A heavily armoured knight burst from the wall at speed, yelling at every soldier he could see to make for the camp.

At the encampment, anyone who had heard the commotion from the other soldiers who had started yelling to pass the word, had assembled at the edge to see what it was about. Stragen urged Reba to stay with Swan who slept on the cot, he would go see what the noise was about.

The event began in the absence of sound. A low rumble and a blast of hot air raced out of the city and through the opening of the broken wall, a rush of debris and dust flying with incredible speed across the short meadow to the camp. Men standing at the front were knocked over, and the horses danced and reared in fear. Stragen felt the heat in the wind and it instantly dried his eyes and felt like it would suck the moisture from his very pores. He’d turned to protect his face, but the blast of heat and wind nearly pushed him over.

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He turned back when the wind receded. Bright orange flames shot up from inside the city, very fast, as if a high speed wave of incredible force was hitting a sea wall; it drove high – hundreds of feet in the air – lighting the night sky like it was day, roaring like a volcanic inferno.

Then just as suddenly, the flames dried up. It was silent and dark.

“Hedir! With me!”

Stragen had turned in startled surprise to see the First Guardsman himself. The big knight kicked his horse to move out. The man, Hedir, the queen’s husband he remembered the name, stared after the First Guardsman but quickly kicked his horse to follow.

Divik, what he knew all his life and expected to stand despite ill and by will, whatever the weather, was no more.