“What’s this?” he whispered.
“Oh, this is Belianrash’s Alchemy shop. He was something of a local celebrity about ten years ago. He developed a new way of merging metals, and it proved popular for a while. He has several shops like that throughout the city, though none are as large as this one.”
Sam stopped in the window. There were dozens of different items made out of a white-looking metal, different shapes, some of them like lanterns, some of them sculptures, and some of them simpler like bowls or pots.
But it was the back of the building that caught his attention. It was glowing softly.
“Do you see anything back here?”
“Other than the lanterns? No. It’s too late. He closes the shop when the Academy let’s students out into the city. I think the instructors have convinced him to. They wanted to make sure that the students don’t get into trouble by getting access to alchemy that they aren’t supposed to yet.”
“What was it like when you were able to learn alchemy?”
“I only took the basics. It was similar to what we now learn in chemistry and botany, but there was more of a mixing of different elements, and in my second year, we started to learn how to apply various patterns of angulation to it. Then the third year…” She shook her head.
“That’s the one the attack happened.”
“The accident.”
“Or attack,” Sam said.
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I do know that losing the lessons on alchemy has changed the dynamics within the Academy. It feels like we’re missing out on something.”
“Have they said when students will be able to resume studying alchemy?”
“I don’t think they’re going to share.”
“I see a greenish light in the back of the shop.”
She frowned, pushing her head forward and straining her eyes. “So you think the greenish light that you’ve been seeing around the Academy is from alchemy?”
“Either that, or it’s tied to a specific alchemist. Do you think that he would have ties to Ferand?” Sam asked, pointing up at the sign.
Though he had seen Chasten using a greenish light.
She started to smile. “If you met him, you’d understand why that sounds ridiculous.”
“And you have?”
“He came and gave few talks at the Academy during my first year. He…” She smiled. “Let’s just say that he is more flamboyant and interested in wealth than anything else.”
“Unless that’s all for show.”
She laughed again. “I sincerely doubt it.”
They wandered a little while, and she pointed out other sights within the city, guiding him around, and after a while, they started to make their way toward the plaza. Sam caught glimpses of the Academy in the distance, so he knew when they were making their way back toward the other students, towards James, and away from their chance to continue the conversation.
It was easy with Tara. Comfortable.
As they neared the plaza, the music started to pick up, and she looked over to him. “We could just go back to the Academy if you want.”
“Or we can keep wandering the city.”
She started to smile when a voice called out to them.
“What do we have here?”
Tara stiffened. “Gresham. I’m surprised you’re not out there with a few different girls you’re trying to take advantage of.”
He started to laugh. “Take advantage of? I would never do that. I’m just trying to help some of the new students see what the city has to offer.”
Sam looked behind Gresham and realized there were two girls with him. One of them was Mia. She locked eyes with him, looking across the distance, and she shook her head slightly.
Did she really want him to keep his mouth shut?
“And Stone is with the Barlands boy.” He sneered as he said it.
Sam glanced past him, looking to Mia. Maybe she would hear the derision in Gresham’s words and realize that she shouldn’t be with him.
“This Barlands boy, as you keep trying to call him,” Tara said, striding up to Gresham and beginning to glow softly, “scored better than you did during your first year on his exams.”
Gresham tore his gaze away from Sam and glowered at Tara. “Apparently, he also needs you to stand up for him. Then again, I saw what happened when he tried to stand up for himself last time. He thought he knew more than he did. From the way I hear the professors talk about him, that’s how he acts in class, too.” He sneered, turning his attention back to Sam. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see someone like that find the end of the year is far more difficult. Instructors don’t like arrogance.”
“They tolerate it quite well from you,” Tara snapped.
Gresham glowered at her. “You’re going to regret that once we leave the Academy, Stone. What do you think’s going to happen to you when you leave? Who are you going to work for?”
“Not you,” she said. Her confident tone had faltered, though.
Gresham laughed, and he started to glow, so Sam stepped forward.
“I don’t need Tara to stand up for me. And you got lucky. It’s not going to happen again.”
He cocked his head to the side, regarding Sam. “Is that a challenge?”
Sam flicked his gaze past him. He made a point of looking at Mia and the other first-year student behind Gresham. “Why don’t you saunter off with them before they see what kind of person you really are. It won’t take long, I’m sure.”
Gresham looked as if he wanted to take a snap at Sam or Tara, but he merely stepped back, smiling widely, and spread his hands on either side. “Typical of tolath students. I warned you. There’s a reason there aren’t many of them.”
He started off, and Mia and the other girl trailed after him. When they had gone a dozen paces or so, Mia glanced back, and there was a flash of irritation in her eyes. When she turned back to Gresham, she grabbed onto his arm.
Sam let out a frustrated sigh.
“Don’t worry about him,” Tara said.
“That’s not it. One of those girls was my sister.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. Which one?”
“The blonde.”
“That bastard. Though, I suppose if he knew she was your sister, he wouldn’t want anything to do with her.”
“And she’d not fit into the tower,” Sam said.
When he left the Academy, he wanted Mia to still have a place.
Tara turned to follow where Gresham disappeared. “Well then. Maybe we don’t need to go to the plaza. How about we follow him and make things more difficult for him?”
“I don’t need any more difficulty with Gresham than I already have. Neither does she.”
“Don’t worry about it. I know Gresham. He won’t even know that we’re there.”
The sound of music drifted toward him, but Sam decided that maybe going with Tara would be more fun anyway.
“Let’s not get caught,” he said.
Tara grinned at him. “I never do.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Tara held onto Sam’s hand as they ran through the streets, sticking to some of the side streets primarily as they made a point of attempting to keep up with Gresham, but not wanting to get so close to him that he would know they were following. Sam hadn’t seen any sign of his sister, not since Gresham had whisked her away, and though he wanted to protect her, he was also acutely aware of how he didn’t want to embarrass her, either.
At one intersection, they paused, and in the distance, he noticed the outlined form of Gresham walking alongside Mia and the other first-year sharan student. He looked over to Tara. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. But if he was with my sister, I know how I would feel.”
“I didn’t realize that you had a sister.”
She nodded. “She’s younger. Not quite eligible for the Academy. Yet, anyway. I don’t know if she’s shown much talent, though.”
“Don’t you see her?”
She frowned at him. “How can I see her?”
“I thought your parents were in Tavran.”
Her expression darkened for a moment. “Did you?”
“I didn’t want to upset you,” Sam added hurriedly. “It’s just that I heard that your mother had served on the council.”
Tara nodded. “Had. Not anymore.”
“I’m sorry. I—”
Tara turned toward him, cutting him off. “It doesn’t upset me. I don’t think it even upsets her. It was just the way she was pushed out.”
“How was she pushed out?”
“The council consists of snakes mostly. I think my mother was probably even a snake while she was there. You have to fight for what you want. And in the council, it’s a matter of fighting for what you think you want. It doesn’t always make sense, but it’s all she knew. What I knew.”
“Did Gresham’s father have anything to do with what happened to them?”
“I don’t know. My mother doesn’t talk about it. She and my father moved off to the north. They still serve the council. Once you take on that position, it is hard to lose your spot. But they don’t have as much influence as they once did.”
Gresham had turned to a street vendor, and grabbed a couple of drinks, carrying them to the girls.
“Now he’s trying to ply them with wine,” Tara said, shaking her head in disgust. “I’m sorry, Sam. You’re a smart man, but your sister…”
“I think she’s just caught up in everything within the Academy,” Sam said. “She means well. She has a kind heart.”
“That’s even worse,” Tara said. “Somebody like him is bound to stomp on a kind heart.”
“Then I just have to make sure he doesn’t get the chance.”
He didn’t have much time to do that, though. Only until the end of the year, and that was assuming that he figured out what was going on with Ferand and managed to stay that long. If he couldn’t figure that out, he might be sent away even sooner.
“He’s not going to spend too much time away from the plaza,” Tara said. “Not only because he doesn’t want to get too far from people who hang on him, but because there are quite a few who don’t like being so far from the Academy and from everything that they know.”
“I don’t get the sense that Gresham is concerned by those things,” Sam said.
“Probably not,” she said. “Especially as he grew up in the city. It’s all he knows. But these days…”
“What about these days?”
She frowned at him, and then she motioned for him to follow.
They wound away from Gresham and Mia and made their way through the streets. This part of the city was darker, and the buildings closer together. Even the street was narrower. There weren’t many people out there either.
“They prefer it if we don’t come out here,” Tara said, keeping her voice soft. “But there are some of the students who do. Mostly because they’re looking for things that they can’t find in the Academy, or can’t find around the Academy, but some come because they agree.”
“Agree with what?”
“You’ll see.”
They continued making their way forward, and the stone buildings started to shift, becoming rows of narrow wooden huts. Even those emptied.
And then there was nothing but open grassland. Tara stopped at the edge of the city. She pointed off into the darkness. “Do you see that out there?”
“I see a series of lanterns,” Sam said. He couldn’t make out much, and he twisted the alchemy device on his hand, trying to get a comfortable position, but finding it difficult. “What am I supposed to see, exactly?”
“Out there. That’s the army. The first army, at least. If you moved to the other side of the city, you’d see the second army. You go south, and you get the third army.”
Sam frowned. “I didn’t realize there were so much of a military influence.”
“You would have passed through it on your way here.”
“We didn’t travel to the city that way,” Sam said.
“How did you?”
“Havash had some device that he used to carry us. It sort of squeezed and was painful, but he got us from Erstan, or outside of Erstan, and to Tavran in only a few moments.”
Her breath caught, and her eyes widened. “I didn’t think they were permitted.”
“What are you going on about? What did you want to show me with the army anyway?”
“Your homeland was annexed, right?”
Sam nodded. “It was a few years ago. I think most in my part of the world have come to terms with it, but not everybody.”
“Your homeland isn’t the only place that was annexed. That’s what my mother was disagreeing with,” she said. “There have been plenty of places just like it. Claimed. Using soldiers, and worse, those with the arcane arts, to claim more space for all of Olway.”
“I didn’t know.”
And it was a sudden disappointing realization that he hadn’t.
Given everything that Sam had spent time learning about, understanding the politics of Olway had never even entered his mind as something that he should be concerned about, even though it obviously impacted him. He had been far more concerned about understanding alchemy, angulation, even mathematics, botany, and chemistry rather than anything that was happening in the world.
“There are others who disagree with the approach,” Tara said.
“Like Ferand?”
She frowned and shook her head. “I don’t think so. He’d been reportedly after power. Although…” She shrugged and continued staring out into the darkness. “Again, I just don’t know. I’ve been looking into what I can about him, but it’s delicate. I have to be careful.”
“Is there anyone you can ask?”
She snorted. “If my mother were still here, I suppose I could ask her, but not anymore. She still has some allies, but getting to them and asking those questions isn’t going to be easy.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Sam said.
“Anyway, you wanted to know what it meant about these days. There’s tension in the city. There are those who disagree with what the council has chosen and how they continue to push for increased annexation. The council claims it’s the only way to ensure our safety as if we really have to fear the Nighlan along the borders to the west.”
“The Nighlan are there,” Sam pointed out.
Tara looked over to him, and she looked as if she wanted to argue, but then she shook her head. “I don’t know about that, but maybe they do. If so, then it might make sense.”
“But they don’t bother us. At least not in Erstan. They’d never gotten involved. The Barlands were hard enough to cross as it was.”
“I don’t have the sense that the Nighlan are necessarily intimidated by difficult terrain. As you learned with Havash, there are other ways of traveling.”
“Could the Nighlan use that?”
“It’s not supposed to be possible,” she said.
“That’s why you are surprised when Havash suddenly appeared in the city with that.”
She nodded. “It is unusual.”
Sam turned away from the distant lighted scene of the barracks. If Havash wasn’t supposed to do that, but he did, how many others could? But that wasn’t the only concern Sam had. Why had Havash been able to do it?
“I had the sense that he was running from something,” Sam said. “He appeared in Erstan, and he’d hired a wagon, but he didn’t hesitate to escape when something came.”
“You’re now questioning whether or not you can trust Havash.”
“I don’t know,” Sam admitted. “I don’t know much about him. He has some history within the Academy. That much I was able to figure out pretty quickly, but—”
“So did Ferand.”
Sam nodded. “Precisely.”
“And now you’re concerned that he’s doing what? Working with him?”
“I don’t really know. I w
ouldn’t have said so. It’s just that I know so little about Havash and what he intends.”
“Then we should dig,” she said. “Obviously, there was something in the alchemy section that they were after.” She held up his hand, and she traced her fingers along the surface of the device, leaving his hand tingling and burning slightly. “Whatever this was is important to them. Important enough to keep attempting to break into the alchemy tower.”
“An important enough to be hidden,” Sam said.
“Right. I had forgotten about that. You figured out how to open the door.”
“I did it out of chance,” Sam said. “It was just because of one of the books I’d been reading that I recognized the pattern, but it wasn’t just me.” Now he thought about it, that same book had been on one of the shelves for alchemy. When Sam had found it, it had been in the corner of the library, as if somebody had been reading it. “Somebody else had found Methanial’s book.”
“You read that?”
“I came across it by chance,” Sam said. “And since Havash it wanted me to go into the alchemy section, I did.”
She started to laugh. “I think I’ve underestimated you. I came across that book early on during my training and never really paid it much mind.”
“Well, there were a series of symbols on the book, and they were replicated on the door. I just pieced them together and managed to get it open.”
“So there was something hidden in the alchemy tower, accessed through a book that not many people would be interested in, and you now have it.”
“I suppose we could go back to the library and figure out who has been spending so much time there.”
“It wouldn’t really matter,” Tara said, waving her hand dismissively. “If it’s one of the upper-level students, they can take books with them, though they have to check them out. And if it’s one of the faculty…”
“I wonder if there’s something else in there that I might’ve overlooked,” Sam said.
“Probably. It is dense.”
Sam closed his eyes shut, trying to think about what he’d read. He flipped through the pages in his mind, remembering the symbols, remembering the way that they were organized, but didn’t come up with anything there.
Alchemist Apprentice (The Alchemist Book 1) Page 25