The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice) (6 page)

Marco cocked his head in surprise.  “You cook?” he asked.  “Over a fire?”

“Yes, we use fire to cook,” she answered with a playful smile.  “Is that so surprising?”

All three humans nodded their heads, then Glaze began to nibble on the leafy oval.  “Hey, this is good!” he exclaimed.  “It tastes sweet.”

Encouraged by Glaze’s test, the others ate their elchids as well.

“Do you have a fire close by?” Marco asked.  “We would like to stand by a fire and dry ourselves in its heat.”  The others nodded their heads in agreement.

“I could
take them over to the firetable,” Kreewhite spoke up, looking to his mother.

“You’ll have to gather wood for the stack,” she told him.

The three humans all hung upon Kreewhite as he pulled them through the waters of the cove, as the rains diminished again, and they traveled to one end of the semicircle of structures, where a stone platform rose above the water, and a circular stone collar surrounded it just below the level of the water.

The humans released their hold on Kreewhite and stood atop the encircling collar.  There was a pile of wood atop the platform, but it was thoroughly soaked wet through and through. 

“Maybe there’s some dry wood inside the pile,” Kreewhite said hopefully, raising himself up and reaching into the stack of wood to feel the tinder inside.

His face grew grave.  “It feels soaking wet everywhere,” he said.

Porenn impulsively reached her own hand into the mass of wood.  “It is!  No, it’s not fair!” she began to sniff back tears, and Marco suddenly realized how stressful the whole journey must be for the girl – forced unexpectedly into exile, riding through the cool ocean water for endless hours, cold, wet, and now no fire when she had expected to feel warm and dry.  The girl had held up well – she was strong, he realized –  but he felt a sense of profound sympathy for her and the world-turned-upside-down she was having to endure in such uncomfortable conditions.

He placed his own right hand upon the wood, wishing that there was something he could do to give her the fire she wanted.  He felt a sudden thrill in his hand, a pulsing energy that seemed to throb for a split second, and then there was a strong tingle, like a hundred insect bites all over his hand, and it flashed with a brilliant light that ignited a hearty fire in the wood on his side of the pile.

He and the others all jumped back in shock from the eruption of the light and heat, and the others all stared at him in astonishment.

“What did you do?” Kreewhite asked in amazement, as he floated in the water several feet away.

“I, I don’t know,” Marco stuttered.  “It’s my hand,” he tried to explain.  “It’s special now, after the island healed it for me.  Do you want to see?”  He held his hand towards the others, who all instinctively jumped back, afraid that further flames might issue forth.

“It – I – won’t hurt you,” he reassured them, hastily lowering the hand.  “I just felt that Porenn – all of us, I mean – deserved to finally feel warm and dry.  Come on everyone,” he gestured with his left hand, “come enjoy the fire.”

The clouds overhead were growing lighter, and the western sky promised an end to the overcast.  Glaze looked at Marco and shrugged, then stepped back towards the fire, and held his hands out to catch its growing warmth.  Porenn stepped up beside him, then stepped even closer, and began to pull at the front of her shirt, pulling the damp cloth away from her skin and encouraging the fire’s heat to dry it out.

That made sense, Marco realized, as he heard Kreewhite swim back towards them.  He pulled his shirt over his head and laid in on the edge of the fire platform to dry, and Glaze followed his example.

“That’s not fair!” Porenn protested.

“Why not?” Kreewhite asked curiously.

“Because I can’t take my blouse off!” she answered.

“Why not?” Kreewhite repeated.

“Because then the boys would see me, see my, see,” she stumbled out of words.  “I just can’t,” she lamented at last, as Marco and Glaze grinned at one another.

“Here comes the village,” Kreewhite observed.  “I don’t know if they want to see the fire or want to see the humans.”

Several mermen and mermaids were swimming towards them, perhaps two dozen, Marco estimated.

“What rules are you breaking Kreewhite?  Do you wish to be expelled from the village, or do you wish to see the whole village destroyed?” a large and mature merman asked loudly as he came upon them.

“My lord, this is my friend Marco, the one who killed the evil sorcerer, the one who I escaped with after I was caught.  He is my arnelli,” Kreewhite spoke loudly and rapidly.  “You said once that if it was a matter of him not having a place to go he could come here.

“He and his friends were riding with dolphins out in the sea when the storm came, so he came here for shelter,” Kreewhite explained.  “He had no other place to go.”

“You expect me to believe that a legged-boy is friends with dolphins, and kills sorcerers, and just happens to come to our village to get out of a storm?” the village leader asked in a voice laced with sarcasm.

“Yes, Lord Neptin, that’s all true,” Kreewhite answered.

“And this friend of yours just happens to have the sorcery powers to start a fire with soaking wood?” Neptin asked.

Kreewhite faltered, and looked at Marco.

“My lord, I did start the fire, and it was with magic that I don’t understand, but please don’t blame Kreewhite for that.  We only came here to seek shelter from the storm, and we thank Kreewhite for letting us rest here,” Marco spoke up, conscious of the many sets of eyes upon him.

“If you wish for us to leave, we will do so,” Marco added.

“Leave?  Leave so that you can bring a shipload of human hunters here to destroy our village and murder our people?  We have only five villages of mermen left in all the waters that we know, because the legged ones like you have killed and murdered so many of our people,” Lord Neptin responded angrily.

“No, you may not leave our village to go tell other humans where we live,” he thundered.

“But I must go on.  The spirit of the island told me to,” Marco protested.

“Spirit of the island?  There is no spirit to this island!  You tell wilder and more outrageous stories with each passing second,” Neptin denied him, and Marco saw that a number of stout mermen were slowly closing in upon the fire platform in a menacing fashion.

“Not this island!  The enchanted island – the healing island – the Isle of Asclepius,” Marco spoke quickly.  The mention of the name brought a low rustle of voices as the merpeople whispered among themselves.  “That’s where I was told I had to do something, to find something, to go on, on,” he stopped, trying to think of the correct word.

“On a quest,” Porenn spoke up.  “I was with him.  So was Glaze.  We were in the caves within the island and a voice spoke to us.  It told Marco to find something – a scale from a monster,” she said.

“From an Echidna,” Marco explained.  “I have to get a scale from an Echidna.”  He stopped speaking, as the crowd gasped audibly.

“Not from an
Echidna,” Neptin spoke in a more conversational tone.  “There is only one Echidna –The Echidna.  She is the mother of all monsters, a great, dangerous, deadly and cunning beast.

“You are on your way to your death if you are going to seek the
Echidna.”

“The voice would not send Marco on a suicide mission,” Porenn protested.  “He is a favorite of the isle.  He is the sign that the prophesized times are beginning.  And the Lady Iasco has been very good to him; she must think that he has a great role to play in the rest of the prophecy.  He cannot fail or we all will be doomed,” she spoke passionately, surprising Marco with her words.

“How would you know so much of such things?” one of Neptin’s nearby supporters asked.

“I am an acolyte of the Lady, from the Island of Ophiuchus,” Porenn answered.

“This all seems preposterous – you are an acolyte of the island, traveling with an untrained sorcerer who is going on a suicide mission?” Neptin asked.

“He is my arnelli,” Kreewhite spoke up.  “I know what the Corsairs of the sorcerer did to him, how they abused him.  He is the enemy of our enemy, and he is a good person, a friend.  He speaks and swims with the dolphins, and you know they would not help him if they did not trust him.”

The fire continued to burn on the platform behind Marco.  He felt its warmth on his back, and realized that his shirt was dry from the heat of the fire.  He hoped Porenn was at least feeling drier and warmer as a result of the fire.  He hoped he could talk to her soon to find out more about the prophecy from Ophiuchus, which she seemed to know.

“I will hear from the dolphins.  Let them come to testify on his behalf,” Neptin proposed suddenly, seeming to accept some of the outrageous claims that were being put forth.  “Call on them – call for the dolphins to come testify in your favor,” he directed Marco.

“My friend Kieweeooee just married the prince of the dolphin pod in the waters where the sun rises,” Marco explained.  “Shall we call her to come all the way here from her home?   It may take days to send a message there and get her answer back.”

“Tell me about this wedding,” Neptin suggested.  “I know a thing or two about dolphins.”

“They took me across the sea for days to get to the spot where they held the wedding.  Usually the wedding is held deep underwater, but because I need air, they held it on the surface.”

“Who presided at the wedding?” Neptin asked.

“The king, now Kieweeooee’s father-in-law, led the ceremony, while Kieweeooee and her betrothed swam in circles around him,” Marco remembered how moving the ceremony had been to watch.

“I will mostly accept your claims,” Neptin shocked Marco by saying, “for it happens that I know the king of the dolphins where the sun rises, and I know that a human did attend, and the ceremony was as you say.”

“You will be allowed to leave our village, but you must leave something behind so that we can trust you not to betray us,” the leader of the mermen said.

Marco sighed in relief.  He had little he could leave behind, but as long as he didn’t have to give up the enchanted sword, he saw no problems with such an arrangement.

“Your two companions shall remain here with us, as our guests until you return,” Neptin shocked Marco by saying.

“I have to go with Marco!” Glaze protested.  “He’s betrothed to my sister, and he’s like a brother to me already.”

“I have to go with Marco!” Porenn simultaneously protested.  “The prophecy needs to be explained and interpreted to him on this quest.  I’m the only one who can.”

You two will stay here, and I will send two others to be this human’s companions on this journey,” Neptin rejected the protests.

“They shouldn’t be held as captives!” Marco protested.   “They are innocent of all things.  They are only along on this journey as my companions, and Porenn didn’t even intend to travel with me.  Don’t do this to them; send them home if you have to do something.”

Neptin was implacable.  “I will keep them with me until you return, so that I know you will not betray us.  They will be treated fairly while they are here.  You would be advised to travel quickly and to not dally along your route.

“Your companions will be,” Neptin paused as he looked around the village, “Cassius and Pesino,” he pointed at a young merman and a mermaid who were in the crowd.

Marco’s gaze followed the direction of the leader’s finger.  Cassius was a serious-looking man, who bobbed his head discreetly in acknowledgement of his assignment.

“Really? I’m going to show the two-legs just how fun a journey the mermaid way can be!” the girl spoke exuberantly.  Marco observed Cassius wince as she spoke.

“But I will have to go on land,” Marco protested.  “How can they travel with me wherever I need to go?”

“You’ll have to make sure you go back to them,” Neptin answered.  “If they return without you, or you return without them, then your companions will not be released.”

Marco looked about pleadingly, looking for anywhere he could appeal.  His eyes met Kreewhite’s, and he saw the pity that was there, but no hope for reversing the outcome of the village ruler’s decision.  He looked over at Glaze and Porenn, and silently mouthed the word “Sorry” to them.

“It’s not your fault, Marco,” Glaze said loyally.

“When shall we leave?” Marco turned back to Neptin.

“Tomorrow at daybreak,” he answered.  “Cassius and Pesino should have time to settle their affairs in the village and prepare themselves for this trip.”

There was an air of absolute silence, except for the sound of small waves gently lapping upon the fire platform and the crackle of the wood burning.

The merpeople began to slowly depart from the gathering, swimming off in ones and twos towards their own homes.  Marco turned and gathered Glaze and Porenn in a mutual hug as they stood by the fire.

“I’m sorry,” he told them both repeatedly.

“This isn’t your fault Marco,” Glaze loyally said.  “You didn’t do anything wrong.  And this may not be so bad for us.  He said they’d treat us fairly.”

Kreewhite came over next to them.  “Marco, I never had any idea this would happen,” he apologized.  “I’ll do everything I can for these two.”