Shield of the Gods (Aigis Trilogy, Book 1) (15 page)

             
“How many gods are there?”

             
“To my knowledge, about two hundred.”

             
“Holy crap!”

             
Aerigo shrugged. “Considering the universe is endless, it’s not that daunting a number.”

             
“Yeah, but you also have to consider I was told to believe in one god. I figured two would make a logical answer as well, but not two hundred!”

             
“There’s only Baku for your world. He simply isn’t god of every world out there.”

             
“How many worlds are there?”

             
“Well over two hundred. And from the sound of it, Nexus’ prophecy has managed to pull everyone into his personal agenda, and Baku suspects his son anticipates gaining something big from this madness.”

             
“Gain what?”

             
Aerigo raised a hand, palm-up, and shrugged.

             
Roxie felt helpless, in addition to queasy. “Isn’t there anyone out there who can help us?” How could just the two of them be enough?

             
Aerigo’s face hardened and his eyes began glowing a smoldering red. “Daio played a part in making sure there wouldn’t be anyone to go to for help. We’re the last two living Aigis.”

             
The last... two?
Even though she knew little about her non-human lineage, she couldn’t help but feel sad. She put down her mug by the chair, stood up and draped the blanket over her shoulders like a cape. She walked stiffly to where the railing was supposed to be, sat with her feet dangling over the edge and stared out at the sparkling ocean. Her head and neck still ached with a dull throbbing.

Gods were supposed to be invincible. If they couldn’t take care of their own problems, then how could anyone expect her to do something an immortal couldn’t? She pulled the blanket tightly around her shoulders and tried to get lost in the ocean’s beauty, instead of the despair rising within her.

              Aerigo stood nearby a moment before sitting beside her. His eyes glowed a pale blue to match her sadness. He hadn’t meant to force her on such a difficult path. She knew and understood that. She leaned into his side for comfort, then felt his muscles tense upon contact. Aerigo relaxed a heartbeat later and began rubbing her back. Roxie rested her cheek on his solid chest as she found comfort in the much-appreciated back rub.

Chapter 13

The City of Phailon

              After the Herschel family finished transferring to another suite and the two Aigis to their own, the rest of the cruise passed in relative peace. The ship took a few hours to right itself. Once it did, the passengers’ general panic subsided, leaving the crew with hundreds of PFDs to pick up and stow away. The crew who’d encountered Aerigo wanted to meet him again, but Aerigo asked Luis to tell them he was already gone. The last two Aigis didn’t need extra attention that would just make it easier for Nexus’ spies to keep track of them.

Roxie and Aerigo spent mornings drinking tea together on their new suite’s balcony. After they were both ready to start the day, Aerigo would give her a lesson in basic self defense (knocking someone off their feet, how to get out of a strangle hold, and how to free herself when someone had her by the wrist). He offered to teach her where to hit someone in the head in case running wasn’t enough, and how to break someone’s knee. Roxie didn’t like the idea of ripping all those tendons just like someone would tear a cooked chicken leg from the rest of the bird. Running would have to suffice for now.

              Once Roxie decided she’d learned and practiced enough, they’d go their separate ways. She often took refuge in a swimming pool on one of the upper decks and even made friends with other people. At night, she walked around the exercise deck on the built-in track, thinking about the last two days, or attended theatrical events with the Herschel family. Aerigo kept to himself, yet Roxie noticed that he seemed to always be watching over her from just far enough away without it feeling intrusive or uncomfortable. She had a flesh-and-blood wall guarding her back.

             
Two days into their new routine, Roxie awoke to Aerigo’s gentle shaking.

             
“We’re almost there,” he said once Roxie managed to pry her eyelids open.

             
“Okay.” She stretched the stiffness out of her limbs, sat up with a yawn, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and looked across the room at the digital clock. 6:00 A.M. Early. She stood, stretched again, went to the bathroom and took a shower, doing her best to be quick. She came out feeling clean and ready to start the day, until Aerigo told her to change out of her skirt and flip-flops and into sneakers and shorts. Roxie stepped back into the bathroom, revised her attire, then walked out and over to the wood table, where Aerigo was waiting. He picked up his pack and slung it over a shoulder. Roxie shouldered her own, but didn’t follow when Aerigo headed for the door.

             
“Wait,” Roxie said. “Aren’t we going to say goodbye to Luis and his family? They were such nice people.”

             
Aerigo paused. “I wrote them a letter.” He held up a folded piece of paper. “You can add to it if you want. I was just going to slip it under their door and let them sleep.”

             
Roxie held out a hand and Aerigo passed the letter on to her. She sat at the table and picked up the mechanical pencil as she read Aerigo’s message:

Dear Luis, Anna and Jake-

             
Thank you for your hospitality, and for taking everything that has happened with empathy and patience. I apologize for the frightening event the other day, and I also apologize for refraining from explaining why that happened. Rox and I are pressed to keep moving for reasons beyond our volition.

             
Luis: from what I’ve learned from other half-seers, you can hone your abilities. Good luck with that and your professional career.

             
Thank you for everything. Take care.

             
                                                                      -Aerigo

             
To that Roxie added:

Hey, Luis & Family-

             
I’d like to thank you as well for sharing your cabin and whatnot. You’re a wonderful family, and if I ever come back I hope my grandmother and I can meet you on more organized terms. That would be fun.

             
I’d apologize for the other morning as well, but I’m almost as clueless as the three of you, and what I know is not desirous to know.

             
Roxie flipped over the pencil and erased the “not desirous” part. It sounded too depressing, along with a reason for them to worry about her and Aerigo. She replaced it with “hard to explain.” She was sounding like Aerigo, but there was no way she could try and reiterate everything she’d recently learned on that one piece of paper.

            
 
Once I understand things better, I’ll gladly take the first opportunity I get to enlighten all of you, as a way of thanks. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

             
                                                                                                                              -Roxie

             
She set the pencil aside and hurried over to Aerigo’s side, letter in hand.

              It was barely seven o’clock when Aerigo and Roxie descended to the lowest open deck on the ship. The brisk air nipped at exposed skin, and fog masked the water. The sun was partially hidden, but its strong rays were making quick work of its mask. The anchor had been dropped and the crew hurried through the last stages of setting up the gangways. Roxie wished she’d switched to jeans instead of shorts as she lifted a leg to rub at the goose bumps. Dozens of other people in light jackets or long-sleeves had gathered around, waiting to disembark and explore Bermuda. It was a decent-size throng, enough to make Aerigo’s next action inconspicuous.

             
Once they filed off the boat, he looked around, then pulled Roxie aside to duck and hide between two small seaside cottages.

             
“What’re you doing?” Roxie said in a hoarse whisper. “Everyone else is still going straight.”

“We’re not going that way. Just follow me.”

“Where are we going?” Roxie followed him southward through back yards and between whitewashed stone cottages.

             
“To Phaedra,” he said over his shoulder. The circuitous path he led them along could have been drier. There were so many garden plants and flowers on the ground, walls, and sides of houses, and the morning dew clung to every leaf and petal. They were nearly soaked by the time they reached a southern beach of Bermuda.
At least it
smells
pretty
, Roxie thought as she brushed a couple of dead leaves from her shoulder.

Aerigo walked across a pale beach and right onto someone’s private dock. Roxie knew this was trespassing, but hoped they wouldn’t be there long enough for anyone to care. Aerigo stopped at the edge and turned around. “We’re here.”

              Roxie scanned the foggy ocean. “Where’s here?”

             
“The extended reality rift. It’s actually farther out across the water. If you look hard enough you can see where it is. I’m going to have to carry you.”

             
“
Carry
me?”

Aerigo took off his pack, dagger and canteen and tossed them to Roxie, who managed to catch everything. “Hold on to those for me.”

Sure, no problem!
Roxie shouldered everything but the dagger. That she held gingerly in her hands.

Aerigo walked back onto the beach and faced the ocean, leaving a thirty-foot gap between him and the dock. He spread his feet to shoulder width, closed his eyes and bowed his head in concentration. He made fists with both hands and held out his arms. His form fell out of focus. It was like looking through the air over a fire as his body began to swell into a giant version of himself. Startled, Roxie fell onto her rear. Aerigo’s full canteen bounced off the sand and into her lap.

It took only seconds, but by the time Aerigo was done Roxie stood only as tall as his ankle, which had to be as thick as a bus. His booted feet were easily as long as one. Roxie could smell the black, leathery material, and see all the stitching where the boot and sole met, the sole’s thickness reaching up to Roxie’s knee. She craned her vision skyward. Each leg loomed over her like a massive redwood tree wrapped in black cloth.

Aerigo’s titanic shape squatted on his haunches, balancing on the balls of his feet as he laid one giant hand down for her to climb onto. A minor gust hit Roxie as the air made room for probably the largest creature Earth had ever hosted. She had a feeling that the sight of Aerigo was what a mouse felt when humans squatted over them. She couldn’t help but feel a little frightened, remembering her encounter with Daio in giant form. But the fear passed with a lack of a threat to sustain it. She stared at the giant hand in awe. The pronounced creases and fingerprint lines were easily as wide as her pinky finger. She brushed a hand along one of the massive fingers, causing it to flinch. “What’s wrong?”

“Tickles,” he boomed.

“Sorry.” She retracted her hand.

“Get on.”

Roxie plucked Aerigo’s dagger from the sand and crawled onto his hand as if she were crawling onto a high bed. The skin and flesh felt similar to sitting on a waterbed, but more elastic as she settled herself in the middle of his palm, sitting Indian-style. Aerigo lifted her into the air, level with his stomach, and took his first step out into the ocean.

The view would have been amazing if it weren’t for the stubborn fog, but being cradled in the palm of a giant’s hand was enough excitement. Roxie’s nerves were calmed somewhat by the steady beat of Aerigo’s heart. She didn’t realize what she was hearing at first, but the slow, rhythmic thum-dum soothed her.

The walk wasn’t far, at least for someone Aerigo’s size. He stepped carefully so as not to create big waves, or slosh any water over the tops of his boots. He stopped in the middle of the gloom and stretched his empty hand towards to the horizon, his fingers spread. Roxie still couldn’t see what they were looking for but watched patiently. The air in front of his massive hand began to resemble water and swirl like a whirlpool. Aerigo shifted his weight forward, and then there was a thunderous bang. The swirling air flew out in all directions and the aftershock jolted her as a gust passed through them.

Suddenly Roxie was looking at a different world. Not only that, they
were
in a different world. Phaedra.

             
They were on a hilltop miles from a different sea. From her perch she could see the sun rising, huge and slow, as its warming light cast its glittering reflection on the water.

             
Behind them rose the sun. Ahead: a rocky cliff-side over a mile high, and atop that cliff sat what had to be the city of Phailon Aerigo had mentioned. It looked like a white toy model from where they stood. Roxie could make out a tall pillar in its center. The city itself was surrounded by a high wall and a moat that drained off in two great waterfalls on (judging by the sunrise) the southeast and southwest sides of the cliff. To the right of Phailon rose a stunted mountain range of soft browns, purples and grays, with an evergreen forest at its feet.

Aerigo bent his massive knees and let Roxie slide to the ground. Moments later she heard his normal-sized footsteps walk over to her in the tall grass.

              When the swishing in the grass ceased she asked in an awed voice, “Is that Phailon?”

             
“Yes,” he said in his deep voice.

             
“Guess what?”

             
“Mm?”

“
Now
I’m an alien.” Roxie looked up at him and he, smiling, motioned with his head towards Phailon. She smiled back and nodded.

             
Aerigo hopped into a fast jog down the hill, moving parallel to the shore. Roxie followed, having a little difficulty keeping up. After the first several hundred yards she started sucking wind and developed a cramp in her side, but Aerigo showed no signs of slowing. A few miles later the ground leveled out and they hurdled over an inlet and began running uphill. Roxie tried to yell to Aerigo to slow down, but she was breathing too hard and gradually fell behind. She wanted to crawl the rest of the uphill segment of their trek. At least their direct course was much shorter than following the dirt road that zigzagged up the slope. It would have probably taken them hours to get there if they had followed that path. Roxie doggedly followed as best she could.

             
After what seemed like a million years, they arrived at the gate to the city.

             
Roxie stopped and bent double to catch her ragged breath.
I musta lost five pounds just running up that stupid mountain of a hill.
Aerigo had only begun to break a sweat. He loosened and readjusted his pack. Roxie lifted her head, clinging to a stitch in her side and held out her other hand. “Water,” she said in a parched voice.

             
Aerigo handed over his canteen. She snatched it and downed half of it, then sighed theatrically and tossed the canteen back. “Thank you.”