Sam darted forward.
He pulled his cloak around him, worried that the color would reveal which tower he belonged in, and from there, it wouldn’t take long for somebody to start to piece together who had come down here.
He ran faster.
The lanterns blazed behind him, and he knew that he had only a moment… He had the door, powered through it, and raced forward. Thankfully, the hallway was still empty. There were no other students out. No servants.
He darted into the kitchen.
He closed the door behind him and looked around.
He froze for a moment.
There were several cooks, somebody scrubbing ditches and a massive metal basin near the back of the kitchen, and the smell of bread rising. It was busy but busy enough that no one bothered to look in his direction.
Sam hurriedly ducked into a cabinet immediately to his right.
There were stacks of grain, boxes that had labels on them he couldn’t quite read, and a tower of fruit just out of reach. As the door came close behind him, he managed to poke his head out just enough that he could see, and he caught sight of the person looking into the kitchen. He couldn’t see the color of their robe, but he saw black hair, a sharp nose, and a pair of deep green eyes.
At least he knew that the alchemy section was guarded now.
He hadn’t known before but knowing made it so that he knew to be more careful.
He should’ve asked Havash.
More than that, Havash should have given him some tips about how to get into the alchemy section. The hall monitor lingered before finally backing out of the kitchen.
Sam sank back, letting out a heavy sigh. He sat on the stack of grain for a long time, not willing to move. Eventually, he had to believe that the hall monitor would venture off, but he wanted to give her enough time to go. If he came out too soon, it was possible that she would be standing guard by the kitchen, waiting for him.
The door to the closet came open.
“What is this?” the massive cook standing before him had up potbelly, balding hair, and an apron stained with some reddish sauce. He glowered at Sam.
“I’m sorry,” Sam said. “It’s a tough first day.”
The cook’s eyes softened. “Many of them are. Come on. Out of here.”
Sam took a deep breath, and he got to his feet, stepping out of the closet. He quickly scanned the kitchen, but he didn’t see the hall monitor or anybody else from Academy.
“I didn’t eat when I had the chance,” Sam said. “Too nervous.” He was a little surprised at how quickly the lie came to him.
The cook chuckled. “Grab some fruits. I have some bread. You can bring it back to your room. You aren’t the first one who needed to have a separate mealtime. It’ll get easier.” He arched a brow at Sam. “You’re a little old to be new, aren’t you?”
“I’m from the Barlands,” he said and immediately wished that he hadn’t. Why had he revealed where he was from?
“That makes a little sense. Not surprising that you would be nervous here, then. Things probably look and feel a little different than what you’re accustomed to.”
“They do,” Sam said.
“Just keep your head down. Keep reading. And don’t hesitate to come in for food now and again.” He gathered a loaf of bread and shoved it into Sam’s hands. “But don’t be sneaking into my kitchen. If you want food, you come and get it. You either come through the front door like anyone else or if you feel like you need to sneak down for a treat, you come through the back stairs,” he said, pointing to another doorway along the hallway.
Sam looked at the doorway. “There’s a back door?”
“That’s right. Now get on with you.”
Sam nodded, and he scurried out.
As soon as he was back in the hallway, he noticed the door to the alchemy section was cracked slightly. He made a point of ignoring it, and he marched down the hall. When he reached the staircase that would lead up to the dining hall, along with the classrooms, he saw the door to the alchemy section come swinging open. It did so slowly, but Sam didn’t wait. He bounded up the steps, taking them two at a time until he came to the main level. From here, he wondered if maybe he could just explore.
He didn’t want to explore, though. Not right now.
What he wanted was to get back to his room, but there was one other place that he wanted to go. Somewhere he was permitted to visit.
He started down the hall when he saw a student in one of the maroon striped robes, and Sam gathered the courage, and he walked up to them. She was an older student, probably his age or even a year or two older, and had deep golden hair.
“I’m looking for the library,” he said.
She looked over, sweeping her gaze up and down him. She seemed to take in his green-colored robe, and her mouth pressed into a frown. One more tower that didn’t care for his. There was something more to it than he knew, which was reason to ask additional questions. Maybe he should have been more careful with which tower he ended up in.
“I’m a new student,” Sam quickly added. “I know I’m older,” he went on, deciding that there was no point in running from that fact, “but I wasn’t able to pass the test until recently.”
If she had been in the dining hall, she might know the truth.
Instead, a look of annoyance flashed in her eyes, and she waved her hand toward the end of the hallway. “Library is down there.”
“Thank you,” he said.
Sam hurried past her.
As soon as he reached the door, a set of wide oak and double doors that were heavily carved with various symbols, figures, and astrological shapes, he pushed it open. His entire being seemed to smile when he did.
The library was situated in an enormous chamber. The walls were curved, and shelves were set into them, but rows of them stretched in front of him, as well, blocking his view and keeping him from seeing all the way along the library. It was a place that he could get lost in, but more than that, it was a place that he could find himself in.
Thousands of books. Hundreds of thousands, more likely.
And all of this was available to him? He smiled to himself again.
When he first entered, a young student spoke up in a sharp whisper. “You have to sign in.”
Sam looked down at him. He had mousy brown hair, a weaselly nose, and a long face. His eyes were a pale blue that reflected the color of his striped robe.
Sam leaned down, hurriedly scrawling his name. “I was told I could go anywhere?”
“Anywhere but the master’s section,” the boy said. “If you need help finding anything, there are several master librarians found throughout, or any of us interns can help, but…” He shrugged. “Can’t say that we can find anything all that well. The master librarians have the layout of this place.”
Sam smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Enjoy.”
Well, at least that was one from the sharan tower that didn’t have a problem with him. Or if he did, he was better than others at concealing it.
Sam started down the main section of the shelves. He paused at each shelving unit, trying to take in the impossible enormity of it all. All of this was accessible to him?
When he had been in Erstan, he had been lucky to come across even a few books. The ones of any value that Arne had, Sam had been forced to read quickly otherwise, he would get caught reading something that he was not meant to have access to. Here…
He would want to read quickly for a very different reason. Not because he wasn’t going to be given a chance to finish it. Sam suspected that he would have all the time that he wanted. If none of these books were restricted from him, there would be no reason for him to do anything but take his time and work through them at a leisurely pace.
But there were so many.
He had trained himself to read quickly out of necessity.
In a place like this, Sam started to wonder if perhaps he might need to read quickly,
if only so that he had a chance to get through as many as possible. He only had a year. He was going to take full advantage of every opportunity that he had.
He grabbed several books at random off of the shelves, and found a small alcove, where he took a seat, sinking down and dropping open the book. A soft alchemical light glowed in the alcove, providing just enough illumination for him to read easily, and Sam tore into the book.
He smiled the entire time that he did.
Chapter Eleven
Angulation was a difficult class.
Not that Sam expected anything else. He understood the concept behind angulation, and he had borrowed a few books from the library the evening before, reading as much as he could about the various topics that James had mentioned, but the concept behind angulation was all tied into drawing upon a power that Sam simply didn’t have access to. They spoke of calling upon the Arcane Arts, drawing it from someplace deep within the student, and using specific patterns and angles, bending that power, to create even more complex patterns.
All of it seemed impossible for Sam to even comprehend. The angles themselves were not overly complex. He could do that, but that would only be with paper and pen, not at all with the Arcane Arts as the books described.
It surprised him that there was anything here that described using the Arcane Arts in such detail. It was almost as if they didn’t worry about any students having access to this knowledge before they were ready.
In his case, it made little difference. Sam couldn’t use any of the angulation techniques that he read about, but the idea that he could theoretically learn about them did appeal to him, especially knowing he could help his sister accelerate her studies. She had talent. Sam believed in his heart that Mia had talent and that she deserved to be in the Academy, but simply having talent wasn’t going to be enough. Everybody that he had encountered had made that clear. It was more than just talent. It was knowledge and determination and perhaps even a little bit of stubbornness.
Sam looked up as more people filed into the class.
He wasn’t surprised that it was a mixed class. There were students from all different towers, and yet, not all of the students had classes at the same time. A schedule had been left on his bed the very first night, so he knew at which bell he was supposed to have classes, even if he didn’t know exactly where he was supposed to go. Angulation was the first on his schedule.
Given his own lack of ability in the Arcane Arts, Sam couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps Havash had some role in him having this class, to begin with. Maybe he thought it amusing to test Sam by having him sit through it.
The instructor was an older woman with thinning gray hair, rosy cheeks, and a birthmark that left one cheek completely crimson. She was dressed in a gray robe, like so many of the other master instructors wore, and she kept her hands tucked into her sleeves.
She surveyed the classroom before speaking. “You have the honor of beginning with angulation. Your studies will be most challenging, but none more so than angulation. For you to master the Arcane Arts, you must become a master of the various types of angular power.”
She droned on, and Sam only half-heartedly listened. He had his book on angulation open in front of him, and he had been skimming through it, learning some of the basics. It was basic, especially considering what he had read in the library the night before, though that had been almost too advanced for him.
“Can anyone tell me the first tenets of angulation?”
Hands went up all over the room, though Sam kept his down. In his reading, he had seen seven tenets of angulation. None of them made that much sense to him, though perhaps they would be easier for him to understand were he to have an ability to use it.
He found himself looking around the inside of the classroom. He was curious how the rooms were going to be decorated. This one was simple. Stone walls were unadorned. The desks only slightly more colorful, faded gray, and the one Sam sat at had initials engraved on it. There was a chalkboard at the front of the room that rotated on a swivel so that it was tilted, making it unreadable at this point. He suspected that the instructor had some secret message hidden on the board that she was waiting to unveil. Maybe even the tenets of angulation.
“You. What is your name?”
Faces turned, and it took Sam a moment to realize that they were all looking at him
“I’m Sam Bilson, ma’am.”
“Professor is fine. Well, Mr. Bilson. What can you tell me about the first tenets of angulation?”
“The first tenet of angulation is that all lines are infinite,” he said.
She regarded him for a moment, nodding. “Very good. Do you know what that means?”
Conceptually, Sam understood it. How could he not? But when it came to magic, he wasn’t exactly sure what she was quite getting at.
“It’s my understanding that the first tenet of angulation implies that once applied, the Arcane Arts will go on indefinitely.” He heard some snickering around him, and Sam immediately wished that he had come up with a different answer.
Professor Clarice’s nodded, though. “That would be one of the older interpretations, but perhaps not incorrect. It depends upon the application of the Arcane Arts.” She regarded him for a moment as if trying to determine just how much power he had. “Some of the oldest scholars on this topic believe that if you apply the Arcane Arts without any angulation, you will have an indefinite effect. Which is why we choose not to apply it in such a way. One, we want to be able to anticipate and control the way that we apply our Arcane Arts, and two because such a thing might be fatal to the user.”
She went on, but that part caught Sam off guard.
Fatal? In his study of angulation, he hadn’t seen anything to suggest that using it like that would be fatal.
“We will spend considerable time focusing on the first tenet of angulation. Once that is mastered, we will move on to the second tenet, and by the end of the year, you will be given the opportunity to test whether you understand the first three tenets.”
Sam frowned. That was it? Three tenets in a year?
He could conceptually learn about the tenets of angulation, but understanding them on a deeper level was a very different matter. He suspected the intention here was to teach each person how to use it, as well. That was something that Sam thought it would take an entire year to learn.
She continued speaking, but now she was going on about how to apply the Arcane Arts. This wasn’t something that Sam could even consider.
So he turned his attention to his book, flipping through the pages. He was about halfway through the book when the bell rang, indicating the end of the class.
He gathered his belongings, looking around to make sure that he wasn’t the only one starting to get up and realize that most had already scurried out.
Professor Clarice caught him as he reached the door.
“Who did you study angulation under originally?”
Sam suspected that he could bluff his way past students, but a master instructor would be a very different thing.
“I didn’t study angulation,” he said. “I didn’t have an opportunity. I did some reading and…”
“You gathered the theoretical implications of the first tenets by reading?” She frowned at him. “Most master instructors struggle with that aspect of it.”
“I didn’t realize that it would be something to struggle with. You said that if the Arcane Arts were applied indefinitely, there be an unintended consequence.”
She frowned, and she nodded as she did. “Unintended consequence would be one way to phrase it, but perhaps more delicate than it deserves.”
“How would you phrase it?” he asked, truly curious.
“No differently than I did. Where did you say you came from, Mr. Bilson?”
He was prepared for this question. He would receive it from all of his instructors, he suspected, and he wanted to be ready for whatever answer he needed. If it involved sharing his ignorance, he figure
d that might provide him with some opportunity to bluff it even further.
“I’m from Erstan, Professor Clarice.”
She clasped her hands together. “I’ve heard we had a pair of students from the Barlands. Related?”
Sam nodded. “It’s my sister. She’s younger than me. More talented, too.”
“Interesting. If she’s more talented than you, I would be quite interested to learn what she might be capable of doing.”
“Hers is more of a natural ability,” Sam offered, not wanting to set his sister up for failure, “and mine is more of an academic type of thing.”
She smiled. “And you want to protect her. Very good.”
“She is my sister,” Sam said.
“You will find the Academy can be difficult, harsh at times, and often unforgiving, but for those who wish to learn, we are welcoming,” she said.
Sam nodded. “Thank you.”
“I expect to see your assignment with as much detail as you demonstrated today.”
“Of course,” he said.
He hurried out of the classroom then, wondering if he could catch up to one of the other students, and was relieved when he saw James waiting for him.
“I thought you didn’t know anything about angulation,” he said, crossing his arms with a smirk.
Sam was thankful that there was a familiar face in the classroom with him, but not just for that reason. “I don’t. I spent some time in the library last night, hoping to try to catch up.”
“You learned all of that in one night?”
Sam shrugged. “I read half the book during class, so…”
“You read half of the first-year textbook in class?”
“It’s all theoretical,” he said. “I don’t know that I can say I understand it, but I read it.” Sam flashed a smile. “I was hoping maybe you could tell me what assignment I overlooked?”
“We were supposed to prepare an essay on the first tenet and what it means to us.”
“Oh.”
“Seeing as how you already demonstrated some understanding of the first tenet, I thought that maybe you would want to help me?”
“I’d be happy to,” Sam said, pleased he wasn’t proving to be totally useless. “It isn’t conceptually that difficult. It’s the application, I think, that she wants us to be more conscious about.”
Alchemist Apprentice (The Alchemist Book 1) Page 10