Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 119: Clever

Corrie stared at the faerie rulers. All her other questions had gone out of her head. They'd been planning this for... years? But what exactly had they been planning? And, perhaps more importantly, had they succeeded? Because whatever their plans were, if hurting Dawn and screwing up their magic with bad information was only part of it, it couldn't be good news.

Dawn managed to ask first. "But what have you been planning? What's the purpose of all this?"

Belara looked at Feloc. "Shall we tell them?"

"We might as well," said Feloc. "They're not going anywhere."

Corrie heard a rustling noise that she thought was coming from behind the thrones. Belara and Feloc didn't seem to notice it. She tried to see what it was, but she couldn't get a view around the side of the thrones, at least not without making it obvious what she was doing.

"We want to rid our land of you," said Belara. "All of you."

"Us?" asked Edie.

"You humans," said Feloc. "And human-sympathizers, of course. Not much point getting rid of the humans if others are just going to let them back in."

Corrie shook her head in confusion. "If you want us off your land, just let us go. We'll be happy to leave, I promise."

Feloc laughed. "That would be too easy, wouldn't it? But there are too many humans at that college to deal with easily. And the human-sympathizers, like your Lal, wouldn't allow it. They would refuse to leave without far more persuasion than this, and things would just get messy."

So they didn't just consider this part, the part past the invisible barrier, their land. They wanted all of the college, and probably all the land around it too. Corrie wondered if they would ever be satisfied.

"This isn't messy?" asked Dawn.

"We found the cleanest way we could to deal with you all," said Belara. "Soon the others will be driven off the land. It will be too much for them. And the faeries that are left will either follow their precious humans or realize the merit of our way and pay homage to us. Now that we are the undisputed rulers of our land."

"Wait—you couldn't have known that would happen," said Edie. "Leila attacked Mardalan because of me. If she hadn't, you wouldn't have been able to take power this way, because she would still be there balancing you."

"We knew we would find a way to deal with Mardalan eventually," said Feloc. "We have patience. Plenty of it."

"When she asked us to help her find a way to lure her sister back into the fold, we knew we had her," said Belara. "It was our idea to poison the trees. It was her idea to use you, of course, but we would have been happy no matter what happened to you."

"Even though I'm not exactly human?" Edie asked.

Feloc rolled his eyes. "Close enough. You can't do any real magic. You're worth nothing to us."

Belara flicked her tail out toward Corrie like a whip. She jumped backward, though not enough to avoid being smacked on the ankle—mainly because the silent rocklike faerie was still holding her wrists. She was beginning to worry. But at least they were talking. "Still impressed by us, little human?" Belara asked.

"Oh, yes," said Corrie, her throat dry. "Of course. I never would have been able to plan something that took so long without even knowing ahead of time how I was going to pull it all off."

That made them both laugh raucously. "Of course you couldn't!" Belara crowed. "You're just a human! Do you see why we're so superior?"

The crowd gathered behind them cheered. Corrie looked over her shoulder nervously. She'd almost forgotten there were other faeries in the court. But there they were, apparently hanging on every word, excited to see Belara and Feloc prove their superiority. Or maybe just to watch the humans die. She couldn't be sure.

How long had they been here? Would Roe realize they were missing? Had she even finished her lesson with Professor Strega yet? She had to keep stalling for time. "So you want to get rid of the humans. I must say, for as smart as you are, you don't seem to be doing a very good job. You're only managing to get rid of the five of us, plus Ever."

"We don't want to kill them all, stupid human," said Feloc. "That's what we meant when we said it would be messy. We're just going to convince them to leave."

"How?" asked Dawn. "By making random threats on their lives? I thought you were only doing that to us... with Paul and the knife."

"Oh, no, that was just for you," said Feloc. "You were meddling too much. As you can see, we've decided to end your meddling in a permanent way."

"The humans will leave when the magic gets too much for them to handle," said Belara.

"The extra magic in the things we bought on campus," said Corrie. "That was you?"

"See?" said Belara. "Cleverer than you thought."