The charge began and the defenders fired into it before the lead horses reached the entrance.
The first shaft came from the center of the doorway at a near-flat trajectory and went through the neck of the lead rider, the point entering the left side and coming out the right in a spray that reached his horse's mane before his hands came up.
He went off his horse with both palms pressed to his throat and hit the stone floor across the hall's entry.
The second shaft found the center of the next rider's chest, through the coat and the ribs behind it. The man folded forward onto his horse's neck and the horse carried him into the hall anyway, into the dark, and ran another three strides before its front legs gave in and it went down sideways, the rider thrown clear into the left lane.
