title: Dark Victory (Masters of Time, Book 4)
author:  Brenda Joyce 
description: Brenda Joyce is a New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 novels and novellas, including the popular and critically acclaimed de Warenne Dynasty Saga, a series of novels set in Regency and Victorian England. She lives on a ranch in Arizona with her dogs, broodmares and the years current crop of foals. If she isnt on the back of a reining horse, she can be found madly at work in her office, penning her latest romance novel.
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  BRENDA JOYCE
  
  DARK RIVAL
  
  PROLOGUE
  
  Long ago, somewhere in the Kingdom of the Picts.
  
  TODAY HE WOULD DIE. He did not care, even though he was but three and twenty.
  For he would not die alone.
  
  He stood on the ridge amidst oak and pine, panting like a hunting hound, sweat
  pouring down his body. He had been hunting Kael for two endless weeks,
  ignoring all advice, all counsel and every warning. Now Kael was within the
  fortress on the other side of the glen, atop the adjacent ridge. He did not
  have to see him to know. He felt his black power.
  
  But he could not sense Brigdhe, his bride.
  
  Pushing tendrils of gold hair from his face, he started down the ridge, his
  strides long, determined. His linen tunic stuck to his young, hard body,
  soaking wet, clinging there. His long sword bumped his thigh with every step.
  He left the security of the tree line, and saw men gathering on the wooden
  watchtowers, which were spaced evenly about the palisade