The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice) (29 page)

Minutes later Marco and Pesino sat at a table in the empty tavern room, and watched their companions come down the stairs.  Marco felt a moment of fleeting jealousy at the sight of the happy couple, able to enjoy each other’s company, and then he wondered what would happen when the ongoing adventure was over, and it would be time for Cassius to become a merman again.  It wasn’t his business, he decided; it was for the two lovers to discuss and decide for themselves.

Good morning, Marco!” Cassius said cheerily.  “So we’re about to continue our adventure, are we?”  Kate looked at him and grinned.

“Based on what we saw of Kenton last night, I think we are going on an adventure,” Marco agreed with a wan smile.  He told himself he had to shake off his personal despair and focus on the journey underway.

The foursome walked into the main street of the small village, where a dozen or more people were walking briskly through the chilly morning air.  The sky was gray, and Marco held his gloved hands together as he walked to try to stay warm.

They reached Kenton’s home in a short amount of time, and Marco knocked on the door.

A very large woman opened the door.  “You have five coppers for me?” she asked brusquely.

Marco removed one glove so that he could reach into the purse on his belt, and he picked out the small coins, then handed them to Zudmilla without comment.

“I would have paid you to take him for a month,” she commented as her fingers clasped firmly closed over the money.  “He’s down by the river, waiting for you.”  With the end of the last word she shut the door abruptly.

Marco turned, and the others parted to allow him space to pass them and lead them down the gentle slope that ended by a grove of scrubby, leafless willow trees and dry, rustling reeds.  There was a short wooden dock, constructed of rickety-looking planks, which played host to Kenton, sitting miserably in the cold air, and a large, awkward-looking wooden vessel.

Kenton rose to his feet.  “So you’ve seen Zudmilla, have you?” he asked anxiously.

“I gave her five coppers,” Marco agreed.

“Well then, your future is assured,” Kenton said with an easy smile, no longer worried.  “You’re in my hands now.  Climb aboard the boat and make yourselves comfortable.  We’ll leave as soon as we cast off,” he stated the obvious.

Casting off proved to be a process that required the passengers to work.  Marco and Cassius had to help handle poles that pushed the boat away from the dock right after they had to wield the poles to break the icy shelf that held the boat frozen in place.

An hour after boarding Kenton’s boat, they entered the flow of the River Rhane’s waters.  Zudmilla watched them from the window of her house the whole time, but when Kate cheerily waved good bye to her, she jerked the curtains closed with an angry gesture, and they saw nothing further of her as they began to finally float away, heading north towards the next stop on their desolate wintertime quest.

Chapter 20 – The Blind Marchioness

The river voyage proved to a long, constant exercise in keeping Kenton’s boat afloat.  Marco and Cassius became adept at using the poles to fend off chunks of floating ice, or to push away from sandbars, while Pesino and Kate worked long shifts bailing water from the leaky boat.

After the first full day, Pesino pulled Marco aside.  “Maybe we should return to land and hike the rest of the way to the port city,” she suggested.  She was wet and looked cold and pale from a poor night’s sleep.

Marco gave serious consideration to her suggestion.  Kenton was full of nonstop chatter about how superbly he could navigate the river, yet all four passengers were constantly at work keeping the boat from sinking or floating into disastrous situations.  They had mounted a watch to keep at least one of them awake all night long just to make sure they weren’t drowned in some catastrophe during the evening.

But they had continued to make progress every hour, even during the night, as they floated downstream.  They were just passing mid-winter, so there was no promise of better weather for several weeks, and Marco was anxious to go as far as possible before spring time arrived.  The return of spring would mean that he had been absent from Mirra for half a year – gone from her for as long as he had known her and been with her.  He was going to miss the spring wedding they had dreamed of holding.  But if he kept his pursuit of his quest going, perhaps he would not miss the spring by too much, and would still be able to reunite with Mirra before spring was far advanced.  And after he finally had the chance to hold her in his arms, Marco still had an obligation to go back to set Glaze and Porenn free from their forced stay among the merfolks; that would be challenging unless he re
mained with Pesino and Cassius throughout the entire adventure, or managed to persuade the merpeople that his companions should not be imprisoned just because the two merfolk had not returned.

Floating on Kenton’s boat, as miserable as the experience was, offered the fastest way to traverse the journey to Canalport.

“We’ll ride this out, and when we get to Canalport we’ll take rooms in the most comfortable inn we can find there, before we cross the channel to Arima.  I promise I’ll make this up to you,” Marco pledged.  “It’s still the fastest way to travel.”

“You’d better get a room with a fireplace to make it up to Gawail.  The poor dear is freezing,” Pesino said with resignation.

The journey got no better, nor did it get any worse as they floated north.  The others were stoic in their travels, and stopped listening to Kenton as he took for credit for every trouble they avoided and every problem they overcame.

“That tree trunk could’ve stove in the hull if I hadn’t seen it in time,” he typically commented as Marco and Cassius used their poles to push away a large piece of debris in the river, a hazard that Kate had first spotted and warned them about.

As the days on the river passed, the travelers looked forward to their arrival at Canalport; Pesino repeated to Kate the pledge that Marco had made to lodge in a luxurious inn, and Kate informed Cassius, so that all three spent time daydreaming of the fine experience that awaited them at the end of the journey.  Marco spent whatever free time he could covertly examining and practicing using his hand’s sorcery power, keeping it away from and out of sight of Kenton as he experimented with making it light up, or give off heat, or to call small objects to fly towards him.  The tests were not always successful, but often enough they did produce the results he wanted, and Marco began to sense how to use the energy in his golden-colored appendage.

During the fourth day of the trip the character of the river journey changed dramatically.  After the smoothest stretch of sailing the boat had enjoyed over the course of the trip during the morning, the travelers on board Kenton’s boat began to see several other vessels on the river, which had grown wider and deeper on a continual basis as tributaries added their volumes of flow to the Rhane.

“Why are these ships here?” Cassius asked Kenton as they passed numerous vessels – all in better shape than Kenton’s boat – moored along the banks of the river.

“They’re waiting their turn to enter the canal.  Even this time of year it gets backed up,” the pilot answered.

“What canal is that?” Marco asked.

“The Great Canal, the one Canalport is named after.   It connects the River Rhane with the Great River, so that shipping from the great river can pass through Canalport harbor,” Kenton answered.  “You’ll see the canal in just a few more minutes.”

They did see the canal, a well-defined opening in the banks of the river, with cut stone walls making the smooth and busy entry evident to see.  Almost too evident, as Kenton became so engrossed in watching the locks of the canal raise a ship to enter the canal from the river that he nearly steered his own boat into another ship on the river; Kate’s scream of warning alerted Kenton, and the crew from the other ship jeered ceaselessly until Kenton’s ship was out of earshot.

The character of the river banks changed after that.  Walls were constructed to define the banks of the river in many stretches, predominantly in front of small villages that were built virtually to the edge of the expanding river.  There were fishing boats out on the river, even in the winter time, and Kenton maneuvered past them all with awkward motions.

His ship carried Marco’s group along the river as it flowed through the heart of Canalport, a larger city than Marco had imagined or expected.  Kenton was frequently cursed and laughed at as his clumsy vessel passed the fashionable homes and businesses along the river front.  With Marco and Cassius’s arms starting to ache from all the work he required them to do, the boat eventually was floated to the industrial waterfront of the city, and gently docked at a stone pier where other hulls were docked, some appearing to be derelict and abandoned vessels.

“Kenton’s boat will fit right in here,” Kate said with glee.

“That’ll be four coppers for delivery of all of you to Canalport,” Kenton said to Marco as the passenger stretched his weary arms before putting his pack on his back.

“We agreed on three coppers,” Cassius immediately said.  “And we probably ought to charge you for the value of our work onboard your boat.”

“Perhaps you’re right; maybe I did agree to a reduced price,” Kenton said thoughtfully.

Marco counted out the three coins, and handed them to Kenton.

“Will you need a ride back up river?” the boat owner asked.  “I’ll be ready to sail with the spring winds in a month or so, once I use this money to buy pitch for the hull and canvas for the sails.

“No, we won’t need a ride back,” Marco answered, as he lifted the plank, then dropped it in place to allow his friends to escape from Kenton’s ship.

They all quickly raced off the ship and onto the pier, then turned simultaneously, waved to Kenton, and turned again to start walking away.

“I feel better already!” Pesino said as they started on their way to find an inn for the night.  “Tell me we’ll never go through anything like that again!”

“We’re on our way to a remote volcano to find a formidable monster, but we won’t have to ride in a leaky boat any more, I hope!” Marco answered.

“Do you smell that?” Cassius asked.  “I smell a faint tang of salt water!  We’re close to the sea!  Doesn’t that set your heart racing, Pesino?” he asked his fellow merperson, but Marco watched a shadow cross Kate’s face at the thought of her lover returning to his original form.

“A large tub of hot water would set my heart racing faster right now,” Pesino said blithely, then squealed in surprise as a trio of armed men suddenly jumped out in front of them.

“Give us your packs and all your money!” one of the men said quickly, as the robbers spread out, each of them competently holding a sword at arm’s length.

Marco started to reach for his own sword, sure that the ability of the enchanted weapon would be sufficient to defeat the thieves around them.  Then he thought again, and thought of the power in his hand.  He had practiced it enough to feel confident that he could use it on command, at least for limited exercises of power.  He removed his glove, as the others began to pull their packs off their backs.

“Cassius, Kate, Pesino,” he warned, “close your eyes tightly, until I tell you to open them.”

“What?” Pesino asked, as Marco shut his own eyes, then focused his will on making his hand flare out with blinding brilliance, as it had done in the library during his very first experiment.

He felt his hand tingle, and then there were shouts from the three assailants.  Marco focused his will on his hand again, forcing the energy to cease its activity, then he opened his eyes and saw that the three men were on their knees, holding their hands over their eyes.

“Open your eyes!” he shouted to his companions.  He looked, and saw that Pesino too was holding her hands over her eyes.

“Did you look at the light?” he asked her as he seized her shoulders.

“I did.  I didn’t close my eyes fast enough,” she cried.

“You’ll be okay; it will just take a while,” Marco comforted her.  “Here, come with me.  Hold my hand,” he told her as he hoisted her pack back onto her back, then grasped her hand firmly and led her past the disabled men who were writhing on the ground.

The four of them walked swiftly along the industrial waterfront, full of smithies and warehouses and rope works and boat slips, as the sun started to set over the harbor waters in the west.  They walked north, back towards the mouth of the river, receiving no further interruptions or intrusions as they trudged along.

“Where shall we stay?” Kate asked as they began to see nicer buildings appear along the waterfront, and more nicely dressed men strolling, as well as apparent gendarmes patrolling.

“We’ll find something soon,” Marco said soothingly, not really sure when they would see someplace suitable.

“When will my sight come back?” Pesino asked.

“It may be a couple more hours, it may be overnight,” Marco was again unsure.

Pesino detected the evasion in his voice.  “You don’t know, do you?”

“I don’t know.  I did this once before, but it wasn’t as bright, and my vision didn’t go away.  I can concoct an alchemical potion for your eyes to heal them if necessary,” he assured her.  He hadn’t thought of doing anything with alchemy in several days, and he felt a start, a shudder at the realization of how far away he had fallen from the art that he thought he wanted to be his life’s work.

The quest – it was this incredible, difficult, perhaps impossible quest – it was driving him away from who he had been, who he had wanted to be, not to mention how it had driven him away from where he wanted to be and who he wanted to be with.  The quest for the
Echidna’s scale was changing him, making him a different person, and he didn’t like where he was being forced to go.

Only the fact that he had developed such close friendships with his companions stood out as redeeming feature of his quest.  He knew and cared for each of the others who were with him.

“There!” Kate spoke in an eager tone.  “There’s an inn.  It looks nice.  Let’s go get our rooms and get dry!”

“As long as it can deliver a hot bath to my room, it’s the place to go,” Pesino chimed in.  “Marco’s going to scrub my back for me.”

“Am I?” Marco asked.

“It’s the least you can do after you blinded me like this,” Pesino responded as they left the promenade and stepped into the foyer of a fine inn.   She squeezed his hand to reassure him she was teasing.

“How may we help you?” a doorman wearing an elegant yellow coat greeted them as they entered.

“We’d like a pair of rooms, with hot baths delivered to each for the ladies, and we’d like dinner,” Marco responded.

“I’m sorry,” the doorman told them.  “All our rooms are taken for the evening.”

“Is there another place we can try?” Cassius asked.

“There are several if you go inland three or four blocks,” the doorman said politely.  He stepped forward and swung the door open for them.

“We just got thrown out,” Kate said in a low voice as they stepped out onto the sidewalk again.

“What?” Cassius said incredulously.

“I spent enough time with Angelina and her crowd in the Lion City to know what happened.  The doorman looked at our clothes, and decided we weren’t suitable for his establishment,” Kate explained.

“Surely at this time of year the inn would be happy to take any paying customer it could get,” Marco protested.

“Let’s go to the next place and check on it,” Kate proposed.  “I’m pretty sure the same thing will happen.

“If it does, I think I know a way to get into the third inn we try,” she said confidently.

They walked thirty yards along the harbor walkway, and entered a second nice inn.

A desk clerk there quickly informed them that the inn was full, though there was little evidence of guests present in the lobby.

“You’ve got a noble title, don’t you Marco?” Kate asked when they exited the building.

“I do.  I forgot,” Marco gave a rueful sigh.