son,” he said. “May it play in our favor.”
Ambrose lifted his cup as well. Already, he could taste victory.
As father and son toasted the future, Agnes had been listening. She often lurked in the shadows when the two were speaking simply because she wanted to know what fresh new hell she could be expecting from them. With Ambrose, something was always afoot, and with Conan… Her son was always trying to ruin someone.
She’d failed as a mother when it came to him.
But tonight, the plans they were making were for Magnus, someone they’d not spoken of since the moment he’d left Culroy. But now…
Once again, Magnus Stewart would be a pawn.
That didn’t sit well with Agnes. She never interfered in her husband’s affairs because she usually had no emotional investment in them. But with Magnus, it was different. She felt guilty because of what she knew—that hatred and jealousy had driven her husband to manipulate the relationship between Magnus and his father. It had been selfishness on their parts, something that had condemned a young boy, now a young man, to a lonely and detached life.
Now that they were going to use him again, she wondered what would happen if Hugh Stewart knew all about their plans for Magnus, and the fact that Magnus never hated his father after all.
Perhaps she couldn’t do anything to help Magnus, but perhaps his father could.
It would certainly be a way to ruin Ambrose and Conan’s plans.
For the first time since the situation with Magnus and Hugh started, Agnes pushed her guilt aside. She was finally going to do something about it.
What mistreated wife wouldn’t be agreeable to a little revenge…
Part Two
VITA NOVUM
(A NEW LIFE)
Chapter Six
The Ludus Caledonia
Was it all a dream?
That was the first thought on Diantha’s mind when she opened her eyes. For a moment, she simply stared at the ceiling, a pitched roof covered in sod in a chamber that she didn’t recognize.
It took her a moment to remember where she was.
Rays of golden light were streaming in between the closed shutters on the windows and from underneath the door. Slowly sitting up, Diantha looked around the room, orienting herself. This was the first day of the freedom she sought.
She could hardly believe it.
But her path to the Ludus Caledonia had not been without difficulty.
After the apothecary brothers had directed her to the church in Morningside, it had taken her several hours to walk there on a road that was well traveled. She wasn’t convinced that Lady Ayr’s soldiers weren’t somehow tracking her, so she hid from every sound, every traveler.
The priests at St. Eustace knew of the fight guild but, surprisingly, had no hesitation in telling her how to find it. She was instructed to continue to follow the road south until she found a pile of rocks with a rusted shackle embedded in it. The road to the Ludus Caledonia would be in the range of rocky hills south of that marker. Diantha had faithfully followed their advice. She’d made her way up into the hillside and found a road in the trees.
But that was where the problems started.
Just as she was making her way up the road, men in cloaks bearing nasty crossbows surrounded her. Even when she explained her purpose, they tried to chase her away, but she insisted that she had come to see Magnus Stewart. That name seemed to have an impact, for she was escorted to a castle on the top of a hill where she spent several hours being interrogated by the mercenaries who protected the Ludus Caledonia.
After hours of frustration, someone finally sent for Magnus. Diantha would never forget the moment their eyes met. He looked shocked, but there was also something else there. Something curious…interested, even.
Somewhere inside of him, a spark burned deep.
She could see it.
After a brief conversation, Magnus had taken her back to his cottage in a rather large village at the base of the fortress where there were dozens of cottages constructed in neat rows. He’d given her some blankets and told her to go sleep on the floor.
And that was where she found herself now.
The cottage had two rooms and she was in the larger of the two, a chamber with chairs, a table, a few chests, and other personal possessions. There was a second, smaller room that Magnus had disappeared into the night before, and she noted that the door was open. Rising to her feet, she timidly made her way over to the open panel.
“My