Chapter 9

After leaving the library, and listening to Ellie yammer on about her new cat that was sure to run away, the poor bastard, May began to make her way towards the tavern.

It did not take very long when, cutting through an alleyway, two shadows appeared behind her. She expected them to try and get to her at the tavern, the excuse of a bar fight being an optimal disguise.

"Oh, there you are, fellows." smiled May, one hand on her sword, the other on the pistol. "I've always known Darby to be quite bold, but bold enough for bare-faced murder of a Peacekeeper? Tsk tsk."

The enemy, still in the shadow looked at one another for a second, then stepping into a spot where the lamp threw its light, the man said, "Who's Darby?" He even smiled while doing it.

To further prove that point, his companion knelt behind him, loading up his flintlock rifle.

"Just a regular robbery. Goes south, as these things go sometimes. It is a wonder you haven't caught some steel before now."

"Ah," said May, unsheathing her sword, "I'm better a shooting it, actually." With her left hand, she brought up her pistol, and let loose. The man was fast, ducking just before the trigger pull, and as a consequence, the shot only scraped one of his ears.

He attacked with two short knives, diving in, trying to get past May's defense. She blocked, grabbed hold of one of the knives, and slashed the sword across the man's wrist. He fell back, holding at his wound.

May pushed, bringing her sword high, sliding it beneath the man's jaw, and poking out the top of his skull. She heard a shout, full of anger, and a shot as the dead man's friend let loose with his rifle.

The shield spell unfurled and covered her, but it was half a second too late. The bullet broke through, shattering the spell, hitting May above the chest plate, throwing her back.

All the air went out from her lungs, and she lay on the ground, struggling, trying to suck in air. May felt a sting on her right side, above her kidney, and then another one. With a shock, she saw that the man was stabbing her.

She caught the third stab before it made contact, crushing the man's fingers in her grip, and with her other hand, jamming her fingers in the man's s eyes.

The enemy howled like a wounded animal but did not let go of the knife.

They struggled, but neither could gain the upper hand. May's vision began to shimmer and little by little the pain started to trickle into her consciousness. She had only a few precious seconds to win this fight before she would lose any chance of survival.

The knife blade cut through the glove and into her palm. The man gave out a successful cheer. That was when May pulled back her hand, grabbed him by the hair, and headbutted him.

She trapped the knife against her armor with the right arm and held the man in place with her left while she went to work. He struggled at first, and then less and less as it worse on. Smack! Smack!

His face went from pink in the forehead where the first hits arrived, to a deep purple with bubbling wounds all over it. Eyes rolled into the back of his head, nose crunched and sunk into his skull. What few breaths he had left came out as a wheeze.

May pushed him off, pressed a hand to her side, tried to stand, and slipped on her blood. She wondered where all that blood had come from, but then remembered the stings and the shot. She was more and more tired, which was a very bad sign. If she passed out now, she was sure to never wake up again.

Crawling to the nearest building and setting her back up against it with great effort, May rifled through her pockets and found her field kit. With blood-stained fingers, she looked through the little packet of spells, all the incantations set on paper and tied together with string.

With her teeth, May ripped the string and found the necessary spell. She set multiple sheets of paper across her side and where she could see the blood trickle from right above the chest plate. She gritted her teeth, expecting the pain to be quite severe once the operation got started.

May counted to three and said the words for the spells to begin. They did not hurt, not at first, only appearing as a soft glow on the paper, but then the intensity rose, the little glow turning into red-hot embers, cooking the skin and eliciting a hiss as the moisture left it.

May held on quite long, but it was for her detriment, for if she had let herself pass out earlier, she might've been spared some pain. Eventually, her eyes rolling back, head slumped against the brick wall, she passed out, the small fires still burning, at work stopping the blood flow of the knife wounds.

Her life saved, for the moment, May lay in the alley the rest of the night, unnoticed along with the two corpses. Perhaps a passing drunk might've seen something resembling human bodies, hidden by the shadows, but blamed the drink and moved on. Perhaps a cat came to paw and feed on the free food being offered. Beyond that, all was quiet.

May awoke not long after daybreak, feeling the ground shift below her. At first, she thought it was her, but then the buildings started to groan and shake.

"Oh, just bloody well kill me then." she spat out. In response, the buildings increased their noise and shaking, a few windows breaking and spraying down shards of glass.

With a great deal of effort, May got to her feet, the little burned-up sheets of paper that the spells were etched on falling off her like snow. May sneezed as the side-effect of the cauterizing magic had left quite a lot of smoke hanging around.

She took one more look at the two dead men in the alley, spent a few seconds deciding if she had enough energy to go through the dead men's pockets and then also stand up again. In the end, it was a hard and decisive no.

Just as May hobbled out of the alleyway, the earth ripped up behind her, twisting the two buildings into each other, tearing up the alleyway, and vanishing the two dead men.

May found herself in the unenviable position of having to half-crawl, half-crouch her way around falling buildings while the freshly burned wounds radiated pain.

May walked through the confusion, holding her shield spell at the ready. Townspeople were on the ground, those that were not hit by the explosion wandering with empty expressions on their face.

Debris covered the streets. The clock tower by the main square lay destroyed, the foundations still burning, a piston covered in a slick black substance, turning, working away while it burned. May stopped to help as many people as she could, pulling some from beneath fallen buildings, directing others to the doctor's office.

The smoke covered the streets, making it hard for people to see. And just as it started, the shaking stopped. May found an upturned chair, put it upright again, and sat in it. She spat out dust and could only think about how thirsty she really was.

Fred stumbled through the smoke and dust and fell to his knees. May went to help him up. His face was the picture of fight and panic.

"What is this?", he asked. "Are we under attack?"

"Attack?" asked May, incredulously. "It's an earthquake."

"But I saw men, armed men walking the streets. They were asking about you at that tavern that Fazzenwaif liked to drink at."

"Oh. Did you see Fazzenwaif last night?" she asked.

"No. He never showed up. We have a card game usually, but his seat was empty."

"Just as well," said May. She looked at the clock tower, half-burned, and frowned. "How can the clock tower be burning?"

"Did you not hear the explosion?" asked Fred.

"What's a clock tower got that explodes because of an earthquake?" asked May, "Isn't it all just gears and all that?"

Fred sighed, and smiled, almost embarrassed, "Not if you're thinking of Livingston to become a tourist attraction."

"The mayor?"

"Of course the mayor. He had it replaced with some newfangled engine that works on oil. The wonder of the far west and all that. Anyway, I didn't see one iota of tourism sprout up in town." said Fred.

"Why didn't I hear of this?" asked May.

"I believe we had a town council meeting about it. You, me, Elizabeth, although she had her nose buried in a book the whole time, Yaz the barber was there for some reason."

"That does not ring a bell," said May.

"Well, of course not. You fell asleep rather fast."

"Ah." said May, "You do know how much I hate the mayor."

"You've got company there. Anyway, after setting up the clock, he decided that we could store excess shot and gunpowder in the tower since it was empty and all that. Before we could get it to the harbor and upon the boats."

"So the earthquake shook off something, made it malfunction?" asked May.

"Actually," Fred scratched nervously behind his ear, "It all went wrong before the earthquake started. I believe the seismic activity might've helped since it collapsed it and snuffed out some of the fire."

The fire squad started appearing as well, making a line and passing buckets between them, tossing the water at the base of the fire. Unfortunately, the town only had one person with any kind of water talent in magic, and she had taken a yearly vacation back to the home territories.

"Sasha still visiting her parents?" asked May.

"Mm-hmm. The one person who could help the most with the fires. We really need some reform in this town."

"Might be too late for that," said May. "Have you heard anything about Patrick?" It pained her immensely to be in the current situation. The knowledge that the boy might be dead because of her decision hurt considerably more than the physical wounds.

"I thought he might be with you," said Fred.

"Sent him to deal with some Darby business."

"Oh," said Fred, looking down. "I saw a lot of dust in the air on the hill. The corridor might have collapsed." The corridor was the path they had dug out of the hill, to build the foundries a safe distance away from the town. It was also the chosen spot where Darby did his experiments, among the foundries. If Patrick was stuck up there with Darby, who now was happy enough to resort to murder for keeping secrets, things were looking quite grim. May closed her eyes, bracing against pain. "Have we set up any kind of medical field support or am I going to have to hike all the way to the doctor's office, covered in blood?"

"No worries about that. It's been thrashed by the earthquake. Saw it on my way here."

May waved one of the firemen closed and inquired about medical facilities.

"We've been putting people in the old fruit market, ma'am. The worst cases we've been putting in the library."

"Come on, Fred." said May, "Let's both hobble there." She set her arm around Fred's neck and braced. With May's injuries and Fred's mechanical limbs they did not make very fast progress, but going slow and steady, they arrived safely at the fruit market. The bear-looking doctor greeted them, his face caked with dust and wearing an apron covered in blood spray.

May found a relatively bearable bunk and had Fred fetch her water. She drank until her stomach was almost bursting, and then wiping her face, said, "It's time for a serious talk, Fred."