Alistair entered Verissan in the late afternoon, when the gates were at their busiest.
He had timed it that way on purpose.
The third hour after midday was when the market carts, the residency arrivals, and the courier traffic all overlapped, and a single traveler drew the least attention of any hour. That was the only reason he had picked it.
The wall came into view through a long line of carts, higher than he had expected.
Caelmar's old wall had been added to over the last hundred years, and the additions never matched the original stone, so the whole thing carried a layered look that sat somewhere between honest and embarrassing.
The guards at the top held crossbows, the same way the Therasian guards once had, except these were ceremonial, and the men holding them looked like men who had not pulled a trigger in years.
Alistair joined the residency queue, since it moved faster than the merchant one.
