Alchemist Apprentice (The Alchemist Book 1)

by Dan Michaelson

  “And what do you think happened, Sam?”

  “I don’t know,” Sam said quickly. “There was a thundering, and I saw greenish light, and then Professor Clarice and the Secundum went to the door to—”

  “What do you mean there was a greenish light?”

  Havash’s voice had dropped to barely more than a whisper.

  “I’m not exactly sure what it was,” Sam stammered. “And though I saw it, I… Well, I don’t exactly know what it was. I didn’t get close enough to it.”

  He had to admit that much to Havash.

  “And what do you know, Sam?”

  His voice remained tight and a whisper.

  “I told you. I don’t know much.”

  Havash regarded him for a long moment. “Do you recall the agreements that we had when you first came to the Academy?”

  Sam resisted the urge to glance at the doorway. There would have to be another class coming soon. He had to get on to his next class, in fact.

  “I remember,” he said.

  “And you remember what I asked of you?”

  Sam nodded. “I’m trying to do what I can.”

  “And how are you looking into what I asked of you?”

  “I’ve been watching and listening, trying to see what’s down there, and—”

  “I don’t need you to only watch and listen,” Havash said. “What I also need from you is to do the one thing that I cannot.”

  “You want me to go down there.”

  “Yes.”

  “What if it’s dangerous to me?”

  “You do not have any talent in the Arcane Arts, do you?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Havash snorted. “You don’t think? Haven’t we already established that you are here for a very different reason?”

  Sam’s palms were growing sweaty, and even his back started to sweat under Havash’s harsh gaze. “We have,” he said.

  “And I believe you were present when the Grandam mentioned what we know of that space.”

  “I was.”

  “Others have gone down to remove the bodies. What I’m asking is for you to spend more than just time removing bodies,” he said. “I need you to go and see what is there. If you cannot…”

  He trailed off, but the threat was no less evident. If he could not, Sam would lose his place. If he could not, his sister might lose her place. Sam didn’t care so much about himself. The longer that he stayed, the more options he could gain for himself, but Mia deserved more. It was why he was so willing to keep pushing.

  “I’m doing what I can,” Sam said.

  “I find that difficult to believe,” Havash said. “But I expect to have some progress made within a week.”

  Sam licked his lips.

  Havash used his power again, a pale bluish-white light glowing from him, and when it touched the doorway, he noticed the crisscrossing lines flash again before fading. Was he replacing some protection, or was he removing it?

  Sam had to ignore those questions.

  Havash made a shooing motion with his hand, and Sam hurried off.

  He found James waiting for him in the hallway.

  “What was that about? When he called you out, I thought that maybe I should wait. He can be hard, can’t he? I heard that the last time he was in the Academy, he was brutal.”

  “He just wanted me to do an extra assignment, that’s all.”

  “An extra one?”

  Sam nodded numbly. “I think he’s disappointed in my performance so far.”

  James wrinkled his brow as he frowned. “We haven’t done anything for him to be disappointed in. Other than the essay, but I saw yours. It was better than mine.”

  Sam shrugged. “What can I say? I don’t think he cares very much for me.”

  “Well, I’m sorry about that.” He glanced over to the door. “He obviously wanted privacy. I couldn’t hear anything.”

  That was good, though Sam didn’t say it.

  James was saying something else, though Sam ignored him for a moment before turning back to him.

  “I’m sorry. I was thinking about what Havash told me. What were you saying?”

  “Oh. Just that we have our first exams coming soon. I wondered if you would want to study a bit.”

  “Have I missed something?” He hadn’t heard anything about first exams.

  “We have a few weeks, but it does serve as a marker for performance for the rest of the year, and I want to make sure I do well.”

  “What are the exams like?”

  “It’s to establish that we have the necessary aptitude to continue our studies. They like to call them the quarterly check-in, but I don’t think it’s so much of a check-in as it is a way of determining whether the instructors who tested us in the first place knew what they were doing.”

  Sam couldn’t help but feel as if he needed to go back to talk to Havash. If he had an opportunity to visit with him, then he might be able to convince him that he needed a little more time. That was all he needed. Time. How was Sam supposed to get into the alchemy section with it closed off?

  Especially not with other instructors like Clarice and Ben there.

  “Sam?” James asked.

  Sam shook his head. He looked over at him. James was frowning at him.

  “I’m sorry,” Sam said. “I was just thinking of something that Havash said to me.”

  “You don’t have to worry about him. They don’t test in alchemy, so you won’t have to know anything for the exam, anyway.”

  Sam didn’t know how true that was or not. Havash was teaching about the theoretical uses of alchemy, and while Sam hadn’t shied away from trying to understand all of the possibilities, he doubted that the Academy would teach some subject that they wouldn’t expect the students to need to know about.

  He had more to worry about than just Havash, though. In order for him to make sure that Havash didn’t exert any undue influence in kicking them out of the Academy, he was going to need to uncover something of use.

  They reached the main part of the hallway, and he clapped James on the shoulder. “I need to look something up. Why don’t I connect with you at dinner?”

  “You’re not going to the library?”

  It was unusual for Sam not to go to the library, especially at this time of day, but he had other things on his mind and other ways he needed to spend his time.

  He smiled tightly. “I might be able to get in there later, but I need to do a few other things first.”

  Which might involve Sam trying to leverage some of his resources.

  That they had many in the first place, but he had a few ways he thought that he might be able to try to uncover a little bit more information now, so he had to see what he might be able to learn.

  James looked after him as Sam slipped down the stairs.

  There wasn’t much for most students on the main level. Other than leaving the Academy—something that Sam hadn’t even tried to do since he arrived—the only other thing here was the kitchen. For the most part, students stayed in the upper levels.

  Other than Sam, that was.

  And the few students that he had observed heading toward the alchemy section were to act as hall monitors. He looked around, anxiously making sure that there were no others in the hallway, not sure if he was going to get caught by anybody else that might be here, and thankful that there weren’t any of his instructors here. When he was convinced that he was alone, he started toward the alchemy section.

  He reached the door to the kitchen, where he paused for a moment.

  Going in here would reveal the truth about Sam to Okun.

  He didn’t want to do that.

  Not that he thought that Okun was a close friend, but he’d been friendly to Sam and having that in a place like the Academy where he had few friends was more important to him than he would have thought.

  If he were to go in and ask Okun for his help, it meant that Sam was abandoning any possible future where he had Okun as
a friend. Given how hard it was for him at the Academy in the first place and how isolated he felt simply because of his lack of ability, that was harder on him than he had expected. Sam didn’t really think that he needed to have somebody here, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that anyone was better than nothing.

  Instead, he crept closer to the door leading down into the alchemy section.

  He looked behind him, checking whether there was anyone there, before pushing open the door and hurrying down. No one had seen him. He was certain of it.

  As he started down the stairs, he watched, searching for any sign of the hall monitor that he knew had to be there. He didn’t see anyone. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he paused. Sam looked along the hallway, checking to see if anyone was there, moving toward him, but still, he didn’t see anything.

  He started forward when a soft whistling caught his attention.

  Sam backed up, moving away from the hall, not wanting to have anyone see him coming, but at the same time, wanting to have an opportunity to make his way down to the alchemy section. There had to be something there.

  The whistling continued.

  He poked his head out.

  At the very least, he wanted to see who it was.

  He caught sight of dark brown hair, lean face, and a green robe.

  He knew her.

  She was the one he had seen at the table his first night in the Academy. She was in his tower.

  Sam backed up the stairs, hurrying until he reached the doorway. The whistling hadn’t changed. She hadn’t seen him.

  But now he had an idea. He was going to find this woman, and he was going to find a way to get to know her. Then he would see what she knew.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The library was quiet.

  He enjoyed the solitude. Sam was accustomed to it, and yet, there was still part of him that longed for a time where he wasn’t all by himself. Maybe there was a foolish desire. He was here for a specific purpose, and any time that he had to spend in the library, time where he wasn’t under Havash’s influence, was time he could use for himself to come to terms with just what the alchemist wanted from him.

  He had tried finding the hall monitor the last few evenings, but she was never in the tower. He found that surprising, especially given how few people were in the tolath tower, but then again, he spent most of his time in the library, not in his room.

  He looked up from the book, another on angulation, mostly theoretical, but this one detailed the second tenet in far more complex language than he had seen from others. He suspected that mattered, but for him, it was only a matter of memorization. He was prepared for the first set of tests. If he could at least display knowledge and not have to worry about the practical application of what he might be able to demonstrate, it was far less likely that he was going to be sent from the school early. He had no idea if his plan would even work, but there was the possibility. He had alchemy down about as well as he thought he would be expected to, especially given Havash’s simplistic assigned books. The other classes, mathematics and chemistry and botany, were fairly straightforward. At least, the aspect of it that mattered to him. He could learn about those topics, gather what he might be able to use later, and ignore the parts where the Arcane Arts were involved. As far as he could tell, the instructors tried to pour Arcane Arts into everything, even if it wasn’t necessary.

  He rubbed his eyes, closing the book. He was tired, and he needed a break.

  He’d been sitting here for the better part of several hours after eating.

  Sam got to his feet, glanced at the stack of books, longing to bring them with him as he did every time he came through here, before leaving them, and making his way past the librarians, and back out into the main hall.

  Voices down the stairs caught his attention.

  He followed the flow of students, many of them heading down the stairs and then out of the door. Once outside, Sam paused. He breathed in deeply. It was a strange thing for him to be outside, which was a stark change from what he had known before coming to the Academy.

  He found another tolath student, a second-year girl by the name of Lisa, and forced a smile. “What’s going on here?”

  She scowled at him. Even within his tower, his ties to the Barlands were not well received. “A free evening.”

  “Free to do what?”

  Her scowl deepened. “Free to explore the city. Don’t you pay attention?”

  “I guess I—”

  She didn’t give him a chance to finish and spun away, joining another group of tolath students as they headed through the garden and out into the city.

  Free to leave the Academy.

  “There you are,” James said, coming up behind him and chuckling. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to come out of the library in time. The gates are only open for an hour, and then they open up again at ten bells, so we only have a few hours out, but…” He shrugged. “I haven’t spent much time in Tavran.”

  “I didn’t know about it,” Sam said.

  James chuckled, and he scratched at his cheek, looking at the line of students. “We get out on the first of the month and midmonth. That’s it. I tried to see if the others from our tower would want to join us, but…”

  Sam understood. There were only three others in the first-year class from the tolath tower, and they generally stuck together.

  “Do you want to come with me?” James asked. “I would’ve expected that she wanted to go, but it is you, after all, and…”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Well, it means that I don’t know if you are going to go into the city or if you are going to go back and sit in the library like you always do.”

  He took a deep breath, pulling along full of air, before forcing a tight smile. “I wouldn’t be opposed to a night out. The library will be there when we get back.”

  And it wasn’t as if Sam had to keep studying, after all. He felt as if he knew more than enough to pass the academic part of any testing he might be subjected to. Anything beyond that was going to be more of a challenge.

  “Good.”

  When they reached the edge of the garden, the tall wall that surrounded the Academy, Sam tensed.

  James watched him. “What’s wrong?”

  “I didn’t spend much time in the city,” he said. “When we came in with Havash, he brought us straight to the Academy.”

  “Havash selected you?”

  Sam cursed himself. Hadn’t he shared that with James before?

  “Well, we are out in the Barlands, or I was, and he was out there for…” Sam shrugged. “I don’t even know what he was out there for.”

  “Probably chasing some strange alchemy. They get too far out there. You run across the Nighlan.”

  Sam looked over to James as they stepped out of the street. He looked back at the Academy, noting the pale white gleaming stone, and saw an occasional flash of white light coming from inside. Arcane arts flickered everywhere. Power that continued to build. Energy that seemed to rise up from those within the building.

  “The Nighlan don’t come into the Barlands,” Sam said.

  As far as most were concerned, the Nighlan were little more than a threat used to scare people who ventured too deep into the Barlands. They were said to have dark magic. Sam didn’t know whether that was true, but he did know the other rumors about the Nighlan were not—that they were twisted and grotesque creatures that hunted those within Olway.

  “I don’t know. To hear my parents talk about it, the entire reason that Olway wanted to annex your part of the world was that they wanted a buffer against the Nighlan.”

  “That’s not it at all,” Sam protested. “The Barlands might be a little bit of a buffer, but only because no one lives there. They wanted the mines. Nothing more than that.”

  James shrugged again. “Can’t say that I know. Anyway, how about we see what everybody else is doing?”

  As they made their way along the stre
et, the sounds of the city began to flow toward them. Sam caught the sound of music, laughter, and the occasional shout. They were noises he was accustomed to within Erstan, though within Erstan, there wasn’t the same vibrancy and energy.

  James was talking to him as they made their way along the street, every so often piping up about some shop that they passed, or about a restaurant that they saw, places that he’d heard about, but that even James had not visited. All of it served to make Sam think that James wished he had more chance to spend out in the city, though Sam didn’t mind his time cooped up in the library.

  Perhaps he needed to be looking at things a little differently, though. Eventually, his time in the Academy would be over, and he would need to be comfortable out in the city. Why shouldn’t he want to have a chance to know his way around? More than that, he might need to figure out where he could set up a shop. He had focused his studies on alchemy, knowing that there was a market for such work, though if he were to need to, there were other topics that Sam could shift his focus to where he might be able to earn an income.

  “Are there any alchemy shops around the Academy?” Sam asked.

  James stopped what he was talking about, having been going on about the Council and the politics within Tavran, before frowning. “You know, I don’t really know. They’ve tried to diminish alchemy within the Academy, but that doesn’t mean that they can do it out in Tavran.”

  “How many alchemy shops you have in your hometown?”

  “Dozens,” James said, shaking his head. “Too many. Anybody with a few books thinks they can set up an alchemy shop and make money, but that’s not generally very profitable. Most of the successful alchemists have some Academy background.”

  “How much background?”

  Sam waved his hand. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’ve seen you in classes. You’re going to do just fine. You’ll probably be on the fast track to serving on the council. I mean, if that’s what you want. Not everybody wants that, but enough of the superstar students are thrilled with that opportunity.”