Alchemist Assault (The Alchemist Book 2)

by Dan Michaelson

  “Buried in the city?”

  “Well, it depends upon your definition of treasure.” She watched him, and he immediately knew that she understood what his definition of treasure would be.

  And she would share it.

  If they could find some ancient books, something that might share secrets of Tavran, or of anything that might have been there before…

  Maybe they could learn more about angulation or alchemy.

  There might have even been parts of the Academy he could find. The Study Hall suggested that there were parts that he remained unexplored, and they had only to find them.

  What if I could?

  That possibility intrigued him. He couldn’t deny that.

  Tara turned her attention in front of her and looked outward. Her hands twisted in a pattern as the power built from her. “I think they’re gone.”

  “We need to follow them.”

  “We might want to, but that’s not the same as needing to. Besides, they attacked you once and nearly killed you. They nearly killed me too!”

  Sam peered beyond what she was doing, the way her power was shimmering. There was nothing in front of them. He started forward, but Tara pulled him back.

  “You need to be careful. Especially in this part of the city. I don’t know what it was you detected.” She turned slowly in place, weaving the same shimmer around them.

  Sam laughed. “Don’t you like to tell me that you’re one of the most powerful students in the Academy?”

  “I’m not one of the most powerful. I’m advanced. There’s a difference.”

  “I don’t know what that difference would be.”

  “The difference is the knowledge. With what I can do…” She stood taller and looked around her. The power she’d been holding faded, and when she released it, she pushed a burst of power away from her. It appeared to him like a streak of color that washed over the street.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Something’s coming.”

  The glowing white light that had been around her disappeared suddenly.

  Tara breathed out. “Run, Sam,” she whispered.

  They started through the streets. The light he normally noticed around Tara had faded.

  She reached her hand out behind her, trying to keep them connected by giving him something to grab onto, but she was moving more quickly than he was.

  The greenish light he’d seen before seemed to be all around him. Sam stumbled after Tara, who was growing more distant.

  There was a sense from the device. A pulsation.

  He staggered forward. He hadn’t even realized he was getting trapped in the green glowing power. Tara was ahead of him, though not nearly as far as it seemed. He raced forward, trying to catch up to her. She turned and looked back at him, a hint of white shimmer coming off of her, a pattern that he couldn’t quite recognize.

  “Something’s wrong,” he said.

  “I can’t draw much power,” she said. “I’ve been trying, but there isn’t much I can do. So we’re going to have to get ahead of it, and then we should be able to keep them from holding onto me.”

  Sam looked around. “It’s more than that. I don’t know what it is, but the power here seems to be focused on me. Almost as if it were wrapped around me in particular.”

  Could that be what it was?

  It didn’t seem as if the people causing this would have any way of knowing about him, but maybe that was the key. Tara took his hand, making a point of squeezing his key-free hand.

  But what if she held the other one?

  Sam switched hands, and he pressed the device against her hand. There was a pulsing that began to build between him. He tried to squeeze his hand to prevent the power from bursting from the device, but it built with him.

  “Tara…”

  “What was that?” she whispered.

  “The device. I don’t know what’s happening with it. The only thing I can tell is—”

  The green light glowed brighter. He pulled Tara with him, plunging ahead. He didn’t know where they were heading, only that he didn’t think they could dare wait where they were.

  They reached an intersection, and she veered to the right. As they did, Sam hurried toward the river. No matter what else happened, the river was a source of power. They would be able to find their way back to the Academy, or he would have something that amplified the power of alchemy.

  Sam tried not to think of the strange light around him, the pulsing of the device in his hand, or even the way it felt to have Tara pressed against him as the two of them raced through the city. Instead, he focused on the sound of the river, using it to guide him toward the Academy.

  Another explosion thundered behind them. It had provided enough of a warning that Sam was able to try to twist sideways. Tara held her hand upward, and a burst of power flowed from her, mixing with the energy of the device.

  They shared a look and staggered ahead. Sam continued to move toward the river, passing buildings he didn’t bother to give a second glance to as Tara raced alongside him.

  The Academy suddenly loomed into view. He clenched his jaw and tried to move more quickly. The greenish light was behind them, though not so much that he could make out the source of it. The closer they got to the Academy, the easier it was to feel as if they would be safe. All they needed was to get onto the Academy grounds again.

  “Not much further—” he said.

  A dark figure appeared in front of them. Sam skidded to a stop, pulling Tara with him. He turned, trying to look along a side street. There were several around this part of the city, which meant they could take a different route back to the Academy if necessary. Now that they were close, he wouldn’t have to worry about following the river.

  There was another figure down the side street. Sam didn’t need to turn to know there were others behind him. He could practically feel them there.

  White light built from Tara, crisscrossing beams that she angulated out from her. Sam felt pressure coming from the key that he hadn’t fully activated. It was almost like it were drawn on its own. That power struck the angulated power that Tara used, exploding together.

  Sam turned, hoping this had been enough to deter these attackers, but the figures had somehow deflected the energy. They stood in place, motionless. Watching.

  “Any other ideas?” he whispered.

  “That was about all I can do,” she said. “I might be able to try one more thing, but I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference.”

  With that, a soft shimmer covered them. It was the same type that had washed over them when she’d tried to make them invisible. He held tightly to her hand, squeezing the device between their palms. Both the device and the shimmer began to pulse in time, syncing up with one another.

  “Do you think it worked?” she asked.

  Sam doubted it, but he didn’t want to tell her that.

  “Can you hold it while we move?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. It was hard enough the other time. I think it was when I tried that they saw us.”

  Sam squeezed her hand, and Tara took a step. As soon as she moved, power collided with them, throwing them back. He crashed into a nearby building, his head bouncing off the rock. He still held onto Tara’s hand.

  “Run,” he said after a few dizzying moments.

  “I can’t move,” Tara said.

  “We need to—”

  He couldn’t finish. Light began to build around them, and Sam had no doubt about its target. The light was meant for them, and nothing within him reacted the way it should. They were trapped.

  Sam tried turning to Tara, but his head didn’t move the way it was supposed to. As the light intensified, three figures converged on them.

  Chapter Five

  Sam tried to tamp down the panic threatening to rise within him. It would serve no purpose. He had to keep his mind working. Logical thought was the most likely way he would escape from whatever happened here.

&
nbsp; He watched the figures, thinking about the key.

  It was an alchemy device, and he could use that, but he had to trigger it first. There were different ways of doing so, he had learned. Not only could he trigger power to explode from it, but there was an energy that permitted him to read the almanac. Maybe there were other techniques that he could learn and master.

  As they neared, he focused on the sense within his hand. He needed to trigger the key. For a moment, a slight tingling worked along his hand, but then it faded and left him wondering if he’d imagined it.

  The figures continued their approach. Sam could make out the features of one of them. He was a dark-skinned man, or perhaps only shrouded by the shadows, with a wide face and muscular build. Something in his hands glowed green. Sam found his gaze drawn to it, unable to take his eyes off of it.

  “Sam?” Tara whispered.

  He needed to move. They both needed to move.

  “Can you do anything?” he asked.

  “They’re holding me.”

  With each step, there was a delay, as if they were preparing something. With each step, Sam noticed the greenish glow intensifying. He realized it was coming from not only one of the men but several of them. They weren’t close enough for Sam to see what they held, but the light didn’t come from them the way it did from Tara. With her arcane arts, it seemed to flow outward from everything within her. With this, it seemed to come from what they held—the same way the light came from the key in Sam’s hand.

  The pulsing. That was what he needed, but finding a way to make it happen was the part of the device he didn’t quite understand yet.

  The figures loomed over them. The power they were using built, suppressing Sam and Tara. He could feel the way that power was working, even if he had no idea what they were doing. The pressure was considerable, almost as if it were trying to crush him.

  He immediately began to try to think through what he had learned about angulation, different techniques that he knew existed of it, wondering if perhaps there might be some tenet that he might be able to grasp that could help him. The power continued to build, crushing his ability to think clearly.

  That was almost worse for Sam. He hated it when his mind didn’t work the way he needed it to.

  The largest of the figures reached toward them. Not toward Tara, but toward Sam. They grabbed his hand. The key.

  The men were dressed in dark jackets, nearly black, and he didn’t see any weapons, though if they had access to alchemy—or the arcane arts—they wouldn’t necessarily need it.

  “That’s what this is about?” Sam asked. The words came out slowly. His mouth felt dry, and he wanted to lick his lips but couldn’t move his tongue enough to make it work.

  The man didn’t say anything. Instead, he tried prying Sam’s hand open, but Sam clenched it closed as tightly as he could.

  The man had a strange odor to him. Sam tried to ignore it, but he couldn’t quite place it. It was almost a pungent one of decay mixed with damp earth, something that shouldn’t be as unpleasant as it was. Perhaps it was the man’s proximity to him that made Sam feel that way.

  The man pried one finger back. Then another. With each finger he pried away, Sam’s heart hammered more. The key was powerful, and he remembered just how much Ferand had been willing to do to get it. More than that, it was tied to the book in some way. If they obtained both the key and the book, they would be capable of doing true alchemy, and possibly more Sam didn’t know about.

  He wanted to jerk his hand free, but they held him in place. Finally, the man uncurled all of Sam’s fingers and reached for the key.

  In all the time Sam had worn it, he hadn’t been able to dislodge it from his hand. He’d tried, and he suspected there had to be some way for him to take it off, but nothing had worked. Over time, he’d gotten used to wearing it, enough so that he didn’t even mind the way it felt anymore. There was a strangeness to it from time to time, but that was outweighed by the benefit of having whatever power the device offered.

  As the man pulled, it started to move, and Sam panicked. If the man was able to pry to device free…

  It slipped further off Sam’s hand.

  Light bloomed in the distance, bright enough that it served as a distraction. Sam used the opportunity and shoved the device back onto his hand. He pulled his hand back, clenching it into a fist. If he could only move… but he still couldn’t. Whatever they were doing still held him.

  “Focus,” the man growled. He had a deep voice. Painful. It grated against Sam’s ears, leaving him feeling as if the man had ripped through a part of his mind. When he reached out again, Sam knew he wouldn’t be able to withstand it much longer.

  Panic set in, and the key pulsed. That was something he could use. He did the only thing that he could think of. He forced his hand forward in the pattern that he had found that worked to activate the key, hoping that the alchemy within it would explode away from him, and would be useful. There came a burst of light.

  When it was gone, the man stood over him, still trying to free the key. But Sam could move. He kicked the man off him and rolled to the side, pulling Tara along with him.

  Light filled the night sky. White light, pure and powerful. It came from the Academy.

  Sam scooted back against the wall, holding onto Tara’s hand, squeezing a fist to hold the key in his hand. The man who’d attacked him came forward with a determined step and a burst of power from the strange item he carried.

  It had to be some sort of alchemy device. Sam had seen several, but not nearly as many as he knew were possible. The most part, alchemy within the Academy had been limited, and he had not spent much time outside of the Academy to investigate various forms of other alchemical devices. It was a mistake.

  Sam had read plenty of books on alchemy. He knew there were hundreds upon hundreds of different constructs.

  Many of them were dangerous.

  That was what he feared now.

  Tara started to glow. The angulation she used was familiar, one she had used before. That was how they had trapped Ferand and Ben. Sam had given her the instructions, and she had held the power. This time, she didn’t need him. She had repeated it on her own. When the light swirled around them, the approaching figure stopped. So did the others. They were held in Tara’s prison of light.

  The man watched her, ignoring Sam. “How long do you think you can hold this?”

  “Long enough,” she said, her voice strained.

  They would get to the two of them. The device.

  “Someone is coming,” he said to Tara. “If you can hold long enough…”

  “I know,” she whispered.

  The man watched them. Power built from the item he held, the steady greenish glow amplifying. With it came the same sense of pressure that held Sam in place. Whatever he was doing was powerful. His arms moved slightly, and Tara grunted.

  “He shouldn’t be able to do that,” she said to Sam.

  The man grinned. “You know so little.”

  The green light grew stronger again. As it did, Tara surged with more white light, more power, but she was using too much energy.

  “Who are you?” Sam demanded. Maybe he could distract the man, anything that would keep him from his power.

  “Someone you should fear.”

  “Keep him busy,” Tara whispered.

  Where were the others?

  Sam had seen the light coming toward them, which meant there were people from the Academy on their way. Sam watched her for a moment and recognized that she was using a complicated angulation pattern. He had no idea what it did.

  “I don’t fear anything in Tavran. With the Academy here, the alchemists having returned,” Sam said, hazarding the possibility that this person would fear alchemy, “the city is safe.”

  The glow Tara was emitting changed. It darkened for a moment, and then with a burst of light, power rushed away from her. With that, Sam could move again. He staggered to his feet and pulled Tara along with
him. He looked at the man on the ground, who couldn’t move. Neither could the other two with him.

  They couldn’t linger. Sam grabbed her hand, and they ran through the streets, heading toward the distant sense of the Academy. There were no other signs of the pale white of the arcane arts and no other flashes of green to suggest alchemy. With the army situated around the city, and the threat they posed, he found it difficult to believe they would be part of an all-out attack upon Tavran.

  But he didn’t know what the Nighlan might try.

  Sam held onto her hand, running for the Academy. They had to be close now.

  With each step, Tara slowed. With everything they’d been through so far tonight, he wanted nothing more than to rest, but first, they had to reach the Academy.

  “Hold on,” he said. She mumbled something, though he couldn’t tell what it was.

  The greenish light was building behind him, and Sam glanced backward. The figures were there. The glowing item they each held left him wondering what kind of alchemy they might throw at the two of them.

  The Academy loomed into view, growing closer with every step.

  Power exploded, and they were both tossed forward. Sam stumbled to the ground, and he tried to get back up but couldn’t. The figures had already begun to place their power around him, which prevented him from moving.

  Get up. Move. Take another step. That was the only thought in his mind. Tara needed that from him, and he couldn’t let them have the key. It was important, and until he knew who they were and why they were after it, he understood it was his responsibility to hold onto that key and its power.

  Something was near him. Sam tried to look up at it, but he couldn’t move. The figure grabbed for his hand again. There wasn’t the same deliberate approach he’d taken before. He grabbed it and pulled, trying to yank it off of Sam’s hand, which was balled into a fist. Sam tried to keep the other man from prying his hand open, but he wasn’t going to be strong enough.

  Another surge of white light exploded. At first, Sam thought it had come from Tara. She’d already been drawing on too much power, and he didn’t think she could sacrifice anything more. He was sure there’d be consequences if she did, though he didn’t know enough about her type of arcane magic to know what those might be.