Stefan nodded. “I thought they would be. That story was a precognition, given to you with the purpose of helping us find the largest star ball ever made.”
“Well, let’s go inside!” cried Bonnie. “We’re wasting time!”
“Okay — but everyone on your guard. We don’t want anything to go wrong now,” Stefan said.
They went into the Gatehouse of the Seven Treasures in this order: Bonnie, who found that the great black doors swung open at a touch, but that she could see nothing, coming in from bright sunlight; Stefan and Elena, hand in hand; and Damon, who waited outside for a long time in the hopes, Elena thought, of being deemed “a different party.”
Meanwhile the others were having the most pleasant shock since they’d taken the Master Keys from the kitsune.
“Sage — Sage!” Bonnie shrilled as soon as her eyes adjusted. “Oh, look, Elena, it’s Sage! Sage, how are you? What’re you doing here? Oh, it’s just so good to see you!”
Elena blinked twice, and the dim interior of the octagonal room came into focus.
She went around the only piece of furniture in the room, the large desk in the middle. “Sage, do you know how long it seems? Did you know that Bonnie almost got sold for a slave at a public auction? Did you know about her dream?”
Sage looked as he always had to Elena’s eyes. The bronzed, terminally fit body, like a model of a Titan, the bare chest and bare feet, the black Levi’s, the long spiraling tangles of bronze hair, and the strange bronze eyes that could cut steel, or be as gentle as a pet lamb.
“Mes deux petits chatons,” Sage was saying. “My two little kittens, you have astounded me. I have been following your adventures. The Gatekeeper is not provided with much entertainment and is not allowed to leave this fortress, but you were most brave and amusing. Je vous félicite.” He kissed first Elena’s hand and then Bonnie’s, then embraced Stefan with the Latin two-cheeked kiss. Then he resumed his seat.
Bonnie was climbing Sage as if she were a real kitten. “Did you take Misao’s star ball full of Power?” she demanded, kneeling on his thigh. “Did you take half of it, I mean? To get back here?”
“Mais oui, I did. But I also left Madame Flowers a little—”
“Do you know that Damon used the other half to open the Gate again? And that I fell in too, even though he didn’t want me? And that because of that I almost got sold as a slave? And that Stefan and Elena had to come after me, to make sure I was okay? And that on the way here Elena almost fell off the bridge, and we’re not sure if the thurgs are going to make it? And do you know that in Fell’s Church the Last Midnight is coming, and we don’t know—” Stefan and Elena exchanged a long, meaningful glance and then Stefan said, “Bonnie, we have to ask Sage the most important question.” He looked at Sage. “Is it possible for us to save Fell’s Church? Do we have enough time?”
“Eh bien. As far as I can tell from the chronological vortex, you have enough time and a little to spare. Enough for a glass of Black Magic to see you off. But after that, no dawdling!”
Elena felt like a crumpled piece of paper that had been straightened and smoothed. She took a long breath. They could do it. That allowed her to remember civilized behavior. “Sage, how did you get stuck way out here? Or were you waiting for us?”
“Hélas, no — I am assigned here as punishment. I got an Imperial Summons that I could not ignore, mes amis.” He sighed and added, “I am just Out of Favor again.
So now I am the ambassador to the Nether World, as you see.” He waved a languid hand around the room. “Bienvenue.”
Elena had a sense of time ticking away, of precious minutes being lost. But maybe Sage himself would do something for Fell’s Church. “You really have to stay in here?”
“But assuredly, until mon père — my father”—Sage said the word savagely and resentfully—“relents and I am allowed to return to the Infernal Court, or, much better, to go my ways without ever returning. At least until someone takes the pity on me and kills me.” He looked inquiringly around the group, then sighed, and said, “Saber and Talon, they are well?”
“They were when we left,” Elena said, itching to get on with their real business here.
“Bien,” Sage said, looking at her kindly, “but we should have your entire group in here for the viewing, no?”
Elena glanced at the doors and then again at Stefan, but Sage was already calling — both with voice and telepathy—“Damon, mon poussinet, do you not want to come in with your comrades?”
There was a long pause, and then the doors opened and a very sullen Damon stepped in. He wouldn’t reply to Sage’s friendly, “Bienvenue,” instead saying, “I didn’t come here to socialize. I want to see the treasures in time to save Fell’s Church. I haven’t forgotten about the damned hick town, even if everyone else has.”
“Alors maintenant,” Sage said, looking wounded. “You have all passed the tests in your way and may look upon the treasures. You may even use magic again, although I am not sure that it will help you. It all depends upon which treasure you seek. Félicitations!”
Everyone but Damon made some gesture of embarrassment.
“Now,” Sage continued, “I must show each gate to you before you can pick. I will try to be quick, but be cautious, s’il vous plaît. Once you choose a treasure, that is the only door that will open again for any of you.”
Elena found herself clutching at Stefan’s hand — which was already reaching for hers — as one by one the doors shone with a faint, silvery light.
“Behind you,” said Sage, “is the very gate you entered to get into this room, yes?
But next to it, ah…” A door brightened to show an impossible cavern. Impossible because of the gems lying on the ground or sticking out of the cave walls. Rubies, diamonds, emeralds, amethysts…each one as big as Elena’s fist, lying thick in great piles for the taking.
“It’s beautiful, but…no, of course!” she said firmly, and reached out to put a hand on Bonnie’s shoulder.
The next door lit up, brightened, then brightened more so that it seemed to disappear. “And here,” Sage sighed, “is the famous kitsune paradise.”
Elena could feel her eyes widen. It was a sunny day in the most beautiful park she had ever seen. In the background a little waterfall spilled into a creek, which ran down a green hill, while directly in front of her was a stone bench, just the size for two, underneath a tree that looked like a cherry in full bloom.
Blossoms were flying in a breeze that rustled other cherry and peach trees nearby — causing a rain of dawn-colored petals. Although Elena had only seen the place for a moment, it already seemed familiar to her. She could just walk into it…
“No, Stefan!” She had to touch his arm. He had been walking right into the garden.
“What?” he said, shaking his head like someone in a dream. “I don’t know what happened. It just seemed as if I were going to an old, old home…” His voice broke off. “Sage, go on, please!”
The next door was already lighting, showing a scene with rack after rack of Clarion Loess Black Magic wine. In the distance, Elena could make out a vineyard with lush grapes hanging heavily, fruit that would never see the light of the sun until it was made into a famous liquid.
Everyone was already sipping at their glasses of Black Magic, so it was easy to say “no” even to the luscious grapes.
As the next door brightened Elena heard herself gasp. It was brilliant midday.
Growing in a field as far as she could see were tall bushes thick with long-stemmed roses — the blossoms of which were a velvety-looking black.
Startled, she saw that everyone was looking at Damon, who had taken a step toward the roses as if involuntarily. Stefan put an arm out, barring his way.
“I didn’t look very closely,” Damon said, “but I think these are the same as the one I…destroyed.”
Elena turned to Sage. “They’re the same, aren’t they?”
“But yes,” Sage said, looking unhappy. “These are all Midnight roses, noir purthe sort in the white kitsune’s bouquet. But these are all blanks. The kitsune are the only ones who can put spells on them — like the removal of the curse of a vampire.”
There was a general sigh of disappointment among his listeners, but Damon just looked more sullen. Elena was about to speak up, to say that Stefan shouldn’t be put through this, when she tuned in to Sage’s words and the next gate, and felt a surge of simple, selfish longing herself.
“I suppose you would call it ‘La Fontaine of Eternal Youth and Life,’” Sage said.
Elena could see an ornate fountain playing, the effervescent spray at the top making a rainbow. Small butterflies of all colors flew around it, alighting on the leaves of the bower that cradled it in greenery.
Meredith, with her cool head and straightforward logic wasn’t there, so Elena dug her nails into her palms and cried “No! Next one!” as quickly and forcefully as she could.
Sage was speaking again. She made herself listen. “The Royal Radhika Flower, which legends say was stolen from the Celestial Court many millennia ago. It changes shape.”
A simple enough thing to say…but actually to see it…