Laurel swallowed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
Tamani smiled softly and lifted a hand to her face, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and letting his thumb rest on her cheek. “Trust me, it’s no picnic missing you. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Without meaning to, Laurel leaned into Tamani’s hand. He shifted forward until his forehead rested on hers, hands cupping the sides of her face, then trailing slowly down her neck. Only when the tip of his nose brushed hers — ever so softly — did she realize he was about to kiss her. And that she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to stop him.
“Tam,” she whispered. His lips were just a breath away from hers.
His fingers tightened ever so softly against her neck, but he stopped and pulled back. “Sorry,” he said. He moved his face, letting his lips fall instead on her forehead before pulling away and pointing back down the wide road that cut through the meadow. “Let’s keep going. I should probably get you back to the Academy in another hour or so.”
Laurel nodded, not sure which emotion was strongest. Relief. Disappointment. Loneliness. Regret.
“How…how did they know I would be a Fall faerie?” Laurel asked, trying to find a more neutral subject.
“Your sprout opened in the Fall,” Tamani said simply. “All faeries emerge from their sprout in the season of their powers.”
“Sprout?”
“The flower you were born from.”
“Oh.”
Laurel had nothing else to ask without bringing the subject back to faerie parentage, so she was silent — trying to absorb this new development — and Tamani followed her lead. They walked a little farther until the pedestrian traffic thickened and more houses began to dot the road. These were different from the ones she’d seen around the Summer Square. They had the same climbing vines that decorated much of the Academy — the ones with flowers that opened when the moon came up. But rather than the transparent walls she was used to, these buildings were made of wood and bark — sturdy lean-tos, small houses, a few cottages with loosely thatched roofs. They were charming and quaint and every other fairy-tale word she’d ever heard used to describe small homes. But a sense of difference permeated the air.
“Why aren’t these houses transparent?” Laurel asked.
“These are Spring faerie homes,” Tamani replied, still hovering at her left shoulder.
“And…?”
“And what?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Summer faeries need to photosynthesize enormous amounts of sunlight in order to create their illusions and the light needed for fireworks. They need to be exposed to every hour of sunlight possible. Plus,” he added after a brief pause, “these houses are easier to build and keep up. There are a lot of us, after all.”
“How many Spring faeries are there?”
Tamani shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. Somewhere around eighty percent of the population.”
“Eighty? Really? How many Summer faeries?”
“Oh, I’d guess fifteen percent. Probably a smidge more.”
“Oh.” She didn’t ask about Fall faeries. She could do the math. Tamani had told her that Winter faeries were the rarest of all, with maybe one born in a generation, but Fall faeries were apparently rare enough. Laurel supposed that subconsciously she’d also realized there were fewer Fall faeries, but she hadn’t understood just how limited their numbers were. No wonder they didn’t have their own square.
The housing was growing dense, and other faeries were teeming around them now. Some were gloved and carried gardening implements, several quite alien to Laurel despite her mother’s passion for plant life. Others busied themselves outside their homes washing clothing too delicate to be their own. Laurel noticed several carts laden with food, from raw fruits and vegetables to fully prepared meals wrapped in grape leaves or the petals of some enormous flower that smelled vaguely like gardenias.
One Spring faerie who hurried by was carrying a staff like a shepherd’s crook, with a small pot dangling from the curved top. At least a dozen vials of liquid were strapped across his chest. Laurel cast a questioning glance over her shoulder, but Tamani just pointed one finger forward with a smile.
Laurel turned and realized that the low murmur of the crowd was rising in pitch and timbre. But only when a cloud of buzzing insects materialized, seemingly from nowhere, did Laurel understand why. She bit off a shriek as she found herself enveloped in a cloud of extremely active honeybees.
As quickly as they had come, they were gone. Laurel turned to watch the swarm disappear into the crowd, following the Spring faerie with the shepherd’s crook. Laurel recalled from her reading several ways animals and insects “and other lower life-forms” could be influenced and even controlled by scent. She momentarily pondered the usefulness of tame bees to a society of plants, but her musing was derailed by Tamani’s laughter.
“Sorry,” he said with a chuckle. A smile still ticked at the side of his mouth. “But you should have seen your face.”
Laurel’s instinct was to be mad, but she suspected her face had looked pretty funny. “Am I going the right way?” she asked, as though nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.
“Yes, I’ll let you know when it’s time to turn.”
“We’re in Spring now, right? Why does it matter if you walk behind me? It makes me feel lost.”
“I apologize,” Tamani said, his voice tense. “But this is the way things are around here. You walk behind a faerie who is more than one rank above you.”
She paused and Tamani almost bumped into her. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” She turned to Tamani. “And I won’t do it.”
Tamani sighed. “Look, you’re privileged enough to have standards like that; I’m not.” He glanced at the crowd flowing around them and finally said, quietly, “If I don’t do it, it’s not you who gets in trouble, it’s me.”
Laurel didn’t want to let it go, but she didn’t want Tamani to be punished for her ideals, either. With one more glance at his downcast eyes, Laurel turned and continued walking. She was increasingly aware of how much she stood out; much more so than in Summer Square. Aside from their various trade implements, everyone around her looked…well…like Tamani. They were dressed in simple, canvas-like material, mostly cut into breeches or calf-length skirts. But as with all faeries, they were attractive and neat. Rather than looking like a stereotypical working class — with worn faces or shabby clothes — they looked more like actors pretending to be working class.
Much less charming was the way everyone who caught her eye stopped their conversation, smiled, and did the same slight-bend-at-the-waist thing Tamani had done when he’d met her at the Academy. As she and Tamani passed, their chatter would begin again. Several greeted Tamani and tried to say something. He waved them away, but one word in particular kept floating to Laurel’s ears.
“What’s a Mixer?” she asked once there was a break in the crowd.
Tamani hesitated. “It’s a little weird to explain.”
“Oh, well, never mind then, because explaining weird things to me has definitely never been part of this relationship.”
Her sarcasm brought a sheepish smile to Tamani’s face. “It’s kind of a Spring faerie thing,” he said elusively.
“Oh, come on,” she said. Then added teasingly, “Tell me or I’ll walk beside you.”
When he didn’t respond, she slowed down and then quickly spun away from his hand and repositioned herself right by his side.
“Fine,” he said in a whisper, pushing her gently back up in front of him. “A Mixer is a Fall faerie. It’s not a bad name or anything,” he continued in a rush. “It’s just a…nickname. But it’s something we would never call a Fall to their face.”
“Mixer?” Laurel said experimentally, liking the feel of it on her tongue. “Because we make things,” she said, laughing. “It’s fitting.”
Tamani shrugged.
“What’s a Summer?”
Now Tamani cringed a bit. “A Sparkler.”
Laurel laughed, and several of the cheerily clad Springs glanced her way before returning to their work with a little too much of an air of purpose. “What about Winters?”
Tamani shook his head. “Oh, we would never take Winter faeries so lightly. Never,” he added emphatically.
“What do you call yourselves?” she asked.
“Ticers,” Tamani said. “Everyone knows that.”
“Maybe everyone in Ticer-ville,” Laurel said. “But I didn’t.”
Tamani snorted when she said Ticer-ville. “Well, now you do.”
“What does it mean?” Laurel asked.
“Ticer, like en-tice-ment. It’s what we all do. Well, what we can do, anyway. Mostly only sentries ever use it.”
“Oh,” Laurel said with a grin. “Ticer. Got it. Why do only sentries use it?”
“Um,” he began uncertainly, “remember last year when I tried to use it on you?”
“Oh, that’s right! I’d almost forgotten.” She turned to him in mock anger. “I was mad at you!”
Tamani chuckled and shrugged. “Point is, it didn’t work very well because you’re a faerie. So only sentries — and specifically sentries who work outside Avalon — ever really have a chance to use it on nonfaerie creatures.”
“Makes sense.” Her curiosity sated, Laurel began walking again. Soft fingers touched her waist, guiding her through the still-heavy crowds.
“To the right here,” Tamani said. “We’re almost there.”
Laurel was glad to find herself turning down a much less crowded side street. She felt conspicuous and self-conscious and wished she had asked the tall faerie at the kiosk to put the hair jewels in a box. No one else here was wearing anything even remotely similar. “Are we there yet?”
“That house up there,” Tamani said, gesturing. “The one with the big flower boxes up front.”
They approached a small but charming house made from a hollowed-out tree, though the tree wasn’t like anything Laurel had ever seen before. Instead of a thick trunk growing straight up, it had a wide base and grew out in a round shape, like an enormous wooden pumpkin. The trunk narrowed again at the top and continued to grow up, sprouting branches and leaves that shaded the house. “How does it grow like that?”
“Magic. This house was a gift to my mother from the Queen. Winter faeries can ask the trees to grow any way they please.”
“Why did your mother get a gift from the Queen?”
“As a thank-you for years of distinguished service as a Gardener.”
“A gardener? Aren’t there a ton of gardeners?”
“Oh, no. It’s a very specialized field. One of the most prestigious positions a Spring faerie can aspire to.”
“Really?” Laurel asked skeptically. She’d seen dozens of gardeners just around the Academy.
Tamani looked at her strangely for a moment before understanding blossomed across his face. “Not like human gardeners. We would call those Tenders here, and yes, there are a lot of them. I suppose you might call my mother a…a midwife.”
“A midwife?”
If Tamani heard the question, he made no sign. He knocked softly on the ash door of the strange tree house. Then, without waiting for a response, he opened it. “I’m home.”
A squeal sounded from inside the house and a flutter of colorful skirts wrapped itself around Tamani’s legs. “Oh, my goodness, what is this?” He detangled the young faerie and lifted her over his head. “What is this thing? I think it’s a Rowen flower!” The little girl squealed as Tamani tucked her against his chest.
The girl looked like she was maybe a year old, scarcely more than an infant. But she walked steadily and her eyes betrayed intelligence. Intelligence and, Laurel felt certain without knowing why, mischief.
“Have you been a good girl today?” Tamani asked.
“Of course,” the young faerie said, far more articulately than Laurel would have thought possible for a child so small. “I’m always a good girl.”
“Excellent.” He turned his gaze toward the inside of the house. “Mother?” he called.
“Tam! What a surprise. I didn’t know you were coming today.” Laurel looked up and felt suddenly shy as an older female faerie walked into the room. The woman was beautiful, with a lightly lined face, pale green eyes just like Laurel’s, and a broad smile that was beaming at Tamani. She didn’t seem to have noticed Laurel yet, half hidden behind him in the doorway.
“I didn’t know myself until this morning.”
“No matter,” the woman said, taking Tamani’s face in both hands and kissing his cheeks.
“I brought company,” Tamani said, his voice suddenly quiet.
The woman turned to Laurel and, for a second, concern masked her face. Then recognition dawned and she smiled. “Laurel. Look at you; you’ve hardly changed a bit.”
Laurel smiled back, but her face fell when Tamani’s mother inclined her head and bent at the waist.
Tamani must have felt Laurel stiffen, because he squeezed his mother’s hand and said, “Laurel’s had enough formality for one day. She’s just herself in this house.”
“All the better,” Tamani’s mother said with a smile. Then she stepped forward and took Laurel’s face, just like she had Tamani’s moments before, and kissed both cheeks. “Welcome.”
Tears sprang to Laurel’s eyes. It was the warmest greeting she’d had from anyone except Tamani since arriving in Avalon. It made her miss her own mother acutely. “Thank you,” she said softly.
“Come in, come in; no need to stand in the doorway. We have windows enough for that,” Tamani’s mother said, shooing them in. “And since we’re doing away with the formality, you can just call me Rhoslyn.”