Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
As it turns out, the outside appearance of Teach Crann was deceiving, for when Aislan led her into the house, she found that it was a spacious home complete with a small kitchen, living room, dining area, and bathroom, if you could call it that.
It was rudimentary at best, nothing like the bathrooms Sierra was used to in the human world.
While there was some type of apparatus that flushed using a pull handle, there was a simple bowl and pitcher to operate as a sink and an old-fashioned bathing tub, which would need to be filled manually with pitchers of water.
The house also had three bedrooms, which Aislan showed her so she could rest after she used the facilities.
As he opened one of the bedroom doors, Sierra’s jaw dropped.
The room had a large bed in the center, akin to a king-size in the human world.
It was decked out in a black silk comforter, with red sheets peeking through from underneath.
The room was lit by what looked like fireflies in jars, though Sierra couldn’t be sure from afar.
While the room wasn’t heavily decorated, there were some green and gold vines painted on the wall here and there to add some color to the brown wood.
Sierra immediately noticed a door on the far side of the room, which led to a private bathing chamber.
“Are all the bedrooms this big?” Sierra asked as she headed for a second door in the bathroom.
“No, this is the one for the owner of the home. The other two are a bit smaller and don’t have a private bathing chamber.”
Sierra’s hand paused where it rested on the door handle. “But I don’t own this treehouse.”
Aislan’s response came at the same time that Sierra opened the door to reveal a closet filled with men’s clothes. “I know, but Aodhan does.”
Sierra was aghast. “I thought he lived in the castle with your father?” She stepped into the closet, running her hands over the soft fabrics.
“He has a room there too. But this is a place where he can come to get away from our father when he needs to. He bought it in secret a few years ago. I’ve been hiding out here since our father doesn’t know about it when I have to leave my ruse at the house from time to time.”
Sierra turned from the colorful clothes until her eyes met Aislan’s green ones. Her heart ached as she wished that they were the green eyes of Aodhan instead. “Are you sure he’s okay with me staying in his room?”
Aislan smiled. “Of course. If I know Aodhan, which I do, there is nowhere else he would rather you stay. Plus, besides my room, there’s only one guest room, which Braan and Kaye are staying in, so unless you want to bunk with them…
” Aislan trailed off suggestively, but Sierra could tell by his tone he was kidding.
Sierra chuckled. Something about Aislan’s demeanor reminded her of her younger brother, Diego. But before she could delve too deep into the meaning of those thoughts, which were sure to be painful, she yawned.
“Rest a bit. We will meet in the living room in a few hours to discuss how we proceed from here.”
Sierra made her way to the large bed as Aislan slipped out the door, closing it behind himself.
As she peeled back the covers and got comfy, she sighed in contentment.
The bed was so soft and comfortable it felt like she was being tucked into a cloud.
Before she could follow that thought further, she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Sierra awoke hours later from a dead sleep, groggy and unsure of where she was. As she lay in the plush red bed, looking at the room around her in confusion, it took quite a few minutes for the events of the night before to come back to her.
Once they did, she sat up slowly in bed, grimacing as she realized she was still in the white dress, and she had laid in Aodhan’s pristine bed without even removing it. She would have to offer to wash the sheets before they departed.
Rising from the soft and silken sheets, Sierra noticed some clothing laid out on the end of the bed. The clothing wasn’t large enough to be Aodhan’s, but it looked too large to belong to another woman of her size.
Willing to do anything to get out of the white dress, Sierra stripped down, sliding the leggings up her legs and pulling the jacket top over the top of her body. It didn’t exactly fit, but at least she would be able to move more easily than she had the night before.
Walking over to the window, which was covered with a dark curtain, Sierra slid it open slowly, her eyes meeting the dim light of sunset. She had slept the whole day away.
She stood there for a few moments longer, willing the stress of the past few days to leave her muscles, but of course, it was useless.
She wouldn’t truly be able to relax until she saw Aodhan again and was able to sort out exactly what had happened.
It would also help if she was out of the danger of being captured by Conlan.
Sadly, she had no idea when that would be.
Admiring the golden glow of the sunset over the trees, she remembered the time and her task and readied herself to join the others in the main room to see how the planning had turned out, since she was pretty sure she had missed it at this point.
Opening the door, she found Braan, Kaye, and Aislan huddled around a small wooden table, arguing in hushed voices. The moment the door creaked open, Braan and Aislan paused, their Fae hearing clearly coming in handy.
“Good morning, or should I say evening?” Aislan offered, motioning for Sierra to join them around the table.
“Sorry, I guess I was more tired than I thought,” she apologized sheepishly.
Kaye waved her hand in the air. “Don’t worry about it, we only got moving about an hour ago. Trapezing through the forest all night will do that to you.”
Sierra approached the table to find a colorful map spread out over the surface. Her eyes widened at all the names of the unfamiliar towns and territories. Sidhe was much larger than she anticipated. Her eyes searched the surface of the map, but nothing familiar came into focus. “Where are we?”
“Here.” Aislan pointed to the far-right side of the map, colored green with foliage. “Even in Sidhe, Teach Crann is one of the best-kept secrets, so you won’t find it on many maps.”
Sierra nodded. “Is it still in Fuinseog?”
“Partially, but some of the buildings are in Funiun territory, and others in Sceach Gheal.” He pointed to an area in the forest. “The borderline between the three territories is in the forest below Teach Crann.” Braan clarified.
“Which is good for us because the specialty prison is in Sceach Gheal.”
Sierra looked at Aislan. “But I thought you said Aodhan would be in the regular prison?”
“That’s what we are currently disagreeing about. I think Aodhan is in Cuileann, at the main prison there.” Aislan pointed to a larger town on the coast. “But Braan is pretty sure he’s in Sceach Gheal.”
“Is there any way to know for sure?” she asked hopefully.
Aislan shook his head. “No, that’s the problem. Basically, we have a 50/50 chance, and we don’t want to waste time by going to the wrong one.”
“My vote is that we go to Sceach Gheal since it’s only half a day away from here,” Braan said.
“But if he’s in Cuileann, and we get caught at Sceach Gheal, we won’t be able to rescue him at all until we figure out how to get ourselves out of the strongest prison in Sidhe.”
“So, just to make sure I’m following, Aodhan could be in either prison, but Sceach Gheal is closer to our location but also more dangerous, meaning if we fail, we are all screwed.
But, if we check Cuileann first, and he isn’t there, we’ve wasted time and energy on the two days it takes to travel there from here.
” Kaye pointed at each location as she mentioned it before raising her eyes to meet Sierra’s. “And splitting up isn’t an option?”
Aislan shook his head. “We need all four of us to even have a chance at Sceach Gheal, but it is possible that two people could likely be successful at Cuileann.”
“I don’t get it,” Sierra interjected. “What makes Sceach Gheal such a big deal both for prisoners and for us to break someone out?”
All three sets of eyes in the room came to rest on her. “Cuileann is a basic Fae prison, similar to the one I broke you out of. It is run by the Fae and human servants who are easy to outmaneuver and manipulate,” Aislan explained. “Sceach Gheal is run by Typhon.”
“Who’s Typhon?” Sierra asked.
Aislan shook his head a second time. “Don’t they teach you anything in the human world?
Typhon is the child of Gaia, also known as the father of all monsters.
He’s a snake and human shifter. He also has many dragons in his employ, guarding the prison.
They are faster than Fae, often smarter, and they breathe fire.
Typhon is often rumored to be more snake than human, slithering himself into places where he doesn’t belong. ”
“And in the past few years, there have been several instances where he took prisoners just because he wanted to, and most of them were never seen again.”
Sierra’s eyes grew wide, and she hastily looked back at the map. “And you think we truly have a chance to break Aodhan out, if he is there?”
“Well, everyone has to have their weakness, right?” Braan said pointedly at Sierra.
“Okay, and what’s Typhon’s weakness?”
“Humans,” Aislan said pointedly. “Imagine being one of the only human creature shifters in Sidhe. Supposedly, Typhon is a true immortal, unlike the Fae, and he’s been living in the mountains since the beginning of time.
He has gotten lonely, and human visitors are the only ones allowed in his court without an invitation. ”
“Oh.” The room was quiet as Sierra absorbed the knowledge. “So, I have to go to Sceach Gheal then.”
“Yes,” Aislan confirmed. “But Aodhan would kill me if he knew I sent you in there alone, so Kaye has to go as well. Sidhe is dangerous for humans without Fae protection.”
“And where Kaye goes, I go,” Braan cut in. “And now you see how we came to the conclusion that we can’t split up.”
Sierra turned from the table to observe the last of the sun’s golden rays sinking behind the edge of the sea of trees. She turned their predicament over in her mind a few times, coming to her own conclusion before turning back to the group. “I know where we should go.”