Shield of the Gods (Aigis Trilogy, Book 1) (35 page)

             
Still 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

Blood of Earth

              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 a standing position.

             
“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.
And
the courage to face such an opponent.

             
Aerigo stopped and faced Roxie, his face etched with worry, emotional pain and doubt. He glanced in the direction of the rising smoke, then said, “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 itself developed a crack in one long line twenty feet behind them, starting in the direction of the 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 once more.

             
Aerigo surged past Roxie 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. The big man 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 a second ago was gone. Her sense of the rock she stood upon dropped to a dull awareness. “Er—yeah. But the cliff isn’t.”

             
“I know,” Aerigo said quickly, tugging her into a run.

             
They took off toward the ocean.

             
“Why did those big cracks that just formed 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. The art of Blood of Earth attunes our bodies to the ground 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 extended reality, 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 rather quickly. However, whatever skills you use today will take longer to forget, unless you practice them enough.”

             
“Why?” Roxie frowned at the news.

             
“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 overlooking the ocean, homes and buildings burned, and chunks of buildings lay in smoldering piles. Corpses and mourning, battered humans littered the ruin.

             
Aerigo’s strides faltered 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 extreme tension. For someone who’d given her the impression of a seasoned warrior, this unexpected reaction put her on guard. “Aerigo?”

             
Aerigo spun and faced with his burning eyes. For a moment Roxie 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 opened them. He 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. Roxie put on a brave face, hoping it would guide him back on track.

             
Aerigo nodded his accord. He grabbed Roxie’s hand and together they took off.

             
The two Aigis 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. Roxie 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, then led Roxie through to the other side of the tunnel.

             
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 directly 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, squared himself with the Elves, then launched his weapon. His daggers sliced through the air and buried itself to the hilt in the Elf on the left.

             
The Elf gasped, then 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. 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, then coughed up blood, splattering some of it on Aerigo’s forearm. “We’re taking away... what never belonged to the humans,” the Elf rasped.

             
“You lie!” Aerigo pressed the Elf even 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.