The House of Grey- Volume 4 (36 page)

“What happened?” asked
Grayson,
his coolly relax
ed
features stiff
en
ing up. “You’re not hurt
,
are you?”

“Only my ears
.
D
o you know Christy Wayne?”

To Monson’s surprise
,
Grayson started to laugh.

“I take it you know her
.
”

“Not personally
,
no
.
” Grayson actually had tears in his eyes
.
“
B
ut I have a very good source
who tells me
that she has a huge crush on Cas
siu
s
,
and
that she
tends to talk a
lot when she
’
s
nervous.”

“She must have been really nervous
then
.”

“I don’t doubt
it
.”

“
On to the business at hand,”
Monson said
,
changing the subject to more serious matters. “Did you get me a copy of that journal? Is that why Marie is here?
”

“Yes, but that’s not all
.
C
ome and take a look at this
.
”

Monson moved towards Grayson
,
who was hunched over two items. The first was
a
freshly bound leather book that Monson could only assume was
his translated
copy
of the journal
. The second was
just as
un
remarkable
:
a
plain
metal box. Monson pointed to
it
.

“What’s with the box?”

“This
,
” said
Grayson,
grabbing
it
off the table and handing it to
him,
“is something very
extraordinary
. I think you’ll recognize it. Go ahead and open it
.
”

Monson did
just that
.
Inside
was the chain
mail glove
pictured in
the
journal.
Monson’s eyes widened. He quickly glanced up at Grayson, who grinned.

“I thought that we may be able to use this in your training
,
s
o I had Marie
retrieve
it
from
storage
.
”

“Why did
you think that exactly
?”

“Call it a hunch
.
” Grayson removed the glove from
the
container and handed
it
to Monson, wh
o
took
it
with relish.

Monson examined the glove
. The first thing he
noti
ced was its weight; the
glove was extremely light. He ran his hands across the shiny surface
and
wondered
what exactly it was made of. It
seemed
too light to be steel
or iron
and too glossy to be titanium. There was also
a
surreal glow to it.
He
caressed
the plate and then the indentation on the back of the glove. Strange runes etched onto
the
solid
metal
glimmered in the light as
he
shifted it
back and forth
.
He
traced
his finger
around
the top
of the plate
where
it
seem
ed
a
piece
was
missing.

“Magnificent
,
isn’t it
?
” Grayson watched Monson
’
s
expression.

“Of course
,
” agreed Monson
.
“
B
ut what does this have to do with training
?
”

Grayson shrugged
.
“
I
t’s a weapon
,
remember
?
I thought maybe the Being of
Seven
Bloods might be able to make it work. No one in the organization has been able to so
far
.”

“If no one has gotten it to work then why are you so sure it’s a weapon
?
” 

Grayson peered at him
patronizingly
.
“
T
hat
’
s another great question. I
’
ll show you. Look at this.”

Monson
looked over Grayson
’
s
shoulder
at
the journal as Grayson flipped to one of the many close
-
up
drawings
of the Tower.
At
the corner of the page, at the very bottom of the Tower
,
there were illustrations of warriors brandishing weapons of all sorts. To the far left of the page,
next
to
the binding, was a man
wielding
a wick
ed-
looking sword in one hand and wearing a glove that
had
another sword materializing from it.

“No
freakin
’
way
!
” Monson grabbed
the
magnifying glass and held
it
to the page. Sure enough, there were lines
indicating
a plate and an
indentation
just like
that of
the
glove in front of him
.

“The Magi’s Blade perhaps?” whispered Grayson
.
“
A
nd a weapon to conjure it?”

“I don’t know. But I think we should find out.” Monson stood to leave
.
“Let
’
s go
.
”

***

Monson, Marie and Grayson
headed to
the
s
outhwest part of the campus.
It was a
deliberate choice
;
Grayson assured them that
this section of the
national forest
had
the
greatest
amount of open
space
and was farthest from any
actively used
building. An important concern if
they
consider
ed
the possibility that Monson
might
consciously access his power
and lose control of it. That
could be disastrous.  Grayson
pointed out
that the last thing they needed
was
government
agents
showing up
,
thinking there was another terrorist attack. Discretion
acted
as
an
incredibly potent ally in this situation.

The three proceeded down a ripped
-
up walkway
and
arriv
ed
at an equally dilapidated building.
The old dormitory, most likely
;
t
he location fit and
the
shabby exterior was a dead givea
w
ay. The old
slightly dilapidated
building came as a surprise.
It should not have been there. I
t just did not fit with the rest of the campus. It was made of faded red brick
and deeply stained wood, compared with the slick modernistic Roman mix of stone, white brick and marble of the rest of the campus. It reminded Monson of
images of Victorian New
England
,
with a mix of other
unidentifiable
influences thrown in for good measure. Monson remembered hearing rumors of Coren’s origin, something about a massive pioneer settlement. This was probably a testament to that.
Yet
why leave it here in th
is
state? What were they waiting for?

Grayson and Marie
paid the
old place little attention.
Monson
decided to
follow suit
and t
he three steadily
made
their
way past the structure
into the forest
.

In that short walk,
Monson
became a bit
distressed
that
Casey and Art
o
rius
weren
’
t
with him. The fact
that
he was hiding all this from them was causing him a great deal of anguish. But he wasn’t sure that
anyone else
should know about his “condition”
—
at least not yet. He needed to figure out what this was all about before he could
involve
his
friends.
He was concerned for
their safety. He had already lost his grandfather
; he
was not going to lose anyone else. He promised himself that.

Monson glanced briefly at his companions. Marie noticed and gave him a small smile. He smiled back. Regardless of the fact that he really
did not
know them very well
,
Monson was glad that Grayson and Marie were going to be there to help in case things got out of hand. He was not sure what they
could
do
,
but it
diminished
his
rapidly growing apprehension to know that he would not have to face
this
alone.

“This seems like a good spot
.
”  Grayson scanned
the
area as they entered a clearing about
two
hundred yards from the tree
line of the campus
.
“I think we
’
re
deep
enough that we won’t attract attention
.
N
ot a lot of people come out here.”

“Comforting
.
” Monson took his jacket off and rolled up his s
l
e
e
ves. Taking some time to think about the demonstration that Dawn, Yari and Gi had provided for him
,
he
eventually concluded that everything that he needed to complete the task of the
B
lade
could be found in that
. Like any other puzzle
,
there was some deeper meaning to the
formation of the Magi Blade; his
conversations with Dawn
had
taught him that.  It was as if the
B
lade was a means to an end instead of
an
end
in
itself.

“
OK,
let
’
s go over it again
,
” said
Grayson.
“
S
tep by step
.
What did the two men do?”

Monson quickly retold the story as Marie and Grayson listen
ed
carefully
.
M
arie even took notes. They stood in silence as all three mulled over the information.

“As far as I can see
,
this feat can be divided into three main parts
.
” Grayson studied Marie’s notes. “All other actions appear to revolve
around
the creation of the shell, the source or
summoning the power
, then
the
joining of the two with some sort of binding. Are we all in agreement thus far?’