Read Online Redemption (Book 6) by Ben Cassidy - Free Book Online Page A

gleaming like a shaft of moonlight.
    And then the line of cavalry was gone, charging directly towards the line of barbarians.
    Lockhart lifted his sword. “At them, boys!” He charged forward in the wake of the horses, not looking to see whether Dyke and the others were following him or not. But the ragged cheer that he heard behind him gave him some hope that they were.
    The werewolf threw back its bestial head and howled angrily. Then it threw aside its axes and leapt forward, bounding along on all fours as it bared its fangs.
    The lead rider maneuvered his horse. He headed straight for the oncoming monster.
    Lockhart felt his heart jump with a sudden, inexplicable thrill. It was like watching a vaunted knight of legend jousting with a dragon. The lead rider was bearing right at the abomination, the same werewolf that had struck unreasoning fear in both Lockhart and his men.
    It was then, in that moment, that Lockhart knew who the horseman was.
    The barbarians began to chant, but their voices were lost in the pounding of the horses’ hooves.
    A roaring cheer sounded from the line of the oncoming cavalry. They slammed at full gallop into the uneven line of barbarian warriors.
    The scene quickly became one of blood, chaos, and screaming. Rapiers flashed in the sunlight and whistled through the air as they chopped and stabbed. Horses screamed and kicked with hooves. Pistol shots went off one after the other, spitting smoke and death at point blank range into the barbarians. The grass was quickly filled with blood and the mutilated bodies of the Jombard warriors.
    But Lockhart’s attention was only briefly distracted by the sheer ferocity of the slaughter that the cavalrymen were inflicting on the Jombards. In front of him, the lead rider and the werewolf met in an open space of grass in front of the gates of the milefort.
    The rider did not slow his mount. He galloped forward as straight as an arrow, his rapier lowered and pointed to strike.
    The werewolf barreled forward with an unearthly howl. It looked even more now like a demon from the Void itself, its fur dark against the green grass, its eyes burning like torches.
    At the last moment possible, the rider whipped out a pistol in his free hand.
    The werewolf launched himself forward into the air, claws and fangs poised to strike.
    The rider’s pistol cracked out in the morning air.
    The shot struck the werewolf square in the chest. The force of the hit knocked the beast back into the ground. It rolled twice in the grass, and gave a fearsome bellow of rage.
    The rider reined in his horse. He tossed the spent pistol to the ground and reached for another.
    The werewolf was on its feet again in a flash. It pounced with an earth-shaking roar.
    Lockhart could only watch, stunned into inaction.
    A second pistol appeared in the rider’s hand.
    The werewolf crashed into the panicked horse.
    The pistol sounded off just as the horse and rider slammed to the ground in an eruption of dirt, grass, and hooves.
    The werewolf brought both its clawed paws down on the struggling, kicking mass of horse and rider.
    The horse gave a hideous scream. Steaming blood spurted upwards into the air.
    Lockhart felt his heart hammer into his chest. Without thinking he raised his own sword, ready to charge forward and avenge the fallen rider.
    But then, impossibly, the rider was standing beside the werewolf, seemingly unharmed.
    Lockhart blinked, not believing his own eyes. For anyone to move that fast, especially laden down with armor—
    The werewolf was fast, too. It spun to meet the new threat.
    The rider’s blade flashed forward in a humming arc of steel.
    Lockhart watched, spellbound.
    The rapier sliced through the werewolf’s arm at the elbow, cutting through it as if it had been made of soft butter.
    The beast lurched back. It gave another howl, this time filled with as much pain as anger. The stump of its arm fountained blood.
    Lockhart stared in amazement. He had never seen a sword cut