Shield of the Gods (Aigis Trilogy, Book 1) (11 page)

With the moon hugging the southern horizon and hidden by the stern, the night sky was glittering with more stars than Roxie had ever seen at once. The smog and lighting of Buffalo dampened such a sight. She had no idea the naked eye could, after adjusting to the darkness, see all those zillions of white pinpricks at once. She even saw a shooting star, and the faint smoky edge of the Milky Way cut the starry blackness in half. The sight made her feel insignificant and small. Where was Baku’s realm among all those stars?

“I talked to Luis briefly while you were wandering around,” Aerigo said in a deep, soft voice, as if he were trying to not break the magic of the sky’s beauty.

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

“This ship makes a couple of stops before heading to Bermuda, so we have three days before we can get to Phaedra.”

“Fay-drah?” Roxie said.

“It’s home to one of my favorite cities to visit. You’ll see why when we get there. The sights might help you clear your head while we’re there.”

Roxie nodded, not knowing what else to say. She returned her gaze to the sky and started thinking again about Baku the moment he conceived her.

After a while, Aerigo asked, “What’s wrong? You look upset.”

Roxie gazed through the one-foot gap between the top and middle railing at where the sky and sea met. She could barely tell where the night met the ocean surface. She sat up and raised her knees so she could rest her chin on them, and wrapped her arms around her legs. “I feel different,” she said somberly.

“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 just 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. For now, just rest. You look like you’re about to fall asleep on me again.”

Without realizing it, Roxie had adjusted herself from her chin on one knee, to one ear pressed to her warm forearm. Her ability to focus on Aerigo’s shadowy frame was hazy. Her sore eyes were millimeters from closing. It had to be somewhere around midnight and the visit to Baku’s realm had been almost twelve hours ago. The Herschel family had returned not too long after ten-thirty, and that had been a while ago. “I am,” she whispered. “Goodnight.”

Chapter 10

Spies

              It took hours for Daio to recover from his head-butt with a thick wall of steel. If a human had rammed the wall that fast and hard, he probably would have 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 in his beach chair 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 orders to spy on Aerigo so Nexus could glean what Baku was up to were easy enough to go along with. But when the girl Roxie had entered the balance—another Aigis—it had changed the whole mischief game. A long-standing and hopeless goal didn’t seem so hopeless anymore, provided that Nexus’ plans didn’t interfere.

              Daio sat up in the beach chair, 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 like rotting fish. 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 found a garbage bin just outside the store and discarded his flannel shirt. 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 frequently than once a month.

             
Daio snatched the right size shirt then bolted off at superhuman speed for the bow and began searching for an empty cabin to break in to. Diving into the pool beside the beach chair he’d slept in earlier 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.

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

             
Daio bent his knees and counterbalanced himself with his arms poised behin
d
his back, then, swinging his arms forward, he jumped for the next deck up and 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. Two pairs of footsteps drew closer. Daio slipped his second foot down the other damp pant leg and zipped up his cargo pants, then reached for his metal bands. He hastily yet gingerly clapped the 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. He clipped all the buckles, then reached for his new shirt and attempted to bolt out the bathroom as he billowed the 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 asked, then gasped after her eyes looked past her boyfriend. “Oh my god, Kevin! Get away from him!”

             
The man named 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,” she said.

              “You could just let me leave,” Daio said. “I was actually on my way out.” He pulled his shirt over one shoulder and fished behind his back 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. He got another idea, 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 and said, “
Estudre.
”

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

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

             
“Look at me,” he said to them. They slowly turned in their spots. “You never saw me. I don’t exist.” That said, Daio 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 straight 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 in the right direction 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 main 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 about half an hour.

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

“Yeah?” the girl answered 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.”

“Why can you grow and shrink wherever you want, but not travel to other worlds?”

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 Aerigo and the girl.

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 the aroma of beer 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 then took a right 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 into the bar 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. The Aigis passed his fingers through his gelled hair to make sure it was still spiked forward, then 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, then 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 red-haired woman when he heard Nexus’ voice sound in his head. He flinched.

             
“Daio, your Elves have arrived on my realm. Come.”

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

             
“Can’t what wait?” the woman asked.

             
“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?”

             
The Aigis scowled as he hurried toward the bathroom sign posted near the ceiling by the entrance. His master was fully aware of what had been transpiring right before he contacted him. Daio zipped inside and hid in the far stall. He spun around and grabbed at the metal walls for support. His vision turned into a blur of black and white right before he felt his physical body sag. A second later he felt like he got caught in a wind tunnel.

             
A shiny floor bore into focus, lit by an eerie amber glow. Nexus’ palace. 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 looked to his right and waved someone to approach with a cupped hand. 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 scarab beetle, it’s white pincers ending just 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 but remained standing with his arms clasped behind his back. “So tell me, Daio, have you gleaned where your quarry plans to head next?”

             
Daio dropped his master’s 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. Daio concentrated on the truth that he didn’t know
where
on Phaedra Aerigo planned to travel and held the young god’s gaze again. “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, then glanced at the Elves.

             
“All I’ve discovered is that they’re headed for an extended reality 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.”