Alchemist Assault (The Alchemist Book 2)

by Dan Michaelson

  Then he realized the white light was coming from behind them. It glowed from everywhere. All he had to do was hold on, just a little longer. If he could, then he would get help. He kept his fist tight, and when the man tried to pry it open, Sam spat at him. It was the only thing he could do.

  The man jerked his head back and kicked Sam, who went sprawling backward.

  Sam kept his hand balled up in a fist. The man stormed over to him, magic building.

  Professor Harp and Professor Norathin appeared. They were angulation instructors and skilled. Sam had observed several of their classes, hiding within the Study Hall so that he could see if there was anything unique that he might learn from the more advanced angulation instructors. Still, without any talent in the arcane arts himself, it hadn’t been as helpful as simply pouring through the books that he found within the library.

  But now, he was thankful for their presence. The power of pale white arcane arts began to build from them.

  The man turned toward the newcomers. He held the green glowing item outward and blasted them, but they deflected it. Greenish power surged again, and when it faded, he was gone.

  “Get up.”

  It was Havash. He glowed with soft white light, though not quite like Tara when she fully embraced her power.

  “Who was he?” Sam asked.

  “Not now. Get up.”

  Sam got to his feet, helping Tara to hers. She moaned softly.

  Havash looked over to her. “What happened to her?”

  “I don’t know. She used her power on him, holding him in the prison of light, but when he broke free, she said it hurt.”

  Havash grunted. “Dangerous. Especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  That sounded much like what the attacker had said to them, though the man had said it as a taunt, whereas Havash sounded concerned.

  “Get back to the Academy. I’ll meet you there,” Havash said.

  Sam started walking, gently pulling Tara with him. She seemed to drag a little, though it improved with every step. As they neared the Academy, Tara was more alert than she’d been.

  Once in the garden, Sam finally began to relax. “Does it still hurt?” he asked.

  “Not as much as it did. I think that’s starting to fade.” She looked over her shoulder and back out into the city. “We got lucky, Sam. I don’t know what that was, but we got lucky.”

  “I know.”

  “Had Havash and the others not gotten there when they did, there’s no telling what would have happened to us.”

  Sam knew what would have happened. At least to the device. He didn’t know what would have happened to them. It was possible the man needed them, though it was just as likely he was only after the device. Once he had that, they would have been discarded.

  “Come on,” he said.

  They headed through the garden, past a line of shrubs. All Sam wanted was to get back to his room. He wouldn’t even try to go into the Study Hall tonight. All he wanted was a measure of safety. It seemed ironic to him that he was in far more danger in Tavran than he had ever been in Erstan.

  When they reached the entrance to the Academy, he hesitated with his hand on the door. At this time of the night, the Academy was normally quiet. There might be a few staff wandering the halls, and the kitchen would start hopping with activity as it got closer to morning, but that was all.

  Not now.

  Gray-robed instructors patrolled the halls. An older woman with a slight stoop glanced toward Sam and Tara.

  “What are you two doing up?” Professor Clarice asked, coming toward them. A small sphere in her hand started to glow with a soft white light.

  “Professor Clarice, we were just…” Tara glanced over at Sam as if looking for an answer.

  “I know that you were out for the midmonth celebration, but we have detected some aberrant use of power in the city. The students have all been called back.”

  “I know,” Tara said. “We saw it.”

  Professor Clarice frowned. “You saw it?”

  Sam still wasn’t entirely sure which of the professors might have been working with Ferand. He liked to think that all who remained were trustworthy, but he couldn’t be certain.

  Can I trust Professor Clarice?

  “We saw an explosion,” Sam said. “It looked too powerful to be anything but alchemy. We went looking for help.”

  Professor Clarice nodded. “That was wise. Then again, I would expect nothing less from you, Mr. Bilson. Perhaps it’s best if you return to your tower. We will secure the Academy, and the council is ensuring that the city is secure.”

  “What are they doing to secure the city?”

  Professor Clarice regarded him for a long moment, and then she sighed. “Unfortunately for you, Ms. Stone, you might be called into service sooner than we intended, so you might as well know. And you, Mr. Bilson, have proven your intellect, and given your advanced age, we suspect that you will advance quickly.”

  Sam resisted the urge to correct her on that, as there was no chance that he would advance quickly.

  “Recent Academy graduates have been called to defend the borders of the city. Many have begun to work with the armies, adding a layer of arcane arts protection to it.”

  Sam could read between the lines of what she was saying.

  They were preparing for a Nighlan assault.

  “What happens if they breach the city?”

  She shook her head. “The Academy has many powerful users of the arcane arts,” she said. “You don’t have to fear that happening.” She smiled, and there was something almost condescending and at this time. “Off to your tower.”

  He and Tara moved onward. They headed up the stairs to their own section before pausing at the entrance to the Study Hall.

  “Do you want to return?” Tara asked.

  Sam shook his head. “I think we have to start getting ready for the possibility of a Nighlan attack,” he said glumly.

  “I need to get word to my mother,” Tara said softly.

  “Do you think she will tell you anything?”

  “Normally, I’d say no, but in this case, she might. If she knows that students are getting called into fight…” She shook her head again. “Never heard of anything like that before. Even having users of the arcane arts mixed with the army is unusual.” She looked over to Sam. “I wish we could use the library.”

  “We have another option. Something that might be better than what we could find in the library.”

  She nodded. “Maybe that’s for the best.”

  They followed the Study Hall through the narrow corridors, Tara holding onto her connection to the arcane arts, creating a ball of pale white light in her hand to illuminate their passing. Neither of them worried about revealing their presence here. When they reached the entrance that would lead down to the alchemy tower, Sam triggered it, stepping inside and waiting for Tara before heading down the stairs. They closed the door behind them.

  He hurried into the alchemy tower and paused. It was illuminated with a pale greenish light. Alchemy lanterns.

  The almanac rested on the table. It drew his attention the way that it often did. He settled down in front of it, pulling open the cover and looking at the strange symbols.

  At least now, he could read the pages, but only when he used the device. He could read what was written on each page by channeling power through it and into the almanac. That had been the largest change for him and one he still didn’t fully understand. When he’d first tried studying the almanac, he saw only a series of symbols. There wasn’t anything he’d been able to make out from the writing, at least not well enough for him to be able to understand its significance. Now he could read it, but most of what was written within the book related to using magic. None of that helped Sam.

  “We just need to master a few different patterns of angulation here,” Sam suggested. “Knowing how powerful many of these are, I suspect we’re going to find something more beneficial here.”<
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  “These are more complicated than any that we found in the library.”

  “You can handle it.”

  “But I can’t read it.” The frustration in her words was evident. It took Sam to activate the key, which in turn revealed to the writing within the almanac. It was a combination of the two, which irritated Sam, as well. He didn’t like depending upon anyone to help him understand how to use what was in the almanac. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t do anything on his own.

  And unfortunately for Tara, she couldn’t either.

  The door opened, and he looked over to see Havash sweep into the room, closing the door quickly and resting his hand on it for a moment. The inside of the door glowed with a pale white light before fading.

  Havash was tall and slender, typically dressed in his robes of office, the dour gray that seemed to fit him. He looked so different than the first time Sam had encountered him on the streets of Erstan. At that time, he’d been wearing a tattered cloak and had a shaggy, trimmed beard. His dark eyes seemed as penetrating as when Sam had first seen him.

  Sam wasn’t entirely surprised that Havash came down into the alchemy tower. Now that he knew it was safe for those with arcane arts, there was no reason for anyone to avoid it, though many of the instructors still did. Sam suspected that Havash kept those rumors alive intentionally.

  “You were out in the city?” Havash asked.

  Sam glanced over to Tara before nodding. “We were. We saw alchemy used.”

  There was no use in denying it, not with Havash and the fact that he thought he could trust him.

  “And then we were attacked. Well, Sam was,” Tara said.

  “Who were they? The man wanted this.” Sam held his hand up, motioning toward the key. Havash hadn’t been able to remove it from him any easier than Ferand had been. “And he nearly pulled it off.”

  The other man sighed. “When Ferand revealed himself, I knew the Academy was no longer safe. Unfortunately, I thought we had more time, but they have been determined. With that level of determination, we need to be ready to respond.”

  “We?”

  Havash leaned forward. “We, Samran. You were targeted because you hold the key. They will do what they can to retrieve it. If they do, then all of Olway will be in danger. The Nighlan will stop at nothing to acquire it. The key is dangerous in the wrong hands.” As Havash said it, he looked at Sam with an unreadable expression. Sam couldn’t tell if Havash implied that he had the wrong hands or not. “And we must prevent them from reaching it or the almanac.”

  “I’ve been trying to understand why,” Sam admitted. “In the Barlands, there are rumors of the Nighlan. Plenty of them. But mostly, they’re of an empire chasing power.”

  “It is power,” Havash said, “and they are chasing it, but what they’re chasing are various forms of magical power. If they acquire the key to alchemy—”

  “Don’t you mean the lock?”

  Havash frowned a moment. “Perhaps,” he said. “But if they obtain it, then they will have acquired one more means of attacking.”

  “They already have arcane arts, then,”

  Havash regarded him for a long moment. “Unfortunately.” He breathed out heavily. “We must prepare and be ready. The Nighlan are active in the city. They can hide anywhere. You shouldn’t go into the city any longer, Samran. Now that you carry the key, and you are the one who controls the almanac, it is simply too dangerous.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  Havash shot him a hard glare. “Do you think that the alchemists who are within the Academy were unable to protect themselves? Do you think they were so ill-equipped for danger? Despite their preparation, Ferand and Ben managed to slaughter all of the remaining alchemists within the Academy. Would you be the next?”

  The words seemed to hang in the air for a moment.

  “When do you think they will attack again?” Tara asked.

  When and not if. Both knew that to be true.

  But the better question was how much power would they bring to bear?

  “I don’t know. All I know is that they have begun their incursion into Olway. They will not be satisfied until they acquire what they seek. And we are all that stands between them and destroying everything here.”

  Chapter Six

  It felt strange to Sam that he would be going to class after an attack in the city. Then again, none of the students knew about it. He and Tara were the only ones who truly understood what had happened. Everyone else thought that the Academy was perfectly safe. Perhaps for them, it was.

  The device felt strange in his hand. It seemed a tingle at times as if it wanted to activate. Sam found himself wrapping his hand around the key, tracing the fingers of his hand around it, feeling for the warmth of the key. He tried not to think about how he could activate it and tried not to think about the power that existed within it. He wanted to focus instead on finding normalcy.

  In this case, normalcy came from attending class.

  He found Professor Clarice as simple as always. It was almost as if she didn’t want the students to learn anything more complicated, though he doubted that was true. He didn’t think that she was trying to keep students from coming to understand angulation in an advanced fashion. Given what he had seen of some of the upper-level students, he knew they would eventually begin to learn more complex uses of it. Still, it seemed odd to Sam that so much time was spent on basic aspects of angulation and so little time was spent working on the more complex strategies.

  He got to mathematics late, and he wasn’t able to sit next to James. He had to take a seat in the back by himself and stared at the board as Professor Jones work through one of the equations.

  It was a complex equation, or it would’ve been had Sam not spent the time that he had within the library. Sam quickly solved it and then started to let his mind wander. It was difficult to stayed focused on the class, especially with what he had been through.

  By the time class was over, he shuffled off to botany.

  This one was even more difficult to stay awake for.

  He thought about Tara’s suggestion about trying to think through botany and treat it like anything else and listened to Professor Gilbert going on about the various flowering plants found all around. He wondered how many of them could be useful in alchemy. There had to be some.

  At one point, Sam turned to listen to one of the students in front of him, who was having a quiet conversation with another. They were from the olwand tower, and he didn’t know them very well, though from having spent time in class with them, he had noticed that they tended to talk through most of it. Professor Gilbert either didn’t seem to care or didn’t hear when students talked through her class.

  At one point, Sam leaned back, his own mind starting to wander, trying to come up with a question to ask for him to stay engaged in the classroom, but it grew increasingly difficult for him to do.

  The time in these classes gave Sam more of an opportunity to think about his connection to the key. Tara seemed convinced that he had access to the arcane arts, though Sam felt that unlikely. All he had was some alchemy device that made it appear that way, but there was a question that lingered within him that made him start to wonder if perhaps he might have access to something more. And if he did, shouldn’t he have been working to understand it?

  Only he had, and he had failed. Any attempt to try to reach for arcane arts, despite how much knowledge Sam had of it, eluded him. It was better not to get his hopes up thinking that he might be something that he was not.

  When the bell rang, Sam moved on.

  He realized something as he trudged to his next class.

  For so long, he had wanted his mind to be challenged. Coming to the Academy had offered him that opportunity, and Sam had appreciated the chance to be challenged here. Still, now he started to question whether the classroom setting was where he would find his challenge.

  It had gotten worse the longer that he had spent in the library,
and now with the library mostly closed off to him, perhaps he would find himself more invested in what he could learn from his instructors, but he still found it difficult.

  Not impossible, but he did find that he wasn’t learning anything in his classes that he hadn’t already seen in books.

  By the time he reached the dining hall that evening, those thoughts had been troubling him.

  What does it mean for me, then? I no longer feel as if I need to sit through class?

  That couldn’t be the case, but he still felt as if perhaps he needed to talk to Havash, or maybe to one of his other instructors—even the Grandam—about having an opportunity to study more advanced concepts.

  Tara sat across from him, setting her tray down. She had a stack of berries, broccoli, and a small sliver of sliced sausage. Sam had filed his tray high, still not having moved past that feeling of scarcity that he had known while living on the street.

  “What is it?” Tara asked.

  Sam shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he said.

  She frowned at him. “I can see that look in your eyes,” she said to him.

  Sam looked around the inside of the great hall. The rows of tables with students gathered all around filled the space. There was room for another row of tables, for the fifth tower that was no more, but with that, Sam didn’t know how many students there had even been within alchemy previously.

  He found his sister sitting at her table and was relieved to see that a group of first-year students surrounded her. Gresham was nowhere to be seen. Either he had moved on to someone else, or maybe Mia had finally gotten smart enough and had begun to ignore him.

  “I’m just getting frustrated with class,” he said.

  “It’s taken you long enough,” she said.

  Sam tore his gaze away from looking around the inside of the dining hall before frowning at her. “What?”

  She shrugged. “I reached that point in my first year too. It took me through the first exam.”