Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 227

Chapter 227: Answering the question
Mia was startled by the vehemence in Ford’s voice. He looked like he truly did need her to bring him to the cave. But why?

“What is there that you need?” She asked suspiciously. He limped towards her, and she stepped back, leaving the bucket behind.

“My future,” He told her. “Please, I need to get there.”

“That’s not a helpful answer,” She countered. “Tell me. Truly. What do you think is there?”

“Treasure,” He admitted desperately. “Enough to set me up for life, my future! I’d share it with you!”

“Share it?” Mia was startled. The treasure, or his future? What was he saying exactly?

Ford closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” He shook his head. “You’re upset, and all I could think about is what I want. You have no reason to want to help me when you’ve got such turmoil of your own.”

Mia shook her head. “Why ask me? What happened inside the house just now?”

“Your uncle burned the only map I had to that cave,” Ford sighed deeply. “I can’t get there on my own. Can’t get to the treasure.”

“I don’t remember any treasure there,” She frowned. “What makes you think there is?”

“The map, from Martin. It had a picture of a jewel-laden tree,” Ford explained. “What else could that mean but treasure?”

“Tree?” Mia looked at him quizzically. “In a cave?”

The discussion of a tree laden with jewels rang a dim memory. She didn’t know how to organize it with the other pictures that had flooded her mind in the past several minutes. The emotions. More crowded in, and Mia became overwhelmed.

She pressed her hands to her face and dropped to her knees.

“I can’t think about this. I can’t do it,” She murmured, abandoning her attempts to put the memories together. “It’s too much.”

Ford stood above her a moment, then shuffled over to the bucket she’d been sitting on when he arrived. He lowered himself awkwardly.

“I don’t know exactly what’s happening,” He told her. “Is there any way I can help?”

She shook her head vehemently. “No one can help me.”

“Your family normally seems very willing to help you,” He observed quietly. “What changed?”

“They lied to me,” She declared, even though that wasn’t strictly true, her emotions were boiling over. “Why didn’t they tell me?”

“Tell you what?” He asked.

“About the cave. About the kidnapping. About everything. I’d blocked it out, forgotten. And now, I remember it. They kept it from me for so long!”

Every time she’d mentioned that time period in their life, the others had changed the subject. Even her brothers. Had they all been in on it, conspiring against her? Willfully keeping her ignorant of what had happened so that they wouldn’t have to deal with her emotions?

“They kept your memories from you?” Ford’s voice had more concern than it had held before. “How did they do that? Is that another magic power, to hide memories??”

“No, I don’t think so,” She sighed. “My memories… were vague. But hearing you mention Martin, I guess it started to unlock something I’ve kept hidden from myself, and I don’t know how to deal with it.”

Ford was silent a while, and she sniffled and dried her tears again. He already often looked as if he intensely disliked her, and here she was making an utter fool of herself.

“You probably think I’m crazy,” She said, “But the memory of being trapped in complete darkness. I can’t shake it now that I’ve remembered it. It’s like I’m back there now.”

“I know what that’s like,” Ford whispered, and Mia glanced up at him. He was contemplative, far away.

“Can you tell me?” She asked.

“The mine collapse.” He swallowed. “I saw the timbers bowing. I knew what was about to happen. I screamed for everyone to run. The scramble to get to the ladders was chaos. Not everyone could get out. I was shoved to the ground, and then the earth fell on top of me. For half a day I was completely alone…”

He paused, and she watched his face. Normally there was a barrier between Ford and true emotions showing in his expression. Even irritation or frustration usually seemed clouded, hidden somehow.

Right now, there were cracks in the wall. While his face wasn’t open, there were hints of genuine fear, genuine anger, genuine loneliness.

“Half a day,” She repeated. Far less time than she’d been trapped by Martin, but she’d never been completely alone. Even in the depths of the dark, she could remember the touch of her mother’s hand as it clutched hers. Her father’s arms as he held her protectively.

“I was trapped. My leg was under a mountain of rock, broken. I was lying on my back. I could feel the ceiling above me, walls on the sides if I lifted my hands. I could not move other than to turn my head or press against the stone.”

His eyes opened wide, as if he were back there again, trying desperately to perceive any light. She remembered that sensation.

“Martin found me. Lifted the stone off me, drove a path to the surface… until he ran out of magic. The entrance had collapsed further. He couldn’t do it.”

Mia blinked. Others spoke of running short on magic, but she’d never had to use her power enough to experience that sensation. She only needed to look for a few things on a typical day.

“What happened?” She whispered. Her grandmother must still be dampening the sound around her as she’d asked, because it was as if she hadn’t spoken at all.

“After a while, he drove a small airhole through the rock so I could scream for help, and then he… left. Went back down into the mines, and never came back.” Ford finished.

“He just went back down? Why?”

“There was some kind of rumbling, in the deep. He was concerned about it. It was then that he told me if he didn’t come back…” Ford frowned.

“What?” Mia leaned towards him.

“That I should take his money and find a better life. And burn the map.”