Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
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 could take 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 need him for?” 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.”
“What are you saying?” he growls.
“You know exactly what I’m saying. I only agreed to go through with the ceremony to save your people.” Under the now voided Proxy Vow, the kingdoms were only allowed to kill for food or to directly defend a life. If you broke the treaty, the No Ones would come for you—a very strong deterrent. So when the Mountain People, who never agreed to the treaty, attacked the wall, the War People were fighting with their hands tied. The Proxy Vow didn’t allow for going on the offense, i.e., sneaking up behind your enemy through secret tunnels built into the wall and attacking.
Cue complicated treaty loophole.
When Alwar married me, it took me off the board as his proxy because husbands are sworn to protect their wives here. It’s a law older than the Proxy Vow. So, with only one other viable proxy left, it voided the Proxy Vow treaty and freed the War People to go on the offense and win the battle. And yes, Alwar was taken hostage during the Mountain People’s retreat, and I went to negotiate with Mato, king of the Mountain People, to get him back. And here we are.
“But you are still my wife,” Alwar argues.
“In name only, just like I told you and you agreed to on our wedding day.” I made it no secret that I would still decide whom I loved, slept with and shared my life with. I believe my exact words were “this is an arrangement to help you win a war, but my heart and body are off the table. I’ll do what I want with them with whomever I want.”
I think it was a pragmatic approach. I mean, look at us. He’s a fifty-foot-tall warlord, and I am a five-two human—or will be again soon. If size weren’t an issue, he’s not the type of man I’d fall in love with. The man I love will put me first, not put me down. He’ll protect me, not ask me to fight to the death so he can be the ruler. He’ll also treat me as an equal, at least intellectually. Physically, I might be game for a little inequality. Especially in bed. I can’t lie. I like a man who’s big, strong, and hard in all the right places. I like a man who takes charge during sex.