You debate whether to take the passageway in an attempt to escape, or simply explore for a bit. Realizing that eventually your charade would be discovered, you decide you need to risk it all and take the passageway, wherever it may lead. After all, if the castle soldiers knew about it, it would probably be guarded as well, so you were pretty certain it was a hidden passage. So long as you left no clues as to your route, you could probably buy yourself enough time to get out.
However, before you make a run for it, you manage to calm down enough to think rationally. Even if you run, you have no money, clothes, food, or any other necessities with which to survive. Quickly rummaging through the room, you find some slightly less ostentatious clothes, presumably for riding horses or equally dusty business, and quickly change, trying to ignore how different your body is, although you can't help but peek from time to time at the large silver plate in the corner which served as a mirror. Whoever this king was, he was in relatively good shape, which you are grateful for, since there is no telling how far you will have to flee, but you still can't get used to having male proportions and, well, other things. Dressed, you grab any item that looks like it might be untraceable or useful and toss them into a sack, not wasting too much time examining them. You are quickly rifling through the last set of drawers when something strikes you as odd. One of the drawers seems slightly less deep than the others, which you probably wouldn't have noticed except that you had already been through a dozen. Frowning, you let your curiosity get the better of you. Pulling out the drawer and dumping the contents on the bed, you look at its underside, only to find nothing strange. Turning it over, you feel around on the inside until you manage to get your fingernail under a small gap. Pulling it up, you see a secret compartment.
Lying there are a few nondescript items: a thin leatherbound book with yellowed pages, a rusty necklace with an odd pendant, a small frame containing a portrait, and two vials of unknown liquid. You hesitate only a second, then dump everything into a pouch and chuck it in your sack. If the king throught these things were important enough to hide them, they might come in handy. Returning the items on the bed to the drawer, you grab a dull cloak and a small dagger you discovered, as well as a candle, then hurry into the secret passage, closing the door behind you.
You had debated lighting the candle before you entered, but you weren't sure if there were openings in the passage where a light might be seen. Luckily, there was just barely enough ambient light inside to keep you from slamming into a wall, although not much more. You carefully shuffle your way down the passage, keeping your hands stretched out to either side in case of a side opening. You find one, but the main passage goes ahead straight, so you decide to continue. Finally, you come to a stairway leading down, slightly darker than the passage. Since you realize that the king's chambers were not on the ground floor, you gladly take stairs down.
However, you become anxious when the stairs keep going for quite a while. When on the balcony, it didn't seem as though you were that far above the ground. You console yourself that perhaps the stairs lead to a hidden tunnel. You sigh in relief when your boots finally hit flat stone, and carefully inch forward. You must have stepped on a mechanism, because a door suddenly and silently swings open, and you can see dim torchlight on the other side. Startled, you hesitate, but you don't want to go back up all the way you came. Steeling yourself, you peek out.
All you see is a stone passageway with a single torch at the other end, and an opening next to it. You carefully exit the secret stair, but nearly jump when you see the door swing soundlessly closed behind you. You turn and fiddle with what now looks like flat wall, but cannot find the mechanism in the dim light. Cursing under your breath, you decide to move down the passage. At the end, near the torch, you look through the opening and see rooms with bars: cells. You are either in a prison or a dungeon; same difference if you can't escape. You can't get a good look at the other end, so you begin making your way past the cells. Thankfully, no one seems to be around.
That is, until you reach the cell in the center. You are in front of it before you realize that you are not alone. Freezing, you squint into the depths of the cell. Manacled to the wall in rags, standing upright, arms outstretched, is a slender figure, its head tilted forward, long raven-black hair flowing over its face. Recalling what the king's fiancee said earlier, you put two and two together and wonder if this is the witch to be executed. You look at the figure pityingly, and are about to continue on your way when something stops you cold.
Behind the veil of black hair, two bright green eyes are staring at you.