When he reached the first one, he noticed that it was small, silver, and shaped slightly oblong, with a central indentation. Symbols around the device were familiar to him.
Alchemy.
Though it was alchemy, it glowed with a greenish-white light. Not pure white like that of the arcane arts, and not the deep green of alchemy that he had seen before. This was somewhere in between.
As he stepped forward, he found that he couldn’t go any farther.
The alchemy devices created a barrier.
He ran his hand along the surface of it, wandering through. The instructors must have been more concerned about the dangers at the Academy that they had let on. That wasn’t terribly surprising. He should have expected that Havash would do something like this, but what surprised him was that so many different alchemy devices were scattered around.
The sheer number of them suggested that the complexity here was greater than what he had seen in other places.
He turned and started to rest his hand with the key up against the invisible barrier, when his hand sunk through it.
Sam hesitated.
He could use the key to get through alchemy?
He pulled his hand back, looking down at it.
That was a very different realization for him.
Sam glanced back toward the courtyard where the other students were gathered.
He didn’t have to stay here.
Why should I?
The answer came to him quickly, and it was an easy answer, even if he didn’t feel as if it were warranted. Havash thought that he was unsafe. Then again, he did carry the key. It was possible that made him every bit the target Havash believed, especially with Nighlan in the city. Perhaps he should be far more careful.
What he really should do was spend some of his stipend on alchemy devices that might protect him. Sam wouldn't have to worry nearly as much between learning about the potential power within the key and the possible devices he might purchase.
Reaching the edge of the garden, Sam pressed his hand against the barrier and slipped through. There was a slight separation between the Academy and the rest of the city. The Academy sat on a gentle rise near the river running through the city. From this end of the garden, he could more easily imagine that it had once been a ruling palace. The hidden corridors throughout would also make more sense. They might have been for servants but just as easily for spies.
The idea that there had been spies wandering through the halls he now wandered left him smiling. Now the hidden halls were for him and Tara, along with Havash and the Grandam and whomever else they shared them with. There weren’t too many people in the halls yet, but he worried that eventually there would be more, instructors mostly. Then he would no longer be allowed access.
Once out on the street, Sam headed to the river and stood, scanning for signs of where the entrance to the Academy could be. There would have to be some way for there to be an entrance down to the lower levels, but he didn’t see any. No sign of a building, no sign of anything.
He paused at a shop, fishing into his pocket for his money that he kept on him at all times. It was an old habit from living on the street. He didn’t dare leave his coin behind, never knowing who might find it and claim it for themselves. He realized that his robes would look out of place, and he found a shirt, pants, and a cloak, all for a single silver. Far more than it should have been, but the store owner nodded and then waved Sam off after being paid.
He must not have known that Sam wasn’t supposed to be out in the city.
He changed in an alley behind the shop, bundling his robe up underneath his arm, before heading back out into the streets. He wandered for a little while until the sign, and green glowing energy, of an alchemy shop called to him.
Sam had been past this one several times. He paused the window, noting the lights inside, and looked through the window.
On a whim, he stepped inside.
There was a soft tolling of a bell, and he looked up but didn’t see anything hanging over the door, as so many shops had. It must’ve been triggered by alchemy.
He wandered along rows of alchemy creations, pausing at several. There were lanterns. Those were the most common, as he suspected they sold for the most. But there were other items, as well. He noticed several healing concoctions, some alchemy enhanced cloth, which he thought could be useful, and a long, cylindrical object made of silver.
By the time he reached the back of the shop, he couldn’t believe all of the items, much like he couldn’t believe how much everything had cost. It was incredible.
When a man came out from the back, Sam smiled. The man didn’t return it. He had flat gray eyes, thinning gray hair, and he was short, leaning on an ornately carved black lacquered came. “Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“Are you Belianrash?”
The man frowned. “No. I’m the store manager.”
“Are you an alchemist?”
The man’s face soured, and Sam realized that the kind of questions he was asking were the kind that would draw the wrong attention. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to have an opportunity to look around,” he said. “I realize that I shouldn’t take too much of your time.”
“No,” he said, waving his hand. “You should not.”
Sam looked around as he headed toward the door before pausing and looking back at the man. He had wanted to meet Belianrash and thought that maybe he would even have an opportunity to ask him about alchemy, perhaps even question him about whether he knew any of the alchemists who had died at the Academy, but he wasn’t here.
Maybe he was too famous now to be here.
Sam headed out of the shop and wandered a little further.
He turned away. Maybe it was on the opposite side of the river. Following the river gave an interesting vantage. The buildings along the river were all old and made of stone. Some of them looked to be falling apart, the stone crumbling into disrepair, moss growing along their sides the only sign of life. As far as he could tell, though, most of the buildings were still in use. Many appeared to be homes, but a few had signs hanging out front indicating shops.
Sam paused at the first few, studying them to see if there was a way for someone to use any of these buildings to access the lower Alchemy section, but nothing suggested it.
He took the first bridge, which was old and slippery from the thin coat of moss over the surface. He held tightly to the railing as he crossed, worried about falling into the water.
When he reached the other side, he looked back. From here, the Academy rose high into the sky, the pale white stone catching the reflection from the fading sunlight. There was almost a glow coming off it, a faint white light that reminded him of the magic Tara used.
He hurried along the street, heading in the direction of the Academy. He tried to see whether there was any way to get down into the Academy from this angle, but there wasn’t. Near the next bridge that crossed the river beyond the Academy, he looked outward from another angle and didn’t see anything. There would be no answers. That disappointed him but wasn’t surprising.
Now that he was out, he wandered. It was relatively early. With the seasons changing—the chill in the air was evidence to that, if not the colors shifting on the trees—the days were getting shorter. He could remain out of the Academy for as long as he wanted. Besides, Sam would have to wait long enough to ensure that there wasn’t anybody in the garden outside of the Academy before sneaking back in. If he went back too soon, it was possible that someone would realize that he had slipped out of the school.
Then again, the key had been sought by Ferand for a reason. Alchemists had died to protect it. Sam couldn’t help but feel like if he could understand everything about the key, everything about the almanac, he might have answers, but he still felt as if those answers eluded him. The key was… well, the key.
As he turned again and headed into the city, a strange light caught his attention and made Sam tense up. This glow was green, b
ut it was a deeper shade, the kind he saw when he used the device. It was the kind of green he’d seen from Chasten.
Alchemists.
Sam moved toward it before he knew what he was doing. It was probably a mistake. If they were Alchemists—and he didn’t know if that was the case or not—they wouldn’t necessarily want someone like him interrupting what they were doing. What if Ferand and the others had returned? Havash would want to know, but Sam needed to be certain.
The street led up a hillside. The road narrowed, and the buildings along it pressed in from either side. A few of the buildings looked to be homes, but most of them had storefronts. There were signs for bakers, metalsmiths, candlemakers, herbalists, and even one for a minor alchemist.
James had talked to him about how unusual that was, especially in the city where alchemy was more common. Why would anyone need minor alchemy when they could simply hire somebody who had been formally trained at the Academy?
There were possibilities to that, many that came to his mind, not the least being that an alchemist would likely be cost-prohibitive to most within the city. Not that those within the city would acknowledge that the Academy, and the graduates there, overcharged their services.
The greenish light guided Sam, almost as if it was calling him and drawing him forward. He followed the direction of its power and found himself near the hilltop. Even here, it wasn’t easy for him to make anything else out in the city. The buildings were too close together, obscuring his view. Once he traversed the hilltop, he realized the light had started to fade. Whatever he’d seen had been on the other side of the hill.
He turned and headed back to the other side. Once there, he looked around but couldn’t find the source. As he looked, he started to see the steady building of light again. It was faint at first. That was what he focused on, latching onto the greenish light as he tried to analyze what he saw.
He started down the hill again, but the light began to fade. Whatever he detected was here, so he turned back around and stopped. The buildings around him made it difficult to determine the exact source, but he knew it had to be here.
Moving slowly, he made his way up the hillside. The bakery caught his attention. Sam smelled nearby the sweet aroma of bread, different from what he smelled in the kitchens from Okun’s baking. That light was still ahead of him but then faded.
He clutched the cloak that he bought around his shoulders. It had been expensive, and had there been any other option, Sam wouldn’t have spent for something like that, but perhaps it was useful to have other clothing so that he could venture out in the city. Wearing his Academy robes would draw attention, which was not the kind of thing he wanted.
The people that he passed on the street didn’t pay him any mind. Tavran was at the crossroads of other cities, and it drew people from all over. He didn’t even have to be dressed particularly well to avoid notice. And though the cloak had cost more than anything else that he never worn, it wasn’t of a particularly fine fabric. Certainly not as well-made as the robe the Academy provided.
Passing several streets and alleys, he didn’t see anything. When he reached another alley, he didn’t expect to see anything but found a faint greenish glow. He looked back toward the Academy. Havash would want to know what he’d found, but he needed to understand it first. Until then, he should figure out what he had followed. Maybe it was nothing.
The alley was narrow, barely wide enough for him to walk through without brushing his shoulders along the walls. He had to step around piles of filth and pools of water. The stench would’ve bothered him once, but after being forced to clean the lower levels of the Academy, even that wasn’t nearly as bad as what it could have been. He’d suffered through worse.
The alley looked like a dead end up ahead. His hand pulsed. It was the first time that had happened in quite a few days, long enough that he’d started to believe it wasn’t ever going to pulse again. He glanced down at the device and found it glowing softly. The green light pulsed in time with the device, but it was the nature of the glow that most caught his attention. It was a similar color and brightness as what he’d been following. That couldn’t be a coincidence.
Sam held his hand out. The pulsing continued, unabated, and he found it growing increasingly uncomfortable. Sam squeezed his hand, trying to suppress the discomfort and hold the power in. He worried that letting the light drift outward would only reveal his presence here, and he didn’t want to do that.
He lowered his hand, and a darkened shape appeared at the end of the alley. Sam’s heart hammered. Sweat beaded on his brow. Gripping the device, he prepared in case he needed to use it, though he didn’t know if it would even work. When he’d faced Luthian, the device hadn’t done anything. Neither had Tara’s magic, for that matter, but that didn’t change how he’d have to find some way to try.
The figure approached him without saying anything. As they did, Sam noticed a hint of the same light coming from them. It was faint but bright enough that he was able to detect it. The same light drifted from him.
“Come with me,” the voice said.
A doorway Sam hadn’t seen opened, and the man disappeared inside. Sam hesitated, not knowing what he’d find if he followed the man inside. Then again, he hadn’t been attacked, which was different than the last time he’d encountered anyone in the street. The sense of power was different too.
He stopped where the man had disappeared. There was no sign of a doorway, only smooth walls. Somehow the man had vanished. A barrier.
Sam pressed his hand out, pushing against the wall and feeling for something that was off and shouldn’t be there. He found only stone. If it were a barrier, there would be resistance, but it would fade the longer he pushed on it. With the pulsing of the device, he believed it would work. So far, there hadn’t been a barrier the device didn’t allow him through, so he had to believe it would work now.
When he pushed, he ran his hands along the wall, searching for anything to suggest he could find a way through the barrier. There was resistance everywhere he pushed. Then he found it, the section of stone that seemed to be different than the rest. He pressed his hand against it and felt the resistance begin to fade. He continued to push harder, letting everything he could flow through him and the device, and the color within it began to glow more brightly. He pressed his hand along it, holding it outward, and the barrier slowly eased.
He started to question whether he was making a mistake. Those thoughts had lingered with him, knowing that Havash didn’t want him to risk himself, and here he was approaching some strange barrier, chasing a man that he knew nothing about.
But he needed to go. He needed answers.
Having felt a barrier once before, he was aware of how to pass through it but hadn’t expected to find anything like that here. He didn’t see any alchemy devices scattered around him that seemed like they would be responsible for forming the barrier. Sam had no idea what caused the pressure against him, though he could feel it pushing back and out against him. He pressed the key up against the resistance, straining to try to find some way past it, and as he did, he gradually found the pressure easing away from him.
At last, the barrier parted.
Sam fell through and into a room with the man, who now loomed over him.
Chapter Thirteen
Sam rose to his feet slowly. His hand still pulsed, which he thought was a good thing in case he’d need to use power. He didn’t know whether it’d be enough against someone who could make a barrier he could barely move through, but he would have to try.
The man watched him. He was older than Sam had thought at first, and his head nearly brushed the ceiling. Dressed in a gray jacket and pants, he would have passed for anyone within the city if it weren’t for the steady greenish power he possessed.
“Who are you?” the man asked.
Sam scooted back, trying to get away from him and stay prepared, but there was nothing he could do to prepare. “My name is Sam. I was looking for—”
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The man grabbed his arm and jerked it forward, prying back Sam’s fingers before he had a chance to react. Sam tried to push outward with the power from the device, but there was no real sense of energy there even as he did. The man cupped his hand over Sam’s, preventing that power from exploding outward and containing it. Surprisingly, the device still pulsed.
Sam thought he might use it again, but if the man could defuse the energy, there didn’t seem to be much point for him to do so.
“Where did you get this?” the man asked. He didn’t try to remove the device, which surprised Sam.
“There was an attack on the Academy. A man had it. I pulled it off him.”
This wasn’t a total lie.
The other man watched him. “What kind of an attack?”
Sam regarded him. He couldn’t tell if this was one of the Nighlan, but he didn’t think so. If he were one of the Nighlan, Sam thought that he would have known about the attack. He thought that he might have known about more than what it seemed like he did. As far as he could tell, this man was not at all involved.
“We think it was tied to the Nighlan.”
The man’s face wrinkled. “Nighlan.” He said the word with irritation and released Sam’s hand, turning away. “We’d heard there were Nighlan who managed to get ahold of one of the vrandals, but I didn’t think that possible.”
“What’s a vrandal?”
The man raised his hand. He had a similar device, but it wasn’t quite the same. The device wrapped around three of his fingers and stretched down to his palm, but the shape was a little different. Whereas the device in Sam’s hand pressed into the center of his palm, almost perfectly circular, the one the man wore had more of a triangular shape. The connections to the rings on the man’s fingers were narrower, which might make them even more comfortable. The metal had a different hue to it as well, the light reflecting a softer silvery color.
Would the different shape make it easier to use?
Alchemist Assault (The Alchemist Book 2) Page 12
