Scorpio

By Alex McDonough

Scorpio is a member of a gentle, peace-loving people who are being threatened with extermination. They share their planet with another intelligent biped who are hostile and intent on world domination. This people, known as the Hunters, has found three magical orbs with amazing power. Unfortunately, they have decided to use this power to exterminate Scorpio's people. In desperation, Scorpio sneaks into the Hunter citadel and steals one of the precious orbs. In the process of trying to escape, the orb, reading his need, transports him away from the danger zone and onto a strange planet, Earth. But not the Earth of our time, the Earth of the 14th century, to Avignon, France, at the time the home of the Catholic Pope.
Scorpio's people are water dwellers and chameleon-like in their ability to change their skin color to match the background. So when young Leah stumbles across Scorpio in a field outside the city, she naturally concludes that she is facing a demon. Scorpio, who only wants to get back home, needs to understand how the orb works and how he ended up where he did. He shows the orb to Leah and asks her if she has ever seen anything like it and she tells him it looks like the orb the Pope holds in a painting she has seen. So Scorpio decides he needs to visit the Pope.
Leah is the daughter of a Jewish physician and her father is about to become entangled in a power struggle between rival factions in the church hierarchy. He is set up as the fall guy in the murder of a church official and thrown into prison. Now Leah has the same mission as Scorpio, she needs to visit the Pope to convince him that her father is wrongly accused. She and Scorpio team up and help each other, with Scorpio disguised as a monk with leprosy, to account for his strange appearance. But, to add to the complications, the Hunters have tracked down Scorpio, using one of the orbs, and they want two things: the stolen orb and Scorpio dead.

This was a pretty interesting story, if a bit illogical. First off, how Scorpio and Leah can understand each other's language is never explained. One could assume it is the magic of the orb, but even when the orb is buried and not close by, they still have no trouble understanding each other. I wish that had been explained. Second, why are the Hunters so determined to destroy Scorpio's people? Apparently these two peoples have lived on their planet together for generations without undue conflict. And Scorpio's people are portrayed as peaceful, gentle agriculturalists. Why the Hunters suddenly turn against them is not explained. It's not like the Hunters need the habitat. Scorpio's people like wet, damp environments. Water is like acid to the Hunters, they can't even handle humidity, living in their climate-controlled citadel where all the water is wrung out of the air before it is piped in to the buildings. They are obviously a desert-adapted race and would have no interest in living in the swamps and waters of Scorpio's people.
But, getting past those problems, overall, it was a good story. Scorpio is a really likable, good-hearted fellow. He doesn't hesitate to help people out, even though he is desperate to get on with his own problems of dodging the Hunters and trying to understand the orb he has stolen. He even tries to help Leah get her father out of prison and to prove his innocence. I enjoyed the story and I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy.