Strength

by Angela B. Macala-Guajardo

  Gods were supposed to be invincible. If they couldn’t take care of their own problems, then how could anyone expect her to do something an immortal couldn’t? She pulled the blanket tightly around her shoulders and tried to get lost in the ocean’s beauty, instead of the despair rising within her.

  Aerigo stood nearby a moment before sitting beside her. His eyes glowed a pale blue to match her sadness. He hadn’t meant to force her on such a difficult path. She knew and understood that. She leaned against him comfort and felt his muscles tense. Aerigo relaxed and began rubbing her back. Roxie rested her cheek on his solid chest as she found comfort in the much-appreciated back rub.

  Chapter 13

  After the Herschel family finished transferring to another suite and the two Aigis to their own, the rest of the cruise passed in relative peace. The ship took a few hours to right itself, and once it did, the passengers’ panic subsided, leaving the crew with hundreds of PFDs to pick up and stow away. Whatever Aerigo had done to save the boat allowed the ship to stay on course and on schedule.

  The crew who’d met Aerigo wanted to meet him again, but Aerigo asked Luis to tell them he was already gone. The last two Aigis didn’t need extra attention that would make it easier for Nexus’s spies to keep track of them.

  Roxie and Aerigo spent mornings drinking tea together on their new suite’s balcony. After they were both ready to start the day, Aerigo would give her a lesson in basic self defense (knocking someone off their feet, how to get out of a strangle hold, and how to free herself when someone had her by the wrist). He offered to teach her where to hit someone in the head in case running wasn’t enough, and how to break someone’s knee. Roxie didn’t like the idea of ripping all those tendons like someone would tear a cooked chicken leg from the rest of the bird. Running would have to suffice for now.

  Once Roxie decided she’d learned and practiced enough, they’d go their separate ways. She often took refuge in a swimming pool on one of the upper decks and even made friends with other people. At night, she walked around the exercise deck on the built-in track, thinking about the last two days, or attended theatrical events with the Herschel family. Aerigo kept to himself, yet Roxie noticed that he seemed to always be watching over her, but from far enough away without it feeling intrusive or uncomfortable. She had a flesh-and-blood wall guarding her back.

  Two days into their new routine, Roxie awoke to Aerigo’s gentle shaking and she pried her eyes open.

  “We’re almost there,” he said.

  The digital clock read 6:00 A.M. Early. She stood, stretched, went to the bathroom and took a shower, doing her best to be quick. She came out feeling clean and ready to start the day, until Aerigo told her to change out of her skirt and flip-flops and into sneakers and shorts. Roxie stepped back into the bathroom, revised her attire, then walked out and over to the wood table, where Aerigo waited. He picked up his pack and slung it over a shoulder. Roxie shouldered her own, but didn’t follow when Aerigo headed for the door.

  “Wait,” Roxie said. “Aren’t we going to say goodbye to Luis and his family? They were such nice people.”

  “I wrote them a letter.” He held up a folded piece of paper. “You can add to it if you want. I was going to slip it under their door and let them sleep.”

  Roxie held out a hand and Aerigo passed the letter on to her. She sat at the table and picked up the mechanical pencil as she read Aerigo’s message:

  Dear Luis, Anna, and Jake-

  Thank you for your hospitality, and for taking everything that has happened with empathy and patience. I apologize for the frightening event the other day, and I also apologize for refraining from explaining why that happened. Rox and I are pressed to keep moving for reasons beyond our volition.

  Luis: from what I’ve learned from other half-seers, you can hone your abilities. Good luck with that and your professional career.

  Thank you for everything. Take care.

  -Aerigo

  To that Roxie added:

  Hey, Luis & Family-

  I’d like to thank you as well for sharing your cabin and whatnot. You’re a wonderful family, and if I ever come back I hope my grandmother and I can meet you on more organized terms. That would be fun.

  I’d apologize for the other morning as well, but I’m almost as clueless as the three of you, and what I know is not desirous to know.

  Roxie flipped over the pencil and erased the “not desirous” part. It sounded too depressing, along with a reason for them to worry about her and Aerigo. She replaced it with “hard to explain.” She was sounding like Aerigo, but there was no way she could try to reiterate everything she’d recently learned on that one piece of paper.

  Once I understand things better, I’ll gladly take the first opportunity I get to enlighten all of you, as a way of thanks. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

  -Roxie

  She set the pencil aside and hurried over to Aerigo’s side, letter in hand.

  ***

  It was barely seven o’clock when Aerigo and Roxie descended to the lowest open deck. The brisk air nipped at exposed skin, and fog masked the water. The sun was partially hidden, but its strong rays were making quick work of its mask. The anchor had been dropped and the crew hurried through the last stages of setting up the gangways, and Roxie wished she’d switched to jeans, instead of shorts, as she lifted a leg to rub at the goose bumps. Dozens of other people in light jackets or long-sleeves had gathered around, waiting to disembark and explore Bermuda. It was a decent-size throng, enough to make Aerigo’s next action inconspicuous.

  Once they filed off the boat, he looked around and pulled Roxie between two small seaside cottages.

  “What’re you doing?” Roxie said in a hoarse whisper. “Everyone else is going straight.”

  “Just follow me.”

  “Where are we going?” Roxie followed him southward through back yards and between whitewashed stone cottages.

  “To Phaedra,” he said over his shoulder. The circuitous path he led them along could’ve been drier. There were so many garden plants and flowers on the ground, walls, and sides of houses, and the morning dew clung to every leaf and petal. They were soaked by the time they reached a southern beach. At least it smells pretty, Roxie thought as she brushed a couple of dead leaves from her shoulder.

  Aerigo walked across a pale beach onto someone’s private dock. Roxie knew this was trespassing, but hoped they wouldn’t be there long enough for anyone to care. Aerigo stopped at the edge and turned around. “We’re here.”

  Roxie scanned the foggy ocean. “Where’s here?”

  “The Crea rift. It’s farther out in the water. If you look hard enough you can see it. I’m going to have to carry you.”

  “Carry me?”

  Aerigo took off his pack, dagger and canteen and tossed them to Roxie, who managed to catch everything. “Hold on to those for me.”

  Sure, no problem! Roxie shouldered everything but the dagger. That she held gingerly in her hands.

  Aerigo walked back onto the beach and faced the ocean, leaving a thirty-foot gap between him and the dock. He spread his feet, closed his eyes as he bowed his head, and made fists and held out his arms. His form fell out of focus. It was like looking through the air over a fire as his body began to swell into a giant version of himself. It was like watching a human-shaped balloon inflate, but the balloon was so big, it pushed air out of the way. Startled, Roxie fell onto her rear and Aerigo’s full canteen bounced into her lap.

  It took only seconds, but by the time Aerigo was done Roxie stood only as tall as his ankle, which had to be as thick as a bus. His booted feet were easily as long as one. Roxie could smell the black, leathery material, and see all the stitching where the boot and sole met, the sole’s thickness reaching up to Roxie’s knee. She craned her vision skyward. Each leg loomed over her like a massive redwood tree wrapped in black cloth.

  Aerigo’s titanic shape squatted on his haunches, balancing on the balls of his feet as he laid
one giant hand on the sand, palm up. A minor gust hit Roxie as the air made room for probably the largest creature Earth had ever hosted. She had a feeling that the sight of Aerigo was what a mouse felt when humans squatted over them. She couldn’t help but feel a little frightened, remembering her encounter with Daio in giant form. But the fear passed with a lack of a threat to sustain it. She stared at the giant hand in awe. The pronounced creases and fingerprint lines were easily as wide as her pinky finger. She brushed a hand along one of the massive fingers, causing it to flinch. “What’s wrong?”

  “Tickles,” he boomed.

  “Sorry.” She retracted her hand.

  “Go ahead and get on.”

  Roxie plucked Aerigo’s dagger from the sand and crawled onto his hand as if she were crawling onto a high bed. The skin and flesh felt similar to sitting on a waterbed, but more elastic as she settled herself in the middle of his palm. Aerigo lifted her to level with his stomach and took his first step out into the ocean.

  The view would have been amazing if it weren’t for the stubborn fog, but being cradled in the palm of a giant’s hand was enough excitement. Roxie’s nerves were calmed by the steady beat of Aerigo’s heart; she didn’t realize what she was hearing at first, but the slow, rhythmic thum-dum soothed her.

  The walk wasn’t far, at least for someone Aerigo’s size. He stepped carefully so as not to create big waves, or slosh any water over the tops of his boots, then stopped in the middle of the gloom and stretched his empty hand towards to the horizon, fingers spread. Roxie still couldn’t see what they were looking for but watched patiently. She probably needed practice. The air in front of his massive hand began to resemble water and swirl like a whirlpool. Aerigo shifted his weight forward and a thunderous bang made Roxie flinch. The swirling air flew out in all directions and the aftershock jolted her as a gust passed through them.

  Suddenly Roxie was looking at a different world. Not only that, they were in a different world. Phaedra.

  They were on a hilltop miles from a different sea. From her perch she could see the sun rising, huge and slow, as its warming light cast its glittering reflection on the water.

  Behind them rose the sun. Ahead, a rocky cliff stood over a mile high, and atop that cliff sat what had to be the city of Phailon Aerigo had mentioned. It looked like a white toy model from where they stood. Roxie could make out a tall pillar in its center. The city itself was surrounded by a high wall and a moat that drained off in two great waterfalls on (judging by the sunrise) the southeast and southwest sides of the cliff. To the right of Phailon rose a stunted mountain range of soft browns, purples and grays, with an evergreen forest at its feet.

  Aerigo bent his massive knees and let Roxie slide to the ground. Her feet touched down on grass that wasn’t of Earth, yet looked just like it. Did all inhabited worlds look the same; just with different people and a geographical layout? Maybe she’d meet exotic-looking people, maybe she wouldn’t.

  Aerigo’s normal-sized footsteps walk over to her in the tall grass.

  “Is that Phailon?”

  “Yes,” he said in his deep voice.

  “Guess what?”

  “Mm?”

  “Now I’m an alien.”

  He smiled and motioned with his head towards Phailon. She smiled back and nodded.

  Aerigo hopped into a fast jog down the hill, moving parallel to the shore. Roxie followed, having a little difficulty keeping up. After the first several hundred yards she started sucking wind and developed a cramp in her side, but Aerigo showed no signs of slowing. A few miles later the ground leveled out and they hurdled over an inlet and began running uphill. Roxie tried to yell to Aerigo to slow down, but she was breathing too hard and gradually fell behind. She wanted to crawl the uphill segment of their trek. At least their direct course was much shorter than following the dirt road that zigzagged up the slope. It would have probably taken them hours to get there if they’d followed that path. Roxie doggedly followed as best she could.

  After what seemed like a million years, they arrived at the gate to the city.

  Roxie stopped and bent double to catch her ragged breath. I musta lost five pounds just running up that stupid mountain of a hill. Aerigo had only begun to break a sweat. He loosened and readjusted his pack, and Roxie clung to a stitch in her side as she held out her other hand. “Water,” she said in a parched voice.

  Aerigo handed over his canteen. She downed half of it, then sighed theatrically and tossed the canteen back. “Thank you.”

  Roxie followed Aerigo at a walk across the bridge and under an arch that made her feel the size of an ant. She wondered if Aerigo could even touch its peak as a giant. Water fountains were built at intervals along the city’s outer wall, each spout a larger-than-life replica of the head of land and sea creatures.

  The inside of Phailon looked like ancient art that’d been well preserved over millennia. Most buildings resembled mangrove trees without any branches, balancing on thick roots of stone. Others stood rounded like the “mangrove” buildings, or were four-sided and stood on no roots. The whole city was worn smooth with the passage of years and salty wind, and the buildings were evenly spaced, divided into blocks by cobblestone streets and marble-smooth sidewalks.

  Roxie and Aerigo walked down a main road. White obelisks stood on every other block from the entrance all the way to the heart of Phailon, where the largest obelisk stood at least twice as tall as any other structure Roxie had seen so far. The road led to the huge obelisk, the end shrinking to no wider than a pencil.

  Something crossed the street in front of them that Roxie couldn’t quite identify. It was a hovering kulinga, or something very much like it, without the wheels. It reminded her of a sea-do with a small windshield, but sleeker in design, and quieter. This “bike” zoomed along the street, and turned a corner out of sight. “What was that?”

  “What?” Aerigo said without looking at her.

  “That... thing. That kulinga or whatever it was that flew by just now.”

  “They call it a kulinga.”

  Roxie saw more kulinga along the way, along with other hovering vehicles bearing resemblance to buses and cars. The car-sized vehicles looked like nautilus shells, but were more elliptical and had headlights and windows. The buses were similarly shaped to whales and sharks without any tails or fins. Both types looked fit to travel through air or underwater.

  Despite the technology, traveling by foot held sway in this city. Women fashioned clingy dresses, with an outer gauzy layer that flowed like water. Both genders’ clothes gave the impression of materialized water, as if declaring themselves people of the sea. Men wore pants that reminded Roxie of Oriental pants that were tied or wrapped at the ankles, and few wore shirts. Some women also wore those baggy pants accompanied by a formfitting shirt that revealed their midsections. They wore scarves of the same gauzy material that covered their neck and shoulders, with the excess flowing behind in the refreshing breeze.

  Roxie realized that they were attracting curious stares, and no wonder. Neither had a good tan going, unlike all the locals, but most conspicuous were their clothes. To Roxie’s relief, the natives all seemed to shrug off their differences and go on with their lives. It was too beautiful a day to waste gawking at strangers. Roxie felt grateful for their indifference, not wanting to struggle to fit in on yet another world. Despite her clothing and lack of tan, the locals looked just as human as her. Did all humans look so similar from world to world?

  Aerigo led Roxie under an archway of a shorter building and glass double-doors slid open as they approached and they went in. It was a clothing store that felt delectably cool, but there seemed to be no one else present. Aerigo followed a marble pathway to a desk at the center of the store and rang the bell sitting on the counter. One crisp note filled the air and feet scrambled around overhead. A flight of spiral stairs stood behind the counter and a short, heavy man rushed down them and jogged up to the desk. He wore the same pants tied at the ankles and no sh
irt. His chest and rotund belly were a little on the hairy side and he was almost as bald as Aerigo, though not intentionally. The man looked at Roxie and Aerigo and opened his mouth as if he were about to say something. He did a quick double take at Aerigo and his eyes widened.

  “Aerigo?” he said in a gruff voice, “Is that really you?”

  Aerigo smiled.

  “Gods, I can’t believe it! It’s been decades since the last time I saw you.” The short man slipped around the counter and shook hands with Aerigo, beaming. “What’ve you been up to all this time? You don’t look like you’ve aged a day.”

  “You have,” Aerigo said teasingly.

  “Hey, no fair! You know I’m only human.” He moved closer to Roxie. “And who’s this beautiful lady?” The man took her hand and kissed it.

  “I’m Rox,” she said, charmed. “What’s yours?”

  “Rooke, and my store is honored by your presence,” he said with a bow. He turned back to Aerigo and put his fists on his hips. “So, what do you need?”

  “Versaton. For Rox. Do you still sell it?” Aerigo waded among the racks of garments toward the back of the store. The store was laid out like a typical clothing store with decked out mannequins, and tables of folded clothes prostrated at their toeless feet. The racks were hung with summery clothes of various styles of what Roxie had seen so far in Phailon.

  He hurried after Aerigo with Roxie in tow. “You mean she’s an Aigis?”

  Aerigo nodded.

  Rooke’s mouth fell ajar and he reached for open air, then looked at Roxie, his eyes watery. He draped an arm over a rack and leaned against it. “I can’t believe it,” he said softly. “I never thought in my entire life I’d meet the legendary Aerigo, but also a second Aigis in my very own store…”