight

“Ahh!” Elena made a wordless exclamation of frustration.

“Do you know what I’m naming her?” the Lady continued. Her face, if not conventionally beautiful, was striking, with an aristocratic combination of Roman nose and high cheekbones.

“No.” Elena smiled — and then “No!” Elena cried. “Please! Don’t condemn her to a life of expectations and terror. Don’t tempt anyone to hurt her while she’s still a child. Oh, Lady Ulma!”

“But my dear savior…”

Then Elena began to manage things. Once she took a situation in hand there was no way not to go with the flow of it. “Lady Ulma,” she said clearly, “forgive me for interfering in your affairs. But Bonnie has told me—” She stopped, hesitated.

“Of the troubles of strong and hopeful young girls, for the most part poor or enslaved, who have taken on the names of the three bravest young women who ever graced our world,” Lady Ulma finished for her.

“Something like that,” Elena said, flushing.

“Nobody’s calling themselves Damon,” put in the young nurse cheerfully and with the utmost goodwill. “Neither boys nor girls.”

Stefan could have kissed her.

“Oh, Lakshmi!” Elena hugged the coltish-looking teenager. “I didn’t even see you properly. Let me look at you.” She held the girl at arm’s length. “Do you know, you’ve grown at least an inch since I last saw you?”

Lakshmi beamed.

Elena turned back to Lady Ulma. “Yes, I am afraid for the child. Why not call her Ulma?”

The patrician lady half shut her eyes. “Because, my dear Elena, Helena, Aliena, Alliana, Laynie, Ella — I would not wish ‘Ulma’ on anyone, much less my lovely daughter.”

“Why not call her Adara?” Lakshmi put in suddenly. “I always thought that was pretty, since I was a kid.”

There was a silence — almost a stunned silence. Then Elena said, “Adara — it’s a lovely name.”

“And not at all dangerous,” Bonnie said.

Stefan said, “It wouldn’t stop her from starting a revolution if she wanted to.”

There was a pause. Everyone looked at Damon, who was looking out the window expressionlessly. Everyone waited.

He finally turned. “Oh, excellent,” he said blankly, clearly having no idea — and less interest — in what they were talking about.

“Oh come on, Damon.” Bonnie’s eyes were still swollen, but she spoke brightly.

“Make it unanimous! That way Lady Ulma will be sure.” Good God, Stefan thought, she must be the most forgiving girl in the universe.

“Certainly, then,” Damon said indifferently.

“Forgive us,” Elena said tightly to the room in general. “We’ve all been going through a bit of a hard time.”

That gave Lady Ulma her cue. “Of course you have,” she said, smiling the smile of one who has known bitter suffering. “Bonnie has told us of the destruction of your town. I am deeply sorry. What you need now is food and rest. I’ll have someone conduct you to your rooms.”

“I should have introduced Stefan at the start, but I was so worried I forgot to,” Elena said. “Stefan, this is Lady Ulma, who was so good to us before. Lady Ulmawell, you know who this is.” She went on tiptoe to kiss Stefan lingeringly. Lingeringly enough that Stefan had to gently detach her and put her down. He was almost frightened at this display of bad manners. Elena was really angry at Damon. And if she didn’t forgive him, the scenes would only continue to escalate — and if he was right, Elena was truly getting closer to being able to cast Wings of Destruction.

He didn’t even consider asking Damon to forgive anyone.

After the girls had whispered raptures over the baby again, they were conducted to opulent bed chambers, each furnished in excellent taste, down to the smallest decoration. As usual, though, they all congregated in one room, which happened to be Stefan’s.

There was more than enough space on the bed for the three of them to sit or flop. Damon wasn’t present but Stefan would bet his undead life that he was listening in.

“All right,” Elena said briskly, and went into storytelling mode. She explained to Bonnie everything that had happened through their taking the Master Keys from Shinichi and Misao, to their flight to Lady Ulma’s bathing chamber.

“To have so much Power suddenly torn away from you in an instant…” Bonnie had her head down, and it wasn’t hard to guess who she was thinking about. She looked up. “Please, Elena. Don’t be so angry at Damon. I know he’s done some bad things — but he’s been so unhappy…”

“That’s no excuse,” Elena began. “And, frankly, I’m—” Don’t, Elena! Don’t tell her that you’re ashamed of her for putting up with it!

She’s already ashamed of herself!

“I’m surprised at him,” Elena said with only the smallest hesitation. “I know for a fact that he cares for you. He even has a pet name for you: his little redbird.”

Bonnie sniffed. “You always say that pet names are stupid.”

“Well, but I meant names like — oh — if he called you ‘Bonbon’ or something.”

Bonnie’s head came up. “Even that would be okay for the baby,” she said, with a sudden smile, like a rainbow after a storm.

“Oh, yes, isn’t she adorable? I never saw such a happy baby. Margaret used to just look at you with big eyes. Adara — if she is Adara — should have such a happy life…”

Stefan settled back against the headboard. Elena had the situation in hand.

Now he could worry about where Damon was going. After a moment he tuned back in, to find Bonnie talking about treasure.

“And they kept asking me and asking me and I couldn’t figure out why since the star ball with the story on it was right there. Only the story is gone now — Damon checked. Shinichi was going to throw me out the window, and that was when Damon rescued me, and the Guardians asked me about the story too.”

“Strange,” Stefan said, sitting up alertly. “Bonnie, tell me how you first felt this story; where you were and all.”

Bonnie said, “Well, first I saw a story about a little girl named Marit going to buy a sugarplum — that was why I tried to do the same thing the next day. And then I went to bed, but I couldn’t sleep. So then I picked up the star ball again and it showed me the story about the kitsune treasures. The stories are shown in order, so it had to be the one right after the sweetshop story. And then suddenly I was out of my body, and I was flying with Elena right over Alaric’s car.”

“Did you do anything in between experiencing the story and going to bed?”

Stefan asked.

Bonnie thought; her rosebud mouth pursed. “I suppose I turned down the gas lamp. Every night I would turn the lamp way down so that it was only a flicker.”

“And did you turn it back up again when you couldn’t sleep and reached for the star ball again?”

“Um…no. But they’re not books! You don’t have to see to experience a story.”

“That wasn’t what I meant. How did you find the star ball in that dim room? Was it the only star ball on the floor near you?”

Bonnie’s brows came together. “Well…no. There were twenty-six. Two others were hideous; I’d kicked those into a corner. Twenty-five were soap operas — so boring. It’s not as if I had shelves or anywhere else to put them—”

“Bonnie, do you want to know what I think happened?”

Bonnie blinked and nodded.

“I think that you read a children’s story and then you went to bed. And you actually fell asleep very quickly, even though you dreamed you were awake. Then you dreamed a premonition—” Bonnie groaned. “Another one of those? But there wasn’t even anyone to tell it to then!”

“Exactly. But you wanted to tell it to someone, and that longing brought you — your spirit — to where Elena was. But Elena was so worried about getting word across to Alaric that she was having an out-of-body experience. She’d been asleep too, I’m sure of it.” Stefan looked at Elena. “What do you think of that?”