Scarlet From Gold (Book 3)

BOOK: Scarlet From Gold (Book 3)
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“The Lady Iasco is dead!” another woman shouted, as she feinted with her sword.

“I can bring her back to life!” Marco shouted angrily, so loudly that it felt as though his words echoed off the walls of the alley.

He had no idea what made him say anything so extraordinary, but it had clearly shocked the women.

“What do you say?” one of them asked.

“He may be right, my friends.  Leave this to me,” a voice at the end of the alley caught the attention of them all.

“Are you Folence?” he asked.

“The Lady Folence to you,” someone in the group nearest him corrected him with a growl.

“Of course I am, boy.  Now come to me,” she ordered, and there was a compulsion in her voice that made Marco’s feet involuntarily start.

Marco checked himself from going, and watched carefully as the women around him shuffled into new positions.

“If I go to her, are you going to try to attack me?” he asked the group.

“We won’t try; we’ll either attack or we won’t,” someone said with bravado that made Marco grin in spite of himself.

“I’ll trust you this time,” Marco said.

Folence’s entourage included two women who held blazing torches that provided illumination around her.  As Marco approached her, he studied her looks by the flickering light; she looked regal, and determined.  He wouldn’t want to be opposed to her in a test of wills he realized, even as he was possibly headed into just such a confrontation.

“Why are you limping Marco?” she asked.

“I want my memories back,” he said at the same time as they came face to face.

“Bow to the Lady,” said one of the attendants, who shoved him down to the ground.

And at that moment, his hand exploded forth a bursting shower of fragments of light.

 

 

 

Alchemy’s Apprentice Series

  1. The Gorgon’s Blood Solution
  2. The Echidna’s Scale
  3. Scarlet from Gold
  4. The Southern Trail

 

The Inner Seas Kingdoms Series

 

  1. The Healing Spring
  2. The Yellow Palace
  3. Road of Shadows
  4. A Foreign Heart
  5. Journey to Uniontown

 

The Ingenairii Series

 

  1. Visions of Power

2. At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion

3. The Loss of Power: Goldenfields and Bondell

4. The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

5. Against the Empire

6. Preserving the Ingenairii

7. Rescuing the Captive

8. Ajacii and Demons

9. The Caravan Road

10. The Journey Home

 

Also by Jeffrey Quyle

 

The Green Plague

 

For more information, visit the Ingenairii Series on Facebook,
www.facebook.com/ingenairiiseries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scarlet From Gold

 

Alchemy’s Apprentice Series

Book 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey Quyle

 

 

 

 

Index

 

 

Chapter 1 –The Pilgrimage Begins                                                       Page 1

Chapter 2 – A Cathedral Reunion                                                        Page 20

Chapter 3 –The Fight at the Inn                                                       Page 31

Chapter 4 –The Journey Resumed                                          Page 38

Chapter 5 –The Most Beautiful Woman                                          Page 50

Chapter 6 – Return to Ophiuchus                                                        Page 55

Chapter 7 –An Unkind Welcome                                                       Page 61

Chapter 8 – Folence’s Report                                                        Page 64

Chapter 9 –The Trial                                                                                   Page 70

Chapter 10 –The Journey Begins                                          Page 74

Chapter 11 –Athens                                                                                    Page 84

Chapter 12 –              Conversations with the Dead                                         Page 100

Chapter 13 –The Resurrection                                                       Page 111

Chapter 14 – Departure from the Underworld                           Page 115

Chapter 15 –Crossing Iberia                                                                     Page 126

Chapter 16 –A Wedding at Sant Jeroni                                          Page 149

Chapter 17 –Another Departure                                                       Page 162

Chapter 18 –Iasco’s Resumption                                                       Page 165

Chapter 19 –An Interrupted Voyage                                                       Page 179

Chapter 20 –The Memories Lost                                                       Page 187

Chapter 21 –             Lion City Return                                                        Page 192

Chapter 22 –              Joining the Cult                                                        Page 217

Chapter 23 –              Arrival in Reme                                                        Page 236

Chapter 24 – Success in Nappanee                                                        Page 250

Chapter 25 – The Gathering at Malta                                          Page 257

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of Characters

 

 

 

Marco, Marquess of Sant Jeroni, alchemist

Mirra, Barcelon daughter of Coosie, mother of Sybele

Glaze, Brother of Mirra

Sweetness, cook at Sant Jeroni castle

Sheafield, huntsman at the castle

Perago, steward of the Sant Jeroni castle

Porenn, acolyte of Ophiuchus

Algornia, alchemist of the Lion City

Teresa, Algornia’s granddaughter

Iasco, high priestess of the Order of Ophiuchus

Folence, Barcelon priestess of Ophiuchus

Siplin, duke of Barcelon

Sybele, infant daughter of Mirra

Sty, alchemist of the Lion City

Ophiuchus, the spirit of the island

Baronet Gustaf, Barcelon nobleman

Kieweeooee, a dolphin princess

Mitment, a former guard of the island

Diotima, a water spring spirit

Iamblichus, a Docleatean sorcerer

Neptin, leader of the merfolk village

Laris, priestess in the Lion City

Penelope, an acolyte of the Lion City temple

Count Colonna, Lion City nobleman

Statbir, a cardinal of the church

Cardinal Savoy, an ambassador of the church

Neapole, Grand Prince of Nappanee

 

 

 

 

Prologue

 

             
Marco was an under-achieving apprentice in a prestigious alchemy shop in the Lion City, one of the most powerful trading metropolises of the cities from the former empire that Clovis had governed.  On a fateful day, a strange, unknown elderly woman gave him a coin, and a threatening stranger frightened him into swallowing the coin.

              Marco became suddenly proficient in alchemy, rapidly completing a complex formula and showing promise.  But before his promise could be realized, he was caught up in an unforeseen raid on the city by a band of brutal Corsairs, aided by a powerful sorcerer who traveled with them. 

                            Together, Marco and Kreewhite the merman escaped the Corsair ship in a storm, and landed on an enchanted island, Ophiuchus.  They became separated, and Marco found that the island was a center and a temple for a female cult of healing. 

              Marco went to a medium-sized city, Barcelon, where he found work in a dying alchemy shop.

              Marco healed and helped a young mother, Mirra, and then helped save the city from both a plague and a raid by the Corsairs and their sorcerer-leader.

              Afterwards, injured in a fall, Marco was sent to Ophiuchus for healing.  From there he was commanded to go in search of a mythical monster, the Echidna, and acquire one of the monster’s scales.

              His journey to find the Echidna became an epic winter journey through treacherous mountain heights, accompanied by three companions who bonded with him as their trip was beset by challenges and dangers.

              In the far north of the world, they find and battle the Echidna, and escape with a scale in hand, but then travel through the underworld to find a path to freedom.  And the path proves to have challenges of its own, so that Marco becomes separated from the others, and emerges from the underworld in a different location, alone, and without his memories.

              He only knows that he must travel to see Lady Folence if he wants his memories back.

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Chapter 1 – The Pilgrimage Begins

 

When the boat from Station Island reached the pier at Lacarona, Marco was one of the first passengers to disembark.  The members of the crew watched as the odd but pleasant young man left the ship, and a few called out a sincere farewell as they observed him work his way through the milling crowds along the port’s harbor front and disappear from view.  They quickly returned to their duties around the ship, and Marco was forgotten.

Marco had spent his time on the ship listening to the other passengers and asking them questions about the directions to get to Compostela, the site of the great holy cathedral at which so many pilgrims reported having miracles performed and prayers answered.  The passengers on the ship included many of the very devout and the fairly wealthy, those who had the motivation and the means to make back-to-back pilgrimages to the monastery of Saint Joseph on Station Island and then to the cathedral at Compostela.  They had proven to have a wealth of knowledge that they had been eager to share with Marco over the two days the voyage to Lacarona had lasted.

BOOK: Scarlet From Gold (Book 3)
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