The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice) (11 page)

They splashed into the water, and Pesino panicked again, thrashing wildly and knocking Marco further underneath the surface, until Cassius suddenly arrived and grabbed her.  He directed her back to the beam, as Marco raised his head into the air and gasped for breath.

“Hey!  Are you coming up?  I’m going for the patrol!” the guard overhead shouted at them, and they heard his footsteps.

“We need to go to a different spot,” Marco said.  “Cassius!”  he snapped the name out of his mouth, making the merman turn to look at him.  “Do you know where the bag of potions went?”

Without a response, Cassius let loose of Pesino, who was clinging to the wooden structure, and dove down into the water.

Marco stroked over to Pesino and grabbed onto the beam as well, then looked at her with concern, and was surprised to see a grin on her face.

“Maybe having legs doesn’t guarantee we’re going to walk anywhere after all!” she smiled as she talked.

“Maybe we’ll need to work on this a little,” Marco agreed, glad to see her positive reaction to the first moments after her transformation.   “Here, come follow me,” he said to her.  “We’ll hold on to the posts and beams and move down to a different part of the pier before the patrol gets back.”  He began to lead her along the length of the pier, headed towards the harbor front, hoping that he could lead her to his hidden cubby.

They were only three minutes into their journey when Cassius suddenly rejoined them, and he held the sodden leather bag up in the air.

“I’ve got it.  It sank all the way to the bottom of the bay.  The muck down there is filthy!” Cassius said.  “How is she?” he asked with a nod towards Pesino.

“She is fine!  She is right here.  She can hear you, and she can speak for herself!” Pesino spoke in an increasingly shrill tone.

“What she said,” Marco said in a low voice.

“I was going to move her to a place where I have a hiding room, not far away,” Marco said.

“What about him?  Aren’t you going to make him change into a human?” Pesino asked.

“Not yet,” Marco said.  There was the sudden tramping of feet overhead, many feet.  “We have to hurry.  Climb on my back,” he said to Pesino.  “Wait here until these guards leave.  I’ll be back,” he promised Cassius, as Pesino obediently wrapped her arms around his shoulders.  With a grunt, he raised himself up onto the first crosspiece.

“Is she supposed to look like that?” Cassius asked as he watched them start to climb up.

“What do you mean?” Marco asked in a strained voice as he struggled to stand up.

“You know, in the back, where her legs start?” Cassius asked.

“Do I look bad back there?” Pesino asked with concern.

Marco blushed as he realized the subject of the conversation.  “Let me just get her to safety,” he said as he started to walk towards the hidden room.

There was the sound of boots starting to climb down the ladder at the end of the pier, and Marco hurried his steps as best he could, one hand held out to reach for supports and balance, as the other hand wrapped around one of Pesino’s legs behind him, supporting her as she clung to him.

He reached the curtained door in the gloomy dusk beneath the pier, pressed the blanket aside, and staggered into the darkness.

He twisted and knelt so that Pesino was next to the bedding.  “Fall off,” he hissed.

“What?” Pesino asked.  “What’s down there?”

“A bed.  It’s soft.  Just let go of my neck and drop down on to it,” he directed.

He felt her legs shift, and then one hand let go and the other followed.  “This is nice,” he heard her say in the dark as he exhaled with relief at the removal of her weight from his back.

“What is it?  Where are we?  Can you make it light?” Pesino asked.

“Ssh,” Marco said, as he listened to voices and footsteps beneath the pier.  Despite his hopes and expectations, the harbor guards seemed to be taking the search seriously, and were diligently examining the structures between the top of the pier and the water.  Marco stood up and held his right hand against the curtain door as he strained to hear what was happening nearby.

“They’re coming closer,” Marco said softly as he heard the shuffle of boots.  “We need to become invisible for a while,” he muttered, then give a momentary whimper as he felt a shock in his hand, and sensed the hair on the back of his neck rise.  His hand began to glow dimly, and there was a faint humming sound in the air.

“What’s that?” Pesino asked.  “Did you feel that?  Look at your hand!”

“I felt something,” he replied softly, as he crept back from the door way and crouched down on the bedding next to Pesino.  The cubby was still only faintly lit by the golden glow from his hand, and he could barely see the girl next to him.

“Can I touch it?” she asked, her fingers hovering near his glowing right hand.

“Carefully,” Marco advised, and he unconsciously held his breath as he watched her slender finger approach his hand, then press against his palm.

“Whoa!” she exclaimed, and jerked her hand back as the glow started to migrate onto her finger.

“Did it hurt?” Marco asked.

“No, it just surprised me,” Pesino answered, as she pressed her finger against the hand again, and watched the glow slowly climb up her finger, then engulf her hand in its gentle, warm gold nimbus.  The glow continued to spread up her arm, creeping steadily past her elbow, then up to her shoulder.  She kept her finger against Marco’s palm as the glow continued to spread, and the two of them let their eyes stare first at the spreading halo, and then at one another’s eyes as the glow continued to envelope her.

“Do you feel anything?” Marco whispered.

“It feels warm.  It feels like,” she paused, “it feels like you.”

“I don’t know what that means, but it sounds nice,” he said.

“I don’t know what it means either, but it’s right, and it is nice,” she agreed.  “What is this? What’s happening?”

“I don’t know.  It’s more of the power of my magical hand,” Marco told her.

The glow rose and encompassed her head, while it also worked its way along her other arm, and down her torso and her legs.

It crept down towards her toes, and then when it reached them, so that her whole body was glowing, she giggled, then sparked brightly, and then disappeared, turning invisible!

“Hey!” Marco shouted in surprise, and as he moved his hand he broke the connection between the two of them, and Pesino reappeared.

“Did you hear that?” a voice spoke nearby.  Marco’s eyes widened in shock that someone had drawn so close to their location.  He reached across Pesino and grabbed the edge of a blanket off the bed, then pulled it across her to cover her naked body, belatedly realizing that he should have done it much earlier.  He rose to a crouch and softly pulled his sword free from its scabbard.

“I think it was over there,” one voice said.

“I thought it was over that way,” the other voice said.

“Well, there’s clearly no one down here.  The old guard probably had a little too much contact with his wine skin, and heard it calling,” the first voice suggested.  “Let’s call this waste of time off and head back to duty.”

Marco and Pesino heard boots scuffling away along the wooden joists, and then there was silence.  “I think we’re safe,” Marco said.  “I don’t know how or why, but they just left,” he said.

“Why did you shout?” Pesino asked.

“Don’t you know?” Marco asked in surprise.

“Would I ask if I knew?” Pesino replied in exasperation.

“You were invisible!  When the light covered your whole body, you disappeared.  I couldn’t see you,” Marco explained.

“And why did you pull the material over me?” Pesino asked.

“So that the guards wouldn’t see you naked,” Marco explained.

“But you looked at me naked.  Is it okay for you to see me that way, but not other people?” she asked.  “You legged-folks have peculiar rules.

“You really shouldn’t let any man see you unclothed, unless he is your husband,” Marco told her.

“Did you look at me because you want to be my husband?” Pesino asked with wide eyes.  “Among the merpeople the merman is supposed to ask the mermaid if she agrees to the match before it happens.

“I’m going to go get Cassius.  You wait here,” he directed her.  He wanted to escape from his conversation with Pesino as quickly as possible.

He stood up and stepped over to the door.  As his hand touched the curtain there was a momentary spark, and then the glow upon his hand faded away, leaving them in darkness.  “I’ll be right back,” he assured her, and then he was gone.

“Cassius!” he called softly when he got back down to the water’s level.  Marco placed his face in the water and called for Cassius again.

“Here I am Marco.  Is everything okay?” Marco heard the voice and dimly saw the merman swim towards him.

“Everything’s fine.  Pesino’s up in a little room not far away.  Do you have the bag of potions?” Marco asked, even though his mind was distracted from full attention to Cassius as he thought about all that had happened in the brief interlude upstairs – the glowing hand, Pesino’s invisibility, the conversation about marriage.  She was a distraction to him, drawing his thoughts away from both Mirra and from whatever issue was at hand and needed his attention, such as Cassius’s impending transformation.

“Here’s the bag,” Cassius answered.  “Although after watching what Pesino went through, I was tempted to lose it,” he grinned up at Marco.

Marco took the bag from Cassius and hung it from a protruding spike, then took one jar out of the soaking bag.

“Are you ready?” Marco asked as he uncorked the jar.

“I’m ready,” Cassius agreed, reaching up and taking the container.  He swallowed the liquid contents, and handed the jar back to Marco, who put it back in the bag, then climbed down into the water, just as Cassius began the strange backwards-then-forwards change from merman to dolphin to human.  Marco waited for the change to finish, then grabbed Cassius and pulled him over to posts and beams of the pier, where he helped the former merman hold onto the wooden structure while the man recovered from the strange process he had gone through.

“They move!” Cassius said seconds later as he tried kicking his legs underwater.

“Do you want to try to climb up to where Pesino is waiting?” Marco asked.  “It’s growing late in the day, and we ought to make as much progress as we can,” he suggested.  He worked with Cassius to place the man’s feet and hands in the proper places, and Cassius slowly, awkwardly, climbed up to the level of beams where the cubby hole cabin was located.

Marco followed him up, then passed around him and led him as they traveled the short horizontal distance they needed to journey to reach the curtain that covered the entrance to the cubby.

“Pesino, we’re back,” Marco called as he reached in and swept the curtain door wide.  He held Cassius steady as the man stumbled into the dark chamber, and then Marco reached for the flint and steel that he used to light the wick of the small lantern.

As the flame in the lantern grew brighter, Marco dropped the curtain back in place behind him, then looked into the interior, where he saw that Pesino was standing upright, loosely wearing the cover he had pulled over her.  Cassius stood near the door, one hand pressed against the wall to maintain his poise.

“Look at both of you standing on those legs!” Marco said proudly.  “You’re a regular couple of humans.”

“Learning to balance on them is the hardest part,” Pesino said.  “Would you come check my legs to make sure I’m doing this right?”

“Marco,” Cassius immediately said, “do you have a beloved girl somewhere?   That girl you left behind at our village perhaps?”

“Not her, but yes, I am betrothed,” Marco answered in a low voice, wondering what caused that question.

“Have you succumbed to Pesino’s charms?” he asked.

“I don’t know that it’s any of your business, but no, well, no, not completely,” Marco answered.

“Pesino, leave him alone,” Cassius told his companion.  “If he’s been faithful to the lass so far, you should accept that he has a true heart.”

“He hasn’t tasted my love, but I think he’s been tempted,” Pesino replied.  “You stay out of it and I’ll win his total and complete love soon enough; I think I can in the mundane manner, any way.”

“What are you two talking about?” Marco asked suspiciously.

“Tell him,” Cassius commanded.  “You tell him or I will.”

“I’m not just a mermaid, Marco,” Pesino said, as she stuck her tongue out at Cassius.  “I’m a siren, a special breed of mermaid, desirable and irresistible to men when I so choose.  I’ve been luring men to succumb to my charms for a long, long time, and I’ve grown tired
of the sport, so I have retired, so to speak, to live among my kin in the village.

“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.