Free The Echidna's Scale (Alchemy's Apprentice) by Jeffrey Quyle Page A

unexpected as well as appreciated.
    “Look at your hand!” he heard Teresa’s voice, and realized that he had wrapped his arms around Algornia in a reciprocal hug, without even thinking about exposing the hand.
    All three of the shop occupants examined his hand in the dim light.
    “I expected that you would have a tale to tell, but I don’t think I’ve guessed nearly the half of what you have to say,” Algornia said softly.  He walked forward and flipped his sign to show that the shop was closed, then locked the door.
    “Let’s all go back to the dining room and sit down to hear about your adventures,” the old man suggested.  “Teresa, fetch us a pitcher of lemonade and some glasses please, my dear,” he said.  Marco watched the girl go without so much as a word of complaint, and he knew that the world was a different place if the nagging granddaughter would run an errand so meekly.
    “Well tell us, tell us everything,” Phillippe said when the four of them were seated.
    “I was on the docks when the Corsairs arrived,” Marco said, looking at the bright eyes that studied him.  He would have to be judicious in his story-telling, he realized.  He could avoid mentioning the mermaids and the dolphins, and perhaps the rest of the tale would seem halfway believable.
    “They had a sorcerer who made the great protective dome over the docks.  I saw that Angelica and her maid were taken captive, and I tried to rescue them,” he explained.  “But Angelica wanted me to go steal some valuables for her family,” he said.
    “She claimed that you insisted you had to go take them,” Teresa immediately contradicted him.
    Marco sat back and his eyebrows shot up.  “Well, that’s not the case.  She wanted the valuables, and when I went to try to take some, the sorcerer caught me, but I fought and stabbed him with a knife.”
    “Did you kill him?” Algornia asked intently.
    “Not that time,” Marco said, making the listener’s eyebrows rise.
    “But the Corsairs caught me and threw me in their boat and made their escape,” he said.
    “A few of them did,” Phillippe interrupted.  “But a lot of them were captured and killed on the spot.  Only one of their boats got away.”
    “The one that I was on, naturally,” Marco grinned.
    “The ship sailed for several days, I guess.   I was in the hold and too injured to know how long we sailed, but it got caught in a storm,” he was careful now, and picked his words carefully so that he could avoid lying while not telling the whole truth.
    “I got washed ashore on an island that is ruled by th e Order of Ophiuchu s .  They were all women, and they didn’t like having a man on the island,” he said.
    “The enchanted isle,” Algornia murmured.
    Marco nodded his head in agreement.  “I found a hidden bath that healed all my injuries, and I was in their library, and I found the lost Book of Hermes, with hundreds of formulae for healing and curing illnesses and injuries!” he told the two alchemists and the girl.
    “The lost Book of Hermes?” Phillippe asked skeptically.
    “It was,” Marco affirmed.  “It was full of different cures.  Some of them were for illnesses I’ve never even heard of.”
    “Can you give an example?” Algornia asked.
    “Lodestone grit, althaea root, balm of Gilead buds, all mixed together, then a willow bark extract brewed and seeped through,” Marco quickly recited.  “It will calm those who are hysterical by drawing out the physic impurities and causing them to be passed quickly from the body.”
    “I haven’t heard of that before, but it seems to make sense,” Algornia admitted.  “You’re sure you remember it correctly?”
    Marco looked around the table cautiously.  “I remember everything in the book, master,” he confessed.  “Everything.  I even used the knowledge to figure out a cure for a plague in Barcelon.”  It felt natural to use the title ‘master’ when speaking to Algornia, even though