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.