1.05

Cord waited until he was out of sight of the gatehouse before he entered the darker side-streets again. His encounter with the guards had gone well. He had considered using the whiskey to help convince them to let him through, but knew that would have backfired if he had tried it on the guard captain. That guard was an honest man, and attempting to bribe him would have landed Cord in a jail-cell. He had no intention of relying on his fake merchant's pass and nonexistent notes of debt again, so he moved carefully through the darkness, heading towards the palace.
The main roads in the Inner City were well-lit, but very little of that light reached the side-streets and alleys that Cord navigated. He was careful not to make any noise. The last thing he needed was for someone to hear him and report it to the Watch for them to investigate.

Cord estimated that with his winding route he had taken three hours to reach the fortified wall surrounding the palace. It was almost time for the palace guards to be changed. He was squatting in the shadow of a coach that had been left outside by one of the noblemen living in the exclusive area of the city. He was waiting for the new guards to take their station. The ones that were currently on duty were no doubt tired, but their eyes were accustomed to the dark. The new guards would take several minutes to properly adjust to the darkness, and Cord needed that time to make his way across the open area that lay between him and the palace wall. He kept his eyes focused on the sentry post on top of the wall, waiting for the new guard to arrive.
It seemed that an age had passed before the new sentries started relieving their comrades, but at last the sentry at the nearest post left and was replaced by another. Cord waited a few breaths more to be sure that the previous sentry was gone, and then he moved out of the concealing shadow of the coach. It felt like his heart was beating loud enough to be heard as he moved quickly and silently across the ground. He took a path that veered to the left and right as he approached the wall. He had plotted a course that would keep him in the tallest and darkest grass, and hoped that he would be difficult to see from the sentry-posts. After what felt like several minutes he reached the wall, thankful that there had been no sound of alarm. He waited a few breaths and studied the wall.
The palace wall was was made of huge slabs of smooth stone cut and placed in such a manner that there were almost no gaps between the slabs. If you wanted to keep determined enemies out, almost was never good enough.
Cord had been trained to climb far more difficult obstacles with the climbing gauntlets he now wore. The blades he had fitted to the finely crafted steel and leather framework that fit over his hand like a glove were specifically developed for scaling castle walls. Cord made sure that the blades were secure and started his ascent...