The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice) (4 page)

“They were angry,” Marco admitted.  “I had to have a guard to protect me.”

“Porenn said you killed someone,” Glaze commented in a low voice.

“I did,” Marco said evenly, just before there was a knock on the door.

“The lady Iasco has commanded us to work on the champion’s left leg today, to prepare him for tonight’s vigil,” a voice said, and Marco was summarily carried out of the room to another chamber, where he received hours of attention to one of his legs, as he was laid sometimes on his stomach and sometimes on his back, or on one side or the other, as the women did things that he did not feel to his leg.

That night he was taken to the temple again.  “I am Electra,” said the woman who prayed over him that night as he lay and stared up at the hole in the dome above him.

The next morning Glaze told him that he and Porenn had climbed around the mountaintop together while Marco had been prayed over.  Marco’s right leg was treated that day, and prayed over that night by Celaeno, and the pattern repeated itself for the next three days; a part of his body was treated each day, and then a different woman prayed a long, lonely vigil with him each night.

After the sixth night of the prayers, Iasco came to see him in the morning.  “There will be no treatments today, but when you receive your prayer vigil tonight, you will be healed, and ready to move on,” she told him as she held his right hand.

              “I wish you the best of luck, Marco,” she said with an intensity that he noted.

             
“Is everything going to be alright, my lady?” he asked.

“I think so, Marco, but it will be a trial before we find out,” she answered reflectively.

“Why?  What is it that worries you?” he asked.

“The prophecy,” she began, then paused.  “You don’t need to worry about it right now; you just need to be healed,” she told him.  She straightened up.  “I will not see you again on this trip, I can tell you that.  So travel wisely and well, my young champion,” she gave his fingers a squeeze, then released them and left his room, leaving him to ponder the portentous tone of the conversation, and to feel an inexplicable sadness for Iasco.

Late that afternoon, as sunset began to approach, Porenn led two other women into the room.  “I will be your intercessor tonight,” she explained, as the women picked up the stretcher Marco rested upon.  “Glaze, you will join us in the temple this evening, by the Lady Iasco’s command,” she added as she sensed the unrest of the other women at the insertion of the unnecessary man into their holy temple.

That night the three of them heard the door shut, and then Porenn knelt by Marco, as she began her earnest recitation of the prayers that asked for miracles, healing, and salvation.

Marco looked up at the stars, and observed them in the same locations they had occupied after sunset every night he had been in the temple, and he watched the infinitesimally slow rotation through which they wheeled out of the narrow scope of vision that the opening in the dome provided.

There was a sudden shooting star that crossed the sky above, and before it had disappeared, another followed in its wake, and then another.

“Wow!” Marco murmured unconsciously, struck by the impossibility of seeing three such events in the same part of the sky virtually simultaneously.

There was another flurry of the celestial phenomenon.  “Glaze, did you see that?” Marco asked aloud.

And then the room flared with an intense flash of bright light, so bright that Marco shut his eyes, and heard the other two shout in surprise.  Porenn’s prayers stopped.  And all three occupants of the temple passed out.

Chapter 4
– The Caverns Below

“Glaze?  Marco?” Porenn called out in the darkened temple, the first sounds Marco heard when he awoke.

“Porenn?” he replied as he began to sit up.

“Marco?  Porenn?” Glaze replied as well, also coming to his senses.

“I’m up!” Marco suddenly cried in excitement.  “Porenn!  I’m healed!  I’m up,” he shouted as he slipped off the altar and looked around in the darkened temple.  He saw Porenn standing on the other side of the altar, and Glaze off to his right, shadows that were visible in the starlight that came through the opening in the dome.

The three of them met in a hug in which they all wrapped arms around each other and she squeezed tightly, as Marco felt tears running on his cheek, tears of joy at his extraordinary recovery.

“Look at me!” he said after moments of their three-way embrace.   “I’m whole again!”

“We can go home,” Glaze said softly, happily as they broke their clinch.   “Porenn, you should come with us to see Marco’s castle!” he impulsively declared.

She shook her head ruefully.  “I’m sure it’s a wonderful place, but I’m not supposed to leave the island, as you may not know,” she told him.

“But I can certainly leave the temple and go back down to the village with you,” she told him with a smile.

Marco felt a note of something peculiar tickle the back of his mind.  He looked around the temple, thinking of the times he had been in the temple before, and how he had left when he had last been healed there.   He remembered the Lady Iasco’s words of farewell, her prophecy that she would not see him upon his departure.  “Can you tell me how we’ll leave the temple?” he asked Porenn.

“We’ll go down the trail on the mountainside, just as we did when I walked you down, holding that sword between us,” she grinned.  “Except I don’t imagine we have to hold the sword this time, do we?”

“Can you tell me how we’ll get out of the temple itself?” he asked.

She looked at him, puzzled, and pointed in the direction of one side of the temple.  “Through the door,” she glanced over.

“Glaze, go see if there’s a door to open,” Marco said as he leaned back against the altar.  He felt a reckless surety that he knew what was going to happen, his spirits buoyed by his return to health.

“Of course there’s a door,” the young man retorted, as he stepped lightly across the floor.  “The way we came in, remember?” he said, his words trailing off in confusion as he stood close to the shadowed white marble wall, his hand running across the stone in search of evidence of the doorway he knew had existed.

“Where is it?” he asked softly, as he slowly stepped both left and then right, searching for some seam or crack or evidence of what he could not find.

There was a grinding sound on the far side of the temple, and all heads turned.

“The last time I was here and healed,” Marco said softly, brushing past Porenn as he circled around the altar to approach the back wall of the temple, “I did not go out a doorway.

“I had to climb down through a cave to leave by the same way I initially came here, when I met Porenn the first time,” he explained as he reached the spot where a dark line outlined a panel that was ready to be opened.  He pressed against the marble stone and made the crack widen as the panel easily slipped to the side.

“This is the way we need to leave,” he told them.

“Where does it go?” Porenn asked in astonishment, as she and Glaze walked over to Marco together.  “Does it go to the underwater temple you told me about?  I didn’t really think it existed,” she admitted with a sly smile at him.

“Come down with me and I’ll show you,” Marco answered as he stooped to pass through the low opening, and left the temple behind.  Glaze and Porenn stood momentarily together in the temple, and looked at one another, then Glaze shrugged his shoulders, and motioned for Porenn to go first.

She stooped down and went into the cavern, followed by Glaze, and they cautiously stepped over to where they could vaguely see Marco sitting on the edge of the opening to the chute that led downward through the rocky mountain.

“I don’t know if I should do this,” she spoke tentatively.  “I think that maybe I should just wait for the temple to be opened in the morning.”

“It’s too late for that,” Glaze replied.  He gestured back to where the opening to the temple had been; the pale square of marble had closed while they had their backs to it.

“No!” Porenn cried in surprise, and she dashed back to the wall and began to feel it with her hands, searching for a way to open the wall and return to the temple.

Glaze looked at Marco in shock.  “What happens to her?” he asked.

“I think she has to come with us,” Marco answered softly.

Glaze stared at Marco, then jogged over to Porenn.  He put his arm around her shoulders as he spoke softly to her for several seconds.  She glanced over at Marco, then she looked up at Glaze’s face.  A moment later she slumped her shoulders in defeat, and moved out of Glaze’s comforting embrace to approach Marco in the dim cavern.

“Where are you taking me?  Why are you making me leave the temple?” she asked as she stood very close, her face just inches from his.  “Do I have to leave the Isle?”

“I am not making you leave, Porenn,” he answered gently, moved by the emotion he heard in her voice.  “The spirit of your island has opened this door for us to leave.  I can’t tell you any more than that, except that this way out of the temple has some extraordinary experiences of its own.  The spirit seems to have plans for you.

“Let’s go this way and see what happens.  You can still get back to the village from here, I promise,” he assured her.  He was confident that the local dolphins would be willing to transport them around the island to any place they wanted to go.

Which made him wonder, as he looked up at Porenn and Glaze, where did he want to go?  Should he go back to the village too, to face the hostile women?  Should he have dolphins carry he and Glaze directly back to Barcelon, going all the distance through the water?  It was sure to be a colder journey during this time of the year, and he doubted Glaze had ever spent multiple days immersed in seawater, which would be extremely uncomfortable, but at the same time it was a sure way to travel without facing the village disapproval.

With a grunt, and a reflection that whatever happened in their journey, he was thankful that the powers of the temple had restored his ability to move, Marco set his foot on a protruding stone, and began to slip down the stony way out of their predicament.

He descended five feet down, and saw Glaze dropping his feet down as well.  Marco went down several more steps, then looked up into the gloom above.  Glaze was visible on his way down, but Porenn was not.

“Is she coming with us?” Marco asked softly.

“I don’t know,” Glaze’s voice was filled with concern.  “I want her to.”

“Ask her,” Marco told his friend.

“Porenn?” Glaze immediately spoke upward.  “Are you coming with us?”

“I’m afraid,” the girl’s voice softly floated downward.

“We’ll catch you; we’ll stay beneath you,” Glaze said sympathetically.

“That’s not the kind of fall I’m afraid of,” she answered.  “I love the lady Iasco, and I’m afraid that if I climb down there, I may not get back to the village.  I’d like to leave this island in some ways, but I don’t want to run away from it,” there was profound conflict in her voice.

“I’m going to stay.  I’ll wait for the temple to open up and let me back in,” she decided after a long pause of silence.

“What do we do?” Glaze asked Marco.

Marco shifted his balance on the stones he rested on.  “We go on,” he said.  “At least, I’m going to go on.  If you want to wait with her, I understand,” he declared.

“No, I came to be with you,” Glaze said immediately.  “Mirra wants me to help you, not the pretty girl,” he gave a rueful laugh.

Marco remained in position for a minute longer.  He had a feeling that Porenn was supposed to be with them, but he couldn’t force her to.  “Porenn, we’re going to go,” he spoke loudly, facing upward.  “Tell your friends we’ve left, and tell the Lady thank you, and good luck in your future on the island.”

He started moving downward once more, and after a pause he heard Glaze start moving as well.

A moment later, he heard Glaze utter “Ouch!”

“Are you okay?” Marco asked.

“A rock fell on me,” Glaze answered.

“Sorry,” Porenn’s voice dropped down between the stony walls.  “I’m coming with you after all.”

Marco gave a pleased smile in the dark, then said nothing as he resumed the slow journey down into the cave.

An hour later he came to a wide ledge, and stopped, as Glaze came down to join him, and then Porenn arrived seconds later.  He saw a smudge of dirt on her face in the dim light, and grinned at her as they crowded together.

“Is everyone okay?” he asked.

“Never better,” Glaze replied, while Porenn silently nodded her head.

They resumed the long journey, and Marco stopped only once more along the way until they reached the flat level that led to the entry to the Bath of Asclepius.

“Are we done climbing?” Glaze groaned.

“Yes and no,” Marco answered.  “We’re done with the hard climbing.  We’ll have to go down stairs, but first we go through one of the great wonders of the journey.”

“What is it?” Porenn asked, the first time she had spoken in the cave.

“You’ll see,” Marco said as he led them forward, and then opened the door to the next portion of the cave a moment later.

“What is this?” Glaze asked in astonishment as he craned his neck to see around Marco’s shoulder.

“It’s a magical bath!  It heals you.  It heals anything and everything!  It made this hand come back to life after Lady Iasco reattached it,” Marco held up the golden right hand.  “You just walk through the bath and everything is better.”

“What about our clothes?” Porenn asked.

“Well, the two times I came through here, I didn’t have any, as you may remember,” he grinned.  “But if you take them off and carry them over your head, I think you can keep them dry.  At least,” he considered, as he looked at Porenn appraisingly, “Glaze and I can,” he evaluated her petite stature, as Glaze grinned.

They eventually worked out a process for Porenn to undress outside the door and hand her clothes in to Glaze, who carried her garments over his head with his own.  The bath was wonderful, refreshing and invigorating for Marco and Glaze, neither of who had any injuries to be healed.  Glaze left Porenn’s clothes sitting dry on the ground after exiting the bath, then he and Marco stepped through the second door and waited for five minutes.  Marco’s golden hand tingled with energy, but he said nothing to Glaze about it

“You didn’t peek, did you?” Porenn asked in a cross tone when she finally opened the door to join them, though both Glaze and Marco could sense the humor in her voice.  “That felt wonderful!”

They journeyed comfortably on the rest of the trip through darkness and down the steps, until they came to the temple below the island, where the waters of the sea intruded into the underground chamber.

“This is marvelous!” Porenn clapped her hands in glee upon seeing the temple.

“Marco, you must carry out your mission,” the voice of the temple spoke in its unseen solemn tones.  “You go with my blessing, and my promise that there will be unexpected help
when times are trying.”

“Who said that?” Glaze asked in astonishment.

“It is a voice, the spirit of the island,” Marco whispered to the other two.  “It has directed me before.

“What mission, my lady?” he asked.

“The Echidna – you must acquire a scale from the Echidna, in order to counter the evil deeds of the prophecy,” the voice told him.  Marco heard Porenn gasp at the mention of the prophecy.  “Take your companions, and journey towards where you first studied alchemy, to learn where the Echidna waits.”

Half the jets of light in the ceiling expired, and the chamber grew dimmer.

“What is it talking about?” Glaze asked.

Marco looked up, waiting for further instruction.  “What about Porenn?  Should she stay on the island?” He asked.  “What is the prophecy?”

There was silence.  “Am I supposed to leave the island?  Am I being exiled?” Porenn asked in agony, her good spirits from the bath dashed.

There was no answer.  “Do you know th
e prophecy?” Marco turned to her to ask.

“I do, I know the main parts, but not all the details,” she answered, looking down, her cheeks wet with tears.  More of the jets of gas were extinguished, and the chamber grew dimmer.  “But I don’t want to talk about it right now.  It can wait.  How do we get out of here?” she asked.

“We go through the water,” Marco told her.

The water in the temple chamber was warm, and the boys obediently looked away as Porenn handed her clothes to them, then waded through the watery passage behind them, occasionally holding onto Glaze’s shoulder and floating along when the floor of the passage dipped deeper from time to time.