The Ransom

He rattled the chains bound to his wrists to relieve the pain in his muscles. It would be over soon, when they'd push him to the gallows.

Hanging was the punishment for killing the kadi, the judge appointed by the Turks. He would do the same again if he could choose.

A drunken Turkish patrol invaded his village on the edge of the town. He could still hear the loud cries that gathered the villagers in the muddy plaza ring in his ear. The soldiers separated the young women from the rest and asked for ransom. He tried to push away the images; however, the haggard and frightened faces asking for mercy came back to haunt him.

They paid the ransom with their last reserves. The next winter would be cold and fraught with hunger.

The drunken Turkish leader grinned, patted the purse and then signaled his men. Each soldier picked up a girl on his horse and disappeared. He never saw her again, and he let out a pained groan as he remembered his anguish.

He spent a month to find the names of the soldiers. He then went to the kadi to ask for justice and the whole village served as witness.

The judge listened patiently to each of them, and it gave him hope. He then listened to the soldiers and the false witnesses they bought with the ransom money. A foolish hope it was, he realized when the kadi winked at the patrol leader who patted his now lighter purse. 

"Any Christian witness who accuses a Turk is unreliable." the judge decreed. Next he grinned and ordered the villagers to pay the equal of the ransom in damages.

"That's the last straw!" he said.

And then he took the matters in his own hands.