The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice)

by Quyle, Jeffrey

  He looked at the fire as the others took the tent down, trying to imagine some way to extinguish it. He placed his hand on the same stick he had touched to ignite the magical blaze, and thought of Mirra again, in need of help, but nothing happened. He tried imagining her feeling hot from the fire, and wanting to cool off, but again nothing happened. Finally, he thought of the pixies and their mother, the volcano, ready to send fire spreading across the earth, but choosing not to, and the fire extinguished itself with a single puff of white smoke that left a bed of dying embers. Everyone looked at Marco, but said nothing, and they all knew that it was time to leave.

  They walked slowly during the morning, eating their breakfast of hardtack, dried meat, and raisins. Gawail had selected Kate to be his hostess, convinced that she had a surer step through the snow, and his conclusion turned out to be correct.

  After a midday stop to eat lunch, they all stood shivering at a curving portion of the trail, where it went around the inside of a ravine as it descended towards a broad mountain river valley. Pesino stepped to the edge of the trail to look out at the view below. “Look at those birds floating in the air,” she pointed at a trio of condors that were effortlessly circling at nearly the same elevation the travelers were at.

  As she took a step closer to the edge of the trail, the snowy crust she stepped on collapsed, and tumbled down the steep side of the ravine, giving away beneath Pesino, and making her fall off the trail and out of sight. She gave a sudden shout, and then she was gone, faster than any of the others could react to.

  Pesino!” Cassius cried out, shocked by the loss of his fellow merperson, and he stepped up to the edge of the cliff where the snow had been swept away. There were bushes immediately below the trail’s edge, blocking any view of what was below.

  “What do we do, Marco?” Kate cried out, distressed by the loss of their companion.

  “Gawail,” Marco called, and the pixie peeked out of the neck of Kate’s cape. “I know it’s cold,” Marco told the tiny figure, “but could you go fly below and try to find out where Pesino is and what shape she’s in?”

  “I can do it,” the pixie said stoutly. “For a few minutes, I won’t even feel the cold, and then I’ll just need to warm up again.” He flew out of Kate’s clothing. “Which way did she go?” he asked, and when Cassius pointed down, the pixie flew over the edge and outside the limbs of the bushes as he began to search for the missing girl.

  And he stopped immediately, so close to the trail that he was still visible to the three people who watched from above, despite the sunlight all around them,

  “She’s right here, right below these bushes,” he reported as he flew back up. “It’s only twenty feet or so down to a rocky ledge she’s lying on.”

  “Can we get down there and bring her back up? Is she awake?” Marco asked.

  “Pesino!” Cassius immediately called down over the edge.

  “She wasn’t moving, and her eyes were closed,” Gawail told them. “You can climb down on the rocks and bushes, but I cannot tell if you’ll be able to get back up.”

  Marco looked at the other two. “If we use the rope from the tent, I can go down and check on her,” he told them. “You get the rope ready,” he instructed them, “and I’ll start climbing down.”

  He shed his pack and his bow and sword, then took off his cape as well so that he’d have more freedom of movement. The cold air started instantly to penetrate through his clothes, as he hung his legs over the edge of the cliff, then flipped over and began to slowly climb down the slick embankment.

  Marco held onto rocks and plants, and soon stepped on the woody stems of the bushes that hid Pesino from view. He remembered the climb down the rock chimney in the island of Ophiuchus, and realized that the climb down to rescue his friend was far, far shorter than that ordeal had been. And as soon as he realized that, he descended below the bushes’ shiny green foliage, and found Pesino on her ledge.

  She was unconscious, and a reddening on her forehead showed Marco that she had hit her head hard against something when she fell. He gently stroked her cheeks, then placed his face down right next to hers, and felt her breath on his cheek, a confirmation that she was breathing. He called her name as he placed his mouth closer to her ear, and she gave a faint moan.

  “Pesino, can you hear me?” he called repeatedly, then stood up. His head rose above the top of the bushes when he stood on the narrow ledge that had caught the girl, and he looked up to see Cassius and Kate looking down anxiously at him.

  “She’s right here, and she’s alive, but she’s unconscious,” he informed them.

  “Do you want us to let the rope down?” Cassius asked.

  “Not yet. Let me awaken her, and find out what injuries she has first,” Marco answered, then he knelt back down, disappearing beneath the bushes again.

  Pesino’s eyes were open, but unfocused when he returned to her.

  “Do you know who I am?” Marco asked her.

  “Yes,” she said faintly.

  “Can you move your legs?” he asked,

  “I can, but I’d rather not. One of my ankles hurts,” Pesino answered.

  Marco reached down and gently touched each leg.

  “Yes, that one,” she said sharply as he touched her left leg.

  “How does your head feel?” he asked.

  “It hurts too; thanks for reminding me,” she finally smiled at him. With a groan, she sat up and closed her eyes.

  “Since you can move about, we’ll get you up on the trail again as quickly as we can,” Marco told her. “But first I’ll try to help relieve some of your pain.”

  “If you do, maybe I’ll decide to keep you around when all of this is over,” she gave another wan smile. “I’d appreciate that.”

  Marco had Cassius toss his pack down, then he got the alchemical elements out and quickly mixed a pain killer, using melted snow for the water he needed.

  “This will taste awful,” but then you’ll feel better. You’ll fall asleep in about ten minutes,” Marco explained.

  “This does taste awful!” Pesino said after the first sip, making a face that nearly made Marco laugh.

  “Drink it all – fast,” he urged her. “Drop the end of the rope down here now,” he called up to Cassius.

  He helped Pesino stand up, then tied the end of the rope around one wrist.

  “Start pulling,” he called to the top, as Pesino tried to climb, and he lifted and pushed from below. Within five minutes Kate grabbed Pesino’s hand, and helped drag her to the trail, just as the accident victim began to grow unconscious.

  “Drop the rope back down,” Marco directed with chattering teeth, as he packed up his bag. He was feeling extremely cold, and wanted to return to the trail so he could put his cape back on.

  Ten minutes later he was back on the trail as well, and wearing his cape. Pesino lay unconscious, propped up against the mountainside.

  Kate carried Marco’s bow and sword, while Cassius carried his pack, so that Marco could sling Pesino over his back to carry their sleeping partner down the trail.

  The afternoon was one of slow progress as they waited for Marco to keep steady footing while carrying the awkward load of Pesino’s weight. Marco began to feel worry gnaw at his mind as he began to consider what such a slow pace would mean for their arrival at Boheme. Though they had repacked food supplies from the thieves’ cave, they wouldn’t be able to last indefinitely

  By late afternoon Marco was exhausted, and he and Cassius traded roles. The sun started to set as they followed the winding trail down the mountainside, and their snowy surroundings turned red with the reflected rays of the setting sun.

  “We’ll have to stop and find a place to pitch the tent,” Marco declared as they started to turn around another curve in the trail. Kate was leading, Cassius was in the middle with Pesino, and Marco brought up the tail of the group.

  “I think I found the place,” Kate’s voice came back, sounding happier than Marco though was reasonab
le under the circumstances.

  “What do you mean? Is there a clearing?” he asked as he tried to speed up his careful placement of his feet so that he could catch up.

  “Better than a clearing,” Kate said as Marco approached her. “It’s an inn!” she said, and Marco arrived to see that just below them stood a stone and timber structure, a complete building, with smoke rising from a chimney, and light shining through a window.

  Chapter 13 – A Mountaintop Interlude

  “Hello the inn!” Marco called out loudly five minutes later as they approached the front steps of the inexplicable building. They walked on towards the inn, and Marco called again.

  As he set his booted foot upon the first step, the door swung open, and an enormous man stood framed by the doorway, nearly filling it from side to side with his girth.

  “Where in blue blazes did you come from?” he asked as he looked at the unexpected party.

  “From the Lion City,” Marco said, stepping up onto the porch, with the others close behind.

  The innkeeper looked at them all momentarily, and saw the figure of Pesino on Cassius’s back. “Is she hurt, or just drunk?” he asked. He stepped out of the way and ushered them into the hallway of the inn.

  The three conscious travelers all gave a collective sigh of relief as he closed the door. The interior of the inn was relatively warm. The wind didn’t blow, though they heard it outside, and there was light from a pair of lanterns.

  “Rocko, get in here,” the innkeeper shouted.

  “She’s injured. She took a bad fall. I gave her some medicine to dull the pain and put her to sleep,” Marco answered the question. “Is there someplace we can put her to rest?” he asked.

  “Is there someplace to rest?” the innkeeper echoed. “There’s a dozen places! We’re an inn; an empty inn. We thought the last travelers of the season were already over the pass. We’re closing up. But we’ll provide hospitality for one more night, especially for someone who needs it as badly as all of you look to.

  “Bring her in here,” he motioned them to follow as he led the way to a different hallway that had multiple doors. “Which room do you want?”

  Marco looked into a room that had a single bed, then closed the door in rejection. “We need a room with two beds,” he said, “so I can stay with her and treat her.”

  The innkeeper spoke as he opened a door on the other side of the hall. “Try this room. Lucky for her she’s traveling with a doctor!”

  Cassius carried Pesino into the indicated room, and Kate helped lay her on the bed, as Marco threw his pack on the other bed in the room. “If we could have some privacy, I’d like to examine her condition.”

  “She’s lucky to have been traveling with a doctor, if you call trying to cross the Glacials in the winter lucky,” the innkeeper said.

  “I’m not a doctor,” Marco said absent-mindedly. “I’m an alchemist.”

  A youth arrived in the room just then.

  “What took you so long, Rocko?” the innkeeper asked, making the boy blush. “Never mind. You go to the kitchen and put some extra food in the skillet,” he told the rail-thin youth, who looked to be a couple of years younger than Marco. “Then go tend to the dogs for the night.”

  “Let’s all get out and let Marco carry on,” Cassius said. “Will you show us to our room?” he asked the innkeeper.

  “Are you a doctor or an alchemist too?” Marco heard the innkeeper ask as the door shut behind the departing covey.

  “Are they all gone?” Pesino’s voice asked, making Marco whirl around in surprise. “I thought they’d never leave.”

  “How do you feel?” Marco asked, walking over and sitting on the edge of her bed.

  “My head hurts and my ankle hurts and my back hurts,” she replied.

  “Let’s get you in bed and under the covers, then I’ll fix some medicine for you to sleep tonight. Do you want to undress yourself?” he asked.

  “I’ll let you tend me. You’ve seen me before, and I know you’ll be gentle. You will be gentle, won’t you?” she asked with a weak smile.

  Marco put her to bed, then went to the kitchen in search of some hot water. He followed the aromas of frying food and found everyone else gathered around a table in the dining room, eating cooked sausages and hot potatoes.

  “Rocko and Slim have the best meal I’ve had in weeks,” Kate told him, looking guilty as she wiped grease from a bite of sausage from the corner of her mouth.

  Marco promised to return after he medicated Pesino, then took his hot water back with him to their room. He mixed the sedative as Pesino listlessly watched him, then he cooled it and served it to her.

  “You go to sleep now,” he kissed her on the forehead as though she were a child, just the way he remembered his own mother kissing him when he was a small boy, and then he returned to the dining room to claim his own share of the flavorful, hot food.

  “I was just telling your friends that if you’d come one night later you’d have found the inn empty. We were planning to head down south tomorrow. If your lady friend needs a day to rest, we can wait, and we can all go down together. You might be better off traveling with us,” Slim told the trio at the table.

  Cassius and Kate both looked at Marco, and he could see the expression in their eyes – they wanted to rest an extra day in the inn, and they wanted to travel with these two experienced guides.

  “We don’t have to think twice about your offer. That’s generous, and we’ll gladly accept,” Marco answered. “And do you have a large tub, one that Pesino could soak in tomorrow?” he asked.

  “We do have the laundry tub; you can look at it tomorrow and decide if it’s big enough. I need to go bank the fires for the night,” Slim said as he stood up. “You all get a good night’s sleep. Wake Rocko up when you want some breakfast,” he said, drawing a snort of protest from the young boy.

  Marco also stood up, and looked at his two companions. “We’re living lucky to find this place,” he told them. “Good night, and get a good sleep.”

  He left them and returned to his room, where there was no light, and only the sound of Pesino’s steady breathing as she slept. He kicked off his boots and pulled his covers over himself, then quickly fell asleep.

  He woke up in the dim light of morning to find Kate in the room sitting next to Pesino. He looked over at her quizzically. “Is she okay?” he asked, sitting up.

  Kate stood and motioned him out into the hall, then spoke. “She seems fine. I knocked, but no one answered, so I was just looking in to see how she’s doing. She tries so hard to be strong and durable, but I think she’s really fragile on the inside, and I don’t just mean her leg,” Kate said, as the two of them walked to the dining room.

  “She’s both proud and puzzled by her relationship with you,” Kate told him as they walked through the dining room and into an empty kitchen. Marco fetched an armload of firewood for the stove, as Kate reached for a basket of rolls. They each took one and sat down to eat. “She’s proud that she isn’t trying to seduce you, and she respects you so much for resisting her, but I think she’s afraid she’s losing her ability to charm and attract men. And she may feel a tiny bit of a wish that she could give that up, and just turn into a regular woman.”

  “Or mermaid,” Marco said absently.

  “Or mermaid,” Kate agreed. “But no matter what. She’ll be happy to learn that you have thought enough to fix a hot bath for her!” She said with a smile.

  “I guess we better go find this laundry tub,” Marco said.

  They found the tub, conveniently placed in a corner of the kitchen, and by the time a bleary-eyed Rocko came into the room, Kate already had water starting to heat up on top of the stove. Marco convinced Rocko to help them carry the tub to his room, where Pesino still slept soundly, and then Marco began to repetitively carry buckets of hot water to the room, making slow progress as the tub’s water level inched up little by little, and the room grew warmer with steamy air. His arms grew tired from the
constant carrying, and after he felt the tub was reasonably full, he happily stopped and brought a platter with two cups of tea, two bowls of oatmeal, some of their dried fruit, and more sausage to the room.

  “That smells interesting,” Pesino spoke when he entered the room. She had already arisen, then lowered herself into the tub, and laid back with her eyes closed. “And this feels heavenly,” she added.

  Marco carried the tray of food over to her. She tried a bite of sausage, but spit it out, and took one of the bowls of oatmeal instead.

  “I have some news that will make you happy,” Marco said. “We’re going to spend today and tonight here, before we move on.”

  “You are making such wise choices, my lord!” Pesino laughed with some energy, and Marco felt confident of her healing.

  “But you can be sure than Kate will expect to have a turn relaxing in the hot tub,” he warned.

  “Kate is a good friend. I suppose it is a sacrifice I can make for her,” Pesino reluctantly agreed between spoonfuls of oatmeal. Marco prepared a dose of painkiller for his patient, and gave it to her.

  Minutes later there came a distant sound of hammering, and Marco left the room to find out what was happening. He found Rocko and Cassius outside, nailing broad planks of wood over windows. “This is part of how we close up the inn for the winter,” Rocko explained. Marco stayed to help lift the boards up to the two workers while they stood upon ladders to reach the upper windows.

  When the task was finished at midday, he went inside and passed Slim, who was throwing large sheets over most of the furniture. “How much do we owe you for staying here?” Marco asked.

  “Well, the overseer left two days ago, seeing as how we thought there weren’t any more customers coming over the mountain, so, we don’t really have any easy way to give your money to him,” Slim said haltingly, implying more than he said.

  “So,” Marco began, speaking after a moment’s hesitation to consider the comment. As a former apprentice, who had been friends with many other former apprentices, he understood what Slim wasn’t saying.