Chapter 52
Chapter Fifty-Two
Sierra was having a strange dream in which she was watching herself from across a dark stone room where she was being held prisoner as a small mouse was investigating one of her legs, its whiskers tickling her skin, but when she tried to move her arm to scratch, she couldn’t, because her arms were bound.
Sierra’s eyes flew open as the sensation increased, her eyes searching the stone floor for the mouse, which was indeed by the side of her leg.
Sierra had always been averse to rodents, and it took everything in her to tromp down the scream that crawled up her throat.
This mouse was clearly friend, not foe, and she needed to remain calm.
Her eyes caught Braan’s across the room. He was awake and staring at her, and he probably sent me that dream, Sierra realized.
Before she could ask him to confirm, the words of the mouse drifted through her mind.
Help is needed.
Just like before, Sierra couldn’t find a way to respond, so she just nodded her head, hoping whatever magic was at work would communicate the answer to the mouse.
We cannot break the bonds.
“Do you know someone who can?” she asked in a whisper, which made it a little less weird even though she knew she was communicating with the mouse mind-to-mind.
Yes, wait for the sign.
“What sign?” Sierra asked, but it was too late, and the mouse was scurrying off under the door. How it fit through a crack that was barely a sliver, Sierra had no idea, but she was thankful that it could.
“And?” Braan’s voice cut through her thoughts.
“It said it didn’t know how to break our bonds, but it knew someone that could. It said to wait for the sign.”
“What sign? And what are we supposed to do when said sign appears?” Aislan asked, now awake as well.
“I’m not sure,” Sierra grimaced. “This talking to animals magic thing isn’t as clear-cut as you would think.”
“It looked pretty cool to me,” Braan said in Aislan’s direction.
“It is, but it’s not like I can communicate full sentences, it’s more of an impression on my mind, and it’s usually very short and not very clear.”
“It makes sense if you think about it,” Braan explained.
“We assume that communicating with animals would be easy, but animals don’t have the same diction or verbal structure that we do, and often they communicate complex emotions with a single sound.
Like a single bark of a dog can indicate he is angry and about to attack.
So, when your magic translates, it probably does its best, but it may be taking a single sound of the animal and trying to put it into an understandable sentence. It’s quite remarkable, really.”
Braan was right. Sierra hadn’t had a whole lot of time to explore how her magic worked just yet, but the fact that it would be very difficult to translate the sounds of animals into words made sense. It also was unsurprising that they wouldn’t gender their speech, as humans did.
The good news was they didn’t have to wait long for the sign. Soon, there was a sound a bit like an avalanche in the distance.
“Do you think that’s the sign?” Aislan asked.
“I assume so,” Sierra replied.
The noise grew louder, as if the avalanche was moving closer.
“Uh…do you think we should be concerned?” Aislan’s eyes were wide with panic.
Sierra wasn’t sure if they should worry or not, but she figured being nervous wouldn’t help anything. “I’m sure the animals know what they are doing.”
Aislan scrunched his face in what was either concern, or disagreement at the sentence Sierra had just uttered.
She opened her mouth to argue, but just then the stone beneath them began to shift and move, almost like an earthquake.
“I’m regretting this decision immensely.” Aislan looked around nervously, but Sierra saw that Braan had a smile on his face; he was enjoying this.
As the rumbling came to a peak, the wall behind Sierra began to rattle, her body moving with the movement of the wall, causing her teeth to chatter together despite her efforts to hold them still.
Before she could process another thought, the stone wall behind her collapsed inward, the chains around her wrists snapping just in time for her to lean forward and cover her head with her hands.
She tried to cry out to Aislan and Braan in warning, but she couldn’t be sure any sound passed her lips as the wind was knocked out of her.
It was a good thing Kaye was no longer here, as Sierra was sure this would have killed her.
As quickly as it began, the rumbling stopped, and Sierra heard the sound of stones scraping against one another as they were shifted and lifted off her.
As soon as she was able to lift her head, she did, only for the blinding outdoor light from the pale sunrise to filter into the room, revealing the form of several large elipags as they used their trunks to move stones off her and Aislan.
From his spot across the room, Braan was mostly spared, but his wrists were still cuffed to the wall behind him.
Sierra looked down at her own arms, which were now free thanks to the fact that the metal cuffs had been attached to stones, which were now in pieces around her.
Sierra brushed herself off and stood, fighting to pull her chained legs free as they were still attached at the ankle beneath the stones.
As soon as part of the restraining chain was revealed, the elipag closest to her used a tusk to snap it in half.
She could move freely now, although the heavy metal cuffs remained firmly around her ankles.
Another elipag was busy helping Aislan with his ankle chains as Sierra rushed across the room to Braan, her fingers brushing over his cuffs, trying to figure out how to get his wrists released.
Sierra could see a keyhole, but they really were Fae-proof because, as much as she tried, she couldn’t pull the metal apart even a small amount so Braan could slip his hands out.
Sweat soaked Sierra’s face as she tried, both from her effort, and because of the heat in the room thanks to the three large elipags behind her.
We will try.
The words floated through her mind, and Sierra backed up a few steps as the elipag came up and slipped the curled edge of its tusk beneath the metal, cutting Braan’s hand, but if it hurt him, he didn’t say anything.
The cell had appeared to be small before, but with the elipag in front of Sierra and the two behind her, there wasn’t any room to breathe.
The elipag pulled back, snapping the metal easily before moving on to the next one, doing the same thing before breaking the chain that connected his feet.
Sierra nearly whooped with joy, but she knew that they needed to get out of there quickly before anyone came to investigate.
Mouse prepared distraction.
Sierra nodded once in response as the trio made their way to the edge of what used to be their prison.
Looking back over her shoulder, Sierra realized that Conlan wouldn’t be able to use that cell again anytime soon, watching as Braan and Aislan stepped through the massive round hole in the wall.
Braan gasped, his breaths coming in short pants. “We need to find Kaye.”
Aislan shook his head, “There’s no time. Hopefully Slaine has her and we can come back for her later.”
Braan bit his lip and Sierra knew how hard it was to leave someone you loved, but she also knew that Aislan was right. She placed a hand on Braan’s shoulder, “We will find her I promise.”
Braan frowned, but nodded and turned back to the group of elipags.
The elipag, which had undone Braan’s cuffs, leaned a leg down so she could climb on its back.
The other two were doing the same, and Braan was already moving to climb on one, while Aislan looked at the creature in front of him with apprehension clouding his features.
“Just get on, we don’t have time.”
That was all it took, and Aislan climbed on as the elipags made their way back to the small herd waiting a few feet away. As the three elipags joined the formation, they began to move back toward the forest.
“Where are we going?” Braan called out as they entered the trees.
Sierra’s arms ached and tingled from being above her head for so long, making it a bit difficult to hold on, but the elipag noticed, slowing its pace slightly.
“I’m not sure,” she called back.
“See if they know Teach Crann,” Aislan suggested.
Sierra figured that was as good of an idea as any, and she pictured the treehouse in her mind, trying to project it as she had before.
We know.
Sierra smiled at the elipag’s response, chancing a single glance over her shoulder at where they had come from, but the view of the castle was already obscured by trees.