Golden dawn broke across the jagged northern peaks, burning away the gray mist that clung to the captured bastion of Frostgate.
Outside the towering granite fortress, the great northern valley had transformed into a sea of steel, leather, and colored banners. All four allied columns had converged before the gates.
General Zafaru had marched down from the Ashen Heights at daybreak with thirty-five thousand southern spears, having severed Lanka's supply train and burned their rear armories to the ground. From the western pass through Whitepine Ridge, Kun Nakia Zawadi arrived at the head of her Kafika scouts and western rangers, securing the ridge flanks. Behind them rolled hundreds of heavy covered carts from Chief Tendai Mbeki's central supply train, escorted by the medicine wagons of Eastern Chief Linga Maaka.
Seventy thousand warriors stood assembled in disciplined ranks across the frosted plain.
