Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 246

Chapter 246: Can you handle the truth?
Ford waited impatiently as Mia stared into his eyes.

“A tree,” She finally answered.

The man frowned. “Trees can’t grow underground.”

The map had shown a tree, but he thought it was a metaphor. Mia swallowed and he tilted his head slightly.

“Do you mean there’s a sculpture of a tree down there?” He tried to clarify. A physical tree with jewels would be trouble to disassemble and sell, but he was up to the task. He did have his pickaxe and things in his bag, like he always had.

It couldn’t be too much trouble, could it?

“I don’t think it’s a sculpture,” Mia looked confused for a moment, and Ford resisted the urge to run a hand through his black hair in frustration. Why couldn’t this girl just blurt out everything so he could make a decision and move on?

“So what is it?” He tried to make his voice more gentle, more coaxing.

“Uncle Trace said it’s dangerous,” She said slowly. “It’s a magical tree that gives powers to whoever takes one of its leaves, but the power is too much. He says it corrupts people. He says that’s why the entrances were collapsed and sealed off.”

“Do you think that’s true?” Ford watched her face carefully. Mia sighed, and nodded.

“My grandparents didn’t have powers before then, and they did afterward. I believe him that it’s how they got their powers.”

“Are they corrupted by their power?” He blinked. “They seem like perfectly nice people to me.”

Well, at least until he ran off in the night with their precious granddaughter and now they probably wanted him dead.

Mia seemed stumped. “No, they seem fine, and their powers aren’t outside of the norm for how much magic they can use, from what I can tell.”

“So he was lying at least about that part.” Ford told her.

“He doesn’t lie to me,” Mia insisted stubbornly.

“Mistaken, then?” He’d made an error forgetting about her continued loyalty to her family. She didn’t hate them, she just wanted to get away from them for a time. He needed to remember that.

“Maybe,” She allowed after a moment. “He told me that they didn’t realize how dangerous the tree was when my grandparents got their powers…”

Ford looked at her skeptically, and she turned away with a sigh.

“I know it sounds strange. I believe him, though,” Mia told him. “Does it change your plans to come with me?”

“Not in the slightest,” He declared. “Either he’s… mistaken,” Ford caught himself before he accused Trace of lying, “Or things may have changed. Maybe Martin put treasure down there later, after everyone else left and thought it was sealed. A lot of things are possible. I’m not giving up and leaving without finding out.”

Mia turned to smile at him, and a small pang of guilt shot through his middle. He hadn’t addressed her other fear, that he would try to use her. He couldn’t really say honestly that he wasn’t. But, wasn’t it worth it, even if he was using her in some small way?

If Trace was by some strange stretch of the imagination telling the truth, then Ford could get magical powers and then make his fortune using them for profit.

Even Grandpa’s weird insect tricks were useful, as he showed by having the creatures do a lot of the farming work. Surely there were very few magical gifts that were truly worthless.

Besides, Mia was manipulating him, wasn’t she? She’d admitted that she didn’t tell Ford about the tree right away because she was afraid he would turn back and leave her. She wanted him with her for company, or protection, or whatever.

It wasn’t simply out of the goodness of her heart that she’d invited him along on this little escapade of hers! After all, without him, she might have died of hypothermia or caught a terrible cold the night before!

Guilt assuaged, he moved towards the horse to remount. He was using his crutch a little less today to see how his leg was holding up, and so far, he was doing well.

Mia came up to help him remount, and they were soon on their way. The winding trail through the canyons she followed seemed meandering and almost random at first, but perhaps she was looking for a traversable route instead of the most direct one.

As the day wore on, he wondered exactly how long it would take, and whether the cave had wound up on the same side of the river as they were now….

“Are we sure the cave didn’t get flooded when the river changed course?” He asked Mia out loud.

“I don’t think it was,” She said uncertainly. “I guess we’ll find out?”

They seemed to be saying that a lot today. The unknown irked him more than he let on.

The path wandered under and through rock formations, and Ford found himself staring at the back of Mia’s head more than the path after a time.

She’d braided her long hair, and it fell like a rope between her shoulder blades. It swayed slightly with the horse’s gait, in an almost mesmerizing way. The ends below the hair tie curled, and he remembered the way the soft locks had tickled his chin in the night.

He wondered if it was wise to linger on such thoughts, but he couldn’t think of anything more interesting to contemplate right now, despite the many questions he had about Trace and the previous events that occurred in this cave those years ago.

This wasn’t the best time for conversation anyway, with the path putting the horses single file instead of side by side.

Harper snatched a mouthful of leaves from a bush growing out of the side of the canyon, and Ford watched her chew for a moment before turning his attention back forward.

Mia had stopped.

Just ahead of her, the canyon opened up wider. On the other side of it, a full campsite with a tent and smoldering campfire sat, next to the entrance to a tunnel.