The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice)

by Quyle, Jeffrey

  With a grunt, and a reflection that whatever happened in their journey, he was thankful that the powers of the temple had restored his ability to move, Marco set his foot on a protruding stone, and began to slip down the stony way out of their predicament.

  He descended five feet down, and saw Glaze dropping his feet down as well. Marco went down several more steps, then looked up into the gloom above. Glaze was visible on his way down, but Porenn was not.

  “Is she coming with us?” Marco asked softly.

  “I don’t know,” Glaze’s voice was filled with concern. “I want her to.”

  “Ask her,” Marco told his friend.

  “Porenn?” Glaze immediately spoke upward. “Are you coming with us?”

  “I’m afraid,” the girl’s voice softly floated downward.

  “We’ll catch you; we’ll stay beneath you,” Glaze said sympathetically.

  “That’s not the kind of fall I’m afraid of,” she answered. “I love the lady Iasco, and I’m afraid that if I climb down there, I may not get back to the village. I’d like to leave this island in some ways, but I don’t want to run away from it,” there was profound conflict in her voice.

  “I’m going to stay. I’ll wait for the temple to open up and let me back in,” she decided after a long pause of silence.

  “What do we do?” Glaze asked Marco.

  Marco shifted his balance on the stones he rested on. “We go on,” he said. “At least, I’m going to go on. If you want to wait with her, I understand,” he declared.

  “No, I came to be with you,” Glaze said immediately. “Mirra wants me to help you, not the pretty girl,” he gave a rueful laugh.

  Marco remained in position for a minute longer. He had a feeling that Porenn was supposed to be with them, but he couldn’t force her to. “Porenn, we’re going to go,” he spoke loudly, facing upward. “Tell your friends we’ve left, and tell the Lady thank you, and good luck in your future on the island.”

  He started moving downward once more, and after a pause he heard Glaze start moving as well.

  A moment later, he heard Glaze utter “Ouch!”

  “Are you okay?” Marco asked.

  “A rock fell on me,” Glaze answered.

  “Sorry,” Porenn’s voice dropped down between the stony walls. “I’m coming with you after all.”

  Marco gave a pleased smile in the dark, then said nothing as he resumed the slow journey down into the cave.

  An hour later he came to a wide ledge, and stopped, as Glaze came down to join him, and then Porenn arrived seconds later. He saw a smudge of dirt on her face in the dim light, and grinned at her as they crowded together.

  “Is everyone okay?” he asked.

  “Never better,” Glaze replied, while Porenn silently nodded her head.

  They resumed the long journey, and Marco stopped only once more along the way until they reached the flat level that led to the entry to the Bath of Asclepius.

  “Are we done climbing?” Glaze groaned.

  “Yes and no,” Marco answered. “We’re done with the hard climbing. We’ll have to go down stairs, but first we go through one of the great wonders of the journey.”

  “What is it?” Porenn asked, the first time she had spoken in the cave.

  “You’ll see,” Marco said as he led them forward, and then opened the door to the next portion of the cave a moment later.

  “What is this?” Glaze asked in astonishment as he craned his neck to see around Marco’s shoulder.

  “It’s a magical bath! It heals you. It heals anything and everything! It made this hand come back to life after Lady Iasco reattached it,” Marco held up the golden right hand. “You just walk through the bath and everything is better.”

  “What about our clothes?” Porenn asked.

  “Well, the two times I came through here, I didn’t have any, as you may remember,” he grinned. “But if you take them off and carry them over your head, I think you can keep them dry. At least,” he considered, as he looked at Porenn appraisingly, “Glaze and I can,” he evaluated her petite stature, as Glaze grinned.

  They eventually worked out a process for Porenn to undress outside the door and hand her clothes in to Glaze, who carried her garments over his head with his own. The bath was wonderful, refreshing and invigorating for Marco and Glaze, neither of who had any injuries to be healed. Glaze left Porenn’s clothes sitting dry on the ground after exiting the bath, then he and Marco stepped through the second door and waited for five minutes. Marco’s golden hand tingled with energy, but he said nothing to Glaze about it

  “You didn’t peek, did you?” Porenn asked in a cross tone when she finally opened the door to join them, though both Glaze and Marco could sense the humor in her voice. “That felt wonderful!”

  They journeyed comfortably on the rest of the trip through darkness and down the steps, until they came to the temple below the island, where the waters of the sea intruded into the underground chamber.

  “This is marvelous!” Porenn clapped her hands in glee upon seeing the temple.

  “Marco, you must carry out your mission,” the voice of the temple spoke in its unseen solemn tones. “You go with my blessing, and my promise that there will be unexpected help when times are trying.”

  “Who said that?” Glaze asked in astonishment.

  “It is a voice, the spirit of the island,” Marco whispered to the other two. “It has directed me before.

  “What mission, my lady?” he asked.

  “The Echidna – you must acquire a scale from the Echidna, in order to counter the evil deeds of the prophecy,” the voice told him. Marco heard Porenn gasp at the mention of the prophecy. “Take your companions, and journey towards where you first studied alchemy, to learn where the Echidna waits.”

  Half the jets of light in the ceiling expired, and the chamber grew dimmer.

  “What is it talking about?” Glaze asked.

  Marco looked up, waiting for further instruction. “What about Porenn? Should she stay on the island?” He asked. “What is the prophecy?”

  There was silence. “Am I supposed to leave the island? Am I being exiled?” Porenn asked in agony, her good spirits from the bath dashed.

  There was no answer. “Do you know the prophecy?” Marco turned to her to ask.

  “I do, I know the main parts, but not all the details,” she answered, looking down, her cheeks wet with tears. More of the jets of gas were extinguished, and the chamber grew dimmer. “But I don’t want to talk about it right now. It can wait. How do we get out of here?” she asked.

  “We go through the water,” Marco told her.

  The water in the temple chamber was warm, and the boys obediently looked away as Porenn handed her clothes to them, then waded through the watery passage behind them, occasionally holding onto Glaze’s shoulder and floating along when the floor of the passage dipped deeper from time to time.

  They emerged through the mist and came into the chillier water of the sea, as they saw sunlight ahead of them, and they stopped just inside the mouth of the cave entrance, looking at gentle waves that broke upon the rocks outside.

  “What do we do now?” Glaze asked.

  “We get ready for a long journey,” Marco answered soberly. “We can ask the dolphins to carry us. And we can either wear our clothes and wear them wet, maybe for many days, or we can just leave them behind and get new ones when we arrive.”

  “Arrive where?” Porenn asked.

  “The Lion City,” Marco answered. “That’s where we have to go.”

  “The Lion City?” the other cried together. “How long will that take?” Glaze asked.

  Marco lowered his face in the water and called loudly for dolphins, and specifically the ones he knew in the waters around the island.

  “Give me my clothes,” Porenn reached up and grabbed her garments from Glaze’s hand. “I’m not going naked!”

  With a shrug, Glaze lowered his clothes to the water and let his shirt f
loat on the surface as he pulled his pants on. Marco did likewise, and was just tightening his pants when dolphin fins appeared among the rocks and approached them. There was a sudden splashing of water as the dolphins greeted the humans with a flurry of flippers churning the sea’s surface, drawing a shriek from Porenn, who hid behind Glaze for shelter.

  “The royal wedding guest has returned!” Brewe exclaimed. “We are glad to see you again. What brings you to the waters of the enchanted place where the waters are interrupted?”

  “I was brought here to be healed,” Marco answered. “I am better now, and I am under an obligation to go on a long journey to a far place on the land. Can you assist me?”

  “Just you, or these others with legs as well?” Barrel asked.

  “All of us,” Marco confirmed.

  “We will carry you a distance, and seek for others who may be able to take you further,” Brewe offered.

  “That worked before,” Marco answered. “I am grateful for your help.” He turned to the other two humans. “The dolphins will carry us through the water as far as they can, then other dolphins will take their place and carry us further.

  “I’ve done this before,” Marco assured the other two, who had skeptical looks on their faces.

  The dolphins each provided assistance to one human, and soon the small group was flowing across the surface of the sea. “The coverings on your bodies slow us down. They make you heavier than you are,” one of the dolphins complained.

  “The little human insists on wearing these clothes,” Marco explained.

  “Does it think to hide how small it is?” Porenn’s dolphin asked.

  “It is a female, and wishes not to present its body for we males to view,” Marco tried to explain.

  The dolphins all came to a stop in the water, astonished by his story.

  “What’s happening?” Glaze asked.

  “It’s Porenn,” Marco said with a grin. The girl looked at him in surprise. “I told them we were wearing clothes because she wants to hide her body.”

  “Well, I have to!” she cried in protest. “Tell them that my church instructs me not to let evil-minded boys look at me!”

  Marco spoke into the water. “She is embarrassed, and very small. Perhaps we should move on.”

  “Can you teach me to talk to them?” Glaze asked as they resumed motion.

  Marco told the dolphins what he was going to do, then provoked constant laughter as the dolphins listened to the woeful lesson he provided to both of his companions. The dolphins very quickly insisted on correcting the mispronunciations themselves, and the group grew friendly as the journey proceeded.

  “We have gone further than we expected,” Barrel told Marco much later. “We were having too much fun laughing with your friends. We will call for others to come take you on.”

  There was an affectionate exchange just a few minutes later, and the lesson continued with the new dolphins, who carried them until night fall, when another set of dolphins took on the duties of transportation and education.

  Late at night though, the stars in the sky disappeared behind clouds. Waves and wind picked up, and the dolphins’ voices began to take on a different tone.

  “Is there a problem?” Marco asked.

  “There will be a storm, and we cannot take you down to safety under the water,” his dolphin replied.

  “Is there a place with land where you could take us?” Marco asked.

  The dolphin hesitated to answer.

  “Is there?” Marco repeated.

  “There is a place, but I do not know that we may take you there,” the dolphin said slowly.

  “Do not worry; our safety upon the land is not your responsibility,” Marco tried to reassure the animal.

  “It is not your safety I am concerned about; I do not think you are allowed upon this land,” the dolphin answered. “It is the island of the mermen.”

  The mermen! Is it where Kreewhite lives? I am his arnelli!” Marco said excitedly. “He has helped me before. He told me I could come to his village if my situation was desperate.”

  A large wave crashed upon all three pairs of travelers.

  “This is perhaps growing to be a desperate situation,” the dolphin spoke.

  “What’s happening, Marco?” Porenn asked, curious about the extended conversation that she and Glaze could not follow.

  “Just a second,” Marco put her off.

  “Can you take us to the mermen, and let me call for Kreewhite?” Marco suggested to the indecisive dolphin.

  “We can do that,” the dolphin agreed, and he started swimming towards the right, giving Marco time to explain to the others what was happening. An hour later he slowed down, as rain started to fall.

  “We’re close. You should call for your merman friend,” the dolphin suggested.

  “Kreewhite!” Marco called aloud in the air, then he put his face in the water and called as well, in both the human language and then in the language of the dolphins.

  “Kreewhite, my arnelli!” Marco shouted again.

  “Who calls?” came a faint voice from off in the distance, the storm making it impossible to judge how close.

  “Kreewhite, it’s me, Marco! My friends and I need shelter from the storm,” Marco answered, hoping his voice penetrated the sound of the rain and the waves.

  Moments later a shape rushed at him from out of the dark, and Kreewhite grabbed him in a hug as Porenn screamed in surprise at the sudden appearance of the merboy.

  “What are you doing here?” Kreewhite asked.

  “The dolphins were taking us across the sea, and the storm came along, so we started to look for a safe place to wait,” Marco explained.

  “Come into our village,” Kreewhite said. He placed his head underwater and had a conversation with the dolphins.

  “We’re going to the mermen’s village to get out of the storm,” Marco shouted to his two companions, as the dolphins started following Kreewhite through the dark waters.

  The dolphins suddenly made a sharp veer to the left, then after ten seconds came back to the right, and suddenly the wind and the waves diminished dramatically in the dark, leaving only the rain as an indicator of the storm around them. The dolphins went on, and stopped after another minute.

  “This is shallow water,” Marco’s dolphin told him, just as Kreewhite appeared.

  “You can climb up on land here, Marco. There’s a beach just ahead,” their host pointed to a slightly pale patch close by. “And you can find shelter in the trees. Our wise man says the storm will pass before sunset tomorrow.”

  Marco and the humans ran up onto the sandy beach, then entered the trees beyond. The three of them huddled together in a soggy pile beneath a heavy bush that gave minimal protection from the rain. They fell asleep fitfully, and then awoke when gray light penetrated through the canopy overhead at the arrival of dawn.

  Marco awoke first, fittingly, as he lay on the top of the pile. He was lying partially on top of Glaze, who in turn was crushing Porenn beneath himself. Marco cautiously stood up, and awoke the other two in the process, so that they opened their eyes and saw him standing above them in the misty light, as the rain temporarily lightened to drizzle.

  Porenn turned her head and saw that Glaze’s face was just inches from her own, and she blushed. “We should get up,” she spoke to her companion, then sighed in relief as he stood up. He offered her his hand and assisted her to her feet.

  Together the three of them walked through the darkness under the trees to the lighter area to the west, where the beach opened up, and they stopped walking and stood looking in astonishment at the once-in-a-lifetime scene that was displayed before them.

  The beach led down to a well-sheltered cove, one that was only two hundred yards across, and well protected from the sea by a spit of sandy land that held scrubby bushes on low sand dunes. Within the circular waters of the cove, a large number of structures were built. There were clearly homes – houses just as much as any village of h
ouses would have been identifiable had they been on land.

  Yet these houses were built in the water. Their walls erupted from the surface of the cove and rose only a few truncated feet before their roofs provided protection from the elements overhead. They were built in a semicircle around the perimeter of the cove, absent on the seaward side, and their doors all faced towards the center of the cove.

  “What is this place, Marco?” Glaze asked.

  “This is a village of the merpeople. My friend Kreewhite lives here,” Marco answered.

  “Have you been here before? You really know mermaids?” Porenn asked in astonishment.

  “I don’t know any mermaids; I only know Kreewhite. He’s a merboy,” Marco replied.

  “I think you’re about to meet a mermaid,” Glaze answered, pointing out into the water. Two figures were swimming towards them through the strengthening rainfall. One appeared to be Kreewhite, while the other was clearly a female. As Marco made identification of Kreewhite, a curtain of heavy rain moved over the surface of the water and the visibility decreased dramatically.

  Marco and the others edged backwards, seeking protection under the trees before the heavy rainfall reached them.

  “Marco!” Kreewhite’s voice called, as the merboy reached the watery edge of the beach just as the heavy rain did. “Marco, come meet my mother!” he called.

  “Come on,” Marco urged his companions, and they all ran down into the shallow water, holding their arms protectively over their heads, and achieving no real success.

  “Marco, this is my mother; Mother, this is Marco, the boy with legs who helped save my life! He’s the one who fought against the sorcerer,” Kreewhite introduced.

  “Kreewhite!” Marco blurted out, suddenly remembering his later battle. “I fought the sorcerer again, in a different city, and I killed him!”

  “You ended his life? You are a hero!” Kreewhite said joyfully. He splashed water high into the sky in a spontaneous celebration of the end of the man who had threatened and frightened the merboy so badly. The splashed water disappeared among the drops that were falling wantonly upon all those at the meeting.