Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When she heard the clicking of the key entering the lock on the door, Sierra quickly paused her work, tossing one of the blankets over the hole in the corner, which she had been working on all day.
Hoping the darkness, which was barely broken thanks to the single lamp on her cell wall, would help to hide the dirt under her cracked nails, Sierra leaned up against the wall just as the door swung open to reveal the two guards.
Repeating the same pattern as the two days before, the men each grabbed one of her arms and began to move quickly from the room.
At least Sierra knew this was a normal occurrence now, and she was at least able to somewhat prepare for her daily dragging.
Just like the two days before, she was roughly deposited in Slaine’s dim work room, and the guards quickly removed themselves to the hall before closing the door behind them.
“You’re looking a bit worse for the wear,” Slaine commented as soon as it was safe, taking one of Sierra’s hands in hers, and observing the dirt under her nails, which were also cracked and bleeding.
For a moment, Sierra debated sharing her plan with Slaine, but although the woman was kind, she did not yet trust her enough not to turn her in to Aodhan’s father.
“It’s very dirty in the cell,” Sierra replied, figuring that was a safe enough comment, especially considering the state of her dress, which was now becoming more brown than white.
Plus, there was still the fact that she wasn’t wearing any undergarments, and she was sure her period was likely to appear any day now.
While Sierra had never been regular, her body was always good at making sure the irregularity lined up with the most inconvenient times.
Slaine prepared a plate of fruit again, which Sierra had to restrain herself from consuming in a single bite.
Slaine also handed her a cup of water, which she swallowed in one gulp before holding it out for more.
There had been no pastry this morning or last night, and the pit in her stomach only continued to deepen.
The room filled with the sound of the crackling fire, which was much welcomed after a night of digging in the cold dirt. Once the plate of fruit was gone, Sierra set it aside and turned to Slaine.
“Have you always lived here…in Sidhe?” she asked, hoping she didn’t butcher the name too much. Aodhan had always let her refer to it as The Hills, which was better with her obvious American accent, but she was unsure if that translation was widely known here.
Slaine nodded. “I was born here. To a human father and a Fae mother. Even with magic, in Sidhe you often remain in the same social class as your parents, unless you marry someone above your social class or have above-normal levels of magic. My mother was a healer, and since my magic is also of the healing nature, here I am.”
Sierra didn’t want to ask, but she knew the answer would plague her if she didn’t. “Are you here…by choice?”
“Yes. As a healer, working for a wealthy family is much preferred to working for a village. At least here I am paid in coin and decent lodgings instead of being paid in cattle and home-cooked dinners.”
Sierra understood. Without modern constructs like insurance, it was likely a town healer would be paid in whatever the town had, even if the pay was non-monetary.
“And Conlan wasn’t always like this,” Slaine added.
The corner of Sierra’s lips ticked down in confusion.
Slaine sighed before continuing, “He was once a nice man, but as he aged, he became more concerned about the failing magic and, in particular, the fact that he held very little. The Fae lifespan has also been shortening as a whole, and I believe he fears death.”
Sierra mulled over Slaine’s words for a moment, thinking of some of the lectures she had attended at Trinity College for her masters. “But even if it was a curse affecting the Fae, and he managed to break it, does he believe the results will be instantaneous enough to extend his own lifespan?”
“I’m not sure. I think he may believe that, but I also believe he may just be doing this out of love for his children.”
Sierra wasn’t so sure. Based on what Slaine had told her, it was likely Aodhan was in trouble with his father for not turning her in. That didn’t sound like love to her. But maybe it was because of Aislin. “Does…Conlan…have a good relationship with Aodhan’s sister?”
“Brother,” Slaine corrected, confusing Sierra as she was sure that Aodhan had mentioned a sister. “And no, he does not.”
“Aislin?” she asked, to clarify.
“Aislan, now,” Slaine replied. “He began his transition a few months ago. Aodhan likely didn’t know, but he had always been supportive of Aislan doing what felt right to him.
“Conlan is not supportive of the transition, sadly. He also blames Aislan’s desire to transition on the fact that magic is waning.
He acts as if the whole reason Aislan chose to transition was because he didn’t have much magic, but I can assure you that wasn’t the case at all.
I’m afraid Conlan has started to use the fading of magic as a scapegoat for several unrelated issues in his life. ”
Sierra gritted her teeth. She hated when people put the blame on something that was clearly unrelated.
Her mother did the same thing, blaming Diego’s social issues on him not attending church, when it was, in fact, more likely that Diego was having problems due to disagreements with their mother herself.
The thought of her family made Sierra realize they were probably worried, but for some reason, while she felt guilty that they would worry, she also felt a small amount of satisfaction that they couldn’t call and blame her for her own disappearance.
“But that’s what I wanted to tell you yesterday before it was time for you to leave.
” Sierra’s eyes moved from the fire to Slaine as she continued.
“Aislan left the castle, but he still has connections. I have sent word to him through the information grapevine. If anyone knows how to get you out and find Aodhan, it’s him. ”
“He’ll rescue me?”
“I don’t know what he will do.” Slaine motioned to Sierra’s dirty nails.
“Continue your plan. It may be a while before Aislan is able to come for you. I don’t know what his plans will entail either; I just know that he is cunning, and adept at getting around the rulings of his father, as he has been doing so for a long time. ”
Sierra was about to ask for more information, when, like the days prior, the door was rudely pushed open, and she was collected by the two guards.
Once she was redeposited in her cell, Sierra resumed her digging.
The dirt floor was hard-packed, but she was pretty good at using her short nails to get her hand in and remove the dirt clump by clump.
To avoid having an obvious pile of dirt by the corner, each clump she removed she repacked in the ground around her room, trying to make it as even as possible so no one would notice the random appearance of more dirt.
She had yet to make it to the bottom of the wall, and she wasn’t even sure this was an exterior wall, which could prove problematic later. Either way, she didn’t see another solution, so she continued her excavation.
On and on she dug, only pausing once when the door to her cell opened enough for a bit of bread on a plate to be passed through.
Sierra devoured it quickly, before resuming her task.
Unsure whether it was night or day, she continued digging despite the mounting pain in her nail beds, squealing in excitement when she finally reached the base of the stone wall.
Now, she would just have to dig deep enough for her to fit underneath, then dig up the other side.
Sierra was exhausted, however, and decided it was time for a little sleep. She would continue her plan tomorrow. If all went well, she hoped she would only be imprisoned here for another two or three days at most.
She could do this. She had to. She refused to die in this cell.
Sierra awoke to the sound of a key in the lock, rising quickly to ensure her hole was covered before the guards entered the room. She felt she had only slept a few hours, but the thought of seeing Slaine and having some food for her stomach was enough to perk up her tired body.
When the guard grabbed her arms, Sierra winced as their hands encircled her biceps. It made sense that she was a bit sore after the hours of digging the day before. She just hoped she was able to push through the pain to dig again today.
Her hope quickly died, however, when she noticed the guards were taking her on a different path than normal.
As they continued to take more turns around corners Sierra wasn’t sure she recognized, her mind began to go wild, thinking of all the things she could do or say if she was being brought to Conlan directly.
All of these thoughts tumbled through her heart as she was instead pushed into the room containing the tub which she had bathed in upon her arrival. Like before, a woman stood and motioned for her to get in the bath as soon as the guards released their grips.
Although she hoped this was just because her dress was now officially brown, she feared it was likely because they planned to take her blood again.
Stripping herself of the gauzy gown, Sierra stepped into the tub, quickly concealing her dirt-packed nails beneath the surface.
She cleaned what dirt she could, hoping it wouldn’t be too obvious that she had been passing her time trying to dig out of her cell.
It wasn’t until she was handed a bar of soap that Sierra noticed that her arms didn’t look like they normally did, covered in red spots, and lesions every few millimeters.
Instead, the spots had begun to fade, almost from the inside out, with her normal skin peeking through the center of each lesion, which were now no more than pink rings.
Sierra couldn’t believe her eyes. For years, the spots had inhabited her skin, and now they were disappearing of their own accord, without Sierra needing to take a pill or use one of the creams the doctor had given her.
Sierra resumed her washing, trying to think of anything else that could have caused this miraculous almost clearing of her skin.
By the time the small bit of soap was gone, Sierra had come to the conclusion that the Sidhe realm itself must be healing her, or perhaps the fact that she hadn’t eaten much besides fruit and bread for the last few days was the answer.
Sierra would’ve liked to spend more time in the bath, looking at her clearing skin and enjoying the enveloping warmth of the water, but within a few minutes of her using the last of the soap, the woman beckoned for her to rise, pulling a new white gauze gown over her head.
With a sigh, she glanced down at the dress as the woman tightened the waistband.
They must’ve had multiples of these on hand, as Sierra’s brown one was still in a pile on the floor by the tub.
She glanced around, hoping to see something that resembled underwear, only to be disappointed.
Before she could ask the woman who had handed her the dress, the guards were back and leading her down the hallway.
The little hope she held out that this was just a chance for her to wash and change disappeared the moment she was pushed into the room with the stone slab, and she braced herself for what was coming.
Sierra rolled her eyes as she was led to the slab and held down just as she had been before.
This time, Conlan wasn’t even there, and it was a different man who collected her blood.
She couldn’t be sure, as her eyes had been pressed closed the entire time, but Sierra was pretty sure they took more than before.
From a medical standpoint, Sierra knew she would be fine, but she also knew that taking someone's blood made them hungry and fatigued, so she may not be able to dig the rest of the day.
She promised herself she would try anyway.
The moment Sierra stood, she knew she had been correct in her assumptions.
She felt lightheaded, and was forced to lean on the shoulder of the guard as they led her back to her room.
Unlike before, their dragging tactic didn’t work because of how lightheaded Sierra felt.
She could tell this annoyed one of the guards, as he huffed when they practically had to carry her the last bit to her cell.
She wanted to make a smart remark, but she found she was too tired to even do that.
By the time they arrived at her dungeon cell, or wherever it was they were keeping Sierra, the two guards were carrying her between the two of them. As they leaned down to place her on the ground, Sierra tipped her head back, her eyes making contact with one of the guards.
For a moment, Sierra thought she really was losing it, as Aodhan’s emerald-green eyes looked back at her. But then she blinked, and his face transformed to the point where it didn’t truly resemble him. Sierra shook her head. She had clearly lost too much blood.
But then, to her shock, the guard held a finger to his lips in the universal ‘quiet’ symbol, before releasing her shoulders and stepping away.
Sierra mustered all the energy she could to push herself into a sitting position, but by the time she did, the door was swept closed, and the room echoed with the telltale click of the lock.
Sierra’s vision swam a second time, and she decided that as much as she wanted to dig today, she would sleep first. Just for a few hours…