I spent the entire day and night with Lattie on Saturday. We walked through the park as she told me more stories of where she came from and how wonderful it was to live in Faerie. She described all of the amazing forests, castles and parties.
I felt silly when she was amazed by such mundane things like ice cream, cookies and hot dogs from the guy who sold them in the park. After a tiresome argument about hiding in my purse, we decided it was best she disguised herself as a bird as she flew next me. I'm sure it looked funny. A girl walking around talking to a bird that was following her, but we decided it was better than a girl walking around talking to herself.
"What’s your favorite fairy place?" I asked her as I took a spoonful of my frozen yogurt. We sat on the soft white sand of the beach down at the waterfront. The sun was setting and the water reflected a stunning rainbow of purple and orange.
"Oh, definitely the Summer Court, the summer fey are always so pleasant and fun," she replied and took a scoop of my frozen yogurt with her hand. "And it's beautiful there."
"Hey, who rules the Summer Court?" I thought of Tess and how much she loved the story of Kheelan. She’d said he once ruled the summer fey or something like that.
"Oh, that's Kheelan. He used to be a great king but things have changed since his queen went missing. The Summer Court hasn’t been the same in her absence. Courts can manage to exist with a single monarch, but summer is all about love and new life. It flourishes when ruled by two monarchs who channel that."
"Where did she go?" I asked. I found it strange that a Queen would go missing. You’d think that people would recognize someone like that walking around, unless she was kidnapped, or dead.
"No one knows. It happened about twenty years ago. The summer court misses her greatly. She was magnificent, so kind and warm." Lattie danced and twirled on the sand as she spoke of the Queen. Then she slowed down and came to sit on my knee, looking up at me with sad eyes. "It was then that things started to happen, the bad things."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, first the Summer Queen went missing and then Kheelan's father, King Orion, disappeared soon after that. He ruled the High Seelie Court, which is sort of like the main one. Once he vanished, Queen Mabry took over and the courts haven’t been the same since. Summer suffers from their Queen’s absence, and the Seelie Court is an awful and scary place. More and more fey are fleeing to Iron World to be solitary, which makes all the courts suffer even more."
"That's terrible Lattie, I’m so sorry." I felt horrible that my sweet little friend had been forced to leave her home. "But you can stay with me as long as you like, I promise."
She brightened up, flew to my face and laid her tiny, sticky fingers on my cheek. "Thank you, Avery. I will be forever grateful for your friendship."
"Nah, don't mention it," I joked. We sat a little while longer on the beach and then headed home. This had been a great day. No drama, no stress, just carefree relaxing. Definitely out of the ordinary, what with school and Max and the stories I’d learned, but I could handle that. I’d been told fairy tales my whole life, the only difference now was that they were real.
Iron & Wine Page 17