We rushed into the night air and I leaped off to secure the entrance.
The men recovered from their shock and charged at me as I shut the door and threw the locking bar down. Crimson trotted back to retrieve me while I drove three bolts into the bar for good measure. A sudden shuffling of dirt within told me the Lycanthru had halted upon seeing the protruding silver bolts.
I stepped into Crimson’s right stirrup with one foot and held on as he whisked me to the rear stable. I jumped off as two men emerged from the rear door, one carrying a lantern. I shot them both where they stood. I shut the stable door and threw the bar down, then shot my final two bolts into it.
After grabbing the Lycanthru’s discarded lantern, I mounted Crimson to circle around the barn. Light and heat emitted from every wall.
Nevertheless, I took the lantern and hurled it against the front door, as the Lycanthru pounded against the inside of it. “Rider!” they raged.
“Rider!”
The lantern burst into a spreading blaze that licked up the alcohol on either side of the door and raced along the outer wall. I had lined the walls with liquor from corner to corner, inside and out, and spread the hay out evenly within. Creating an 331
inescapable tomb of flames. I watched the rest of Brocard’s barn erupt in a rising inferno, climbing higher and higher into the black sky, like a sacrifice on an enormous altar.
So now I was a murderer. I had killed thirty-three men in less than a minute. Thirty-three men who gave themselves over to black magic to prey on the people of La Rue Sauvage. On innocent children.
But no more.
Whether I was a warrior or a murderer, I could do nothing to change it. I didn’t ask them to attack my family. That was their doing. And this was the result. For them, and for me.
So be it.
I turned Crimson away from the mounting inferno and the Lycanthru’s raging screams as fire billowed up every high wall. My cloak flapped behind me as we rode hard into the forest. I spotted a few other Lycanthru with lanterns moving into the clearing, stunned by the sight of the blaze. One noticed me riding off but only gaped at me, too surprised to give chase.
I had enough moonlight to find my way through the well-traveled woods. I was glad I had abandoned the lantern, giving them no way to track me.
My heart and pulse raced, my nerves hot with rage and fear. They meant to kill us, to devour me and Crimson for their own sadistic pleasure.
They only received a portion of what they deserved. But I would serve up more to them before daybreak.
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I never meant to become this, whatever I actually was. A murderer. Perhaps a monster.
Whatever I had become, and whatever would become of me now, I would see to it that I destroyed the rest of the Lycanthru. I would see to it that no more innocent people in La Rue Sauvage suffered at their hands.
I never meant to become a sixteen-year old warrior, and despite what Father Vestille believed, I had not started this war.
But I would end it.
333
NOTE FROM AUTHOR D.A. RANDALL:
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Keep believing!
D.A. Randall
334
THE
RED RIDER
WILL RETURN!
in
BOOK 3:
RED RIDER
REDEMPTION
335
Hooves thundering
through the forest.
Cloak billowing
in the wind.
Repeating crossbow
armed and ready.
She’s back.
You can relax now.
THE
RED RIDER
WILL RETURN!
in
BOOK 3:
RED RIDER
REDEMPTION
Hunt for your copy online!
336
NEWSLETTER
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You can also visit the author website at www.RandallAllenDunn.com
337
LOOKING FOR
SOME ACTION?
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338
ADVENTURE TAKES FLIGHT!
Crocodile-
infested
stream.
Ruthless
Imperial
soldiers.
Chained
leopard.
Diabolical
deathtrap.
Deadly warrior
dwarves.
It’s shaping up to
