The mountain has loomed in the distance for two days, but when the treeline finally parts and the land settles down flat and obedient, Salaya gets her first glimpse of Salkrit City. Even from this distance, it's a sight to behold. From three sides impregnable, The peaks and towers gleam like burnished glass under the afternoon sun. A giant stands with glowing hands raised to the sky. Past stone walls, houses swirl around streets leading inexorably to the palace like a jewel placed in a nest. And past the palace, the city approaches the edge of the mountain until it slips beneath its lip. “Is that the?”

“Yes, that's the crater.”

“It's massive.” Salaya rubs her eyes to make sure her eyesight is accurate. The crater is punched not into the ground, but into the side of the mountain, allowing workers to build in instead of up.

“It's impressive every time you see it, but stagnant.” says Eje. Salaya gives her an inquisitive look. “There isn't much room for new housing, unless you want to live underground, so prices are forced up and most people go live in Muritaginus where everything is cheaper and cleaner, and the people are less snobby.”

“Isn't Muse Academy in Muritaginus?” remarks Ariel.

Even the road leading to Salkrit is paved. The horses shift from a collected to an extended trot in appreciation of the smooth concrete slabs. If the horses feel relief at the prospect of the upcoming relay station, it's nothing compared to Salaya's elation rising from three days' travel. The numbing beat of hooves is almost enough to make her yearn for walking again.

More horses graze in the fields on the near side of the river than stable at Three Peaks. Tall roan chargers for the most urgent of messages, sturdy piebalds for hauling carriages, slender black and white steeds for ladies. At the relay station, Arrec hands over his scrip and the horses are released from service. “I'll miss her.” says Ariel, embracing her chestnut mare about the neck. “One day I should like to travel the world on a horse. There's something majestic about it.”

“It's only a matter of time until they're replaced with lodestones.” says Octave. “Your beloved messengers will be out of a job, but our asses will thank us.”

“Lodestones.” snorts the geezer as though in all his decades manning this relay station he's never heard such twaddle. He stamps Arrec's scrip without so much as examining it. “They've been talkin' about it fer years, and I wish dearly they'd just get it over with. Then once they've built up those lodestones all over the place, we'll see they don't work for nothing. Naw, stick with the trusty horses. Not fast and sparkly and magical, but they get you where you need to go, no coded messages popping around in people's heads. Trust me, girlies. Horses were in demand a thousand years ago, and they'll be in demand a thousand years hence.” He takes their horses and gives Arrec four slips of yellow parchment. “There's yer receipts. Hold onto 'em or you'll wish you had a lodestone on yer way home.”

Salaya stretches her sore legs and jellied thighs. “I won't mind missing out on escort missions.” she says as they walk stiffly toward the bridge. “Just give me teleportation, lodestones, whatever removes the necessity of travel. A stroll through the woods is enough exercise for anyone.” The bridge leading to the city is a towering feat of metal trusses and wooden slats. “This looks ominous.” The gate to the bridge is shut and a crowd is gathered around. Some people are camped by the roadside, others, stand as though waiting, and several argue with the guards.

“The city is closed.” says a guard sweating under a chainmail coif.

“There's no use arguing.” mutters a man standing to the side. “They aren't letting us in.”

“I'm an imperial messenger.” says Arrec, drawing himself up. He takes out his stamped scrips to prove it. “My retinue and I require ingress, and we have neither the time nor patience to be stalled by mere guards.”

“Don't care who you are.” says the guard. “The palace has been robbed and the city is closed until further notice. Unless you have imperial consent authorising entry through a lockdown, you'll have to wait.”

“How long will this take?”

“Until the thief or thieves have been apprehended.”

“It's no use.” says the man again. “We're been here since yesterday morning. The bridge is locked, the roads barricaded, and the gates sealed.”

Arrec tries to wave his scrips at the guards again, but they aren't interested. He looks back at Octave as though about to signal to her to knock the guards out and force the gate. “Pah, we'll wait.” he acquiesces. “Come on.” He leads them to a secluded spot overlooking the river. The Salkrit River is so broad, an arrow fired from a longbow would be unlikely to make it halfway across the torpid waters, Salaya calculates. Arrec looks out beyond the river to the great city walls, then back at Team Twenty-Four.

“We can make it in there.” says Eje.

“It's not safe, Eje.” says Salaya. “The bridge is closed, the gates are closed. We'll have to wait.”

“I don't want to wait. I want to get to the city.”

“But the city is locked down, Eje. Even if we could get in, it wouldn't be right.”

“We're not the thieves. We have a mission, right, Arrec?”

“The sooner we get in, the sooner we finish.” says Arrec.

“But the captain has to respect the law, doesn't he?”

“Captain Esbeck will be pleased to have received his correspondence so soon and will know better than to question how it arrived through a lockdown.”

“We can't really be considering this, can we?” pleads Salaya. “If we're caught, what do you think will happen?”

“Then we shouldn't get caught.” Eje turns to Octave and Ariel. “What do you think?”

“If we can do it, it might be worthwhile.” says Ariel. “How are we going to get in though?”

“Shouldn't be hard.” says Octave. “The main gates to the south and east should be heavily guarded. The side gates less so.”

Salaya rubs her neck and stares down at the endlessly flowing water as her teammates discuss how to get across the river. “What do we do if we're caught? How do we get away?”

“Get away?” asks Octave. “I never imagined you'd be so bold as to circumvent the authorities twice over. If we're caught, we'll simply apologise and hope Salkrit's dungeons are comfortable.”

“Don't joke.” Salaya's voice hasn't been this high in a long while. “I'm not going to jail for this. The guards will surely have lights on the walls. How can we get past them?”

“You can use black magic, right?”

“What's that?”

“You're a colour mage, so just make it. Combine blue red and yellow.” explains Octave. “Keep it overhead and don't let it shoot off and break something. You've been practising control, right?”

“Er, yes.”

“And you have the wherewithal to hear what's happening around you while you control your magic, right?”

“Yeah, I can.” says Salaya with some pride.

“Then we have cover. I can get us in through the gate. Arrec, you wouldn't happen to be versed in water magic, would you?”

“Afraid not.” says Arrec. “We'll need a boat.”

A small fishing village sits on the bank of the Salkrit River opposite the city. By day, fishing vessels cut through the silky brown water while nets of perch and trout are hauled up behind them. By evening, the vessels have returned to the safety of the dock and any late catches are gutted and salted, or roasted in small huts, the aroma spreading for leagues. As night falls, a single rowboat casts off from the dock in search of an entry point into a fortress. Arrec lounges at the bottom of the craft, muttering for the clouds to thicken. Octave rows while Eje sits at the stem, ostensibly to look for snags, but mostly to convince everyone that despite appearances, she is useful in the water. Ariel sits cross-legged on a board watching the stars, while Salaya sits straight-backed and motionless, terrified that a single false move on her part will upset everything and send them tumbling into the drink. A splash nearly sends her careening overboard, but she's able to catch herself in time. “Just a fish.” Ariel consoles her.

“How are they getting food into the city?” wonders Eje as they disappear from the bank and into the black emptiness of the river.

“Food deliveries will have the consent to get through the guards.” says Arrec. “After thorough searching. We wouldn't be able to get in that way.”

Minutes or hours go by. As they finally approach the far bank, they can see the torches on the wall have been set out farther apart than they appeared from across the river, and the walls have been set a ways back to ensure their foundations are sunk into dry land. Eje hops out of the boat the moment it makes shore, Ariel and Arrec right behind her. Salaya sways for a moment then stumbles out. Octave is last out and hauls the boat up onto the shore under an embankment. “This way.” She leads them along the river, in the darkness.

If Salaya thought crossing the river was a slow process, the walk is slower yet. “Where are we going?”

“Around the perimeter of the wall. We need to get to the mountain.”

“What exactly are you planning?” Arrec wants to know.

“It's hard to explain.”

After what seems like hours, they arrive at the base of the mountain. The wall reaches it then juts up sharply into the darkness. “Now what?”

They watch as a lone guard walks the distance of the wall, turning back when it angles upward. “Now would be the time for some black magic.” The guard's back grows small then vanishes in the darkness, only to reappear farther and farther away each time he walks by a torch.

Salaya concentrates, and the magic flows, now more of a whoosh like wind blowing past her ears than a roaring waterfall. She turns from the wall to hide the speck of red light. Blue joins it to create a violet glow between her hands. “More blue.” advises Octave. “It needs to be dark.” Salaya adds blue until the glow is ocean-deep. Yellow has always been a challenge for her, but she manages it, ignoring the tickling sensation it causes in the back of her head. Then it's a simple matter of adjusting hues and intensities until her hands are darker than the night sky. When she opens them, the blackness expands over the party, a dark shroud under the night sky.

“Nicely done.” says Ariel.

“Now cover me from that torch.” says Octave as she approaches the base of the mountain. The surface is steep instead of gradual, almost a sheer cliff, and she has to scrabble on her hands and knees to make progress. Salaya expands the blackness again, trembling slightly to hold it up in front of the lone torch set high above them on the wall.

Octave pulls herself up to a ledge, the outline of her head and shoulders just visible above them. She must be at least fifty paces high, more than twenty above the walls of the city. She looks out, and they follow her gaze along the empty top of the wall. The guard is far away. “There isn't a lot of security considering they're under lockdown.” whispers Salaya.

“They're complacent.” mutters Arrec. “Think their wall is so great and keeps everything out.”

Salaya gasps. Eje standing beside her freezes. Octave leaps off the ledge, arms outstretched. She plummets for a split second, then slows and drifts, almost lazily toward the wall. She isn't high enough to get over the section running up the mountain, but she half floats half falls over the top of the ground-level wall and beyond. If she lands on the other side, they don't hear it. Salaya waits for the sound of guards announcing an intruder, but no sounds issue over the walls. The city sleeps on. “She's done that before.” says Arrec.

“I keep forgetting how strange kinetic magic is.” mutters Eje.

Sweat drenches Salaya's forehead and neck. The effort of keeping the shroud over them is causing a whining noise in her head, but keep it up she does as they steal back to the nearest gate, a small side door about the size of a castle corridor. “How do we know if she's made it?” asks Arrec.

“Feel for the barrier.” says Eje. She reaches out and puts her hand on the doors, and they glow a faint white in response. “I can't get through them. I think they need a more delicate touch.”

“It's not about being delicate.” says Ariel. “It's about being in control, just like what she was teaching Salaya to do.” But Salaya is still struggling to keep up the shroud, whimpering and trembling ever so slightly. “Nevermind, I'll do it.” Ariel places a hand on the barrier and exhales a gradual breathe. It shimmers for a second then dissipates. A bolt clicks from the other side and one of the doors opens ajar, just enough for them to slip through. Salaya gasps in relief as she finally releases the shroud and sends the black magic out toward the river until it fizzles harmlessly in the water.

“Excellent negation magic.” says Octave.

“Where to now?”

“The barracks will be closed.” says Arrec. “We'll wait until tomorrow, and if anyone asks how we got in, play dumb.”

The city inside the wall is lit dimly with lamps and roads stretch the length of several horses. Nobody is out and they slink off, Arrec guiding them away from the main streets and down the unlit alleyways.