DEFENDER OF MOGADUN
Alex ShvartsmanHati was in the middle of a lesson when the Defender fell.
He was in the small garden behind the temple at the edge of town where the children gathered for their daily studies. A dozen children sat cross-legged on straw mats placed in a semicircle while the priest droned on about the politics of ancient kingdoms and lives of long-dead warlords. Hati struggled to focus on the priest’s words, to remember enough of the lesson to avoid the cane. Then there was the loudest sound he had ever heard in his life, like a thousand thunderclaps trapped inside a bronze bell. The earth itself convulsed in a great spasm and the Defender’s tower collapsed onto itself.
They watched breathlessly as the cloud of dust and dirt settled in the distance. The tower had always
