Dawn nodded to the faerie, smiling as politely as she possibly could, and backed off, back onto the path so the trees screened her. "Okay," she whispered to her friends. "Now we know where the path leads. Can we go now? I really don't think a faerie market is a safe place for us."
"We should be fine as long as we don't eat or drink anything," Edie whispered back. "I mean, we know the rules, right? And they said they would trade for anything."
"We only know the rules if they're the same as the ones in books," Dawn said. "And I hope you're not thinking of trading because it is almost guaranteed that anything we buy at a faerie market will be dangerous."
"I definitely don't think we should buy anything," said Corrie. "But we can't leave yet. That's Professor Lal, right over there."
Dawn looked where Corrie was pointing and saw, with a sinking in her stomach, that she was definitely right. Their magic professor was standing by a table and holding an apple in her hand, talking to a squat, long-eared green faerie behind the table. She couldn't tell whether they were haggling or just chatting. "Okay." She took a deep breath and turned around. She didn't like turning her back on the faeries, but she wanted to be able to see all her friends. "Can we agree that we won't buy anything, and we'll stop each other if any of us tries to buy something? If the books are anything to go by, they'll try really hard to persuade us to buy. Even if we can afford it we might not like the consequences."
Roe nodded, her lips pressed together. "I definitely agree. I mean, if stuff we can buy on campus ends up being magical, the stuff at a faerie market is only going to be worse."
"That works for me," said Edie. "Do you think Professor Lal is going to be mad at us?"
"If she is, we'll get her to answer our questions," said Corrie. "I mean, either way I want some answers. But if she doesn't want us to be here, she could have stopped us."
"All right," said Dawn. "Lead the way, Corrie."
"Why me? You're the one with the Sight."
Dawn grimaced. "Exactly. You can't see what all these guys look like." There was a huge variety of faeries here, as there always was, and some of them were huge, or fanged, or frightening in some other way. Professor Lal had a frightening appearance, too, but at least Dawn was used to her. "I'd rather just focus on following."
"Besides, you're the one who went into the woods by yourself," said Annie. "I think you're the bravest of all of us."
Corrie grinned, obviously pleased by that assessment. "Well, when you put it that way, I guess I will go first. Stick close."
She turned and walked boldly out into the market. Dawn followed closely behind her, still clinging to Rico's hand. The thin, brown faerie welcomed them all again, seemingly unfazed by their pause before entering. Corrie walked straight to the place where they'd seen the professor, not looking around at the tables full of wares. Dawn kept her eyes trained on Corrie's feet, but she couldn't block out the strangely-shaped shadows or the calls, in many varied voices. It hadn't seemed so noisy from the path; she wondered if they saw the humans and were trying extra hard to sell to them.
Once she felt Rico pause for a moment. She instinctively jerked him along, then smiled apologetically. "It might not be safe even to look."
He smiled back. "I know. Thanks."
In a sudden panic, she turned and looked over her shoulder, locating her other friends. They were all right behind her, and she forced herself to breathe. She hated being surrounded by faeries like this.
It seemed to take an hour, but they finally reached Professor Lal. She was lifting the apple to her face when Corrie cleared her throat. "Professor Lal?"
She whirled around, her already-huge dark eyes widening. "Corrie? Dawn? What are you girls doing here?" She frowned. "You weren't looking for me, were you?"
Corrie shook her head. "We didn't know you'd be here. We didn't even know this was here. We were looking for Edie's girlfriend, Leila, and followed a path from her tree."
"Ah." Professor Lal glanced over their heads. "Of course. Well, welcome to the market, I suppose."
"Is Leila here? Or, um, anyone else we know?" Edie asked.
Professor Lal shook her head. "I'm afraid I haven't seen Leila. And you shouldn't be wandering around here."
"We weren't," Dawn said. "We saw you and came straight over to you. We really have a lot of questions."
"Hey," said the short, green man Professor Lal had been talking to. He had a croaking voice that matched his appearance. "You going to buy that apple or what?"
"Oh, yes, here you go." She dropped what looked like a pile of frost onto the table. "I'm sure that's plenty. We'll go sit and talk, girls. Do you want any food first?"