We reached an exit door and Phoenix pushed it open easily, stepping us out into the warm summer air. The grounds stretched ahead, green and open and entirely different from every space I had been in over the past week.
"Would you like to walk for a bit?" he asked. "Get some fresh air?"
I almost argued in favour of being carried but agreed and he set me down gently, steadying me with both hands until I had my footing. I thanked him and he took my hand and led me toward the back field.
The women were there, spread across the grass in small groups and individually, most of them in white dresses provided by the castle. They spotted us almost immediately and a few went still, watching us with the careful assessment of people who had spent a long time learning to read every new arrival as a potential threat. When they had decided we were safe they turned back to what they had been doing, which for most of them appeared to be simply sitting in the open air and not being in a cage.
