Bianca started to follow but Lavarak stepped infront of her hefting his shovel in bar. She tried to push past him but the dwarf would not be budged. The activity of the sappers had changed. They had ceased to clear the rubble and had begun to chip away at the ancient stone work, forcing bags of powder in behind the joists that Grimgi's miners had used to reinforce the ancient aqueduct. They were preparing to blow the tunnel to seal the breach into the city once the knights returned.

"No good lass, you'll never catch them without a mount," he pointed out.

"Someone has to guide the dwarves back to the tunnel," she objected, though even as she said it she knew it was foolish.

"Sure, guide a stunty to a tunnel, teach the bees to shit honey while you are at it. You are the First Scout, get your ass above ground and report. Or pick up a shovel and help," he suggested.

"Well fuck you too," Bianca replied, but she turned and ran back down the tunnel.

____

The city was in absolute chaos when Bianca emerged. Bells were ringing and armed men were rushing for the walls. Bianca joined the rush, heading for the gatehouse that she knew the Captain would be using as a command post. She climbed the step to the wall, smelling the reek of gunsmoke from the company's artillery pieces. The guns had been silent while the siege took form, a waste of time and powder to fire them before time. Now that the enemy were coming down on them in a tide, they were belching clouds of grape shot as fast as the crews could serve them. Not that it seemed to be helping, the whole plain was seething as the mass of frothing fanatics charged towards the walls, some of them literally frothing at the mouth. The Norgard sent sheets of arrows arcing down into them, the powerful weapons scything down men as they scrambled over the bodies of their fallen comrades. The attack wasn't entirely suicidal. The enemy carried hundreds of hastily constructed siege ladders, some little more than poles with knotted sting. One slapped the wall next to Bianca and she grabbed it and shoved it away. She felt something snag her glove and looked down to see thorns protruding from the leather.

"The ladder tops are poisoned!" she shouted, brushing the glove clean. Ahead of her a fanatic crested the wall, whirling a flail around his head. Bianca discharged her pistol into his back, sending him tumbling over the wall and into the town. She ducked uner another man's polearm and darted along the wall, squeezing between two Norgard rushing to repel the escalade.

"Captain!" she called, trying to make herself heard over the roar. Smoke was rushing up from the pyres but she could see the flash of steel back among the smoke. Torm had obviously reached the enemy. SHe just hoped they could rescue the mercs and get clear before the fanatics realized they had a force at their rear.