Camilla's eyes snapped open. Cydric's warm body was pressed against her, the steady rise and fall of his chest soothing in the near darkness. Gunir by contrast snored like a thunderstorm, each outbreath punctuated by a curious whoop. Thor, Gunir's wounded kinsman wheezed a counterpoint on the same theme. It wasn't the snoring that had woken her she was sure, having had a great deal of practice sleeping in army camps over the past year or so. At the siege of Konigsberg she had even slept while the Imperial guns boomed round the clock to reduce the walls of that ancient citadel. Something here was wrong. The fire that had blazed in the hearth of the great hall had declined to a deep red glow that poped and sizzled as the last of the timbers crumbled into flickers of flame. They had slept in the hall in the fashion of old Imperial retainers rather than seeking one of the few inns in the town. None of them had been willing to extend credit to the bedraggled adventuers who had stumbled out of the hills, and they were filthy and lice ridden places besides. A half dozen other figures lay slumped in sleep on pallets or on furs like Camilla and Cydric.

"Cydric," Camilla whispered in a voice so quiet that it was swallowed by the soft whistle of wind outside. Her lover didn't stir but at the end of the hall one of the shadows seemed to still. Camilla felt her heart rise up into her throat. She badly wanted to believe it was just a trick of the light cast by the dying fire but somehow she knew it wasn't anything so begin. 

"Alle Armi!" she shouted in Tilean and leaped from under the fur lined blankets, snatching her rapier from where it hung from the arm of a carved bench. The shadows exploded into motion surging forward into the hall. A man screamed as he was woken by a blow that must have disembowled him for the red flash of glittering blood. Shout of alarm went up from a half dozen throats as the naked Tilean leveled her blade at the onrushing shadow and thrust. The blade bit into the things body and stuck as fast as if she had thrust it into the oak door of a tavern, the blade bowed and would have snapped if Camilla hadn't leaped backwards. She had a momentary impression of a tree, its branches grown into long sharp schythe like arms before the creature seized her and lifted her into the air. Camilla let go of her sword and twisted as the thing lifted her over head, kicking of the stone wall. The thing was strong but her momentum was enough to topple it over with a crash. The hall was in pandemonium now, the tree things had ripped several of the armsmen to pieces, but others were armed and fighting back. She could hear Gunir roaring and cursing all manlings for craven fools. Camilla hit the ground and tried to execute a throw, but the thing that held her was two heavy, its branches squeezed her wrist painful as it drew back another limb for a death stroke. Timber shattered in spray of icy sap as Cydric brought his bastard sword down with both hands. Unlike Camilla's slender blade it sheered clean through, propelled by Cydric's prodigious strength.

"Elvish treachery!" Gunir howled, his axe hewing another of the creatures appart. They didn't look like any elves Camilla had ever heard of, but this wasn't the time to worry about it. Alarm bells were beginning to ring as cries of alarm spread from the hall into the city proper. Camilla seized one of the severed branches and cast it into the fire. Light flared up as the wood exploded into flames. The nightmarish creatures turned to stare hatefully at her with their cold eyes. Besides Cydric and herself the two dwarves were the only surviovrs in the hall, though several of the strange tree creatures had been hacked and splintered by the Graffin's guardsmen before they had been bludgeoned down and torn apart. Each of the trees was taller than a man and carved with strange twisting runes. They looked ghastly, smeared with the gore of their victims. Camilla counted a half dozen, though from the screams coming from the streets there must be more outside. With a wordless how the things rushed forward at the survivors. Cydric stepped in front of the disarmed Camilla and hacked at one of the onrushing trees. Another brushed Gunir aside and seized Thor, lifting the injured dwarf up into the sky. There was an enormous boom and shower of splinters as somehow Thor had managed to snag the coachgun from Gunir's belongings. The tree thing crashed to the ground dropping the dwarf who cursed in his own tongue.  Camilla skipped backwards looking for a weapon and finding none, instead she snatched up a burning length of timber and brandished it before her.