Strength (31 page)

A mass of humans scrambled onto what looked like a giant metal log, with many square holes half-covered in glass. The smooth log was floating inches above the ground, but listed to one side as the driver yelled at the citizens hanging from the outside of the bus windows to get off. Durgil, Grauss and Harat stomped over at a leisurely pace. Screams and desperate yells filled the air, and the trolls grinned as several humans ditched the log and ran for their lives.

The bus lurched forward, throwing off a few humans. Another human scrambled onto the hood, then onto the roof, only to turn and gawk at the trolls. The roof reached no higher than the trolls’ shoulders, and the man sat looking eye-level with them.

All three trolls lashed out at the side of the bus, sending it out from underneath the man sitting on it. The bus sailed across the street and crashing into a building. Durgil arced his club downward and splattered the man cowering there. Then they heard an explosion. The entire bus was engulfed in flame. Arms and heads poked out of the windows. Screams of agony reached their pointy ears as the humans began to cook alive. The trolls let out roars of delight and moved on.

***

Roxie and Aerigo were still speeding toward South Street when the motor stalled out. The kulinga dived to the ground, jolting both Aigis. Roxie clung to Aerigo and braced in case they got thrown. Aerigo gripped the handlebars as the bike skidded and screeched along the cobblestone, tearing it up and sending sparks flying. The bike caught on a bump in the road, fishtailed and began to tip over. Aerigo stuck out a foot and dug his heel into the ground. He tore up a good twenty yards of cobblestone before they came to a complete stop. The kulinga hit the ground with a metallic thud, and everything around them fell silent.

“Are we out of gas or something?” Roxie asked nervously, still holding tight.

“Get off so I can check the motor.”

She unhooked her fingers one-by-one, and sat up, then hopped off and pried off her helmet. The fog was thick as ever, and the air felt freezing on her face as she fixed her ponytail.

Aerigo had just taken off his helmet when they felt the ground shake.

“Whoa! Earthquake!” Roxie said, throwing her arms out.

“Phailon doesn’t get earthquakes,” Aerigo said, holding onto the kulinga.

“Then what was it?” The fog ghosted around them.

“I don’t know. Stand in front of me. We need to get rid of this fog.” Aerigo placed his helmet on the bike seat and the ground vibrated again. “Hold onto my wrists while I hold onto yours.”

Roxie stood with her arms inside his, thumbs pointing down, palms turned outward and fingers wrapped around his forearms.

“Relax and don’t resist when you feel a tug on your body. I’m borrowing some of your energy.”

Roxie smiled. “I’m coming in handy after all. Ah!” She flinched as the ground shook again, followed by what sounded like a distant rumble of thunder. “Whatever it is, it sounds like it’s getting closer.”

“Shh. It is. Don’t move.”

Although relaxing was out of the question, she fell silent as Aerigo closed his eye and concentrated. Several long seconds ticked by before she felt her body temperature begin to rise. A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead. She wanted to scratch her forehead but instead rubbed her temple against a shoulder. All her heat suddenly gathered in her arms and left her body through her palms. The sensation left her feeling as if she’d just run a mile at an all-out sprint. The air felt ten times colder and she started shivering.

The ground shook again, followed by another rumble.

Aerigo began a chant, whispering slowly in his deep voice. “Ard moranon, ard moranon. Arunas ferulae menanon.”

The ground shook harder, almost making their knees buckle, and it grumbled an earthy moan.

“Ard moranon, ard moranon. Arunas ferulae menanon,” he chanted a little faster.

Roxie did her best not to let the quaking get the best of her as she looked around, since the fog was receding.

“Ard moranon, ard moranon. Arunas ferulae menanon.”

The fog evaporated faster as Aerigo got louder. Soon Roxie could hardly see the vapor anywhere. Aerigo shouted his chant one more time, the added, “Ghedus si!” He opened his eyes and looked skyward.

The ground shook again, this time sending the two toppling onto the kulinga. The surrounding buildings cracked and groaned, the last light of the sun caressing the topmost floors. The streetlights flickered into life and window light poured into the streets. The fog was gone.

Roxie and Aerigo flung their minds towards the source of the rumbling and collided with a giant flying creature outlined in white. Roxie breathed in sharply. “A dragon!” The dragon spit fire and melted everything in its path. “It’s destroying the city!”

“Go back to Rooke’s,” Aerigo said, taking off his pack and canteen.

“What?”

“You are to go back and protect Rooke.” he handed his things to her, then strapped his dagger to his arm. “And you’re going to keep yourself safe, along with him. Got that?”

“What about you?” Roxie was torn between desires to help and to flee to safety. Considering Aerigo’s scars, Roxie wasn’t brave enough to face such dangers. She also couldn’t bear to sit there and let such a beautiful place be destroyed. But Maharaja had instructed her to stay at Aerigo’s side.

“I’ll be fine. Just go!” He shooed her with one arm.

Three trolls burst through a building across the street, swinging their weapons.

Roxie stared openmouthed, unable to move or scream. The lead troll swung his club in a downward arc at both. Aerigo pushed Roxie hard one way and jumped the other.

The club smashed into the kulinga and cracked the cobblestone.

As the troll lifted his club, bits and pieces of metal dripped off, clanging to the ground. He seized Aerigo with his other huge hand, hoisting him into the air.

Aerigo swung his legs and tried to pull his arms free. He glared fiercely at the troll, eyes aglow, but the troll just revealed two rows of fangs as big as fingers, and squeezed.

Aerigo stopped struggling and closed his eyes, then his body swelled in the troll’s grip, breaking all its fingers with loud snaps and cracks. The troll shriveled and shrank into a leathery corpse, leaving behind bones covered in stretched skin underneath a leather tunic and steel helmet. The arm holding the axe broke off at the shoulder and dropped to the ground with a loud clang. The rest of the corpse crumbled into itself next to the arm.

Aerigo flexed his biceps, snapping off the sheath strapped to his arm, and caught it in one hand. He massaged the strip of reddened flesh, then noticed Roxie. “What are you doing here? Go!” He pointed in the direction of Rooke’s home.

Aerigo’s method of self-defense had amazed and sickened Roxie. Not only had she stood by while he was in danger, she had watched him kill someone. Yes, the troll had tried to kill them, but her brain didn’t know how to register watching violent death for the first time.

Aerigo’s forceful voice broke through her stupor. “Run, Rox!”

She scrambled to her feet and fled.

One troll gave chase.

***

Aerigo ignored the troll who ran after Roxie; he would take care of it soon enough. He squared off with the troll charging him, flailing its axe with both hand. The troll swung at Aerigo’s head. He ducked and punched the troll in the gut. It dropped its hands and knees. The troll raised his axe but Aerigo crushed its wrists with one giant boot. The troll let out a piercing roar. Aerigo punched the troll’s head, cutting off the roar and smashing half the skull into its brain. The troll fell limp to one side.

Not wanting this unworthy creature to stain Phailon for another minute, even in death, he picked the corpse up by the ankles and started swinging it around like a hammer thrower. After a few revolutions, he launched the troll into the air and out of the city.

He searched in the direction Roxie and the third troll had run, and saw her just standing there, staring at the buildings. The troll was almost upon her. Aerigo cursed, then picked up the dead troll’s axe and ran.

***

Roxie heard a thunk, followed by a ground vibrating thud but she paid them no heed. She’d never seen stone change colors before.

“Rox, why aren’t you running?” Aerigo shouted.

Roxie flinched so hard her shoulders practically reached her ears. “The... the buildings...”

Aerigo scowled. “The
troll
,” he said flatly, pointing at the thing’s corpse mere feet away. His other hand was clutched over a horizontal gash in his bare chest.

An axe was protruding from the troll’s crushed skull mere feet away from her. “I’m sorry. I got distracted. Is it just me, or does Phailon look like it’s getting older before our very eyes?”

Scowling, Aerigo shot a sidelong glance at the nearest mangrove-shaped building before staring pointedly at the troll. He took a sharp intake of breath and did a double-take. The granite was no longer a bleached white. It was off-white and gradually darkening. The corners of the building were duller and the building’s faces were starting to develop hairline cracks. “Elves!” Aerigo dropped to his knees and placed both hands on the cobblestone street. He closed his eyes and brought his face closer to the ground. Precious seconds ticked by. He surged upright, shrank to his normal height, then seized Roxie’s hand. “This way!”

Chapter 24

The two Aigis backtracked at superhuman speed, arriving near the giant pillar. The grassy courtyard and its crisscrossing paths remained untouched and deserted. Aerigo pulled them to such a sharp stop that—both still holding hands—Roxie’s feet ran out from under her. She found herself suspended parallel to the ground before Aerigo guided her fall into his arms.

“Sorry,” Aerigo said. “Your wrist okay?”

Roxie flexed it and felt no pain. “Yeah. Why are we stopping?”

Aerigo grabbed their packs and discarded them against the corner of a nearby building. “Dragons.” He gestured to some far off columns of smoke beyond the giant pillar as he tied his sheath and dagger to his arm with a couple of socks. He started toward them, stopped, changed directions and ran, then stopped himself again. Turning back toward the pillar, he started running.

Feeling her eyes warm with a yellow glow, Roxie ran after him. “Wait!” Aerigo waved her over without looking back. “Wait! I don’t know how to fight a dragon.”
I don’t even have a dagger! What the heck am I supposed to do?
The only thing Roxie could think of would be to kick a dragon in the eyes or something, but then she’d probably get sent flying like a baseball from a swing of the creature’s tail. She lacked any offensive spells, along with the courage to face such an opponent.

Aerigo stopped, his face etched with worry, emotional pain, and doubt. He glanced in the direction of the rising smoke. “Go back to Rooke and keep him and yourself safe.” Once again, he headed toward the smoke.

Roxie’s jaw dropped, unable to believe how easily she’d been dismissed. She stared at Aerigo’s scarred back as he ran further and further away. The distance growing between them created a surge of panic in her chest. She raced after Aerigo and seized his arm, bringing them both to a stand. “Aerigo—” He voice failed her at the sight of her companion’s red-burning eyes glaring at her. He gently, yet firmly pried her hand from his forearm, then waited for her to finish her sentence. Roxie couldn’t remember what she wanted to say.

He turned to leave, however she grabbed his arm again.

“Maharaja told me to make sure I stay by your side.”

The red glow in Aerigo’s eyes disappeared, only to be filled with concern.

“I don’t know why,” she added quickly, gaining some courage and letting go of his arm. “But I belie—” Roxie heard what sounded like the distant roll of crackling thunder trying to gain momentum and volume. But this thunder came from under her booted feet. The deep crackling sound passed directly under them and kept groaning in the direction they’d come. That noise filled the pit of Roxie’s stomach with foreboding.

The ground developed a crack in one long line twenty feet behind them, starting in the direction of th
e 
ocean, and heading toward the opposite side the city, deeper inland. Roxie could do nothing but watch the fracture lengthen beyond her line of vision.

The stone fell silent again.

Aerigo surged toward the crack in the stone. He straddled the inch-thick crack, shook out his arms, then held them wide and still. He started forcing his arms closer together, as if he were trying to hug some invisible person. The ground let out another peal of crackling, along with a sizzle. The fracture grew hot and red, and then steamed as the granite began to fuse back together. Aerigo’s hands slowly clasped together, and the sizzling lulled to a whisper of a hiss. He traced the repaired crack with his eyes and licked his lips in anticipation.

From far off the granite began a third peal of cracking. A second lengthy fracture developed mere yards away from the first. Many lightning bolt shaped ones branched off it several feet in all directions.

Aerigo started for the newer fracture, but stopped after taking one step. He turned and trudged toward Roxie, a grim expression on his face. “This better be the one thing Maharaja’s right about. Hold still.”

Roxie flinched when Aerigo pressed two fingertips each over her abdomen and the center of her forehead.

“I’m teaching you how to do what I just did. It’s called ‘Blood of Earth.’” Aerigo closed his eyes and pressed his fingertips firmly against both points.

Roxie’s eyes began to dart back and forth, as if she were going through REM sleep with her eyes open. Phailon grew blurry, but she began to see nothing but every rock and pebble around her, feel its weight, its sturdy strength, every smooth and rough spot of the varying types of rock. The silent strength of the cliff on which Phailon rested upon filled her with a sense of calm. She felt like she could just stand there forever and enjoy the rock’s serenity. However, she could feel stress spots where the granite had been slowly cracking over the millennia. She could also see the newest fractures. Somehow touching those crevices with her newfound awareness caused her body to feel pain, like a full-body sinus headache. Her mind was pulled to the cliff edge, where her pain worsened.

That’s where she had to go to stop the pain.

“Rox?”

Roxie blinked several times until she could see Aerigo. The pain that had seized her was gone and her sense of the rock dropped to a dull awareness. “The cliff is falling apart.”

“I know,” Aerigo tugged her into a run and they took off toward the ocean.

“Why did those big cracks cause me pain when I touched them with my mind?”

“They’re unnatural weathering. Flesh-and-blood creatures understand wrongness through pain. The earth itself understands wrongness through its own destruction or deformation. Blood of Earth attunes our bodies to the land itself.”

“Now how did you just make me learn all that by poking my stomach and forehead?”

“Remember when I told you Aigis have the power to learn any world’s magic?”

Roxie nodded.

“Once one Aigis has learned an element of Crea, that person can channel the information into another Aigis via that touch I did to you. At least temporarily,” Aerigo said. “Any magical knowledge I channel into you like that fades from memory after twenty four hours. However, whatever skills you use today will take longer to forget, unless you practice them enough.”

“Why?” Roxie frowned.

“Effort,” he said. “Whatever you don’t use today, you’ll forget by the time you wake up tomorrow, which is why I haven’t bothered teaching you anything so short-handedly before. You’re better off learning anything useful through days and years of practice.”

They sped along block after block that so far remained untouched by the creatures attacking Phailon. As they drew closer to the cliff, homes and buildings burned, and chunks of buildings lay in smoldering piles. Corpses and mourning, battered humans littered the ruin.

Aerigo’s strides slowed to barely a walk, then stopped altogether.

Roxie paused beside him, but she wished he’d keep moving. The sight of all those dead and dying tore at her heart, along with the others who probably wished they’d died with their loved ones. She tried to look away, but she couldn’t even close her eyes. Something deep inside wanted her to acknowledge this atrocity and embrace it as motivation. Roxie felt her eyes glow blue and turned to Aerigo.

She stopped herself before she could voice her desire to keep moving. Aerigo’s eyes were glowing a deep red, instead of the anticipated blue. Not only that, he was breathing slow and hard, and every muscle bulged with tension. For someone who’d given her the impression of a seasoned warrior, this reaction put her on guard. “Aerigo?”

Aerigo spun and faced with his burning eyes. For a moment she feared he might lunge out at her, but he held his breath for a second, then let out a controlled sigh. He closed his eyes and wiped his face with both hands. He looked at her again, this time with blue-glowing eyes. He closes his eyes and wiped them a second time, then blinked several times.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t get my eyes to stop glowing.”

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just take care of this cliff first.” Roxie wanted to worry. Yes, they had no control over their glowing eyes but, for someone who’d seen so much battle, Aerigo should have been able to put aside any anger or sadness and just focus on the fight at hand. She put on a brave face, hoping it would guide him back on track.

Aerigo nodded and together they took off.

They passed many more streets scarred by destroyed buildings and dozens upon dozens of victims. Despite how fast they could run, it wasn’t fast enough to spare Roxie from seeing all the destruction. Each marred avenue stuck in her mind like a series of grim photos. Each image added more weight to her shoulders. She wished she were as strong and magically knowledgeable as Aerigo. With not even two weeks of training, she felt like more a hinderance than anything. But she was determined to find a way to help.

Roxie recognized the Twin Falls District from their previous visit. The squat stone homes remained unharmed for now. The district itself appeared deserted. The source of the cliff’s pain lay somewhere beyond the city’s fortress-like wall. Roxie was grateful they were almost there because she was winded from all that running. She also felt afraid because her next trial was just on the other side of the tunnel that passed under the wall.

The two Aigis slowed to a stealth walk just outside the arched tunnel. Aerigo pulled out his dagger and led the way.

Last time they’d passed through here, it had been all sunny, cheerful, and bustling with locals. Now it was dark, humid, quiet and eerie. They stepped so lightly and slowly that their boot-steps didn’t echo, and when they reached the other side barely any light reached them or the open field and its many sidewalks.

There was enough light to make out two figures—two Elves standing side-by-side in the six-way intersection ahead. Both Elves had their eyes closed, heads tilted back, and hands out, palms up. They spoke the same chant.

“What are they saying?” Roxie whispered.

“They’re the ones trying to destroy Phailon,” Aerigo whispered. He took his dagger between his thumb and two fingers, and threw his weapon. His daggers sliced through the air and buried itself to the hilt in the Elf on the left.

The Elf gasped and fell dead onto the greying sidewalk. The second Elf opened his eyes just in time to see Aerigo right in front of him, who grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the ground. The stone cracked under the impact and Roxie winced at the sound of cracking bones, then ran over.

“Tell me why you’re attacking Phailon!” Aerigo yelled.

The Elf gasped for air and coughed up blood on Aerigo’s forearm. “We’re taking away... what never belonged to the humans.”

“You lie!” Aerigo pressed the Elf harder into the ground. “Tell me the truth!”

“The ritual has been completed.” The Elf made a feeble reach with both hands for the one around his neck. He took a final breath before his slender body went limp. His hands dropped onto his chest, then slid off and fell lifeless by his sides.

“Some help he was,” Roxie muttered, frowning.

Aerigo pried his hand from the dead Elf’s neck. “Rox,” he said in a deadly calm voice, “don’t move.”

Roxie’s mind’s eyes alerted her to over twenty people surrounding them, most of them far older than Aerigo. Moving only her eyes, she saw no one else on the plateau, yet her mind’s eye insisted both of them stood inside a tight ring of two-dozen people.

Roxie’s body went rigid when something sharp pressed against the small of her back. She swallowed, a nauseating fear welling in her stomach. Aerigo slowly straightened himself up, fists clenched at his sides and dagger still embedded in the first Elf.

“Ava luzuudin,” a disembodied voice commanded.

Two dozen black hoods fell back to reveal Elves, all armed with crossbows pointed at both Aigis.

“Axen los,” an Elf said, crisply pointing at their targets.

“Mahssai sedal!” Aerigo roared, spinning his arms and twisting his body.

Every Elf fired at them.

Roxie tried to duck, but she felt like her whole body had been chained in place. She couldn’t even blink. She’d wanted to close her eyes before the projectiles punctured her, but then it occurred to her that she should have started feeling pain by now. Or be dead.

The Elves in front of her weren’t moving. Even their crossbow bolts were suspended mid air inches away from their weapons.

“Sorry, Rox,” Aerigo said. He plucked the statue-like Roxie from her feet and, dodging under the suspended ammunition and between two Elves, removed them from the center of the ring. “I didn’t have a chance to warn you. It was the only thing I could think of that wouldn’t kill you.”

Roxie couldn’t speak either. She tried to nod and even move her eyes up and down. She stared forward as Aerigo set her back on her paralyzed feet.

“Get ready to defend yourself, just in case.” He raised a hand and snapped his fingers, saying, “Lib.”

The salty air filled with cries of pain as crossbow bolts finished their trajectory. A few Elves fell dead, clutching at their chests. More roiled on the ground, with bolts sticking out of limbs. At least half of them escaped injury, including the one who’d spoke.

Feeling her body loosen up, Roxie shook out her limbs and positioned herself behind Aerigo.

The lead Elf tersely said something to one of his unharmed comrades, who began tending to the nearest wounded Elf, then the leader spoke to the half dozen others, gesturing toward both Aigis.