Scientific Sorcery

Part 31

Meri's head jerked up when she heard the initial gunshot. Guns were abhorrent things, but she had seen marauders use them before. There was no skill or honor in using a weapon like that. They were also impractical. The marauders might have access to bullets and other weapons of the like, but New Giza cut itself off of the local trade routes. The only interactions with them were to tax supplies and, on occasion, men to add to the city's stock.

But guns meant marauders. They were foolish to attack the city, but with so many dead and wounded from last night? Their timing was too perfect.

Meri was on her feet and running again. She whispered a prayer to Attena and held faith that her Attena would still give her the power to heal. She was needed in battle, and that battle glorified Attena. Even if Meri was unworthy, it was in her God's best interest to continue bestowing power, right?

What she saw when she rounded the final corner into the main courtyard stunned her.

The scene was chaos. A crowd of architects in white were backing away from the main entrance, crying and wounded. Many had been shot—blood seeping around hands as they held themselves.

Everything seemed to freeze for Meri as her mind took note of several unexpected things.

There was no gate. This explained why all of the architects were grouped in the city entrance as if for a mass sacrifice. Marauders were in the city. They ran around and through the defenseless architects, stabbing with their sword-tipped muskets, before charging ahead unhindered. The courtyard was empty. A few of their men cowered against walls and whatever cover they could find. The stream of marauders entering the city were not about to face an army. They faced three people. And Meri was one of those three.

Isis and Bast stood a pace apart, facing the city entrance. Both of them crouched low in a warrior's stance. Isis held a pike in one hand, cocked behind her for a swing. Bast held one Kama blade in each hand. The blades were curved downward like miniature scythes, connected to long wooden shafts that danced in Bast's impatient hands.

There were about twenty marauders in the city now. They stopped and looked around, assessing what they were up against. They were expecting to be met with the full might of the city. They were confused, but not displeased in the slightest. They seemed to relax, their postures straightening.

One of the men gave a half smile and swaggered forward a step, "Is this all you've got?"

There was a blur of motion. The man's face froze as one of Bast's blades thunked into his eye socket, releasing a fountain of blood.

As the man began to fall backwards, there was a furious roar of wind outside the entrance, and an explosion of earth erupted upward. The vibration knocked Meri off her feet. She landed hard on her butt, forcing the air from her lungs.

Gasping, she turned in time to see everyone on the ground. The architects in white were lying in a heap of bodies before the entrance. A delicate touch of Meri's mind showed that some were dead, and most of them were wounded and dieing.

The marauders in the courtyard were trying to pick themselves up. They showed knicks and scratches from flying rocks and debris. But Bast and Isis were already amongst them. Either they had remained on their feet, or they had recovered faster, but both of them had covered the expanse of the courtyard in a flash. Bast already had her second Kama back in her hand, the blade trailing blood from the first marauder's eye.

Isis and Bast worked together; efficient. Isis drove her pike into the men one at a time. Swing. Pull. New target. Swing. Pull. Bast attacked with more flair, weaving around the men as they tried to rise, her blades whirling in circles as she danced toward one, sideways to another, back to a third.