It was too late in the day to return to Wolfenburg, by road because of the danger of beastmen, and by barge due to the threat of rocks and logs in the night. Instead they were given bunks in the barracks which served transient workers. Men who worked at Gunstadt usually began in the barracks and then built their own cottages and shacks as time and wages allowed. It was a draughty building of cracked timbers and mouldering thatch but it at least kept the rain off. Natasha dreamed of riding along a great plain while the sky screamed with unnatural lights. She woke to find lightning crashing outside as the storm intensified. For a moment she lay awake breathing deeply, lightning flashed again and this time there was a siloutte of a man a few feet away.

"Marius, go beyk to..." Natasha began and then chocked off as a hand clamped down over her mouth, choking off her shout before it could begin. Something flashed in the dark and Natasha instinctively drove up with her knee. She let out a muffled scream of pain as the point of the blade, aimed at her belly, glanced off a rib. A second man, unseen in the darkness cursed and grabbed at her leg. She rolled hard, dragging the blade along her skin as she fell from the bed and thumped on the ground. Lightning flashed again and illuminated her two attackers. She kicked out and connected with the shin of the knifeman. He cursed again, but without her boots it wasn't the crippling blow it might have been.

"Fucking stick her already!" the second man growled.