Legendary Warrior (Warrior 1)

“You never did pay attention to gossip, nor cared about it. Foolish tongues make for foolish minds, you would say.” Brigid’s tone turned adamant. “And why would the Legend not find you appealing? You are truly beautiful.”

“True enough about gossip,” Reena agreed. “But me appealing to the Legend?” She shook her head.

“You have come to know the Legend—”

“Nay,” Reena corrected. “I have come to know Magnus.”

“They are the same.”

Reena shook her head. “They are not.”

“Then you do not look close enough.”

Brigid’s words startled Reena, and she stared wide-eyed at her friend. “I look too closely?”

“What is in front of our eyes is usually what is the most difficult to see.”

Reena turned away to stare at the flames and think on her friend’s words. The Legend was not in front of her long enough for her to know him—or was he? Was she failing to see what was in front of her? And if she did, was she failing to see the possibility of love? She turned her eyes to her friend, when suddenly she remembered something, and her gaze shifted quickly to the concealed door in the wall.

“I had forgotten.”

Brigid looked at her strangely.

“I have been so busy mapping the keep that I forgot about the chests in the concealed room.”

“Of what do you speak?”

“Secrets,” Reena answered and sat forward. “There is a concealed room here, and when first I saw the tower room the door to the concealed room was ajar. Inside were two chests. One of the chests contained journals.”

Her voice lowered to a whisper, and Brigid sat forward, the better to hear her.

“One journal was written in French by a woman who wrote, ‘Today I gave birth to a son and I named him Magnus.’ ”

Brigid gasped. “Magnus’s mother?”

“I had the same thought.”

“Could Magnus have brought the chests here?”

“And placed them in a concealed room in the tower?” Reena shook her head. “That would not make sense. Besides, the room looked as though it had not been opened in some time.”

“Unless he did not want anyone to know about them.”

“Or the chests had been here all this time.”

Both women grew silent in thought.

Brigid broke the silence. “Thomas has made mention that Magnus does not allow anyone to take from him what is his. Could this land, this keep, be rightfully his?”

“The king granted him this land for a favor well done.”

“But why this land?” Brigid asked.

Reena shook her head. “I do not know. And what of this map Kilkern claims was stolen from him. Could it actually exist? Would it show the two lands as one?”

“If the two lands were actually one property, then who does the land rightfully belong to? Is it Kilkern property or Dunhurnal property? And why was the land divided?”

Reena had her own questions. “And how is Magnus’s mother part of it all?”

“Where are the chests with the journals? Reading them would help solve the mystery.”

“If only I had paid heed to the chests. I grew busy mapping the keep and gave no thought to the journals. When I recalled reading the brief passage, I went in search of the journals, but the chests were already removed from the tower room.”

“What of the concealed room?” Brigid asked with excitement.

“It has been closed each time I have visited this room.”

Both women stood.

“Do you know where the concealed room is located?” Brigid asked.

Reena nodded and hurried over, Brigid close behind her, to the section of the wall she knew contained the concealed room.

She ran her fingers over the seam of the door. “It is here, but I do not know how it opens.”

Brigid felt where Reena’s hand touched. “A lever or something must work the door, otherwise the door would be too heavy to move.”

Reena looked about, Brigid joining her in the search.

“It would be close by,” Brigid said.

Reena nodded, running her hand over the stones near the door so as not to overlook anything.

“The peg,” Brigid said, her excitement growing. She hurried to a section of the wall where a metal peg protruded. She pulled on it, pushed up, attempted to twist and turn it, but the sturdy peg remained solid in the wall.

“Here, I found it,” Reena said, barely above a whisper. “Come feel this in the wall.”

Brigid hurried over and let Reena take her hand and guide it over the wall. She felt a slim, long piece of cold metal hidden between the stones.

“Amazing,” Brigid said. “It cannot be seen and barely felt if one did not know to look for it.”

“Someone certainly wanted something kept hidden.” Reena yanked on the metal lever, and Brigid’s hand joined hers as they both struggled to move the lever. It finally gave way, and a section of the wall creaked slowly open.

Reena was quick to collect two candles from the table, and the two women, hugging close beside each other, entered the room. They looked about, Reena holding her candle high to cast light over the dark, dank, cell-like space.