The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice) (5 page)

They emerged through the mist and came into the chillier water of the sea, as they saw sunlight ahead of them, and they stopped just inside the mouth of the cave entrance, looking at gentle waves that broke upon the rocks outside.

“What do we do now?” Glaze asked.

“We get ready for a long journey,” Marco answered soberly.  “We can ask the dolphins to carry us.  And we can either wear our clothes and wear them wet, maybe for many days, or we can just leave them behind and get new ones when we arrive.”

“Arrive where?” Porenn asked.

“The Lion City,” Marco answered.  “That’s where we have to go.”

“The Lion City?” the other cried together.  “How long will that take?” Glaze asked.

Marco lowered his face in the water and called loudly for dolphins, and specifically the ones he knew in the waters around the island.

“Give me my clothes,” Porenn reached up and grabbed her garments from Glaze’s hand.  “I’m not going naked!”

With a shrug, Glaze lowered his clothes to the water and let his shirt float on the surface as he pulled his pants on.  Marco did likewise, and was just tightening his pants when dolphin fins appeared among the rocks and approached them.  There was a sudden splashing of water as the dolphins greeted the humans with a flurry of flippers churning the sea’s surface, drawing a shriek from Porenn, who hid behind Glaze for shelter.

“The royal wedding guest has returned!” Brewe exclaimed.  “We are glad to see you again.  What brings you to the waters of the enchanted place where the waters are interrupted?”

“I was brought here to be healed,” Marco answered.  “I am better now, and I am under an obligation to go on a long journey to a far place on the land.  Can you assist me?”

“Just you, or these others with legs as well?” Barrel asked.

“All of us,” Marco confirmed.

“We will carry you a distance, and seek for others who may be able to take you further,” Brewe offered.

“That worked before,” Marco answered.   “I am grateful for your help.”   He turned to the other two humans.  “The dolphins will carry us through the water as far as they can, then other dolphins will take their place and carry us further.

“I’ve done this before,” Marco assured the other two, who had skeptical looks on their faces.

The dolphins each provided assistance to one human, and soon the small group was flowing across the surface of the sea.  “The coverings on your bodies slow us down.  They make you heavier than you are,” one of the dolphins complained.

“The little human insists on wearing these clothes,” Marco explained.

“Does it think to hide how small it is?” Porenn’s dolphin asked.

“It is a female, and wishes not to present its body for we males to view,” Marco tried to explain.

The dolphins all came to a stop in the water, astonished by his story.

“What’s happening?” Glaze asked.

“It’s Porenn,” Marco said with a grin.  The girl looked at him in surprise.  “I told them we were wearing clothes because she wants to hide her body.”

“Well, I have to!” she cried in protest.  “Tell them that my church instructs me not to let evil-minded boys look at me!”

Marco spoke into the water.  “She is embarrassed, and very small.  Perhaps we should move on.”

“Can you teach me to talk to them?” Glaze asked as they resumed motion.

Marco told the dolphins what he was going to do, then provoked constant laughter as the dolphins listened to the woeful lesson he provided to both of his companions.  The dolphins very quickly insisted on correcting the mispronunciations themselves, and the group grew friendly as the journey proceeded.

“We have gone further than we expected,” Barrel told Marco much later.  “We were having too much fun laughing with your friends.  We will call for others to come take you on.”

There was an affectionate exchange just a few minutes later, and the lesson continued with the new dolphins, who carried them until night fall, when another set of dolphins took on the duties of transportation and education.

Late at night though, the stars in the sky disappeared behind clouds.  Waves and wind picked up, and the dolphins’ voices began to take on a different tone.

“Is there a problem?” Marco asked.

“There will be a storm, and we cannot take you down to safety under the water,” his dolphin replied.

“Is there a place with land where you could take us?” Marco asked.

The dolphin hesitated to answer.

“Is there?” Marco repeated.

“There is a place, but I do not know that we may take you there,” the dolphin said slowly.

“Do not worry; our safety upon the land is not your responsibility,” Marco tried to reassure the animal.

“It is not your safety I am concerned about; I do not think you are allowed upon this land,” the dolphin answered.  “It is the island of the mermen.”

The mermen!  Is it where Kreewhite lives?  I am his arnelli!” Marco said excitedly.  “He has helped me before.  He told me I could come to his village if my situation was desperate.”

A large wave crashed upon all three pairs of travelers.

“This is perhaps growing to be a desperate situation,” the dolphin spoke.

“What’s happening, Marco?” Porenn asked, curious about the extended conversation that she and Glaze could not follow.

“Just a second,” Marco put her off.

“Can you take us to the mermen, and let me call for Kreewhite?” Marco suggested to the indecisive dolphin.

“We can do that,” the dolphin agreed, and he started swimming towards the right, giving Marco time to explain to the others what was happening.  An hour later he slowed down, as rain started to fall.

“We’re close.  You should call for your merman friend,” the dolphin suggested.

“Kreewhite!” Marco called aloud in the air, then he put his face in the water and called as well, in both the human language and then in the language of the dolphins.

“Kreewhite, my arnelli!” Marco shouted again.

“Who calls?” came a faint voice from off in the distance, the storm making it impossible to judge how close.

“Kreewhite, it’s me, Marco!  My friends and I need shelter from the storm,” Marco answered, hoping his voice penetrated the sound of the rain and the waves.

Moments later a shape rushed at him from out of the dark, and Kreewhite grabbed him in a hug as Porenn screamed in surprise at the sudden appearance of the merboy.

“What are you doing here?” Kreewhite asked.

“The dolphins were taking us across the sea, and the storm came along, so we started to look for a safe place to wait,” Marco explained.

“Come into our village,” Kreewhite said.  He placed his head underwater and had a conversation with the dolphins.

“We’re going to the mermen’s village to get out of the storm,” Marco shouted to his two companions, as the dolphins started following Kreewhite through the dark waters.

The dolphins suddenly made a sharp veer to the left, then after ten seconds came back to the right, and suddenly the wind and the waves diminished dramatically in the dark, leaving only the rain as an indicator of the storm around them.  The dolphins went on, and stopped after another minute.

“This is shallow water,” Marco’s dolphin told him, just as Kreewhite appeared. 

“You can climb up on land here, Marco.  There’s a beach just ahead,” their host pointed to a slightly pale patch close by.  “And you can find shelter in the trees.  Our wise man says the storm will pass before sunset tomorrow.”

Marco and the humans ran up onto the sandy beach, then entered the trees beyond.  The three of them huddled together in a soggy pile beneath a heavy bush that gave minimal protection from the rain.  They fell asleep fitfully, and then awoke when gray light penetrated through the canopy overhead at the arrival of dawn.

Marco awoke first, fittingly, as he lay on the top of the pile.  He was lying partially on top of Glaze, who in turn was crushing Porenn beneath himself.  Marco cautiously stood up, and awoke the other two in the process, so that they opened their eyes and saw him standing above them in the misty light, as the rain temporarily lightened to drizzle.

Porenn turned her head and saw that Glaze’s face was just inches from her own, and she blushed.  “We should get up,” she spoke to her companion, then sighed in relief as he stood up.  He offered her his hand and assisted her to her feet.

Together the three of them walked through the darkness under the trees to the lighter area to the west, where the beach opened up, and they stopped walking and stood looking in astonishment at the once-in-a-lifetime scene that was displayed before them.

The beach led down to a well-sheltered cove, one that was only two hundred yards across, and well protected from the sea by a spit of sandy land that held scrubby bushes on low sand dunes.    Within the circular waters of the cove, a large number of structures were built.  There were clearly homes – houses just as much as any village of houses would have been identifiable had they been on land.

Yet these houses were built in the water.  Their walls erupted from the surface of the cove and rose only a few truncated feet before their roofs provided protection from the elements overhead.  They were built in a semicircle around the perimeter of the cove, absent on the seaward side, and their doors all faced towards the center of the cove.

“What is this place, Marco?” Glaze asked.

“This is a village of the merpeople.  My friend Kreewhite lives here,” Marco answered.

“Have you been here before?  You really know mermaids?” Porenn asked in astonishment.

“I don’t know any mermaids; I only know Kreewhite.  He’s a merboy,” Marco replied.

“I think you’re about to meet a mermaid,” Glaze answered, pointing out into the water.  Two figures were swimming towards them through the strengthening rainfall.  One appeared to be Kreewhite, while the other was clearly a female.  As Marco made identification of Kreewhite, a curtain of heavy rain moved over the surface of the water and the visibility decreased dramatically.

Marco and the others edged backwards, seeking protection under the trees before the heavy rainfall reached them.

“Marco!” Kreewhite’s voice called, as the merboy reached the watery edge of the beach just as the heavy rain did.  “Marco, come meet my mother!” he called.

“Come on,” Marco urged his companions, and they all ran down into the shallow water, holding their arms protectively over their heads, and achieving no real success.

“Marco, this is my mother; Mother, this is Marco, the boy with legs who helped save my life!  He’s the one who fought against the sorcerer,” Kreewhite introduced.

“Kreewhite!” Marco blurted out, suddenly remembering his later battle.  “I fought the sorcerer again, in a different city, and I killed him!”

“You ended his life?  You are a hero!” Kreewhite said joyfully.  He splashed water high into the sky in a spontaneous celebration of the end of the man who had threatened and frightened the merboy so badly.  The splashed water disappeared among the drops that were falling wantonly upon all those at the meeting.

Kreewhite’s mother noticed the discomfort on the faces of Glaze and Porenn.  “Perhaps we can invite your legged friends into our home, Kreewhite,” she suggested.  “I do not know that they are as used to the waters of the world as we are.”

“Marco, that is our house over there,” Kreewhite pointed out into the cove.  “Would you like to come inside?”

“Yes please,” Glaze spoke up quickly.

“Here,” the mother said as she and her son rolled over in the water, “Grab hold of our shoulders and we’ll take you to shelter.”

Just minutes later the whole group floated in through the doorway and finally found relief from the falling rain, as they settled into the main room of the home.  There was furniture, a number of platforms that were shallowly located just a foot below the surface of the water.  Kreewhite and his mother each floated upon such platforms, and Marco and his friends sat upon another, the water covering their legs and rising up to their waists.

“Thank you,” Porenn spoke first when the humans were settled.

“May we offer you something to eat or drink?” the mother asked.

“Yes please, both,” Glaze spoke up immediately.

“We have fresh water from the stream on the island, right behind you,” she pointed.  The three visi
tors turned to see several coconuts with fibrous rope handles hanging on the wall they were resting against.

“Take them down and drink,” Kreewhite urged.  “We can refill them after the storm finishes.

“We have some snacks as well,” the mother slithered off her platform and disappeared through a doorway in the small structure, then returned by the time Marco had unhooked and distributed three of the coconuts.  She had several compressed green ovals in her hands, and she distributed one to each of the guests.

Each of the humans looked at them curiously.  “Go on, try them,” Kreewhite urged.  “They’re elchids.”

“What are they?” Marco asked.

“They are a traditional food among our people.  We make them mostly from seaweeds,” the mermaid explained.  “I cooked them just a couple of days ago.”