Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 105: No Doors

Dawn started to say something, but Edie beat her to it. She crossed her arms and took a step forward, glaring at Professor Lal. "Why not?" she demanded.

Professor Lal shook her head, not in the least intimidated or abashed by Edie's anger. "It is not a thing that can be done."

"I'm sure you can stop us if you want to," said Corrie. "But at least explain to us why first."

"I intend to," said the professor. With a tiny movement of her head, she was now looking fiercely at the little old faerie lady. "And you go back in. You are not to show yourself to students."

The old faerie lady nodded hastily and shut the door. Dawn wondered if now, were she to open the door herself, she would see anything. Professor Lal looked over the students grouped in the hallway, was silent for a moment, then said, "We'll go upstairs to the lounge. Come." She turned and stalked off without looking behind her.

Of course, they all followed. Dawn wondered if they were in trouble, and if so, if it was for contacting the faerie lady or for wanting to go to Faerie, or perhaps for something else entirely. She wanted to ask her friends what they thought, but something about Professor Lal's silence made her want to stay quiet as well.

They ascended the stairs and reached the lounge where Professor Lal had spoken to Corrie, Edie, Roe, and Dawn the week before. The professor took a seat and the others arrayed themselves around her. "So what is it?" Edie asked impatiently. "Why can't we go to Faerie?"

"Humans cannot enter it," said Professor Lal, giving no sign that she was upset by Edie's abruptness. "There are no doors in the usual sense, and only faerie blood can be used to go there—not the spilling of blood, necessarily, but faerie life."

Dawn sucked in a breath. The way Professor Lal was talking it sounded like for non-faeries to enter Faerie, a faerie would have to die. But they would just have to not go in, she reminded herself. Leila might be there, but presumably she belonged there, since she was, after all, a faerie herself.

"What about me?" said Edie. Dawn's head jerked around to face her friend in surprise. Of course—Edie was part faerie. How picky was the border, or whatever it was that stopped non-faeries from entering?

Professor Lal was shaking her head. "It is possible that you would be able to enter, but it would be extremely difficult for you. I could not recommend it. Besides that, it is not necessary." She sighed and reached out a hand to lightly pat Edie's arm. "I can understand that you want to see Yedara, but if she is in Faerie, she is safe. There is no reason to look for her there."

"How can you be sure of that?" asked Dawn. "Surely the place where other faeries live is just as dangerous as here in the real world, full of other faeries."

Professor Lal inclined her head. "It can be, that is true. But not for a dryad. At least, not if what I suspect is the case."

"And what do you suspect?" Edie asked.

"That she has gone there to hibernate," said the professor. "She is still connected to her tree, is she not?"

"How did you know that?" Naomi asked.

"How did you?" countered the professor.

"I—I'm not sure," said Naomi.

"Her tree is still alive," said Corrie. "And it protects itself. Tom and Ever couldn't climb it, though Edie and I did."

Professor Lal's eyes widened slightly and Dawn thought she saw a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Indeed. There is your evidence. Mine is simply that if Yedara is injured or dead in Faerie, she cannot stay connected to her tree. It would die fairly quickly—it is not an ordinary tree, but more of an extension of her body. Or, if she chooses, her entire body. Such as now. For in Faerie, it cannot be said that we truly have bodies."

"Is that why it's safe there for Leila?" Edie asked.

"Yes," said the professor. "That and the fact that she is anchored to her tree. If she is hibernating, then it would be very difficult for someone to hurt either the part of her that is in Faerie or the tree, the part of her that is in our world. And obviously the protections she has set up on her tree are still there. No faerie can climb it."

Edie shook her head, frowning. "That still doesn't make sense. Why did the spells she put on me vanish if that one didn't?"

"When she took herself out of the human world, she broke all connections to it," said Professor Lal. "Except, of course, for the tree itself. That tree is the only connection she now has."