Adiya's POV

"please use our tanks to fill the water!" said the soldier very humbly.

And it striked me. People over here actually respected women. The soldiers, living away from their families could have harmed us. But no. They will were perfect gentleman. Ready to help women in distress.

"Princess, shall we poison the water?" asked Juhi, who was in the position of leadership after me.

"no. I don't feel like doing that." I confessed and everyone agreed with me.

Then an idea came into my head. I had brought a sleeping power with me (just in case of emergency)

The military had a huge earthen tank that was situated in the base of the fort. We added sleeping powder when no one was watching.

"do you all mind if we all take some rest over here? We have travelled a lot by foot." I requested

"sure why not? We have a resting chamber upstairs. You all can rest here. We all are having our lunch. You all can join us too." offered the soldier. And I was moved by his gesture.

"no. We cannot have lunch. We all will just have a rest for a while and start our journey as soon as possible . We have to reach to our village by sunset." replied Juhi.

We all had a rest in the chambers and waited for the soldiers to have the water. The effect of sleeping draught would start within an hour. Since the water was also supposed to be used to cook the food, it would have a quicker effect. We heard the bell for lunch and then the voices of assembling of the soldiers. I assumed that it came from the dining room situated below on the first floor.

Meanwhile one of the ladies got out of the chamber as soon as the lunch commenced. I had asked her to sneak out of the room in order to find the room where the arms and ammunitions were kept.

After sometime, we stopped hearing any voices. I got out to see the soldiers sleeping on the ground with their plates beside them.

We all seized the arms and ammunition and exited the fort! We hid the weapons inside the big baskets and water pots that we had carried along with us. Thankfully there were no soldiers situated on the border. Apparently they all had a habit of having lunch together with no one to guard the borders for a short duration if time. It was a serious loophole.

Before leaving, I wrote a letter on a parchment and dropped it near the water tank. It was meant for the King of Surya Kingdom. King Dhruv.