The tunnel was exactly as she remembered it. Low ceiling. Damp walls. The smell of old stone and standing water. It ran beneath the palace in a network of passages that had been built centuries ago and largely forgotten.
She had explored them when she was younger. When she was still the girl who needed to know every escape route available.
She knew where they went.
And she knew one of them led directly beneath the dungeons.
She started walking. The tunnel was too low to stand fully upright. She had to crouch, half-bent, one hand trailing along the wall to keep her balance in the dark.
She walked for what felt like an hour but was probably only twenty minutes. The tunnel branched. She took the left fork. Then the right. Following the mental map she'd built years ago.
She heard voices above her .
She stopped to listen.
"—don't know why we're wasting a cell on him." A guard's voice. Muffled by stone but audible. "It's not like the Prince is actually going to execute him."
