“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.
Aerigo dropped into a defensive stance.
The granite beneath their feet began to moan. Fracture lines cracked into existence all around them, and dar
ted 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.
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