As the ancient colossus reached the gate to stand towering over it, the animator brought back the construct's right leg, but before the High Animator could bring the leg smashing into the gate, the limb went limp.

Black-clad soldiers started to pour out of the doors at the base of the towers.

"Lord of the Earth, please," Prince Tiesto prayed.

Prince Tiesto had been told the High Animator was skilled, more skilled even than his predecessor. He didn't know how Salvatore Domingo did it, but in one final burst the symbols on the colossus flared red. The colossus began to rock, and then tilt, and finally Tiesto realised what the High Animator was doing.

The colossus leaned forward, tipped over, and crashed its great mass through Ralanast's eastern gate. Stone flew in all directions as the gate was flattened, the colossus leaning at an awkward angle, the controller cage torn open.

Prince Tiesto waved his men forward. High Animator Salvatore was still in the controller cage, dazed and unarmed, with the soldiers in black swarming forward to man the breach in the gate.

Tiesto ran as hard as he could, but the enemy reached the High Animator first, two legionnaires climbing up to the torn cage. One raised his sword above his head, preparing for the death stroke that would end the High Animator's life.

Then a blazing shadow shot through the breach, moving so fast it was like trying to focus on a ray of light. The legionnaire standing over the High Animator exploded in a wave of blood and gore; the second followed straight after. Tiesto caught a flash of green as the newcomer leapt down from a block of stone to launch himself into the place where the enemy were thickest.

It must be a bladesinger. Tiesto had never seen one in combat, but watching this one fight, he knew the stories were true: they were the world's finest swordsmen, each worth a thousand men in battle. The bladesinger pirouetted and thrust at a legionnaire, taking out the warrior's throat, before ducking a swing and cutting another swordsman in two. A blow was deflected by the bladesinger's armoursilk, and now Tiesto and his men were close enough that the prince could hear the deep baritone of the man's singing, an eerie sound that sent a chill up his spine.

Tiesto's men cheered. "Blademaster!"

Prince Tiesto blinked. His men were telling the truth — it was Rogan!

More men in brown joined the bladesinger, coming in from the other side of the gate, and soon the black-clad soldiers were under heavy attack. When Prince Tiesto's men joined the fray, it was too much for the enemy, and they were swiftly overwhelmed, most choosing to die by the sword.