by Ryan, Matt
“Please, Jackie, speak up so the rest of the class can hear you. Tell us about this rumor,” Deegan interrupted.
She sighed and looked at the Blues. “It’s said there were two alchemists, Blane and Evers, so obsessed with transmuting gold that Evers used a suspended animation stone on Blane out of fear that he was getting closer to it than Evers. Except he didn’t know exactly what effect the stone would have, and when he patted the back of the man’s neck with the stone, Blane apparently fell over dead. He was put in a coffin and buried alive. The theory is, Blane is still alive, four hundred years later, stuck in his tiny coffin … living every second of his endless nightmare with no chance of dying or escaping.”
My mouth hung open. I knew why she had said it was a fate worse than death. Just thinking of being trapped in a coffin sent chills through my body.
Deegan nodded and walked around his desk. “Interesting story. Like most stones, they can be used by people with good or bad intentions. Can someone think of a good way to use it?”
I looked around the room at the blank faces. They’d seemed to jump on every other question, but this one stumped them. Every way I thought of using the stone ended in malice and vengeance. I even briefly thought of using it on Janet.
Mark raised his hand and Deegan pointed at him.
“If you were dying of some disease, you could use the stone to put a pause on your life until they found a cure, or astronauts could use it on a long-term space mission.”
“Very good, Mark. What about when you want to get out of the stupor?”
The class rumbled with chatter. Jackie and Carly leaned over my desk to discuss their theories.
I raised my hand and Deegan nodded to me. “A life stone.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, a life stone should work. It looks like our two new students have the wits to be here.”
I glanced at the Blues’ sneers. Good, let them hate me. I would show them what I could really do, for Carly and for the rest of the Reds dealing with their crap.
“Can we make this life stone?” I asked.
Deegan smiled. “Ambitious. That’s good. But to create a life stone, you have to take a life, and I doubt we have any volunteers for that.”
His words hit me right in the stomach, and my jaw felt unhinged. I stared at the back of Mark’s head and I saw him leaning forward, clutching his own stomach. He’d tried to hide it while walking to class today, but I could tell he hurt. I didn’t want to take the life of another to save Mark; at least I didn’t think I wanted to. There had to be another way.
“Since it’s challenge day, we’re creating only this one single stone.” Deegan pointed to the chalkboard. “First team to make the stone gets to pick their reward from the Scroll of the Victors.” Deegan walked to the corner of the room and pulled back a curtain wrapped around like a quarter-circle shower. He shoved the curtain to the wall and revealed an arrangement of alchemist supplies.
“Reds first, since they answered the questions today.”
Jackie bolted from her seat, followed by Carly. I stayed seated and felt sick to my stomach from the realization about the life stone. It was all I really wanted to make. My eyes went wide as I thought about what Mark had said. If I could put him in suspended animation, I could spend years trying to get the life stone made. I closed my eyes and felt a headache coming on.
A hand touched mine. I looked up at Mark’s smiling face.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I wanted to grab him and tell him what kind of danger he was in and how I would spend every waking second trying to save his life, but Ms. Duval was right. He didn’t need to know, and I’d find a way to save him before he even knew how much trouble he was really in.
I watched Carly, Jackie, and a few others mulling over the best selection of equipment. Jackie led the way, thrusting items into the waiting arms of the Reds.
Jackie would be my answer. She knew the questions and probably knew a great deal more about stones than any of the other students. If she knew a way around the life stone, I’d find it through her.
Carly plopped a bowl in front of me and I jerked back. Jackie and a few others piled materials on my desk. I glanced over at our rivals, who were huddled around the head of the Blue house, Leo. I met eyes with him and narrowed my lids. Yes, I know your secret.
“You’re mixing, Allie. I hope you’re up to it,” Jackie said.
I looked around at the faces surrounding me. Carly seemed confident with a wicked smile on her face and Mark looked on with his usual concerned expression. I was sure he hated me making a single stone for the Academy, let alone something as hardcore as this stone. Jackie crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at my lack of action.
“What do I do?”
A few of the Reds groaned.
Jackie took a vial of black goo and put it in front of me. “We have enough materials for about ten attempts, but I don’t want to make more than a few. Leo over there probably won’t need that many.” She gazed at Leo. “So you need to summon your trigger for each process, but save your worst for when you mix in the solvent.” She pushed a vial of pure blue liquid toward me. “So put in the pitch, then the sulfur.” She moved a vial of putrid yellow powder toward me. “Mix in this blood and—”
“Wait.” I stopped her words, but she continued to slide over the vial of deep red liquid. “Whose blood?”
“I don’t know. Just a donor. It has to be very pure blood, though.”
“So they couldn’t use yours, Jackie,” Carly said.
“Yes, well, yours I’m sure would be black with conspiracies and contempt,” Jackie said. “But please, they’re already mixing their first attempt.” She took a deep breath and continued. “Mix in the blood and the solvent at the same time.” She tapped her finger on the blue and bloody vials.
I went through her instructions and took the vial of black pitch.
“It’s really more like bitumen,” Carly said.
Jackie stared her down. “Sorry. Just do your thing, Allie.”
The black liquid moved like thick ketchup in the vial. I summoned a few angry thoughts as the liquid took its time pouring into the glass bowl. With the thick black goo at the bottom, I took the sulfur and poured it in. I already felt my triggers coming up, my mother leaving me and Janet and Spencer tearing apart that letter from my dad.
I took deliberate breaths through my nose as I took the last two vials in my hands and held them over the bowl. Everyone around me leaned in and I felt their breath on my arms. I didn’t like to be crowded, and I used it like a fuse to get myself to my rage point. The anger flooded into me as I thought of my past. My hands shook with rage and I dumped the two vials in.
Then I grabbed the spoon and yanked it around the bowl. The mixture resisted my stirs, but my anger pushed through the thickness. The top of the bowl overflowed with a steamy mixture that smelled like rotten eggs. Air pockets popped as I mixed, and I felt the spoon spin in my hand when the mixture solidified and condensed into a stone. I let go of the spoon and waited for the sound.
The stone clunked against the glass bowl and the Reds around me gasped. Jackie rushed forward and blew the mist away, revealing a black ball with yellow and white speckles.
“Yes!” Jackie yelled.
The loud sound made me jump in my chair.
“No way,” I heard from the Blue side.
Deegan walked over with a skeptical expression. He gazed into the bowl and then furrowed his brow as he stared at me. I caved under the pressure and looked away from his stare. He picked up the bowl as if he was carrying the most delicate of china dolls and took it to his desk. Wearing a black glove, he scooped the stone out with a cloth and placed it in a small bag. He dropped the bag into a drawer in his desk.
“Reds win.” He seemed burdened with a heavy load. “Choose your reward.” Deegan pointed to the wall with a scroll running floor to ceiling.
It listed many things, and I wondered what Jackie might select. Probabl
y the balding or the nightmare stone. Something to punish the Blues, I was sure.
“We couldn’t have won without you, Allie. You choose,” Jackie said, out of breath.
They cleared a space for me and I walked closer to the list, taking in the different options. Then I saw it.
“I choose the observation deck.”
The Blues laughed and clapped at my choice. They gave each other high fives while the Reds looked at me, confused.
“Roof it is,” Deegan said. “Blues, you can go back to your houses now.”
I moved back to my desk and to Mark’s smiling face.
“Good choice.” He looked at the ceiling. “I can’t wait to see where the hell we are.”
Deegan took a keychain from his pocket and opened a locked drawer in his desk. He pulled out another set of keys and started walking toward the door.
“If you have a sweater, you might want to bring it. Come on, let’s go.”
Carly grabbed me by the arm. “Why didn’t you turn their sewer privileges off for the week?”
“Yeah, or make all their balls fall off?” Jackie said.
“I didn’t see that option,” Carly said, looking back at the list.
“I just made it up, but it would be a pretty good one,” Jackie smirked.
Mark jumped in to take my side. “It just seems like we’ve had enough hate. This is something we can maybe enjoy that doesn’t result in anybody’s balls falling off.”
“I’m with Mark. I think it’s a good choice. I’ve been curious about where we are,” Carly said.
Deegan, carrying a coat over his arm, flung the door open. We chased after him. He stood by a door a few doors down from room ten. It didn’t have any unusual marks on it, beyond the typical carvings of circles and symbols most of the doors had. He fumbled with his keys until he found one he liked and slid it into the door.
It didn’t work.
“Been a while. I think this is the one.” He slid the next key in and the door clicked open, revealing a small room. Then he motioned for all of us to pile into the tiny space.
The floor moved up and down a few inches as each person walked in. Deegan squeezed in last and pulled the door closed.
I pressed my body hard against Mark’s and felt his arm wrapping over my shoulder and down my back. I didn’t want to think of being packed into a small room, so I looked at his excited face. It was the first time I could remember since arriving at the Academy that he’d had a genuinely happy expression.
“This elevator will take us all the way to the top. If I can just find the next key….” Deegan struggled as the air became damp and used, and the temperature of the confined space rose to sweltering levels.
“Hurry the hell up or I’m going to freak,” Jackie said.
Sweat built up between me and Mark, but I didn’t mind. His arm felt hot on my back, and I hoped he didn’t mind getting a bit sweaty with me either. His face told me he didn’t.
“Ah, here we go.” Deegan pushed the key into a slot and turned it. The elevator moved up in a jolt.
The ride lasted a minute before at the elevator came to a stop. When the door finally slid open and a gust of frigid air swooshed in, it felt like daggers against my sweaty skin. Deegan moved out of the elevator and Jackie jumped out behind him.
I broke away from Mark and stepped outside.
The icy wind told me how far away we really were from home. My first breath blew out in front of my face in a cloud and the inhale felt like needles in my chest. A thin layer of snow crunched under my feet as I walked across a tiny roof no larger than my bedroom.
“Below thirty, I bet,” Deegan said.
The bright sky shone down on us and I thought if I looked only at it, I could be anywhere in the world. Seeing the blue sky made the whole trip worth it. I lowered my gaze and took in the pure white landscape beyond. The stiff winds stirred up a bit of snow from a nearby mountain and swept it down to the valley just twenty feet below us. The flakes pelted my face and stung my cheeks. White covered everything, including the small section of the Academy oddly jutting out from the frozen tundra below. Even a plane flying directly overhead would probably have a tough time making out the structure.
“Antarctica?” Jackie asked.
Deegan nodded.
“No freaking way.” I couldn’t believe my eyes. How could we be at the bottom of the world? People didn’t live down here, only the penguins. The supply drops to support all the people below would be staggering.
I walked to the edge and looked out as far as I could, squinting at the horizon. They had to be wrong. A fresh gust of wind blew more bits of snow into my face.
Mark moved behind me and rubbed my arms. “We’d better get inside. You’re going to freeze out here.”
“No, this can’t be right,” I said.
“Allie, I’ve seen enough, and so have you. Let’s get off this roof, for real.”
I paused briefly before complying and then walked sideways toward the door, staring at the white landscape. A gust of wind pushed against me, feeling like frigid razor blades against my face. I’d never been in such cold weather, not even close.
I wasn’t really sure what I’d expected, but it wasn’t this. Even if I got the life stone and healed Mark, where would we go? We would be dead in minutes out in that frozen landscape.
“Everyone in? Good.” Deegan closed the elevator door.
Mark gave me a comfortable spot to nuzzle up against. My whole body shook against his and he rubbed my arm and held me tight. The elevator descended for a minute and then stopped. Deegan opened the door and the warm, stagnant air swept in. We got out, rubbing our arms, still shivering.
“Well, that’s it for today. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Deegan hurried back to room ten.
“Thanks for the ice roof field trip, Allie,” Jackie said.
“Maybe she should have let the Blues win,” Mark said as he stepped in front of me.
“At least we know where we are,” Carly offered.
“Yeah, for now, and then we’ll move again and be who knows where,” Jackie said.
“Move?” I asked.
“Yeah, every few months they freaking move this whole place.”
Carly had mentioned that the halls moved, but she couldn’t have meant the entire building. I didn’t understand. The building had to weigh millions of pounds. How could they transport it to and from Antarctica?
Mark asked the question first. “How do you move this place? What stone?”
“Portal stone. Or, should I say, a master portal stone. We just boost it until it’s enough to move us all,” Jackie said.
“Let me guess. Verity has this master stone.” He rolled his eyes.
“Yep,” Carly said. “Her stone absorbs others and we jump. It sort of feels like we’re falling for a few seconds and then the world firms up and we move on.”
“Why do we move? I don’t get it.”
Jackie sighed and crossed her arms. “Am I the freaking Academy wiki here? Wasn’t at least one of your parents an alchemist?”
“My mom’s dead, and my dad’s in the Navy,” I said. “I haven’t seen him in months. My mom never mentioned anything about being an alchemist, and my dad sure doesn’t know. This crap is all new to me.”
Jackie looked at the stone floor. I didn’t want her to feel bad that I’d brought up the dead mom stuff, but they needed to know I wasn’t some alchemist kid, growing up with a wooden spoon and a bowl in front of me. What I knew about alchemy wouldn’t fill a page.
Mark struggled to smile, and he kept his hand over his stomach. I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath. These people seemed preoccupied by the most mundane things, like getting back at the Blues, when they should be trying to figure out the mystery around them. This whole place was under a blanket of snow at the bottom of the world, and none of them seemed interested in that fact.
“Sorry about your mom,” Carly said.
“Yeah, that sucks.” Jackie stuck her thu
mbs in her pockets. “When the academy found me, they didn’t quite … explain it right in the brochure.”
“My mom fed me similar tales,” Carly said. “All the parents did. I bet it was some unspoken rule not to tell us what really happened here. If we knew the truth, we might have stayed home and never become alchemists.”
“Same here,” Mark added.
“Why do we move, again?” I tried to steer the conversation back to the question at hand.
“Young people are more powerful in the creation of stones.” Jackie laughed. “They say we have the raw emotions it takes to make them. So our parents send us here to make rocks in a charitable effort to help the world. Noble, isn’t it? Just think, all those growth stones may fertilize land in some poor country. But there are people out there who want to take what we make and control the world, or use the stones for profit. They’re always searching for the Academy and every few months, they find it.”
I shook my head in disbelief and looked at Mark. He gazed at me, judging my reaction. How could he not have told me how big the world of alchemy was? There were people who were after us, or me. One of those dark alchemists could have taken me and done who knows what.
The ground beneath my feet shook. Wisps of dust fell from the ceiling and everyone in the hub stopped. They all would have looked frozen in place if they hadn’t looked up.
“What was that?”
The ground shook again.
Jackie raised both eyebrows and took a deep breath. “Looks like we talk about the devil and we get the devil. That”—she pointed to the ceiling--“is caused by the dark alchemists.”
Two deep buzzer tones blared through the speakers of the building. My heart pounded and I saw the fear on everyone’s faces. Well, not Jackie; she bounced and clapped her hands in excitement.
Verity’s voice came through the speakers. “All students, report to your classrooms for the immediate making of booster stones. Your teachers are setting up the rooms now for their creation. They seem to be hitting us much harder this time, so we don’t have much time. Do your best work, people.”
The speakers sounded two more buzzers and then went silent. The hub filled with noise as everyone ran in every direction. Several guys brushed by me, running to their classes.