The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice)

by Quyle, Jeffrey

  “Leave us alone,” Marco answered. “We’re just travelers. We don’t want to fight with you.”

  The monster laughed. “Travelers! That’s a delightful way to describe the journey to the underworld! Travelers!

  “Well travelers, it’s your turn to travel back to where you belong. You’ve left the world of the living behind, and you are now to spend some portion of your eternal time in the underworld, among the other dead,” he answered. “I don’t know how you got this far along, but you may not leave – you may not go back to haunt your former families and lovers. Come back with me to the underworld.”

  All four of the humans gaped at the minotaur in astonishment.

  “We’re not dead!” Cassius exclaimed. “The sky knows we should be after all we’ve been through, especially beating the Echidna, but we’re still living!”

  The minotaur laughed. “Fought the Echidna! That’s one I’ve not heard before! As many people are down here who tried to fight the mother of us all, or I should say so many who didn’t even bother to try to fight her, you’re the first to try to claim you fought and won.”

  “We did win,” Marco said gently. He reached into his shredded bag, knotted and tied in many places to make it secure, and he pulled out one of the scales he had claimed. He calmly threw the artifact at the feet of the minotaur. “There’s the proof. We came to get that, and we did. The Echidna’s not dead – I know we can’t kill her; but she’s buried under a pile of rubble and lava that’ll take her years to dig her way out of.”

  The monster stopped laughing, and bent down to pick up the scale. Gawail suddenly illuminated his light and flew over to the space above the monster. “Is this enough light for you to see by?” he asked.

  “What? You have one of the enchanted with you? They are not a part of the underworld! What impossible story is this?” the minotaur cried. “This is a scale of the mother! Yet it would be impossible to imagine that mere mortals could even think to fight her, let alone defeat her.”

  “My lord,” Pesino spoke for the first time, and Marco’s head swiveled to look at her. For the first time in weeks she was employing her siren’s voice, and she was using it to seduce the monster who confronted them.

  “I know what it is that you desire, my lord,” she took a step forward, swaying her body and cocking her hip in a way that let no doubt exist that she was the most desirable female on the planet at that moment.

  “Pesino,” Marco spoke in a tone of voice that carried a warning of his displeasure with her action. “Now is not the time, Pesino,” he told her. Even wounded and slowed with his aching body, he would rather fight the monster than allow his companion to entice it with her favors.

  “Marco, he is not what he seems,” she spoke back, in a tone that seemed sharp after the allure of the voice she had formerly used with the minotaur. “He is not a bad soul under that exterior,” she said.

  “Let the lady speak and do as she wishes,” the minotaur spoke sharply to Marco, as he advanced another cautious step. “And tell me by what chance of fortune you managed to find these fragments.”

  “It was no chance of fortune that we found them,” Marco answered. “We set out deliberately to find them; I was sent on a quest to acquire such a scale. It’s more a chance of fortune that we survived the encounter in which I got the scales though. And after that encounter, we’ve been trying to find our way back to the surface, back among the living where we belong.”

  “We are truly alive, truly flesh and blood,” Pesino spoke to the minotaur in a conventional voice. “You may poke my flesh if you want proof. We are bodies that belong among the living.”

  With an eye on Marco, the minotaur advanced, and Pesino stepped without hesitation towards him.

  “Stop! Both of you stop,” Marco growled. He unconsciously turned up the brightness of the illumination coming from his hand, making the minotaur growl and block the light with a hand held before its eyes.

  “Marco, stop that!” Pesino called. “What is your name?” she asked the monster.

  “My name? Who has ever asked or cared about my name? Nobody – I was always just ‘the monster’ to all who met me,” the minotaur said philosophically. “My name is Asterion,” he answered with a note of proud defiance.

  “Asterion, we are not escaped spirits of the dead,” Pesino’s voice was suggestive and pleading together now. “We are the living. We must return to the land of the living, where many people wait upon our return. Can you not help us? Please, lead us to the surface. Show us the way back.”

  “What are you?” the minotaur asked. “Are you bewitching me? You sound reasonable; you seem plausible. I almost want to help you; I almost want to believe that you would help me if you could.”

  “I do! I would!” Pesino said eagerly. “I do want to help you, and I will, if you will help us. I can feel the goodness in your soul, and there is not evil within you. You have been assigned this damning task, and you have your appearance against you, so that you do suffer the worst expectations from all the world.

  “But I believe we can make your life better. This mighty leader, this great hero,” she motioned towards Marco, “is an alchemist, among his other abilities. And he has acquired these potions that can change the forms we live in. That man,” she pointed at Cassius, who still stood close by, his sword drawn, keeping himself in a protective position between Kate and the minotaur, “was formerly a merman, but a dose of this potion turned him into all human,” she explained, without revealing her own heritage.

  “Help us,” she wheedled now, “and his potion can help you as well. You could become all human,” she promised.

  “Why should I believe such a fairy tale?” the minotaur asked scornfully.

  “Because it is the truth!” Marco shouted. “Or mostly the truth. I may not be the hero she says, but the potion did change him from merman to human,” Marco affirmed. He had doubts about what effect it would have on the minotaur, although he had just seen it impact the Echidna as well as the merfolks, so he did not deny that it might work as Pesino promised.

  “If you can change me into a human, so that I may walk above the ground and not draw attacks and screams, I will give you this break; I’ll lead you to the surface, but you’ll have to let me carry the potion,” he insisted.

  “And if, when we get to the surface, it does not work, I will bring you back to the land of the dead for all of eternity,” the monster warned.

  Marco stood, looking at the minotaur, thinking quickly, trying to decide if the deal that Pesino had struck on their behalf was a good one, and whether the minotaur was to be trusted. Gawail hovered overhead, his light having diminished to a dimmer state, and Marco cautiously approached the monster, then held out his hand.

  “I’ll take the scale back,” he said cautiously, ready to react if the monster attacked.

  The minotaur held out the scale. “Never has anyone come from the Echidna’s lair alive. You must be a fearful warrior indeed,” the creature commented in an almost conversational tone, although it kept its shield held ready to defend itself in the event of an attack.

  Marco took the scale and stepped back, then slid the fragment into his backpack and stepped back further to stand next to Pesino. He put his sword away, then spoke to her. “What made you do this? What makes you think we can trust it to help us?” he asked in a low voice.

  “I can see the nature of his soul. Despite his exterior, there is honor within, and he is a man to be trusted. If he looked like others, and were treated fairly by others, he would show his good heart – he would wear it on his sleeve,” she replied calmly. “Leave him to me, and we will travel well and reach our destination,” she told Marco, as she put her hand on his arm.

  “And Marco,” she added, and he heard a note of sadness creep into her voice, “when you have a chance when next we stop, please use my knife and cut the leather wedding band away from my neck. We won’t have to keep up the subterfuge any longer.”

  Marco stared at her, hi
s eyes locking on hers, stunned by the request. He knew it made no difference whatsoever, yet he felt hurt by the thought of losing the symbol of intimacy between them. He cared for the mermaid with legs deeply, and though he knew he could not honorably act on his feelings, he did not want to lose the collars that created the fiction he had grown so comfortable with.

  “What’s the hurry?” he asked. “Why now?”

  “There’s no hurry,” Pesino replied. Her eyes grew wide, and she removed her hand from his arm, then embraced him in a hug, one that he wholeheartedly returned; he hugged her with a fierce affection, an unspoken demonstration of how he had come to feel towards her after their long journey together, and also with a sense that a chapter in their story together was coming to an end.

  “There’s no hurry,” Pesino repeated, “but there’s no reason to keep it on either. If I had the tools and the skill, I’d offer to remove the golden torq from your neck as well. Oh Marco dear! I wish we had met under different circumstances; what a life you could have led me,” she said with a catch in her voice.

  “Is everything okay?” Cassius asked. Marco and Pesino broke their hug and looked around. “Fine – everything’s fine,” Marco answered. He took a deep breath, then felt a stabbing pain from his cracked ribs, and winced. “Are you ready to lead us on?” he asked the minotaur.

  “Start leading, Asterion,” Pesino spoke, stepping away from Marco and walking up next to the minotaur. “We’re ready to move on; the sooner we get back to the surface and the land of the living, the sooner we’ll be home.”

  The monster gave what might have been a smile in his taurean features, then began to walk up the cave passage he had descended from. “Follow me,” he called over his shoulder. “This will provide the fastest way to the land of the living. We’ll use Persephone’s Gate,” he called as he began hiking at a rapid pace.

  They all fell into a line behind the monster, Pesino then Cassius then Kate then Marco, with Gawail floating above Kate. Marco wished that he could be up front, behind the monster to fight it should it turn upon them, but the pain in his rib cage slowed him down, and he fell a step behind the others immediately, then lost another step’s distance a few minutes later, and another as they climbed up the tunnel that rose at a steep angle.

  Marco watched the others slowly separate from him, all of them working hard to match their steps to the pace the minotaur set, and the light that Gawail provided slowly dwindled into a small dot of light as they got further and further ahead, until after an hour, when the others stopped, and Marco caught up.

  “I thought you were a mighty warrior who fought the Echidna; can’t you keep up better?” the monster asked when Marco finally caught them.

  ‘Marco was injured in the battle. She was not gentle in her treatment of him, but he is still alive and free,” Cassius said indignantly. “Can’t we travel more slowly, so he can keep up?”

  “We’re going to Persephone’s Gate because it’s the closest,” the minotaur answered.

  “But can’t we go there slower?” Kate asked again.

  “Don’t you understand?” the minotaur asked in exasperation. He looked around at them all, and saw the blank looks on their faces. “Maybe you don’t,” he muttered in a softer tone.

  “Persephone’s Gate only opens two days a year – once on the first day of spring and once on the first day of autumn. If we want to reach the gate when it’s open tomorrow, we need to move in a hurry. Otherwise, we’ve got a long journey ahead of us to get to the usual entry,” he explained.

  “Thank you; we didn’t know,” Pesino said. “That helps us understand. We’ll have to stop to sleep sometime too; we’re all exhausted from this trip as it is. Will there be much time for sleep?”

  “Some perhaps, if we don’t delay too long,” Asterion replied as he looked at Marco.

  “You just set the pace and I’ll keep up,” Marco spoke up, feeling that he had caught his breath as best he was able during the break. “Let’s get going.”

  They moved on again, and though the pace started out slightly slower, they soon began to travel more rapidly, and Marco began to fall slightly behind. He tried to ignore the pain in his chest as he breathed, and forced himself to quicken his pace, so that he fell behind more slowly.

  As he walked, he felt a sense of being watched, but as he turned around to look, he could find no one else in the cavern.

  The passage they were in opened dramatically into a vast chamber, one that was so large Marco could not begin to sense a ceiling or walls. He stopped to catch his breath, then raised his hand, curious to see what was around them, and called forth the brilliant light his hand could produce, and gazed in wonder at what he saw.

  There might have been a ceiling, but it was so high, and the details were so hazy overhead that he couldn’t be sure. He stood, it seemed, on the edge of a vast, underground plain. There were hills and spires present throughout the landscape. And there was movement.

  He could see his own friends moving, not far ahead of him. But there were many, many other movements as well all around the cavern. There were soft, indistinct shapes in motion, some moving towards the people he was with, some moving away, most not bothering to relate to the living beings at all. They were the inhabitants of the underworld, the spirits of the dead, as his friends stood still, turned to look at him and the light he had cast throughout the underworld.

  Marco felt a chill pass through his soul at the thought of walking among the dead. But there was no alternative he knew. He would rather walk with the other living beings than be left alone among the spirits of the dead, which meant that he needed to hurry. Taking a long, slow breath to try to reduce the pain from his ribs, he hurried back down towards the rest of his group, and diminished the amount of light his hand broadcast.

  “What are you trying to do, call attention to us?” the minotaur asked as Marco rejoined the group.

  “I wanted to see where we were,” Marco answered.

  “You’re surrounded by the dead,” the minotaur stated the obvious. “Now let’s get moving,” he turned and started moving again.

  Marco managed to keep up with the others for the next long spell of traveling, not because he could manage any greater speed, but because the others were slowed down by the interruptions of the constant attention of the dead. Time after time, each of the four humans were approached by spirits who began to speak to them.

  “Tell my son I still love him.”

  “Tell my wife I’m here.”

  “Don’t trust Iagaon; he will betray you.”

  “The sun has set on my fortune, after three generations.”

  Spirit after spirit had messages they wanted to deliver to the visitors, or wanted the visitors to take back to the living. Yet as many as there seemed to be, Marco remembered the teeming mass he had seen on the floor of the cavern, and knew that the vast majority of those who were present did not pay any attention to the living at all.

  After what seemed like hours, they stopped to eat, but none of the travelers felt any appetite, so they resumed the trip until they came to a small tunnel that climbed steeply upward.

  “We’re not far from the gate here,” Asterion told the others. “We have time to rest if you want.” They had left the spirits of the dead behind when they had left the great chamber, and in the relative privacy of the small space, they all gratefully dropped to the ground.

  Marco thought about the advisability of setting a watch schedule, but decided that they were in such a precarious and unpredictable set of circumstances that it would do little good, so he curled up carefully and began to breathe the steady rhythmic breathing of those who are asleep.

  “Poor Marco,” he heard Pesino’s voice speak quietly in his ear when he began to awaken. “You should be happier.” She stroked the hair that had grown so long on the back of his head. “You have the scale you needed, and now we’re on the way to take you back to see your beloved Mirra. We’re close to doing the impossible things you set out
to do, and I couldn’t be prouder of you than I am. All you need to do is heal from a few injuries.”

  He rolled over. “What’s going to happen to you?” he asked quietly as he looked up and saw her in the glow of Gawail’s light. “Are you going to be happy?”

  “I am going to be happy. The dreams tell me I am on the way to finding happiness. It’s not the life I ever remotely expected, but it will be satisfying for me, and thank you for caring so much about me,” she said. “Asterion is ready to go, so you need to get up,” she told him, then left him to awaken Kate and Cassius.

  Marco felt the soreness in his ribs as he sat up, then cautiously rose to his feet. Pesino helped him put his tattered pack on his back, and then they all fell into line and began to march behind the minotaur on their way to their escape from the underworld.

  Just a couple of hours after they began, they came to a stop in an odd looking chamber of the cavern system. Curious about the obscured details of the chamber, Marco raised his hand and lit it, illuminating the room they stood in. His light revealed an extraordinary room, one in which stripes of differently colored stone ran up-and-down through the walls and the ceiling of a room that was a perfect dome overhead.

  “This is the crossing point, beyond which no spirits of the dead may pass,” the minotaur said.

  “We’ve done it? We’ve left the underworld?” Cassius asked with amazed triumph in his voice.

  “It is not the end of the underworld, yet. It is only the limit of the spirits of the dead. We have to pass through one more extraordinary chamber, and then we will reach Persophone’s gate,” Asterion explained.

  “And before we go any further, I will find out if your pledge is true. If this vial contains a potion that can make me wholly human, we will continue our journey to the surface,” he held up the small jar that Pesino had donated to him. “But if it fails to make the change, I will kill you all, and you will have only a short journey to reach your next home, the underworld of the spirits.”