It was that light which he had to focus on.
He squeezed the device. There had to be some way to trigger it.
Nothing happened.
The man stalked toward him. Now he was moving steadily and without any real sense of urgency. Maybe he’d been more cautious before because he had worried that Sam had access to the Arcane Arts. If he had those, it would have been easier. Far easier for any of this.
But now…
Sam continued to back away.
He was in the middle of the hall. He didn’t have much choice now.
Run.
“Do you have it, Ferand? The door should have been opened this time.”
The voice came from the other end of the hall, and it was soft, muted as well, as if it came from a great distance.
The man—Ferand, Sam assumed—continued making his way toward Sam.
“Hand it back before you start to feel its effects. It burns. If you use it wrong, it will continue to constrict until it causes your arm to shrivel. Then the rest of you. It’s quite painful.”
So far, Sam hadn’t felt a thing. Then again, he hadn’t managed to trigger whatever this was.
His gaze flicked past Ferand toward the room. That room had been sealed off, and this device had been set inside. Not only set inside but said carefully inside and protected inside of the case. But the voice had expected the room to be open.
That seemed significant to him.
Ferand took another step toward Sam.
Sam jumped off to the side, but then he spun, pushing his hand out from him. When he did, his hand crashed into Ferand, connecting with his side, and a strange burst of green exploded from Sam’s palm into Ferand’s.
He grunted, twisting so that he could look up at Sam.
Sam staggered back, holding his hand out from him. Whatever had happened had come from this device. Alchemy. And it had worked for him.
“Enjoy the pain,” Ferand started.
Sam tried to replicate what had happened before. There had been some way he’d twisted the device on his hands. He was certain of it. If there was a pattern, certainly he could come up with it. He tried to replicate what he had done when he’d slammed into Ferand’s side, and he focused before bringing his hand out again. As before, there came an explosion of greenish light that slammed into Ferand. He staggered back, glowering at Sam.
Sam took another step toward him. “There’s no pain,” Sam said. “And you don’t belong here.”
He took another step toward Sam, but as before, Sam mimicked striking outward, and again there came a burst of greenish light.
When it faded, Ferand was gone.
Sam stood in place for a few moments.
He looked to the other room, but he didn’t want to risk going back in there. Instead, he hurried over to it, pulled it closed, and then looked to the far end of the hall. That door was closed as well.
Everything else in this tower was empty.
He hurried back through the common room, back into the hidden hallway, closing off the door. He scrambled up the stairs, pause at the top before triggering the opening into the Study Hall, and once he was back, he raced toward the tolath tower. Then he scrambled up the stairs and to his room, where he sunk down on the bed. He looked at the device in his hand.
Alchemy.
It had worked for him.
It was destructive power. That much Sam knew, but it had its use. And because of that, he couldn’t help but feel as if maybe he could use that to protect himself.
First, he had to hide it.
He pulled on it. It didn’t come off.
He tugged on the three rings that wrapped around his middle fingers, plucking on it, but it still didn’t budge. It was as if it were sealed to him. The rings wrapped around his fingers, and then a flat metal piece pressed into his palm.
Sam tried to pry his fingers underneath it, but he couldn’t do anything.
It was stuck.
His first thought was to go to Havash, and Sam even got to his feet to go when a different thought came to him. He had wanted Sam to go into the alchemy section. Could he have been after something like this?
The door should have been opened.
Sam could get back down there. He was sure of that. What he feared was running into Ferand again. He didn’t know if Ferand would recognize him.
Either way, he worried.
Now there was something more for him to do. Not only did he need to pass his last exam, but he needed to figure out why this device was important enough for Ferand to break into the alchemy section—and whether Havash had wanted this all along.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sam shifted the device in his hand. He hadn’t slept well the night before, which made for several nights of minimal sleep, all while trying to undergo his exams. It wasn’t the best way for him to function, especially not in light of everything that he had to do.
As he sat on the edge of his bed, trying to pry his hands underneath the device and still failing to convince it to move, he gave up after a few moments and sat back.
It wasn’t going to come off.
Somehow, the device was linked to him.
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t know if he would be able to use the alchemy within it. He had managed to trigger it somehow, and that had targeted Ferand when he had attacked him, but Sam hadn’t succeeded in much else with it.
He got up, slipped on his robe, and kept his fist clenched to conceal the device.
He headed out of the first-year level, seeing that it was empty. James probably had already gone off to his test. The others… Well, Sam didn’t really know when the others were going to be tested as they didn’t share that sort of thing.
He started on the stairs when he came across Tara. She was hurrying up the stairs, holding onto a book beneath her robe carefully. She frowned at him.
“Come with me,” she said, grabbing his arm and dragging him along the hallway and to her room.
He was too startled to react. She pushed open the door and then motioned for him to sit.
Her room was larger than his. It was nearly double the size, and she had only a desk and a bed, but she had a comfortable appearing chair and what looked like an alchemy lantern resting next to it. A stack of books rested on the floor that she made no attempt to hide.
“Were you in the Study Hall last night?”
Sam nodded. “I was.”
Had she heard something? Maybe he could ask her about what had happened in the alchemy section.
“You left one of the doors open.”
“Which one?”
“To the kitchen.”
Sam frowned. “I didn’t go to the kitchen last night.”
Tara frowned at him, and she took the book that she’d been carrying underneath robes and set it on to her table. It was a book on advanced alchemy, which surprised him.
“Thankfully, no one saw it, but you should know that you have to be incredibly careful to ensure that the passageways are closed after each time you come through them.”
“And I didn’t go there,” he said.
She stared at him for a moment. “Fine. You didn’t go there.” She took a seat on her bed, and she looked over to him. “What were you doing then?”
Sam squeezed his hand for a moment. “I just went into the library. I have to take an angulation exam today, and I don’t know how things are going to go.”
She waved her hand. “Angulation? Given everything that you’ve done so far, I have a hard time thinking you will struggle with angulation.”
“I’m not the most talented with the Arcane Arts.” She frowned at him, and Sam felt compelled to go on. “I think that’s why it took me so long to get selected for the Academy.” He didn’t like the idea of lying to Tara, especially as she had trusted him with the secret of the Study Hall, but he couldn’t tell her the truth, either. “And I feel like I need to prove myself.”
“Well, you’re in the tolath tower, so it shouldn’t be too
hard.” She smiled at him, and he wished that he could return the smile, but he didn’t feel it. “Anyway, the first exam is really all theoretical.”
“Maybe it was when you took it, but Havash said that it isn’t going to be completely theoretical this time.”
She wrinkled her nose, frowning deeply. “Why would they change it?”
“I don’t know.”
She glanced over to the desk where she had the book on alchemy. Sam had actually read that one, so he knew the details within the book.
“Say,” he started, “does the name Ferand ring a bell to you?”
She jerked her head around, frowning at him. “What was that?”
“It’s just something that I overheard.” He said it quickly, and he immediately regretted it, worrying that he had revealed too much to her.
“Ferand was an instructor here years ago,” she said. “He never reached the title of professor. He mostly assisted others.”
“Let me guess. Alchemy?”
Tara shook her head quickly. “Not alchemy. They’re very particular about who they admitted. Not that I know all the details of the alchemists. Even when that tower was fully opened, it was highly restricted. Not many students were selected for alchemy.”
“Were any placed there during the first year.”
“No one was ever placed there during our first year,” she said. “There was a secondary testing process. It was considered highly competitive, and those who come from there had been guaranteed income.”
Sam thought of the shop that he had seen in the city and how enormous it was and thought that he understood. “How many people would study there at a given time?”
“I don’t know. There were quite a few alchemists who graduated from the Academy and remained. Most of the alchemists actually were graduates, for that matter.” She frowned. “There was a time when I thought maybe I would want to try to learn it, but…” She shook her head, looking over to him. “Why are you asking about Ferand anyway?”
“It’s just something I heard.”
He squeezed his hands. Ferand was not an alchemist, but he had been in the Academy.
“I can show you where his office was if you are interested.”
She was trying to fish for more information, Sam could tell that, and even though he was tempted to the client her offer, he doubted that he was going to learn what he wanted without asking for her help.
“Maybe,” he said.
She regarded him. “You know something, Sam.”
“I don’t.”
She frowned at him again. “If you say so.” She waved to the door. “If you have angulation exam, then you should get going. Make sure that you close all of the doors in the Study Hall. We don’t need anybody else finding it.”
Sam nodded, and he stepped out of her room, closing the door behind him, and hurried to the hall where he found James coming down from the first-year rooms. James looked at him, down the hall, and a wide grin began to spread across his face.
“Do I want to know?”
“It’s nothing,” Sam said.
“Nothing? You were on the fourth level hall, and not too long ago, you were dancing with Tara Stone, and…” His eyes widened slightly. “Are the two of you… Well, you know?”
Sam glanced back. There was no denying that Tara interested him. She was incredibly beautiful, but it was more than just that. She was smart. He had never met anybody who was so interested in studies the way that he was.
“I doubt that she would be interested in a first-year student.”
“She’s not interested in too many students at her level. Rumor has it that she thinks she’s smarter than all of them. And she probably is. She figures she’ll graduate and should be invited to apprentice with the council.”
“I’m sure Gresham will find a way to impede that.”
“Well, he might also want to apprentice with the council. If it were me, I’d just stay away. Who would want to deal with either of them?”
“What is your issue with Tara?”
“Oh, not so much with Tara as it is with Gresham,” he said. “I figured you would understand that.”
“What is the interest in working with the council, anyway?” They started down the stairs, and Sam wondered if maybe it wasn’t quite as late as what he had thought.
“You can’t be serious, can you?” James looked over to him, frowning for a moment. “You are serious. You don’t really know?”
“You know where I’m from,” Sam said carefully.
“I suppose. Well, the council leads Olway. All of Olway. And once you apprentice within it, you have access to influencing the council, and their agenda, and from there…” He shrugged. “New councilors are always chosen from those who apprentice with them. It’s considered an honor to even be selected, and you have to be at the top of the Academy to even be considered.” He glanced along the hall, looking toward the sharan tower entrance. “Or you have to have some advantage that others don’t.” He sniffed. “So I guess it’s not quite as impressive for some people.”
“And you think Tara would be invited?”
“I don’t know,” James said, shrugging. “I can’t say that I’m an expert in such things, but given everything I’ve heard about her—”
“What have you heard?” Sam asked, grabbing for his arm.
James started to laugh. “Probably the same things that you have. Smart. Aloof. Skilled. All of the instructors think highly of her. Kal knows she has far more talent than anybody else. And she even has a year remaining.”
Sam eased back.
“And you were trying to tell me that you’re not interested.”
“I wasn’t trying to tell you anything,” Sam muttered.
“It probably doesn’t matter. Not with someone like her, anyway. She’s too focused on her studies to get interested in anything else. Well, something like you.” James grinned at him. “Spend a few more years here, keep doing as well as you obviously are doing, and you can join the council too.”
Sam smiled tightly. There wasn’t much hope of that for him, not that he would tell James that.
“Are you ready for the angulation exam?”
“Something like that,” Sam said.
“Mine was over quickly,” he said. “They asked a few questions, and I regurgitated everything we’d been learning about and even added a few flourishes with what you have been yammering on about, which seemed to impress the panel, and that was it.”
Sam regarded him. “No practical component?”
“Not particularly. I did have to try to demonstrate holding onto some of the Arcane Arts, but nothing more than what I was required to do when I was tested for entrance, so you should be fine. I don’t know why you’re so worried about it anyway. You don’t really have to worry given how much you know.”
“How much did you have to demonstrate?”
“Like I said, not any more than I needed to prove for my testing.”
“What was it like?” Sam asked.
He knew about Mia’s testing and everything that Havash had done for her, and she had very nearly died during it. If it was anything like that, then Sam was going to have a very hard time explaining his failings.
And for what?
Maybe it didn’t even matter if he skipped it. He had already found what Havash was after in the alchemy section. Now he felt as if he had more questions.
“You need to relax, Sam,” James said. “It really isn’t that much.” He clapped Sam on the shoulders. “Keep your mind focused, let the Arcane Arts out when they ask you to, and just babble on the way that you do when we study.” He grinned at Sam.
He headed away, making his way toward the dining hall, leaving Sam.
Sam stared at the door to the angulation classroom, feeling nausea growing in his stomach. This was one he dreaded most of all. Angulation was closest to pure Arcane Arts, and though Sam understood the theoretical aspects of it, it was the rest of it that truly pose a challenge for him.
He strode inside.
There were three sitting on the panel.
Professor Clarice, the Secundum, and Chasten, the older man that he had seen during his alchemy testing. The Secundum smiled at him, nodding to him slightly, while Chasten just watched him, saying nothing.
Professor Clarice looked up from the table, and she frowned. “Oh. Mr. Bilson. I didn’t realize that you were next, but we can begin.” She looked over to the others. “He is by far the best prepared first-year angulation student that I have seen in many years.”
The nausea began to build within Sam.
“Of course, we have been mostly focused on the theoretical underpinnings of angulation, but I suspect that with his grasp of it, it will not take long for him to develop into a skilled user of the Arcane Arts.” She smiled at the Secundum. “I imagine you could even take him for some of your advanced classes by the end of the year.”
Advanced?
Oh, how Sam was about to disappoint all of them.
“Then I’m eager to see what he can do,” the Secundum said. He smiled at Sam again. “It isn’t terribly surprising for someone from the tolath tower, though. They tend to have quite a bit of potential.”
Sam clutched his hand around the enchantment, his palms sweaty, and the nausea building within him even more. This was where he was going to reveal that he truly didn’t belong. It might be easier if Havash were here to be a part of the testing. At least then Sam could turn any questions away from himself, and tried to convince Havash to help him.
“As you have already shared with me the first three tenets of angulation, I don’t feel that we need to go into those,” she said, looking up with a hint of a smile. It seemed to Sam that was meant to reassure him, but it only meant that he was going to be tested in a different way. Had he been asked to describe the different tenets of angulation, it would’ve been far easier for him.
“I would be interested in hearing him detail the zero tenet of angulation,” Chasten said. “That is if he is as advanced as you say.”
Alchemist Apprentice (The Alchemist Book 1) Page 19
