Her gaze flickered to his hand. “You don’t think it’s that, do you?”
“I hadn’t,” Sam said. He figured that they’d have to find someone to open it for them, but what if he had an actual alchemy key? “She said only a few people were granted access. And it seems to me that there would have to be some reason for that.”
She looked past him, before resting her elbows on the table, staring for a moment. “There might be someone I could ask,” she said. “But it’s going to be a challenge.”
“Who?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s one of my advanced classes, and I think that if I swing the questions the right way…”
“You mean the Secundum.”
She looked over to him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I know that he teaches advanced angulation, and you’ve been disappearing in the evenings at times, so if he is the one who teaches you…”
“He’s been working with a small subset of students.”
“Gresham?”
“You don’t have to act like that,” Tara said. “He is skilled, after all, and as much as it pains me to acknowledge it, I can’t deny that he knows his angulation.” She shook her head again. “But maybe the Secundum could help. I can ask him when I go to my class later.”
“See what he has to say, but don’t let them know what you’re looking for.”
She arched a brow at him. “I think I know how to ask questions.”
He smiled, chuckling. “Why don’t we meet back here later?”
Sam returned to his studies while Tara worked on hers. When the seventh bell rang, she got up. Sam debated saying longer, but without Tara here, maybe he didn’t really need to. Besides, there were other things he could be doing. If he could get into the Study Hall, maybe he could explore more of the alchemy section, even though they hadn’t found anything there. They headed out of the library. Muriel watched him leave with Tara, nodding politely to him, though the expression she gave Tara was something different.
“What’s that about?” Sam asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing. She just doesn’t like that I bested her scores.”
“You did?”
“And then you came along and bested mine,” Tara said. “At least on the first exams. It might not happen with subsequent ones.”
“I wasn’t trying to—”
Tara started laughing and moved toward the instructor's quarters. “You don’t have to worry about that. I want somebody to do better than me. It pushes me. Now I know how much harder I have to work. Anyway, I need to go to my advanced angulation seminar. I will find you later.”
Sam smiled, and he headed back toward the tolath tower. He had reached the landing where he could go into the Study Hall when he heard voices on the stairs. Sam changed his mind and started up. He didn’t want to get caught opening the Study Hall before he was supposed to.
When he reached the fourth-year level, there were a pair of students at the end of the hall that he saw talking, Gabe and Jesmine. They paused and then returned to their conversation. Sam shrugged his way back up to his room. He found James in the hall speaking to Lacey. He nodded to Sam, but Lacey ignored him.
Sam stepped into his room, and gathered the alchemy books from beneath his bed, and started to go through the book. There had to be something there. The challenge was in trying to find those answers and trying to understand what was there so he could come up with something. That seemed to be the key, but the problem was that he didn’t know if there was anything more.
He grew increasingly agitated. Every so often, he felt as if he detected thunder, even though there had been no sense of it in the tolath tower before. When a knock came on his door, he stuffed the alchemy books back under his mattress and pulled open the door.
It was James.
He smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “I saw the way that she looked at you.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Sam said. “She’s not the first person to treat me like that.”
James snorted. “Well, I wanted to apologize. With you spending as much time with Tara as you have, I’ve been preoccupied. I’ve been talking to Lacey and Grace, and…” He shook his head. “Anyway. Lacey was telling me that students might be sent from the Academy soon.”
Sam frowned. “What?”
“It’s just rumor,” James said, waving his hand. “Nothing more than that. At least, I don’t think it’s anything more than that? I’ve sent word to my parents, but these days, it’s hard to get anything outside of the Academy walls. I suppose those who’re better connected might know more.”
He meant Tara, but if Tara had known something, she would’ve said it.
“What are you hearing?”
“Oh, probably just rumors. Some people are talking about what’s going on in the city. They say the Academy is the target. And given what happened to the alchemy tower, they don’t want any of the other towers being impacted.”
“What’s going to happen then?”
“I don’t know. They might send us away, they might bring us someplace safe to study, or they might just shut the Academy for a while.”
For anybody else, that wasn’t much of an issue. For him and for his sister, it was a much bigger deal. They didn’t have any place to go.
Not that he could tell anyone that.
Maybe Havash could help, but if he’d failed at protecting the Academy, there wasn’t going to be anything that Havash would do.
He needed to find what Ferand was after. Sam was going to have to work quickly. If he wanted to keep his sister—and himself—safe, it was going to involve coming up with answers.
He knew what he was going to have to do. Get back into the library, figure out a way to open the restricted section. Find the almanac. And that would be the key to the kind of alchemy that would protect the Academy.
“A couple of us are going to the great hall to game later,” James was saying. “If you want to join…”
Sam blinked. “I was going to meet with Tara and study.”
James started to smile. “Study?” He winked. “Good luck with that.”
James turned away, and Sam closed the door. A part of him felt a little regret at not revealing anything more to James. At this point, once James learned the truth about Sam, it was going to be much harder on Sam. He had a hard time thinking that James would be able to forgive him.
But maybe there wasn’t going to be anything for him to forgive if they were all sent away from the Academy.
When he thought it was late enough, Sam slipped out of his room, headed down the stairs, checking to make sure that there was no one around him. He reached the entrance to the Study Hall and opened the door.
He stepped inside. Sam waited for a moment, and then he headed toward the library. He didn’t know if Tara would be there at this point. He didn’t know how long her advanced angulation class would take.
He was heading toward it when he heard a sudden explosion.
It was loud, and it was not in the location that he expected.
It seemed to come from outside of the Study Hall, and Sam paused. He couldn’t easily escape from the Study Hall from where he was, so he debated which way he needed to go.
There was one place that he thought that he could take.
He hurried toward the kitchen. When he stepped out of the closet, he paused at the door, listening. It was late, and hopefully late enough that he wouldn’t see any of the kitchen help, but as he pushed open the door, he found a massive, baldheaded figure stacking items long one counter.
Okun turned and looked at Sam.
“What are you… You.”
Sam pushed the closet door closed behind him, and he regarded Okun for a long moment. “Hello?”
Okun frowned at him. “Aren’t you a first-year student?” He glanced past Sam before looking back at him. Sam nodded. “What are you doing in there?”
“I sort of came across it with a friend.”
&
nbsp; Okun snorted. “Not many know about them.”
“You do?”
“There aren’t too many things that happen in my kitchen that I don’t know about. Can’t say I know where they go, but I know it exists.”
“I heard something. Thunder or…” Sam said.
Okun shook his head. “There’s been quite a few of them. The professors keep talking about it. Someone tried to break in and all, but no way to do so, of course.”
“No way?”
“The building is too stout. Secure, you know.”
“But I heard—”
“Probably nothing more than someone working on their alchemy,” he said. “At least, that was what I used to hear all the time. Nowadays…”
“What?”
“Well, it’s been quiet. Every so often, you might hear something, but for the most part, the building has been quiet.”
Alchemy.
Could that be what he was hearing?
“Don’t go do anything that’s going to get you into trouble. I kind of liked you. You were the only one who spent any time in the kitchen.”
“I’m sorry didn’t come back.”
“Didn’t expect you to.”
“Still,” Sam said.
He stepped back in the closet, triggered the door, and once he reached the hallway, he noticed a pale greenish light. It hadn’t been there when he had come to the kitchen the first place, but it was growing brighter.
He was tempted to head back out of the hall, make his way back into the kitchen, and from there, he could return to… Where?
Sam had no idea where he could go. At this point, the only thing that he knew was that something had taken place here.
Alchemy. He was certain of it. He reached the section leading down into the alchemy tower. The brightness of the light was growing even deeper.
Sam debated what he wanted to do. Stay or get help?
He decided to do the smart thing. It was time to get help.
Chapter Thirty-Four
When he stepped out of the Study Hall, he looked up the stairs for a moment, but only a moment. From there, he hurried back down. Sam needed Havash.
By the time he reached the instructor's hallway, he had felt a trembling around him several times. Enough that he no longer felt as if it were safe. Even more reason for him to get Havash involved.
He rounded a corner and practically ran into the Secundum.
“Mr. Bilson. Were you doing out at this time of night?”
Sam debated how much to share with him. At this point, he needed help. The Secundum had been helpful to him in the past and had been kind, as well. Why shouldn’t he ask him for help?
“There’s something going on in the alchemy tower,” he said.
The Secundum frowned. “What?”
“The explosions. There’s something going on. I can show you, but…” He squeezed his eyes shut. Tara would be angry with him, but with the heavy green light that was there, Sam believed that there was something dangerous.
He hurried down the hall. There had to be some access to the Study Hall here, but Sam didn’t know where it was. He had no idea where any of it was, only that he believed there had to be something.
He raced down the stairs. When he reached the entrance to the alchemy tower, the Secundum shook his head.
“It is not safe for students to go down there.”
“I know it’s not,” Sam said, his mind racing as he tried to come up with an answer.
He didn’t have a good answer. He didn’t know what he could say but thought that maybe there would be something.
“I was visiting with a friend of mine. She was with you earlier.”
“I see. You’re friends with Tara Stone. Like minds, and all that.”
Sam nodded. “I was supposed to meet her, but I saw greenish light coming from the alchemy tower. I don’t know what’s going on. Between that, the explosions, and whatever is happening out in the city…”
The Secundum frowned at him. “You saw this?”
Sam nodded.
“And who else is aware of the greenish light that you’ve seen?”
Sam licked his lips. “Only Tara. We shouldn’t have been looking into it, but…”
“If there’s something taking place in the alchemy tower,” he said, and from the way that he said, it didn’t seem to Sam as if he believed him, “we will need students to be safe. The towers are as protected as possible.”
Sam nodded.
He watched as the Secundum started toward the door.
He started whistling.
Sam froze. There was something in that tune he whistled that struck him as familiar. It was a strange sound, which made hearing it again that much more peculiar. Sam had heard it before.
It took him a moment to realize where he heard it. Ferand.
He looked at the Secundum, his mouth going dry.
The Secundum paused at the door leading down to the alchemy tower, still whistling. He looked back, only to see Sam standing motionless. He started glowing with the pale light of the arcane arts.
“Sam?” the Secundum asked. “Can you tell me where you saw this greenish light?” The Secundum still had his back turned to Sam, and he was whistling the same tune.
Sam swallowed, trying to force down the nausea that worked through him. “It was down in the alchemy tower.”
“That is what you said, but can you show me?”
“It’s not safe,” Sam said. “The Grandam said that students weren’t permitted down there.”
The normal warm expression in his eyes shifted. It had been replaced by something else. Something darker. More dangerous.
“When you said that you saw colors, I should have pieced it together before now. And with your cleverness, it would be fitting. Of course, it would,” he said, though it was mostly to himself.
“What is?” Sam asked, looking along the hallway, swallowing hard.
He started to think about how he might be able to escape.
But there didn’t look to be any place for him to go.
He shifted and then squeezed his hand around the key.
“You’re the one who took the device, aren’t you?” the secundum said.
His voice was quiet, but it seemed impossibly loud in Sam’s ears. “I didn’t take anything,” Sam said.
The secundum strode forward, moving far faster than what Sam thought that he was able to. When he reached him, the pale white light began to build off of him. It was powerful.
And Sam reacted.
He held up his hand, pointing the key at the Secundum.
The Secundum just smiled. “There it is. Do you know how long we’ve looked for it? And it was a student, not one of the Kal cursed alchemists hiding from us.”
“You’re with Ferand?”
“With him? Why, he’s my brother.”
He glanced behind Sam, and Sam focused, readying the pattern.
“And we were so close to having it until you surprised him. He thought it was…” The Secundum turned back to Sam, shaking his head. “It doesn’t matter what he thought. He was wrong. Just a student. A clever one, but still just a student. And here I had thought that you might be underpowered as you have not demonstrated any real talent with the Arcane Arts according to your instructors. But perhaps it isn’t the Arcane Arts at all that you have the talent with, is it?”
He took a step toward Sam, and the flashing white around him began to glow.
Sam readied. He had to use the key.
“Now that we have the key, along with someone who is obviously well-equipped to use it, we will finally obtain the lock. And then all of this disruption can be put to rest.”
“You’re just after power,” Sam said.
The Secundum chuckled. “Power? Why, you don’t even know what you have, do you? No. Of course not. What you have is a way to understanding something greater, though they won’t reveal that to you, of course. Then again, they can’t reveal anything anymore. My brother saw
to that. They refused to make the bargain necessary for us to know real strength. Others of us see the folly in that.”
None of this made sense to him.
“All of this was to gain access to this?” Sam asked, holding up his hand.
“They have hidden it. They claim they were protecting it and refused to even acknowledge its existence, but we know. Oh, we know. And now it will go back to its rightful owners.”
Sam squeezed his hand around it, backing away.
The Secundum began to trace patterns. They were quick and heavily crisscrossed with power.
Sam reacted. He squeezed his hand around the device and let power explode from it. Unlike with Ferand, when it seemed as if the power within it caused him to tumble back, this time, it did nothing.
It seemed as if the Secundum merely waved his hand, and the blast of greenish energy Sam used dissipated into nothingness.
The Secundum smiled. “Interesting that you would think that would work on me.”
“So Havash isn’t with you?”
At the mention of Havash, the Secundum’s face turned downward. “He nearly disrupted these plans.” He took another step toward Sam, and he raised his hand. He began to trace a pattern, power beginning to build.
Sam braced himself when the door to the kitchen came open.
Okun looked at the Secundum, glanced to Sam, and frowned.
“Get back,” Sam said.
Okun sniffed, and he started toward the Secundum.
The Secundum brought his hands together, and a maze of pale white lines formed. He pushed it out at Okun.
It slammed into the cook but then washed away, a hint of pale green exploding off of him and washing free.
“Go,” Okun said, not looking to Sam. “Seems we finally uncovered a traitor.”
The Secundum regarded Okun. “Hiding in the kitchen?”
“Not hiding. Watching,” Okun said. He turned to Sam again. “Go. Don’t make me tell you again.”
“You can’t—”
“I can. You can’t.”
Sam watched, and a faint tracing of green began to build from Okun.
It was similar to what he’d seen from Chasten during Sam’s testing and similar to what he’d seen in the halls. Had it been Okun?
Alchemist Apprentice (The Alchemist Book 1) Page 29
