Through the Flames by Ryne Billings Read Free Book Online Page A

he was inside the fire, it did not burn him or set his clothing ablaze.
     
    The brigand turned around just in time to see Caleb emerge from the fire with both hands raised into the air.
     
    As he soon the brigand reach for his sword, Caleb landed on the ground and brought his hands down about nine inches in front of his foe. The metal chain that connected the iron cuffs around Caleb’s wrists whipped down and slammed into the top of the brigand’s skull.
     
    The sound of bone cracking filled the area as the man before Caleb fell to the ground face first. The sound was so loud that it caused twelve brigands to emerge from the various tents, though a handful of them were still in their underclothes.
     
    “Who gave him that long of a chain?” the only brigand with a full beard asked, looking towards the man that had captured Caleb.
     
    “I have no idea,” he answered.
     
    The leader of the brigands sighed and looked towards Caleb carefully. “Boy, tell me your name.”
     
    “I am Caleb of Kirakath,” the sixteen year old boy said with his eyes darting from the various foes.
     
    “Do you know Michael Sullivan?” the man that had captured Caleb asked.
     
    Caleb’s eyes narrowed in anger. “You could say that. He’s my father.”
     
    A small sparkle appeared in the man’s eyes at that. “Let me introduce myself then. I am Correll Staerk, a former associate of your father’s. We served together in the King’s Army before my desertion.”
     
    “I don’t care,” Caleb said, mentally vowing to kill the man. Deserters were betrayers. His father had always made that clear, and betrayal was the greatest crime in Arcadia. Betraying the kingdom of Arcadia was a death sentence. “My father is dead. The village of Kirakath was massacred.”
     
    “I will allow you to walk away from here alive,” the leader of the group suddenly said.
     
    “Jon, you can’t be serious,” Correll said lowly. He did not even try to hide the shock on his face.
     
    The leader of the brigands, now known as Jon, did not seem to hear his subordinate. “In honor of your father’s memory, I will let you leave of your own accord. I served alongside your father as well.”
     
    “You want to honor my father’s memory?” Caleb asked softly as he closed his eyes.
     
    “I do,” Jon said with a nod of his head.
     
    “Then you shouldn’t be surprised by this,” Caleb said as he dropped to a knee and drew the sword from the fallen brigand’s scabbard. With his eyes open, he grasped the hilt of the sword with both hands and held it in front of him, ready to fight.
     
    “Are you mad?” Correll asked in surprise. “It took six of us to beat you earlier. You have no hope against twice as many.”
     
    “I was tired earlier. Now, I’m not,” Caleb said simply as he suddenly dashed towards the closest brigand and sheathed the sword in the man’s stomach. The speed and unexpected nature of the actions surprised the brigand, preventing him from even trying to get his sword out of its scabbard.
     
    Removing the sword from the dead brigand’s stomach, Caleb glanced to Jon and Correll.
     
    “You have nerve… just like Michael,” Jon said as he raised a hand. “Kill the prisoner. He’ll cause us nothing but trouble.”
     
    Fury consumed Caleb, fire coursing through his veins painfully. To him, it seemed as though the brigands were moving in slow motion. Still, he did not move at all until the first four brigands had surrounded him with their swords drawn.
     
    With an arc of the blade, he decapitated two of the brigands. A thrust of the blade later, it was sticking through the chest of one of the others. And to finish the last of those four attackers off, Caleb let go of the sword, clapped his hands together, hit the final one across the temple with the heavy chain.
     
    It seemed to everyone else that Caleb had just killed four men in the blink of an eye.
     
    “Are you sure that you took him down with only five men