Kresimir’s palace was immense. Taniel had never seen its equal, not in Adopest or Kez or Fatrasta. He could look down the street and not see the end of it. Unlike the other buildings in Kresim Kurga, the rock had not been stained black by soot. It was volcanic, as if the mountain had spewed it out in one gigantic piece and let it cool, the sides polished enough he could see himself in them. Taniel couldn’t find a single crack, or see the marks of a workman’s tools.
“It’s a complex,” Del explained as they searched for an entrance. “Kresimir’s home on earth. He and the Predeii lived here for decades.”
“Yes,” Bo said, feeling along the sheer wall. “I remember reading about this place. But how do we get in? Sorcery?”
“There is an entrance,” Del said.
“Lions!”
The call came from the rear of their small group. Del began to shake again, pressing himself up against the wall. Taniel grabbed him, pushed him forward. “Let’s go! Run!” he said.
He could see the first one emerge from the street they’d left not long ago. It scrambled around the corner, padded back feet thumping, front claws scrabbling for purchase on the cobbles. It was three times the size of a dog, teeth sharp. There was blood on its jaws.
They fled, looking for an entrance to the building.
“They get bored chasing Julene?” Taniel said to Bo as they ran.
“Or she scared them off,” Bo gasped. He was sucking wind. Taniel grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling him on. More lions followed the first. Six in total.
“Pole!” Taniel said. “If you have a trick ready for these things, pull it out!”
Ka-poel sprinted on ahead, putting some distance between her and the others before she came to a stop. She whipped a set of dolls out of her bag. These were not humanlike as they’d been before. These looked like beasts – cave lions. She grabbed a pair by the legs and smashed them against the volcanic building.
One of the lions howled. It skidded to the ground and pawed at its head. Ka-poel dropped one of the dolls and stomped on it. The downed lion erupted, blood spraying from its body as it was crushed by an unseen hand.
Ka-poel returned the other doll to her bag.
The cave lions fell on their crushed companion. Teeth tore, claws flashed. One of them took only a mouthful of flesh and then began to run again, streaming blood behind him as he came at Taniel and the Watchers.
“Wait, that’s too loud!” Taniel said.
Too late. Fesnik had pulled the trigger. The shot glanced off the lion’s head, bringing it up short in surprise. The sound of the blast echoed through the buildings, interrupting the long silence. A bloom of smoke rose above Fesnik. The other cave lions paused in their feeding and looked toward them. Taniel swallowed hard. So much for the element of surprise.
A low whistle rang through the air in the shocked silence following the gunshot. Taniel looked around for the source.
Rina held a fluted bone to her mouth. The sound rose, and then was gone, as her dogs pricked up their ears.
“Go,” she said.
Their harnesses released, the three big dogs tore toward the feasting cave lions. The cave lions barely seemed to notice them, as they’d returned to rip at the flesh of their own kind. One screamed in surprise as Kresim hit it from the side. The mastiffs didn’t waste time. They went for throats, and the group of lions and dogs turned into a flying fury of fur.
Despite the cave lions’ size and claws, the dogs had taken them by surprise. They gained the upper hand, dispatching three of the lions faster than Taniel would have thought possible. They ganged up on the other two as more cave lions entered the street.
“Run!” Taniel yelled.
“Here.” Bo was some distance ahead. He gestured to them furiously. They reached him in a few moments to find a door cut into the solid side of the building. It took two men to push it open, working against the weight of the stone itself and the ages of disuse.
The last man came in and they pushed the door shut behind them. There was neither latch nor lock on the inside of the door.
“Where’s Rina?” Bo asked.
They opened the door. Rina stood back in the street, pistol drawn. Her whole body was shaking as the lions leapt onto her dogs.
“Come on!” Taniel shouted.
“I’ll not leave them.” Her quiet voice carried clearly.
Bo stepped outside. He lifted one gloved hand and twitched a finger, as if tapping on glass.
A sudden gale ripped through the street. Rina grabbed for her hat as it was lifted off into the sky. The fighting animals separated, their flanks covered in blood, the three dogs still miraculously alive. Every animal regarded Bo warily. The wind whipped around them and pushed. The dogs tumbled through the air, leaving the cave lions behind. They slammed into Rina, lifting her up with them. Bo stepped back inside the door. Dogs and woman followed close behind, and the door slammed shut, leaving them in darkness.
Something thumped into the door. Taniel put his back to it. He was joined by others. The muffled growls of cave lions came from outside. Someone lit a match.
Bo lay on the floor in a heap with the dogs and Rina. One of the dogs whined. Bo and Rina were unconscious – or dead, as far as Taniel knew. By the light of the match Taniel regarded his companions. Their faces were coated in sweat, lined with fear, covered in… what? Ash? Where had that come from? Taniel examined the floor. There was ash there, ancient, coating the floor a foot thick. At some point a fire must have raged through the building, destroying everything inside. Only the shell remained. He stared into the faces of his companions. They’d come all this way. For what? To be hunted like animals by cave lions in a dead city?
Taniel felt the horrible weight of failure. “Where is Del?” he asked. The monk was nowhere to be seen. Taniel called his name. No answer. A set of footprints in the ash led off toward the center of the building. Taniel heard another thump at the door and the scrabble of claws on wood.
Taniel, his back still against the door, snorted a pinch of powder. His senses grasped at any light – pinpricks, high above – to let him see. They were in a vast, open space. A dark container that seemed more like a mine than a building. He took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. “This doesn’t look like a palace,” he said.
“Taniel!”
The voice echoed around them.
“Del?” Taniel said.
“Over here, Taniel. Quickly!”
“Bo’s hurt,” he said.
“No time. You must come.”
Another thump against the door. A cave lion outside whined.
“Can you hold it?” Taniel asked.
“Go on,” Fesnik answered. “We’ve got it. Go take the shot.”
“Stay here,” Taniel said to Ka-poel. “Help them keep the door shut.”
He ignored her gesture of defiance and turned to run. The floor was polished, perfectly level. It might have been marble beneath the ash. He distanced himself from the light of the burning match behind him and tried to follow Del’s voice. He gave up, keeping his eyes on the footprints in the ash instead. Pinpricks of light from far above gave him just enough light to see in his powder trance.
He found Del standing near an enormous staircase of the type built inside the ballrooms of kings. It had no railings, and must have been made of the same rock as the walls of the palace in order to have survived whatever fire had gutted the building long ago.
“This doesn’t look like a palace,” Taniel said.
Del was quaking terribly. He barely seemed able to stand. He held out both hands to Taniel as if to plead. “It was once a mighty place,” he said. “Thousands upon thousands of rooms filled with gold and the finest woods and carpets. If you had light, you’d see the ashes. Only the husk was created from hardened rock. Kresimir did that. The inside was built by men, with wood and tools. All burned now. All gone.” His voice echoed eerily.
“No windows?”