Alchemist Assault (The Alchemist Book 2)

by Dan Michaelson

  Sam glanced back at the Academy. If they went back now, he would have to search for somebody who might help and then find somebody they trusted.

  “What if it’s nothing?” Sam asked, frowning to himself. He tried to work through the various possibilities of what they had observed. The most likely cause was that this was some other form of alchemy, but alchemy was not forbidden within the city. There was plenty of it around, so he had to wonder if perhaps that was all it was.

  “You want to go take a look first?”

  “I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

  She frowned for a moment before nodding.

  They moved along the street, though neither of them hurried nearly as quickly as they had before. This was partly because neither were quite sure what they might encounter and partly because Sam grew increasingly uncertain if they should even be out here.

  Green magical light had proven to be dangerous, which meant they should go for help. Others would be better equipped to handle something like this. The device on his hand was capable of unleashing magic, but that required him to be able to use it.

  “Do you see anything?” Tara whispered.

  Sam stared into the darkness, but even as he did, he didn’t notice anything that would help him. The green that he might have seen—and he wasn’t even sure whether it had been real or not—was no longer visible. There was no other glow out in the night.

  There would have to be a reason behind the light. That was what he had to question. But, given what they had gone through, he thought it’d be beneficial to determine the reason behind the glowing light, even if there was someone who was supposed to be here and use that power.

  As he looked up into the distance, Sam couldn’t help but worry about his sister. He had come to Tavran and to the Academy because of Mia. He had thought that it would be safer, that he would help her find a new life and an opportunity that they wouldn’t have otherwise. They had found a measure of safety. They had shelter and food, something they had struggled with during their time within Tavran, but they had also uncovered danger that they wouldn’t have before.

  And now Sam couldn’t help but feel as if there was a different danger.

  “There’s nothing there,” he replied. “I think—”

  She squeezed his hand again, crushing it so he could barely stand the pain.

  Sam pulled his hand free of hers and glanced over at her. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. I can feel something, even if I can’t see what it is.”

  As they crossed over a bridge, Sam noticed a hint of movement. It was the first movement he’d seen since they’d left the Academy, and it caught his attention. When he motioned to Tara, she frowned as her pace slowed, and the glow that had been working over her intensified.

  “You might not want to hold onto any spells just yet,” he whispered.

  There was another burst of the greenish light out over the bridge. Sam could feel it this time. It was different than when he’d been aware of the power before, but there was still the sense of it.

  “What was that?” Tara asked.

  “I don’t know. Tell me you saw it.”

  “I saw something. I just don’t know what it was.”

  Neither did Sam.

  They moved more carefully, heading farther along the bridge. Water rushed beneath them, the sound amplified by the silence of the night. Sam paused, looking over the edge to see down to the water. An occasional splash reached him from far below, leaving him damp. Moonlight made the water glow.

  But it wasn’t only moonlight.

  The faint greenish light was there. It hung over the water, leaving a shimmer behind that reminded him of when Tara had used the arcane magic to turn invisible.

  “It’s there,” he whispered.

  Something splashed in the water, and Sam looked down and saw a figure.

  Not just any figure. One he recognized.

  “That’s—”

  “Ben,” Sam whispered.

  “He’s not moving,” Tara said.

  Sam shook his head and looked ahead of him, trying to understand the power he sensed. It was near him. He stared for a moment, studying the darkness and trying to gauge what he detected. He couldn’t tell anything more, but he knew there was power.

  Ben floated downstream, quickly disappearing.

  “We should go—”

  Sam didn’t have a chance to finish. Power built again, this time exploding from the water. The explosion sent him flying backward. He clung to Tara’s hand, trying to keep them together as they flew. She burst with a bright white light, arcane magic flooding from her that cushioned their fall.

  Sam rolled to the side, and Tara dragged on his hand. “Get up!” she cried out.

  When he tried to put weight on his foot, it screamed in protest. “I can’t walk,” he winced, biting back the pain.

  She pulled on his hand. “That power is coming again,” she hissed.

  He was caught up in the pain flowing through him, not paying attention to the way the power was building, but now that she said it, he could feel it rising again. Water started to bulge up from the river. The green light was there, hanging over everything.

  Sam’s body ached. The pain in his foot made it difficult to focus on anything else. Even his hand throbbed.

  His hand. The key. That was new.

  He held it out, pointing it toward the water.

  “What are you doing?” Tara asked, the bright white light of her arcane magic consuming her and filling her with power.

  Sam ignored her so he could focus. He held his hand out and let the energy of the device burst away from him. It struck the water just as the power below was beginning to build.

  He didn’t know what it would do, only that he was accustomed to the violent power of the green glow being used in dangerous ways. In this case, the power from the device and from the river collided in a thunderous explosion. Water splashed upward, drenching him.

  Tara pulled on him, but he wasn’t able to walk. The only thing he could do was hop, and even that wasn’t very easy.

  “I’m not going to be able to keep up,” Sam panted.

  She clenched her jaw. White light swept through him, and a cold sensation struck him. He could barely move, and everything within him felt off. Strange. The pain in his foot throbbed anew. Then faded.

  “Run!” Tara yelled.

  Sam gingerly shifted some weight onto his foot, and this time the pain wasn’t there. Now that he could bear weight on his foot again, he started across the bridge.

  There was another buildup of power behind him. He tried to turn, to focus on the device, but the pulsing in his hand wasn’t there. There would be no way for him to counter what was coming.

  This blast struck him as water crashed down. Sam lost his grip on Tara’s hand, and he was torn from her as he went flying through the air.

  He landed in the water, swallowed by the green light.

  Chapter Four

  Sam wanted to kick at the water, swim, and keep moving, but the current pulled on him each time he tried. It seemed as if the water was trying to engulf him, the greenish light flowing around him. There was energy powerful enough that he could see it even within the water.

  Whoever held this power was using it against him. Maybe they didn’t know it was him, but they were pushing upon him regardless. He would fail to escape if he couldn’t trigger the device. Without it pulsing, there wasn’t anything he could do. The pulsing wasn’t there now, but it had been earlier.

  Sam wondered how he could possibly use the faint green light to trigger the device again. The power he’d used to in the past was there, so he knew there would be some way for it to work.

  With a burst of energy, he plunged to the surface. Fast, flowing water carried him downstream through Tavran. The darkened city streaked past, making it difficult for him to do anything. At least he could breathe.

  He tried to swim, but he couldn’t move against the strong current. Sam wa
sn’t sure if it was the power from the green light holding him in place or if it was something else.

  In the darkness, he saw something floating nearby. For a moment, he thought it was a log, but then he remembered what had happened to Ben.

  Sam drifted downstream. When he reached Ben, Sam realized he wasn’t moving. Sam wrapped his arms around the Secundum and saw a massive gash still bleeding from his forehead, which the current was washing clean. He checked Ben’s neck for a pulse but found none.

  He was gone.

  Sam considered holding onto him, but he needed to get out of the center of the river, and he didn’t know if he would be able to do so while holding onto Ben. He let go, and Ben drifted away.

  Sam curled his hand around the key, clenching his fist tightly. He could feel the coolness of the metal, and he began to try something different. There were specific patterns that work to activate it, and he brought his fist forward, trying to create that beam of power that he had used when he had targeted Ferand with it.

  This time, it did nothing. If he couldn’t get out of the water, he would… do what?

  Tara was on the bridge. She wasn’t helpless—much less than him, actually. She was a skilled arcane arts user and had enough power that she could fight anything coming at her, but he still didn’t want anything to happen to her.

  Irritation at what had happened worked through him, and Sam slammed his hand at the water again. His hand started to throb with the power he could use. He focused as he targeted his hand across the river. Then the power exploded.

  It sent him backward, away from the center of the river and to the far shore on the other side. When he was near enough to the rocky shoreline, he crawled free from the water and rested. Sam looked up at the sky, the moon shining brightly overhead.

  There was a slight shimmer on the river, though he couldn’t see much in the way of the greenish light. Whatever had been there—and whatever had held him—had disappeared.

  As he looked around, trying to see where he had ended up, he peered up into the city. No streetlights glowed here the way they did in other parts of the city. The buildings were darkened and densely packed, which made it difficult to see anything.

  Somewhere near this edge of the city, Sam knew there were armies, though he had only caught fleeting glimpses of them. They were supposedly there to protect the city and defend it, but how could they defend the city against those who use power if those in the city who had power couldn’t protect themselves?

  Hopefully, nothing had happened to his sister. He knew that she wasn’t helpless. Not with her connection to the arcane arts, and not surrounded by other students, even if Sam didn’t always agree with some of her choices and some of the people she surrounded herself with. But it was difficult for him to let go of the protective instinct.

  And he couldn’t let go of it now. He wouldn’t.

  He needed to get moving, get back to the Academy, and warn those who could do something about what had happened. Not for himself but for his sister.

  Getting to his feet, he felt thankful Tara had healed him. Had she not, he wouldn’t have been able to make it back to the Academy. As it was, he would have to stagger through the city. There was a pain in his foot, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as it’d been before.

  It would take him a while to get back, so he started forward. As he didn’t know where he was, the only way to find his way back to the Academy would be to follow the river, but the streets didn’t follow the same path.

  Sam ventured deeper into the city. Buildings practically rested on each other, one after another, and the narrow streets made it feel darker and more suffocating than it would have otherwise. Only a sliver of moonlight made it down to the street, giving him little to see by.

  This was when having Tara and her ability to create a magical glow would have been helpful. The further he got from the river, the harder it was for him to hear it. If he couldn’t hear it, then he wouldn’t know which way to go.

  Sam turned in the direction he thought he needed to take, which led him along an even narrower street. In the distance, he thought he saw movement, but as he approached, he realized it was more his imagination than anything else. Whatever he had seen—or thought he had seen—must have been nothing more than a shadow.

  There was a strange odor in the air, like a mixture of ash and something rotting. The smell wasn’t quite as bad as what he’d endured while working in the lower level of the Academy, but there were similarities.

  Sam took shallow breaths, not wanting to smell the awful odor any more than necessary. The further he went, the more the smell became difficult to ignore. The stench was intensifying with every step.

  When he turned again, the smell worsened. A faint greenish light glowed near the end of the street. It was near him.

  Sam glanced down at his hand. If he could coax something out of the device, if he could somehow find a way for it to start pulsing, to fill with power, then he might be able to use it if he got into trouble.

  Clenching his hand, he tried to hold onto whatever energy he could and force power from the device, but there was none. No pulsing he’d come to associate with the device working. The faint light was ahead of him, glowing.

  Movement along the street drew his attention, and the stench in the air continued to worsen. Sam debated whether he should turn back, but he wanted to know what was up ahead. It had attacked him before, and he needed to figure out what it was and why he had been targeted.

  The light intensified. He could tell it came from another person.

  Sam backed up against one of the buildings. He looked around, searching for a sign, but he didn’t see anything other than the glowing light. Slipping along the wall, he headed toward it. He knew it was stupid of him to do, but he had to know if only so he could report back. Whatever it was had attacked them on the bridge.

  The sounds in the city came with a soft whisper, and he noticed the sound continuing to build into something strange and unpleasant. Combined with the stench in the air, it was unsettling.

  The light in front of him surged slightly. It happened slowly, and had he not been paying attention, he might not have been aware of it. Against the backdrop of the darkness, it was like a beacon of light.

  Sam reached the end of the street. There had been movement there, but he didn’t see where the source of it was. He thought he could pinpoint where he detected it before, but the power made it difficult for him to.

  Something grabbed him, and he jerked around. There was a shimmer—a hint of pale white light and nothing more—then he found Tara.

  “What are you—”

  “Quiet!” she hissed.

  The power around him shifted, and the shimmer began to take on a different shape. It took him a moment to realize what she was doing. She wrapped him in the same power she could control, one that made her invisible. Now it would make him invisible too.

  When it was done, he could see her, but the street in front of him was hazy. The shimmer he’d seen in the air when Tara used her power now surrounded him and everything around him.

  “What happened to you?” she whispered.

  “I was thrown into the river.”

  “I got thrown into it, too, but you stayed longer. It was almost as if you wanted to be there.”

  “It wasn’t quite that. I tried to get out, but there was something that held me in place.”

  “How did you get out?”

  “The key exploded, and I could move again.” Sam still didn’t know what changed, only that it had. “Something was controlling that power.”

  “And you just decided to come and see what it was?” she asked.

  “I thought I needed to.”

  She shook her head. The power around her shimmered again, and he saw more clearly. Tara glowed a little more brightly, and he didn’t know how much she revealed in that way.

  “How were you able to find me?”

  Her face flushed. “I put a tracking connection on you.
And because I’d healed you, I could still feel the effect of that power rolling through you. Without that…”

  “Where are we?”

  “We’re at the edge of the city, far enough out that we shouldn’t be here. Students don’t come to this part of the city and for good reason. It’s too dangerous for us.”

  “Which part of the city is this?”

  This part of the city had houses built out of a pale gray stone, many with narrow windows, and almost all of them incredibly tall and slender. The stonework on them was far more decorative than it was in other parts of the city. It looked as if it were made when the people cared about the appearance of the stone, whereas now, the construction of Tavran was far more functional than that. Other aspects of this part of the city were less ornate. There were some smaller structures, almost always made out of wood, interspersed with the tall stone. It left Sam thinking that something had once happened here, but when he’d mentioned that to Tara in the past, she’d waved away the question. She didn’t know, or she didn’t care. That surprised Sam, especially as Tara seemed intrigued by all mysteries. The air in this part of the city was a little stale, as if it carried a hint of mold or perhaps age, that other aspects of the city couldn’t quite contend with.

  “Jaashin district. It’s one of the oldest areas here, though it wasn’t really even a part of it when the city was founded. Jaashin was its own city, ruled separately from the others.”

  “I can’t even imagine what that was like back then,” he said.

  “The city’s old, Sam. It’s been built upon the bones of another city. Like the Academy. That’s older than the city, as well. At least, parts of it.”

  “Like the Study Hall.”

  “That’s one part, but there are rumors there were other aspects of the Academy that we haven’t even seen.” She shrugged. “Lost over time, I suspect. My mother told me that there are lots of secret places all throughout Tavran. Tunnels that go nowhere, buildings that crumbled, all sorts of things.” She shrugged again. “Not that I’ve gone looking for them, but plenty of people do, I’ve heard. They think there’s some hidden treasure they can find in the city.”