A Court of Chaos and Confusion - An ACOTAR Rewrite

Chapter 23

Tamlin was called away to one of the borders hours after I found that head – where and why, he wouldn't tell me. These days there only seemed to be one thing that called the High Lord and his Emissary away – the blight. It was indeed crawling from other courts directly toward ours.

Wherever he went he stayed the night – the first he'd ever spent away since I got here, to my knowledge – but sent Lucien to "keep me company." We smoked faerie flower on one of the many alabaster balconies, as we usually did when we spent time alone. He told me Tamlin was alive and had wanted me to know. I rolled my eyes but told him to thank our High Lord for me. I didn't know why Tamlin had bothered to let me know about his well-being, but seeing that head, the games these courts played with people's lives as tokens on a board... it was an effort to keep food down whenever I thought about it.

Despite the creeping malice, I awoke the next day to the sound of merry fiddling, and when I looked out the window I found the garden bedecked in ribbons and streamers. On the distant hills, I spied the makings of fires and maypoles being raised. When I asked Alis – whose people, I'd learned, were called the urisk – she simply said, "Summer Solstice. The main celebration used to be at the Summer Court, but... things are different. So now we have one here, too. You're going."

I couldn't hide my smile or my excitement. Summer...in the weeks that I'd been painting, giving half-hearted attempts at translating, and wandering the courts at the High Fae's side summer had come. 

I could tell from the decorations around the estate this would be a far more spirited, far grander event than anything we'd have back home. I wondered if my family still thought I was visiting some long-lost aunt, and what they were doing with themselves. We didn't celebrate holidays on our side of the wall, but we did get a day's break from the long summer days of planting and tilling.

Tamlin remained gone for most of the day, and it wasn't until late afternoon that I heard Tamlin's deep voice and Lucien's braying laugh echo through the halls to my painting room. I hoped that the solstice didn't require the same rites as Calanmai as I went to find them, but Alis yanked me upstairs. She stripped off my paint-splattered clothes, insisting I change into a flowering, cornflower-blue chiffon gown. She left my hair unbound but wove a garland of pink, white, and blue wildflowers around the crown of my head.

I might have felt childish with it on, but looking in the mirror I looked... beautiful.

"Cauldron boil me," Lucien whistled as I came down the stairs. "She looks positively Fae." I blushed furiously but thanked him for the compliment.

Tamlin was standing beside him almost glowing and, for once, completely unarmed – and smiling at me. Whatever he'd gone to deal with hadn't been too bad, then. "You look lovely," Tamlin murmured.

I squared my shoulders, disinclined to let them know how much their words impacted me. "I'm surprised I'm even allowed to participate tonight."

"Unfortunately for you and your neck," Lucien countered, "tonight's just a party."

"Do you lie awake at night to come up with all your witty replies for the following day?"

Lucien winked at me, and Tamlin laughed, and both offered me their arm. I took them and let them lead me through the garden. "He's right. Solstice celebrates when the sun outshines the night. As the longest day of the year, it's a time when everyone can take down their hair and simply enjoy being a faerie – not High Fae or faerie, just us, and nothing else."

"So there's singing, dancing, and excessive drinking," Lucien chimed in, "And dallying," he added with a wicked grin. I tripped him, causing him to stumble and work to fall back into step beside me. I flashed him a sweet demure smile and continued on my way.