"My prince," Jehral said, suddenly urgent, "the Petryans will know what we have done. It is time."
The tall leader of the Hazarans shook himself as if out of a trance. His horse turned as he wheeled it around. The prince signalled to his men and they galloped up the slope towards where the Hazaran warriors lay in hiding, calling out to initiate the attack.
Ella turned to Shani. "Where should we watch from?" she asked.
"Watch?" Shani said. "I don't plan to watch."
Ella then noticed the Petryan held reins in her hands. Beside Shani's horse was Ella's own horse, Afiri.
"It will be dangerous," Ella said.
"Life is dangerous."
The two women mounted up. Ella felt her heart race as she looked back over her shoulder towards the cleft in the crater's rim. A great dust storm rose out of the red earth, rushing forward in a way Ella knew wasn't natural, a cloud of sand and wind where the flashes of steel and horses could be seen between swirls of air given form.
In an instant, the two women, one in green and one in red, were swept away with the horde of riders.
Tens of thousands of Hazarans leapt from the lakeshore onto the ice. Ella held her breath but it held, and Afiri also ran onto the blue ice. The first wave of horses slipped and scrabbled, but the going was made easier as the ice was chewed up, the hooves finally digging into the slippery surface.
The riders raced across the surface of the frozen lake. The dust storm covered the great army, yet from inside the illusion Ella could perfectly see the tiered city grow in size as the horde of riders approached.
Ella reached down to the hilt she'd attached to her saddle. Her fingers closed around the curved dagger Jehral had given her. She had since enchanted it, and as she withdrew the blade and activated it, the heavy knife suddenly felt as light as one of Ella's scrills.
Ella looked behind her, back at the shore of the lake where the sunken pillar stood bright and tall, surprised at how far they'd already come.
Was that a figure in green, a man, running down the slope towards the lakeshore? Before Ella could look more closely, her attention again returned to her horse as Afiri slipped on the ice, before regaining his footing.
She held the knife in one hand, and with her other hand Ella held her reins against the pommel of the saddle. She gave Afiri his head; she couldn't have stopped him if she'd wanted to, and then suddenly there were balls of fire flying through the air around her.
They were mostly untargeted, wild shots thrown at them from the terraces and walls of Tlaxor. Ella was thankful for the illusionary storm that surrounded them — the Hazarans had no method of striking from a distance. Yet the illusion gave them no actual protection, and many of the Hazarans were caught by the blasts, screaming and falling off their horses as red energy smashed into their faces and torsos in clouds of sparks. Ella cried out when a flaming ball caught the horse of a warrior riding next to her. She smelled burning hair and heard the sound of sizzling flesh as both horse and rider erupted in a gush of fire.
They reached the main gate, set into sloping walls with no protection for the struggling Hazarans. The storm was of little value here, for the High Lord's elementalists could hurl fire at the foot of the gate and they were bound to strike someone. Some valiant warriors left their horses and, with knives between their teeth, began to scale the slanted walls. Most exploded in screaming flame, but a few made it to the top, giving the men below a few moments respite from the relentless fire.
Ella saw Shani holding a great fireball between her wrists, the biggest Ella had ever seen. Sweat dripped down the elementalist's forehead, and if she hadn't been wearing her protective robe, Ella knew her friend would have been scorched.
With a shout Shani launched the ball at the gate. Twisting and turning through the air, it made a sound like tearing paper as it flew at the centre of the dark wood.
Ella could see builder's runes on the gate, and knew what would happen next. The huge ball of flame fell apart in a flurry of sparks. The gate was scorched, but it held.
The Hazarans became crowded up against the gate, and soon it would be a massacre as the packed warriors proved themselves easy targets for the High Lord's elementalists. Realising the danger, the horsemen peeled to either side, some heading to the left and others to the right as they encircled the tiered city.