They Were Pretending.
Tanya is smart in her own way, just not in the problem analyzing way. She is more of a doer than a thinker. So she wasn't frozen in terror like the priests after they realized how big of trouble they have found themselves in. She recovered quickly from her stumbling and roused her divine power. Her body brightened with sparks of electricity. She channeled the power into her rune, the hammer of the sky god. It lit up and resonated with her.
She raised her right hammer into the air and brought it down for a smash on the head of the royal guard. The head is already low to the ground and extra vulnerable. She aimed for an eye. Such a fragile organ will be squashed beneath the might of her hammer.
The head will be jostled and pushed to the left by the impact of the hammer. Then her left hammer which is in the process of being lifted up will smack the head in the opposite direction. She would go on to pummel the royal guard. She could already see it in her mind.