Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 164

Chapter 164: Forward march!
“Forward?” The man seemed confused, but Anaisa grinned. Trace had seen her!

She moved out of sight again, leading her husband towards the unusual place she’d found. He marched the prisoner in her direction, and she ducked behind a rock while the man at swordpoint passed.

Trace wasn’t letting the stranger see his face, and she didn’t know for sure the reasons behind it, so she thought it would be safer to not be seen either.

Once the pair was walking ahead of her, she popped out and joined alongside Trace, pointing ahead. He nodded.

“Keep going,” He told the guard.

There was a trickle of blood staining the man’s collar from where Trace’s sword had nudged him, and Anaisa flinched. That looked like it hurt… but this was the same man who was holding her family hostage!

A hundred or so steps later, they came to the place Anaisa had found when looking for a hiding spot far enough to satisfy Trace’s requirements of safety.

A sinkhole.

It was dry, apparently stable, and almost perfectly round. It was the depth of three grown men, and the walls were smooth, with no way to climb out.

“Get in,” Trace directed calmly.

“What??” The man cried. “You want me to jump down there?”

“Ash will join you shortly,” Trace looked so calm and in control that if Anaisa didn’t know better, she would have thought this was the plan the whole time. Did the man always improvise so easily?

“You’re kiddin’ me.” The man grouched, and Trace dropped the rock in his nondominant hand and reached into his pocket. Pulling out a half dozen coins, he tossed them into the pit.

“An advance on your new salary,” He said. “Now, go. Leave any weapons up here.”

The guard slowly pulled a knife from his belt and dropped it on the ground, grumbling the whole time, and then sat with his feet dangling over the edge.

“If I turn around to climb down better, you gonna kill me, new boss-man?” He asked lightly.

Trace reached to take Anaisa’s hand and pull her behind himself, then took his hat off to cover the lower half of his face.

“Go ahead.” Trace told the man softly.

The man rolled to his stomach and shimmied backward off the edge, glancing up at Trace’s covered face just before he dropped the rest of the way.

“OW!” He yelled when he hit the bottom. “That smarts! And you didn’t tell me you had a lady with you! I would have liked talking to her better!”

Trace’s face darkened, and he put his hat back on as he trudged back towards where Ash was stowed under the bush. They partially untied the man before using the length of rope to lower him into the pit and having the other man release the rest of the bindings.

Anaisa looked at her husband carefully before glancing back at the pit.

“Think they’ll be all right there? It seemed like a good place to put them.” She said hopefully.

“It was far better than what my options were,” Trace smiled. “Thank you.”

“What were your other options?” Anaisa was curious.

“With no other rope? Nothing I really wanted to think on for too long,” He admitted with relief. “You’re a lifesaver.”

She wondered for a moment how literally the sentiment was meant to be taken. Had her finding the pit actually saved one of these men’s lives? Not that they were truly worthy of saving, necessarily, but she was glad to be of help to Trace.

“What do we do now?”

“We need to move quickly. There’s a magic user, Martin, who can close the cave entrance. If we don’t move soon, he may seal us out at any time.”

“Or in,” Anaisa shuddered. “Are we going to be trapped underground?”

“I can’t say that’s not a possibility,” Trace sighed. “I’d like you to stay safe, out here, if you’re willing.”

“Not even a little,” Anaisa frowned at him. “Didn’t you just ask me to stay by your side forever? You made no caveats about above or underground.”

He smiled slightly at her teasing, “An oversight.”

“Our families are down there,” Anaisa became more serious. “We have to get them out.”

“Then let’s go, time’s wasting,” Trace strode forward to the edge of the cliff, looking down towards their destination before beginning his descent down the trail.

“What do we do when we get there?” Anaisa followed him as he sheathed his sword and looped the rope around one shoulder.

“We sneak in and take out the guards one at a time, if I can manage it,” He pursed his lips. “Four of them.”

Anaisa scrunched her eyebrows together as she followed him. “Won’t they be looking out? Surely they’ll see us before we see them.”

“Probably, which is why I’m going in first, and why you’re going to hide and sneak by to free the hostages, if you can, while I keep them as distracted as I’m able to.” He reached down and took a knife from his belt. “Take this, in case they’re tied up. Once they’re free, give it to the man most able to help me fight.”

Anaisa held her hand out to take the knife. It held the weight of his words in it, and the implication that he might have to fight four men alone, at least one a magic user. That made her stomach churn.

“Why wouldn’t they all have powers? Living in the cave that has the source?” She asked. Fighting four magic users with unknown powers was quite a different prospect.

“Ash and the other didn’t seem to have magic. Not useful magic, anyway,” Trace shrugged, and Anaisa wondered if he was disparaging his own power. “The Count may not trust everyone with the knowledge, or may have forbidden them to touch it until he knows who’s loyal and who’s not.”

“It makes me nervous,” She admitted, and Trace paused. They’d reached the base of the trail and were about to turn towards the cavern’s entrance.

“We have to be silent from this point on,” He told her, quieting his voice. “But I need you to understand one thing. Your safety–yours–is the most important thing in the world to me. If it comes down to a choice, I need you to run, and get out. Get safe, and make sure Ewan stays safe, too. Promise me.”

Anaisa stared up at her husband, uncertainty in her gaze. Could she make such a promise?