Alchemist Assault (The Alchemist Book 2)

by Dan Michaelson

  “And you’re not even curious what it is?”

  “There is no point in pursuing it. We have the power that we need.”

  “And what about the almanac?”

  “They believed they needed the almanac to reach the item of power. But they might not.”

  “Unless they figured out another way,” Sam said, pulling out the pages from his pocket and holding them up. “I might have helped them.”

  And it had been unintentional.

  “You are not to blame,” Luthian said. “Others who have more experience than you have been trying to prevent the Nighlan from gaining access to the Academy for a long time. For many years, the alchemists stationed here have served that role. The users of arcane arts have augmented, but the attack on alchemy within the Academy disrupted. Now…”

  “Now what?”

  “Now the Nighlan have begun their endgame. And unfortunately, they might succeed.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  They headed to the tunnels. Sam could feel pressure around him the same way he had before, but now that he could see, he was far more aware of the dampness along the walls. There was an energy in the air radiating from Tara as she held onto her power, but it also came from Daven and Luthian.

  “Why are we doing this ourselves?” Tara muttered.

  “We aren’t,” Daven said. “I’ve told you I’ve summoned help, but you two coming through that room suggests Bethal has found what she’s looking for.”

  “We didn’t see anything in that room,” Tara said.

  “Are you sure?” Luthian asked, an edge to his voice. Sam wondered what the man had experienced in the past to put that edge there. There was a darkness within him as well.

  “We didn’t really have time to investigate,” Sam admitted.

  “None have been able to find it. The alchemists have looked for the secret power for a long time. They know it’s within the Academy, but protections have existed to keep it safe. And even with the key, we haven’t found anything yet. Then again, there are natural protections within the Academy that help detect certain aspects of alchemy.”

  “The river,” Sam said.

  “That’s right,” Daven said.

  “Why, though?”

  “Alchemy combines many aspects of the natural world with aspects of the magical world. In a place like this, with the power of the river flowing above us, it allows both to merge.”

  They reached the end of the hall. From here, there was only the barrier that prevented them from stepping any further. Sam stopped in front of it, aware of it even before he could see it. From this side, it looked like nothing other than a plain section of wall.

  “Are you sure that’s it?” Daven asked.

  “That’s where they came through,” Luthian said.

  “What were you doing here?” Tara asked him.

  “Patrolling.”

  “Patrolling for what?”

  “Apparently for kids from the Academy.”

  “We’ve been searching for other ways into the alchemy tower. Mostly testing where Ferand might have gone in. And then when we saw him searching around here, we thought that he might’ve learned something.”

  Could the space that they had gone through be somehow tied to it?

  It had been protected. There had been a barrier, after all.

  “Are we ready?” Daven asked.

  “When will your help reach us?” Tara asked.

  “Soon.”

  “How?”

  “Because they’re situated within the Academy.”

  Daven nodded to Sam, who pressed the vrandal against the barrier. Now that the device was pulsing, the shift happened rapidly and allowed him to slide past. When he stepped through, power exploded toward him.

  Sam barely had an opportunity to react. He held his hand out, trying to brace himself. The vrandal pulsed with a surge of energy that coursed out from him far more rapidly than it had before. Deep green light erupted all around.

  Someone grunted behind him. He turned around and saw Tara, power building from her. She used the magic she’d learned from the book, and the spell streaked along the tunnel. For a moment, Sam thought it would hold whoever had attacked.

  “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to maintain this,” she said.

  The power exploded. It washed through the tunnel and slammed into Sam. He was thrown back, crashing into the barrier just as Daven stepped through, their heads colliding. There was a flash of light that soon faded. Sam shook his head, worried he’d been blinded again, but his eyesight returned after a few dazed moments.

  He took a steady breath and looked around. Where was Luthian? Pressure built behind him, and the barrier bulged.

  “Get up,” Sam said to Daven. The man lay motionless.

  Tara had gotten to her feet, her hands raised in front of her. She held onto another one of the spells they’d learned. “I don’t know if I can keep holding it,” she said.

  “Keep trying,” Sam said as an idea came to him.

  The time he’d spent while blind had allowed him to think through the various symbols that he had seen. He didn’t understand them, but there was a pattern that he had started to piece together and was beginning to think that he had answers to. Just needed time.

  Sam scanned the pages, looking for something that might be useful against whoever was in front of them.

  As he read the pages, he found one he thought might help. “Try this,” Sam said.

  He began to read aloud, talking about angulation, augmentation, various complex factors the arcane arts. Tara followed it all. She repeated everything he said, neither of their voices raised too loud. If the person across from them had a way of using the same power, they might counteract what they were doing. A white light built from Tara, rising with a vibrant intensity. Then the page was done.

  “What now?” she asked.

  “I think you release it.”

  Another explosion struck, though he couldn’t see where it came from. The tunnel echoed with that power, leaving debris raining around them.

  “Sam?”

  He looked over. Tara’s jaw remained clenched and her eyes drawn tight as she stared straight ahead of her. Sam looked at what she was watching.

  Through the raining of debris, a pair of men were fighting, though he couldn’t see much to identify either. Flashes of white light flared near green, surges of power that seemed incomprehensible.

  “Let it go,” he said softly.

  “It might take out all of them,” she said, her words clipped.

  “I know. Do it.”

  The power exploded from her, filling the entire tunnel with an enormous white light. There was a grunt from ahead, and Sam raced forward to see what they’d done. As the pale white light began to fade, he found a body lying on the ground and rolled it over.

  Ferand.

  Sam’s breath caught. He checked the man’s pulse to see if they’d done more than just incapacitate him.

  Tara leaned down. “Is he…”

  “He’s alive. I don’t know how we’re going to secure him, though.”

  She glanced behind her. Sam followed the direction of her gaze, and there was a green surge of energy. Luthian stepped through the barrier, striding toward them. He glanced over to Daven and held his hand out. For a moment, Sam had a rush of fear, worried that Luthian might be working against them. Then a deep green light channeled from Luthian to Daven, who gasped and sat up.

  “What happened?” Daven asked groggily.

  “When you stepped through, we were attacked,” Luthian said. “I was thrown back, and it took me a while to come around.” He stopped next to Sam and Tara, then hoisted Ferand off the ground. “Apparently, these students knocked Ferand out.”

  “You have some way of holding him?” Sam asked.

  “I might have something,” Luthian growled. He grabbed Ferand’s hand and pried it open, revealing a vrandal. Luthian used the energy from his own vrandal to remove Ferand’s. He
stuffed the device into his pocket and then held the other man up against the tunnel wall. With a burst of green light, Ferand hung suspended.

  “This should hold him until we get back.”

  “Won’t he be able to escape?” Tara asked.

  “He might have an understanding of the arcane arts, but he still has quite a bit to learn about alchemy.” Daven came forward, shaking his head. “Come on. We need to get moving. They knew we were here.”

  They headed along the tunnel, with Sam staying close to Daven, Tara behind him, and Luthian took up the rear. Every so often, Sam glanced behind him in concern that Luthian might do something, but he showed no sign that he couldn’t be trusted. Sam sensed the next barrier.

  “This is it,” he said. “Is this where this item of power will be?”

  “Possibly,” Daven said.

  “Are we going to go with just the four of us?” Tara said.

  “No. Two.” Luthian push them back out of the way. “You two students need to stay behind.”

  “We can help. We did just stop Ferand.”

  “And you got lucky. If Bethal is working with them and searching for something of power, she might actually have a way of using it.”

  Daven and Luthian shared a look, and then deep green light began to build from both of their vrandal. They held them up to the barrier and stepped through. Sam and Tara looked at each other.

  “Maybe we should leave,” he whispered.

  He wanted to, but they wouldn’t be able to help if Daven and Luthian needed them. Not that he really thought they’d be able to help. These were powerful Alchemists who had complete control over their vrandals—something Sam still did not. If it came down to needing to use the device to protect himself, he didn’t know if he could, other than using the pages he had.

  Moments passed. And then more. There was still no sign of the other two returning. Sam stared at the barrier. There was energy within it, and every so often, it seemed as if the energy shifted. It was subtle, but he could still feel it. He couldn’t just stand here and do nothing, so he pressed the vrandal up against the barrier.

  “What are you going to do?” Tara asked.

  “Whatever they find, I still have the key. I don’t know what it is, but shouldn’t we at least figure that out and be prepared?”

  Tara didn’t argue. She took his hand and nodded.

  Sam pressed his vrandal up against the barrier, and they stepped into the hidden room.

  A pit opened up in front of them, a section of the floor that was missing. A burst of light came from below.

  “How far does that go?” she whispered.

  “I don’t—”

  Something grabbed him. Sam spun to see Ferand behind him, stepping through the barrier. He tried to shake the man off, but he had a firm grip on Sam’s arm.

  “Did you really think you were going to be able to—”

  Tara’s magic grabbed Ferand and tossed him toward the pit. His scream cut off suddenly.

  “What did you do?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t know. I just reacted.”

  Sam leaned over the edge of the opening. It was a small hole, but stairs spiraled down around it. He started down when Tara grabbed his arm.

  “We need to see what’s down there,” he said.

  “We do? I think the others have this.”

  “They need us,” he said, pulling the pages out of his pocket and showing them to her. “They might need us to use that power again.”

  Tara let out a sigh of frustration before nodding.

  Sam started down the stairs again, staying close to the wall. They spiraled into the darkness, from which came occasional flashes of white and green. When they reached flat ground, a cavern opened up in front of them. There was a wide space far ahead, where light bloomed from within. It surged almost as if there was a smattering of power, alternating between green and white, one after another. A greenish light exploded.

  “Where did Ferand go?” Tara asked.

  Sam looked around. He would’ve expected to have passed Ferand’s body, but there was no sign of him. Had he survived the fall? It was probably forty stairs down

  They slowly approached the opening in the distance. Sam kept thinking that there would have to be a lock somewhere, as he had overheard the Grandam and Ferand talking about needing the key for something. But it was an open room. There was very little to it, other than a circular room with a strange pattern on the floor in the center. Colors swept through the room, a mixture of pale white and green, also yellow and red and even a hint of purple.

  Luthian and Daven were in the middle of the room, battling with their vrandals. Sam took a moment to observe, scarcely able to realize what was that he was seeing. There was power exploding from them. They had the vrandal’s that glowed with deep green light, and they created something that looked very much like angulation, exploding power out from them. He frowned at it before looking down at his own key. Could he do something like that?

  He didn’t have much time to contemplate it. He felt a surge of arcane arts, a familiar sense of energy, and he looked over to see the Grandam near one wall, holding tightly to some small cylindrical device.

  Another alchemical creation.

  She was battling, blasting at them, power exploding toward them.

  Daven and Luthian fought, and while they seemed to have skill, they didn’t have the same that the Grandam did. She was a master of the arcane arts, and she was using constructs of alchemy.

  “Where is Ferand?” Tara whispered.

  Almost too late, Sam felt something behind him.

  He immediately triggered the vrandal, and it sent a surge of power out from him, slamming into Ferand.

  “He has the key!” the Grandam said, shouting across the room.

  Sam jerked his head around.

  When he did, he realized that it wasn’t just the Grandam and Ferand here. There were three others.

  He didn’t recognize any of them. At least they were not instructors at the Academy, so that much was reassuring. They had enough infiltration within the Academy already, and they didn’t need anymore. Still, they were outnumbered.

  And that made all of this that much more challenging.

  Sam focused, readying another attack.

  He didn’t have much choice but to be prepared.

  He balled his fist up again and then again prepared for another blast of power.

  When he used it, he could feel the vrandal tingling against his hand.

  Tara grabbed him and pulled him into the room.

  “I think we’re going the wrong way,” he said.

  “Not much choice,” she said, motioning past Ferand.

  There was another shadowy form that had appeared.

  Daven rushed toward Sam, keeping his back to him as he deflected the Grandam’s attacks. “You two need to get out of here. What are you thinking?”

  If Sam were honest, he would acknowledge that they weren’t really thinking.

  “We can help.”

  “You have the key.” Daven turned to him. “I told you that the one you have is the very first one. It’s the one that the others have been made from. And if they think it can open something here…” He shook his head. “We can’t let them succeed.”

  A burst of power exploded again, and it slammed into Sam, throwing him forward.

  He tried to get up but then saw Tara, then Daven, attacked with the same power. They were each thrown forward.

  Sam landed near the central part of the chamber with the discolored stone. He got to his hands and knees, looking over. The stone here was made of something unusual. Strange striations of color were built within it, almost as if it shimmered. But that wasn’t all that he noticed.

  Alchemy symbols were etched into it as well.

  His breath caught.

  That was the lock.

  He looked over and found Tara crawling toward him. Her jaw was clenched, her face drawn otherwise. There was a look of determinatio
n blazing in her eyes, and her pale white arcane arts flashed within her.

  Another surge of white came, and for a moment, Sam thought it came from the Grandam. It was from the hall leading into this chamber.

  More Nighlan?

  As he turned to look, he saw Havash striding toward the hall. Power built from him, and a complicated angulated pattern began to swirl out from him.

  He sent it toward the Grandam.

  “I should have known you were working against the Academy,” Havash said. He stood with his hands held in front of him. They were moving in a steady pattern, creating lines of angulation that were far more complicated than Sam could even follow. “You have always been eager.”

  “Eager? I have lived in the Academy my entire life trying to understand, but it wasn’t until I heard of what they were hiding. You know the dangers of alchemy.”

  “I know the truth of alchemy,” Havash said.

  She laughed a deep and painful sort of sound. “You want the same power as I do.” She snorted. “It’s why you tried to claim him for yourself.”

  Sam could practically feel the weight of her gaze upon him.

  “Perhaps I wanted power at one time,” Havash said. He moved his hands in another quick angulated pattern, and a circle of light spiraled from him. It sped toward the Grandam, then parted, slamming into two of the others near them. He stepped forward. His gaze paused on Sam and Tara for a moment before he turned back to the Grandam. “I learned better. I learned I was not suited for it.”

  “Then you were too shortsighted. All I need to do is unlock this, and power beyond anything the alchemists protected will be available to me.”

  She turned to Havash and focused. There was a buildup, and when a sheet of angulated power came streaking toward him, he tried to deflect, but whatever the Grandam had used on him was beyond what Havash could avoid. He was thrown back, and he didn’t get up.

  The Grandam turned her attention to Sam, striding toward him.

  Tara tried to attack, but the Grandam easily dismissed it. When she reached Sam, the Grandam grabbed him. He tried to use a burst of power out of himself, trying to trigger the vrandal, but it washed harmlessly over her.