Through the Flames (6 page)

Unlike me,
he thought bitterly.

It seemed that his very being was a battlefield, and the combatants were his self-doubts and his determination to carry out his father’s last requests. His self-doubts were clearly winning at that moment.

A twinge of pain brought him from his thoughts. He could already feel his recent actions catching up to him. His encounter with the bear on the last day of his hunt had left him bruised, and his decision to give his parents and Gabriel’s father a proper burial had caused his muscles to ache uncontrollably.

I need to find somewhere to stop and rest,
he thought. Unfortunately, he had no idea what he was going to do, despite his thoughts. He did not have a copper to his name, so stopping at an inn was out of the question. Without a bow, he could not hunt any game either. In short, he had a very uncomfortable journey to look forward to. The only bright side, it seemed, was that only twenty-five miles stood between Kirakath and Caldreth.

His eyes moved forward once again.
How far away am I now?
He knew not how long he had been traveling, but he was certain that the sun would be setting in a few hours based on its current position.

The sound of rustling leaves brought Caleb’s focus to his surroundings and not just the road itself.

Caleb’s eyes narrowed as he saw six men step out from the forest that stood at both sides of the road. The men all wore dark clothing with bandanas that completely hid their hair. There was no doubt in Caleb’s mind that they were highwaymen, brigands that charged passers a fee to walk the roads. His suspicions were confirmed the moment that they began to walk towards him.

The six men took on a pyramid-like position with one man standing in the front, two men standing behind the first in a row, and three men standing behind them. It seemed to indicate that the man towards the front was the leader of the group.

Getting a good look at the leader, he noticed that he was the only one of the highwaymen that had facial hair and an identifying facial feature. The man’s black goatee and the long, diagonal scan on his left cheekbone made him stand out from his subordinates.

“Greetings traveler,” the leader said with a slight inclination of his head. “If you would be so kind as to empty your pockets, we will let you leave in one piece.”

He’s not even acting like he’s anything but a highwayman
, Caleb thought in disbelief.
Has he no shame?

Caleb knew better than to make his thoughts be known, though. He had seen the swords at the hips of the six highwaymen. Such were not odds that he would willingly go up against. In an effort not to start a fight, he said, “I don’t have pockets.”

“Duly noted,” the leader said with an exaggerated sigh. “Don’t be such a smartass. Hand over all of your possessions, including that sword.”

Caleb’s anger could be seen through his eyes at that point, becoming even more prominent as his right hand grasped the hilt of the longsword. “We seem to be at an impasse then. I can’t hand over my sword, and I can already tell that you won’t be willing to turn around and leave.”

“It never ceases to amaze me how fast a lowly peasant can go from evading a fight to provoking one,” the leader commented with a grin. His hand grasped the hilt of his longsword. “The question is this. Do you honestly believe that you can take us all on?”

“That’s the big question,” Caleb agreed with a forced smile. “I’m not worried though.”

Mistaking Caleb’s words for an insult in regards to a lack of fear or respect, the leader of the highwaymen drew his sword and swung it at the blond with a quick dash.

Caleb, anticipating the attack, grabbed the scabbard by its middle with his left hand and raised it so that it was level. With a single motion, he drew his sword and parried the highwaymen’s blade. The mirror like blade glimmered as it held back the crudely made sword.

“Impressive,” the highwayman commented as he jumped back and went in for a quick thrust to Caleb’s torso, but the young man easily parried the strike off to the right.

Using the gap in the highwayman’s defenses, Caleb threw a punch with his left hand and caught his jaw with it. The force of the punch, while not all that great, was enough to knock the highwayman down. It also made the brigand drop his sword, which Caleb kicked off to the side immediately.

As soon as their leader hit the ground, the other five highwaymen drew their swords and all came in at him, charging as fast as they could.

No thoughts passed through Caleb’s head as he was attacked by a force that should have easily overwhelmed him. It was out of pure instinct that he did what he did.

With a quick spin of his body, Caleb brought the tip of the blade to the ground. The combination of the two actions sent a small cloud of dust towards the five highwaymen.

With the men distracted, Caleb stepped forward and thrusted the blade towards the closest man. He felt the tip of the blade pierce the man’s wool tunic and punch through the skin. It was with only a small amount of resistance that the blade went through the man’s body completely.

Out of the corner of his eye, Caleb saw one of the highwaymen emerge from the cloud of dust and prepare to attack. He never made it though. Caleb’s knife, which had been sheathed at his right hip the entire time, had wound up embedded into the highwayman’s forehead to the handle.

Weight on his sword brought Caleb’s attention to the man that he had impaled with it. He had collapsed and was in the process of sliding off of the finely made longsword. Tilting the sword a little farther down sped up that process.

With his sword half covered in blood, Caleb looked at the four living highwaymen. It seemed that their leader had picked up his sword and was prepared to take part in the fight.

“Don’t attack him all at one time,” their leader suddenly said. “You’ll trip over yourselves, and if you’re going to die, then it best profit the rest of us. Attack him one at a time, and feel free to step in if you see a gap in his defenses.”

He doesn’t talk like I thought a criminal would talk,
Caleb thought idly.
And why is he giving them orders loud enough for me to hear?

He had no time to think further on the matter as one of the highwaymen ducked down and took off running towards him. The thrust that he aimed towards Caleb’s abdomen would have succeeded had the young man not been able to jump back and slap the attacker’s blade with his outstretched sword.

The highwayman that had attempted to attack Caleb had been thrown off-balance by the way his attack was batted away, but that was not what did him in.

Caleb quickly slammed his elbow into the side of the off-balance highwayman’s neck. It took little effort to place his left hand on the back on the man’s head and turn it suddenly. Using his elbow to force the neck to remain as it was, Caleb was able to snap the man’s neck, despite his lack of physical strength.

Though Caleb had just taken out three men, the fight was over. The distinctive feel of metal slamming into the back of his head was the last sensation he experienced before unconsciousness took over.

As he finally reentered the realm of consciousness, one question plagued his mind.
What’s going on?
Groggily opening his eyes, he instantly became aware of a few things.

The first thing that he noticed was that his feet were cold. They were also bare, his boots having been removed while he was unconscious.

The second thing that he noticed was that his belt had been removed, meaning that his sword, his knife’s sheath, and his quiver were not on his body.

And the third thing that he noticed was that he had a pair of metal cuffs around his wrists with a one foot long chain connecting them.

What in the world is going on?
At that moment, he remembered his encounter with the highwaymen. A sense of revulsion filled him as he remembered killing three men during the encounter. That revulsion was quickly suppressed, however, by the reminder that the men had been criminals that freely robbed travelers and had been willing to kill him.

Why am I not dead?
Confusion filled him as he tried to come to a conclusion in regards to what was going on.
Surely they wouldn’t just leave me alive after I killed three of their men, would they?

“So, you’re finally awake.”

His eyes opened at the unexpected words, making him aware of the night sky. The feminine voice that spoke those words surprised Caleb. He had not expected to see or speak to a girl in the middle of nowhere.

Sitting up, Caleb looked to the speaker and saw that there was a girl sitting about six feet away from him to his left.

By the campfire that was about twenty feet in front of him, Caleb could tell that she was a thin girl close to his own age with relatively light skin. Tangled hair fell to her shoulders in a deep shade of red framed her face, making her bright green eyes seem brighter than anything he had ever seen before.

Caleb had little experience with girls, having met only one or two his age in his life, so it was not a surprise that he had no idea how to describe her. She may have been a pretty girl, but he could not tell at the moment. Her face was smudged with dirt, and she was wearing black leggings and a sleeveless black tunic that were covered with a thin layer of dust and dirt. Like him, she did not have any boots on.

He was a bit unsure what to think about the way that she wore the attire that would be more commonly seen on a boy, but he was not entirely surprised. His mother had always told him that it was almost as common to see a girl in a tunic and leggings as it was to see one in a dress. She was from the city of Zabryan, so he supposed she knew more about people than he did.

A pang of sadness went through him at the memory of his mother, but he tried not to make the sudden change in mood to obvious.

“I’m awake,” Caleb said quietly, looking around. There seemed to be about five tents around them and the camp fire. It would have been a circle of tents, but there was not one where they were.

“That’s good to hear. They were a bit worried that they damaged you. Most people don’t stay unconscious for long,” the redhead said with a look of indifference upon her face. “I suspect that you were tired and actually regained consciousness just long enough to go to sleep.”

“I was tired,” Caleb agreed, but his thoughts were focused on her earlier words. “Who was worried about me?”

“You don’t know what kind of trouble you’ve gotten yourself into, do you?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. When he looked even more confused, she sighed. “Those highwaymen that you encountered are not the type of criminals that you think they are. They rob anyone who has the coin to satisfy them. Anyone who doesn’t have the coin is beaten. If they don’t die, then those thugs normally take them prisoner. I heard the boss of these thugs tell the one who captured you that we were going to get moving soon. Apparently, we’re going to the Isle of Akabar to be sold.”

Caleb’s eyes grew cold as he heard that last part. “We are going to be sold as slaves?”

“Yeah, that’s correct,” she answered with a downtrodden look. “If you’ll look behind us, you’ll see a dozen others. They, like me, will be sold at one of the markets there. You, on the other hand, will probably be sold to the arena that was built there. The ones that captured you spoke highly of your fighting capabilities. It would make you a very valuable slave. After all, anyone can do physical labor.”

A momentary glance behind him showed Caleb that there were seven men and five women clothed like him and the girl that he was talking to. “We aren’t going to be sold as slaves,” Caleb stated with a fire in his eyes.

“That’s what I tell myself every day,” she said softly, her look of indifference slipping to reveal fear. “They captured me a few weeks ago, and I’ve tried to escape. They take our boots to stop us from running, and they whip anyone that tries to escape.”

“You misunderstand me,” Caleb said as his eyes focused on the only brigand that he could see. The man was facing away from them on the other side of the campfire. “I’m not going to run away.”

With that, Caleb jumped to his feet and began to run towards the fire. Using his training as a hunter, he was able to move swiftly and without making too much noise, though the metal chain of his irons rattled occasionally.

One of the things that Caleb had learned from an early age was that a person could move their hand through fire without injury if they did it quickly enough. It was that knowledge that made Caleb jump through the campfire as he neared it.