The Quantum Games (Alchemists Academy #3)

by Kailin Gow

  Wirt crept away from the door. He’d heard all he needed to. In a way, he hadn’t really heard anything new. He’d known that Roland wanted to kill him and Spencer. He’d certainly known that the other boy wouldn’t show him any mercy. He headed off to find Robert and see if they had any lessons together.

  They didn’t right then, but Robert did insist that they practiced swordplay again, battering against Wirt’s defenses with cut after cut as he tried to teach him the basics. Wirt told him about what he’d heard and Robert shrugged.

  “You took a risk going after Roland like that,” he said. “What if he’d heard you out there? And you didn’t really learn anything new.”

  “I might have, though,” Wirt said.

  Robert nodded. “I guess so. Sometimes you have to take risks.” He swung his sword at Wirt again and Wirt ducked. “Better, but I’m not sure you’ll ever be a swordsman.”

  “Then why keep practicing?” Wirt asked. “Why not concentrate on other things?”

  “What if one day, a sword is all you have?” Robert asked. “What if you’re in a battle, where there are swords all around? This is the kind of kingdom where everyone has a sword, Wirt. You at least need to know enough to survive.”

  So they kept working, and it would have been nice to say that eventually Wirt was able to beat Robert in one of their practice bouts, but he didn’t. He did get better though, so that as the day wore on he was able to block blows better than at the start and make a few attacks that Robert had to work harder to parry.

  Eventually, they headed back inside to the student lounge. There was no sign of Roland there, but Wirt saw Spencer over in one corner, reading a textbook on balancing forces between objects.

  “You’re still studying hard, then?” Wirt said lightly, going over to him. He was ready to walk away if Spencer didn’t want him there, or if that sense of competition from the Games was there, but he hoped that it wouldn’t be like that.

  “I have a lot I need to keep up with,” Spencer said. There were more textbooks underneath the first one. “While we’re going through the Games, everyone else is getting ready for next year. I sometimes feel like I’m falling behind.”

  Wirt smiled at that. Spencer had always been doing extra work when they’d been roommates. If there was anyone less likely to fall behind, Wirt hadn’t met them.

  “I don’t think there’s much of a chance of that,” Wirt said.

  Spencer shook his head. “I didn’t either, but maybe that’s why I didn’t make it into the elite class outright. Maybe I was too complacent.”

  Wirt shook his head. He’d forgotten that Spencer wouldn’t know about what he’d worked out. “I don’t think that’s what it was.”

  “You might not, but it’s what the headmaster thinks that matters.”

  “What I mean is that I think Roland did this. He sabotaged us in the tests.”

  For a moment, Wirt saw a flash of anger cross Spencer’s features. “I wouldn’t put it past him, but it’s too late for that now. Thanks for telling me, Wirt.”

  For that moment, at least, it was like having his friend back. The two of them sat there and started to talk about the latest things happening in the school, who was doing what, and what the Games might hold in the next few days.

  “You deserved to win today,” Wirt said. “I froze, and Roland… well, I guess you were right, we both did kind of try to just impose what was best for us on the school.”

  Spencer shrugged. “It’s easy enough to understand. I mean, Roland is just power mad, and for you, this is your home. You stay here over the vacations, there isn’t really anywhere else for you to go. I guess I can see why you wouldn’t want it to change.”

  Wirt nodded. He wasn’t sure when the school had become home for him, but it had. He could barely remember a time when he hadn’t been there now. All his best memories were there, as well as most of his strangest ones. A lot of those memories featured Spencer, because he was Wirt’s closest friend. It was stupid that they should have been driven apart like this. Robert was fine, but really, wasn’t Wirt mostly welcoming him as a friend and roommate because Spencer wasn’t an option?

  “You still did a good job of convincing people,” Wirt said.

  “That’s just from spending so much time in my father’s companies,” Spencer said with a shrug, like it was the most natural thing in the world to be brought up with the running of a multi-planar corporation in mind. “He’s made me practice giving presentations to the board, and taught me all about bringing people around to my point of view. Well, he’s had me taught all about it. He was kind of busy at the time.”

  Wirt nodded. He knew how busy Spencer’s father was. He’d seen the calls over the crystal ball Spencer kept, where his father had barely stayed on for a minute or two, or where one of his secretaries had spent time apologizing because Mr. Bentley couldn’t come to speak to him. He also knew how hard Spencer worked to catch his father’s attention. Losing out on an automatic place in the elite class must have hurt.

  Yet in some ways, Wirt guessed that it might have been a good thing. Spencer’s father wouldn’t have made a big deal of it if Spencer got in, because he would simply have expected it. Instead, Spencer was engaged in the life and death struggle of the Games. Mr. Bentley had to take notice of that. And then there was Alana, and Spencer’s sudden willingness to stand up to his father over her. Would that have happened if he hadn’t been in the Games? Wirt didn’t know, though there was a small part of him that wished then that Spencer had gone through, because then things wouldn’t be so complicated.

  For now though, it was like being back as things were before the Quantum Games began. He noticed the moment when things changed. Spencer looked up and his expression altered completely. It softened, then he looked at Wirt and it went harder than it had been before. Wirt looked round, but he already knew what he would see. Who he would see.

  Alana stood in the doorway, wearing modern clothes today, with faded jeans and a t-shirt that only served to emphasis how much she had grown and changed over the previous vacation. Her dark hair seemed to shine as it fell down around her shoulders. Wirt couldn’t help staring at her, because she was so utterly perfect standing there.

  Spencer stepped past him, and glanced at Wirt in a way that made it clear he’d seen the look Wirt had given Alana. He strode over to Alana and took her in his arms, kissing her right there and then in the doorway, apparently not caring if anyone was watching. Probably hoping for it, in fact, Wirt guessed, because there was something almost proprietary about the kiss. Spencer wasn’t just kissing Alana because he wanted to. He was doing it to show the world, and show Wirt, that Alana was his.

  That hurt. It hurt not just because of everything that bubbled below the surface every time he saw Alana, but because Spencer felt the need to do it. There was a level of competitiveness there that Wirt couldn’t stand, his closest friend turned into a rival by it. Even as Wirt thought that, Spencer broke from the kiss and looked back at him with an expression that was clearly a challenge. Alana’s expression was harder to read. She looked at Spencer with something close to love, but that barely changed when she looked over at Wirt. Then she looked confused, almost apologetic.

  Wirt didn’t think that Alana had anything to apologize for. She felt whatever she felt for Spencer; for him. The situation was terrible, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault right then. Wirt shook his head. That didn’t make him feel any better. The fact was that Alana was with Spencer, and right then, he couldn’t stand it. He wanted Alana more than anything, and he would do whatever he had to do to be with her.

  Including killing Spencer? That was what it came down to, didn’t it? Wirt hadn’t thought that he could disintegrate his friend, but what about if that was the only way of being with Alana? What then? Wirt looked over at Alana, Spencer’s hand in hers as he held her. The truth was, he didn’t know.

  Chapter 16

  The next morning brought with it another summons from the headmaster to ta
ke part in one of the events for the Games. This time, it was in the Slightly Cavernous Lecture Theater rather than the governors’ room, and for that Wirt found himself more than a little grateful. It didn’t matter that practically all the students in the school were there, staring down at him from the stands and probably more than a little grateful that this had interrupted their lessons in magical combat. At least there weren’t shadowy presences around the edge of the room to make things worse.

  Wirt stood in the center of the lecture theater along with Roland and Spencer, with Ender Paine, James, and Tess not far away. There was no sign of what today’s test would be, and given the way the last two tests had gone, Wirt didn’t dare to try guessing what it might be. With this school, it could be anything. James and Tess looked across at the three of them in what was probably encouragement. The headmaster’s look was blank, until he turned to address the crowd.

  “So far, we have assessed these three students’ abilities to apply magic under pressure and to persuade those around them to go along with their views. Roland Black has won one event, while Spencer Bentley has won another.” Ender Paine glared back at Wirt. “Leaving Wirt Newton in a pitiful last place. He will have to do well today to overcome that, if he can.”

  The headmaster looked around the hall, obviously enjoying making everyone wait for the time it took for him to announce the task.

  “Today’s test is about another vital quality for those in our elite class. Loyalty. The student who makes it through is going to be placed in a position of great power, taught things that most younger students here could only dream of, and potentially given the opportunity to have the ear of some of the most powerful individuals in the Hundred Kingdoms. That requires loyalty. Loyalty to this school, to those you advise, and to a great many others. So we will see how you balance those loyalties. James, Tess, step forward.”

  They did so, looking serious and quite impressive in formal robes. James spoke first. “I am an advisor to the prince of the Eastern Desert Kingdom.”

  “And I am an advisor to a princess of the Western Desert Kingdom,” Tess said. “At the moment, our kingdoms stand on the verge of war. There have been attacks on the edges of the Western kingdom by bandits and creatures, which always seem to retreat across the border into the Eastern kingdom.”

  “Yet in our kingdom,” James said, “it seems that the attackers come from the Western kingdom. My prince’s father and his generals are saying it is all a prelude to an invasion, and that we must act first if we are going to survive.”

  Tess nodded. “They say the same in my kingdom.”

  The two of them paused, and Ender Paine took over with an obviously irritated glance at each of them. “What these two are not telling you is that the prince and princess they advise have been meeting secretly, because they are still young and foolish enough to believe in love. They believe that they are in love.”

  Wirt glanced at the headmaster, and found himself wondering what had happened to make the man so bitter. He had layers of cynicism and unpleasantness built up around him like some kind of shell, and there had to be some reason for it.

  “Of course,” the headmaster went on, with a glance first to James and then to Tess, “it is not just the royal couple who are in love. Is it?”

  James looked uncomfortable, but didn’t deny it. Tess actually blushed.

  “We have been close since we started at the school,” she said. “I love James. Really love him. I know that Princess Gia loves Prince Alrin too. What is happening between our kingdoms… it could pull all of us apart. So where should our loyalty lie? What should we do?”

  Beside Wirt, Roland made a contemptuous sound. “This is another talking event?” he muttered. Apparently, it was loud enough for the headmaster to hear him.

  “I believe we have been over this, Roland. If you do not like the events, you can always leave.” Ender Paine looked around the hall. “I know some of you here are just as impatient. You want to see the Quantum Ball used. I have even had pressure from some of the governors to speed things along…”

  Did the headmaster look slightly paler than usual there?

  “However,” Ender Paine insisted, “entry to the elite class is about more than just who can fight best, so you will come up with an answer to this dilemma. To whom should James and Tess show loyalty here? What should they do when war comes? Roland, you will speak first.”

  Roland didn’t argue, though he looked furious about it. Wirt could guess why. The thing in his room would not be happy that yet another day was going to go by without him getting to kill Wirt or Spencer. Wirt might even have felt slightly sorry for him, except for what he wanted to do.

  Roland shrugged. “It’s like you said, Headmaster, this is about loyalty, and love is worthless.”

  “I don’t believe that was the word I used,” Ender Paine pointed out.

  “It is though, in this situation. Is love going to stop bandits from coming over the border? Is it going to make any difference to the political situation? In fact, trying to show loyalty to the people that they claim to love would probably be treason once the war starts.” Roland glanced around, and Wirt couldn’t help noticing the way his eye found the spot where Alana was sitting in the crowd. “James and Tess should put aside what they feel for one another, and tell their royal employers to do the same. Their loyalties have to be to the kingdoms that they are in, regardless of the situation.”

  “And if war comes?” Ender Paine asked.

  Roland shrugged. “Then they fight one another. They do what they have to do. That’s what having power means.”

  He came to a halt, looking around the room again like he was expecting a round of applause. Tess and James’ expressions were easy to read. They simply wouldn’t go along with an approach like that if they had another choice.

  It was Spencer’s turn then, and Wirt knew that he would do better than Roland had. He knew what it was like to really care about someone, for one thing. Wirt could never see him going to war with an kingdom Alana had a role in. Plus, he’d done so well speaking yesterday. When Wirt thought about it like that, it almost seemed that Spencer had this test in the bag before he started, and that was a worrying thought. How many tests would there be before the final round? Wirt didn’t know, which meant that he couldn’t afford to fall behind.

  Spencer started to speak. “Sometimes it isn’t easy loving someone, but does that mean that Roland was correct? That James and Tess should just ignore what they felt about one another? No, of course not. Love is so precious that we have to hang onto it when we find it, no matter what that means.”

  “And what does that mean?” the headmaster asked.

  Spencer nodded to Tess and James. “They are advisors to a prince and princess who love one another. As advisors, their loyalty is to that prince or princess, not to a kingdom. They have to do the right thing for them, and in this case it also means doing the right thing for themselves. They should follow that love, whatever it means. They shouldn’t give up on it.”

  Ender Paine raised an eyebrow, before asking the same question he had asked Roland. “And if war begins?”

  “Then they shouldn’t let that stand between them,” Spencer said, and Wirt knew he was looking at Alana, the same way Roland had. “If it comes to it, they should leave their kingdoms and go somewhere they won’t have to fight one another. It would be hard, but it would also be worth it if it meant that they were together.”

  “So they should advise their charges to abandon the kingdoms they serve?” the headmaster asked.

  Spencer nodded. “If necessary.”

  That did get some applause from the assembled students, and both Tess and James looked a lot happier about it than they had about Roland’s suggestion. Wirt suspected that if they felt they had no other choice they probably would do exactly what Spencer had suggested, yet he also got the sense that it wasn’t quite the kind of solution that they had been hoping to hear. So what had they been hoping for? Wirt thought
about that for a second or two while the applause died down, and was surprised to find that he had an answer.

  Ender Paine gestured for him to begin. “Unless you feel that you would prefer to freeze up again?”

  Wirt shook his head. There weren’t any shadowy governors there this time, and this time, he knew exactly what he was going to say.

  “Spencer’s right,” he said. “Love is important. Roland is kind of right too, though, because the country that you serve as an advisor is important too. I guess that’s what makes this test so difficult. If you see it as a straight choice between a country and the person you love, you can’t go for one solution without betraying something.” He shook his head. “If you see it as a straight choice.”

  The headmaster looked intrigued. “Go on.”

  “Well, the way I see it, the fact that the prince and princess love one another is a good thing,” Wirt said. “Not just for them, but for their kingdoms. It means that they’re talking, and so are their advisors. It means that they know that the other side aren’t behind the attacks, because they know one another, and they know what is going on in their own kingdoms.”

  “But perhaps not everyone will believe that,” the headmaster pointed out.

  “Perhaps not,” Wirt agreed. “Perhaps there will be some people in their kingdoms looking for a war, but this way there are at least two people who aren’t, and who can talk to the rulers there. James and Tess need to see that the best way to be loyal to one another, to the prince and princess, and to the countries they work in, is to use that connection to stop their countries from being manipulated into a war.”

  “Manipulated?” Ender Paine repeated.

  Wirt nodded. “Manipulated. If both kingdoms are suffering attacks that no one can trace, but everyone suspects to have come from the other side, but the prince and the princess know that their kingdom had nothing to do with it, then someone else must be manipulating the situation. They have to show that, and they have to use the example of their love to show why the two kingdoms shouldn’t let themselves be torn apart. Even if it goes to war, then that connection between them is still the best hope for forging peace afterwards.”