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“Oh no, you can’t choose this one” Hadriel shook his head as I met the wall of the castle

I started around the other way, finding the saht place I just hadn’t noticed the garden alled because I’d been looking down It rohich roas extreme

“See?” Hadriel said “There’s no way in You— What are you doing?”

I found a part of the wall free of the thorny vines and jue I pulledover, rewarded with a bite of pain in my calf fro air through my teeth, I adjusted and sat, confronted with a swell of plant life

“Holy crap, this place is in a state” I looked up at the to, accessingdown “If I fall in, Hadriel…tell someone”

“You shouldn’t be up there That garden is off-limits!”

“Nyfain didn’toff-limits”

“This is not so that has to be mentioned!”

Well, that just made it more attractive

I stood, taking a moment to find my balance, and walked the top of the brick wall There was a mess of roses to my left, and a thicket of thorny vines beyond them I had no idea what those vines were, but I planned to cut them all down

“I’ll need so the ground beside ed to royalty at one tirounds I’d read about that in the history books But guess what? The royals were all dead, and the king had sucked I wouldn’t at all feel bad about taking over

At the side near the castle wall, the rowth turned into tall and brittle weeds They croithin and atop rows thatherbs or produce of some kind I wondered how the dirt was I turned and lowered myself down

“Come back out,” Hadriel called “Seriously, come out This is a terrible idea”

“It’s just a garden, Hadriel”

“It’s the queen’s garden!” he replied “The queen’s own garden”

“She’d probably want h the space, taking stock of any plants I could identify, weeds or otherwise I’d need to check the library for anything I didn’t recognize