"Each kind of harp has a unique key to tune the strings," Meredith whispered, looking down the length of the hall. On each side the line of harps marched into the distance. "One of those keys might be the key."
"But how will we even know?" Bonnie was fanning herself lightly with her peacock feather fan. "What's the difference between a harp key and the fox key?"
"I don't know. And I've never heard of a key being kept in a harp, either. It would rattle around the sound box every time the harp shifted slightly," Meredith admitted.
Elena bit her lip. It was such a simple, reasonable question. She should feel dismayed, should be wondering how they could ever find one small half of a key in this place. Especially considering that the clue they had - that it was in the Silver Nightingale's instrument, suddenly seemed absurd.
"I don't suppose," Bonnie said a little giddily, "that the instrument is her voice, and that if we reach down her throat..."
Elena turned to look at Meredith, who was looking heavenward - or at whatever was above this hideous dimension. "I know," Meredith said. "No more drinks for birdbrain here. Although I suppose it's possible that they give out little silver whistles or instruments as favors - all big parties used to do that, you know - give you a gift."
"How," Damon said in a carefully expressionless tone, "would they possibly get the key into a favor for a party being given at least weeks away, and how could they ever hope to retrieve it? Misao might as well have told Elena, 'We threw the key away.'"
"Well," began Meredith, "I'm not at all sure that they did mean for the keys to be retrievable, even by them. And Misao could have meant 'You'd have to search all the garbage from the night of this gala' - or some other party Fazina performed at. I imagine she gets asked to play at a lot of other people's parties, too."
Elena hated bickering, even though she was a champion bickerer herself. But she was a goddess tonight. Nothing was impossible. If only she could remember...
Something like white lightning struck her brain.
For just an instant - one instant - she was back, struggling with Misao. Misao was in her fox form, biting and scratching - and snarling out a reply to Elena's question about where the two halves of the fox key were. "As if you would understand the answers I could give. If I told you that one was inside the silver nightingale's instrument, would that give you any kind of idea?"
Yes. Those had been the exact words, the real words that Misao had spoken. Elena heard her own voice, repeating the words distinctly now.
And then she felt something like an arc of lightning leave her mind - only to meet another's not far away. The next thing she knew her eyes were flying open in surprise because Bonnie was speaking in that blank toneless way she always did when making a prophecy:
"Each half of the fox key is shaped like a single fox, with two ears, two eyes, and a snout. The two fox key halves are gold and covered with gems - and their eyes are green. The key you seek is yet in the Silver Nightingale's instrument."
"Bonnie!" Elena said. She could see that Bonnie's knees were trembling, her eyes unfocused. Then they opened and Elena watched as confusion surged in to fill the blankness.
"What's going on?" Bonnie said, looking around to see everyone looking at her. "What - what happened?"
"You told us what the fox keys look like!" Elena couldn't help this exclamation - almost a shout of joy. Now that they knew what they were looking for they could free Stefan; they would free Stefan. Nothing would stop Elena now. Bonnie had just helped move this quest to an entirely different level.
But while she was quaking inside with joy at the prophecy, Meredith, in her own level-headed way, was taking care of the prophet. Meredith said quietly, "She's probably going to faint. Would you please..."
Meredith didn't have to ask further, for the vampires, Damon and Sage, were each quick enough to catch and support Bonnie on opposite sides. Damon was staring down at the diminutive girl in surprise.
"Thanks, Meredith," Bonnie said, and let out a breath, blinking. "I don't think I'll faint," she added, and then with a glance up at Damon through her lashes, "But it's probably just as well to make sure."
Damon nodded and got a better grip, looking serious. Sage turned half away, seeming to have something stuck in his throat.
"What did I say? I don't remember!"
And after Elena had solemnly repeated Bonnie's words it was just like Meredith to say, "You're sure now, Bonnie? Does that sound right?"
"I'm sure. I'm positive," Elena cut in. She was positive. The Goddess Ishtar and Bonnie had unlocked the past for her and shown her the key.
"All right. What if Bonnie and Sage and I take this room, and two of us can be distracting the steward, while the third looks in the harps for keys?" Meredith suggested.
"Right. Let's do it!" Elena said.
Meredith's plan proved to be more difficult in practice than it sounded. Even with two glorious young girls in the room and one terminally fit guy, the steward kept spinning in little circles and catching one or another of them handling and peering into a harp.
Naturally, the handling was strictly forbidden. It put the harps further out of tune and it could easily damage them, especially since the only way to make absolutely sure that a small golden key was not in a harp's sound box was to actually shake the harp and listen for rattling.
Worse, each of the harps was displayed in its own little nook, complete with dramatic lighting, a flamboyant painted screen behind it (most of them portraits of Fazina playing the harp in question), and a plush red rope across the front of the nook that said "Keep Out" as plainly as a sign.