Cyrdic didn't respond, his amusement evident enough. The next few hours were ridden in relative silence, save the occasional Bretonnian Knight muttering and cursing the ghastly roads they trod, or telling a joke that was doubtless at the newcomer's expense, bandit or Camilla and Cyrdic. Sir Beaumont handled his horse expertly, riding a touch fast compared to Cyrdic and clearly trying to draw Camilla forward as he spoke to her.

The Roan Cyrdic rode seemed to be agitated and unruly to the touch, and doubtless a few of the lesser squires unused to seeing a horse act in such a fashion believed it to be the horse's fault. Truly Cyrdic had gotten better over the few years he had been riding with Camilla, but he still was no Knight, and there was something deeper about him that the horse instinctually feared. A suspicion the animal had from thousands of years of fleeing the great wolves of the forest. 

As they crested a hill, the moonlight basked the well tilled fields and groomed forests with an eerie glow, giving even the light a chilling effect on the landscape. Though what was the most notable thing was a great fortress that stood vigil overlook the lands on the horizon. Cyrdic had seen many fortifications, and had distinguished himself on the walls of Praag not months before. But even the northern city paled in comparison to this fortification. 

"Chateau D'Epee," Beaumont declared as they rumbled closer. Cyrdic would hear Camilla gasp at the sight of the walls. It truly looked a monument to the engineering expertise of man. Even in the Empire, where technology had exceeded Brettonian innovation (or lack their of) for the past two centuries, men would gaze at the defensive structure in wonder and awe. There must have been six great keeps towering over the landscape within the defenses. Banners of gold and blue fluttered in the light breeze of the night along the parapets, the sigil portraying a noble a Hyppogriph's claw. "Is it not magnificent?" 

"Truly, Marquisse." Camilla replied. "There must be thousands of your noble subjects located within." 

The Knight was quiet for a moment, and Cyrdic could guess why. The banners that hung above the walls were posted along merely one of the gatehouses and keeps. The rest of the citadel was barren and devoid of any heraldry or livery. Whatever had happened, the place had but an echo of its former strength. Cyrdic had to guess Camilla had noticed the same, feigning ignorance to embarrass the haughty Knight. By Ulric and Sigmar, Cyrdic loved her. 

They made it to the gates, a distant cry of Bretonnian from above led the massive iron portcullis to raise at just the moment the Knights would be able to ride in without halting or ducking. The bridge they galloped upon led them into the courtyard of the central gatehouse, even now an impregnable defensive position with multilayered walls and overlapping towers that could be covered by varying degrees of fire, with more murderholes than Cyrdic could count. He briefly wondered if the Dwarfs had aided the men of Bretonnia long ago, much like they had in the Empire. 
[@Penny]