Alchemist Assault (The Alchemist Book 2)

by Dan Michaelson

  “You will trigger the lock,” she said.

  Sam shook his head, but the Grandam shoved him forward.

  “This was not a request.”

  “You don’t even know what it does,” he said. “You don’t even understand what you are trying to free.”

  Sam had been searching for answers about what lock might be hidden within the Academy, and there had been nothing. Not within the almanac and not within any of the other alchemy books available to him.

  Something like that would be dangerous to trigger without knowing the truth.

  “I know that it is the key to power.”

  She shoved him forward, and waved her hand around her, twisting her wrist, and a beam of pale white began to build around her, creating a barricade that surrounded them, keeping anyone from getting too close. There were other blasts of arcane arts that struck at that barrier, but it bounced harmlessly away.

  Sam tried to use his own connection to the vrandal, needing to overwhelm the Grandam, but his attempt faded, and I failed.

  “Use the key.”

  He looked down at the stone. It shimmered, and there was something about it that seemed to demand that he pressed the key down upon it, though he wasn’t sure what it was. He wasn’t sure how.

  “I won’t.”

  “Use it, or I will.”

  When Sam refused, she wrapped him in what could only be described as some layer of the arcane arts and shoved him forward. She slammed his hand down upon the stone, and though he tried to avoid activating the vrandal, there came a burst of green energy from it.

  And then the stone started to shift.

  The colors that shimmered were a series of different streaks of green and white and yellow and then purple.

  Power started to bubble up.

  The Grandam released him, and Sam staggered back helplessly.

  The power that came from the stone was incredible. Sam couldn’t even deny that there was power there. She had done it.

  She stood on either side of it, and then the glowing began to shift.

  He noticed something different. It started to take shape.

  At first, it was indistinct.

  Then it began to take greater shape.

  It looked like a person.

  The Grandam stood before that man-like shape glowing with a greenish-white energy.

  Power burst from it, slamming into the Grandam.

  Her eyes widened, and she dropped to her knees.

  Whatever this was not some kindhearted power. This was malevolent energy.

  Sam pushed the vrandal up against the barrier that the Grandam informed and felt it ease. He slipped through it, stumbling toward Tara.

  She looked up at him, eyes wide. “We couldn’t get into you,” she said.

  Sam looked around. The others had been defeated, though Sam couldn’t see Ferand. Havash and Chasten were there, along with Luthian and Daven, all of them circling this stone. They were each holding their unique kind of power.

  “I don’t know what this is,” Sam said. “It was power, but it’s almost like she released someone, not something.”

  Tara turned. “We might be able to counter it,” she said. She pulled out the pages that Sam had copied and that the Grandam had taken. “Which of these do you think will be most effective?”

  Sam had looked at each of them, and he knew immediately which one he would try.

  “There’s one for some sort of protective layering,” he said.

  He hurriedly sorted through the mentally found the one that he thought would be the most effective.

  Then he held the vrandal up against it.

  It triggered, but it didn’t work quite as effectively as he thought that he needed to.

  He stared at the page.

  Did he really need the vrandal?

  He might be able to try something else. He had studied, and he had mastered the patterns, and he thought that maybe he would be able to use what he had learned.

  And if so…

  He started reading.

  It was mostly by memory, but there were flashes of the vrandal that would cause some of the symbols to shift. Terraform the angulation, formed the augmentation, and surprisingly, Havash joined in, nodding to her. The two of them work side-by-side, and then he noticed something else.

  Chasten was there, holding onto his connection to the arcane arts. It wasn’t nearly as powerful and didn’t glow as brightly as Havash or Tara, but he tried to help. The three of them began to form the layer. It pushed toward the barricade that the Grandam formed.

  It didn’t go through it, though.

  “Daven and Luthian,” Sam called out. “I need you to lift the barrier. Use your vrandal.”

  They looked over to him before pressing her hands forward, and greenish light began to build. He didn’t know if the alchemy within their vrandal would be nearly as effective as the key, but as they pressed toward it, it started to lift.

  It was enough.

  They slid the protective barrier underneath the layer that the Grandam had formed.

  And in doing so, there was pressure.

  Sam could feel it.

  “It hurts,” Tara said.

  “Keep pushing,” Sam urged.

  He didn’t know what they were doing, and he didn’t know if this would make a difference, but he couldn’t help feeling as if they had to stop whatever was here.

  He finished reading the page.

  Tara’s jaw was tight. Havash’s brow was coated with sweat. Chasten stood, calm. There was a distinct tension within him.

  “Release it,” Sam said.

  When they did, there came a flash.

  Sam could feel the pressure building, the power they were pushing against them, and from there…

  The pattern settled. The flash burst, and the barrier that the Grandam had been holding faded.

  When it did, both the Grandam and the man-like figure of light were gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Sam sat in the small chamber, looking around. All of this for the hidden room, and with something that he had no idea the purpose behind it. There was a mess here, and the carpet that had covered the floor was rolled up against the wall. The hole that had opened was now sealed shut. He learned that there was a trigger for it, much like a trigger for every place within the Academy that granted access to the tunnels.

  Tara sat across from him, leaning forward on her elbows. They had visited this place a few times in the days since the attack, seeking answers. Sam sensed a buildup of power and looked up in time to see somebody coming through the barrier from the Academy side. It was Chasten.

  “Just you?” Sam asked.

  Chasten smiled and took a seat. “For now. The others are ensuring the Academy is still safe.”

  “I have a sense the Academy can’t be safe anymore.”

  “It’s not so much that the Academy is safe as there are different dangers. They succeeded, and whatever and whoever they released is now out there. We all need to prepare.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’m going to work with the alchemists,” Chasten said. “And you and Ms. Stone need to continue to work through the almanac and understand what you can if the alchemists need access to that. Others within the Academy might as well.”

  “We’re just students,” Sam said.

  “You were never just a student, even when you first came here. And now you have a different potential altogether.” Chasten watched him.

  “Few people can survive what you have,” Chasten added.

  “Facing the Nighlan?”

  “Perhaps that,” the older man said, smiling. “That isn’t quite what I’m referring to, no. What I mean is that few people would be able to survive blocking off as much power as you have.”

  Sam laughed. “I don’t have any power.”

  “You do. That is what Ms. Stone released. I think that was why it was so difficult for you to see even after she did. You have power. You must have it
, for you are capable of using the key.”

  “What sort of power is it?” Tara asked. “It is different than the arcane arts, isn’t it?”

  Chasten took a deep breath, looking around the room. “We have long suspected that the true users of alchemy have something different than those who use the arcane arts. I’m an alchemist, but I’m not a pure alchemist. I know that doesn’t make much sense to you, and to be honest, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, either. I trained in the Academy many years ago.” He smiled. “As you can undoubtedly tell. And then I left, taking what I learned of alchemy, using what I knew of the arcane arts, and set up shop within Tavran.”

  Sam frowned at him. “You. You’re Belianrash.”

  “What? No,” Tara said, looking from Sam to Chasten.

  “I think I’m right,” he said. He turned to Chasten. “Aren’t I?”

  Chasten spread his hands. “At your service. I have some talent with alchemy, which brought me back to the Academy after the attack. And it’s why they permitted me to come for testing, though I’ve been looking for other information. I have always known that I do not have the true depths of alchemy. And I’ve been trying to understand why. I can’t say that I have the answer, but I can say that we will keep looking. But you, Sam, do. You have power, the ability to grasp alchemy. And it’s time that you focus on that.”

  “And what about you?”

  “Well, for now, the Academy needs an alchemist, so I will stay, but eventually, I suspect a real alchemist will take my place.”

  He smiled at them and waved them away.

  Sam and Tara gradually departed, making their way through the Study Hall.

  “It can’t be him,” she said.

  Sam shrugged. “It makes sense.”

  “Why would he go by a different name?”

  “We only know his first name,” Sam pointed out.

  “I can’t believe it. When I was younger, we’d go to his store, and I would always long for some of the different items he had there. Never expected to get to know him, nor did I think that I would ever have a chance to meet him.”

  “And now you have. Don’t you feel special?”

  She glowered at him. Then she took his hand, guiding him with her.

  “What now?”

  “Well, I think I’m hungry.”

  “It’s a good thing it’s probably dinnertime.”

  “And it might be good for me to visit with James, maybe wave at my sister, as I can’t imagine that she will want to actually talk to me—”

  “You understand why that is, don’t you?” Tara said.

  “I do,” Sam said. “But that doesn’t mean I like it.”

  All of this bothered him more than I probably should, but perhaps that was because he had been cut off from his sister. Then again, there had been that nagging doubt that he didn’t belong. Perhaps he didn’t, but increasingly he believed that he was going to stay. If that were the case, then he had to find a way to connect—or reconnect, as the case may be—with Mia. It was the reason that he had come, after all.

  He just had to find a way to do so without raising attention to the fact that they were siblings.

  Sam was smart. He would come up with something.

  “Do you still think that you’re going to have to leave at the end of your first year?”

  Sam touched the vrandal, feeling the energy within it. “You know what, I don’t. I might not be able to pass some of the exams, but I think that my understanding of the concepts should be enough to carry me through.”

  She started to laugh. “Should be?”

  “Well, as long as I have somebody to help me study.”

  “Let me guess. You think that I’m going to have to help you with this?”

  “I was hoping you might be interested in making sure that I stick around.”

  “I am a fourth-year student, Sam. I can’t guarantee that I’m going to be here much longer.”

  “Oh, I don’t think you’re going to abandon the Academy anytime soon. Besides, now that you know about the almanac, I can’t believe that you would give up the chance to keep learning from it.”

  She grinned at him. “No. Not with what is in there. I think I need to know as much as possible.” She squeezed his hand. “Sort of like someone else that I know.”

  They reached one of the entrances to the Study Hall and paused, listening for a moment, before triggering the door. It opened with a soft grinding.

  “There’s another reason you probably want to stay,” Sam said, nodding behind him. “We have much more of the Academy to explore.” He winked at her.

  Tara shook her head. “Maybe I will do that on my own.”

  “You need me. And the vrandal.”

  “Or I just need you.”

  He smiled. There was enough for him to feel almost as if he belonged here.

  Grab the next book in The Alchemist: Alchemist Illusion.

  Sam is bound to an unstable power that he doesn’t understand.

  Having thwarted an attack on the Academy and learning the extent of the Nighlan infiltration, Sam knows that he must master true alchemy. It’s an impossible power that he still can’t believe he possesses, and it might be the key to staying at the Academy.

  When War comes to Tavran, Sam is helpless to stop it, though believes the almanac holds the answer—if he can understand it in time.

  A trained alchemist would know how to use the almanac, but none remain, leaving Sam as the only one with that power in the city.

  Mastering his power will take more than his quick mind and what he's learned during his time at the Academy, but it might not be enough to help those he cares about most.

  Author’s Note

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for reading Alchemist Assault. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere, I would be very grateful. Review link HERE.

  Want to send me a message?

  danmichaelsonauthor@gmail.com.

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  All our best,

  Dan Michaelson

  D.K. Holmberg

  For more information:

  www.dkholmberg.com

  Series by Dan Michaelson

  Cycle of Dragons

  The Alchemist

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  The Dragonwalker

  The Dragon Misfits

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  Cycle of Dragons

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  Elemental Academy

  The Elemental Warrior

  The Cloud Warrior Saga

  The Endless War

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  Cover art by Rebecca Frank

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