The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice)

by Quyle, Jeffrey

  “I joined them not too long ago, so I was surprised when Neptin chose me to be the companion on this journey, but then I came to suspect that he was using me as a test to see how reliable and faithful you would be. And you’ve resisted my unspoken invitations better than any man I’ve tempted in a long, long time,” she answered Marco’s unspoken question, as she saw his curiosity in his eyes.

  “Oh thank goodness,” Marco said, “I thought I was going to be unfaithful to Mirra.

  “You’ll stop tempting me?” he asked.

  “I think I will. We’re apparently going to be together for quite some time on this adventure, so I’ll wait until it’s over before I try to light your spark,” she grinned at him, making him grin back uncertainly.

  “Good, I’m glad that’s settled. We’re going to be traveling in this unusual way, and we don’t need to be distracted by Pesino’s volleys at you,” Cassius said. “So what do we do now?”

  “Are either of you hungry?” Marco asked, for he knew that he was feeling an emptiness in his stomach. “We could go up into the city and get some food, well,” he paused.

  “Well, what?” Pesino prompted.

  “Well, we need to get some clothes on Cassius, and we ought to get some better clothes on you,” he explained, “something so that you both just blend in.”

  “Hello? Marco?” a voice outside the cubby room suddenly broke into their conversation, and then the curtain was swung aside, and a pale, red-eyed Kate stepped into the room.

  “Oh Marco, I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “Oh, you’ve got company,” she spotted Pesino. “Oh my!” she exclaimed as she saw the naked Cassius.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she began to back out of the room.

  “Kate, what is it? What’s wrong?” Marco asked as he followed her out of the room.

  “Nothing Marco,” she fibbed. “What are you doing in there? Never mind, it’s not my business,” she started to cry.

  “Something’s wrong,” Marco said. He clenched her hand in his to prevent her from running away from him. “Don’t worry about them,” he motioned back towards the cubby. “Those are my friends, but they’re not from around here, and their ways are different from ours.

  “Here, wait just a second, and I’ll tell Cassius to cover up, and then you can come back in and relax,” he told the maid to Angelina.

  Marco waited to see the girl nod her head in agreement, then he ducked inside. “Cassius, go sit down over there,” he pointed to a corner, and threw another article from the bedding clothes onto the former merman’s lap. “Keep that there so that Kate doesn’t see that you’re naked,” he instructed, then he leaned out the doorway.

  “It’s okay,” he told Kate encouragingly. “You can come in now.”

  She hesitantly stepped into the room, and Marco motioned for her to have a seat next to Pesino, as he slid down to the floor by the doorway.

  “This is Kate,” Marco introduced her. “Kate, this is Pesino and Cassius, two friends for a village on an island out in the sea. They’ve come to visit the Lion City.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Kate said demurely, keeping her eyes mostly averted from the two oddly-dressed people.

  “How did you meet Marco?” Pesino asked.

  Kate grinned for the first time. “I met him when he was sitting down, in the great plaza,” she said. “I was with my former mistress and her mother, and when they opened the door of the shop, it knocked him backwards. He looked a little silly. We weren’t introduced that time,” she explained.

  “The next time I saw him was right on this pier. The Corsairs had kidnapped Angelina and I and we were tied up on the dock, waiting to be taken away, when Marco showed up and set us both free. He brought us down here to this very room – that’s how I found it,” she said.

  “Was that when you met Kreewhite?” Cassius asked.

  “That was the same adventure,” Marco confirmed. “Kreewhite is the friend who, introduced me, to Cassius and Pesino.”

  “Marco! Look at your hand!” Kate exclaimed as Marco gestured with his right hand, drawing attention to its golden color.

  “I had it healed by a magical woman, and her cure left it a different color,” he explained, dropping the hand into his lap.

  “I wonder if the cure was worse than the disease,” Kate ventured.

  “It was cut off, wasn’t it?” Pesino asked. “Your hand was cut off and the sorceress restored it?”

  “Yes,” Marco said.

  “So Marco got knocked down in a plaza?” Cassius tried to help divert the conversation.

  “He did,” Kate agreed.

  “Did you call Angelina your former mistress?” Marco belatedly understood what the maid had said.

  “I,” she sighed, “I did. I couldn’t stand to work for her anymore; she’s not an honest girl. She tried to take a scarf from a friend’s house, then when she got caught, she wanted me to lie for her to cover it up, and when I wouldn’t she blamed me for taking it. I couldn’t take any more such events, so I left the house, and I’m not going back.”

  “What will you do now?” Cassius asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know where to go. My family can’t afford to take me back in the village,” Kate gave a heavy sigh.

  Pesino looked from Kate to Cassius to Kate to Marco. “I think we should take her with us,” the former mermaid said.

  “No,” Marco said abruptly, not wanting to even imagine how difficult it would be for a city girl to make the journey into the wintery north. He didn’t really know the girl at all to know what she would be like.

  “Why not Marco?” Cassius asked in a quiet voice.

  “Well, because,” he sputtered in return.

  “Where are you going?” Kate asked, curious.

  “I have a, a mission,” Marco said. “I have to go to Clovis, a city way up north. You wouldn’t want to go there.”

  “I grew up in a farming village in the mountains. I’m used to snow and cold,” Kate said. “And I don’t have any way to support myself here in the city, and I don’t want to be around Angelina at all if I can avoid seeing her. How long will you be gone?” she asked.

  “Well,” Marco hesitated, “it will take weeks to get there, but then we have to go somewhere else – I don’t even know where yet – and that will be dangerous.”

  “Marco, this doesn’t make any sense. You’re an apprentice, not a war master or magician. What kind of thing are you really doing?” Kate asked. “Apprentices don’t have unusual strangers as companions on mysterious trips.”

  “You don’t know him very well,” Pesino said. “He is a great adventurer; he’s a champion. We’re going with him to try to find the Echidna, and steal a scale from it. The longer I’m around him, the more impressed I become,” she said.

  “I have to agree with that,” Cassius said.

  Kate looked around at all three of them in wonder. “Are you pulling my leg?” she asked. “Because you sound serious, and that can’t be the case. I saw him,” she sputtered, “I saw him sitting in the plaza, his master chewing him out, just like an ordinary boy. Just as ordinary as you or you or me,” she pointed to Pesino and Cassius as she spoke.

  Chapter 8 – The Partners Comes Together

  “We’re hardly ordinary,” Pesino said with a grin.

  “Pesino, no, don’t,” Marco tried to cut off the conversation before it went too far.

  “Marco, I have a feeling that this girl ought to come with us,” Pesino retorted. “It’s a strong feeling. And if she’s going to be traveling with us, she needs to know that this will be a journey unlike any other.

  “You see Kate, Cassius and I were a merman and a mermaid until this afternoon. Marco gave us a potion that changed our tails into legs. We’re still trying to learn to walk. We’re traveling with Marco, and I think Cassius would agree,” she glance over at her fellow transformed merman, “that we actually like this Marco boy. But we were sent with him to make sure that he did a specific ta
sk. Our village is holding his two friends as hostages until he returns with the task complete.”

  Kate laughed nervously.

  “He’s going to a city with a big place where he can find out secrets,” Pesino continued.

  Kate looked at Marco in confusion. “A library,” he explained helpfully.

  “And then he’s going to find the mother of all monsters, and kill it,” Pesino went on.

  “Actually just try to take one of its scales,” Marco corrected.

  “And then he’ll have to return to our village to set his friends free,” she went on.

  “Stop! Stop!” Kate rose to her feet. “I don’t think this is funny! If this is some kind of a joke, stop it. I’ll go now and you can have your fun among yourselves.”

  “Kate, don’t go,” Cassius spoke up. “We are telling you the truth. And if Pesino thinks that you are fated to be with us, there’s no point in leaving.”

  “Hey, I have an idea!” Marco said suddenly, standing up. “Why don’t Kate and I go see if we can get some clothes for you two to wear. We’ll only be gone for a little while, and then we’ll come back.”

  “Yes, let’s,” Kate said hurriedly, stepping over to Marco’s side. She slipped immediately out the door.

  “Kate, wait,” Marco called. “Would you look at Pesino and figure out what size clothes to get her that will fit nicely?”

  Kate stuck her head back in through the curtain and examined the former mermaid. “Stand up,” she said.

  “Okay,” she spoke after a second’s further study, then left the shack.

  “We’ll be back, I promise,” Marco told the two who he was leaving behind, and then he backed out and followed Kate up to the top of the pier.

  “Well Marco, what was that all about?” Kate asked as they started to stroll towards the harbor warehouses and the city beyond.

  “It’s incredible to say, but their story is mostly all true. I’ve just fallen into one crazy adventure after another since I was taken from the Lion City,” he said. “I don’t really expect you to go with us of course.”

  “I don’t know you at all,” Kate said. “And I definitely don’t know those other two.

  “But I’m actually considering traveling with you. I know what my fate will be if I stay here in the city and try to live on the streets,” she shuddered as they passed a dark alley. The western sky was red with the rays of the setting sun.

  Marco looked at her in astonishment.

  “Here,” Kate said, stopping him on the street in front of a shop. “This is a slop shop that the sailors from the harbor probably use to buy and sell clothes,” she pointed at the windows. “We can get some clothes for,” she paused, “Cassius?”

  “Yes,” Marco affirmed, and they entered the shop.

  As they browsed through a barrel full of shirts, Kate spoke in a low tone. “Pesino doesn’t really know or care about fashions, does she?” the girl asked Marco. “Why not just get her some sturdy clothes from here? She’s relatively tall, so these will fit her.”

  Marco looked at her, then nodded his head, and together they picked out a few shirts and pants as well as sturdy leather boots. “You’ll want to get coats too, if we’re heading north,” Kate advised, “but that can wait for later.

  “So they really can’t walk?” she asked as the two of them carried the clothing back down the pier.

  “They just got their legs,” Marco reminded her, just before they entered the room.

  “Hello?” Marco called cautiously, as he found the lantern out and the cubby dark.

  “The light went out, and we didn’t know how to make it glow again,” Cassius gave a sheepish laugh.

  Marco struck the flint and relit the lantern, then offered the clothing to the two transformed merpeople, who dropped their improvised coverings without any hint of modesty, then asked for help in donning the garments.

  “Why does she have a long, hanging cloth, while I have these cloth tubes around my legs, like you and Cassius wear?” Pesino asked when the fitting was complete, as she looked at Kate’s dress and compared it to her own men’s clothing.

  “We went to the closest shop,” Kate answered, “and I didn’t think you’d mind. When we leave on the trip to go through the mountains and the wilderness, I’ll probably wear the same thing – it’s more practical.”

  “Practical! That reminds me. I left the leather bag of potions hanging down on a support beam. I suppose you’ll want to change back to merpeople, so I better go get it,” Marco started out the door.

  “Marco, wait!” Pesino called. “Let me come with you, to practice using my legs,” she said as she stood and walked on wobbly limbs towards him.

  Marco looked at her with a puzzled expression, but held a hand out to her and accompanied her out of the cubby.

  He placed her feet and hands in the appropriate places as they climbed down, then across the beams to where the damp leather bag still hung. “Let’s sit here and rest for a moment,” Pesino suggested.

  “The water doesn’t look like home anymore,” she said as she looked down at the faint sparks of reflected light that glimmered off the surface of the harbor. “I suppose this is the way it looks to you?” she turned to look at Marco.

  “The water looks like an inviting place to visit,” Marco agreed, “but not a place to live.”

  “Will we leave tomorrow?” Pesino asked.

  “I hope so. We’ll have to make sure the two of you can walk, and we’ll have to get supplies, and directions from master Algornia,” Marco mentally ticked off the plans he had tried to organize.

  “Okay, we can go back now,” Pesino suddenly said. She held her hands up to Marco, expecting his assistance to rise.

  “I think we’ve spent enough time away,” she said as they started climbing back up.

  “Time away from what?” Marco asked.

  “Time away from Cassius and Kate, so they can get to know one another,” Pesino answered.

  “Didn’t you think there was something between them?” she asked.

  “I thought Kate was embarrassed to see Cassius standing there naked when she came in,” Marco said dryly.

  “You are not very observant,” Pesino answered loftily. “Those two are going to become mates when this adventure is over. I’ve seen this sort of thing a great deal, and I know.”

  “Kate’s an everyday, average girl. She’s not going to fall in love with a merman who temporarily has legs,” Marco argued.

  “And weren’t you just an everyday, average boy not too long ago?” Pesino brought Marco up short. “You just stay quiet and watch them the next few weeks,” she instructed.

  They reached the entrance to the cubby room, and went inside, where Kate and Cassius were sitting talking comfortably to one another, as Kate tried to explain customs among the people of the city.

  “Why don’t we go to a tavern and eat a meal?” Kate said as the other two arrived. “Cassius and Pesino could practice walking, and they could see what a human city looks like. And I’m hungry,” she added with a grin.

  Marco glanced at Pesino, who nodded eagerly. "I would like to see what one of these cities of the people with legs is like," she agreed with almost girlish enthusiasm.

  And so, a quarter of an hour later, the four of them were walking through the dim streets of the city in search of a place to eat.

  "There's a festival tonight at St. Agnello's church," Kate said. "We can go there and eat the food. They have the best sausage and pasta in the city."

  "This is extraordinary!" Cassius said to Kate as they passed the great public square in front of the palace, where four huge lion statutes watched over their namesake city. Cassius and Kate were holding hands to help him steady his stride, while Pesino and Marco likewise held hands as they walked behind the other two. "How many people live in this place?"

  Kate turned around to look at Marco, who shrugged his shoulders. "Thousands, I guess," he answered.

  They turned a corner, and passed near Alg
ornia's shop. "That's where I was an apprentice," Marco pointed out the store front to Pesino.

  "Marco?" a voice called, and he turned to see his friends, Filipo and Bianca, running towards him.

  "We couldn't be sure in the dark, but Bianca thought it was you!" Filipo said as they reached Marco and embraced him in a threeway hug that elicited squeals and laughter from all involved, as Marco's companions watched.

  "You're alive! And you're back in the Lion City. We'd given you up as lost," Filipo told him. "Does Algornia know you're back yet?"

  "Marco, what's happened to your hand? Did you dip it in some paint?" Bianca asked simultaneously.

  "Master Algornia knows I'm back; I've seen him the past two days, and my hand was injured, and this is the way it healed," he tried to answer the multiple questions.

  "Back for two days and you haven't seen us? I suppose that’s because of this new company I see you're keeping," Filipo said, as he turned to Pesino and bowed in an extravagant manner. "At your service, my lady.

  "It's no wonder Marco wouldn't introduce such a beautiful companion to his friends, for his fear of losing your company to someone more worthy of you," the boy broke into laughter as he finished his florid speech.

  "Oh Filipo," Bianca said as she slapped his shoulder. "Stop that!

  "We're going to a puppet show. Will we see you tomorrow?" she asked Marco.

  "Probably not," he answered slowly. "I'm not going to stay in the Lion City very long. We're planning on taking a trip," he hoped he wouldn't have to reveal too much to his friends.

  They looked at him in surprise. "Are you eloping?" Filipo asked.

  "We're not, at least not yet, but they are," Pesino spoke up, and gestured towards Cassius and Kate.

  "I've seen you before, haven't I?" Bianca asked as she scrutinized Kate.

  “I’m from the city here,” Kate answered hesitantly, not wanting to reveal her abrupt departure from Angelina’s employment.

  “You’ve been shopping at the Dressmakers Square, haven’t you?” Bianca was determined to pin down where she had seen Kate.

  “Every woman in the empire’s been at Dressmakers Square!” Filipo added in exasperation. “Come on, let’s go see the show,” he tugged on her hand, and the two ran off, waving at Marco as they left.