The Pendragon's Challenge (The Last Pendragon Saga Book 7) by Sarah Woodbury Page B

Goronwy said. “He has seemed continually surprised, however, that we have strengths too.”
    And that was definitely one of Mabon’s weaknesses. With a nod from Taliesin, Goronwy pulled a rope, and a bell chimed inside the abbey, though not with a tolling sound as when a church called people to worship, but with just a little tinkling somewhere close by.
    While Catrin waited patiently, as was her fashion, Goronwy stood with his arms folded across his chest and stared impassively at the door. Mabon shifted from foot to foot, already bored. Taliesin himself kept his eyes on the gatekeeper only he could see: a wizened old monk who crouched by the door, smiling at one and all. Taliesin nodded at him, and the man smiled back.
    It couldn’t quite be said that Taliesin could see ghosts, since ghosts didn’t exist as most people thought of them. They could not harm or affect normal men. What did exist was a spiritual remnant of the dead, which remained behind in the same way that their physical remains could still be seen. Nobody occupied these misty beings most of the time, but an occasional soul had the wherewithal to return to this plane of existence by animating their spiritual form. Such a creature couldn’t harm the living, but he could speak to them.
    Or, at least, he could speak to Taliesin. Taliesin’s sight may have failed far too many times this evening, but he had other gifts to call upon. This ghost might not know what lay beneath the abbey, but there were others in the abbey who did. While Taliesin didn’t have a choice but to follow the path that lay before his feet, he would keep an eye out for any shade who could speak to him about the dangers he faced.
    Finally, footsteps could be heard on the other side of the door, and a window in it opened.
    “Who wakes us at this hour?” A man with white whiskers stuck his pointed nose through the opening. Taliesin didn’t answer, just looked at him. The man pursed his lips, clearly not happy about Taliesin’s presence, but he nodded anyway. “Right.”
    The door opened, and the man gestured to the companions that they should enter. With a last glance at the spirit at the door, who was still chuckling to himself, Taliesin led the way inside.
     But not everyone was able to follow. As Catrin made to cross the threshold behind Taliesin, the gatekeeper’s arm swung up to block her. “We do not suffer women to enter our presence.”
     While Taliesin had been speaking to him, Catrin had been standing to the right of Goronwy, hidden by his bulk, so the gatekeeper hadn’t seen her at first.
    It wasn’t as if Taliesin had forgotten that the monks here didn’t like women, but he had no patience with such prejudice either. Women were a focus of spiritual energy and were more emotional and intuitive than men by nature. These monks were fools to exclude them from their practices.
    “Why not?” Mabon’s chin stuck out in a look that had become very familiar.
    “Evil resides within them,” the monk said.
    Taliesin rubbed his chin, feeling the bristles just poking through the skin. He hadn’t shaved this morning. “She is with me.”
    “It does not matter. It is our law.”
    Mabon suddenly grinned. “You are more foolish than I expected if that’s what you think women are about.”
    For the first time ever, Taliesin agreed with Mabon. That wouldn’t do at all. But at the same time, he would not side with the monks. Any man who could dismiss his own mother as a source of evil had no place in Taliesin’s world. Fortunately, these monks were an isolated sect, and their beliefs were shared by no other abbey in Wales that Taliesin knew of—or he would have been speaking more pointedly to Cade about the proclivities of this god of his.
    Catrin shot Mabon a sour look. “It’s all right, Taliesin. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.”
    Goronwy wasn’t having any of it. “I have been baptized, and I have never heard of such a prohibition.” He shouldered his