Six more steps -- five and a hop, if he wanted to be cheeky -- and Cherry would be done with it. Done with a backbreaking apprenticeship to an iron-spined old witch; done with fetching herbs and bark, moth wings and moonlight, snakes and silver; done with scrubbing iron and mending weaving ...
Done. Free. His own master.
All he needed was six steps, and close the gate behind him --
But ...
He turned back.
"Ma'am Hydra? If there's anything ...?"