Emily's House: Book 1 of the Akasha Chronicles

Chapter 17: To Fair Tara

17  TO fair Érie

 

Amazingly we all slept well that night. Maybe we were just exhausted and didn’t have a choice. Before we knew it, we touched down in Dublin.

Weary from the seven-hour plane ride, we practically stumbled down the steps and walkway to the custom’s agents. I sailed through without a problem, lying and telling the Irish customs guy that I was there on vacation.

“For how long then love?” he asked.

I hesitated because the truth was I didn’t know how long I’d be there. For all I knew, the Irish Garda would be waiting for us on the other side of customs and put us right back on a plane to the States. Or if we were successful we could be there indefinitely. Suddenly the words ‘two weeks’ popped into my head, and I realized that I was reading Jake’s mind.

“Two weeks,” I finally stammered out.

“’Ave a good holiday then,” the agent said. He stamped a 30-day visa into my passport and handed it back.

I stood on the other side of the wooden customs booth and waited for Jake and Fanny. They were taking a long time and I began to get worried that they weren’t being allowed through. But finally I saw them come out of the walkway together.

“I told you to let me do the talking,” Fanny said.

“I’m supposed to be your older brother. It doesn’t make sense that you would be the one talking for us.”

“It does if my older brother is a moron,” Fanny said. She smacked Jake lightly in the back of the head.

“Ow, stop hitting me.”

“Stop being a nub.”

I interrupted their gripping conversation. “You made it through. That’s all that matters. Come on. Let’s find a place to regroup.”

We found a free table near the baggage claim area where they had a few places to get food. We grabbed some coffee and bagels and promptly inhaled them like we’d never eaten before.

“What now?” Fanny asked.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m tired. We need to find a place to stay,” I said.

Jake pulled his laptop from his backpack, tapped into the Wi-Fi connection and began typing away. With the help of the Internet and some questions to a bored-looking but friendly currency exchange agent, we came up with a plan. We found an inexpensive youth hostel in Dublin, a short trip by Airbus from the airport. In the heart of the city, we’d be able to find some maps, rest a bit and come up with a plan.

Once we’d settled into our room, we all crashed for a while before heading out to find maps of Ireland. After our naps, we grabbed coffee in the self-catered kitchen and discussed our situation.

“What is it that Hindergog said?” Fanny asked.

“About what?” asked Jake.

“You know, about where to go. Didn’t he give us a clue,” Fan replied.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It seems so long ago that we talked to him. In fact, I’m not even sure we did. Doesn’t this all seem sort of like a dream to you guys?”

They both just stared at me. Could they see that I was losing my steam? Could they see, even without the ‘sight’ that I was close to bagging out?

“You’re not chickening out, are you?” asked Fanny.

“No, I’m not chickening. It’s just, you know, we don’t even know where we’re going. I mean, this is just stupid. We could end up sitting here in this frickin’ hostel for weeks without knowing where we’re supposed to go. We could run out of money before we find anything.”

“Calm down, Em,” said Jake. Other folks in the eating area were starting to look at us. “Hindergog was real. Well, at least as real as any hologram is. That little dude was there. We all saw him. We all heard him. You gotta’ get a grip so we can figure this out. We have to use our brains and our technology to figure out these clues,” said Jake.

We talked out the things that Hindergog had said. Jake wrote down our clues in his notebook but before long, he ignored our chatter and typed on his laptop.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“I’m searching for old churches and monasteries. That’s the best clue Hindergog gave us. Remember, he said that the torc was buried near a church.”

“Yeah, but there have to be tons of old churches here. It could take months to search them all,” said Fanny.

“I don’t think so. He also told us that Cathaír rode past the Slieve na Calleigh hills on his way to bury the torc. I found those on a map, so that narrows the list.

Jake read the list out loud and talked about the area where each was located. He pointed them out on the maps we had spread out on the table in front of us. I was only half listening, bored with Jake’s lesson in Irish geography and history. Yawn. And I couldn’t get what he was saying anyway because he was trying to pronounce the old Gaelic names and botched it badly.

Suddenly I had goose bumps going up and down my whole body. It was like something had jolted me out of my bored stupor.

“Wait,” I practically shouted.

“What?” said Jake.

“Read back what you just said. What was the name of the last one?” I asked.

“Monasterboice,” said Jake.

I got a chill down my spine when he said it. “That’s it!”

“How do you know?” asked Fan.

“I don’t know exactly, but when he said that, I got all goose bumpy and tingly. I’ve got chills going up and down my spine.”

Jake and Fanny looked at each other like maybe they weren’t sure whether I was off my nut or they should listen to me. But Jake turned his attention to his maps again and before we knew it, he figured out how to get there.

“We need to go north. County Louth,” he said at last. Jake examined the online bus schedule for a few minutes, then said, “Really not too far and won’t take long. We can hop on a bus here and be at a little town south of Monasterboice before you know it. There are small inns and a few hostels up there. We can find a place to stay when we get there.”

With that, he closed his laptop, packed up his maps and stood to leave. “Let’s get going,” he said. “There’s a bus in 45 minutes. Let’s be on it.”

I felt like I couldn’t move. I had complained about how long it could take to find answers, but the truth was I didn’t care if it took forever. It was moving too fast.

“Shouldn’t we spend the night here, you know, and start fresh tomorrow?”

Jake shot me a look that I swear felt like he knew exactly how scared I felt inside. Sometimes it feels like he’s the mind reader. But Fanny agreed with me. “I need my sleep,” she said. If Jake had known what was ahead, he would have thanked me for being chicken.