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

other than yourself?” Jon asked skeptically. The man before them was not who he had expected. There was no doubt in Jon’s mind that Caleb was indeed a man. Age was irrelevant to him. If a boy could kill five men within a few minutes, despite being slapped in irons, then there was no contesting that the boy was deserving of the title of man .
     
    “Maybe he really was tired,” Correll said as he drew the sword at his hip. “I’ll end this real fast.”
     
    Caleb froze as he saw the sword that Correll was holding. It was the sword that his father had told him to bring to Caldreth. The sight of it in a brigand’s hands stirred anger of greater intensity than anything Caleb had ever felt before. He knew that he wanted Correll dead.
     
    It was to the young man’s satisfaction that Correll came running towards him and swung the sword in a horizontal arc towards him.
     
    The motion had been so predictable that Caleb had been able to get out of the way. He had an idea as the sword began to start the arc though. Pulling the chain tight with his right arm high and his left arm low, Caleb blocked the blade of the sword.
     
    The fast moving sword making contact with a single length of the chain of Caleb’s irons had an unexpected reaction. The chain length snapped and fell to the ground. That meant that the chain was in two pieces, each dangling from one of Caleb’s wrists.
     
    With a snap of his wrist, Caleb struck Correll in the face with the chain from his left wrist. A snap of his right wrist caused a similar reaction.
     
    Jon’s eyes widened as Correll dropped the sword and Caleb struck the man repeatedly in the face with a flurry of rapid movements. It only stopped when Correll’s face was covered in blood. At that point, Caleb slammed his fist into the man’s face, knocking him to the ground.
     
    Taking a deep breath, Caleb picked up the longsword that was rightfully his and placed the blade’s tip over Correll’s heart.
     
    “Help him!” Jon commanded. His eyes suddenly widened as he saw that all of his subordinates were dead. He had originally had twelve subordinates total. Caleb had killed six of them, so five more should have been alive, excluding Correll. Instead, they all had six inch long wooden spikes protruding from their throats.
     
    Looking towards the prisoners, Jon saw that only one of them was standing. It was the redheaded girl that his men had captured a few weeks ago. The first thing that he noticed about her was her smile. It was a smile that promised pain.
     
    That was the last thing that he saw before Caleb’s sword removed his head from his shoulders.
     
    With Jon dead, Caleb took a deep breath and looked around. After running Correll through, he had noticed that Jon had been the only one left alive. An observation after Jon was dead confirmed his earlier thoughts.
     
    “Caleb of Kirakath, thank you.”
     
    Caleb’s attention turned to the dozen other prisoners that had been sleeping earlier. They were all looking towards him.
     
    “We owe you a debt,” one of the men of the group said.
     
    “I don’t have need for a debt,” Caleb said as he wiped off the blood from his sword on Jon’s tunic. “Just return to the lives you lived before today. I have some things I need to do,”
     
    One by one, the former prisoners left the camp. From Caleb’s gruff dismissal, they feared that they would upset him. Well… all except one of them felt that way.
     
    “I’m not accepting a dismissal,” the redheaded girl said with a serious expression upon her face. “The others may have been content to accept it, but I won’t. I pay all my debts in full.”
     
    Caleb looked at her curiously. “What do you expect me to say? I do not want anyone to feel that they have to pay me a debt. All I did was fight for my freedom.”
     
    “You could have accepted his offer to leave of your own accord, but you didn’t,” she countered.
     
    “He said that he’d do it in honor of my