Hugist Bonard


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  • Name: Hugist Bonard
  • Tree— Chestnut
  • Age— 10 in Twelve Moon-cycles

  • Black hair and dark eyes. Saturnine. A sulky glowering sort of face most of the times. A good deal taller that Allin at the start of the book (another source of friction between the two boys) but in the end Allin ends up taller than him.


    Bastard born of a mother who was unfaithful to her husband with a travelling boatman. His stepfather treated him especially violently although, as a drunk, was pretty brutal to all his children. Shortly before Bremmand falls, the boys mother dies. She was the one keeping house and home together and when the woman is gone, it falls to the drunken Bennes senior to feed the family. He isn’t good at it but in order to find money for drink he takes to selling names to the Empire – at first by spying and then, later, by making names up.

    In the end the soldiers caught him out, when he named one of their own informants so they killed him and went after his family for good measure. Only Simas and Hugist survived.
    Hugist until then had been a misfit and outcast but now, with only him and Simas, the two boys got on better and the younger boy began to feel that his half-brother did more than just tolerate him. Fearful that the soldiers would be hunting them out, Simas led his brother into the great forest and they travelled, struggling to survive, until they reached Chelland.

    Dale catches them stealing and then, to prevent them being arrested by the Empire, brings them back to the army camp.

    Hugist is a broody sort of a lad, resentful and sneering at times. However, he has a real desire to see the Empire ousted, and his unstinting loyalty is something we will see again in the future. He is driven and can be cruel.

    He does have a more genial side and knows how to be respectful of other people but equally he can be spiteful and antagonistic to those he doesn’t like — Allin falls into this latter category and the two of them never get along.

    He takes great pleasure in the progress he makes and in receiving praise for his accomplishments.