Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 262

Chapter 262: A new danger
“We have to leave.” Mia whispered desperately. “I just figured out what’s down here… or part of it.”

Truthfully, she was flabbergasted by several of the images. They were like something out of a terrifying storybook.

“We’re not leaving,” Denholm snapped. “Keep going.”

Mia searched for the dragons. “They’re by the tree,” She told him.

“Who is by the tree?” He asked suspiciously. “You can’t have sent other people down here already, that would be ridiculous.”

“No, not who… did you see them before? The dragons?” She whispered desperately.

The roars that felt like they shook the earth. The heat. Of course, dragons would make sense.

Denholm paled slightly. “They don’t matter. Just keep moving forward.”

“How can you say that? Do you know how dangerous this is?” Mia asked. “Did you see who else is with them?”

If the storybooks were correct, dragons were not terribly intelligent creatures, and were controlled by land wights. She blinked, and searched with her mind.

Instantly, it was bombarded with images. The path to them was alarmingly short. They were so close!

Her mind began to panic. “The Wights. They are here. Please, I don’t care if you stay, but I’m leaving.”

“No you’re not, you’re going to that tree,” Denholm sneered, holding the knife out again. “MOVE!”

The last syllable was louder than the others. Severe. He was losing his temper again, but Mia was afraid. Scared of whose attention he might catch. Terrified of what might happen when their presence was realized.

The ground shook, again, and a roar echoed in the cave.

“I think they heard you,” Mia whispered. She cringed back as deep into shadow as she could.

Maybe the creatures would dismiss the sound as bats, or something else as easily ignored.

She was small. Insignificant. There was no reason to kill her… unless the dragons were hungry… did they eat people? She struggled to recall the storybooks, not knowing they might be so vital to her survival.

If they were even accurate!

She had no guarantees of that at all.

Further back on the path, Mia saw Ford struggling, one arm wrapped around his ribs, the other using the stalagmites to hold him up and help him walk.

Did he hear what she’d said? He was panting, and sweating.

Calling out to him was out of the question, and he probably couldn’t see her clearly through the shadows of the cave.

The roar had been enough to get his attention, and he looked up with wide eyes. The ambient light was growing brighter.

A dragon was coming, with all its fire.

When a swift cutting of wings through the air swept over their heads, Mia ducked. Ford dropped to the ground. Denholm stared with rage. A dark shape flying overhead was nearly indistinguishable from the darkness of the cave’s highest shadows.

“The tree is mine,” He murmured just loud enough for Mia to hear.

Apparently the humans were either well-hidden in the semi-darkness with their dirt-covered clothing, or the dragon wasn’t specifically looking for them. Or maybe it wasn’t even a dragon at all.

The shape circled in a wide arc overhead before heading back towards the tree. Mia glared at Denholm and then stood up to follow.

She’d looked for danger and seen dragons. She hadn’t seen wights immediately, did that mean that they weren’t danger, or just that they weren’t the closest danger?

The information in her mind was more than she’d ever gotten, and yet it seemed rudely insufficient for her survival. The irony was not lost on her.

She might have precious few seconds or minutes to live if things went poorly. She decided to learn as much as she could in that time.

Denholm used his knife in her back to propel her forward, but her mind was elsewhere. She decided to look for her father.

He was on the surface, some distance away, making their way to the cave entrance with some confidence. That was somewhat surprising. She looked for her uncle and grandfather, and likewise, they were working together to accomplish the task, closing in.

She was relieved they weren’t near enough to be in real danger at the moment, but that could change any time as they drew close. Likely, they knew the cave better than she did and could traverse it quickly.

Her guilt mounted. She didn’t want them drawn into this mess.

Why were there dragons here? And wights? They were the stuff of fairy tales, not of modern times. Not of this nation, certainly, if they’d ever existed at all.

How did they come to be here, and why? Was it to do with the tree?

She looked for it again, though it was more out of reflex than an actual need to know where it was. Around the next corner.

Before the final step which would bring the tree into view, Mia hesitated. She glanced over her shoulder at Ford, who was now far enough behind that he’d fallen out of sight.

Perhaps that was best. If he heard the carnage he would be able to leave without being found or seen.

Maybe he would find her family and give them a little closure on what had happened to her. She believed he would do at least that much for her. She believed he was good, deep down, unlike Denholm.

That man had shown his true colors at last, and they were not flattering in the least.

“Here we go,” She whispered to herself as she stepped around the final corner.

The tree was every bit as magnificent as her mind’s eye had made it out to be. That in itself was something it took a moment to absorb. Mia had begun to doubt herself, that the pictures in her mind were heat stroke or hallucinations, and not some sort of extension of her power.

The sight was both an affirmation that her powers were real, and working, and a dreadful confirmation that the other sights in her mind must have been real as well.

Which was obvious, when she stopped to look at the half dozen dragons staring directly at her.