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“Oh, Thomas,” Brigid said. “I am glad it is you who will guard me. I will feel well protected.”
“And what of Kilkern?” Reena asked. “What is to be done about him?”
“He will be seen to in time. He will not succeed in taking this land. It belongs to me and will remain mine,” Magnus said with a confidence that had none doubting his words. “Until then life goes on as usual. Now let us eat, for I am starving.”
Thomas agreed with a strong, “Aye.”
Reena added similar sentiments. “I hunger for a good meal.”
Brigid laughed. “My stomach tells me the same, and this is good, for if we truly feared Kilkern, none of us would be so hungry.”
They laughed along with her, and soon the table was covered with trays and platters of hot food and pitchers of mulled cider. After they ate Thomas followed Brigid, along with Horace, to the tower room, and Magnus and Reena went off to continue mapping the keep. It was near finished, with only the area beneath the keep, which had served as a prison, to explore.
With torch in hand, Magnus preceded Reena down the narrow stone staircase.
“Watch your step,” he cautioned. “A dampness fills this passageway and makes the stones slippery.”
The further they descended, the more damp it became, and a stench filled the already musty air. Magnus stopped at the bottom step and held the torch high, the flickering flame casting a ghostly light over his handsome face. “I had the prison cells cleaned as best as possible, but a scent lingers, and I think it always will. If the odor offends you, we can try another day, or I can detail the cells and you can map them from my memory.”
“Nay, I need to see the area for myself or else the map will not be as accurate as it should be. The odor is strange and could certainly be obnoxious to the senses, but I will be fine.”
“You will tell me if the smell begins to trouble you?”
“Aye,” she answered. “Let us start—the sooner I map, the sooner we can leave the foul odor behind us.”
Magnus nodded and proceeded down the corridor. “I had several torches lit so that there would be sufficient light for you.”
Six torches flamed brightly in metal wall sconces and shed light on an area where darkness had once reigned. Reena stood silent, staring at the cells. The doors were open wide, and complete darkness greeted anyone who entered. The thought of being swallowed by the cavernous black hole ran a shiver through her.
Magnus moved next to her. “Can you do this?”
She took a breath and wished she had not: the odor suddenly turned to a foul stench. “Yes.”
“All the cells are the same,” Magnus said, raising the torch high after stepping into the first cell, chasing the darkness to crouch in the corners. “Sketch one and you sketch them all.”
“Nay,” she argued. “That is not so, I wish to see every cell.” And she did, her disgust growing as she sketched and thought of the people who had suffered here. A small window set high in the thick wooden door would have been the only source of light in each cell—if the wall torches remained lit. Otherwise, complete darkness engulfed the cells.
The foul odor grew stronger as they reached the end cell, and Reena realized the stench came from the opening beyond the six cells. Magnus blocked the entrance, and when she moved to walk past him, he held out his arm, preventing her from going any further.
“That room needs no mapping.”
“If I am to do a thorough map of the keep, all rooms must be included.”
“It is not for you to see.”
“I must,” she insisted.
He was blunt. “It is where prisoners were tortured.”
“All the more reason to record it,” she said and pushed his arm away to enter the foreboding room.
Reena froze with her first step into the room and then slowly turned in a circle to view the horror in front of her. Metal cages hung from the ceiling and a large cauldron occupied the middle of the room, cold ashes cradling the bottom. A rack with metal cuffs and chains secured to top and bottom stretched out like a bed near the cauldron. Chains with attached metal cuffs hung from metal rings in the wall, and metal implements of torture lay rusted on the ground.
She closed her eyes for a moment and could almost hear the painful screams, the pleas of mercy and the smell of blood and burning flesh.
How could a man inflict such pain on another?
Magnus shoved the torch in the wall sconce and walked up behind her. “Survival has its horrors.”
