The iron-shod hooves of eight thousand mounts and marching men crunched rhythmically over the frozen salt flats.
Ahead, the towering outer walls of Sol-Spires loomed like a sheer cliff of polished yellow clay and reinforced sun-brass.
Normally, those massive walls radiated a visible, shimmering heat barrier that incinerated any unauthorized projectile or siege engine before it could even cross the outer moat.
Tonight, under the crushing weight of Kai's advancing Absolute Domain, the yellow clay was weeping thick streams of freezing slush.
The protective thermal barrier surrounding the city flickered erratically, dying out in brief, pathetic flashes of sputtering white steam.
"They have locked the massive brass portcullis," Yena observed, halting her advance beside Kai's black stallion.
She pointed her ice-tipped spear toward the massive, sixty-foot gatehouse dominating the main highway.
"And they have poured burning alchemist's pitch into the dry defensive moat."
