Scarlet From Gold (Book 3) (30 page)

Chapter 20 – The Memories Lost

"We're in love," Glaze immediately spoke up.

"All the merfolks approve of them as a couple.  They seem suited to one another; they are together every time we see them," Kreewhite spoke up from the surf.

“We are together all the time,” Porenn agreed with a smile.  “We’d love to leave the island, but how can we leave?”she asked.

“There’s a ship anchored offshore waiting for me,” Marco told the others.  “They are taking me to the Lion City," Marco answered, "but we could ask the captain to take you to Barcelon afterwards.  She probably won't take you to the Isle," he looked at Glaze with a straight face.

"It depends on Lord Neptin," Kreewhite spoke up.  "He may not want to let you leave until Cassius and Pesino return."

There followed a retelling of the conversation by the fire platform, and then a long conversation as Marco recounted some of his adventures during his journeys after leaving the merfolk’s home, and it was nearly dawn before he fell asleep, exhausted, in the simple hut that Glaze and Porenn had constructed for their home.

"We need to get up for breakfast," Glaze told Marco just a short time later as he nudged the newcomer’s shoulder.  "Porenn gathered some fruits, and we don't want her efforts to go unappreciated." Marco smiled at Glaze's concern for the girl.  Glaze was now his brother-in-law, and it appeared likely that Porenn would be his sister-in-law in the near future.  They only needed to get off the atoll to do so.

After a healthy meal, the three walked down to the shoreline.  Already, several of the merfolk were gathered by the fire platform, and a small fire was burning, fueled by wood once again.  Kreewhite and his mother soon approached the humans, and transported them to the fire platform.

"Marco, human and sorcerer," Neptin began, "after careful consideration of your request, I am mindful that it would be merciful to allow these two young humans to live among their own kind once again, especially since the female is expecting a pup.

"Yet I am also mindful that our original agreement called for the return of our two members who accompanied you, and they are not only not present, but we have only your word as to their well-being," Neptin continued.  "And this morning several members of the village raised a new point that took me by surprise.  So I have a proposition for you.

"You and your friends will be allowed to depart if you can address two conditions.  The first condition is that you assure me that word of our location will not be released and spread among humans, for if that were to happen, our safety would be gone and we would be forced to flee.  Can you satisfy me on this account?" Neptin asked.

Marco sensed that the wily village chief believed that he had outfoxed the human with a reasonable but impossible condition.

"My lord, I can give you satisfaction," Marco answered immediately, raising a murmur among the assembled crowd.

"I realize your need for secrecy, and I brought my alchemy kit that will allow me to prepare a potion that will be given to the members of the ship's crew, so that they will forget that the past day ever happened.  And Porenn and Glaze will pledge not to reveal your existence or location, and because they are not sailors, they couldn't tell anyone where to find you anyway.

"What is your second condition?" Marco asked, as he noted the thoughtful expressions on the faces of those nearby.  He had managed to convince at least some listeners that he had an answer.

Neptin stared silently at Marco, weighing his words.  "That may be satisfactory," he said slowly, and Marco suppressed a grin, knowing that he had won the first contest.

Neptin smiled, surprising Marco.  "This morning we discovered that over the past several months, we have enjoyed having your eternal flame available to use for cooking without having to continually carry wood to the platform.  Would you re-establish a smaller, less visible flame that we may continue to use?" the village leader asked.

Marco did burst out laughing at the irony of the second request, so much at odds with the initial dissatisfaction the village chief had felt about the fire.  He turned to where dying flames rose from a bed of embers.  He focused his thoughts on the requested fire, and made new flames arise, then slowly closed his fingers partway together as he adjusted the flame size down.  He reached a point that he thought would produce enough cooking heat without being visible from the sea, and stopped.  He released his focus and dropped his hand, then turned back to Neptin.

"Is that satisfactory, my lord?" he asked.

"Perfect!" a female voice cried from the audience, and the group broke into laughter.

Even Neptin smiled.  "Well human, perhaps you've satisfied my conditions.  I'm still concerned with what you tell me about Cassius and even Pesino."

"My lord, they were the best companions, better than I could have asked for.  You did me a great favor when you sent them with me; I love them both.  If ever I can help them in any way, I shall," Marco said solemnly.

"Then your human companions are released, and your dolphin friends may take you out to your vessel.  We will trust that you are true to your word that there will be no memory among the others about this place," Neptin said.

Some of the merfolk came to speak to Glaze and Porenn, clearly friendly with the freed hostages, while Neptin and most others swam away.

Marco pulled items out of his alchemy kit and began to concoct the potion he had planned to remove the memory of the island from the crew members of the sailing ship that waited out at sea.  Within an hour the three humans were climbing up the side of the ship to the astonishment of the women on board, who had been ready to sail away without Marco.

"Thank you captain," Marco said as he helped Porenn climb onto the deck, followed by Glaze. 

"Who are these, where did they come from, and why are they on my ship?" the young captain asked.

"My lady," Marco began.  The next steps would be delicate, he knew.  The manner of his sudden departure the night before had made him suspect in the eyes of the sailors he was sure.

"My lady, these are refugees and companions of mine, and I will ask a favor of you on their behalf.  First though, I ask that you do me a favor and drink from this jar, all of you.  Then we will discuss my friends," he said.

"Is it rum?" one of the crew members asked with a laugh.

"If it is, I want double," someone else laughed.

"Try it and see," Marco offered.  "It will do you no harm."  He held the jar out, and the rough-looking woman took a swig.

"It doesn’t taste like rum," she said thoughtfully, "more like gin."

The jar quickly passed through the hands of the other crew members, until the captain held it as the only person not to drink.  "What is this?" she asked Marco.

"You'll never have any regrets about drinking it," Marco said with a twinge of guilt over the clever phrasing.  He wanted the captain to take it quickly, before it took effect on the crew and aroused her suspicions.

She glanced at him suspiciously, then tipped the jar up to her lips and swallowed a swig.

"What's that, skipper?" one of the crew asked, no longer remembering her own drink of the potion.

"Who are these?" the woman added in surprise at the sight of Porenn and Glaze, still dripping seawater after climbing onboard.

Another crewman looked at the newcomers in surprise as well.

"I can answer," Marco tried to sound reassuring.  "May we set sail away from here first?" he asked.

The captain gave the orders for the crew to raise anchor and set sail, then turned to Marco.

“I can explain,” Marco began, stalling to make sure that the captain fell under the influence of his potion as well.  “This is Porenn, a former acolyte of the Temple of Ophiuchus, and this is my brother-in-law,” he paused for a moment to grin at the title, “Glaze.  These two were stranded on an island several months ago,” he said.  He paused and waited for the captain’s reaction.

“And so how did they get on board our ship?” the captain asked.

“You probably don’t remember,” Marco began.

“No, I don’t.  I was standing here, and suddenly here you and they are. Dripping wet,” she answered.

“We have rescued them.  You won’t remember when or where, and you’re not supposed to.  There’s no harm done, but this is how it must be,” Marco said firmly.

The captain stared at him with her hands on her hips, then shook her head and walked away.

“She doesn’t remember!  They really don’t remember!” Glaze said in wonderment.  “Marco, you’re extraordinary!”

Marco smiled, as he thought about the time he had developed the cure for the plague that had been decimating the population of Barcelon.  He had developed it to treat Glaze, at the request of Mirra.  That had been a more miraculous feat of alchemy than the forgetfulness potion, he thought, but for Glaze the perspective was different.

Chapter 21- Lion City Return

The ship from Ophiuchus sailed throughout the day and night, and the next morning they reached the harbor of the Lion City, and the ship pulled up to the dock.  Marco had instructed the captain to take Glaze and Porenn to Barcelon before the ship returned to the harbor at Ophiuchus, and the captain, confused and browbeaten by the fact that she was under orders to serve the male companion of Lady Iasco, agreed sullenly to do so.

“Tell Mirra how much I love her,” Marco told Glaze as they embraced good bye.  “Take good care of her and watch over her.  I’ll be home someday to tell her I love her myself,” he said with deep emotion.

Glaze held him at arm’s length.  “I’ll take care of her until you return,” he promised.

Marco hugged Porenn.  “Mirra will be glad to have you as a friend, and Sybele will love to have a little cousin born,” he told her.

“Be careful out there Marco,” she warned.  “You have to learn that you aren’t going to be able to win everything every time.  Don’t be afraid to back down when the challenge is too great,” she told him sternly, then hugged him again.

Marco waved at the captain as he picked up his bag of goods, then walked down the plank to the pier at the Lion City.

“Would you look at that!  A man coming off a ship with Ophiuchus colors!” someone on the pier called out.  “Are you a man or a woman?” another voice asked.  “What man is allowed among the hens from the temple?”

“I’m Marco,” the emissary from Lady Iasco said as he disembarked and set foot on the pier.  He turned and watched the crew immediately pull the plank back into the ship and untie the ropes, as the captain was eager to put back out to sea, away from her unpredictable passenger.

Marco watched as the crew used poles and oars to maneuver  around the harbor traffic, and just three minutes later the sails were in place and the ship began to pick up momentum as it left the Lion City scene.  As he turned around to enter the city though, Marco was surprised to see a half dozen rough-looking men standing very near to him.

“Are you Marco the alchemist, apprentice to Algornia the alchemist?” one of the men asked.

“Well, yes I am,” Marco said, surprised by the question.

“I thought you looked like the sketch,” the man who asked the question said.  “By authority of the Doge, I place you under arrest as a runaway apprentice, and I authorize these citizens to take you into custody at the municipal jail until the charges against you are addressed by a court.”  Two men stepped forward and grabbed Marco’s arms firmly.

“Wait!  This is ridiculous,” Marco exclaimed.  “I was Algornia’s apprentice, but I left him last more than a year ago.  He said he would file the papers so that I wouldn’t be a runaway.”

The men started to pull Marc towards the end of the pier.  “I’ve got a list of all the apprentices who are no longer with their masters, and we receive a bounty for every one of them we bring in,” the man who had spoken brandished a scroll of paper.

“Go ask Algornia!  He’ll tell you that I’m not a runaway,” Marco tried to speak reasonably. Algornia had simply forgotten to file some paperwork after the fact, he reminded himself, and there was no malevolence intended.

“Oh, he’ll be notified, don’t worry.  He gets first right to receive you back, and if he doesn’t, there’s always someone who’ll bid at the auction,” the man assured Marco as they started walking again, Marco not resisting.

“When will Algornia be notified?  Today?” Marco asked.

A man in the group reached to take his pack from him, and another started to grab his sword.

“Stop!” Marco bellowed.  He made his hand glow brightly, causing the men around him to release their grip on him and hastily step back.  They opened up a ten yard wide bubble around Marco on the otherwise busy dock, as stevedores and messengers and sailors and others swerved and stopped to avoid the boy who inexplicable held his brightly-glowing hand out for all to see.

“I will go to Master Algornia’s shop right now,” Marco said.  “You can come with me or not, as you choose.  We will get this cleared up today.  Is that understood?”

A part of him fumed at the ridiculous situation and interference caused by something as small as a misunderstanding over his status as a former apprentice, and another part of him marveled at the idea that he was casually using the powers of sorcery to slice away the inconvenience.  Just a year prior he would not have been able to even imagine using sorcery, and his only experience with it had been the experience he had fighting the sorcerer Iago on the very same pier of the Lion City.

“Step aside so that I can go see Algornia,” Marco spoke loudly.  He swung around and pointed his glowing hand menacingly in the direction he wanted to go, and watched people scramble madly to get out of his way.

A squad of members of the City Guard suddenly appeared, apparently drawn to the unknown drama unfolding on the harbor front.  “It’s another sorcerer!” one of them shouted, apparently triggering a reflexive panicked reaction among them all as they remembered the attack that Marco had witnessed so many months before, when so many Guard members had been killed in battles with the Corsairs who had accompanied Iago in his memorable raid upon the Lion City.