The command was passed down the line, and a signalling flag unfurled, where it could be seen high, high above. The dirigible far above the city released its massive banners, and both the sword and flower on green and the open hand on brown were flown high above the city of Ralanast.

Miro heard it then, a sound, carried on the air, rolling up from the occupied city below.

The sound of hundreds of thousands of voices all raised in unison.

"It's not so quiet now," Miro said to Beorn. He grinned. "You can buy me a drink in Ralanast tonight."

"With pleasure." Beorn smiled back.

"Lord Marshal!" an Alturan soldier called. "The dirigible has raised a new signal flag. Red and gold on a blue field."

Miro could never remember the signalling system. "Don't tell me what it looks like! What does it mean?"

"Some of the enemy are fleeing the city through the northern gate!"

Miro and Beorn exchanged glances.

Another soldier called out. "The southern gate is open, Lord Marshal!"

Miro drew his zenblade and raised it high for all to see. He spoke the words that made his armoursilk blaze like the sun, the zenblade red with deadly intent.

The time for speeches was past. Miro opened his mouth and shouted one word with all of the strength he could muster.

"Ralanast!"

The army of Halrana, Alturans, Dunfolk, colossi, and ironmen flew down the hillside, gathering momentum as they ran. A contingent of Tingaran legionnaires awaited them, vainly attempting to close the southern gate.

On one flank, hundreds of massed ironmen strode forward, lacking in grace, but more than making up for it in indomitable strength. The other flank was led by the three colossi, with Luca Angelo, the animator who broke the enemy's defences at the Sarsen, in the lead.

Never one to hang back, Miro led the charge, the foremost of a wedge of bladesingers, with two of them running on his left and two on his right. The lightness of their armoursilk, their peak fitness, and their agility, meant the bladesingers swiftly outdistanced the heavily armoured infantry and the columns of pikemen.

Miro and the four other bladesingers crashed into the massed defenders, penetrating deep into their ranks. Ahead and above him, Miro saw arrows flying through the air to come raining down on the legionnaires' unprotected heads, wiping out hundreds of men at a time.