A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

It had been very early in the morning, when the guard on duty outside the jail access door breathed his last ragged breaths. I had eased his lifeless body down to the pavement, wiping my knife off on his tunic as I did so careful not to make a sound. I continued on into the stygian darkness of the city jail.

"Over here!" I heard someone cry out weakly.

The voice had come from further down the row of cells. As I drew closer to the voice and could make out more of its owner I could see that he wasn't going to be able to go anywhere with me. In the condition he was in it was unlikely he would live long enough to attend his own execution. I did not like the closed confines of the jail, which seemed to press in on me like a cage. I kneeled down beside the spy's cell.

"I knew they would send somebody for me. You're a little late though." He said wheezing, as he coughed up what appeared to be blood.

He had been worked over several times judging by the different ages of the bruises and cuts I could see on his face and underneath his torn shirt.

"They tried to get me to tell them where I hid the intelligence reports, but I didn't! I didn't!"

The impassioned outburst cost him a lot of his remaining energy and he sagged back weakly against the bars of his cell. He reached through the bars with one hand and caught one of my hands and gripped it tightly as desperation tinged his voice, "You must do one thing for me, and you must swear to do it or I won't tell you where the reports are!"

His intensity of gaze and an indefinable desperation of spirit that radiated out from his eyes forced me to concede and I nodded my head.

"You're going to take my little boy with you! My boy is going to know what freedom is, especially the freedom to worship the Creator, without the fear or strictures of this place!" He said emphatically and painfully at the same time.

"Please swear you'll take my boy with you!"

"I swear it!" I affirmed softly.

He collapsed weakly back against the bars his grip on me loosening as he slumped down.

"Good! The reports are in a false bottom of a planter pot located where Rassian St. meets Gonda Way in the Sonna District of the city. You'll find the boy at 56 Rassian St. Tell the lady keeping him the code words, 'The meadowlark flew away', and she will give you the boy and provisions for the journey. Now go while it's still dark outside. You will have a better chance of getting out of the city, with my boy before the alarm is raised. May the Creator see you on your way safely! Tell my boy I love him and that I wish I could be there for him, but that I have to stay here. He'll understand someday what this was all about."