by Bryna Butler
Chapter 15: Edgund the Destroyer
By morning, Colby definitely wanted to talk to Keira. He wanted to see what was going on; what he could do to help. But, Keira slipped out as soon as the sun peeked over the horizon. She had a lot to discuss with Nana.
Nana was in her fluffy light blue bathrobe and slippers when Keira poked her head in the kitchen door. She was calmly sipping her morning tea.
“Oh my dear, sweet girl,” she said softly. She rose to embrace Keira and kissed her gently on the top of her head. “Can I get you something to eat?” she asked as she fussed about the kitchen and started to pull out an iron skillet from the drawer beneath the oven.
“No, I’m not hungry,” Keira said flatly. “It wasn’t an accident.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was a mogdoc.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yeah. I didn’t see it at first, but in the dark, it made itself known. I stabbed it with my…oh no.”
“Dagger...You left your dagger behind?” Nana finished her sentence.
“Yes, stuck it in the thing. Colby tossed it off of us, he wouldn’t have even thought about the dagger. You should have seen us in action.”
“My Colby?” Nana asked. It wasn’t surprising. Colby and Keira were such good friends, that Keira’s house had become a second home to him. Nana had grown to think of him as one of her own.
“Yes, your little Colby.”
Nana didn’t smile, but instead, shook her head in disbelief. “Where was the baby?”
“That’s just it, Nana. My charge wasn’t even there. Jamie headed back to Cleveland earlier this week. It was just Colby and me. From what I could tell, our seats had the only safety harnesses that it sabotaged,” Keira explained. “It was definitely one of Bov’s. It yelped something about Bov’s glory, and it had a nefarious name, called itself the…what was it….the punisher…no, the destroyer.”
Nana’s face turned white. Her teacup dipped slightly, but she caught it before even a drop spilled. “Think carefully, dear. Was that, Edgund the Destroyer?”
“Yeah, Edgund, scary name, huh?” Keira laughed. Then, she noticed that Nana wasn’t laughing.
“You’re saying that you believe Bov Gammen sent Edgund the Destroyer after you.”
“Yeah, I think so. Everything’s all right, I killed this thing. It’s definitely dead. The coaster squished its guts out.”
“Come with me,” Nana ordered. Her tone had changed from sweet and concerned to focused and cold.
Keira followed her up the stairs to Nana’s bedroom. Nana pulled back the chair at the delicate, antique vanity positioned in the back of the room. Keira reflected on how, when she was a little girl, she admired the beautiful, hand-carved scroll work on this piece of furniture. She recalled that she couldn’t understand why the vanity stood in the darkest corner of the room, instead of by the window. Of course, that was before she knew its true purpose.
“Mirror, Mirror, on the wall,” Keira said flippantly.
Nana gave her a reprimanding look and pushed the vanity mirror back into the wall. The mirror glowed with a brilliant white light and expanded to the size of a door. Nana and Keira stepped through it, into the training room.
Once they were inside, the mirror shrunk to its normal size behind them. The guardian training room looked very much like an old, grand library. The ceiling was a dome of glass framing the starry sky. Even if it was daytime or overcast outside the rest of the house, it was always midnight under a clear, full moon sky in the training room. Besides the moon, the only light came from a few, lit candles scattered across the room.
It was a round room, two stories high. The second floor was open to the first with full bookcases and a couple of small desks lining the walls. An iron railing forged to look like a tree’s entwined branches overlooked the first floor, which was mostly open for physical training. The north wall held open shelves where a vast arsenal of antique and modern weapons and training tools such as pads and dummies were stored. The east side held a clear glass case, about the size of a telephone booth. It was the most extraordinary of all the objects in the room for inside was a red swirling wind, a captive coil.
Without hesitation, Nana climbed the spiral stairs and headed straight to the third bookcase. Keira followed closely behind and plopped down at the first desk. “Here it is,” Nana announced as she pulled an ancient-looking, leather-bound book from the shelf and moved to Keira’s desk. The book was a much worn, brown leather tome. She retrieved her glasses from her robe pocket.
Nana flipped through the ancient pages quickly. Keira looked over her shoulder, scanning the text for something familiar. “Edgund the Destroyer,” she read.
She pointed the lines out to Nana who continued to read the selection aloud. “Mogdoc…loyal noble of the empire…master saboteur…skilled assassin…decorated member of the Sect of Low.”
Keira gulped. She pulled away from the book as if it were a snake that was about to strike. “Sect of Low,” she whispered under her breath. Shaking her head, she crossed her arms at her chest. “I remember them, but they’re just legend. Weren’t they Gammen’s best warriors, sort of his own version of the knights of the round table?”
“Something like that,” Nana said as she removed her eyeglasses and slipped them back into her robe. “The mogdoc royal guard, they are the worst of the worst and they stop at nothing. It was believed that there were six members of the Sect of Low.”
“Guess that’s down to five.”
“Unless they’ve recruited more…” added Nana thoughtfully. “Of course, we have to be prepared.”
“I still don’t understand why it was here…now. The charge is vulnerable only during the vox exchange between guardian and charge, that’s Mogdoc 101. Why didn’t it try then? Why did it go after me instead? Why send a member of the Sect? Why did it crawl out of its muddy cave to bother with Colby?” Keira was full of questions. “Muddy cave?”
“Oh,” she gushed as a new revelation hit her. Her knees buckled. “They found muddy footprints when Bobby and Shara were taken. What if the Sect is behind the abductions?”
Nana considered this for a moment, and then slowly spoke. “I’m afraid we don’t have all the information we need,” she replied. “You’ve had a long night. I’ll fix you some breakfast, go wash up.”
Nana gave her a hug before leaving the training room. It was meant to be comforting, but it just wasn’t enough. After Keira had gone to splash some water on her face, Nana set the book down with a sigh. She composed herself and leaned over a candle situated on the desk. She moved so closely that her lips nearly touched the flame. She whispered into it, “Tell them the prophecy is coming to pass.”
The flame turned pale blue with her words. It rose up in a small ball of light with a long tail behind. The glowing ball swept past Nana’s head with great speed. It swirled up to the top, centermost point of the room and disappeared.