He was insane. Camilla realized it as he spoke, the other three knights stepped forward, apparently secure in the knowledge that she could only shoot one of them. Their bodies formed an imperfect screen for the egg and the priest seemed to relax, continuing his chant. Camilla backed another step, her ankle tapped the stairwell but she was ready for it and hoped up a step.

[b]"I see that now,"[/b] she lied easily, continuing to retreat up the stairs. Whatever the Sigmarite's were doing it wasn't something helathy or wholesome, she could feel energy gathering around the eggs and it had a dark tinge to it. She needed to find Cydric and get out of this place, although how she was going to persuade him to abandon the men she had no idea.

[b]"I'll leave you to..." [/b]one of the knights lunged at her and she fired reflexively. The shot went wide and suddenly all of them were grabbing for her. Camilla hurled the pistol into Gilderoy's face with a satisfying crunch and then turned and bolted up the stairs as fast as her legs would carry her. The knights were in hot pursuit and while they might be stronger then weren't quicker than the lean bodied courtesan. She vaulted up the stairs three at a time reaching the top she grabbed the heavy oaken bar and hurled it down the stairs. It disappeared around the curve of the stairwell and woke a blistering curse as it struck one of her pursuers. Darting through the door she ran for the tower stairs and up onto the parapet.

Camilla's heart began to slow as she stepped from the doorway, expecting to find Cydric and his men. Instead there were beastmen swarming up the improvised ladders and onto an undefended wall. Randald's balls they had already fallen back to the inner hall. One of the beastmen a deer-headed thing with arms a blacksmith would be proud of let out a wrasping bray and rushed for her. Camilla barely got her rapier out in time to sweep the things rusted sword aside in a clumsy parry, hopping back into the doorway of the tower as a horde of beastmen followed the deer things example. It thrust its sword at her and she rolled her wrists flicking the dirty blade up and to the right before following up with a quick jab into the things stomach. It realed back in pain and she skipped onto the acending steps. The beastmen crowded the tower, braying their bloodlust. The cries turned to pain as Gilderoy and his somewhat battered companions rushed up at them from below swords in hand. They had clearly intended to capture her but they reacted to the sudden appearance of beastmen with the instinctive violence of trained soldiers, slicing and cleaving into the densely packed enemy.

Camilla made several quick thrusts into the mass of confused and frightened beastmen, the stink of their blood and urine filling the tight confines and then she fled up the stairs towards the top of the tower, her opponents too concerned with the knights to give chase. Breaking into the sunlight Camilla looked out over the wide expanse of the battlefield. A dark mass of beastmen was streaming across the field and into the breach. Here and there the sun glinted on the fell armor of the northern warriors as they drove their servants onwards to slaughter. Alone and cut of Camilla looked around the top of the tower. Several dead handgunners lay strewn about, cut down by flying shards of rock when one of the cannon blasts had shattered tile roof like a bomb. Dark blood pooled beneath them, staining their uniforms and already beginning to attract. Leaning down she picked up one of their weapons, she recognized it as a rifle from the stories Cydric had told her of his time fighting Norscans, its barrel longer than a conventional handgun. Camilla was familiar with the theory of the firearm so she scooped it up and moved to the parapet, aiming down into the mass of enemies at one of the chaos warriors in a great brass helm that seemed to be comprised of either screaming faces or writhing female figures depending on how the light caught it. Carefully she aligned the sights and squeezed the trigger. *Click*. She cursed and pulled the weapon down, snapping open the priming pan she discovered that the previous wielder had forgotten to prime it or had been killed before he had a chance. Pulling open one of her own cartridges she dropped a pinch of powder into the pan, closed the frisson and bought the weapon back to her shoulder, once again aligning the three sight posts on the chaos warrior. *BOOM* The big weapon slammed into her shoulder, spinning her a quarter turn and almost dislocating her shoulder. Consequently she didn't see if she hit her target or not, rather a bitter disappointment after all that effort.

Cursing she slung the weapon over her other shoulder and looked around for a way out. The top of the tower presented few options and she could already hear the beastmen clambering up the stairs beneath her, the knights either having been killed or, more likely, fallen back down the stairs. The roof of the great hall was about 20 feet away, too far to jump, but the Sigmarite banner still snapped and popped from its flag staff.

"Myrmida protect fools, whores and orphans," she breathed. The first of the beastmen were spilling out onto the rooftop now. Yelling in terror she sprinted across the roof and made a flying leap across the nothingness. There was a sickening sensation of falling and then she hit the banner, its worn silk surprisingly rough against her skin. Desperately she grabbed a handful of silk and the force of being jerked to a stop nearly dislocated her other arm. Her momentum carried her around the flagstaff and she let go of the banner, falling ten painful feet to the slate tiles of the main hall. She scrabbled desperately against the slick tiles as she began to slide down towards a lethal drop into the courtyard but her hand caught in one of the holes made by debris from the bombardment. Clinging tightly to the roof tiles she gasped for breath as beastmen shook their fists at her and howled from her blood from the top of the recently vacated tower.

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