Strength (11 page)

“Different how?” Aerigo pressed when Roxie didn’t elaborate.

“Not human,” she said. “I don’t know what to think of myself anymore. I don’t know what to do either—I guess I feel lost.”

“You’re not lost. You just have a lot to learn all at once. You can handle it.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“I’m not really sure what to say. I don’t understand why you feel lost.”

“From what little I know, my future is so uncertain. I was expecting to start college in the fall; not this. I don’t know what to anticipate, or what’s expected of me. I don’t like uncertainty.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ll adjust, and you’ll understand in time.”

“I’m not even human. I don’t know what to make of that.”

“You’re still human, as am I. Yes, we’re Aigis, but we’re not a separate race with a world to call our own. You have human parents, a human body, human emotions, but you also have magical powers of an Aigis. Anyone on your world could be born an Aigis, but only if Baku made it be so.” He settled lower into his chair.“There’s a lot to understand so, for now, just rest. You look like you’re about to fall asleep on me again.”

Without realizing it, Roxie had lowered her chin to one knee, an ear pressed to her forearm. Her ability to focus on Aerigo’s shadowy frame was hazy and her sore eyes were millimeters from closing. It had to be somewhere around midnight and her brain was fried from all that thinking. “I am,” she whispered. “Goodnight.”

Chapter 10

It took hours for Daio to recover from his head-butt with a thick wall of metal. If a human had rammed the wall like that, he probably would’ve mashed his skull into a hundred jagged pieces,
and
ruptured several discs, instead of escaping with a stiff neck and a major headache. Being an Aigis had its upsides.

Once the pain passed, Daio inadvertently fell asleep for eight hours, according to the cell phone of the informative person lounging next to him. It was now a little after seven at night. Time for more mischief.

The order to spy on Aerigo was easy enough to go along with, but when the girl Roxie had entered the balance—another Aigis—it’d changed the whole mischief game. A long-standing and hopeless goal didn’t seem so hopeless anymore, provided that Nexus’s plans didn’t interfere.

Daio sat up and stretched, then searched the main deck for a new shirt and a shower. The lady with the cell phone had done her best to politely inform him that he smelled terrible. Daio couldn’t smell it unless he brought a sleeve to his face.

He entered an open-air clothes shop and picked himself out a blue button down shirt with red tropical flowers outlined in white. Not preferable attire, but he needed to blend in with the rest of the passengers. At least his tattered pants could stay—he’d seen teenagers wearing ripped jeans. Maybe it was only against the rules to wear ripped shirts on this world. He discarded his flannel shirt in a garbage bin outside the store. He still had a white tank top underneath, which bore several holes in the torso, along with sweat stains beneath his underarms. Someone needed to write a manual on how to hunt moving targets and find time to take showers more than once a month.

Daio snatched the right size shirt, bolted off at superhuman speed for the bow, and began searching for an empty cabin to break in to. Diving into a pool would’ve alleviated his aroma, but a few minutes of peace and privacy were in order.

Somewhere overhead a boyfriend called for his “babe” so they could leave for dinner.

Two slender hands disappeared behind the railing above and a patio door closed. He checked to see if any of the dozen people meandering the deck were heeding him any attention. People gazed over the railing with dreamy eyes, stared at the person they were conversing with, or wandered along the deck.

Bending his knees, he jumped for the next deck up, arced over the railing and onto the patio, landing with a wooden clunk. He peered inside the darkened room just in time to see the door close. He reached for the glass door and, to his luck, it wasn’t locked. He slipped inside, new shirt in hand, then snuck into the bathroom and cleansed his body and clothes in a lovely porcelain shower.

***

Daio had donned only his boxers and tank top, which were still damp, when he heard a door open.
Crap!
He dropped the comb he’d been using to spike his hair forward and started throwing the rest of his clothes back on as two pairs of footsteps drew closer. He slipped his second foot down a damp pant leg and zipped up his cargo pants, hastily yet gingerly clapped his metal bands over his thighs, then pulled on his damp socks and cringed at the cool squishy sensation. He shoved a foot inside each boot, both still smelling far from pleasant, clipped all the buckles, and attempted to bolt out the bathroom as he billowed his new shirt over his shoulders, only to have to grab the doorframe to stop himself. A middle-aged man backed into him, his hands full of bra-covered breasts. The stranger gasped and shielded his girlfriend.

“What is it, Dicky?” the girlfriend said, then gasped. “Oh my god, Kevin! Get away from him!”

Kevin punched Daio, hitting him squarely in the cheekbone. He stared wide-eyed at Daio, who’d barely turned his head, then at his fist. He doubled over, clamping it between his knees.

The girlfriend pulled Kevin away. “I’m calling security.”

“You could just let me leave,” Daio said. “I was on my way out.” He pulled his shirt over one shoulder and fished for the other sleeve.

“And let you get away wi’ whatever you stole?” Kevin said through a grimace.

“I—well—” He donned the other sleeve and adjusted the collar.

“Where’s your cell phone?” the girlfriend asked as she guided Kevin onto a bed.

Daio let out a nervous laugh. Killing the two of them and throwing their bodies overboard would fix things for a little while, however killing anyone over getting caught using a shower was beyond pointless. Still, he couldn’t just let whatever security protecting the ship get ahold of him either.

Inspired by this morning’s encounter with Aerigo, Daio raised a hand and twitched it at Kevin, as if he were trying to flick water off his fingertips. “
Estudre.
”

The guy froze, blinked a few times, then stared unfocused at a wall.

The lady gasped and cowered as Daio hurried around Kevin to her. He repeated the same confounding spell and the couple posed like daydreaming statues.

“Look at me,” he said and they slowly turned in place. “You never saw me. I don’t exist.” That said, he exited via patio, just in case leaving through the proper door would arouse suspicion. He had no idea whether the confounding spell would work like it should, but he hoped it at least deflected their brains into thinking about something else if they could still recall encountering him.

Daio headed for the stern and munched on two hot dogs he’d nabbed from a food stand. Daio ate his complimentary dinner at a picnic table as he scanned the ship with his eyes and mind for Aerigo’s whereabouts. So many humans, too many life signals tugging at his awareness. A fifty-foot-tall giant could easily hide from his mind’s eye on this ship.

It wasn’t until well after the sun had gone down and stars blanketed the sky that his mind’s eye finally pushed through all the distractions and onto a familiar soul.
Got ‘em.
With aid of his superhuman speed, Daio hopped over the railing darted along the deck to within ten feet of the other two Aigis. He concentrated on pretending he didn’t exist while straining his ears for conversation. Neither Aerigo nor the girl spoke for some time.

“I talked to Luis briefly while you were wandering around, Rox,” Aerigo said in a soft voice.

“Yeah?” the girl said back in an equally soft voice.

“Baku told me to go to Bermuda. This ship makes a couple of stops before there, so we have three days before we can get to Phaedra.”

“Fay-drah?”

“Yes.”

So that was the world Aerigo wanted to stop at first! Daio hurried back to the bow on silent feet. He didn’t need to spend another second so dangerously close to them.

The world Phaedra sounded familiar, but its significance lingered on the brink of his mind. He’d been to that world before, but what for? If Aerigo was taking Roxie there, then that made Phaedra a place of need. What did they need? Besides power...

Daio slowed to a walk when he smelled beer and wings, and heard the din of a bustling restaurant. He followed his nose and ears around the next corner, down a wide half-flight of stairs, and passed through a varnished wooden doorway. A bar packed full of casually dressed people presented itself, everyone inside smiling, chatting, drinking and getting in a late night dinner. Daio strolled deeper in and scanned the multitude of patrons for a place to sit and have a drink.

He spotted two women leaning against a thick wooden beam as heavily varnished as the entrance. Both held a glass of wine, but Daio’s attention was drawn more to the taller woman on the left, the one with the long wavy red hair, ice-blue eyes and voluptuous figure. She wore a black satin dress that clung to her tantalizing curves. He passed his fingers through his gelled hair to make sure it was still spiked forward and fastened half the buttons on his shirt.

Upon fastening the last button, he recalled why Aerigo was headed for Phaedra. It was a laughably simple reason, yet practical and important: the girl needed durable attire best suited for an Aigis’ dangerous life. He smiled and put on his charm so he could properly celebrate his successful eavesdropping.

***

Seated in a booth, Daio was still in the middle of flirting with the redhead when Nexus’s voice sound in his head. He flinched.

“Daio, your Elves have arrived. Come.”

“Can’t it wait a few minutes?” Knowing his request would be denied anyway, he reluctantly hoisted himself from the booth.

“Can’t what wait?” the woman said, brows scrunched.

“What for?” Nexus said. “You’re due for another report as it is.”

“I’m—” Daio gazed at the woman, who’d already agreed they could go back to her cabin in a bit. “I just have to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

“The
bathroom
?” Nexus said. “What kind of lousy excuse is that?”

He scowled as he hurried to the bathroom. His master was fully aware of what had been transpiring. Daio zipped inside and hid in the far stall, then spun around and grabbed the metal walls for support. His vision blurred with black and white streaks right before his body dropped onto the toilet seat. He felt like he was sitting in a wind tunnel.

A shiny floor bore into focus, lit by an amber glow. Nexus’s temple. Daio shook out his transparent wrists and got to his feet. He stood mere feet from the throne, Nexus standing beside it. A quick mental scan confirmed Kara’s absence. Disappointing.

“What’s with the frown? You should be happy. I’m about to make your task easier.”

“Nothing, Master.”

Nexus waved someone to approach and five figures filed into the vaulted hall.

Daio recognized all of them. They were Vancor’s Elves, acquaintances from a few missions many, many years ago. All five of them were tall, pale skinned, and lean, wore uniform black cloaks that reached down to their calves and had throw-over hoods. Their black hair fell just past their shoulders and got lost in the darkness of their cloaks. The Elves also wore black leather jerkins embroidered with a flame pattern, black cotton pants tucked inside black leather boots. The shins of their boots were guarded by elongated flat skulls with what looked like the jaw of an oversized beetle, it’s white pincers ending above their ankles.

The five lined up with their arms poised at their sides, revealing polished twin hilts, also black, flanking their hips. They gazed at Daio with an air of recognition.

Nexus positioned himself in front of his throne, arms clasped behind his back. “So tell me, Daio, have you gleaned where our quarry plans to head next?”

Daio lowered his gaze to the Elves’ boots. It would trash his own agenda if he mentioned Phaedra. Nexus would deduce that Aerigo was training the girl. His master didn’t want another threat in the making. He concentrated on the truth that he didn’t know
where
on Phaedra Aerigo planned to travel and held the young god’s gaze. “I don’t know yet, Master. However, I do know we’ll be spending a few more days on Earth.”
Phailon. That’s it… Now I remember.

Nexus contemplated his words and glanced at the Elves.

“All I’ve discovered is that they’re headed for a Crea rift so they can world-hop off the planet.”

“Ah, a rift,” the young god murmured.

“At the moment, I have plenty of time to learn what Baku’s plans are for the girl. I can follow them through the rift if I have to.”

Nexus’s eyes narrowed. Had he already figured out he’d been lied to? Gods
were
near impossible to lie to.

“Have you ever encountered a Crea rift before?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure.”

“And how would you plan to follow them through it?”

“Their world-hop trail, of course,” Daio said with a shrug.

“You’re awfully confident about that.”

Was that reproach or a tone that hinted at suspicion of hiding something? Daio unmade his fists and relaxed his shoulders. He couldn’t afford giving any hints of his ulterior motives. Not now, not so late in this stage.

“I’m not sure whether you realize it or not,” Nexus began in a tight voice, “but such rifts don’t adhere to the normal rules of Crea. They’re nothing but chaos and often unreliable. Your ability to follow Aerigo’s world-hop trail will be almost nonexistent.”

The Elves went wide-eyed at mention of Aerigo’s name but calmed when Nexus shot a glare at them.

“I refuse to rely on your abysmal luck, Daio, so you have only two options. One: find out where
exactly
they’re headed so there aren’t any costly detours in your travels.” He paused, as if trying to read Daio’s thoughts. “Or two: kill either Aerigo or the girl before they reach the rift. I’d prefer you’d take down Aerigo; it would be more satisfying. However, my father seems to be putting an equal amount of weight on the girl. So kill her if you’re not feeling too confident. It should be enough.

“But let me ask you one question, Daio.”

“Yes?” If it came down to slaying one or the other, he’d lose to Aerigo. Horribly.

“What chance do you think there is that your quarry would conveniently divulge his travels plans for you to overhear?”

The odds were abysmal. Phaedra was great news for his abandoned goal, yet only the beginning of bad news for his master. Roxie would become as powerful as Aerigo, given enough time. That’s exactly what Daio needed to let happen and exactly what Nexus needed to stop from happening.