Prince Ilathor came forward. He dismounted from his horse and drew the huge scimitar he wore at his side. Ella watched open-mouthed as he called a series of runes, and the scimitar blazed with blue fire. Reading the colours, Ella knew only Alturan enchanters could have made such a sword, but it was a scimitar, a style of blade that was definitely not Alturan. She wondered how old it was, how long it had been in Ilathor's family. She wondered if the prince even knew.
Ella could predict what was coming next. The prince took the scimitar in two hands and swung at the gate. The sword that could cut through stone smashed against the gate that had been reinforced with the lore of House Torakon's builders.
Yet Prince Ilathor's sword bounced off the gate with a fountain of sparks as the enchanted blade met the strength of builder's runes, and the gate won.
With no siege weapons — no battering rams or mortars, scaling ladders or catapults — Ella realised the Hazarans still had much to learn about warfare. The prince needed her help.
"Prince Ilathor!" Ella called.
He looked back at Ella as she leapt off her horse's back.
"When the gate opens, hit it with everything," Ella said as she reached him.
The prince dodged a fireball. "What are you going to do?"
"Whatever I can," Ella said.
Ella pulled the hood of her dress over her head and started to chant. In an instant she could see from the prince's stunned expression that she'd activated the shadow effect and in the chaos of battle could no longer be seen.
Before fear could take hold, Ella ran to a place where the sloped wall was free of climbing desert warriors and plunged her glowing dagger into the stone. Sparks and pieces of stone flew out, bouncing off the material of her dress.
Ella cut a wide gouge in the stone of the wall and placed her foot into the cut, hoisting her body up. She cut another hole in the stone, resting her other foot in the second hole. Two more holes gave her hands something to hook onto, and Ella hoisted herself up, one limb at a time.
It was painstaking work, and would never have been possible without the slope of the wall, but gradually Ella climbed, never looking down, cutting hole after hole in the stone until soon she was half way up the wall.
Ella looked up, just in time to see a fireball screaming at her head. She tucked herself into her dress and prayed that this time the enchanter's arts would beat the lore of another house.
The heat washed over her, and she knew that in that moment she would be illuminated as the fire covered her ethereal form, outlining it like a tree hit by lightning.
Looking up, Ella saw an elementalist prepare another fireball, but the man was forced to duck when a huge ball of flame came from below, bathing the wall in its glow, giving her the time she needed.
Ella knew how hard it must have been for Shani to send that fireball at her countryman. She knew she couldn't afford to miss the chance.
Ella climbed the wall at a furious speed, cutting the holes just in time to enter her foot or hand, and then already gouging the next one as she moved up.
Then she was at the summit. Looking down, Ella could see that the prince's men were under heavy fire; they wouldn't hold much longer. In front of her a parapet lined the top of the wall, while below, inside the gate, Ella could see ranks of Petryan soldiers awaiting any breach by the Hazarans.
A little to the side of the gate, Ella could see the runes of the gate's opening mechanism. She breathed a sigh of relief — she'd been hoping it wasn't manually operated. The runes would be coded, but Ella was confident she could break the obfuscation and find the activation sequence.
"Your path made it easy to climb," a voice said behind her, "but how do you plan to get down?"
Ella turned, and the prince was standing beside her, the glowing scimitar in his hands and the wind in his hair.
Fireballs came tearing at them from several directions. Petryan soldiers on the parapet were running towards them, swords bared and cries of battle rage on their lips.
Prince Ilathor blocked a fireball with his sword, speaking words that caused a white shimmer to solidify the air around his sword and shield them both. Ella put her body between another fireball and the prince, once again feeling the heat wash over her. They needed to get down from the wall.
"Stairs," Prince Ilathor pointed.
"I need to get to the gate's mechanism," Ella said. "Protect my back."
Ella and the prince dashed down the steps from the parapet. Ella chanted under her breath to enhance the protection of her dress, but was fearful for the prince in nothing but ordinary clothing. She threw a handful of flashbombs into the ranks of the soldiers, pandemonium following in their wake as the Petryans were blinded. Ella and Ilathor rushed to the gate and Ella started to decipher the runes on the mechanism while Ilathor stood at her back, sword extended, ready to face thousands of Petryan soldiers on his own.
"Quickly," the prince said.
"I'm going as fast as I can!" Ella cried. "Aren't you a bit busy to be harassing me?"
The Petryan soldiers at the back pushed past those disabled by the flashbombs, and the swordsmen in red rushed forward to take down this foolish solitary man.