After their argument, Bard says he left, and his father enacted a vow, making it a crime for War People to cross the bridges. Probably because he worried about more dissenters. But right before he did it, Bard’s father sent a Wall Man to my world to kill them. The king worried that banishment wasn’t enough and made him look weak.
Who was sent?
Bard wouldn’t say. Though, it was Uhrn, Benicio’s servant, who sent Master to warn Bard.
No. I still don’t know what Master is, but I learned that Bard and Uhrn were close political allies, both of them working the back channels to keep the peace between their powerful kingdoms. Maybe their relationship evolved into a friendship. Or something romantic. None of my business. But Bard spoke of her with the same familiarity she spoke of him.
Either way, in order to save his mother’s and sister’s lives, Bard sent messages through his brothers, trying to reason with his father, the king. Bard pointed out that he could be of use in the human world. He could help protect the Norfolk bloodline—a critical component to keeping the throne.
Bard’s dad agreed, but with a surprise caveat: Only Bard and his newly born baby nephew, Miquel—Mike—would be spared. A fact Bard discovered after he found the two women dismembered in the woods near their home.
Bard’s mother and sister were killed on Christmas Eve by his father’s henchman. Yes, just like Benicio, Bard’s father found a loophole to a vow. The marriage vow, requiring a husband to never harm his wife. It’s ridiculous. And it’s the heartbreaking reason Bard left River Wall Manor every Christmas. He went to visit their graves upstate.
After listening to his story, I finally understand why he used to show up to my house in the middle of the night, trembling and covered in sweat from nightmares. He’d been dreaming of them, of his failure to protect his mother and sister from his father.
A few years after the murders, his father died in a skirmish with a neighboring kingdom, and Alwar ascended to the throne.
Bard said that once Mike was old enough, they traveled mostly. Master and Bard wanted to explore and learn all they could about my world. Bard worked random jobs doing anything that kept them out of the way of the many human wars.
“As a Wall Man,” he said, “I was still bound to protect the Norfolks, so I dropped in from time to time, but the wall was well guarded, and they did not need my help. On one of those visits, Master took a liking to your great-grandmother and stayed behind at River Wall Manor. Mike was a young man by then and old enough to make his own choices. He wanted to put down roots. So I went off on my own to forget my old life.”
Years later, Alwar lost the throne to Benicio, but Bard was completely out of touch and didn’t care. He wanted nothing to do with Monsterland, the Wall Men, Proxy Vows, Blood Battles, or his people.
“All that changed after Master showed up on my doorstep. I had a new life in France. I had a lover who taught me to cook, and I fell in love with it. I planned to open a restaurant. Master’s arrival was a sharp reminder that you cannot escape reality no matter how far you run or how much time passes.”
“What did Master want?” I asked.
“He’d been searching for me for over a year. He said your grandmother needed help, that she did not trust Alwar, and the proxy families were disappearing. She begged me to come to River Wall Manor and protect you and your mother. So that is what I did. I forced myself to abandon the new life I’d built and embrace my Wall Man upbringing. All to protect you and your mother—a calling I felt strongly about given the fates of my mother and sister. I even tried to stop Alwar from issuing the Blood Battle challenge and summoning Storm, but he feared the Blood People were working behind the scenes to void the Proxy Vow.”
First, how the hell does a dog travel alone for a year or cross the Atlantic? The obvious answer is that Master isn’t a dog. Maybe he’s a Skin—a shifter. I didn’t dare ask Bard because I still don’t want to know.
Second, Alwar was right about Benicio intending to void the Proxy Vow. And after my mom died, maybe Grandma Rain was secretly hoping for the same. If the Proxy Vow went away, I might never be summoned. Who knows?
All I can say is that there wasn’t a single second of my conversation with Bard that didn’t have my mind churning. So many questions answered. Including why he killed Dave. Dave simply smelled too good to resist. Hardcore vow breakers are good eats for a No One. Poor Dave. He finally paid for cheating on so many women. Me included.