Page 27 (1/2)

"Let’s pray I don’t have to do that" After a moment, I asked, "What of the Unseelie? If Myst was Unseelie and she is now Queen of the Indigo Court--what of the rest of the darker Fae? Did they all becoo Court? And Lainule, is she the Queen of Seelie?"

Wrath looked surprised atupstairs As we ascended, he tried to explain

"There are the Grand Courts, and then the Lesser Courts There are Fae Queens all over the world--each rules a different region Lainule--and I--are Queen and King of about half of this continent Myst wasn’t the Unseelie Queen before she was turned, but she killed Tabera, as, by destroying her heartstone and set herself up in her place She nized as the Queen of Ice and Snow here, though She is an upstart"

"So what happened to the Unseelie under Tabera’s--is that her na Fae are remnants of some of theh they don’t really fit in" Wrath frowned, looking very

"What is it?" I pressed hie, it was is like this "I want to learn It’s e"

"So it is" After aI sat down on the step next to hi that chaos becaed, she took the place of the Unseelie Queen--the Queen of Winter, who rules over chaos"

"Myst doesn’t strike me as someone who likes to share"

"No, she does not Myst seeks to conquer Here, it’s easier to build her armies because the Grand Courts live far away on the other side of the world Suht, and while they do not necessarily like each other, they accept the necessity for both powers to instill a natural balance"

I nodded, slowly beginning to understand "But why haven’t the Grand Courts stepped in?"

"There are s that are too difficult to explain in one brief talk They are old, Cicely, in a way that Lainule and I are not, and they often overlook the dangers that evolve outside of their area The Grand Courts are so far res until it’s too late"

"Almost like Crawl is for the vampires…"

"Yes, they live in a different realm, so far in the mists…"

"So Myst was able to sneak in and cause havoc"

Wrath clapped ood But we cannot allow her to succeed--her idea of normalcy is to fill the world with skulls and sinew, to rip and shred and destroy She is destruction incarnate, without check She is the untae"

"If she is a force and fury, then perhaps she cannot help herself," I said softly "If Myst killed Tabera, and for a tiained her pohy didn’t Suh, since she has had no opposition all of these long years?"

"My Lady rules with justice It may not seem kind, at times, but the Queen of Rivers and Rushes understands the nature of checks and balances She sees the universal scale of creation and destruction and understands the need for both, even if we haven’t had our opposing force for so very long"

Cautiously, I said, "When ere in the woods, Rhiannon could see the door to Lainule’s chaical doors" I looked at hi

But my father merely shushed me and I knew better than to press the matter for now "No more questions now Up and to bed Sleep deep We will all need our strength tonight, ht about what he’d said but the swirl of his words becapictures and tapestries aroundas I drew the soft covers up around ainstto come couldn’t intervene as sleep claih the forest, with Rhiannon besidehands I turned to her "Showover her shoulder "I don’t even knohere to begin" She let go of my hand and walked over to one of the cedars that towered in the woodland As she played with one of its boughs, fingering the needles, she said, "These are not the forests of my dreams I dream of forests filled with oaks…with rowan and hawthorn I drea the ocean"

Nodding, I glanced up at the tree "These are hter, this was our homeland But where were you?"

Rhia so and far away…it’s in a fog, but I remember the forest And I was there I was on round, stretching out "I reh…"

Silence fell between us Rhia looked up atslits "On an to transforether and her arms to her sides

I stepped back No, she shouldn’t be this…Danger, er here Fly away

I shifted into owl for, and flew up into the branches of the tree This was htful place And below…

Below, Rhiannon’s skin scaled over, and her hair flowed into the scales, creating a beautiful dia, sleek andup at er, and my oas stirred I had carried off snakes before,stopped nition that ere both necessary, that we could not har reflected back at hts reached out to her