Shield of the Gods (Aigis Trilogy, Book 1) (18 page)

Chapter 14

Sconda: The Fast Ones

              Despite the short amount of time she’d spent in Phailon, and despite their base-jumping exit, leaving the city tore at Roxie’s heart. There was something about the place that filled her with a passionate desire to go back and drink in its beauty and splendor for a long, long time. The fact that they’d run to the city, then walked through it, suggested that Aerigo felt the same way. Roxie wondered if they would have lingered if it weren’t for the spy. It no longer mattered, though. Their task wasn’t going to turn into a sightseeing vacation. “Oh well,” Roxie said as she plodded along the swampy grass behind Aerigo.

             
“Oh well, what?”

             
“Nothing.”

             
She’d been following Aerigo’s lead between tightly-packed trees for an hour or more. The ground was squishy and the musty air smelled like it was going to rain. The trees were thin, with branches that didn’t sprout until three-quarters of the way up their trunks. Barely any light lanced through the canopy, giving the swamp a haunted look and making it impossible to tell time by the sun. The shin-high grass was thick and healthy, and tried to tangle their boots with every step. Gnarled roots poked out frequently as if trying desperately to trip anyone who dared travel through the swamp. One finally succeeded in felling Roxie.

Despite her unnatural strength, the root didn’t snap. When she tried to catch herself with her other foot, the same root caught both, propelling her forward. In a final effort to right herself she grabbed at Aerigo’s shoulders, missed, and caught his ankle instead. Since the ground might as well have been covered in grease, Aerigo fell with her, face-first, into the swamp.

              There was a watery
squish
when they hit the grass. In an instant, their fronts were soaked with brown water, which felt quite cold. Roxie lifted her head and wiped her mouth on a soaked shoulder, and lifted her hands out of the water in disgust. Aerigo was on his knees, wearing a scowl.

             
Streams of brackish water dribbled down his face and bare arms. His scowl made her choke back a laugh. He took a deep breath, shaking his head as he stood and wiped off what filth he could.

             
“I didn’t fall on purpose!” she said defensively as she pushed her way to her feet.

             
“You didn’t have to take me down with you.”

             
“I didn’t think you’d fall!”

             
Aerigo stared at her a moment, his face a grim mask, then turned on his heel. “Please be more careful from now on.” He resumed trudging.

             
Head bowed, Roxie stretched her stride to step in the same exact spots as Aerigo.

             
They took no more than a dozen steps before something else halted their progress. They heard a whisper of laughter nearby. Roxie darted her gaze to all the gaps in the trees but couldn’t pinpoint the sound. The thought of getting ambushed sent her heart racing.

             
Aerigo snapped his head to the left.

             
Something blurred past them, followed by a gush of air, and this time Roxie heard laughter behind her. She wheeled around and saw a man in strange clothes standing almost face-to-face with her. She sloshed a step back and held up her fists.

             
“Hello,” the man said to her, as quick as thought. He looked to be in his early twenties, had the lean build of a long-distance runner, and red hair that stood up like flames. Physically he seemed to be an ordinary human, according to Roxie’s increasingly flexible standards, except for his feet. They were much longer than normal and he stood on the balls of his feet, cat-like. And his eyes! It was like looking at the sky. They appeared to be blue, white and grey all at the same time, and the colors moved as clouds on a windy day.
Weird
, she thought, almost saying it aloud.

             
“Hi,” Roxie breathed, unable to tear her eyes from his.

             
“The name’s Yayu. What would yours be?” His voice sounded Irish-Canadian.

             
“Roxie.”

             
“Nice name, but I think I’ll give you a different one later.” He flicked his airy gaze to Aerigo. “I know your friend here,” he said, speaking to Roxie. “I wonder what Aerigo’s here for this time.” Yayu traced a circle once around Roxie with ease, examining her for all she was worth, then smiled almost contemptuously. “Time for talk later. The three of us best be gettin’ off.”

Roxie glanced toward Aerigo, who stood there with his arms poised at his sides and a faint grin on his face. He was caked in drying mud.

“What took you so long to find us?” Aerigo said.

             
Yayu cocked his head, narrowing his eyes at Aerigo. A corner of his mouth twitched into the quickest of smiles. He sped off in a blur of cloth, skin and flaming hair.

             
Roxie wanted to yell for Yayu to wait, but he left her staring at the empty patch of air. “Great!” she said to Aerigo. “You just insulted the only sign of intelligent life on this planet.”

             
She turned to scowl at him, but instead her eyes widened. Aerigo was tightening the strap to his backpack. Before Roxie could say another word, Aerigo sped off after Yayu. She stared in disbelief, then laughed.
Lesson number five, or whatever...
She tightened the straps to her own pack then started running. “Hey, Aerigo! Wait a sec! I don’t even know where you’re going!” Roxie splashed through the treacherous terrain, dodging trees, getting her toes snagged by the grass, and tripping over roots.

             
Roxie was carrying half of the swamp’s water in her boots by the time she found the end of the treeline, which edged an open spongy field of more grass. She slowed to a walk and took in her new surroundings under the evening sky. The air smelled sweet, and the grass rose to her knees. The forest continued on behind her to her left, ending at a cliff a good ways down, complete with its own waterfall. Ahead lay a river fed by the waterfall. Beyond the river rolled open land that blended into the sky. She stopped walking.

             
Aerigo and Yayu were nowhere to be seen.

             
Well, this sucks.
It should have been impossible for anyone to navigate the swamp that fast, leastwise no one as clumsy as she. Two pairs of tracks in the grass bowed towards the waterfall. That had to be them.

             
Before Roxie could stretch into a run, figures blurred by and began circling her, laughing just as Yayu had, except this time girlishly. They slowed just enough to be seen, but were still too fast for her to count how many were there. She stopped once more, trying to follow their movements, but only succeeded in getting a sore neck. It was great to be found, but not to be toyed with like this after being abandoned. She threw her arms out. “Stop!” Someone bowled into her left arm. Roxie let out a yelp, spun around and fell, crushing everything in her pack.

After absorbing the fact that she was now staring at the sky, she sat up, no worse for wear, then noticed a girl lying on the ground next to her, clutching her chest.

              Three more ladies stopped and drew into a semi-circle close to Roxie and their injured friend. All of them were female and had the same flaming hair as Yayu, though much longer. They all shared the same eyes and lean frame. The women wore what looked like spandex shorts with straight-lined patterns on them, shirts resembling sports bras, and a dozen wood and glass bead necklaces apiece.

             
One girl said something in a language Roxie didn’t understand, and the girl on the ground moaned and said something in response.

             
Roxie rolled to her knees, shrugged off her pack, and knelt closer to the injured person. “Are you okay?”

             
The girl gave her a blank stare through tear-filled eyes, then someone said in a halting voice, “We don’t talk non-Scondish.”

             
Roxie looked up at the speaker. “Oh.”
Now what?
She put on a friendly smile and extended a gentle hand, palm up, hoping the girl would understand she wanted to help.

The girl on the ground sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. She gave Roxie the briefest of nods, took her hand and used it to help herself up. The two exchanged a shy smile, and the girl said one word in a grateful tone. “Koshan.”

              “Huh?”

             
Roxie’s new friend pointed to herself. “Koshan.” And then to her. “Eta.” Then back to herself. “Koshan,” she said once more, and then pointed and looked at Roxie expectantly.

             
“...Eta?”

             
“Haz,” the girl said with a grin, while the others giggled and began flitting around.

             
“Oh, I get it! You’re trying to teach me ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re welcome.’”

             
The four girls gave Roxie blank stares.

             
“Never mind.” She picked up her pack and slung it over her shoulders, and scanned the scenery for any signs of Aerigo and Yayu, hoping they’d realized they’d left her behind, but it was just her and her four nameless acquaintances. Two girls tried to figure out how to carry the injured girl, but none of them were strong enough to carry her. Seeing this as an ideal opportunity to apologize, Roxie switched around her backpack so it hung in front of her, then kneeled down, offering her back to the injured girl.

             
Looking over one shoulder, she watched as they spoke to each other, glancing her way every few seconds. She patted her back with both hands, “I’ll carry her,” she said, despite knowing they couldn’t understand her. It just made her feel better to speak. They spoke some more, seemed to reach an agreement, then helped their friend onto Roxie’s back.

             
Roxie stood, bent slightly forward to keep her balance. It felt like she was holding up someone who weighed no more than a stuffed animal.

             
The other three girls began leading her towards the waterfall.

              These strange people’s muscles had to be built solely for speed. Roxie had a hard time keeping up—not because of the featherweight she carried and the lack of use of her arms, but because they were so damn fast. It was like trying to keep up with a plane.

             
“Hemet contwa!” One of the women shouted from afar, having stopped running and turned to face Roxie. She shouted the same words again, and the other two joined in like a bunch of chirping birds. Then they started running again.

             
Roxie slowed to a jog. “What are they trying to tell me?” she said to her living luggage. The girl pointed towards the waterfall, just as the three others vanished behind it. “Okay then.” Roxie ran to the waterfall and was sucking wind by the time she got there. She slowed to a speed-walk.
Don’t these people ever run out of energy?
She wanted to plop the girl on the ground, along with her backpack, and jump in the water to cool off in the humid evening air. However, she plodded over to the rocky base of the waterfall, then stopped, seeing nothing but water, moss and rocks.

             
“Tenaha,” the girl said, pointing to the gap between the rocks and the cascade. “Hemet contwa!”

             
“Aha.” Roxie strode forward a few steps, then stopped again. “Uh, it looks rather dark. Is there some other way we can go?” She turned from the cave.

             
“Nyet, nyet!” the girl yelled, nudging Roxie like a horse towards the dark cave. “Tenaha.” It sounded like the girl was urging her onward.

             
Roxie turned towards the cave again. “Fine! But if we die in there, it’s all your fault.” She marched up to the mouth of the cave and halted, unable to push herself any farther. It felt like she was looking down the throat of some giant monster—she could almost feel it breathing on her. Roxie’s eyes began to glow as she forced herself to take her first nervous step into the mouth of the earthen beast.

             
The girl on her back stared whispering a chant that reverberated off the uneven walls. “Arunas… ferulae… emanon.” After the third repetition, it sounded like a group of ladies were chanting in unison, filling the cave with a sense of peace. Roxie calmed down as she felt her way along a narrow passage lit by just enough glowworms to show the ceiling. Whenever the trail of glowworms split in two or more directions, the native girl would point in a direction and say something. They continued to move forward.

It felt like an eternity in that cave. Roxie smacked her head on a low-hanging stalagmite, tripped over loose rocks that threatened to break an ankle, and got dripped on by cave sweat, and probably glowworm pee. Despite the calming chant in the air, Roxie started feeling grumpy.