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I opted to hum instead of sing, as it was quieter. But without Beric here to amplify my magic, my first attempt at slicing the bars didn’t make it a quarter of the way through the steel. If that.

You don’t need amplification. You can do this.

I took a deep breath and cut at the bars again, along the top where metal met stone. I sliced across all four bars at once. Over and over again. When I was a good way through, I switched to the bottom. All I had to do was cut through them enough that one quick shove from a shield would break them loose.

But by the time I reached that portion of my plan, I was exhausted.

I sat on the cot for a moment to catch my breath. I wasn’t sure how much time I’d used, but Anise was so annoyed with me that I was sure she’d leave me undisturbed—and without food or water, for that matter—until evening.

Still, this was too important to wait. And anyway, I was more skilled with shields than blades.

I took another couple of minutes to regain my magic’s strength, then stood away from the bars. I took another deep breath.

“Please God,” I whispered.

And when I slammed a shield into the bars, they flew off into the grass with a snap.

I held back an excited scream and stepped back up onto the cot. The sound didn’t attract any curiosity, thank God, so I grabbed onto the sides of the window and pulled myself up.

Thankfully I had narrow shoulders, so pulling my upper body through the window wasn’t an issue. It was my skirt, as I feared, that would be my undoing. I grabbed onto the grass, swapping to pushing against the stone when it tore in my hands. I shushed my skirt as it loudly ripped against the roughly broken bars.

“Stupid fancy clothes,” I murmured in frustration. I looked around to make sure I was still safe, then reached down to loosen my skirt from all the places where it was snagged. It was all very tedious, but finally I lay in the grass, free of my prison.

Now to reach the gardens.

I scrambled to stand up and raced forward, until I rounded the corner and was forced to hide behind a grazing horse. The gardens were in view, but so were the guards and servants. And I heard singing, which I recognized immediately as Sunny and his band. If everyone was occupied with their performance, though, I could make my way into the gardens without being seen.

But the singing was getting louder, the band traveling near where I was hidden—if I was hidden, as I was positive my skirt could be seen with nothing but a tied horse to block me. I dared to make my way around and stand behind a group of courtesans, hoping to blend in. I tried not to notice as Olive glanced at me. Maybe she wouldn’t recognize me.

Sure, Cali.

The guards weren’t looking this way, which was the important part.

Finally the band was upon us, and I was shocked as Olive took my arm and pulled me forward, as all the giggling courtesans joined the band in their strolling serenade.

Please don’t recognize me, please don’t recognize me, please don’t recognize me.…

I felt an arm over my shoulder, pulling me close. I bit back the urge to protest. But as soon as I looked up and saw Sunny grinning with his arm around me, I broke into a relieved smile. None of them had good reason to turn me in. In fact, they were … concealing me.

“I need to get to the gardens,” I whispered.

He put a finger to his lips. And then he continued singing as he slapped a wide-brimmed hat on my head to hide me further.

Beric wasn’t usually wrong, but he’d been mistaken about Sunny. In a palace full of people I could no longer trust, I trusted this bard and his friends with my life.

The boisterous singing deterred any passersby, caused the guards to roll their eyes and ignore us. We made our way to the gardens with no trouble at all. It almost felt too easy, but I was grateful, after having to work so hard to escape the dungeon.

As soon as we were walking along the outside of the maze, Sunny helped hold open a gap in the hedgerow so I could slip inside. There was no time to thank him for his kindness, not even a smile or look of acknowledgment. But it would keep, until this whole awful affair was over.

When I was within the hedgerow I paused, pushing the band’s beautiful music to the background of my mind to figure out where I was. In the gardens, certainly. Somewhere in the maze. But I didn’t recognize any of it. Why must I be so very awful at navigation? Thankfully, there would most likely be no guards patrolling here, so if it took me the rest of the day to find the secret garden, well, then … I suppose I did have the rest of the day.

This would be the easy part compared to escaping the dungeon.

CHAPTER44CALLIOPE

It felt as if I’d been wandering for at least half an hour before I saw anything I vaguely recognized. Why had Beric told me to meet him in a maze that I’d only been in once, when I could hardly navigate the hall that I lived in daily? And why had he had such high expectations of me?

You fought a demon in The Dark, Cali. You can remember the path in a garden you were in only a few days ago.