Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 362

Chapter 362: I’m fine
Mia closed her eyes and forced herself to look for a path to the man whose face she remembered as the one that had imprisoned her. Had closed a wall of rock in front of her young face and confined her in utter darkness.

She recoiled slightly at the blackness behind her eyes, but a warm hand squeezed hers.

Ford was with her this time.

The pull of her magic was steady, and didn’t change directions. She frowned, and looked for the best path to Trace, and then the best path to Martin.

Nothing moved.

“We’re going the same direction, for now,” She told her family after a moment, opening her eyes. “I guess Martin must be the same way.”

“He should be back in Foundrel, or his body should, at least,” Ford’s gaze was on her, steadily.

“I don’t know what to tell you. He’s not.”

“Then why wouldn’t he have come back for me? Why leave me for days until they dug me out? Why not come back before he was declared dead?” Ford’s voice sharpened slightly with indignation, and possibly hurt. Mia shrugged helplessly.

Ford brought up his free hand to scratch his head.

“You said he went down to the mine and never came back,” Mia recalled, “what happened to make him leave you?”

She hadn’t really been all that interested to learn more about Martin before. Ford had said the man saved his life, then ran off and died, and left Ford his map. Not really wanting to dwell on the kidnapper, Mia hadn’t pressed very much on the events.

“There were sounds deeper in the mine. I thought at the time they must be further collapses, but I’ve been rethinking that for a while. Especially after we saw the dragons in the cave. It didn’t make any difference to know one way or the other, until now.”

“You’re saying you think there were dragons in your mine?” Seth leaned forward.

“In retrospect, it makes sense,” Ford shrugged. “It was warm, too warm. I should have died of exposure and hypothermia, but the doctor was even surprised that I was fine. The noises… I thought I might be delirious from my injuries, but since Martin’s alive, I’m not sure.”

“You think him surviving another mine collapse is less likely than him surviving facing down dragons?” Anaisa asked with incredulity.

“We all did,” Seth pointed out. “They didn’t harm us, only took Trace and Denholm.”

“Do you think they took Martin, too?” Daniel asked with wide eyes, but Ford shook his head.

“I don’t think so. If they took him, wouldn’t he be a prisoner? Not kicked out? Trace called him an intruder.”

“Martin–the Martin we met in the cave years ago—chased down dragons and tried to invade their territory??” Anaisa seemed even more skeptical than before. “Why would he do such an insane thing?”

“I barely knew the man,” Ford shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him.”

“You can certainly count on me doing so, if we find him,” Anaisa narrowed her eyes and retreated into her own thoughts for a time.

“How do we do that?” Daniel piped in. “How are we getting past the monsters?”

Mia paled, and looked for the creatures again. Directly overhead, as before, but…she looked for the closest one. Its pull was moving. Moving to the side, and lower.

“Ford?” She whispered frantically. “Are you rested enough to hide us?”

“No,” He grimaced, “I’m not. Not for long, anyway, but I’ll try. They’re coming?”

“At least one is on the way,” Mia said, and looked for the second nearest. The third. The last. “No. All of them, I think. They’re all coming.”

“Heading back to their ponds, maybe?” Daniel asked hopefully. “They didn’t come in here before, maybe they won’t now.”

“Help me up,” Ford requested, and Grandpa quickly took his arm. “Get me… maybe I can just hide the entrance to this area. Maybe it won’t take so much magic.”

Mia released his hand as he struggled to his feet, coming under one arm to help support him.

“You can’t, you’re not ready,” She could feel the exhaustion in him by the sluggish way he moved.

“I’ll stop if I can’t,” He smiled briefly at her, and seemed to intentionally put less weight on her. Whether that was because he’d gained his balance or was trying to fool her into thinking he was stronger than he was, she couldn’t quite tell.

Closer to the mouth of the alcove, he held up one of his hands. Mia hated to see him push himself this way, but when survival was on the line, she didn’t feel she could justify arguing with him any more. The rest of the family huddled behind them, with Seth keeping the horses calm.

“Mia? Are they close?” Ford glanced at her.

She searched with her magic. Thankfully, since the path passed in front of the entrance, she would be able to tell when the monsters were close to directly in front of it by the direction of the pull.

“They’re coming,” She whispered. “I’ll tell you when.”

The first. She concentrated on finding the first. It was close enough to make her stomach knot, but she held out a little longer to preserve what magic she could of Ford’s.

“Now.”

The whispered word brought about a sudden change. The mouth of the overhang seemed to disappear from view, startling her. A person could go invisible, but the absence of rock?

It now appeared as the rest of the wall, if sort of blurry and indistinct. As if it were being camouflaged very well.

That was curious. Mia wondered what other experiments they could try with Ford’s power… once he was feeling better, and once they were sure they wouldn’t need it at any given moment to keep them safe from a ravenous monster.

“How long can you hold it? How difficult is it?” She asked anxiously.

“I’m fine.”

The words were gritted through Ford’s teeth, and Mia flinched. With that tone, and with those words, she knew he wouldn’t last long at all.