Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 134: Not Alarming

"Whew!" said Belinda as soon as they stepped out of the woods and back onto campus. "That was completely crazy. Thanks for coming with me, everyone. I would have totally freaked out if you hadn't been there."

"Really?" said Corrie, surprised. "You seemed to be handling it well. I mean, you made faces sometimes, but you stood up to them. I would have been too scared to do that."

"I'm a pretty good, uh, B. S.-er," said Belinda, grimacing. "And I wasn't going to back off of my teaching job. I really psyched myself up for that and I would've been pretty mad if I hadn't been able to convince them of what they needed to do to learn the music."

"You did extremely well," said Professor Lal. "Do you think you will be all right on your own from now on?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Belinda. "I mean, if there are any real threats against me, I can just throw Feloc at them." She shook her head, hugging herself. "I really hope that can be taken off or something in the future. I don't want to have to be in control of some faerie for the rest of my life."

"Just don't point at Chatoyant College and give random orders during the day," said Edie. "That didn't look like something that you had to be close by for."

Belinda nodded. "Good plan. But after I saw the situation, I wasn't too scared of actual attacks, because Mardalan was the one who wanted me there, and she was clearly in charge. I was more afraid of her deciding she didn't like me than anything else. But I think she understands where I'm coming from now."

"I agree," said Professor Lal. "You have gained her respect. There is something I did not wish to mention before we left in case things didn't work out, but it is another reason that I decided to accompany you; I had to tell our alarm system that there was no cause for concern."

"Oh, that's right," said Corrie. "You need one of her hairs."

"One of my hairs?" Belinda said with a frown.

"That's right," said the professor. "We have an alarm system that tell us when someone passes between faerie territory and the campus's land. This is to prevent problems that we have had in the past and to protect students should they accidentally wander into the wrong area—technically they are not permitted in the forest at all, but we have no way of enforcing that."

"Oh, it's a magical alarm system," said Belinda. "So you need hair so the magic will know it's me."

"Exactly," said Professor Lal. "The magic professors will not receive an alarm when you pass through in either direction because it will know that you are authorized."

"Well, all right then," said Belinda. They had just about reached the front gate, so she took off the hat she'd been wearing and tugged at the ends of her hair until one came free. She held it out to Professor Lal. "Promise you're not going to make a voodoo doll of me?"

"Voodoo is not a discipline that we teach here," said Professor Lal. She was completely serious, of course.

"What about the faeries' alarm system?" Corrie asked. "Or do we not have to worry about it because Mardalan will be expecting her? I noticed there wasn't any alarm today—or maybe it didn't go off because we were actually inside the court."

"There is no longer an alarm active on the faeries' side," said the professor. "I would have sensed it when we went past."

"Wow, so Mardalan really did take down everything Belara and Feloc did," said Edie. "I would have thought the alarm system, at least, would be useful."

"I guess she wanted to make the point that it didn't bother her to have humans hanging around," said Corrie. "Well, that makes things easier. Though hopefully the rest of us won't need to go there anymore, now that Ever is a student again."

"And hopefully Mardalan no longer has anything against Edie," agreed Professor Lal with a meaningful look. Edie squirmed slightly. None of them had said anything about Leila that night; Corrie hoped that meant the subject was dropped.

"Okay, I'm going to go meet my mom now," said Belinda. "I guess I may or may not see you next week."

"You have my number, right?" said Corrie. "If you get here after sunset and get locked out, call me and I'll come tell them to let you in. Or if you just want advice or something, I guess." She grinned. "Oh yeah, Professor Lal, you'll help Belinda get into Chatoyant College when application time comes, right?"

"Indeed." The professor smiled slightly. "It will be good to have another student whose relations with the court faeries are actually positive. Good night, Belinda."

"Good night, everyone!" Belinda waved to them and then let herself out through the little door in the wall by the gate. The gate guard waved, too.