The Summer

Esteban is a quiet man. He has a lot to say, but as a Moorish slave living among the Spanish conquistadors of Peru, he needs to hold his tongue. Besides, Alvar de Belalcázar, Esteban’s malcontent master, protests enough as it is.

Alvar’s silver mines have been bleeding laborers, so he hires a company of mercenaries and ventures deep into the Andes to capture more. Esteban is obliged to follow. Little do they know, someone else has followed them on this ignoble task—an aging Inca menace far less compliant to the Spaniard’s strong-arming.

The old man’s hatred is clear, but his motives and his identity are less so, even though he claims to be the rumored-to-be-dead General Quisquis, still bent on revenge for the destruction of his empire two decades before. Esteban sees holes in this story, but Alvar sees the opportunity to find lost Inca treasure, if he can get this so-called Quisquis to talk.

Esteban doesn’t want to entertain these delusions, but soon he’ll have no choice, as he faces a hidden terror he can’t define… or even name.