A dozen thoughts flew through Drayce’s mind, and he fought to block out the screams of pain and fear. He ignored the bark of the guns and the Empire soldiers shouting orders. He couldn’t worry about the people of Mrtyu or even the New Rosanthe fighters. The only important thing, their only mission, was to get Caelan to the godstone where he would wake the Dead God.
Except…
“What about you?”
“Rayne and I will follow when we can. We’re going to cover you,” Eno answered, his sword already in hand. Drayce’s gaze shifted to Rayne to find that he was holding his bo staff in his left hand and a throwing knife was pinched between the thumb and forefinger in his right. The king’s advisor gave Drayce a single, reassuring nod and then turned toward the fleeing people, shouting in Zastrian. Probably directing them to hide.
“Go, Drayce! Keep Cael safe!” Eno ordered.
He wanted to demand they all stay together, but there wasn’t time to argue. Rayne and Eno knew what they were doing. The people of Mrtyu were not prepared to fight the Empire soldiers. Certainly not this many. He just prayed they had some other escape route out of the city they hadn’t seen on their walk. Otherwise, they were all trapped.
Everything had happened so quickly. In a matter of seconds, New Rosanthe had claimed control of the gated entrance to the holy city and these people had no way of escaping.
Drawing both of his guns, Drayce ran the way they’d been walking, gunning down New Rosanthe soldiers and ducking into alleyways and side streets where he could find them. Like Temit, there were no vehicles within the city of Mrtyu. Just wagons for carrying goods, some horses, and lots of bikes if someone wanted to get from one end of the city to the other quickly. As a result, the city builders had been able to make the streets relatively narrow and winding, fitting in as many structures as they possibly could.
Clenching his teeth, Drayce pressed his back to a wide column and popped out an empty magazine and slammed a fresh one home. They’d all left the town house fully armed, but that had become a fact of life since they’d left Stormbreak. Too many people wanted Caelan dead at this point to ever walk about unarmed. Unfortunately, Drayce hadn’t grabbed all of his spare ammunition. Sure, he’d planned on protecting Caelan, but he hadn’t expected that he would have to take on a good chunk of the New Rosanthe army when he climbed out of bed this morning.
A smirk twisted his lips at that thought as he peeked around the column to see that two soldiers had gotten past him down the street. He took aim and fired off two quick rounds. One found a new home in the side of a soldier’s neck while the second passed through the man’s temple. If he’d known this was going to be his day, he’d have pulled Caelan back into the bed for five more minutes of warm snuggles.
But he couldn’t complain too much about how the day began. The morning hours had been nice enough. Breakfast had been delivered at sunrise, and they’d sat talking about Caelan’s meeting with the High Luminance. When it was made clear they would not be accompanying him into the High Luminance’s residence, they’d gone for a walk through Mrtyu, exploring more of the narrow streets, which were extremely confusing. All the whiteness and uniformity of the buildings made all the streets look relatively the same, causing them to get turned around more than once.
The shops were simpler than in Temit, carrying the necessities of life and few luxuries. They’d strolled by two different greenhouses and peered through the windows. Inside they’d found row after row of Zastrad Blue Poppies, which was more than a little frightening considering the effect the flowers had on people when made into KoD.
Yet, aside from the deadly flowers, everyone they passed on the street was incredibly friendly and welcoming. They all smiled and waved. If they thought it was strange that outsiders were walking their streets, it never showed.
And now they were under attack.
Fucking New Rosanthe.
First, Stormbreak. Then Sirelis. And now Mrtyu.
No, they would have had to decimate Temit on their way to Mrtyu. Temit might not have ever made his top-ten list of favorite places to visit, but he respected those people. Sure, he didn’t understand them, but they were loyal to their beliefs and hard-core about protecting their god. They would have fought tooth and nail to keep the Empire from ascending the mountain. How many of them would have been killed in the fighting to stop New Rosanthe from getting through the gate and ascending the road to Mrtyu?
The High Aspect and his priests had to be dead. All the soldiers guarding the gate. All the artwork and beautiful buildings celebrating life would have been destroyed. Lives ended.