by Matt Ryan
Copyright © 2016 by Matt Ryan
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Cover: Regina Wamba
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Editor: Victoria Schmitz | Crimson Tide Editorial
Formatting: Inkstain Interior Book Designing
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“Quintessence,” Chang stressed, “is what’s inside of you that makes you different. It is what makes you an alchemist—giving you the ability to make these stones.”
I attempted to write the word down on my notepad and peeked over at Mark’s notes to make sure I spelled it right. He leaned back in his chair and caught me looking. I couldn’t hold back my grin. Being at my mom’s academy, after experiencing the other two, was like being blind and then being able to see.
Chang, the head teacher, was teaching us what alchemy was and how it worked. I soaked in the information each day, hoping to learn every detail of the big picture. I especially liked the challenges he set out for us to make difficult stones.
“Understanding the mechanics of the tracker stone is imperative because it’s safe to assume the dark alchemists will have one.” Chang held up a red stone with three green stripes running across it. He dropped the stone into a large vat of liquid and it bobbed at the surface.
I lifted off my seat for a better view, trying to look around Jackie.
“Can someone make a stone, any stone?” Chang said, and pointed to Carly. “Carly?”
She slid her mixing bowl to the center of her wooden desk and set out the correct ingredients. Then she picked up two and she dumped them into the bowl. Taking a few rapid breaths, Carly gripped her wooden spoon with authority. I thought I felt some of the anger coming off of her.
As Carly made the stone, I watched the tracker one in the vat vibrate. It sent ripples across the water and floated toward the edge of the barrel and hit the side. The distinctive sound of a stone clanking around Carly’s bowl began, and at the same moment, the red stone in the vat rolled over the side and landed on the floor. It continued on its path, coming to rest against Carly’s foot. She looked down and reached for it.
“Don’t touch it,” Chang instructed as he walked over and picked it up off the floor. “It senses that quintessence I was talking about earlier. It only works within a certain range, depending on who made the tracker stone. Typically, its range is no more than a quarter mile.”
A quarter mile . . .
So, Axiom had been within a quarter mile of us the whole time? What were the odds that guy would have a tracker stone on him and be near us at that exact time? Figures.
“Of course, these can be amplified with booster stones, and it’s the reason Quinn’s agents can find us so easily,” Chang said, as if reading my thoughts.
“Can’t we make a stone to block its effects?” I asked. “Most stones have a counterpart.”
A buzzer blared through the camp. It rang out in three quick bursts, paused, then blared another three times. I slumped in my chair. It wasn’t just any alarm.
“Oh, come on. Again?” Jackie sighed, flinging her arms up.
I closed my eyes as all my classmates scrambled out of their desks and grabbed ingredients for booster stones, preparing for the impending attack. When I opened them, I saw an assortment of ingredients Mark had already laid out in front of me.
Angela went to the teacher’s desk and used his equipment to make the main portal stone.
Mark slid his chair over next to mine and hovered over the ingredients. “Got you all set up, unless you want me to take this one.”
“No, you’ve done it several times in a row. It’s my turn.” I hated taking the stone and plunging it into the water. Why couldn’t they just leave us alone?
The sirens rang out again.
I took the ingredients and didn’t have any trouble finding the anger I needed. At least I wouldn’t have to watch Mark use it this time. He looked weary from the last few uses.
If we were able to stick in one place for longer than a couple of days, maybe we could get to the philosopher’s stone before the dark alchemists did. Instead, half of our time and effort went toward escaping their clutches. The rest of the time, we dedicated our focus to finding the stone.
Sooner or later, I knew my mom would demand that we dig up Blane, that crazy person Mark and I had met inside his wonderland of white. He’d tried to take over our minds, and I still felt his ghost in my head from that encounter and heard his thick English accent from time to time. It was a terrible feeling, sharing brain space with such a disturbed man.
“You sure you’re up for this? I can do one more, I think,” Mark offered.
“No, I’ve got this.” I stared at the stone in the bowl. I didn’t even remember making it, but that had become normal for me. My mind tended to stray while I mixed. It was weird. The more stones I made, the more I felt them. It was as if the spoon had become an extension of my arm and I could feel the texture of the mixture, the liquids and solids coalescing and consolidating into a dense stone at the center. The whole process still amazed me.
Chang walked by and glanced down into the bowl and then at me. His graying hair and dark complexion did little to hide the wrinkles covering the corners of his face. He had to be in his late seventies, maybe even his eighties. “Is this a potent booster?”
“Yes.” Like I’d waste my time on anything less. I doubted I’d need any more than this one stone to send the whole camp away.
Chang plucked the stone from the bowl with his gloved hand and I watched him feel the weight of it. “We’d better head to the center. Here’s the portal stone.” He handed me Angela’s stone and I placed it in my pocket.
We walked outside and I squinted at the bright light, watching as people ran by, gathering stray animals and kids who’d wandered off. Everyone needed to be in the jump zone. I didn’t like the idea of having so many people depending on me to get everything just right, but after several successful jumps, I felt confident in the task.
Mark walked next to me and Jackie ran up on the other side with a smile. “I think I made a stiff stone. Ten bucks says it’s the one to knock you on your ass this time.”
“You’re on.” I laughed at her enthusiasm.
Jackie’s stones packed a punch, but mine were always the ones to send me over.
People had gathered in the center of the small town. My mom had had a special fountain made for just these occasions. In all actuality, it was no more than an enlarged trough. At least they’d added a padded liner on the bottom. I’d hit my head the first few times and had had a nasty knot for days.
As I approached the trough, I stilled the growing murmurs from the Intrepid—a surly group of men and women who looked more and more ragged each week. Maybe the jumping and running was taking more of a toll on them than my mother let on. I silenced my thoughts and took slow breaths, then walked up the stairs. When I reached the top, I turned around.
Carly stood at the front of the line forming outward from the stairs. I spotted Jackie about twenty spots back, a strategic placement right in front of Chang, who was holding my stone. I nodded to Mark, my gymnast coach in training, who stood next to the trough, his
hands held out to catch me if anything went wrong.
I pulled the stone from my pocket with my gloved hand. The anger came swiftly, something I’d managed to control with practice, and I dropped the stone onto my bare hand.
Carly rushed up the steps and tapped her stone against mine. I felt it as nothing more than a penny being dropped into a vast well. The line of people behind her worked as a well-oiled machine, wasting no time in touching their stones to mine, one after another. Soon, I felt the strain. Not in the weight in my hand; more so in my mind. It pulled at me and I sensed its circle growing.
“Hurry, they’re getting close!” someone screamed.
An explosion sounded in the distance. I thought I even felt heat, but couldn’t let my mind wander from the next location. A few stray thoughts and we’d all be in trouble.
The stone shook my arm and blurred my vision, but I didn’t need clear vision to see Jackie’s wicked smile as she held her stone next to mine.
“You ready?”
I couldn’t have replied if I’d wanted to; I had laser focus on the jump point. Jackie dropped her stone against the portal stone. It sucked into mine and weighed down my arm. I groaned and knew we’d reached the zenith. I’d lost a bet, and I didn’t care. I released my hold and absorbed the stone. The world went black and I fell backward, feeling the wind gusting through my hair. Seconds felt like minutes as I plunged into the water-filled basin.
Rays of sunshine pierced through the shimmering surface. I felt weak, and wondered where my help was. Usually a few people would make sure I didn’t drown. Forcing my limp body to breach the surface, I took in a badly needed breath of air.
Mark grabbed my arm, the shock on his face clearing the fuzz from my brain.
“What is it?” I asked, wondering if he could understand my garbled voice.
“Some dark alchemists made it to the jump zone. Roy and Boyd saw them just before the jump.” Mark glanced around in a near panic.
“There’s more, isn’t there?”
“They’ve made it into Chang’s.”
I shakily stood and thought of what they could want in Chang’s. There could be a million things to take. And then it hit me. “The soul stones!”
Mark nodded and helped me over the edge and onto the ground. Water poured from my clothes, staining the dirt below. Down the road, a few buildings stood between us and Chang’s. Thinking of all the students who had died for those stones, I shook with rage. They could not end up in the dark alchemist’s hands.
“We’ve got to help,” I said, and shuffled my feet toward Chang’s with heavy support from Mark.
“You’re not up for this, Allie. You’ll only slow me down. Let me and the others flush them out.”
I let go of him and leaned over, putting my hands on my knees. “Go.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, they need you. Go.”
Mark nodded, ran past the first building and disappeared around the corner. I stood upright and took a deep breath. I didn’t plan on letting them have all the fun; it would just take me longer to get there. I took a few steps and felt the pain shoot through my body. I hated the feeling after a jump, but I hated the idea of them fighting without me even more than the pain. I willed my movements into a sluggish walk and staggered toward Chang’s.
There was yelling and what sounded like a small explosion. Arriving at the last building before Chang’s, I put a hand on the wall and peered around the corner. Many of the Intrepid had the building surrounded.
A stone flew out of one of the windows, blowing around a large cloud of white mist.
“Come out now, or we’re going to take down the building around you,” Niles yelled, pointing his gun at a window.
“There you are.” A familiar voice sounded from behind me.
I spun around and lost my balance. Reaching for the rough stucco wall, I missed my intended hold and fell to the ground. I scrambled to my feet, grasping for the stones in my pocket.
“Please, don’t,” she said.
I kept my hand in my pocket and looked at the person behind the voice. “Iggy?”
“The very one.” She bowed.
The last time I had seen her had been right before she was kidnapped. I gasped at her appearance. She had seemed so meek before, but now she stared at me with confidence. She was standing sideways in a typical stance for throwing a stone. I couldn’t see her back hand, but I was sure it held a stone.
“What are you doing here?”
“Trying to rescue you from this little merry band of alchemists.”
“What? Are you okay? We looked for you for so long. Where have you been?”
Iggy smiled. “Quinn took me in. He’s more powerful and wise than any of us imagined. It’s foolish to go against him. He’s taught me more in a month than I learned in all the years I spent at the Academy combined. And the funny thing is, you of all people are threatening his ability to create the stone. In an effort to keep you out of his way, we’re going to take back those soul stones now.”
“No, Iggy. You can’t be serious. You’re not with them.”
She smiled and took a few steps forward, giving me a good look at her stark black hair and sleek black clothes. Her hair had been unruly before, but now she had it pulled back tightly behind her head. The look made her face pointy and gave a dangerous look to her eyes.
“Just tell me where those stones are and we’re gone.”
“We can’t let Quinn get the philosopher’s stone. He’s insane. He’s going to kill us all.”
“Like your mother is any different? She’ll take this world and crush it under her rule. Look at what she did to her own daughter.”
I looked away and thought about screaming for Mark, or any of the other Intrepid, but it sounded as if they had enough going on. I turned back to face her. “My mother is here for me now.”
“Now?” Iggy laughed. “From what I hear, you’ve turned into a stone puppet once again. She’s treating you no different than Verity, using you up until you’re a quivering mass. Look at you! You can barely stand.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Iggy revealed her back hand and pulled out a purple stone with a few yellow streaks. “Quinn wants you as well, Allie. I told him about you and he finds you most interesting. He has a thing for specials.”
I backed up and pulled a nightmare stone from my pocket. I took aim and threw it, but still being weak from the jump stone, my arm didn’t work properly and the stone flew past Iggy’s face and hit the dirt behind her.
She looked back at the stone. “You know, they’ll teach you to make much nastier stones than that one. Okay, come on. Just make this easy on us both and stick your hand out.”
I stumbled backward as Iggy approached with the portal stone, and fell on my butt.
She got close enough for me to kick, but she pushed away my feeble attempt at self-defense and knelt down next to my face. Yanking my hand from my pocket, she gripped my wrist. “You ready?”
I yelled for help. A shadow spread over us long enough for Iggy to look up and see Jackie’s leg connecting with her stomach. Iggy groaned and doubled over, landing next to me. I rolled away and Jackie moved to pounce, but Iggy disappeared, so she landed on the dirt road.
“Was that freaking Iggy?” Jackie said, getting up and dusting herself off. “And was she beating you up?”
“Yeah, she’s acting all crazy. She was trying to take me to Quinn,” I said. “If I hadn’t just made the jump, I’d have kicked her ass.”
Jackie growled. “The little bitch portaled. You okay?”
“Yeah.” She took my hand and helped me to my feet. “Did we get the others?” I asked.
“Nope, they left as well.”
“How the hell did they get here so quick this time?”
“I don’t know, but if I had to guess, we’ve got a squealer in our midst,” Jackie said.
“Allie!” Mark called, running up to us. “You okay
? I thought I heard you yell.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I looked past him to Chang’s and saw the Intrepid running out of the building and fanning out.
“Iggy just jumped her,” Jackie explained.
“Iggy . . . from the Academy?”
I filled them in about my encounter. Mark paced near me as he took it all in.
Carly walked up to our small circle as I finished, looking pale and favoring one leg. “They got the soul stones,” she said.
“No, they couldn’t have,” I said. “Did you see my mom?”
“Before the attack, I saw her run to her house.”
I darted off toward my mom’s house. She needed to know about the stones. Intrepids ran past me and I heard orders being given in the distance. Probably Roy and Boyd. The whole makeshift town we’d created was bustling with people, most carrying a stone and looking everywhere for more dark alchemists.
“There could be more hiding,” one called out. “Check every house.”
I listened to the conversations for as long as I could before arriving at my mother’s. She lived in a small house, much like the rest of us. I didn’t really expect her to be home, but it was a good first place to look.
The front door was flung open, and it slammed against the house. I jumped back from the shock and stared at my mother. She looked crazed with wide eyes, baring her teeth in a snarl.
“They took the stones, didn’t they?” she said.
I nodded. “Carly said as much.”
Mark walked up next to me, keeping a hand in his pocket, watching my mother.
“They were some savvy alchemists if they got through Chang’s locks,” she said, more to herself than anyone else. “We’re getting them back.” She ran into the house and came back out with a black pouch attached to her belt.
“They’ve portaled. They’re gone,” I said.
“They’re gone, yes. But I know where they went and we’re going after them.”
“How can you know?” I asked.
She smiled and raised a finger. “I have it on good authority where their safe house is. If we leave now, we may get to them first.”