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Alwar hasn’t ever crossed over to my world that I’m aware of, but I know he and his brothers were educated. The Scholar People told them all about my home.
“Who is to say that the First People did not merely cross over at one point and bring these stories back with them?”
That doesn’t work out.
“Alwar, the stories were told to General Rool as a child, five hundred years ago. But back home, we’ve only had airplanes for a hundred-something years. And certainly the planet wasn’t covered in skyscrapers until more recently in history. So how could the First People be telling these stories five hundred years ago here in Monsterland? It doesn’t add up unless the First People’s stories are fromtheirancient past. Their stories describe my home, my time, because I’m from the past.”
I see the confusion Alwar’s eyes. “Then there must be some other explanation.”
“Maybe, but how else can you explain how toxic this world is? You just told me half the land is uninhabitable. Why? Think about it. You know what kind of weapons humans have back in my world. If they used them, then this,” I sweep my hand in the air, “is my world’s future. Hungry monsters, constant warring, no water, no food.”
He whooshes out a breath and stares at the ground. He knows I’m onto something. He sees what I see. “Either way, I must protect my people. We must stop Mato from taking the wall.”
“But if that happens…” My voice fades.
He looks away, off at a group of young War men sharpening their swords. They look brave and fierce, ready for battle. “I understand.”
“Do you?”
He nods, his eyes still on the young War men. “You will tell no one of this, Lake.”
“But, Alwar—”
“I must think.”
Oh Christ.That’s what I was afraid of. He’s going to try to find a way to win the battle, but not lose everything.
“Alwar, just promise whatever you decide, you’ll tell me. And you’ll remember that it’s possible this has already happened before—the blast back in my home, my world being destroyed, and this new world being born. Maybe it’s why more doorways kept opening. One for each time we went through all this. You have to assume you’ve already tried to win and—”
“I am not giving up,” he growls. “Nor am I convinced that your crazy, feeble, human mind hasn’t concocted this story in some attempt to get us to—”
“To what? I’m asking you to win a war. It’s what your people are born to do. And I’m not human anymore. Remember?”
He stands. “Break time is over.” He waves to Rool and to his people.
I look up at him and then over at Gabrio. I then look around at all the people depending on him to lead and protect them. “I hope I’m wrong, Alwar. I really do.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It takes a few more hours of hard, bumpy travel in Alwar’s hand to arrive to the War People’s land. I’m pretty sure I have a concussion from all the bouncing. Our massive party stops at a hill just on the other side of their farmland and meets up with the scout who ran ahead of us.
“You wait here, Lake.” Alwar sets me next to Gabrio. “You keep an eye on her,” he tells him.
General Rool and his men congregate beneath several of those purple trees in the shade. Strange. The sun here isn’t strong in terms of heat, but for a vampire its rays are definitely uncomfortable when they hit your skin. I feel warm, but okay. The poncho must be helping.
“Do you want to stand over there with your people?” Gabrio asks.
“No, I’m okay.”
“You could have fooled me.” His eyes focus on my fists, where my nails are digging into my palms.
I hadn’t realized I was doing that. I relax my hands and shake them out. “I should’ve known Mato was planning something like this.”
“We were all taken off guard, Lake. This is not your fault.” He gently squeezes my arm.
“Mato had to have been preparing this attack for months, while Benicio was still alive. So why did Mato fight for him? And why free Alwar instead of killing him?” Benicio convinced the Mountain People to attack the wall, since they weren’t bound by the Proxy Vow’s rules around killing only for food or self-defense. Like I mentioned before, Mato lost, but he took Alwar prisoner.
“If King Mato had his eye on the throneandthe wall,” says Gabrio, “perhaps he did not intend to win. Why do all that fighting, risk so many of your men’s lives to gain control of the wall only to hand it over to the Blood King, who would surely have double-crossed Mato. If it were me, I would take Benicio off the throne first. And no one can argue that Benicio looked the fool for orchestrating such a failure of a plan. Mato probably made sure the other kingdoms, who are against the wall, knew that if he’d been in charge of the attack that day, he would have won the wall.”
