The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice) (9 page)

“I warned you,” Sty said, handing him a cup of water, then leading the trio back to the den.

“Oh, by the way,” Sty added as they settled into their seats, “the serum’s effects will last for almost twenty four hours.  My recommendation is that you stay away from people as much as possible, especially any women whose attention or affection you might crave.”

“Why?” Marco asked.  He felt a sudden thrust, like a blow to the side of his head, and his mind seemed to see and consider the world around him in a different manner, as though a dirty pane of glass had been wiped clean.

“Because you are going to be as defenseless and unprotected as an innocent babe,” Sty said.  “You won’t be able to tell someone they look lovely – unless they truly do; you won’t be able to deny that they made a stupid decision if they did; you won’t be able to hide your own
indiscretions if you have any.  Go lock yourself away until tomorrow morning, as soon as you leave here.”

Now, tell me, since enough time has passed for the serum to take effect, did you really have gorgon’s blood?” he suddenly changed the topic.

“I found the jar and didn’t know what Marches had until my finger started burning from the touch.  I used it - well, I had Mirra use it, and then Folence – to chase the sorcerer’s energy away from my heart.  Here,” he suddenly took his shirt off, “look at these scars from where the energy ripped my body apart trying to evade the gorgon’s blood,” he said as his finger traced the paths along his torso and arm.  “Even after the bath of Asclepius, these wounds left scars.

“The bath also is where my hand came back to life, after the Lady Iasco reattached it.  It took on the golden color I think
because she kept it suspended in some type of a sorcery spell for several days to preserve it after I sliced it off,” he was babbling, he sensed, but he wanted to answer the question completely.  “Of course, the sword really did the slicing, and it’s a good thing I have this enchanted sword, because I don’t know if I could have cut the hand off myself – but I wouldn’t even be alive if the sword hadn’t helped me fight the Corsairs, not to mention the guards on the Isle of Ophiuchus.”

“What have you brought me here, dear God!” Sty exploded, looking at Algornia.  “Is he immune to the serum?  He’s babbling along a mile-a-minute as though it’s effective, but here in sixty seconds he’s already said what – four, five, six things that are impossible to believe?”

“Tell him about the dolphin wedding,” Algornia said mildly to Marco.

“Well that was something,” Marco immediately launched into a description of his journey to Kieweeooee’s wedding.  “And that just made me think about Mirra, and how I wanted to marry her,” he added.  “I was starting to fall in love with her even before I gave her the salve, to be honest – she’s so kind and tries so hard to look out for me.  But once her beauty was revealed – I do think she’s the most beautiful woman in the world now – I tried not to desire her just for her looks, but we did so many things together that it just had to happen.  And so I’m betrothed to her.”

“You still haven’t mention the Echidna or the merpeople,” Algornia prodded Marco, as Sty sat back deep in his chair, listening in astonishment.

“The merpeople!  How could I not have mentioned them yet?” Marco exclaimed, and he began to tell his tale of being startled to discover that Kreewhite was a merboy, when they were together in the Corsair’s bilge hold, and then rambled on through a lengthy exposition.

“So now I have to travel with them – Pesino and Cassius – and I still don’t know what to do about Pesino’s kiss,” he said in an aside, “but I have to go to the old imperial library in Clovis, and Algornia says the merfolks can’t swim there, but maybe you can help?” he finished his story in an inquisitive pitch.

“By the bells of St. Resturian!” Sty exploded.  “This is incredible!  How can one young boy live through all of that in what, less than a year?”

“And I think he’s just begun,” Algornia said.  “He’s marked as a champion, for better or for worse.”

“Marked or cursed?” Sty asked cynically.

“Well, at any rate,” their host didn’t wait for an answer, “I think I can help you,” he directed his attention to Marco.

“One more thing – tell me about your golden hand,” Sty asked Marco.

“It’s special.  Iasco used sorcery to preserve it, and the bath seems to have made some type of sorcery power live on within the hand itself.  I don’t feel like I can control it though; I don’t know how the sorcery works, or why.  One time I hit a lock with the hand and it came open.  Another time I touched some wet wood and started a fire that wouldn’t go out.  When I was paralyzed, the hand still had movement and sensation.  If I understood it I think it could be powerful, but there’s no way to figure it out,” Marco droned on, then stopped.

“Do you get a lot of female customers?” Marco asked suddenly.  “You’re still sort of good looking for an older gentleman, but you’re starting to get a bald spot, you know.  You may want to cover that up.”

Sty sighed, and looked at Algornia.  “This is the downside to dealing with the truth serum.

“It sounds like your problem is finding a way to go to Clovis, and to be with the mermaid and merman at the same time,” he continued.  “And I have a way to help you.  And since you’ve fascinated me so completely with the story of your adventure, I’ll only charge you the costs of my materials.”

“What’s your solution?” Algornia asked with keen interest.

“We’ll have to transform their tails into legs,” Sty replied with a smile.  “Would you like that?” he asked Marco.

“I don’t know if I like it or not; it doesn’t matter.  It depends on whether Cassius and Pesino will go along with it.  Will it really work?” Marco responded.

“It will be a little different from a similar transformation formula I used to make a race horse run faster; it makes the legs stronger.  I’ll have to make some other changes as well, of course,” he held up a hand to forestall Marco’s rising objection.  “I’ll combine it with another formula I used to transform leather into silk, and I’ll make modifications to that as well.

“Give me a day to work on it, and I’ll tell you tomorrow morning what I have, but I’m sure I’ll have something,” he said confidently.

“Very resourceful, Sty.  I knew you were the man to come see about this,” Algornia said, rising from his seat.

“Let’s be off, shall we Marco, and let this genius get to work.”

“You have some crumbs from a piece of fish in your beard, and they smell bad,” Marco blurted out.

Algornia rolled his eyes as he brushed at his beard.  “I better go lock him up before he really offends someone,” he said as he started to walk down the hall.

“Wait!” Marco said suddenly as they stood at the door.  “What about changing them back to merpeople?  Will you be able to do that?”

Sty looked at him thoughtfully.  “You raise an excellent question.  Let me give that some thought.  Now run along,” he said, and closed the door behind them, the blinds still down in the windows.

“You walk slowly, master,” Marco commented as he slowed his pace to stay even with Algornia.

“Marco,” Algornia said, “I believe you have a place somewhere where you can go and hide from everyone else, the place you used to go in the evenings?”

“Yes I do, down at the docks,” Marco affirmed.

“Go there now, and don’t come out until breakfast time tomorrow,” Algornia said.  “You’re going to keep muttering little truths until you annoy someone too much.”

Marco and Algornia parted ways at the next corner, and Algornia watched with concern as Marco walked away.  He worried about how the truthful boy would deal with people, but he wasn’t willing to personally persevere through the constant darts and pricks of Marco’s observations.

Marco walked alone through the streets, uneventfully, until he was nearly at the harborside, where he was approached by a blind beggar.  “Can you help me?” the man asked, listening to the sound of Marco’s footsteps on the street.

“How long have you been blind?” Marco asked.

“What’s that got to do with anything?” the beggar asked indignantly.

“Well, I want to know if you’re blind from an illness, or an injury, or if you were born that way.  Once I know that I can figure out what I can do to help,” Marco replied.  “I have some time, so I think I can mix up a cure if Algornia will let me use his shop.”

The blind man whistled a short note, and then a long note, and three men emerged from doorways around the pair.

“This guy’s giving me the business,” the blind man said.

“I didn’t give him any business,” Marco protested.  “I was going to try to cure his blindness, but he won’t answer my questions.  And they’re simple questions,” he added.

One of the protectors for the blind man pulled a cudgel off his belt, and Marco immediately drew his sword from its sheath.  “With this sword I can kill and maim all of you before you even land a finger on me; you won’t stand a chance.  You’ll look like fools and be badly beaten,” Marco warned them.  “You’re not very bright to even be thinking of taking me on with my enchanted sword, so you better run away.”

“Oh yeah?” one of the thugs asked, enraged by the callous confidence Marco displayed.  He pulled a knife from his belt.  “Here, maim this, why don’t you tough guy!” he said as he flung the knife at Marco.

The sword twisted itself around and struck the knife squarely across the blade while it was in mid-air, and knocked the knife straight upwards, so that Marco was able to grab it as it fell back down.

“I told you,” Marco warned as he held the captured knife.  “I’m a much better fighter than you, and you’re going to lose, and you’re going to make me mad if you don’t leave immediately, so please leave for your own sakes.”

“Can we take Eagle Eye with us?” one of the men asked, jerking his thumb at the blind man.  “We’re just here to watch out for him.”

“I was going to take him with me so that I could heal his blindness,” Marco responded.

“Heal his blindness?  He’s been blind since he caught the pox from one of the business ladies twenty years ago.  You can’t heal that,” another ruffian protested.

They had lowered their weapons and their belligerence, Marco noted.  “Meet me in Chemists Square in three hours and I’ll have a cure for him,” he promised.  He slid his sword back into the scabbard on his hip, and walked away without further conversation.

He strolled directly to Algornia’s shop, and entered the front door, surprising the master alchemist.

“I thought I told you to go hide someplace,” Algornia said in surprise.

“I met a blind beggar, and I told him I’d cure his blindness,” Marco replied.  “So I’d like to use your workshop to create the salve.  It doesn’t use any expensive ingredients, and it won’t take long.”

“You know a cure for blindness?” Algornia asked in astonishment.

“I know cures for most blindnesses, but not all of them.  This fellow caught the pox, and I know how to cure that.  I just need some quicksilver, some sunflower oil, some saffron, and philosopher
’s wool, and couple of other items that I think you have.  I probably know your stores better than you do, as much as I had to root around in them the past couple of years,” Marco said.

“Go, just go, before you become insufferable,” Algornia waved him back to the workshop.  “And write down your formula for me, by the way,” he added as Marco strolled past.

Marco helped himself to the needed materials and began to grind and mix the ingredients in the order that his magically-induced memories dictated.  As he worked, Algornia’s grand-daughter Teresa entered the room – Teresa, who had been his antagonist throughout his apprenticeship at the alchemy shop, and who had been the protected and privileged granddaughter of his master.

“Teresa, hello, you look nice today,” Marco commented, as he noticed the clothes she wore.

“Thank you Marco,” she said in a puzzled voice, not used to compliments from the boy, who she had tormented, but who she also had always secretly wished would have done such things as compliment her and swoon over her.  “Mother said that you were at her shop yesterday, and she’ll have some clothes for you today.

“One of her seamstresses made this frock for me; do you like it?” she asked.

“I think the cleavage you’re showing is the most interesting part of it,” Marco said without looking up.

“Marco! That’s a terrible thing to say!” Teresa said in shock and annoyance.  “Can’t you say something nice?”

Marco paused for a split second to consider.  “I would say anything nice if there was something nice to say.  Let’s see, your hair is shiny today.  When you smile you look pretty, but when you frown you look less pretty.  I know Merlis, the apprentice at the goldsmith’s shop, thinks you’re very pretty – so do most of the other boys I know,” he added, then turned back to his work that sat on the bench before him.

“And you think I’m pretty too?” Teresa asked, as she took small steps towards him.

“Yes, you’re pretty enough,” Marco answered.  “Now Mirra, back in Barcelon, she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever known.  I’m lucky to be engaged to her.  She has alluring eyes, and high cheekbones, and her hair is very thick, with a widow’s peak.  Her complexion was terrible, but I gave her a salve that cleared it up.”

“You’re engaged?” Teresa asked incredulously.  “How long did you know this girl before you got engage
d?  A couple of weeks?”