Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 374

Chapter 374: Reunion
Mia watched with wide eyes as Ford tapped on the ground, then listened, then tapped some more.

“Genius,” Daniel commented before Anaisa hushed her son.

Mia was inclined to agree, once she finally figured out that Ford was not simply testing the ground for something, but communicating with someone, presumably Martin.

“All right, stand back,” Ford told everyone after several minutes of tapping. “He wanted to know who was calling him, but I’ve finally explained enough to make him come.”

The others obediently jumped away from the place he indicated, and waited… and waited.

“How long will this take?” Daniel asked.

“Be patient,” Anaisa chided.

The ground began to rumble slightly, and Mia swayed back. Her father caught her arm to steady her, and drew her back a little further.

The stone she’d uncovered suddenly seemed to burst from the ground as it moved its position.

A hole underneath it gaped in the earth, and Ford peered down. Mia squinted, trying to compare this movement to the memory of her prison long ago.

Of course, it was dark in the cave, and she was young. She shivered nonetheless, not really wanting to face what was about to emerge, but bracing herself.

A small, grizzled man with a scruffy grey beard and sharp eyes popped out of the hole.

He looked about to duck back into it when he noticed the people around him, but Ford offered the man a hand.

“I didn’t think I’d see your ugly young face ever again,” The man said to Ford as he allowed himself to be helped out of the earth. “Let me look at ya.”

Martin’s eyes scanned Ford, who stood in a relaxed stance and kept silent as he was examined. Mia cringed into the background, not wanting to be noticed.

“Say, how long has it been? I checked back in at the mine and they said you ran off. Course, my map was gone–”

“Why did you still have a map to that place?” Anaisa interrupted.

Martin looked at her carefully, and Mia could see a spark of recognition in his eyes. Of course he recognized her; Anaisa’s red hair and imposing presence were a difficult thing for anyone to forget.

“I’ll answer any questions after I catch up with my old employee,” Martin replied in a surly tone before turning back to Ford. “How did you get out here? Why are you with Miss Snooty?”

“Miss–” Anaisa blinked, her face turning a little brighter, but holding herself back with visible effort.

“I walked, and rode,” Ford shrugged. “After I ran away, I happened upon their farm just as my broken leg was about to give out entirely. They nursed me to health, burned the map, and then Mia and I ran away to find the cave, but when we got there, dragons kidnapped Trace, and the tree, so we’re going to try to save him.”

The description left out quite a bit, but Mia refused to quibble about it in front of the man who had once held her hostage. The less he knew at the moment, the better, she thought.

“You saw the tree?” Martin looked more closely at Ford now, and he grimaced.

“I did.”

“You take any leaves?”

“No,” Ford started, but seemed to think better of hiding information. “But one fell and struck me. I can now… mask things, I suppose you would call it.”

“That answers some of my questions,” Martin nodded. “Why’d you call me, and how’d you find me?”

“Trace told us to find you.” Ford said simply, leaving out quite a bit. Mia was grateful he’d left her out of it, for now.

“He what now?” Martin frowned.

“In a dream, he came and told me that the wights expelled you, and that they didn’t like intruders, but you could help us get back in.” Ford seemed less and less certain of his words as he spoke them.

Mia could see why. Explaining a dream to someone else could be vulnerable.

“Interesting,” Martin seemed to chew on his thoughts for a moment, and Ford jumped in with questions of his own.

“Why are you here? Why did you leave me alone in the cave? How did you get all the way to the wights?”

“Long story,” Martin grimaced. “I’d suspected things of being in the mine for a while. I didn’t put it all together until afterward, but that last collapse was too much for the strain that should have been in the rock. So after I put you up, I went to confront whatever was killing my men.”

“You what??” Anaisa’s eyebrows rose. “Just how much can a man change in a decade?”

“Has it been that long?” Martin scrunched his face. “I don’t keep much track. Anyway, when I got down to the bottom, there were these ghostlike creatures and dragons all crazy, going through the tunnels and wrecking house.”

“What did you do?” Daniel, fully entranced by the tale, leaned forward.

“I geared up to fight them, or hide from them, but they just stopped and stared at me. Just stared. One of ’em finally pointed at me and said ‘Rocks’ as if I was supposed to know what that meant. Eventually I figured out they wanted to know how I got magic.”

“Did you tell them?” Ford asked.

“No, but then they said ‘Tree’ and a dragon reared up and snapped at me as if it were gonna eat me if I didn’t say where the blasted thing was.”

“They already knew about the tree?” Anaisa’s brow knit together. “And they were searching for it? Why couldn’t they find it on their own?”

“Heck if I know,” Martin complained. “Are you lot going to keep interrupting me or do I get to finish talking?”

“Sanders said, years ago, something about the tree’s origins. That it was stolen.” She looked at her brother-in-law, ignoring Martin’s complaint.

“That’s what the wights told us in the cave,” Seth confirmed.

“Well, I told them where it was instead of getting eaten.” Martin told them snidely. “I guess you must have walked in there at exactly the wrong time.”