Strength (24 page)

Yayu stood at his full height, six-and-a-half feet tall with the help of his elongated feet, looking ready to fight. Aerigo glared at him with his burning eyes, then suddenly stormed off, muttering something about being tired of losing friends to wars.

Roxie and Yayu stared at each other, perplexed, and hurried after Aerigo.

PART THREE

Chapter 19

“Hey, Aerigo! Where ya goin’?” Yayu asked.

Roxie murmured a good-bye to Yayu’s family as she passed them. She wanted to get to know them better, talk to Issa some more, and get a bigger taste of Sconda’s culture, but the need to take on her task came before her social wants. The smiles melted from their faces as they waved farewell.

Aerigo began jogging once he was clear of the tables, heading straight for Ormolu. Roxie and Yayu followed in silence as they jogged under the stars, over grassy hills and sections of track, and between homes and larger structures. Tree frogs and night creatures called out to each other, and the air felt chill so far away from the fires and thousands of warm bodies. They slowed to a walk outside Yayu’s home, the beads clicking and swinging as they slipped in.

“Can’t y’wait ‘till mornin’?” Yayu said. “For a proper good-bye…”

“To be honest, Rox and I should have left sooner. I’m sorry.”

“Where ya off to, then?”

“Druconica.” Aerigo ascended the ladder to the loft and began collecting his belongings.

“Isn’t that the world where—?”

“Yes,” Aerigo said in a tight voice. He reached over and grabbed his boots, as well as Roxie’s.

“Why doncha train somewhere else, instead of—?”

“Something tells me that she and I should go there for reasons besides the training. Thank you for everything, Yayu. You’re a great friend have a wonderful family. Keep them close to you and if Rox and I can’t stop the war from starting, don’t die in it. If things turn out well, Rox and I will return as soon as we can. I apologize for having to leave you like this.”

“Just remember to think in years, not decades,” Yayu teased halfheartedly.

Aerigo said, “Rox, go take a quick bath while I pack for both of us.” He tossed down some clean clothes and Roxie caught them.

“Do ya think you’ll ever come back to Sconda?”

“I don’t know,” Aerigo said, then climbed down the ladder and set his own boots and clothes aside. He crossed to where the jaws of the drogue hung. “Here.” He waved Yayu over, then put one hand on Yayu’s shoulder and the other on the wall, fingers spread. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. Yayu gasped and tried to shy out from under Aerigo’s hand, but was locked in place. Smoke began to rise from under Aerigo’s hand. Ten seconds later, he let go.

“What on Sconda was that?” Yayu said, rubbing his shoulder, which now had a red hand-shaped mark on it.

Aerigo peeled his hand away from the wall to reveal a print of his hand burned into the wood, black and singed with brown around the edges. “I may not be able to return during your lifetime. I’m sorry.” He headed towards the loft again. “Rox, go bathe.”

Roxie hopped into motion and began to undress once she was standing before the tub. She wished she could keep her racing clothes as a memento, but her backpack didn’t have any extra space for them. She slipped into the lukewarm water and put the scrubbing stone to use. The Oromo River had done the bulk of the work on the dirt, so she scrubbed at her sadness and emotional conflict but couldn’t seem to reach the brick in her stomach. Everywhere she went, she was leaving behind wonderful people, including her only family. What was her grandmother doing now that she was alone? How could Tucker be sufficient company for her? Had she cried again? Roxie found that she missed Luis and his family as well. The couple had almost been like surrogate parents, or at least cool ones, and they had been the first people she’d voluntarily protected. What were they thinking after almost losing a cruise ship to havoc caused by aliens? And now she was about to leave behind Yayu, another caring father figure during the last two weeks. How could Roxie ever feel cheerful again, without him around?

How had Aerigo been able to put up with this so well for the past three thousand years? Roxie scrubbed her collection of pinprick-sized scabs on her shin and knees that started itching the moment she noticed them. How did one who lived for ten thousand years watch person after person, friend after friend, die of old age, or something worse, and still find reason to be happy? Sure, Aerigo got pensive and distant at times, but at least his company was comforting.

Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all. Grandma had said that to her back when she’d asked about how Grandma had handled losing Roxie’s parents. Loss was a part of life, but how much loss could one mortal handle over the span of thousands of years? It was already hard enough to leave living people behind. Roxie turned her attention to her hair, carefully undoing Issa’s handiwork, then dunked her head and massaged her scalp before getting out.

She donned her clothes from Phailon, thinking fondly of Rooke and Gem, then balled up her racing outfit and plopped it near the glowing coals. She picked up her boots, which had been set by the bathroom entrance, and sat on one of the couches.

“I won’t be long in the bath, Rox,” Aerigo said. “I’m going to wash our clothes, too.” He grabbed his change clothes and disappeared behind the beads.

Yayu was staring at the handprint on his wall. He brought one hand to it and froze just like Aerigo had when he had the vision of the phoenix and flaming tree.

“Are you okay, Yayu?” Roxie worked on one boot, her deft fingers strapping and clipping the buckles.

Yayu looked at her with teary eyes. “Aye, I will be. Aerigo gave me a precious gift: memories.” He touched the scorch mark and his body stiffened again.

Roxie finished buckling her second boot and slouched against the couch as Yayu let go of the handprint.

“Now’s the time to give you the name I thought of for you,” he said, walking up to her. He put his fists on his hips, yet his eyes didn’t match his forced smile. “It’s a ceremonial name, like the ones we’re given by priests at birth. I’ve picked the name ‘Ashama-lae’ for ya. It means ‘woman of strength.’”

“Thank you. It sounds very pretty.”

“You may not think you’re strong, but I know you are. You’ve proved it to me in all kinds of ways, and you will again, with everyone you meet.”

Strong. That reminded her. “Yayu, I’ll be right back. I need some alone time.” Roxie got up and headed out the doorway before Yayu could finish his question. The night engulfed her with its dark calm and its many stars doing their best to sparkle cheerfully.

Roxie wandered in circles around Yayu’s home, then moved off to circle nearby homes, not wanting to stray too far in case Aerigo was feeling more urgent than she hoped.

People were trying to kill her. How was she supposed to react to that? In movies, characters just shrugged or laughed off their near-death experiences. Daio wasn’t funny; he was odd, though. He had and hadn’t want to kill her, which made no sense. The spies weren’t funny either. They made her feel unsafe everywhere, even as she walked around Ormolu. Maybe she’d just have to shrug them and the whole war thing off as well. But how? She wasn’t a trained soldier. She’d lacked the courage to let any of the recruiters who went to her high school enlist her. Now she was needed to help stop a war before it started. How the heck was she supposed to do that? Did Aerigo even know? What was all this training supposed to add up to?

Part of her wanted to run and hide. She wasn’t cut out to be some hero that gave people hope. Aerigo had thousands of years of experience on her. How could he or anyone expect her to match that? She was just some child thrown into chaos she didn’t fully understand. However, another part of her was determined to hold her ground and face this challenge head-on. Running away from home the day she’d inadvertently hurt her grandmother had resulted in getting crushed by a giant. If she ran away from this challenge surrounding a prophecy, so many people would suffer, if not die.

Roxie believed Aerigo when he’d said they were the last two Aigis. Din had inadvertently backed up his words back at the celebration. So… why
were
they the last two? Aerigo had said something about it on the cruise ship, but she’d forgotten it. Still, that meant that a god was afraid of her, a
god
for crying out loud! If a god feared whatever power she, an Aigis, had without having even met her, then maybe she did stand a chance. She just needed some time and more training. Her family, Yayu, Rooke and Gem, and everyone else were in need of protecting. She would find the power within herself to give Nexus a reason to be afraid.

Roxie headed back to Yayu’s home, full of determination to not run away from her responsibility.

***

Once the two Aigis had stuffed their backpacks with Scondish food and tea, Yayu hugged Roxie goodbye and promised to convey her farewells to the rest of his family. He shook Aerigo’s hand and they exchanged a wordless look full of sorrow. They were saying goodbye forever.

Aerigo held one hand in front of him, his fingers spread, while Roxie held onto his other hand. Sconda and Yayu fell out of focus, as if Roxie were looking at him and his world through rippling water. And then he was swallowed up by darkness.

The new world of Druconica exploded into view as Roxie fell to her hands and knees. Her pack felt ten times heavier than it had on Sconda. She tried to stand, but couldn’t lift her hands off the rocky ground. “A little help, please,” she said, forcing the words out. Aerigo helped her upright and pulled off her pack. She clung to his shoulder to keep herself standing. “What’s wrong with this place? I feel so heavy, but you’re not having any trouble at all.”

“I’ve been trained to withstand it,” Aerigo said. “Druconica’s gravity is much stronger than other worlds. You’ll adapt in a few days.”

“Goodie,” Roxie said unenthusiastically. This part of Druconica reminded her of the Grand Canyon, except it looked squished down under gravitational stress. The rocks were ebony black, ribbed with maroon. A sulfurous residue could be seen and smelled, and stunted flora hung in clumps only in the highest places, where the wind brought fresh air. The canyon stretched for miles upon miles in every direction. “Where to now?”

“To Mount Azriel,” Aerigo said, pointing at the tallest peak on the distant horizon. “We’ll reach it in a few days. Maybe longer because you’re not used to the gravity.”

Roxie let out a groan. It felt like it would take forever. Gravity gnawed at her as if all her limbs and joints were anchored to resistance training bands connected to the center of the earth. She wanted Aerigo to just carry her the entire way. “What time is it on this world?”

He gazed behind them at the pale sky. The sun was nowhere to be seen, except for its last rays lighting up the barren landscape behind them. “After dusk. Let’s go.”

Roxie tried to stand on her own. It wasn’t as hard now that she was expecting the added force, but the intense gravity was determined to bring her to her knees. She took a deep breath.

Aerigo shouldered both packs and led them down into the canyon. They slid as they descended the rocky slope, and Roxie was thankful for having boots instead of sneakers. The trip left them dirty and scratched, yet they pressed on under the darkening sky.

The moon peeked out over the rim of the canyon from time to time, providing them with enough light to see where they were going. It also turned the canyon walls into giant shadows looming over them, giving the place an eerie feel. The chirps, screeches, and calls made by the night creatures kept Roxie’s heart-rate up and her eyes aglow. She half-expected one of the shadowy walls to break away from the rest of the canyon and fall on top of them and swallow them up.

No breeze ran through the deeps of the canyon, and there was nothing to retain what heat the day had poured into it. Roxie started shivering as she forced one foot in front of the other. She had worked up a decent sweat, which made things worse as it cooled. But Aerigo’s pace didn’t relent. She fell to her hands and knees every so often, exhausted, but Aerigo urged her to get up and not give in to fatigue. She complied, with his helping hand, and they continued their passage. However, once the moon was almost directly overhead, her vision began to swim and her balance wavered.

The ground felt like it was tipping one way, and then another. She held out her shivering arms and gritted her teeth to stop them from chattering. Her arms dropped back to her sides and her shoulders hunched under their weight.

“Stand up straight, Rox,” Aerigo said gently. “I need you to go a little farther.”

“Gimme a minute. Will there be blankets where we’re stopping? It’s so cold.”

Roxie tried to take another step and the ground rose to meet her face. She fell to her hands and knees and tried to figure out how the ground suddenly got so close, but her arms gave out and the last thing she saw was the rocky ground.

***

The thunk of a full canteen getting plopped onto a rocky surface startled Roxie back to consciousness. She was somewhere on her back. She tried to sit up. “Aerigo?”

“I’m right here,” he said. Aerigo was sitting next to her, against the canyon wall.

“Where am I?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Aerigo said to her kindly and scooted closer.

Roxie closed her eyes. “I’m sorry I couldn’ g’on.” Her words came out a slurred by sleepiness.

“You did just fine. C’mere.” Aerigo pulled her onto his lap and she reclined against his warm, strong chest. He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled up against him.

“Isn’t there a faster way to get where we’re going?” she asked, yawning.