The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

The note simply read: By Order of Queen Litha, your presence is requested at the Royal Court of the Summer Faeries. I found it lying by my pillow this morning, tied with a fiery red ribbon from which dangled a tiny golden crown.

I have been summoned to the palace before, but not quite so formally. Usually Arial dashes up to me, points her wand at my head, and as we dissolve in a cascading shower of sparkles, says something like “We must hurry, the queen has asked to see you.” I have never been left a mysterious note, wondering how I’m supposed to get from the ivy hedge to the palace by myself.

I made my way downstairs, mumbling, “I guess I could look through the opening in the ivy again…” Bill was in the kitchen and turned to greet me with a cup of coffee in his hand.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear what you were saying. Hey, would you like a cup?” He shook an empty mug at me. I pulled out a stool and sat at the counter. “Sure, I’ll take a cup, thanks.” My attention returned to the note in my hand. “I didn’t know I was talking out loud.”

Bill walked over, handed me my coffee, smiled and patted me on the back. “I hate to tell you this, but you talk to yourself a lot. It’s just one of the quirky little things that I love about you.  So, what do you have there?”

He stood patiently waiting. I handed the note to him with a little smirk on my face. “Well, I can show you, but you won’t remember. ” He took the proffered  missive and said, “Hey! give me a little credit, I’m not that old.”  I smiled up at him and let the paper slipped from my fingers, “your memory isn’t the problem hon.”

His eyes widened a little as he read Litha’s command. “Faeries again huh.” I nodded. “Yep. Litha does things differently though. In the past the other queens have either come to me, or Arial took me to them. I don’t know how I am supposed to get there this time.” I waved my hand at the note. “I just have this.”

Arial popped in just as Bill was handing the parchment back to me. “Oh good, you have found Queen Litha’s invitation. It is very important that we do not keep her waiting, come.” I stood and held my arms out. “Would you like me to go in my night gown?

Arial tilted her head to one side and held her wand forward. “No, that would never do, allow me.” With that, she waved her wand and my pj’s were instantly replaced with a long floral skirt and a pale green pleasant blouse. My hair was brushed to a copper sheen and my make-up was expertly applied.

“Wow, I have to get me one of those!” I reached toward Arial as if to take her wand. She glided backward in quick retreat, holding the wand behind her. “Faeries only!”

“Come on Arial, I was only teasing you, don’t be so serious.” I swirled the long skirt around my ankles. ” Not to change the subject, but, before you showed up I was wondering how Litha expected me to get to the palace. I had no idea if you were aware that I had been summoned.” Arial tucked her wand securely under her belt and darted forward. “I can take you, or…” She started drifting casually back and forth. I didn’t like her tone, I have come to be very suspicious of sentences that trail away with “or”, especially when the sentences come from the mouths of magical creatures.

“Or what?” I forgot that Bill was standing  just a few feet away, Arial had my complete attention. He chuckled and shook his head as he walked past me, giving me a look that told me he thought I was talking to myself again. I repeated, “Or what, Arial?” I emphasized Arial’s name so that Bill would realize that I was talking to her, not to myself. Arial buzzed around his head and tweaked his ear for emphasis.

“Ouch! All right, all right! I see her, okay?” He made a face in her general direction, sticking out his tongue and pulling the corners of his eyes up, then disappeared into the library.

Arial flew around to sit on my shoulder. “Or…I could show you how to get there by yourself. Remember the pink stone I gave you? The one with the hole in the center?” I nodded. My hand found the stone that I carried with me, deep in the pocket of my robe. The stone was the only thing I remembered about Midsummer.

Arial continued. “Fix in your mind a clear picture of where you want to go,  hold the stone up to your eye so that you can see through it and say ‘take me to’, then say where you want to go. It is really quite simple. Shall we try?”

I looked at Arial with what could only be described as total abject fear. “I, I, I…don’t think so!” Pushing the stone deep into my pocket, I backed away from the door. Not that getting away from any mortal opening would stop any magical mode of transportation, but I felt better.  “I haven’t even seen the summer palace, I could end up somewhere so totally wrong Arial, totally wrong!”

Arial stood and put her hands on her hips. “Well, if others can manage, I’m sure you can, come on now, try it.” She rustled down into my pocket before I knew what she was doing and came out with the smooth pink stone. My thoughts were on what she had said. “Wait a minute, wait a minute, what do you mean by “others”?

She darted toward my face with the charm held out in front of her. Sliding to a abrupt stop, she pushed the stone up to my eye, winked and said “you don’t think you are the only one do you? Now, think of the meadow and see it in the center of the stone.”

Thoughts of others with faerie blood vaporized and a picture of the grassy meadow and the palace it surrounded rose up from the depth of my memory, and for one shinning moment, I saw it in the center of the stone.

All I did was blink,  it felt like I was being squeezed through a tunnel, then, the memory of the clearing in the center of the stone became a reality. I found myself standing in tall grass that was waving gently in the breeze, the cheerful little stream that cut a path across the meadow from the forest to the palace, wandered back and forth finally ending  in a cool blue pond. I turned to see the magnificent spires of Litha’s summer court rising up before me.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.