Alchemist Academy: Book 1

by Ryan, Matt

  “Anything. You just name it.”

  I knew the eagerness in his voice. I too would have done anything to help my mom, to bring her back. I also knew the danger of it and what Verity was about to have the boy do. I took a deep breath and waited for my moment.

  Verity moved to the dad and ran her hand over the side of his face. She leaned in close and I saw her mouth moving next to his ear. Then she leaned back and said, “As you know, to break him free, we need a life stone. But what you probably didn’t know is what it takes to make one.”

  “Just get me the ingredients. I feel as if I could make the philosopher’s stone right now,” Daniel said with his fists clenched at his sides.

  “I’m sure you feel like you could, but this one only takes a couple of stones, held by a person who loves their father very much.”

  “I do. I love him.”

  “I know.” Verity turned to him and with her gloved hands took out two stones from her pouch. Her gaze passed over our stack of boxes and I ducked down. I loosened the top string on my sack and picked my targets. I wasn’t the best thrower, but how could fate let me fail when Mark’s life depended on it?

  Mark, wide-eyed, shook his head, glancing down at my hand.

  Carly touched my arm and shook her head as well. They didn’t understand that I had to get the life stone. And once they made one … I touched the bag of stones at my side and adjusted the glove on my hand. My fingers tightened over one of the stones.

  “You just sit in that chair and with your bare hands, touch the stones together,” Verity instructed.

  At her words, I lifted up to watch her hold her hands in front of Daniel.

  “These two stones.”

  “That’s it?” he asked.

  I controlled my breathing and timed my attack. Deegan would be looking my way, but I thought I could take Verity by surprise easily enough.

  Verity cocked her head and shrugged. “Yes, but it’s very powerful. You have to make sure you hold the stones together all the way to the end.” She talked as if she was addressing a child.

  “How will I know when it’s the end?” He licked his lips and stepped toward her.

  I knew something terrible would happen if he touched those stones together. I’d have to find another way for Mark. I wouldn’t stay behind this stack of boxes and watch a kid die. Breathing deeply, I kept my hand deep in my stone sack. I wasn’t sure which stone I was holding, but it didn’t really matter. They would all work fine.

  “Trust me, you’ll know when it’s over,” Verity said. “Are you ready?”

  Daniel sat in the metal chair facing his dad and nodded. “Give them to me.”

  Verity smiled, and her gaze passed over our boxes. I froze in fear, but her eyes didn’t lock on me. I watched as she got close to the dad and leaned in with a wicked smile. Whispering into his ear again, she caressed the sides of his face and tilted his body forward a tad, giving him a perfect line of sight. She winked and turned back to the son, pulling the stones from her pouch.

  This was it. I had only one chance to get it right.

  Daniel wiped his hands on his jeans. Verity held the stones out.

  My insides screamed to make it stop. I grabbed the stones with every intention of jumping out and hurling them at Verity. Mark touched me and I felt a cold sensation melting over the back of my hand. I opened my eyes wide and they stuck there. My mouth hung open in shock and rage filled me with so much heat I thought I could start a fire just by touching the boxes next to me. But I couldn’t move.

  He whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  I wanted to kick him and scratch his pretty face. How could he have put a freeze stone on me? I couldn’t use my throat muscles to yell and warn Daniel. Even worse, I watched as Verity placed the two stones in his palms.

  “Merge them, quickly.” Verity moved out of the way so as to allow Daniel and his father a direct view.

  No!

  Daniel clapped his hands together and the stones cracked. A light grew from within his grasp, and Verity took a few more steps back. The light reached a blinding level in a few seconds.

  I wanted to squint, but I couldn’t even blink. The light grew so bright, I couldn’t see him anymore. Then came the scream, a deep guttural noise, steadily rising in volume and tone, until it was an inhuman screech. I wanted to cover my ears. The whole room filled with the white light and the sounds of a person dying. I wanted to kill Mark for making me watch something so horrible.

  Daniel’s screams continued and I thought of his father, sitting directly across from him. I didn’t even know his name. I felt a tear sliding down my frozen face. He and I were locked into seeing the horror, but I’d never hugged Daniel or tucked him into bed; I’d never told him a story or shared a life with him. I couldn’t imagine the pain the dad was going through, watching his offspring being consumed directly in front of him and not being able to move a muscle or look away.

  Feeling a warm sensation around my face, I blinked and shut my eyes and blocked out some of the blinding light. Even behind my eyelids, colors danced in my vision. Now, if I could only move my hands to cover my ears. The scream seemed to be never-ending. It wasn’t humanly possible to have that much breath released from someone’s body. The stones had to be draining him of everything from the inside.

  Then it stopped. A second into the deafening silence, the light ended and the room fell dark. I opened my eyes at the sound of a stone hitting metal. The bright light had burned into my vision and I had trouble focusing on anything in the blur. I blinked hard, trying to clear my eyes, and found the chair Daniel had been sitting on. A stone lay on the steel chair, rolling around its concave surface before stopping. It was the last remnant of Daniel and the creation of a life stone.

  I stared at the stone. It was something I’d been consumed with getting and there it was, a few seconds’ dash from my grasp. But now, knowing how it had been created, I didn’t want anything to do with it.

  “He had some real gumption there at the end, don’t you think, Dave?” Verity addressed the dad. She walked to the chair and picked up the stone, holding it above her, turning it in the light.

  I desperately wanted my arms to function. I wanted to make Verity and the rest of them pay. Damned Mark!

  I looked at him, wishing I could slap his face. He didn’t look at me, choosing to keep his attention on Verity. His whole body shook and his face was crimson. Little bits of spittle flew from his mouth.

  “I hope it was worth it … you know, coming into my house, acting like you’re somebody important. Don’t worry, though. I’ll find a way to send the others a message about what happened to you.” She glanced back at the empty steel chair. “And your son.”

  She walked past Dave and left the room, with Deegan following close behind. My mouth moved, but my throat still wasn’t functioning.

  Mark hugged me awkwardly around my frozen limbs. “I’m so sorry. They would have killed you in a split second if you tried to interfere.”

  “There’s nothing we could have done,” Carly added from her position on the floor. Tears fell from her eyes and she sniffled.

  I didn’t believe her. They were both insane and wrong. We had just watched a boy destroy himself in a horrific way, directly in front of his father, and we’d done nothing. No, they had done nothing.

  A warm feeling rushed around my neck and I swallowed.

  “I hate you both,” I tried to say, but the words came out garbled. Looking at Mark’s face, I realized that he knew what I’d said anyway.

  “I couldn’t let you die, Allie.” He shook his head and touched my shoulder.

  I jerked, wanting to hit his hand off, but my arms still wouldn’t work. “Don’t touch me. I could have stopped it.”

  Carly shook her head and wiped her face. “No, you couldn’t. She’s fast, too fast for us. I’ve seen her demonstrations,” she whispered. “Maybe if we all came prepared….”

  The warm feeling spread over my body and I felt my fingers obe
ying my commands. Soon, all of my muscles began responding to my requests … not accurately, but at least they were responding.

  I fell forward and Mark caught me. I tried my best to hit him and fell sideways instead. He ignored my outburst and lifted me to my feet before hoisting me up into his arms like a child.

  “I think we’d better get out of here,” Mark said.

  “Wait,” I interrupted. “I can walk.”

  Mark set me down on my feet. Pushing him back, I stared at Dave. His son had sacrificed himself under the assumption that his dad would be saved. In the end, they were both lost now. I took a step toward him and put my hand up to halt Mark from stopping me. I had a few nasty stones in my sack and would use them if I had to, but my sneer alone kept him back.

  With each small, unsteady step across the floor, I glanced at the doorway the teachers left through. I wondered if it led back to Verity. I knew if I could manage a throw, I would have staggered down the hall after the bitch.

  Dave was sitting propped up, looking at the empty metal chair. I stared at his eyes and thought they might follow me, or that his expression might alter. But nothing changed. He looked dead, and I cursed myself for making the stone that had put him there.

  I touched his shoulder and pushed him back a little, so he wouldn’t have to stare at the spot his son had just vacated. Leaning close to his ear, I whispered everything I wanted to tell him before I made my way toward the main corridor. I didn’t look at Carly or Mark as I passed them, but I heard their footsteps behind me as I walked down the long hall.

  After a prolonged silence, Carly spoke. “It’s right here.” She pointed to a hall I had just missed.

  I adjusted my direction and walked down the dark passage. The light from Carly’s glow stone lit the way from behind me. My legs loosened up and I managed a near-normal walk. I shook my whole body, trying to get rid of the last remnants of being frozen. I stopped at the portal room and turned to face them.

  “I know I can’t say anything past these doors, so I’ll say this now to clear up any confusion. If you ever stop me from saving a life again….”

  “We stopped you from killing yourself, you ditz, and probably both of us as well. The next time you want to put my life in danger, you’d better ask me first,” Carly said. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with a trembling hand.

  I opened my mouth and raised a finger but then stopped. I hadn’t thought of them. I’d assumed I could freeze Verity, but what if I’d failed? What would she have done to the people who’d conspired with me? I pursed my lips together and didn’t say a word.

  “Don’t you get it? This whole place is a lie. Verity just killed a student to prove a point. If she finds out we know anything, we’ll be back in that room.”

  “Or the globe,” Mark added.

  “Yeah, we can’t tell a single person what we saw.” Carly paced in the tiny hallway. “I wish I could unsee this. I wish I’d never come to this blasted Academy in the first place.”

  I couldn’t keep this inside. My soul had filled with sorrow, and if I had to bottle up another thing in my life, I felt as if I might explode. The words wanted to pour from my mouth, but I knew if I started I wouldn’t stop. I turned and pushed open the stone wall, then darted across the small room. I didn’t want to look at Mark and Carly. I didn’t want to look at anyone.

  The bright light and Daniel’s screams wouldn’t leave my head, so I ran. My legs felt free and I didn’t look back. I ran all the way to my house door and up the stairs. When I reached my bedroom, I slammed the door behind me and jumped on my bed, burying my face in the pillow.

  Another thought hit me and I wanted to scream. Tomorrow, room five, just me and Verity. Life stone or not, I had to find a way out of the Academy.

  The next morning, I crossed the hub with Mark a few paces behind. A couple of harsh looks were all it took to get some distance. I slowed down near the statue of Clymene. It’d once inspired the woman inside of me, thinking of her holding the world up, protecting it. But now I knew she wasn’t holding the world up … she was being crushed. This statue was just a snapshot of her futile struggle against the overwhelming pressure above her. Another second and the world would smash her into nothingness.

  Many of the Blues and Reds walked by, but I didn’t pay attention to them. I kept my focus on room five. Verity was sitting in that room, probably waiting for me with her vapid smile and endless pit of lies, hoping I’d make a stone for her. A stone she might use to harm others, or maybe even kill someone else. I wouldn’t make a single stone again for the Academy.

  “Whatever you want to do in there, raise holy hell, burn the place to the ground, I’m right there with you,” Mark said.

  I glanced back at him and kept walking. It was the right thing to say, and he knew it. I wanted him by my side and I wanted to burn this whole freaking place down, but I also wanted to be smart about it. They were right last night in stopping me. At best, I’d have saved the boy and we’d still be stuck in the Academy, eventually being killed. At worst, we’d all have ended up dead on the spot.

  Room five.

  A group of Reds and Blues loitered near me. I heard their whispered comments and questions. I hadn’t told anyone but Mark and Carly about my upgraded status; and as far as Carly knew, no one had ever gotten above room ten. They watched as I stopped in front of the door and knocked.

  I crossed my arms and tapped my foot. The Blues snickered and probably thought I had been pranked, but eventually the door opened. Verity stood there, studying me from top to bottom. I wanted to punch her in the throat and rip her fingernails off one at a time.

  “Hello, Verity.”

  “President Verity,” she corrected me. “Come in, and bring your toy with you, if you must.”

  I entered the classroom and stood at the doorway. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but it wasn’t a small library. Books lined the walls and only a few desks filled the middle of the room. I gasped at the sight. I hadn’t seen a single book since arriving at the Academy. I couldn’t help but smile. If I could have one alchemist wish, it would have been to have a library at my disposal.

  A girl sitting at one of the desks turned and looked back at me.

  “What’s she doing here?” I asked.

  “We needed a special stone made last night and when I looked for you, you couldn’t be found.” She raised an eyebrow. “Bridget filled in for you and did a marvelous job. Where were you?”

  “I was—”

  “It was my fault,” Mark interrupted. “I took her to a hidden section of the Red house … to be alone.”

  Verity gave the slightest roll of her eyes while she sighed. “Keep it in your pants. But if you must, please use the Academy-provided protection.” She glared at him. “We can’t have little ones running around here, now, can we?”

  She turned and walked to her desk at the end of the room. The glow of the books surrounding me faded, and I felt empty again. Verity appeared as casual as always. Maybe murdering people didn’t affect her.

  Bridget turned and gave me a blank look. I stared at her and she turned back around as I sat behind her. I wondered which version of her I’d be getting.

  “I can smell your foulness from here. Can you move farther back?” she said.

  Well, that was cleared up.

  I ignored the comment, but felt my anger building. This was the same thing I had done at Summerford, staring at the back of Bridget’s head. Now we were who knew where. The hug and laughter we’d shared in the teachers’ hall hung around me like a ghost and I started to question if it had really happened.

  Mark took the seat next to me as Verity pulled a few dusty books from the shelves and placed them on the desk. The soft lighting illuminated the dust stirring up. The room smelled old and dusty, not like the sanitary feel of the other rooms.

  “Pardon me. It’s been a while since I’ve had a special to teach, let alone two.” She thumbed open a book and skipped past a few pages. “Here we are.
Have any of you heard of the alchemist wars of 1747?”

  I shook my head.

  “I suppose it isn’t something taught in public school.” She turned another page. “It was thought that one side had obtained the knowledge to create a philosopher’s stone.” Verity looked up from her book. “Come on, now. Tell me you’ve heard of the philosopher’s stone?”

  Bridget glanced back at me and shrugged. It sounded familiar for some reason, but I shook my head, failing to grasp it.

  Verity sighed and closed the book. “There is an end game for alchemists, a stone whose powers are beyond comprehension. Some say it can give alchemists the power of eternal life; others feel it’s the stone that will turn any metal into gold.” She smirked. “A long time ago, a great and terrible war started over this stone and in the end, both sides took great losses, both personal and historical. In fact, almost all of the documentation on this stone was destroyed by one side or the other in this war. We’ve pieced together many of the stone diagrams, but most remain a mystery. I’m sad to say that the dark alchemists have been trying to destroy us good alchemists for a great many centuries.” Verity walked to the front of her desk.

  “I’ve never heard of such things. Why doesn’t the world know about us?” Bridget asked.

  “In the past, alchemists were more open about their studies, but most historians passed them off as pre-chemists at best. If anyone got close to knowing what we could make, a simple memory stone would be used.”

  I took a deep breath and squeezed my hands under the desk. I wanted to throw questions at her, like, why she would kill that man’s son directly in front of him? How could she not be considered dark for the deeds she’d done? I kept my mouth shut for fear of spilling the wrong words and exposing Mark.

  “It just doesn’t seem possible to hide all of this.” Bridget waved her hand around the room.

  “You’d be amazed by what people choose to believe and what they choose to ignore.” Verity turned back to her desk and grabbed the dusty book. “This whole room is filled with knowledge about alchemy. It’s a collection some would kill for, just to look at for a few hours, and you have me as a personal guide. I know all of these books. I’ve pored over them and tried to make many of the stones. Some I can, and some I can’t. That’s why you’re here, in this room with me. Room ten is too remedial. This room will challenge you. I will be directing you each day to make a particular stone. Whoever makes the stone first will have a significant victory for their house.”