Kirkburn Castle
Seat of Drostan Lindsay
“Iam sorrytae hear of yer troubles, Cam.”
Drostan stood in the great hall of Kirkburn Castle, facing a young man covered in soot, exhausted in body and grieved in mind. He’d known Cam Netherton for years, much as he’d known the man’s grandfather, and he was quite shocked to see that Cam had survived the raid on Netherton.
“They’re dead,” Cam rasped, interrupting Drostan’s thoughts. “Everyone is… dead.”
Drostan nodded sympathetically, but it was all for show. He felt absolutely no guilt that he’d been the one to give the order that saw the village devastated.
“I am aware, lad,” he said quietly. “We know it was the Keith. They raided Netherton and burned it tae the ground. But that was two days ago; where have ye been?”
Cam blinked, dazed as he tried to recall. “Looking for my grandfather,” he said. “I wasna there when the raiders came. I was coming home from Brechin because my grandfather sent me tae old Albe the smithy. The man talks too much and before I realized it, the time was gone. I was just hurrying back when I saw the smoke.”
“Did ye find yer grandfather?”
Cam’s eyes filled with tears that he quickly blinked away. “Nay,” he said. “Not a trace.”
Drostan grunted, presumably with sorrow. “Then ye must assume he’s dead,” Drostan said, seeing that he might be able to use the situation to his advantage. The fact that Cam was still alive could be a complication. “I’m sorry for ye, lad. The rage we all feel toward the Keith is unquenchable. They’ve been our enemies since years past, but the raid on Netherton is beyond what I thought them capable of. We feel yer anger toward them, lad. This willna go unanswered.”
Drostan hoped to focus Cam’s rage toward the Keith in that statement, but Cam grasped his arm in desperation. The expression on the man’s face wasn’t the Cam that Drostan had known all of these years.
There was agony there.
“Someone told me once that there was a place where a man could learn tae fight,” he said. “Fight like a warrior, I mean. They called it the Ludus Caledonia. Have ye heard of the place?”
Drostan couldn’t help the surprise on his face. “Aye,” he said. “I know of it. Why do ye ask me that?”
Grief had a way of changing men and Drostan could see that Nikolaus’ presumed death had changed Cam; the peaceful smithy, the man who always seemed to be calm and in control, was no longer there. The destruction of that bucolic life had warped his mind somehow until all he could see or feel was the lash of that anguish.
Two days amongst the dead had changed everything.
“Because I heard of it years ago,” Cam said, trying to put his thoughts into words. “I’m not a warrior. I canna fight back against the men who did this terrible thing. And then I remembered—the Ludus Caledonia, where men can becomewarriors. Is there really such a place that will teach men tae fight?”
Drostan nodded, curious where Cam was going with this train of thought. “There really is a place,” he said. “But the Ludus Caledonia is a place of secrecy, hidden in the Lowlands south of Edinburgh. It’s not for every man.”
“Will they teachmetae fight?”
Now, Drostan understood. “Do ye intend tae fight the entire clan, then?”
“I intend tae have my vengeance, I swear by God.”
Then, it hit him; Drostan could see the solution to his problem in that softly uttered question. If Cam went to the Ludus Caledonia, then Drostan wouldn’t have to worry over him any longer. Perhaps the Ludus Caledonia would accomplish what Drostan’s raid failed to do—get rid of Cam.
As the grandfather was eliminated, the grandson would be also.
“I only know tae go tae a tavern in Edinburgh called The Sticky Wick,” Drostan said, eagerly now that he realized he could send Cam away. “Ask for the Ludus Caledonia and they’ll help ye find it. But know this—ye dunna go tae The Cal. The Cal will come tae ye.”
Cam’s pale face had a hint of hope to it now, something to cling to. “The Sticky Wick,” Cam repeated. “Then that’s where I’ll go.”
Drostan’s gaze lingered on him. This was a better outcome than he had expected when Cam had stumbled into his hall.
“Godspeed, lad,” he said quietly. “Be on yer way.”
Without another word, Cam staggered from the hall, heading out into the night. Once he was gone, a man who had been standing off in the shadows of the hall came forward. He’d been watching everything and could no longer remain silent.
“Are ye mad, Dros?” Ternan demanded quietly. “What was that about?”
