These soldiers were not rabble like Mohawk and his thugs. Even though there were only ten of the soldiers, the crowd of townsfolk were withdrawing toward the tavern, and their angry shouts had changed to a concerned muttering. I glanced around, locating Amelia and Veronica standing side by side a little way to my right, and Jacques off to my left.
Jacques looked as if he was ready to take on all ten of the soldiers single-handed. His sword was raised, and battle-fury radiated from every line of his stance. In this mood, he might well do something foolish.
I needed to take control of the situation.
As one, the soldiers lowered their pikes to form a wall of steel death. At a shout from the Captain, they quickened their pace and began to close the distance.
“Amelia! Veronica!” I shouted. “Back to the townsfolk!”
The women immediately obeyed, running past me to take up positions in front of the townsfolk. The brave people of Brightwater had changed quickly from an angry mob to a worried huddle in the face of the drilled and professional soldiers.
“Come on, you bunch of piss streaks!” shouted Jacques. “Privy peekers! I’ll have you all! Come on!” He danced about in front of them, waving his sword wildly.
I sprinted toward him, intending to grab him by the collar and haul him back, but at that moment, he leaped away from the soldiers and ran back toward the townsfolk.
“What was all that about, you idiot!?” I shouted to him as I fell in beside him, running back to where the townspeople huddled.
“Just buying you a bit of time, old boy,” he said with a rakish wink. Despite the peril of the situation, I had to laugh as we pulled up in front of the townsfolk and turned to put ourselves between them and the soldiers.
The armored soldiers stopped, pikes lowered, about twenty yards from us. I felt Jacques drawing breath to shout some new weird insult at them, but I nudged him hard.
“Shut it, Jacques,” I hissed at him, and thankfully he did.
The Captain spoke clearly into the expectant silence. “Give up, Governor Arnold, and we’ll let you live! Resist, and you’ll all die by the order of the Arcanists!”
“Down with the Arcanists!” shouted a voice from the crowd.
“Death to the tax collectors!” shouted another.
“Fuck off back to Astros, you tyrant!” shouted yet another. That gained a loud cheer. The crowd seemed to have gained confidence from our presence.
I glanced at Amelia, who was now standing to my left. She looked calm, but there was a fierce glint in her eye which had not been there before. Veronica was on my right, and her beautiful face was set in cold determination. I noticed that she had loosened her tunic so that she could free her Lightning tattoo at a moment’s notice.
“These townspeople aren’t ready to give up without a fight,” I said to the women, “but if they go up against these soldiers it’s bound to get ugly. Even if the townspeople came out on top in the end, they’d take heavy losses.”
“I’m not prepared to see that happen,” said Amelia.
“Nor I,” agreed Veronica.
I nodded my head slowly. “I didn’t think you would be. Are you ready to take this to the next level?”
Veronica reached up and undid the knot that held her tunic up, and the garment fell to the ground. There was a gasp from the crowd behind us as she wore only the red leather garment to hold up her breasts, revealing her magnificent Lightning tattoo in all its purple-inked splendor.
I checked my Elemental dagger where it sat at my belt, then took a breath. My Mana pool was full, and my tattoos tingled, ready for action.
“Let’s show this Arcanist and his soldiers what we can do. They’ve not seen anything yet.”
Chapter Twenty-One
As the soldiers broke into a run to cross the short distance between us, I drew my Elemental dagger and focused on channeling Lightning. Though I had no Lightning tattoo, I knew I had acquired its corresponding affinity by sleeping with Veronica. It lurked in the back of my mind, and I found it after thinking of the great goddess in her storm-wreathed land.
Suddenly, my knife grew to become a great battle-axe. I swung the new weapon in two hands, and its razor-edge connected with the stomach of the leading soldier. He was cleaved in two as lightning rippled along his severed halves.
The rest of the soldiers paused in their advance, and I heard the distinctive crackling sound of ice magic forming. I glanced to my left in time to see a long, vicious-looking ice spear taking shape in Amelia’s right hand. She raised her hand, her tattoo glowing a fierce blue, and the projectile hurtled forward, straight through the chest of one of the mail-clad soldiers.
He stumbled backward, clutching at the long shaft of the ice spear sticking up out of his chest, and Amelia stepped forward, an ice blade appearing in her hand. She closed the distance and jammed the frozen blade through the man’s eye. He collapsed to the ground, and as he died, the elemental blades melted suddenly into pools of water which spread out across the ground around him. The remaining soldiers closed ranks and continued their advance, and the crowd of folk behind us retreated away from the approaching points of the spears.
Amelia fell back, looking pale, her face drawn. I could see that her Mana must be depleted. She would need a moment to regenerate. I would buy her time.
I sucked back the Mana from my battle-axe, and it immediately returned to the shape of my needle-dagger. I raised my hands and summoned Mana to my Fire tattoo. I knew I could get away with expending a lot of Mana at one time; my pool had increased in capacity since I’d begun using it. I took a deep breath and summoned jets
