A Marriage of Friends

by Jeffrey Quyle

  She glanced down at him, startled by the urgency in his voice, then slid down to the edge of the pier, and allowed him to guide her over the edge. As she lowered her head, he heard the tread of footsteps approaching.

  “Hurry!” he urged, panic rising. “Follow me! Stay on the beams and watch your footing!” he warned, then awkwardly brushed past the nameless servant girl and began to lead the two freed captives under the pier towards his cubby. There was a short barked phrase, and then a murmuring voice near where the two girls had previously laid, and Marco worried that the sorcerer had detected the disappearance of the captives, though how he could miss two girls when there were so many others was difficult for Macro to fathom.

  There was a sudden flash of light behind them, making Angelica give a startled squeak, but Marco kept on moving as quickly as he could, then dropped down a level to just above the water to reduce their visibility further; he stopped there to listen for pursuit, but heard none. He began to lead again, and so led the two girls back to the blanketed doorway a minute later.

  He struck the flint and steel to light the lamp, then ushered the girls into the room.

  “What is this place? Who are you? Are we safe?” Angelica burst out the soft-voiced questions.

  “You’re the boy from the alchemist shop,” the servant said. “Thank you for rescuing us.

  “I thought we were on our way to a horrible fate,” she said, and Angelica shuddered.

  “Your name is Marco,” she added. “I heard the alchemist call you that,” she told the other two as they both looked at her in surprise.

  “Are we safe here?” Angelica repeated.

  “If we stay quiet, and don’t let any light escape out the doorway, I don’t think they can find us,” Marco said reassuringly.

  “What’s happening? Why are you here?” the servant asked.

  “This is my room,” Marco stammered. “I come here to relax, or sleep. I came here tonight, and then the Corsairs came, and I had to stay – there was no getting away.”

  “Why weren’t you out at the festival?” the servant asked.

  “Could you go back up there?” Angelica asked at the same time.

  “Back up there? To where the Corsairs are?” Marco asked in confusion.

  “They took all my family’s riches. We won’t have anything left; we’ll be poverty-stricken,” Angelica answered. “If you could just go grab a few things back, we’d have something to live on.”

  “The Corsairs are up there,” Marco answered, unable to believe the beautiful girl would ask such a favor of him.

  She leaned towards him, her eyes intently staring into his. He looked at her, and saw that her torn gown gaped open, showing a wide swath of her flesh. It was less revealing than the models had so casually displayed during the afternoon, yet it also seemed nonetheless much more seductive because it wasn’t meant to be seen.

  He swiftly shifted his eyes back up to her face.

  “Please do this for me,” she asked. She reached her hand out and clasped his. “I will be in your debt forever.”

  Marco swallowed.

  “Let me go see what they’re doing,” he said at length, as he thought. If no one was looking, he could easily reach up over the edge of the dock and pull a few items down to bring back to Angelica.

  “Don’t make any noise,” he cautioned as he stood up. “Don’t open this blanket for any reason.”

  “Be careful,” Angelica told him, looking at him with a grateful expression on her face.