.

I awoke in the cell that the Duke's men had assigned to me. Rolling over to look at the window i could see the sky lightening as the sun slowly began to climb in the sky. It had been three months since i had been caught and I couldn't believe that so far this was nothing like the stories i had been brought up on. In those stories, the revolution would begin with a dramatic fire and the fire starter would be hailed as a hero.

I sat on the edge of my cot and scratched myself idly, the bedding appeared to have fleas of some sort. I felt my lank dark hair fall in front of my face and idly brushed it back. I thought back to the night that Sten had recruited me to set fire to the baron's stables. The baron, Sten mainainted, spent our hard taxes renovating his stables and needed to be taught that these things were easy to lose. His plan had been simple creep on to the baron's lands and set fire to his stables. His horses and their bedding would represent a significant loss of money to the cold heated noble.

That night i crept silently onto the baron's land and using a lantern on the outside of the stable door I successfully started a blaze exacerbated by the bedding on the floor. The fire spread quickly and soon i could hear the horses within screaming in un mistakeabe terror. I found this strange as Sten and his fellow group leaders had assured me that horses were unthinking un feeling beasts. When i close my eyes i can still smell the burning flesh still hear that gods-awful noise of those animals burning to their demise.

What i hadnt counted on was the two human screams i heard from inside. How was i to know that the Baron's youngest son and one of his riding instructors had been inside the stable. Looking through the window i could see her dress still pulled up around her waist as it burst into flames and her hair aflame stuck to her head. That sight spurred my fear and i fled into the night. And that was the first strike of the rebellion.

I fled to an old woodsman's hut deep in the forest as i had been instructed and there i sat in the cold and dark for three days before a party of the Baron's guard showed up at the door and barged their way inside. It happen so fast that i was restrained beneath their burly frames and had recieved several “accidental” impacts before i realised i had been betrayed.

Several days of torment followed in a questioning cell or it seemed like several days all i can remember is the beatings and the questions. Finally when i had refused to speak a single word, like those past heroes of rebellion the Baron himself entered, and informed me that they no longer needed a confession. Sten had told him everything. When the baron's men had arrived at his door it took a simple threat to burn his wife and three young daughters alive and he had told them everything with a slight change. He said it had been my decsion as an act of rebellion against the Duke.

The Baron told me that if it had been left to him he would have simply had me out on the gallows before sunset and i would be dancing a merry jig on the end of a rope. However, the Duke had decided that i would be transferred to his private prison until such a time that he could deal with me personally.

At the time i had breathed a sigh of relief as the Duke was a fair man and it would give my brothers and sisters in rebellion an opportunity to rescue me or at least provide me with the means to effect my own escape.

That had been three months ago and despite Sten's aunt working the kitchen of the Duke's gaol i had had no contact from the rebels. That is, until last night.

Last night a guard i didnt recgognise came to the door and harrassed me that i had some romantic notions of fairy tale hero and that the real world out side my tiny village was vastly different. He had told me that the Baron's youngest had been widely loved and i was filth beaneath his shoe for what i had done.he finnished his tirade by spitting on the ground and left. Shortly after a hunched fugure had crept to the cell door and whispered insistently to get my attention. When i relocated myself nearer to the door a raspy female voice told me that one night hence i would be find my cell door unlocked and simple to open and i only had to head down the stairs at the end of the hallway and out the door to find the main courtyard with the main gates unlocked and unattended directly infront of me. I just had to last one more day which would feature a visit from the Duke's Inquisitor. This was the main questioner for the Duke's court and only reported to the Duke and the King. All others were expected to give him way. This first day would only be questons about things he already knew about and thus i should answer truthfully and fully or he would know i was lying and would begin a more robust form of questioning involving one of the cells in the basement. The speaker did not need to tell me what happened in the underground cells as my imagination could extrapolate that nothing hidden from the gods underground would be good. So, she reiterated, all i had to do was answer the questions he already knew the answers to in is as much detail as possible then he would depart and that evening i would be able to basically walk out of there and meet Sten and a spare horse and be gone to his sister's farm in a neighbouring antoagonistic Duchy where i was unlikely to be returned to this one. I knew that my fellow rebels had not abandonded me and i began to prepare my mind for my daring escape.

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The Inquisitor had departed around an hour ago and i was pacing my cell to warm my muscles up to run. He had asked several questions consulting a piece of parchment in front of him with every answer i gave. I followed my unknown advisors instructions i gave him the information as i had known it before my imprisionment. The location of the meeting halls. The names of group leaders and our safe houses and weapons caches. Nothing he didnt already know from the months he had been gathering his information. He turned to leave and commended me on my honesty and said he didnt see a need to resort “downstairs questions” if continued in this honest and trustworthy way. I decided to lie on my cell and rest before my flight.

I was awakened by an incessant but quiet knocking on the door. When i sat up it gently and silently glidely open outwards. Poking my head out cautiously i looked both ways and despite the fairly good lighting of torches in sconces on the walls i could see no source of the knocking. Glancing out the window i realised that it was dark enough to try for the gate. Tiptoeing quickly down the hall towards the stairwell i glanced quickly around to make sure that none of the other residents on this floor heard me. So far so good.

I couldnt restrain the soft slapping noise my feet as i descended the stairs as quickly as i could. The cold stone of the walls echoing the sound back at me but so softly i could barely hear it. My breath was coming in little gasps of exertions as i tried to hurry silently, which i discovered is not as easy as the stories made it seem.

I finally reached the bottom step and halted before the small door catching my breath. It must be late at night i thought as i could see my breath misting in front of my eyes. Once i caught my breath i slowly pushed the door open and prepared for the sprint acroos the lit courtyard. As the door swung open with a gently creak of protest i realised that the courtyard was pitch black.

Just like the rebels in stories they had managed to coerce or enlist some guards to abandon their posts. Across from the door i stood infront of i could make out a dimly lit gatehuse and an open gate through which i could see a saddled horse; riderless and waiting. I began to jog towards it focusng on the dim latern hanging to one side of the gate.

As i reached the halfway point, some one hundred yards between gate and door i heard a loud bang. Turning back i saw the door behind me had slammed shut. From the other side i heard a creak and a s i turned my head back i was just in time to see the gate close. The click it made as it locked was audible in the deathly silence of the courtyard.

Suddenly, bright lights began to appear on the wall around me. Looking up i thought them to be a mages spell or some demon that guarded the prison. As my eyes adjusted i saw that they were shuttered lanterns that had been uncovered and illuminated the courtyard. What they illumunated on the wall turned my blood to ice, there was easily a hundred crossbow men situated between me and every lamp. I knew why their backs were to the light, it was a hunters trick to save your night vision when hunting at night.

“Did you think it would be so easy to kill our son” a voice called out.

I searched for the source of the voice and my heart sank as i realised that the speaker was the Baron. Beside him stood his wife, the inquisitor and a girl in her mid to late teens. They gazed down at me and i could see no trace of compassion in those identical cold stares.

“You starve us while you buy and race hounds and horses and falcons. Your son's death was regrettable but when he died he was in the arms of his riding instructor”

The Inquisitor stepped up

“Mybrother”, He said, “was in the arms of his new wife, who was indeed teaching him how to ride. He had a blood affliction which the saintly healers in the Capital's church cured him of. He was newly wed and was merely celebrating this with his new bride.”

“And you Inquisitor? Getting involved in personal matters is surely beneath you”

The quartet on the wall laughed the Barons wife moved forward

“Oh you simpleton. I knew you could be tricked but didnt realise how simple it would be. My son is no Inquisitor. This lady” she gestured to the girl “is our daughter and thanks to dance classes, is nimble on her feet. Nimble enough to, say, unlock a cell door and vanish without a trace.”

My stomach rose to my throat as i realised.

“Oh no” i muttered as i realised how it all had panned out. I had given the Baron's son information about the rebellion. Information he had feigned knowledge of and i had betrayed every last one of my rebel brethren. I felt the bile rise in my gorge as i realsied i had doomed the rebellion. That stopped as i saw the Baron raise his arm and the crossbowmen took aim. I had just enough time ot think: “this is nothing like the stories” as his arm swept down.

THE END