Ivaan went straight to the market, and there were many poor kids sitting beside the road begging. He went there, opened his bag, and started distributing one fruit to each kid. In the end, two kids asked him for fruit.

  He checked his bag, and unfortunately, there were no fruits left in it; both kids got disheartened.

  “So, we will not get food today,” one of the kids said

  “No, you will get food today,” he said while putting his hand on his shoulder.

  He glanced all around, and he spotted a shop of bread on the other side of the road.

  “Just wait here, I’m going to bring you some food,” he said, and the kid smiled.

  He went to the shop.

  There was a big crowd of customers in that shop. He went behind the crowd, sneaking, spread his arms, and pushed 4 or 5 people standing in front of him. He fell with those people on the bread placed in front of the shop.

  As he fell with other people, he used them as a cover and picked up three breads and tucked them in his vest and turned around swiftly before anyone could see him. He went towards the kids waiting on the other side of the road. He handed one bread to each of them, which they took gladly.

  Then they both found that there was another bread in Ivaan’s hand.

  “Please, give me that bread in your hand,” one of the kids asked, and when Ivaan’s hand moved forward to hand him another bread.

  Another kid shouted, “I want that bread,” and tried to take the bread, but Ivaan quickly pushed his hand back.

  “No, I want it, I asked first,” said the other kid, and both started fighting each other for bread.

  “Stop fighting or else nobody will get any bread,” said Ivaan and separated both of them from each other.

  He broke the bread in two halves and gave each of the kids one half of the bread, “share equally, you both have no one to look after you, so you need to look after each other”.

  Both kids smiled and started eating bread.

  I wonder where he will be, my friend who took care of me in my childhood when I was a slave, as was he; he suffered so much torture because of me, and still, he did whatever he could to help me. I don’t even know his name or face now, such a shame.

  His eyes were teary, so he wiped the tears from his eyes.

  “Why are you crying?” asked the kid standing near him, pulling his pants.

  He crouched, “There was a friend of mine who helped me a great deal when I was a kid like you, both of you reminded me of him”.

  “Where is he now?” asked the kid while chewing on his bread

  “I don’t know, but one day I will find him,” he said with a big smile and teary eyes.

  “That is one of the reasons I love you so much,” Risha said from behind

  He stood up and turned around, “Why did you take so much time to come?” he said, “I have to wait for you for so long”.

  “Aww…” she said, “did you miss me this much…that you lost your patience, well that’s a good start”.

  “Put it aside for a while and focus on work,” he said, “this is a big task, we can’t take any chances”.

  “Calm yourself, darling,” she said while wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning on him, “I was watching…the guards…around the palace, trying to find the perfect time to get into the castle”.

  “So, what information did you gather?” he asked.

  “Have patience…” she said while opening his mouth by grabbing his jaw and sucked his tongue through her lips.

  “Please…tell me what you found?” he asked

  “Fine…” she said by removing her arms and sitting on the side of the road.

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  “We’ll get a lot of time to do all this stuff after my freedom, remember,” he said by doing a side hug, now tell me what you found?”.

  “In the evening, most of the guards of the castle are set out for patrolling around the city; that’s the best time to enter the palace,” she said

  “That’s excellent, let’s get this thing done, in some time, the sun will set, and that will be the perfect time for us,” he said and stood up.

  She grabbed his arm and looked up, “Do you really care about me or…”.

  “What are you saying…” he sat beside her and hugged her tightly, and then kissed her for a whole minute. “Don’t ever say that again, we are so close to getting a new life for us, and my freedom is our chance”.

  “I know, but there’s a huge risk, what if something went wrong?”

  “But there’s a big reward and a whole new life for us,”

  “We can also get that by not doing this work,” she said, “you and I just have to run away from your master to another city, he’ll not be able to find you, and you’ll be free”.

  “You don’t understand, my mother also lives with me,” he said, “if I went away, then he will use my mother as bait, which no child wants for their mother”.

  “You never mentioned your mother before?”

  “I just did,” he said, “this is our only chance and there's no way out”.

  “Ok,” she stood up, “the sun is setting, we need to reach the castle right now”.

  Both of them went to the castle. On reaching the castle, both of them climbed the boundary of the castle with no guard present on that side with the help of a rope and a hook. They glanced all around the place from above.

  “Why are you not going into the castle?” he asked while watching her standing still.

  “There’s something wrong here,” she said, “all the guards are present in their positions, which means they haven’t gone for the patrol yet”.

  “What, but you said that the guards will go on patrol,” he said, “how could you go wrong?”.

  “Tell me, something,” she said, “where was I, before we climbed up the wall of the palace?”.

  “You were… with me,”

  “Then how can I know what went wrong here? I wasn’t here for the whole time.”

  “Ok, I understand, now calm yourself down before the guards catch us here shouting like maniacs.”

  “So now I am a maniac, only that was left to be said.”

  “Ok, sorry, but please speak low.”

  Suddenly, the sound of big metal doors opening up reached their ears.

  “Something is happening,” she said

  Many guards gathered in three queues and walked out of the palace.

  “The guards are going for the patrol, you were right,” he said and turned to his side, but he found no one there, and then he turned to his front and saw her standing on the edge of the wall with a rope knotted around her waist tightly, and the hook stuck on the edge.

  “I know,” she said, and she jumped from the boundary inside the castle while facing towards him. He rushed towards the edge of the boundary to see her. The rope hooked on the edge of the wall unwound quickly, and when the rope unwound, it pulled her towards the wall, and she landed on the side of the wall, planting her legs firmly.

  The ground was a little below her, and she opened the knot on the rope tied across her waist while grabbing the rope tightly, preventing the fall. When the knot was open, she released the rope while jumping by hitting her feet on the wall and landed on the ground.

  She glanced above and found Ivaan staring down at her. She found a guard standing at a distance, so she quickly went behind a wall of the building to hide herself. There was a shield hanging on the side of the wall in the direction she was peeking at the guard.

  She came out from behind the wall and took out the shield, and hid again. She took out a coin from her pocket using her other hand, and she tossed it on the ground, a little behind the guard. The guard turned around after listening to the sound of the coin and walked in her direction.

  What she is doing, she is supposed to sneak in while not getting the attention of the guards, and she is doing just the opposite. I don’t believe she is so reckless in her ways.

  As the guard was walking in her direction, the coin lying on the ground caught his attention, and he crouched to pick up the coin. She came running towards him from behind the wall and hit the top of his head with the shield. The guard glanced at her while holding his head and fell unconscious.

  Well, I didn’t expect that to happen, anyway, I think she can handle it, so I don’t need to be concerned about getting the crystal.

  She entered the building, which she hid behind. There were no soldiers in that building, and it was filled with arms and weapons.

  It’s great that I found so many weapons. I can use a few of them just in case I get caught; it will help me to protect myself.

  She spotted the place where swords are kept, she picked up a sword with its sheath and tied it around her waist, she put the shield on her back, and picked up some sleep darts from that place.

  Then she approached the other door of the building. As she reached the door, she peeked outside. There were two guards standing at the entrance of the building where the King’s treasury is kept safe, there were 3 guards patrolling the area around that building, and she also spotted some movement inside the building of the King’s treasury, which meant there were also some guards present in the building.

  There are so many guards around here, how am I supposed to enter the building of the king’s treasury? Even if I try, I will not be able to pass through all these guards without getting detected, especially from the ones standing at the entrance.

  A patrolling guard went to one of the guards standing at the entrance of the building. He talked to him and they exchanged their places, and the previous guard standing at the entrance went away from that place.

  Maybe one guard has gone for rest, now there are only 4 of them, now I have to remove one more guard, and after that I will be able to sneak past them, but how?

  Ivaan was scanning the whole palace to find her from above the wall, but he didn’t find any trace of her.

  Where is she? It is too risky for me to wait here. Should I leave? NO, no, I can’t because if I leave, then I didn’t know that she would trust me enough to give me that crystal. Before entering the palace, she was already doubtful about my intentions and plan. If I leave, then she’ll not trust me, and it will be a huge loss for me.