Strength (32 page)

Aerigo dropped into a defensive stance.

The granite beneath their feet began to moan. Fracture lines cracked into existence all around them, and darted deeper into Phailon.

Aerigo glanced at the breaking ground “We don’t have time to fight them.”

“Should we make a run for it?”

The lead Elf spoke like he was issuing a few commands.

“We’re faster than them, but they could just chase us with magical demons and the likes.”

“What do we do?”

“Back up a good ways. I’ll take care of them as fast as—don’t turn your back to them!” Aerigo snapped when Roxie attempted to turn around.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize; just stay on guard and stay alive.”

Roxie backed away, keeping Aerigo between her and the line of sight of the crossbows.

The Elves aimed at Aerigo as the plateau moaned and cracked some more.

Aerigo made a low cross-block with his arms as he dragged a heel across the ground in front of him. The granite beneath the aiming Elves’ feet jabbed out at their feet, knocking them on their backs and sending their bolts into the twilight sky. Aerigo shifted his arms into a high cross block and stamped the ground with the same foot. The Elves rolled and scattered, however a couple got impaled by the spikes that shot out from where they’d fallen.

In one swift motion, the leader rolled to one knee and aimed his crossbow at the Aigis. He shouted something in Elvish. What looked like a gargoyle made of flame erupted from his weapon and sailed right at Aerigo with its bat-like wings tucked into its sides. The gargoyle screeched and stretched its talons forward.

Aerigo dived out of the flaming gargoyle’s trajectory, only to realize he’d exposed Roxie in the process. “Rox! Watch out!”

Roxie stared at the flaming monster speeding towards her, but Aerigo’s voice prodded her into action. Closing her eyes, she dropped to the ground and slapped the granite with her palms. Thanks to her knew—yet temporary—knowledge of communing with rock, she was able to erect a thick barrier in time. The flaming gargoyle detonated on impact, obliterating the barrier and knocking Roxie onto her back.

The cliff’s foundation moaned again.

Roxie shielded her mouth with a forearm as she coughed on dust. “I’m alright!” she managed to call out. She chanced opening her eyes, only to discover she couldn’t see beyond the dust cloud.
Big surprise...
She snuck out of it.

Roxie felt her eyes stop glowing when she noticed that the living Elves were conspicuously absent. “Where’d they go?” A quick mental scan informed her that they were alone on the plateau.

“Probably to safer grounds. Let me retrieve my dagger real quick.” Aerigo crossed to the Elf with a dagger protruding from his chest and yanked it free. He scanned the corpses then turned to Roxie. “I’d look away if I were you.”

Catching the hint that Aerigo was about to slit many throats, Roxie faced the ocean. She shuddered and her eyes stung with tears. She felt no remorse for her attackers’ deaths; just regret that the two of them had to resort to such gruesome behavior in order to survive. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to focus on breathing steady.

A minute later, Aerigo was back at her side placed a hand on one of her shoulders. “Should I send you to Rooke’s?”

“No,” she said in a steady voice. The last thing Roxie wanted was to leave her companion’s side. Leaving him would just turn her into a moving target, easy prey for those people who’d effortlessly surrounded them both in an instant. She wasn’t ready handle a kill-or-be-killed scenario all by herself. “I want to help you repair the cliff.” Her voiced sounded strained. She grabbed the hand on her should and squeezed it reassuringly. He returned the squeeze and led them toward the waterfall nearest the setting sun.

***

The granite sidewalks, the huge wall, and the elongated dragon sculpture overlooking the ocean were now a solid pale grey. The color wore away at Roxie’s fragile morale. She brushed the stone dragon’s side with her fingertips, reminiscing the pure beauty the sculpture once had. It was still beautiful, but the wrong color. Aerigo placed his hands on the stone and peered over the edge.

“I need to pass on another skill to you. Face me again.”

Roxie could sense that the worst of the cliff’s fracturing lay deep below them, where the jutting stone met the vertical formation. Nearly half of Phailon rested above the suspended granite.

Aerigo pressed his fingers to Roxie’s forehead and stomach, but faltered when both of them heard a rapid peal of cracking stone behind him. They turned their attention on the fifty foot wall yards away as dozens of cracks raced up from the crux where the platform and wall itself met.

Roxie had a feeling where they stood wasn’t safe anymore. But for some reason, watching something so strong and stable start to crack and fall apart was too horribly captivating to not watch.

The plateau buckled, and then Roxie felt nothing but air below her. Her stomach did a flop as gravity pulled her toward the ocean, chunks of rock and dirt and sidewalk falling all around her.

Twisting in midair, Aerigo grabbed Roxie’s limbs and chucked her back at the platform.

She cried out in alarm as her body sailed upwards through wobbly somersaults to the broken edge. Her angle of ascent arced right into the granite, stomach first, knees and toes knocking against the thirty-feet-deep protrusion. She dug her fingers into the cracked sidewalk and gasped for air. Upon touching the stone, it warned her that this part, too, was about to crumble. Clenching her teeth, Roxie hoisted herself onto the platform and log-rolled away from the edge. Several square feet broke away, and the pain left her body. She flopped onto her back and worked on catching her breath, only to remember she was alone. “Aerigo!” She snapped to a sitting position, then crawled toward the edge, panting for breath.

All she could see was falling debris and cascading water.

***

Throwing Roxie had sent Aerigo’s body into an uncontrolled fall. He couldn’t keep his feet under him, and he couldn’t keep his sight on the waterfall long enough to concentrate on it. Aerigo kicked and pushed away chunks of rock falling too close to him. He reached out with both hands toward the waterfall several times before succeeding.

The water level with him bent closer, then fell away as Aerigo’s bodily momentum forced him to fall head-under-heels. He spun his body upright, facing the waterfall again. He reached out with his arms, closed his fists as if he were holding two invisible ropes, then pulled on the water, tucking his arms against his ribs.

A two-foot-wide strip of water stretched toward him and cradled his booted feet, slowing his fall. A medium-sized boulder plunged through the strip of water, cutting off its flow. Aerigo plummeted for two agonizing seconds before he could pull the water back under his feet. Keeping one arm tucked at his side, he slowly raised the other as if he were pushing something over his head. The water began to lift him toward the platform.

Another group of rocks fell around him. A large one hammered the top of his head.

“
Ah!
”
Aerigo lost control of the water, began falling and clutched his head. He felt no blood, but the blow had smarted and startled him.

Aerigo pushed away all awareness of his sudden headache and, rotating himself to fall feet-first, he focused on the waterfall again. He reached out with both hands and willed the waterfall toward him. A huge strip of water—way more than he’d intended—snaked its way under his booted feet and ceased his fall. Aerigo felt the multi-ton weight of the liquid tax his will as he commanded it to defy gravity. He didn’t know how to let go of only part of the water holding him up without letting go of all of it at once. The water bubbled and flowed beneath him as he rode higher and higher.

Aerigo began to feel sleepy as the focus and energy needed to move and control so much water drained him. He willed the water to carry him faster. The platform drew closer. He could make out Roxie’s head peering over the edge, two specks of yellow inside her frame. He heard her call out his name.

***

Roxie didn’t quite understand what she was seeing when the waterfall bent its path directly under her. At first she thought maybe the whole platform had tilted without her noticing, but then she remembered she would have felt the rock’s pain.

Aerigo bore into view riding a column of water connected to the waterfall itself.

Roxie cried out his name, relieved to discover that he was still alive, but sensed something was amiss. Aerigo’s eyes were glowing yellow. She dropped to her stomach and let her arms hang over the rim, even though many handholds presented themselves between her and the depth of the cliff. She willed him to reach her.

Aerigo’s ascent slowed and he started sinking into the water bringing him up. It soaked him up to his waist by the time he reached the underside of the platform. The excess water that flowed to his waist spilled back toward the ocean.

Roxie knew Aerigo would make it to her, but at what cost, besides time and energy? He was gasping for breath. They still hadn’t stabilized the cliff, there were at least one dragon to deal with, maybe more trolls, and no clue how many more Elves hunting them. Roxie wished there was someone available to help them protect Phailon.

Aerigo’s rate of ascent reduced itself to a foot a second, drawing out the last fifteen feet between them. The water raising him up fell to around his booted feet, and the width of the funnel itself deteriorated. More and more water began to fall away, until there was barely enough supporting Aerigo’s feet. His balance wavered.

“C’mon, Aerigo! You’re almost there.” Rox pressed herself flat, reaching as far as her arms would allow.

Once Aerigo was just a few feet away, his eyes stopped glowing. Aerigo’s outstretched hand rose within reach of Roxie’s fingertips, and then they finally clasped hands. His water funnel dissolved and he passed out, dangling in Roxie’s grip.

After taking a moment to exhale with relief for both of them, Roxie gripped the rim of the plateau with her free hand, then carefully pulled Aerigo back into a hug, then half carried, half dragged him several yards away from the edge, the toes of his boots scraping along the rock.

Roxie laid Aerigo on his back and sat by his head, having no clue what to do next. Yes, they needed to take care of the cliff, but how? She needed to get under the cliff. In order to do that, she needed to either be able to fly, or be able to ride on water.

Aerigo woke with a start, bolting to a sitting position. He took in his surroundings, then noticed Rox. “How long have I been out?”

“Not even a minute,” she replied. “You—”

He seized Roxie’s hand and pulled them both to their feet, then led them at a run back toward the waterfall.

“Whoa! Hold on!”

“Just wrap your arms around my neck and hold on tight,” Aerigo said, slowing to a stop at the edge of the broken platform.

“What are we doing?” Roxie asked as she did as she was told.

“Saving Phailon.” Aerigo hoisted Roxie so he was carrying her piggyback. He took a deep breath, exhaled heavily, then backed up several steps. He squared them up with the lip of the waterfall. “Try not to scream in my ear this time.” Aerigo took another deep breath, rocked their weight onto his back leg, then surged forward.

Roxie felt the color drain from her face and she bit back her scream. After watching Aerigo pass out, this was the last thing she wanted to do. She eyed the waterfall with mounting dread.

Aerigo leapt off the cliff and spread his arms like wings. Air whipped past their bodies. Roxie clamped to him as hard as she dared and fought down the urge to scream at so much space between her feet and the ocean below. The waterfall appeared below them and they dropped into the water thundering over the edge.

Aerigo tucked into a crouch, bracing his hands by his feet as if he were balancing on a surf board. The spray soaked both Aigis, and the rumbling water drowned out any chance of communication.

They began to fall, but it was a controlled fall. It felt like they were balancing on a net with Jacuzzi water jets pumping underneath. Once Aerigo’s balance smoothed out, he led them into a dip that felt like the first drop of the universe’s largest roller coaster. They gained an alarming amount of momentum in a matter of seconds. Roxie’s stomach filled with butterflies as the ocean rushed up to meet them, and she squinted her eyes against the wind. Aerigo tilted to the right and leveled out their fall. They arced toward the cliff face, its top now a good thousand feet above them. The platform looked no bigger than half a chipped dinner plate.

They arrived where jutting rock met with vertical. The horizontally flowing rock looked like giant slabs had been piled on top of another, each successive layer sticking out a little more like upside down stairs. Many cracks and fractures were waiting to get big enough to dislodge the cliff.

Aerigo slowed their flow to the speed of a moving sidewalk. “Rox, get on my shoulders!” he yelled over the wind and water. Even though they were far from the waterfall, the water he’d taken under his control bubbled and roiled beneath his feet.

Roxie raised herself as if she were about to leapfrog, then swung one leg at a time over his shoulders. She tucked her toes behind his ribcage, then flung her arms out in front of her as they both teetered forward. “Whoa!”