Alchemist Illusion (The Alchemist Book 3)

by Dan Michaelson

  He looked up, and the Nighlan stood along the shoreline. Power began to crackle from within him. Angulated lines of power started to form, and they arced toward the water.

  Sam ducked under the surface of the river. He pushed outward with a barrier, trying to bulge it around him. He could feel the energy as it pressed in on him.

  He had to stay underwater. The water seemed to be the key. It had allowed him to escape, and it had also protected him from the man’s attacks. Sam could feel the water’s protections and the way they swirled around him, and he thought those protections could surround him.

  Sam kicked, using the current. He slammed into something.

  A barrier.

  That was new, at least, not that he remembered. The Academy might have formed the barrier before he had been stolen away.

  He had to find some way through it.

  He pushed outward, reaching the vrandal out, but it didn’t work the way it had within the Academy.

  Maybe he could go underneath it?

  He dove and felt along the invisible barrier. Water was able to flow through it, which meant that it wasn’t completely solid, but maybe he could find another way.

  He dug his hands along until he found a lower border.

  There.

  He squeezed, pushing with the vrandal, using that to help guide him through. Something grabbed at his ankles, and he kicked at it until he blasted through and reached the other side of the barrier.

  Sam stayed underwater for as long as he could, and when he could no longer hold his breath, he crested the surface.

  He took in a gulp of air, chest heaving, and he looked around.

  In the distance, he caught sight of the Academy. He noticed the uniformed appearance of soldiers, mingled with some wearing robes of the Academy.

  Protection within the city.

  They were ready for a fight.

  There were others. People scurrying as if moving quickly, afraid of what they might encounter. Sam thought that he understood, though. How could they not, especially with what they had encountered?

  Sam maneuvered himself toward the shoreline, holding on to the source for as long as he could and angling it so he could reach land. He reached the shore and grabbed a large stone, using it to drag himself out of the water. Once he did, Sam lay there for a moment, his breaths coming slowly. He had escaped again.

  Now he had to head to the Academy.

  Checking to make sure the vrandal was still on his hand, Sam hurried through the streets. He clutched the almanac against his chest and maintained a thin barrier around him. Although he was back in a part of Tavran he was familiar with, there was still the potential for danger within the city. Given the previous attacks, there was always going to be that possibility.

  Sam followed the street to the Academy. It was gleaming white, looming in front of him. There was a familiarity to it, and he raced along the road.

  And slammed into another barrier.

  Another layer?

  He poked at it, using his vrandal, trying to push through it, but it didn’t work.

  There didn’t seem to be any way of sliding underneath it.

  He took a step back, and he concentrated.

  As he did, he could see the angulated lines of power that had been created.

  Having fought Bethal, and having felt the way that she had used her power, Sam thought that he could do something similar now.

  He pushed on the strands of power. He slid them to the side, creating a narrow opening. It was just wide enough for him and no wider. He turned sideways, squeezing through, still holding his own barrier around himself. If he didn’t maintain it, there would be a danger of the Academy’s barrier collapsing. It might question.

  Then he was through.

  Sam released his connection to the source and looked around the garden. A row of shrubs stretched in front of him, yet he couldn’t feel much near them. Perhaps a bit of energy that crackled along his skin, a hint of magic that had to be here, and arcane power that he had not been able to quite reach. The air held the fragrance of flowers, but there was something almost like heat within it as well, and Sam could practically imagine the magic that sizzled in the air changing what he could detect.

  There was no sign of anyone.

  In the distance, he saw something that caught his eye. He studied it until he realized a person was hiding beneath a swirl of power. Now that he could make out the distinct strands, he wondered if he could peer through them. He knew that he could pull them apart, but he didn’t want to do that and risk revealing whoever might be there. If they were hiding as a way of protecting the Academy, another layer of defense, he didn’t want to be the reason they were exposed.

  Besides, he had something else that he needed to do.

  Get to the seal. Lock it again.

  As he hurried forward, one of the hidden barriers suddenly dissolved, and Professor Clarice stepped forward.

  “Mr. Bilson?”

  She was holding onto a significant burst of the arcane arts. Sam could feel it flowing from her and knew that she was ready to attack. If he were not careful, he would find himself facing a danger from one of the Academy instructors.

  “You have been missing.”

  “Nighlan,” Sam said. “I was abducted. I managed to escape.”

  She frowned at him before glancing behind her. “Get back into the Academy. The Nighlan have been trying to get through Tavran. They intend to destroy the Academy. You should join your tower. We can protect the Academy.”

  He was relieved she didn’t ask him about how he had managed to get through the barriers. At this point, none of that mattered.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  Sam had been gone for several weeks, long enough that it would certainly raise questions, and his simple answer at escaping might not be enough.

  “They overpowered the first army, but the others stabilized the situation. We have been tasked with ensuring the safety of the city and the Academy. We tried to get students out, but it was too late.” She looked at him, and he wondered if she were going to reach the conclusion he feared. “It is safer for the students to be in the Academy. Now go. Back to your tower.”

  Sam debated whether to argue but decided against it. Instead, he hurried toward the door, where he could feel another surge of energy.

  He hurried inside and closed the door, leaning up against it. Sam looked around the familiar main entrance, but it seemed like a long time since he’d been here. The Academy was empty. Shadows lingered along the stone, leaving pools of darkness that made it difficult for him to see much of anything. The thick rug that had normally been in the center of the hall was missing. Paintings that had once hung along the walls were gone as well.

  He needed to find Tara.

  He had been gone long enough, and he could only imagine what she was thinking about what happened to him. She wouldn’t have been able to get through the Study Hall to learn what happened to him. She would have been worried—and for a good reason.

  He looked along the hallway. He didn’t see anyone. The defenses were out in the garden, surrounding the Academy, keeping it safe.

  But there would have to be something here, wouldn’t they?

  For him to get the answers that he wanted, he needed to go to somebody who might be able to provide them for him. Okun.

  Sam raced down the hall toward the kitchen.

  He pushed open the door… and found it empty.

  The kitchen was dark. It smelled empty. Everything around him felt as if the kitchen hadn’t been utilized for days.

  He hurried through the kitchen for just a moment, looking around for any sign of Okun or the others, but there was nothing.

  He stepped out of the kitchen.

  Then he focused on what he could feel around him in the Academy. There was the sense of the arcane arts. It came from all around him. For the most part, he detected it as a glowing sort of energy, a buildup of power, but he wasn’t sure at the purpos
e behind it. Only that he could feel it.

  He needed to get down to that room. He stepped into the closet, toward the Study Hall, and realize that it was blocked. There was a barrier there. Sam tried to use the vrandal, thinking that he might push through it, but it prevented him.

  There were very tight, narrow, crisscrossing strands of power that prevented him from stepping into the Study Hall.

  Were they trying to keep him from getting in there, or was this some other intent?

  He headed out. There was another way into the Study Hall that he wasn’t sure would have been found.

  Sam headed toward the alchemy tower, down the stairs, and nearly crashed into Tracen.

  He shifted his robe.

  “Bilson,” Tracen said. “What are you doing? You’ve been gone.”

  “I know I’ve been gone, but now I’m here. And…” He took a deep breath, looking toward the common room and to the door leading into the Study Hall. Even without going over to it, he could tell that there were crisscrossing lines of power in front of it. It had been blocked off.

  Had somebody known about that one?

  Tara?

  But why would Tara have sealed off all of this, making it so that Sam couldn’t even do this?

  “Shouldn’t you be protecting the Academy?”

  “We are. From people like you. If you think to attack the alchemy tower again, you are mistaken.”

  He started to build up a pale white power, that of the arcane arts.

  Sam clenched his jaw, frustration filling him.

  “Step back,” Sam said.

  He had moved in front of the stairway leading back out of the alchemy tower.

  “We were given instructions to keep anyone from moving freely throughout the Academy.”

  Sam looked over and saw Gemma and Philan. Two older alchemy students. He didn’t have any issue with any of them other than Tracen.

  “Out of my way,” Sam said.

  He was roughly the same age as them but several years behind them in the Academy.

  But he didn’t fear them any longer. He couldn’t.

  He had something that needed doing, and he knew what must happen.

  Tracen stepped toward him, already using the arcane arts to create a pattern, and Sam hurriedly used the source, carved through it, and then wrapped a protective barrier around himself, blocking him.

  He pushed past Tracen.

  He could hear Tracen sputtering, but Sam ignored it as he hurried up the staircase.

  Sam felt something coming toward him.

  Had he not been attacked by Bethal and the other Nighlan, he might not have been as attuned to the use of the arcane arts blasting behind him, but he had felt it too many times now. He recognized it.

  He reacted.

  Sam spun, immediately using the source, creating a barricade, but then he flipped it. He pushed it out away from him, and that barrier flowed down the staircase toward Tracen and the others until it slammed into them. He heard a satisfying grunt as it hit its targets. The sense of the arcane arts sputtered and then faded, disappearing altogether.

  He wasn’t going to stay here any longer. There was nothing else down there. He needed to find a way into the Study Hall.

  Which meant finding some other means of accessing.

  He could think of several different access points, but if Tara had been involved in placing the protections across them, she would know all of them that he did.

  He needed to find her—or someone else who could help him get inside.

  Havash.

  He probably should go to Havash, anyway. The Grandam would need to know what he had seen and experienced and would need to be ready for the next attack.

  He hurried up the stairs and paused for a moment.

  He saw a translucent haze, little more than that, but as he did, he realized the source of it.

  The arcane arts, but it was woven in such a way as to make it seem invisible. There was a technique to that. Now that he had learned to use the source, Sam understood that technique was tied to a particular use of the arcane arts, even if he wasn’t and tall sure how to do it himself.

  He needed to see who was beneath this pattern. He didn’t want to be surprised by anyone or their power.

  Sam picked at the pattern for a moment before it fell apart.

  Havash stood beneath it.

  He immediately began to glow, the arcane arts bursting from within him.

  Sam reacted, calling upon the source, trying to prepare a barrier around himself. He wasn’t expecting Havash to attack him, but then Havash probably wasn’t expecting Sam to have returned to the Academy—and to be able to use his power against him.

  “Samran?”

  Havash was dressed in the maroon robes noting his office of Grandam. His eyes were narrowed, and his beard thicker than the last time Sam had seen him. He practically raged with the power of the arcane arts within him.

  “It’s me,” Sam said.

  “I can see it’s you. Where have you been?”

  “I’m not so sure that this is the right place to talk about it.”

  Havash didn’t move. He didn’t release his hold over the arcane arts, either, still glowing with a vibrant and bright power that he held within him.

  “I was taken from the room with the lock,” he said, not sure who else might be in the hall. If Havash was shielded, obscured in some way, then it certainly seemed reasonable to believe that others might have been as well. “I thought it was the Nighlan, but it wasn’t. They protect something similar.”

  Havash continued to watch him. “Where did you learn to pick at my angulation?”

  “I told you.”

  Havash frowned at him. He grabbed Sam by the arm and pulled him.

  Sam was too shocked to do anything. He followed Havash, and they reached his office, where Havash threw the door open and forced Sam inside before closing the door behind him. Havash then created a powerful pattern of angulation that crisscrossed around the room, sealing them inside. It would be difficult for Sam to escape. He might be able to work at the pattern, find his way through the way he had through the barrier, and through what Havash had created, but it would be difficult.

  “Talk,” Havash said.

  “I told you. I was taken away, to the Barlands, and I was—”

  “You were in the Barlands?”

  Havash hadn’t sat down, and he steepled his fingers together, looking off as if into the distance.

  “You know of it,” Sam said. He shifted in the chair, and he looked up at Havash. “That’s what you’re looking for, wasn’t it? You were looking for something in the Barlands when you first came upon us. I wasn’t sure what it was, and even now, I’m not sure, but that’s what you are after.”

  Havash turned, and he looked at Sam. “When I left the Academy, I was looking for answers. We knew others had faced the Nighlan. More than the alchemists. I was looking for understanding and for allies.”

  “I thought you were looking to confirm the Nighlan might attack.”

  Havash shook his head. “We’ve always known that they were a threat. We have been trying to keep that from others within the city, but the counsel, along with those in a senior position within the Academy, have known the truth.”

  Havash stopped moving and immediately began to sweep a pattern across Sam.

  He reacted. Having been attacked by Bethal and the others within the tower, he couldn’t help but react. It was an instinctive desire to defend himself. He used his connection to the source, carved through what Havash was doing, and deflected the rest of it. The pattern was disrupted, and it peeled away from him.

  Havash recoiled and winced. “What was that?”

  “I discovered that I have a talent,” Sam said, not really sure how else to describe it. “It’s more than just this,” he went on, holding out his hand with the vrandal on it. “It might be tied to that, at least somewhat, but not entirely. This gives me access to some power, but there’s more that is wi
thin me. When Daven was here, he claimed that I had a scar, and that there was some greater power buried within me, and that I just had to find it.” Sam focused on the source. “When I was there, I found it. I think I had to. Otherwise, they weren’t going to let me go, but then again, I’m not entirely convinced that they let me go. They only did because there wasn’t much choice. It was either bring me away from the tower, or the Nighlan would’ve caught us.”

  “They reached the Barlands.”

  Sam nodded. “The Barlands. And apparently the city.”

  “We have been holding them off as best as we could,” Havash said. “Layering protections, but we remain exposed.”

  “Why did they wait until now to attack?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps the threat of alchemy was enough to oppose them. Perhaps this lock, and the power behind it, is enough that they feel compelled to come after it. Whatever the reason, they are here.”

  “And the barriers around the city?”

  Havash frowned at him again. “Yes. About that. How did you get into the city?”

  “I told you. I can use this other power.”

  “Another power doesn’t explain how you were able to bypass what many members of the Academy placed.”

  Many members?

  Sam wasn’t sure why. Still, it wasn’t just about the angulated lines that he saw, but it was how he could disrupt just a little bit. His power permitted him to do that.

  “I’ve always been able to see the arcane arts. And now I can use that to follow the angulation involved in placing protections.”

  “Which is how you were able to see me.”

  Sam nodded. “Tara told me that was a difficult arcane art to hold.”

  “It is challenging,” Havash agreed. “Holding onto it while moving poses a unique set of difficulties, but under the current circumstances, it has been necessary. Those of us who can do so have found that we have wanted to move within the Academy unseen in case we’re attacked.”

  “If you have protections around the Academy, then why would you need to do that?”

  “The Nighlan have proven that they can bypass much of what we have done. We are maintaining as many protections as possible, but it has proven difficult.”