3 Resolve

Gradually resolve started to harden in my heart. No more… I will take this oppression no more. I will not allow my child to live like this. A plan started to form. I would leave. I would run away from this place.

I started to pack the little things I needed… then I waited for nightfall. Around 7 in the evening I knew the guards took turns to take a break, and whilst one was away I asked the remaining guard at my door to see if he can find my nurse as I feigned having abdominal pain. This left me free of anyone who might stop me, which allowed me to creep out to the garden. The garden always had a gate that led to the outside courtyard and out of the palace. As I walked away from the palace, my heart sank. I was never going to see him again… I will always be alone…

As I made my way to the village market where I might find temporary lodgings, I had no inkling that people were starting to notice me. I had wished to go back to my father's house but I did not know how he would react to my sudden appearance, besides I had wish to find some transport that will allow me to be smuggled secretly into another neighboring country. There I will finally be free…

As I was making arrangements in a small inn about my overnight lodgings a hooded man approached me. I gave him a bow as is custom. "I heard you was looking for a way out of here?" his accent had sounded foreign to me. "Be at the back of the inn before dawn and you will have your transport." And then he left.

As he had told me, I awoke and prepared early and waited for the foreign man in the alley behind the inn; but soon dawn came and the man was nowhere in sight. I was about to lose hope and leave, when suddenly someone from behind grabbed me. My struggles were futile, as his other hand clamped down on my mouth and nose. The heavy smell of chloroform soon engulfed me and I knew I had made a mistake.