Scarlet From Gold (Book 3) (29 page)

“Why?  What’s over there?” the young captain asked patiently.

“I can’t tell you,” Marco answered.  “But I need to go check on something, an obligation I have.  Lady Iasco would want me to do this,” he decided to use the Lady’s name to his advantage.

“Change course,” the captain started to shout to the crew.

“No, wait,” Marco interrupted her.  “I can’t take the ship in there.  I’ll go on my own and come back to you when I know more.”

The captain’s face started to cloud up with annoyance; even in the dim light of the ship’s lantern Marco could see her dissatisfaction with his hasty and confusing efforts.

“Listen,” he attempted to explain his situation.  “I can speak to dolphins; I’ll call for some to come fetch me and carry me to the light, then bring me back when I’m done, if you’ll remain here and wait for me.

“And I need a waterproof bag, something that will keep a few supplies dry on the trip,” he added.

“Let me show you!” Marco cried.  He climbed down the ropes on the outside of the hull and began to issue a call for help from dolphins.  “I am Marco, friend of Kieweeooee.  I am human with legs, but a friend, and I need help to go to a place near here.  Can any dolphin help me?”  He called for help and repeated the request, then went back up to the deck, where a couple of crew members had joined the captain and were talking in low voices.

“Here,” Marco knew he had to forestall being tied up as a lunatic.  “Let me light the way for the dolphins to find us,” he said, and he raised his right hand over his head, then used his sorcery powers to illuminate it.

The captain and crew scrambled backwards from the dramatic display of power.  “Let’s wait a few minutes to see if the dolphins arrive,” he said, trying to sound calm, though his heart was racing.  He hadn’t thought through his actions, and now he felt as though he were virtually commandeering the control of the ship, trying to find a plan to allow him to go investigate the light.  “And have someone bring my pack and a waterproof bag,” he added.

Marco stood by the railing as the captain sent a crew member below, while all the other crew members stood behind the captain.  As Marco waited he heard the arrival of a dolphin.

“Who calls?  What voice calls, while speaking so poorly?” the dolphin shouted in its language of squeaks, grunts, and clicks.

“By the waters, he really did call one!” one of the mates said.

Marco backed to the opening in the railing, then climbed down two steps, keeping his eyes on the crew until as he reached the surface of the sea.

“What light is that?  It’s too bright!” the dolphin said.

“I’m sorry,” Marco called as he lowered his head down to the water.  “Let me put it out.”

He focused on his hand and extinguished the light, then put his face down into the water.  “I am Marco.  I am a friend to dolphins, including Kieweeooee, the new princess of the pod of the dolphins where the sun rises,” Marco tried to remember the exact title.  “I would ask a favor, that you take me to that light that shines across the water.”

He paused and the dolphin made no response, though he could see the animal floating nearby.

“I know that the light may be the fire at the merpeople’s village; I wish to go visit them.  I am the arnelli to Kreewhite, a merboy of the village.  I have visited before,” Marco pressed his case.

“You seem to know what you’re talking about,” the dolphin said doubtfully.

“I do!” Marco insisted.  “It was Kreewhite who taught me the language of the dolphins, and then Kieweeooee helped me polish it.”

“That’s not much polish,” the dolphin said, displaying the same humorous personality that Marco had noted all dolphins seemed to have to a greater or lesser degree.

“You should have heard my human friends speak, when I tried to teach them!” Marco laughed back.

“You can take me there, and if the merfolks do not want me to leave, you will not have to bring me back,” Marco offered.

“Are there others with legs on this floating island?  What do they know?  What will they think?” the dolphin asked.

“What is your name?” Marco asked.

“I am called Streak, because of the mark on my side,” the dolphin said.

“Streak, I have not told them that the light is from the merfolks.  They do not know; they only think I am crazy for talking to a dolphin.  I’m not, am I?” Marco laughed as he asked.

“Marco person, I will take you to the village of the merfolks.  Come on down in the water and we will go,” Streak decided.

“Let me go tell the others to wait here for me.  I’ll be right back,” Marco said.  He climbed quickly up the rope ladder to the deck, and saw the women of the ship arranged in a circle around him.  He instantly lit his hand to a high intensity, making them all flinch back.

“I am going for a quick trip; I should be back tomorrow.  Keep your ship here and wait for me,” he told the women, as he transferred several items from his pack to the waxed canvas bag that awaited him.  He stripped off his boots and his shirt.

“Don’t try to sell those!” he said with a grin, then he grabbed his bag and dove from the ship into the water.

Streak came up beside him and Marco immediately grabbed hold of the creature’s fin, as they started in motion.

Ten minutes later the dolphin swerved left, then came right, and Marco knew they were entering the lagoon of the merfolks’ village.

“Thank you,” Marco told his companion. The flaming circle in the center of the lagoon was burning brightly, just as Marco had left it late in the previous fall.  “Take me to the fire please,” he requested, and Streak adjusted his course to head directly to the stony platform where the fire burned.

“I will be okay now,” Marco told Streak.   “Thank you to you and to all the dolphins, who have been my friends and allies.  May you always have open seas and easy fish to catch,” he intoned the formal phrase that Kieweeooee had taught him.

“And may you always swim with a pod of friends,” Streak correctly replied, as Marco released his grip on the dolphin.  The sleek shape smoothly turned and swam back towards the exit to the sea, as Marco sat by the fire, contemplating his arrival at the village.

When he had last left the village of the merfolks, he had been a different person, it seemed.  He hadn’t known Cassius or Pesino, hadn’t journeyed through the winter mountains or faced the wrath of the Echidna, nor gone through the underworld.  He hadn’t traveled with a spirit or revived Iasco or married Mirra.  He had been seemingly innocent and unaware of all that was expected of him, and he momentarily wished he could have that innocence back.

There was one obvious way to announce his return to the village and get the attention of the merfolks as well as Glaze and Porenn.  He stood up and placed his waterproof bag on the stone platform, hoping that it had really been waterproof, then he turned and faced the fire.

Marco pointed his right hand at the fire, then closed his eyes and focused his attention on undoing the magical power he had done before; he willed the fire to go out.  There was a momentary whooshing sound, and when Marco opened his eyes he was surrounded by darkness.  He heard a pair of voices in the surrounding village exclaim in surprise, assuring him that the loss of the flame had been noticed.  Marco turned, and sat down, and waited for visitors to arrive to examine the end of the fire.

A minute later he saw a head pop up from the surface of the water, and two more quickly followed.

“A human!” one voice gasped, and all three heads disappeared beneath the surface again.

There was movement taking place within the village; Marco could see merfolk moving among the homes and buildings in the distance, and minutes later, a number of heads popped up out of the dark water.

“Who has come into our village?” Marco recognized the voice of Neptin, the leader of the village.

“My name is Marco.  I am a friend of Kreewhite.  I came here last year seeking shelter from a storm, and started this fire.  Tonight I have returned,” Marco said in a calm voice.  “I have come to find my friends who remained here; I want to take them home.”

There were startled gasps among those who surrounded him, some of whom had spears, Marco could faintly see.

“We remember you, Marco,” Neptin said.  “I am surprised to see you return after so long an absence.  Was your journey to find the Echidna successful?”

“It was,” Marco said calmly.  “We found the lair of the Echidna, we fought the monster, defeated it in battle, and escaped with some of its scales.”  There were gasps from those in the water upon hearing the claim of success in a confrontation with the mother of all monsters.

“And where are your companions, Cassius and Pesino?  We sent two strong and wily merfolks to travel with you,” Neptin probed.

“I do not know where they are now,” Marco admitted.  “They were wonderful companions.  They were loyal and faithful, honest and resourceful, everything I could have ever asked for in companions on a long and perilous journey.  But we became separated on our way back from facing the Echidna, and I have not seen them since.  I think they could be safe and happy.”  He believed that claim; their path out of the underworld should have been less perilous than his.

“You were lost from them?  Lost at sea?” Neptin probed.

“No,” Marco sighed.  He was about to unleash a storm of controversy he knew, but he was only going to tell the truth.  “We were separated when we journeyed through the underworld; our escape from the Echidna led through many strange caves that led us to the underworld.  It was while we were preparing to leave the underworld that we ran into a problem and were separated.”

The crowd around him stirred and whispered uneasily.

“That’s quite a story,” Neptin said in a deceptively calm voice.  “What river of the underworld did Cassius and Pesino swim in?”

Here it comes
, Marco thought to himself.

“They were not swimming; they were walking.  They had taken a potion to transform from merfolks into humans,” he said.

There was a tremendous uproar all around.

“They can change back, if they wish,” he spoke loudly, and repeated himself, as the group of merfolks slowly quieted.

“They were changed into humans?” Neptin asked ominously.

“They did it voluntarily,” Marco said.  “They knew that my quest required us to follow an overland route.  And they did very well as humans.  They were tough and reliable and overcame all the challenges,” he hoped he made Cassius and Pesino sound heroic.  They had been heroic, in fact, he reflected.

“But they are not here now.  I do not know where they are, but Ophiuchus told me they were doing well,” he said.

“Who told you?” Neptin asked.

“The spirit of the island, Ophiuchus.  She is the one who sent me on the quest to get the Echidna’s scale last time,” he explained.  “She has guided my steps for much of my journey.  She has told me that the battles we fight are for the good of all creatures and people.”

There was a murmur among the merfolks who were gathered.

“Ophiuchus is our own patroness.  If Marco is doing her work, we should support him and help him,” Marco heard Kreewhite’s voice call from the edge of the gathering.

“What proof do we have that this boy really is doing the spirit’s work?” a different voice asked.

“She revealed her island to us,” Kreewhite answered.  “When Marco and I were swimming by, she lifted the cloak around the island so that we could see it and go there.  And the human girl here, Porenn, is one of her acolytes.”

“I have her mark on my chest,” Marco added, remembering the flower shape that had been marked upon him in the cavern of the island on his first trip there.

"May we see this mark?" Neptin asked in a tone that Marco thought was less adversarial than prior.

"Yes, certainly," Marco agreed, and he proceeded to remove his pack, exposing the flower tattoo that had been hidden beneath the strap.  "Let me help you to see it," he offered as he raised his hand and caused light to burst forth.

"You're a sorcerer!" someone in the crowd exclaimed.

"I don't think of myself as a sorcerer," Marco replied.  "But I do have a gift," he agreed.

"Here is the mark," he pointed as he bent lower to let Neptin and those nearby see clearly.

"Please release my friends," Marco repeated his request.  "I want them to have freedom."

Neptin did not answer immediately.  "I will consider your request in the light of day," he said at last.  "Let Kreewhite carry you to the land for the evening so that you may be with them, and we will address this in the morning."

Marco doused the light from his hand, and accepted the postponement of the decision.  It was not a flat denial, and he could say more in the morning to try to plead his case further, if necessary.

"Marco!" Kreewhite came splashing up to the platform enthusiastically.  "I didn't know if we'd ever see you again!" the merboy cried.  "It's so good to see you!  Grab on," he said.

Marco dropped down into the waters of the lagoon and placed his hands around Kreewhite’s shoulders as his friend began to pull him towards the shoreline.

"Glaze and Porenn will be so happy to see you," Kreewhite exclaimed.  "They must be dying to know what's going on out here."

Less than a minute later Marco released his hold on his friend and stood in the surf of the beach, where gentle waves lapped at his thighs.

"Is it Marco?" Porenn's voice called anxiously as two figures approached from the shoreline.

"It is!" Glaze confirmed as he reached Marco and embraced him in a vigorous hug.  Porenn reached the spot and joined in the physical expression of joy seconds later.

After a long, silent hug, Marco released his grip on the others and stepped back, surprised by what he had seen.

"Let me look at you," he said. And he raised his hand to add light to the faint glow of the stars above.

"There's more of me to look at," Porenn replied before Marco’s light had even flared forth, confirming what he suspected and what was confirmed a moment later as his hand shed light on the tableau.  Porenn was pregnant.