The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice)

by Quyle, Jeffrey

  “Thank you, my friend,” Pesino said in a sweet voice. “My lord Marco, is this acceptable?”

  “You are stunning, my dear, absolutely stunning,” he answered. He stepped forward and took Pesino’s hand from the seamstress. “Thank you my lady,” Marco told the woman, “you’ve given her a wonderful gift with this dress selection.”

  The seamstress smiled a dimpled smile, then returned to her room, and the butler led them through the halls to a small ballroom, where a dozen people were present.

  “Do you like the band?” Pesino asked, her fingers touching her neck. “The seamstress said it would show that I am married to you.”

  “And you didn’t ask for gold to match my band?” Marco asked with a grin.

  “I am pleased to present,” the butler announced to the room, “the Marquis of Sant Jeroni, Marco the Alchemist, his wife, Pesino, and their companions, Cassius and Kate.”

  “Welcome!” a dapper man more than twice Marco’s age approached them. “I am Franz, the Grand Duke of the Northern Shore. Welcome to my city, and thank you for agreeing to come visit,” the grand Duke said. “I was sorry to think that you might have tried to sneak through without announcing your presence to us all.”

  “Which of these ladies has placed such an impressive ornament around your neck?” the Grand Duke asked.

  “Let me introduce my wife, Pesino,” Marco gently pulled his companion forward.

  “Such a vision of beauty,” the host said. “Please allow me to introduce my own wife, Kiploon, who is cousin to your own sovereign, Duke Siplin.”

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, my lady,” Marco said as he bowed over her hand.

  “And a pleasure to meet the exalted hero of my homeland,” she answered. “Siplin has described such tremendous services you have provided to Barcelon. I’m surprised to see you here, so far north, especially in this season.

  “He described your fiancée as a great beauty, but I hadn’t realized she came from Fortburg, from the looks of the wedding collars you wear,” Kiploon added.

  There was an embarrassed moment of silence as Marco blushed and froze, trying to figure out how to reconcile the inadvertent false relationship he had been caught in.

  “My lord accepted this guise to protect me,” Pesino spoke into the silence. “I was traveling with his party, and to protect my reputation, we accepted the torqs in Fortburg. He has remained faithful to Mirra, the woman who awaits him in Barcelon,” she said simply.

  “If he has remained faithful while traveling with a woman like that, he may be no man!” an anonymous voice spoke in the small crowd behind the Grand Duke, causing a murmur of laughter.

  “Let me introduce my other companions,” Marco hastily spoke, then introduced Cassius and Kate. Duke Franz introduced the members of his party as well, his son and several members of the court.

  “What brings such an attractive party to Canalport in the depths of winter?” the Duchess asked.

  “I was assigned to take on a quest, and these companions have chosen to accompany me,” Marco answered.

  “A quest?!” a younger member of the noble crowd exclaimed. “What quest are you on?”

  “I have been sent to collect a scale from the Echidna,” Marco answered calmly.

  The room was totally silent, until a servant spoke. “Dinner is ready, my lords and ladies.”

  “The Echidna?” Marco heard a voice softly speak behind him. “This is the last time we’ll ever see him in Canalport.”

  They were seated at the table. Marco sat next to a dowager noble lady on one side, and Duchess Kiploon on the other. He saw that Pesino had the Duke’s son on one side of her and another man on her other side, with a maid assigned to feed her, while Cassius and Kate were not far down the table.

  “There were stories of the Echidna when I was a child,” the dowager told him. “My father had a servant who had come from Arima, fled from the catastrophes the monster caused.

  “The Echidna is half woman, half snake, and is as large as a house. It’s a terrible monster, the mother of all monsters in many ways more than just literally,” the dowager said. “She has the strength of a hundred men, but she also can trick and lure her victims with her words.

  “She lives in a cave in a great volcano up in the north of the land,” the lady confirmed what Marco’s group had learned in Clovis. “But when she comes out to hunt, she travels far to the south where the people of Arima live.”

  “Does their king put up castles to protect them?” Marco asked.

  “There is no king in Arima,” Kiploon replied from Marco’s left. “No one can be a king in such a forsaken land. The people live in villages and live as best they can. There are miners and trappers and farmers and shepherds scattered about the land, living a decent life as long as the monsters don’t come to their village.”

  “It sounds like a terrible life,” Marco observed, sickened by the thought of living under such a cloud of fear. “I know how terrifying it was to have the Corsairs raid our cities. It would steal all the joy from life to have to worry about something like that all the time.”

  “That’s why my father’s servant left the land. He wanted to raise a family without all that fear,” the dowager said.

  “Perhaps you will defeat the Echidna, just as you defeated the Corsairs, and the plague, and the evil power in Barcelon,” Kiploon said on his other side. “Siplin said he wasn’t sure he’d still have a duchy to rule if you hadn’t been so extraordinary.”

  Chapter 21 – A Different Vision

  The dinner at the palace was a tremendous experience for Marco and his friends. The Grand Duke’s carriage dropped them off at their inn very late that evening, still dressed in the luxurious clothes they had acquired at the palace, and they carried their traveling clothes with them, astonishing the staff of the inn with the transformation in their appearance.

  “Marco, can you remove my blindfold now?” Pesino asked as soon as the two of them were alone in their room.

  “I think you’ve worn the poultice long enough,” Marco agreed. He shuttered the lantern they carried to dim the room as much as possible, then removed the blindfold, and wiped her eyes with a damp cloth. As his fingertips rubbed across her lids, he tried to focus the energy in his hand into a feeling of gentle health, hoping that his power could do something to augment the healing of her vision. There was a split second in which he thought he saw a warm glow, but the phenomenon occurred so quickly he wasn’t sure he knew whether he had really seen anything or not.

  “Now open your eyes,” he directed.

  “It’s dark still, black,” Pesino said, then exclaimed “Oh!” as Marco removed the hand he had held as a shield directly in front of her eyes.

  “There you are,” her fingers reached out and touched his face. “Is it very dark in here?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Marco affirmed. “Let me open the lantern,” he said as he folded open the shutters on the sides of the small box, revealing the candle within, and adding light to the room.

  “Oh Marco, you look so handsome!” she told him. “But there’s something about you, something a little different.”

  “Here, come in here and look in this mirror,” he told her, still leading her by the hand, though she no longer needed to be led, and they entered the bath to look at the mirror there.

  “Oh, this is so beautiful!” she said, staring at her gown. “I wish I could have seen the palace; was it beautiful inside?” she asked.

  “It was,” Marco reported. He looked at the expression of blissful happiness on her face, and thought about how lovely she looked. She had grown to be less of the siren, and more of a woman who was finding her own identity; she had been maturing throughout the journey, he realized. She had faced the dual crises of surviving a difficult journey while also coming to terms with changing from a mermaid to a human woman, and he realized that she was now, finally, incorporating her experiences into her personality, and emerging as a different person, one who he found extra
ordinarily appealing.

  She glanced at him in the mirror, her eyes looking from her own reflection to his, and she suddenly blushed.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked.

  Marco closed his eyes, desperate to hide the truth of his thoughts.

  “Were you thinking about me? Do you, do you care for me, Marco?” Pesino asked. She turned to face him.

  “I was – I am thinking about you, Pesino. You’ve become such a good person, not just beautiful on the outside,” he admitted, startled by the perceptive nature of her question.

  “I could see it. I can see something more about you than I did before. What was in that poultice?” she asked. “It seemed like there was something about you that showed me your feelings.”

  Marco took a step back, stunned by her statement. “I am sorry if my feelings are improper. I know they are,” he apologized. “And I’m sorry my remedy may have harmed you.”

  “You owe me no apology for either,” Pesino stepped over to him and took his hands in hers. “I’ve seen that you have struggled to remain completely faithful to Mirra in your heart, and you’ve done so well. Now I just seem to see something that shows it even more. It doesn’t hurt me to see that about you. It just confirms what I knew – you are a good man, in a world that doesn’t always reward the good men.”

  “Let me,” she paused, “may we go see Kate and Cassius? I’d like to see their clothes, and see if I can perceive their hearts the way I see yours.”

  Marco felt an inward shudder at the thought that Pesino might see some manifestation of his heart. He was uncomfortable with the notion that his dark moments, his doubts, and weaknesses and lusts might be so easily visible to the one person he spent more time with than anyone else.

  “Do you want to see them in that way?” he asked quietly.

  She paused and looked into his eyes.

  “This scares you, doesn’t it?” she asked.

  He nodded silently.

  “I see. I do see,” she said. “You’re torn. Well Marco, I can only say that I’m happy – you always seemed so noble; I’m glad to know you have the same contradictions that other people and merpeople have. If anything, I appreciate you even more now. And you should understand, this isn’t a weapon,” she explained.

  “But it could be. If not a weapon, at least a tool,” he replied.

  “A shell can be used to dip water, or it can be used as a cutting edge. It’s all in the way the possessor uses it,” Pesino said intently.

  And with that, Marco felt relief. He had just moments earlier arrived at the conclusion that Pesino had changed and grown as a person. He knew she was his friend, and he would trust her, he decided.

  “Thank you,” she said in response, sensing his change in feelings. She reached out and hugged him, and he hugged her back with a fierce strength. He would accept that his friend had gone through a great change. He had to be fair, he reminded himself. Mirra had accepted him as he had changed; he would be a hypocrite to not accept a similar evolution in Pesino.

  “Shall we go see the others?” he asked.

  “Will they be as frightened as you are?” she asked.

  “Possibly,” he conceded.

  “Should I keep this secret? Is it better to not tell people what I’m seeing?” she asked.

  Marco held her at arm’s length. “Let’s wait until morning. As much time as they’ve had in their room, I suspect you wouldn’t see them in their finery now anyway.”

  “And you want to think about what is best to tell them?” Pesino asked.

  “And I would like to think about it,” Marco agreed. “There’s no easy answer.

  “Then what do you suggest we do, if we’re not going to go see them?” the girl probed.

  “Let’s go to bed. It’s late, and it’s been a long day. We’ll get to sleep in a nice, soft bed, and sleep in as late as you want!” Marco grinned at her.

  “Then you have to help me take this off without ripping it!” Pesino told him. “I couldn’t see when they put it on me and I don’t know how to take it off!”

  Minutes later they were in the expansive bed, each on one side, each laying quietly thinking about what had just happened, when there was a sudden glow, and Gawail came squirting into the room, squeezing through the opening between the door and the floor.

  “Good night!” he said without comment, and flew into the bathroom, where his glow dimmed. Marco smiled at the incident, then rolled on his side and fell soundly asleep.

  Chapter 22 – Arima’s Wilderness

  Marco awoke the next morning, and sat up sleepily. The thick curtains over the window blocked out the sun’s rays with great effect, so that he could not tell what time it was.

  “You’re not thinking of getting up already, are you?” Pesino’s voice asked with tragic resignation from the far side of the mattress.

  Marco pulled his pillow upward, then swung it in an arc so that it landed soundly on the girl’s posterior, raising a shriek from her, and then prompting her to sit up and look at him with a mock glare.

  “If you want to have breakfast, we need to get out of bed,” Marco told her as he jumped out of the bed to move out of range of her potential retaliation.

  “I’m ready for breakfast. You still owe me a fish meal. The palace didn’t serve fish last night, and you promised I was going to get some,” Pesino rose quickly from the bed and darted into the bathroom, then pulled the door closed as she beat Marco to the facilities.

  He grumbled momentarily, then pulled on his wrinkled and faded travel clothes, and waited for the door to open. He walked over to the window and spread the curtains wide, so that rays of light slanted into the room, their low angle showing Marco that he hadn’t slept in too terribly late.

  He had a whole day ahead of him. He had told the palace that his party would not be going to hunt the Echidna for another day. There had been universal astonishment at the story of the quest he was pursuing, and nearly universal agreement that the quest would end quickly, with his death at the hands of the monster.

  Marco intended to go along the water front to secure a ride over the water to Arima. There had to be a boat captain somewhere who was planning to sail in that direction, he was sure, so it was only a matter of negotiating a price for four passengers to ride one way.

  He heard the sound of water running in the bathroom, as Pesino began to fill another bath of hot water. With a sigh, knowing that she would be occupied in the tub for some time, Marco left his room and went downstairs to gather information.

  “My lord,” a new desk clerk greeted him. “How may we be of service?”

  “I wish to go speak to ship captains about finding one that will sail to Arima. Do you know where I should start?” Marco asked.

  Five minutes later, a flurry of references to different staff members brought one of the stable boys in, who explained that his uncle worked on a fishing ship. Marco was directed to a slip along the water front, and told to ask for Kizmo’s ship. He then asked to have a seafood breakfast prepared for when he returned, and left the inn.

  Ten minutes later he stood along the blustery water front and began talking to Kizmo, the owner of a ship that had just come in with the morning’s catch, and they reached an agreement for a trip to Arima the following morning.

  And twenty minutes later he carried a tray of fried fish and other foods into the bathroom and set it down next to the tub where Pesino was still soaking, as Gawail floated languidly in the air just above the steaming hot water.

  “Something smells delicious,” Pesino said as she lay back, her eyes closed. “Are you proving yourself to be the best husband in the world?”

  “Just hold your mouth open,” Marco told her, and he began to feed her bite by bite for the next several minutes.

  “You’ll leave this bath full of hot water for me, won’t you?” Gawail asked as Pesino eventually stepped from the tub and took the towel Marco handed her.

  Minutes later they were down the hall, knocking a
t their friends’ door.

  “They are in love with one another to a ridiculous degree,” Pesino whispered to Marco as they entered the room and observed their friends.

  “You can see it?” he asked, and she nodded an affirmation. “I wish I could have what they do,” she spoke in a wistful tone.

  “You deserve to; I know you will someday,” Marco said reassuringly.

  That day they returned to the palace for a luxurious and indulgent visit. The ladies went to have massages while Marco and Cassius went to the armory and practiced sword work and archery. Marco surprised their hosts when he stopped at the palace chapel on the way back to join the others and stopped to say his prayers of thanks for the safe journey completed to reach Canalport, and to ask for future blessings on their quest.

  They ate dinner with the Grand Duke and his closest circle of friends that night, then returned to their inn for their last night of luxury.

  “How did you enjoy the day at the palace?” Marco asked Pesino as they undressed and climbed into the expansive bed.

  “It wasn’t very fun,” Pesino said after a moment of contemplation. “I could tell that too many of the people there are not concerned at all about anyone else. I could see how self-centered they were. I never knew some people were so shallow.”

  “Was everyone like that?” Marco asked.

  “No, not everyone,” she admitted. “And outside the palace it was better too.”

  The ship's captain had advised Marco to arm himself with everything possible, and the head armsman at the palace armory had happily obliged by offering extra arrows and throwing knives for all members of the group. When they boarded the ship before dawn the next morning, they each wore a bandolier of knives, as well as the swords Cassius and Marco wore, and the bow and quiver Marco added.

  “The captain’s not a bad man. He cares for his crew,” Pesino observed. She was astonished by her new ability, and she wanted to share her discoveries with Marco as frequently as possible.