“I didn’t know.”
“You had to have known that she had talent, though.”
“We always knew that she had an innate talent, but people simply don’t come out of the Barlands and end up in the Academy.”
She shook her head, and now was more confusion crossed her brow. “Havash would’ve known that she had some ability. Especially if she accomplished what you say she did.” Tara glanced at him, and Sam nodded. “And if he was coming to the Academy anyway, it would have made sense for him to bring somebody with potential. So I don’t know that your sister ever was not going to pass his testing.”
“So he used me,” Sam said. He snorted. “That bastard.”
“What do you mean he used you?”
Sam motioned along the hallway. “I’m here because of the alchemy section. What happened to it. He wanted me to look into it. I was supposed to become a student, watch from the inside, and observe whether any other students or faculty made any attempt to get down into the alchemy section. I was trying to see what was down there—”
“That was you,” she said. “You snuck down the hall.” She tapped him in the chest with one finger, and she managed to add a hint of the Arcane Arts to it so that it took Sam’s breath away. “I’ve chased plenty of students away from the lower level, but most of them were just wanting to sneak down to see if it really is as dangerous as the Grandam claims. But you lingered longer than most.”
“I was just trying to see what was down there. Then when I learned about Study Hall, I found a new way down. I started to explore it when Ferand broke in. I think the explosions that we’ve heard, along with everything else, has been him searching for something.” He held his hand out, opening his palm to show her the device. “This.”
She leaned forward and touched the device in his palm. Her hand was warm, but when her finger traced along the alchemy device, it started to tingle, and it began to hurt.
“It’s alchemy,” she breathed out. “What does it do?”
“Near as I can tell, it just blasts a greenish light.” Sam turned away from her, focused on the pattern, and he triggered it, sending an explosion of greenish light blasting outward. “See?”
“What am I supposed to see? All I saw was you making some movement with your arm.”
Sam looked over to her and frowned. “You don’t see any green light?”
“Light?”
Sam stepped back, regarding her for a moment. “Do you see anything around anyone using the Arcane Arts?”
“Other than them using angulation?”
Sam saw that, but he saw more than that as well. “Is it possible to see colors around the user of the Arcane Arts?”
She frowned at him. “What are you going on about now? And how does this have anything to do with what you were sent here to do?”
Sam shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
Could it be that she couldn’t see it?
And why could he?
She grabbed his hand again, and she pried his fingers back, working her hand around the device as if she were trying to pull it free from his palm. She continued to trace a pattern across his hand, and it tingled every time that she did it.
“It doesn’t come off,” she said.
“I know,” Sam said. “And it hurts when you do that, so please stop.”
She quickly withdrew her hand. “I’ve heard of alchemy devices that link to a user. Not anything quite like this, but…” She looked up at him. “And you say that it creates some sort of burst?”
“A burst of greenish energy. I can see it when I do it. And it worked against Ferand when he was in the alchemy section.”
“So you went down there thinking that you might find Ferand again? I never took you for a fool. I thought you were smart.”
“Havash thinks he’s going to come after me. Well, he didn’t say it quite like that, but he thinks that whatever Ferand is after isn’t done. And that he won’t give up until he finds it.”
“And you think this is what you wanted.”
“I can show you where it was.”
She looked past him, down the hall, before shaking her head. “I think… I think I could do without that.”
Sam shrugged. “Whatever you want. I’m just saying that I can show you what Ferand was after.”
“Why did you go back there tonight, then?”
“I thought I saw… Well, I don’t know if anything different I saw. It wasn’t there. Ferand wasn’t there.”
“So you were after him again?”
“Havash told me I could stay the rest of the year if I help him figure this out.” He shrugged for a moment. “The longer I stay in the Academy, the more likely I will be prepared for when I leave. My sister is going to be fine, especially now that I’ve seen that she is progressing well. I wasn’t sure.”
“You mentioned your sister, but I haven’t seen you talking to anyone else other than James.”
“Once everybody learned about from the Barlands, I figured it was probably safest for her to keep her own connection to the Barlands secret.”
“Which tower?”
“Sharan.”
She breathed out. “You probably made the right decision. Still, I’m not happy with that.”
“I just have to figure out as much as I can about what Ferand might be after and get that back to Havash. That’s how I’m going to stay.”
“Fine. I’m going to help.”
Sam frowned, eyeing her carefully. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I was here when the alchemy tower exploded. If there was an attack, I want to know about it. It means they’ve been misleading us. And besides, I think you’re wrong.”
There was so much about what he had been telling her that could be wrong, but he didn’t think so. “And what am I wrong about?”
She grabbed his hand, holding it up. There was a tingling where she touched and then pain once more when she tried to pry the device free from his hand. “About you. And I’m determined to prove it. For you to use a device like this. True alchemy. You have to have some ability with the Arcane Arts.”
“I think I would’ve known.”
“Right. And weren’t you the one to answer the question on the zero tenet?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, you believe you don’t have any ability with the Arcane Arts. I believe I do. That’s the basis of power.” She tapped on his hand, and once more surge of pain came coursing through him. “And I’m telling you this device means you might. I’m not saying that it does, only that it’s possible. And that’s a start.” She shrugged. “So. Where do you want to begin?”
He frowned. “I want to show you where Ferand broke in and get your opinion on it. And maybe even show you where the device was too.” She frowned, and Sam shrugged. “Because based on what you are saying, you don’t have anything to fear in the alchemy section either.”
She glowered at him.
“I don’t like your logic.”
“But it is logic, isn’t it?”
“It is, but it raises another question.”
It came to Sam quickly. “If the alchemy section isn’t dangerous, then why would they have told the students that it was?”
“Exactly. And who else is working with Ferand?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
He and Tara had spent the last few nights wandering through the Study Hall, though Sam hadn’t found anything new. Several nights he’d uncovered a faint glowing greenish light, but it was only he who saw it, and by the time he caught up to where he thought he had seen it, there was nothing.
Tara believed he saw it, even if she didn’t have any explanation as to how he had. She’d been spending time in the library during the daytime looking for possibilities, looking for the fact that maybe there was something there that would reveal how he had seen something, but she hadn’t been any more successful than him.
For his part, Sam had di
ved into looking into alchemy made with Arcane Arts.
Everything he read suggested that Tara was right. Using alchemy created with Arcane Arts required somebody to have some connection to the Arcane Arts. Did that mean that he did?
Tara gathered a stack of books, and she stopped near his booth, leaning down. “This is everything that I’ve found that has to do with visualization of the use of the Arcane Arts, and there’s nothing here.”
“I haven’t found anything, either,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate. If you can see something, it might be useful.” She set the books down and looked around the inside of the library. She started to glow with a pale white light.
“There,” Sam said. It had become something of a game with her, where she tested him on whether or not he could prove that he had some connection to seeing the Arcane Arts.
“I thought I would squeeze past you this time,” she said.
“It’s obvious when somebody is doing it,” Sam said. “It’s how I knew that Gresham was going to attack me.”
“He attacked you with the Arcane Arts? Was he in the middle of a game, or was this—”
“In the library,” Sam said.
She clenched her jaw and shook her head. “He really gets under my skin. He knows he’s not supposed to use Arcane Arts against other students, not unless it’s in a structured environment, with an instructor supervising, and even then, he has far more experience than you.”
“Well, considering I don’t have any ability—”
“Would you stop? Even you have started to question whether that’s true.”
He couldn’t deny it. He might not fully believe it, not yet, but he was starting to question whether he might be able to use the Arcane Arts. If so, then maybe he would truly be able to stay in the Academy. He could see from Tara’s watching him that was her intention for him as well.
“We’re not getting anywhere,” she said. “And I’m getting stir crazy. I think we need to go.”
“Go where?” It was still too early to head into the Study Hall. They typically waited until after most students had settled into their rooms, which gave them more access to the Study Hall so that they didn’t have to worry about somebody coming across them moving in the hidden passageways.
“It’s midmonth.”
It took Sam a moment to realize what she was getting at. “You want to go out into the city?”
“I figured the two of us could. Unless you don’t want to be seen with me.”
Sam shook his head hurriedly. “That’s not it. I’m happy to go with you. It’s just…”
She grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the booth. He looked longingly at the stack of books, and she laughed. “You remind me of me when I was first year.”
“Only you were a little more talented.”
“Only a little,” she said and dragged him to the library.
She nodded to the von as they made their way through the library and then out into the main hallway. Other students were gathering to head out, and Sam realized that Tara still hadn’t released his hand. He wasn’t about to pull away, either.
“I never really cared to go out into the city when I was in my first year,” Tara said, leaning over to him. “Even now, I don’t always go out. It seems like there’s something more to do, but…”
Sam looked over to her and found her staring straight ahead. She still hadn’t released his hand. He smiled to himself.
“Sam. I didn’t think that you would…”
He looked over to see James slowing as he came up behind them. His eyes widened as he looked to Tara, to where Sam was holding Tara’s hand, and then he started to grin.
“What are the two of you going to be doing tonight?”
“Shut up,” Sam said. “Do you want to join us?”
“I wouldn’t want to get in the way.”
Sam glanced over to Tara. “Would he be in the way?”
“Of what?”
Sam turned to James. “See? Of what.”
“How about I catch up with you both at the plaza?” He winked at Sam. “I’m going to see if I can convince someone to dance with me tonight.”
He skipped down the steps, and Sam could only shake his head.
“You have a strange friend,” Tara said.
“I didn’t have many options, but he’s a good person. He means well.”
She glanced over. “I know what it’s like.”
“What what is it like?”
“The tolath tower is isolating. It gets worse when people start falling away. My closest friend in my first year didn’t make it. And then I had a couple of others who left after the third year.” She shrugged. “Now I spend most of my time by myself. I’ve thrown myself into my studies. You would think that as one of the older students—” Tara glanced over at Sam before grinning. “Or one of the older level students? Either way, you would think that I wouldn’t have any trouble being able to connect with some of my other classmates, but the towers really separate us.”
“I don’t understand why they place us in different towers anyway.”
“Apparently, that’s something I learn after I finish,” she said, waving her hand with irritation. “It has something to do with potential and what access you have, but if there was once any difference, there isn’t anymore. Nowadays, we all take the same classes, study together, and learn the same topics. So it seems a little ridiculous to me that we would be separated like that.”
“What would you prefer they do?”
“I don’t know. It seems to me you could stuff everybody into a single tower and have each year stay in one. At least that way we wouldn’t have these artificial divisions.”
“Other than by year.”
She shrugged. “I suppose.”
“And then I wouldn’t have gotten to know you.”
He looked over to her and found her staring straight ahead, a hint of red filling her cheeks.
They headed out of the Academy. From there, they crossed the garden and then out into the street outside. Most of the students were hurrying toward the plaza where the typical market and music were set up as if to draw students—and their coin—away from the Academy.
Tara turned the opposite direction, pulling on his hand. “I thought that maybe we could go this way,” she suggested.
“I haven’t spent much time in the city, to be honest.”
“I figured as much.”
As they wandered along the street, they passed several common shops. A stationary store, with stacks of paper, pens, different colored inks, all displayed in the window. Sam glanced back toward the Academy, and she nodded to him.
“Most of the shops around the Academy tend to cater to the Academy’s needs. I doubt you’re going to find too many stores like this too far away.”
There were several different seamstresses, tailors, and other similar shops. He found a bakery, which he thought was surprising given how there was all the food that he could potentially eat within the Academy, but as he paused at the window, the level of skill in the decoration of the pastries and cakes was incredible.
“Are you hungry?”
“I used to be,” Sam said.
Tara watched him with a strange look on her face. “That’s not an answer.”
“When we lived in the streets, I was always hungry. We had to beg for scraps, search for anything that we could find, and we usually went hungry unless I could run enough errands to secure pennies that would pay for something more substantial.” He shook his head. “I never would’ve dreamed of anything like that.”
“I imagine they cost more than a few pennies,” she said.
Sam smiled. “Probably, but I now have several silvers.”
“You haven’t spent them?”
He looked over to her. “I don’t know where I’m going to be in a few months. I want to have some way of supporting myself. And if it comes to begging again, it would be easier to start with something than nothing.”
“You could ask for help.”
“If it comes down to whether or not I have any real talent, there might not be a whole lot anyone can do for me.”
“I’m not anyone, you know.”
He looked over at her. It was his turn to flush. “Why would you want to keep somebody in the Academy who doesn’t have talent?”
She frowned at him, chewing on her lip for a moment. “I’ve been in the Academy for four years. I came when I was thirteen. Young,” she said, nodding. “And I felt it. I was talented. Everybody told me that. But when it came to the Academy, everybody was talented. At least they were when it came to the Arcane Arts. I quickly learned that not everybody was willing to put in the necessary work.” She turned away from him. “Most people are content to just use the patterns and angulation that they learn. That’s all they think there is to the Arcane Arts. Others are more interested in chasing girls.”
“Did Gresham chase after you?”
Her face wrinkled in irritation. “If he would’ve chased, I would have run the other way. Or attacked.” She breathed out slowly and turned to look back at the window. “But I found something in the library. I found answers. And there haven’t been many people who felt the same way. Any, really,” she said. She turned back to him. “Until you.”
“I’ve always enjoyed books. We didn’t have any at home. We had a school that came through a couple of times a month, and he brought books for us to read, but I could never keep them for very long. And the alchemist I worked with would have access to books, though he never trusted me to look at any of them. I had to steal moments to read. That’s how I got to be a fast reader.”
“Are you telling me that you read everything you pulled off the shelves?”
“Pretty much.”
“You take five or six books a day.”
He shrugged. “So?”
She shook her head and chuckled. “I think that even if you wanted to leave the Academy, they aren’t going to let you. A mind like yours can’t go to waste. They could even put you to work in the library.”
That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. And it would keep him connected to the Academy.
They hadn’t gone very far further down the street when he noticed an enormous storefront. It was larger than any of the others they’d passed, and there was something strange about it. He noticed a pale light emanating from inside.
Alchemist Apprentice (The Alchemist Book 1) Page 24
