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“Okay,” I lie. I’m ripe with worry. Sick to my stomach, too.
“You said something back there I wish to discuss.”
I nod.
“You knew this attack was coming. You said we lose. How do you know this?”
I don’t want to have this conversation, because whether we win or lose, this is the end for the War People. If we win, this place is never born. If we lose, the War People kingdom is done.
“I’ve just been thinking about things. That’s all.”
“Do not lie to me, Lake. Not now.”
I stare ahead at a tall purple tree. I remember seeing these before on my way to the wall after I escaped Benicio. Alwar came looking for me. He said he hadn’t stopped once over the entire month I was prisoner. Tiago told me that Alwar lost his mind. So I know Alwar cares about me, at least in his own way, but how much? Is it enough?
“Why didn’t you tell me about the First People?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Because you never asked.”
“The topic of proxies came up several times. So why didn’t you tell me they’re from here? Why not mention the Norfolk are too?”
“I did not see the point,” he replies.
“You saw no point in telling me that you sent the Norfolks over the wall so they’d be safe?”
“No.”
“See. That’s the thing, Alwar. You want me to trust you, but you hide the facts. You purposely keep me in the dark.”
“I admit that when we first met, I may have deceived you, but I was merely trying to test you.”
He spoke to me through the walls of my grandma’s house. He claimed he was trapped by her and Bard.
“You begged me for food and water,” I say. “You made me believe my grandma was some psycho who locked up men in her bedroom.”
“It was not my task to educate you, Lake. It was hers. And she chose to keep you ignorant despite my protests. I understand she had her reasons, but she did you a disservice. You were unprepared, completely unaware of your people’s past.”
“Is it even true that you were chained to the wall for ten years because of my father’s death?”
“Yes. That was not a lie. Gabrio, Tiago, and I were responsible for the Wall Men, and your father slipped through our defenses. Had he not, your mother would still be alive today. So would your father. And I would have taken the throne. We had to pay for our mistake, for how we failed our people.”
“It was all for nothing in the end.” I pick up a pebble and toss it into the orange dirt. “We all die anyway. Mato’s army is going to get through our defenses, and we lose the wall.”
“How do you know this? Tell me!” he demands.
“Because we’re still sitting here.”
“You are not making any sense.”
“If we get to the wall before Mato,” I explain, “you’re going to send a man down that narrow staircase like you promised. And when he returns, he’s going to tell you he found that structure made of big round rocks. He’s going to find it because the wall sits on top of River Wall Manor.”
He frowns, staring intensely with his fierce blue eyes.
“Those doorways don’t lead to my world, Alwar, they lead right here, to this one. You’re just a few thousand years in the future.” I think. Could be longer.
“This is impossible.”
“Is it?” I say. “Because I just learned that the First People told stories about Monsterland once being covered in buildings, large airplanes flying in the skies, and billions of humans living here. Sound familiar? Maybe a little like my world?”
