the monastery would still have been destroyed. What could a bunch of monks do against half of the Kez Cabal, and Julene on top of that? She stormed through, slaughtering as she went. What could Taniel and Bo hope to do against her?
The man went on, “That was two hours ago. The fight was fast, violent. I’ve never seen anything like it. Some of the younger ones can’t even believe it happened.” He gestured to a young monk who sat near the wall, arms wrapped around himself. He was in shock, eyes staring out at nothing. “Del hasn’t spoken since it happened. Still, we made a good accounting.”
Taniel could barely hold back his bewilderment. “A good accounting?”
The old monk’s face was serious but proud. “Well, yes. Half these bodies are theirs.”
Taniel looked around. He then saw what he hadn’t before—a stack of air rifles in the corner. He realized that many of the bodies were big, bigger than any man should be. Fifteen, twenty. Wardens. Then there, near a small fire one of the monks was using for warmth, he saw the frayed corner of a Privileged’s glove and a Kez uniform. Taniel felt awed. This small group of monks had not only stood their ground against the Kez Cabal, they’d given as good as they got.
There had to be sorcery at play here. Powerful stuff. Not anymore. He wondered if there were more monks farther in the monastery. No, probably not. This looked like it. A meager handful of survivors. Yet they managed to fight Wardens and Privileged.
“Why’d they leave you alive?” Taniel asked as gently as he could.
The old man tightened a bandage around his wrist. “Seemed in a hurry.”
“The solstice,” Bo said, appearing at Taniel’s shoulder.
The monk barely blinked, his face revealing nothing. “There are old magics,” he said quietly.
“They were led by a woman?” Taniel asked. “Regal, looks about thirty-five with a great scar on her face.”
“A woman?” the monk said. “No, a giant cave lion, slinging sorcery.”
“Her chosen form,” Bo said glumly.
“We’re going after them,” Taniel said. “Do you know how many were left?”
The old man gave Taniel an annoyed look. “I didn’t pause to count as we collected our dead.”
“Sorry,” Taniel muttered. There were a lot of bodies here. They may have wiped out a good chunk of the Kez. Mostly Wardens, it seemed. He gave Bo a glance. Bo was examining the wrapped bodies and moving among the survivors. His fingers twitched in his gloved hands. He’d love to know what kinds of sorceries these monks were hiding. Taniel guessed that not even the cabals knew all the old secrets.
Bo returned to the old monk. “This monastery. It was put here to guard against something.”
The monk’s face remained neutral.
“Against Kresimir’s return?”
“Nothing good will come of the god returning,” the old man said. “But there are worse things on this mountain.” He paused. “Yes, we are the gatekeepers of Kresim Kurga. The Predeii have returned. We were meant to stop them.” His proud countenance faltered. “We failed.”
“We’ll do what we can,” Bo said.
Taniel gave what he hoped was a confident nod.
They stepped away from the old monk and put their heads together.
“He knows a lot more than he’s letting on,” Bo said.
“We don’t have time to interrogate him.”
Bo rubbed his gloved hands together. “I’d make it quick. It might be valuable.” His eyes glowed with curiosity, and his face was more alive than Taniel had seen in weeks.
“No,” Taniel said. “Look around. He wants Julene dead. He would have told us anything he knew. God, they really do make you sell your soul to join the cabal, don’t they?”
“Expediency.”
“We have to go,” Taniel said. “The solstice?”
“Today.”
“How long will it take to get to the peak?”
“Longer than it is until the solstice.”
“We’ll have to beat it,” Taniel said. “Do we have a plan?”
Bo frowned. “There are plenty of Privileged among these dead,” he said. “Maybe enough to ruin her plans. She needs power to summon Kresimir. She needs to bridge great distances to bring him back.” Bo seemed to consider his options for a moment. “Take out as many Privileged as we can. Ignore Julene.”
“She’ll be hard to ignore when we’ve made her angry.”
Bo sighed. “We’ll deal with that when we come to it.”
Taniel returned to the old monk. The man was kneeling next to the other he’d called Del, and was speaking quietly into his ear. He looked up.
“You’ll need a guide in the city,” he said. “There are dangerous paths up there. Del