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He nods. “The wall does not separate our worlds; it encases the doorways, protects them. Like a great vault.”
Oh!A lightbulb goes on. I always assumed the wall was a barrier, separating their world from mine, but I couldn’t be more wrong. It’s just one big, long fortress that houses the doorways leading to my world.
“So if the wall isn’t a physical barrier between worlds, what’s the point of the structure? Why a wall?” I ask. “And what’s on the other side?” I know one side has fields where they grow food.
“Our legends say the land on the other side was once a lush green forest. Now it is a wasteland, burned so many times during the Age of Fire that the soil is toxic. Nothing, not even the hardiest of creatures, can survive there. It is dangerous to even travel over it.”
Interesting. “So it acts as a barrier to attack on one side, like building your castle on a cliff so you only have to defend one side.”
“Yes.”
“And why’s the wall so tall and long? Why not just build a big castle to protect the doorways?” Imagine the Great Wall of China, if that wall reached so high in the sky that it disappeared into the clouds.
“After the first portion of the wall was completed, the War People started living longer. Our population exploded, and we began fighting amongst ourselves for land. There was not enough to go around. The solution was to build up and along the narrow stretch of land that runs along the edge of the wasteland—save the farmable land for growing crops. Now, everyone lives in the wall, in their own dwellings. It’s a much more efficient use of space.”
That makes perfect sense. They saved their land for growing food and kept the footprint of the wall as small as possible. Also, having the wasteland on one side gives them more protection.
“How many War People are there, exactly?” I ask.
“I normally do not disclose this information, but we are over thirty thousand, which includes a thousand Wall Men and several thousand trained warriors who make up our regular army. The Wall Men never leave the keep except under special circumstances.”
I almost choke on my spit. Thirty thousand giants? No wonder that wall is so tall and long. “That’s a lot of large mouths to feed and house.”
I note the concern in Alwar’s eyes. Looking after so many people can’t be easy.
My mind drifts to thoughts of letting them all die. It hardly seems fair. On the other hand, Alwar said it himself: the creatures here don’t want peace, and most want the wall to come down. It could be tomorrow or a hundred years from now, but sooner or later they’ll find a way.
I think about my small community of Mayburg just off Route 666. They’d be the first to be eaten. Then the monsters would move to Tionesta, Oil City, and Newmansville. Every living creature—babies, children, the elderly, adults, deer, dogs, squirrels, and bugs—would be devoured along the way as monsters pour in like fire ants. Humans with weapons couldtake down a Skin if they’re smart enough to distinguish one from, say, their family cat that’s been skinned and digested, but my world has no real defenses against some of these monsters. Trolls, for example. You’d have to nuke them or something, and that’s never a winning proposition. In the meantime, Fliers would begin filling the skies. Vampires would feast on everyone or, even worse, add to their army. A very, very bad situation, if you really think about it.
At the moment, the monsters feed on each other because there’s no other choice. It’s a sick sort of population control. But imagine if they turned their ravenous appetites our way. Their populations would explode the minute they stop hunting each other. After a few months, my world would be overrun. After a few years, there’d be nothing left.
Then what?
What would the trillions of monsters eat? There’d be more of them than before, so they’d go back to eating each other. The result being two worlds tapped out of resources. This is what I have to keep reminding myself of. I have to think of home and the fact that I am still the only person, or ex-person, who knows about this threat. Of course, if I told anyone, they wouldn’t believe me.
“What troubles you, Lake?” Alwar asks as we trudge along, him at a very slow pace given I need to take ten steps to equal one of his.
“Oh. Um, nothing. I’m just hungry again, and I don’t want to lose control.”
“We cannot stop if we want to return to your palace before daylight.”
We still have to walk back after I visit with the Scholar People. If they let me in. “Maybe you can summon that dead brother of yours.”
“Bardolf? What would you needhimfor?” Alwar says, sounding jealous.
“He…helps with the hunger. Didn’t anyone tell you?”
“No.” Alwar’s mouth forms a hard line. “And who requested Bardolf to help?”
“Gabrio arranged it.” And I couldn’t be more grateful. This is no way to live.
“Then I shall have a word with him.”
“Why?” I question.
“Because I am your husband. Not him. He should not be going behind my back and meddling in your life.”
“Alwar, you keep talking about this marriage like it’s real.”
