Alchemist Assault (The Alchemist Book 2)

by Dan Michaelson

  “And now?”

  “It is my understanding that the council has decided to accelerate their protection plans.”

  Sam nodded. “Will it be fast enough?”

  Havash watched him. “I don’t know. We don’t know the extent of the Nighlan threat. We have not taken it seriously up to this point. At least, most within Olway haven’t. We have known there was a danger, but few have truly understood the depths of that danger. And now that they know there’s something within the Academy that they want, they will pursue it with the same intensity that they have pursued everything else.”

  “And how have they done that?”

  “They conquer. And what they cannot conquer, they destroy.”

  Chapter Eleven

  He picked his way through the library. It was before the tenth bell would ring and a time when he normally would have been permitted to be in the library, so it felt right for him to be here, even though it was mostly empty now. He heard the sound of voices in the back of the library, near the Annex, but he and Tara had been careful to slip around robes of stacks and sort through books. They had made a point of stacking them carefully, trying to place some organization to the books and offering their own help. Both of them had done so for the same reason without even realizing that they had. They felt a sense of ownership of the library. And they wanted to see it placed back into order, but now it might be an opportunity for them to put their own organization upon it.

  When a voice rang out, getting louder, he glanced over to Tara. She nodded, and they both grabbed a stack of books that they had said before slipping around the curved walls, meandering between stacks of books, rows of tips shelves, and finally to the door leading to the Study Hall. They caught sight of an alchemy lantern glowing, and there were two people with a hint of the arcane arts glowing around them as Sam triggered the door. It opened with a soft grinding noise, but hopefully, it was quiet enough that no one else noticed. Once they were inside the Study Hall, they paused.

  “Where now?” Tara whispered.

  “I don’t know. I miss the library.”

  “I know. Maybe we should make our own library.” She said, nodding to the book. “We can go to my room. I’m at least permitted to have books. Not like you poor little first-year student.”

  He glowered at her for a moment and then followed her through the Study Hall and out and then up to her room.

  Once there, they settled in.

  Sam spread the page out in front of him. The flickering lantern light made it difficult for him to work out any similarities between what was written on this page and some others, but he thought there was some consistency.

  “Do you see anything?” he asked.

  Tara shook her head. “Nothing more than what you’ve pointed out. Are you sure these symbols correspond to what you think?”

  He settled back on the bed, leaning against the wall. She sat beside him, close enough that he could feel the warmth radiating from her. “I don’t even know anymore. What I think and what’s real depends on what I can see when the letters rearrange, but for them to do that, I need to have some way of activating the key. My ability to activate the key is generally effective, but there are times when it doesn’t seem to work the way that I think it should. I know there are patterns and tricks, and…” Sam shook his head, tracing his free hand over the one holding the key. “I need some way of understanding it. I feel like there’s some secret within the key that I have to unlock.”

  Tara started to smile at his choice of words. “We have time.”

  “Do we? We don’t know what for facing.”

  “We know that we have time. The Nighlan aren’t going to continue to attack the Academy. They tried it before when they thought they could infiltrate more easily, but now it is better protected.”

  Sam wasn’t quite as convinced.

  “Anyway, the almanac has ways that we can use power.”

  “The two things we’ve translated so far have been ways for you to use power,” he said, staring at the page. “That has to mean something.”

  “For now,” Tara said. She looked at his hand for a moment before looking up and meeting his eyes. “You still don’t think that you have any potential with the arcane arts, but I think otherwise.”

  Sam touched the key, tracing his fingers around it. It was smooth, and the circular portion of it over his palm pressed up against the flesh but was not uncomfortable. Not the way that he would’ve expected for how long it was there. It had bonded to him through alchemy, which meant that without somebody who understood the complexity of the alchemy that went into making it, he doubted he would be able to remove it.

  “It all comes back to the zero tenet,” he said.

  Tara looked up, staying silent.

  “I’ve wanted to know magic my entire life. Seeing my sister and seeing the kinds of things she could do made it so that I wanted nothing more than to know that same power. I’m not able to. I understand it.” Having spent as much time in the library as he had, Sam truly started to feel like he understood it. Using it was another matter. “But with this… I have a feeling there’s something for me.”

  “You need to have more than a feeling,” she said. “We both know what it takes. You are smart enough to know the secret here. Once you come to terms with that, you will find the answer.”

  “I don’t know if there’s going to be any answer for me. Not in time to make a difference.”

  Sam sighed. “We should keep looking for patterns.”

  There had been enough patterns on the pages that they thought they could determine something consistent about them. It might be nothing, but if they could come up with a key, they could apply it to the rest of the book. The only problem was that the key they were preparing didn’t seem to provide much in the way of answers. Yet.

  That didn’t mean that Sam had given up. They kept a list of words they knew and the symbols for them. The problem was that there seemed to be several symbols for the same word, so he didn’t know if they would uncover more the longer he looked through the book or if they would find a different answer.

  He had been working through as much as he could remember from the various alchemy books, and while there were answers hidden there, so far, he hadn’t uncovered anything. He knew that there would need to be some answers within the books on alchemy, but the challenge was in coming to terms with what it was and how to find them. More than that, Tara continued to watch him, looking up at him, frowning every so often, and carried with her a look of not a concern, but an agitation of a sort.

  “I can’t shake the feeling that if we can come to terms with the symbols, we won’t even need the key to read it.” He looked up at Tara. “And then you can perform whatever arcane arts you need.”

  “You keep looking ahead to a time when you’re not going to be here.”

  “I’m trying to pair,” Sam admitted. “Not because I want to, but because I think that I need to.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I know what will happen. I can’t stay here indefinitely.”

  She took his hand, opening up the one with the key pressed into his palm. “Are you sure? It seems to me that you have something that they don’t. It seems to me that you have something that they need.”

  “Just because I have the key doesn’t mean they need me around. And considering what we’ve seen from those who are in the Academy and how they are more than happy to use those who might have something they want, I am not under any misguided notion that they won’t figure out some way to either take it off of my hand or get what they want out of me and then send me packing.”

  “That is a harsh view of the Academy,” Tara said.

  Sam shrugged. “I have been given an opportunity here. It’s more than I deserve, and I know that. So it’s not necessarily a harsh view as it is a pragmatic one.” He looked at the almanac and then pulled it toward him, flipping the pages. He’d been taking notes, keeping records that might be beneficial to both of them,
but he also had been careful with them. He didn’t want to leave the notes out so that just anybody could find them. Sam knew better than to do that. He had to be cautious so that it would be another layer for somebody else to try to interpret if his notes were lost.

  Tara understood what he was doing and thought that she even approved.

  Between the two of them, they had been trying to break the symbols, figuring out whatever code was there, and yet, neither of them succeeded how they’d wanted to.

  He shuffled some of the pages. “Maybe we should try to have you practice a little bit more,” he said.

  “I don’t know about that,” she said. “The times that we’ve practiced, we have found that all it does is create different types of angulated power.”

  Sam stacked the pages he had copied, his notes, folded them, and put them into his pocket.

  “Don’t you need those for me to practice?”

  He glanced over at her. A pale white light practically radiated from her, basking her in a soft glow that made her incredibly lovely. “I have most of them memorized. I can repeat them to you if you’d like.”

  Tara chuckled, and she shook her head. “I don’t think that’s necessary. Besides, I know that you have them memorized. I wouldn’t expect anything other from you.”

  He smiled at her. “Well, if you don’t want to practice…”

  “Who said that I don’t want to practice? I told you that I was willing to.”

  “Willing and wanting our different things.”

  “I feel like we’ve been down here long enough,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “It doesn’t smell the best, anyway.”

  “I have tried to clean a little,” Sam said. “And I think Havash has done some, but it was corrupted by something.” The problem was that neither of them knew what it was that had corrupted it. Some sort of power had done it, but they didn’t know if it was alchemy, or if it was arcane arts, or even if it was a combination of the two.

  “We could go explore,” she said.

  “What do you think that we will be able to find?” Sam asked.

  “There are other things within those halls,” she said. “I’m sure of it. I know that you aren’t as convinced, but there is something else there. Think about it, Sam. We have access to the alchemy tower, to our tower, and to the library. The Academy is far too large—and far too old—for that to be all there is to it. Which tells me that there’s something else, but we have to find it.”

  “It might be more interesting than figuring out how to trigger the key, read the pages, and break through the alchemy language.”

  “As if you will be doing that anyway.”

  Sam chuckled. He might, for that matter.

  He got to his feet, and he followed Tara to the door leading up and into the Study Hall and glanced back at the almanac. It felt so strange for them to leave it just resting on the table like that, especially given all that they had gone through to protect it in the first place. But there wasn’t a better place for it. No one was willing to come down into the alchemy tower, and from what Havash insisted, there were other alchemy protections placed around the tower to ensure that anyone trying to get in here would find it difficult to do so.

  “Let’s explore everyplace that the hall ends,” he suggested. “And then we can map out where we think it would lead if there were doors beyond.”

  She started to laugh.

  “What?”

  “Even in this, you are too practical. I just thought the two of us could wander.”

  She took his hand, pulling him up and into the hall.

  They walked through the hall, and Sam kept listening for sounds of somebody else in the Study Hall with him, still not convinced that this place was completely safe for them, but there was nothing. He knew that he was overreacting, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something worse was about to happen.

  With Ferand active in the city and the Nighlan threatening, he knew they needed to be prepared. The problem for him was that he didn’t know what it would take for them to be prepared. He didn’t know if it even mattered that he tried to prepare. The only thing that he could do was keep working through the almanac, trying to understand it, and being ready for the next attempt.

  When Tara looked at him, a deep frown on her face, he forced a smile.

  “Come on,” she said. “I know where we can go that will make you feel better.”

  “I’m not going back to the library,” he said.

  “Fine. We’ll go to my room.”

  Chapter Twelve

  A soft breeze brushed against Sam’s face. The sun was little more than a memory, the fading orange in the sky a reminder of its earlier warmth. He breathed it in, looking around the Academy garden.

  The courtyard was busier than usual, mostly because the students had generally been sequestered within the Academy grounds, not permitted to head out into Tavran as they preferred. With the library off-limits and the city becoming increasingly dangerous, they didn’t have nearly as many places to congregate. It was either outside, when the weather cooperated, or inside in the great hall.

  He saw a group of students playing Shitunable. Given the Academy’s attack, an attack involving users of the arcane arts, it felt off to Sam for there to be students playing games like that where they might attack each other.

  Of course, Gresham was involved in this one.

  He listened, not wanting to get too close. Several others gathered behind him, and as he often had, there were several younger women, including Mia.

  She looked over at him, irritation brimming in her eyes. Sam knew that look. It was a warning as if she would scare him off.

  Sam watched the game and started to turn away when Mia got to her feet and approached the Shitunable game. Gresham glanced over to her, shaking his head.

  “I’m ready,” she said.

  “No first years,” Gresham said.

  A pale glow started to build from Mia.

  What was she thinking?

  Probably the same thing he would be thinking if he had true access to the arcane arts. She wanted to prove herself. He couldn’t blame her for that.

  “I’ve been working with David and Carrie. They told me that I was ready. Or are you worried I might be too skilled?”

  Gresham started to smile, but then he realized Sam was watching, and his smile faded.

  “Fine. I’m going to show you why first years aren’t permitted.”

  He stepped forward, and Mia began to form a pattern of angulation. Hers was straightforward and far more skilled than she had been prior to coming to the Academy, but it still was nothing compared to what a fourth-year student could do. As soon as she completed her angulation, she turned it toward Gresham.

  He blocked it easily.

  He used a simple everted angulation pattern that Sam recognized.

  What he hadn’t expected was the way that pattern would explode toward Mia, causing her own pattern to slam back into her. She was thrown to the ground. She laid there for a moment.

  Sam started to get to his feet.

  Mia looked over to him, locking eyes for a moment.

  He had seen the pain in those eyes before; he recognized it. Worse, he also recognized how she seemed to be telling him not to come and help.

  This was his sister. This was why he was at the Academy, and she didn’t want him to come to her?

  What could I do, though?

  Sam didn’t have any ability with the arcane arts and certainly wouldn’t be able to counter him with Shitunable, but maybe that didn’t matter. He had something that might help.

  He stepped forward, ignoring Mia’s warning look.

  “Well, maybe the Barlands boy wants to have a go?” Gresham made quick work of turning his focus on Sam.

  He squeezed his fist around the key, feeling the warmth within it but also feeling the hint of energy that he could call upon. There was alchemy stored within it.

  And it might be useful.

  He could
n’t necessarily use the arcane arts, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have something effective for him.

  An idea came to him.

  “I’ve seen you trying your elementary techniques,” Sam said, making a point of ignoring how Mia had shakily gotten to her feet. “And given that I know I outscored you on my first exams, I figured that…”

  Gresham wasted little time beginning to build power, glowing with the arcane arts. There came a series of angulated lines forming the pattern.

  Normally there was more of a buildup in the game, but it seemed as if Gresham would not waste that time on Sam.

  Sam focused, holding the key tightly in his fist, and then he turned his palm in the pattern that would activate it.

  As Gresham pressed power out from himself, Sam did the same. The burst of energy that came from Sam was tied to the stored alchemy within the key, and all it did, or all it was supposed to do, was disrupt the pattern Gresham attempted.

  Instead, Sam used a little bit more power than intended. It caught Gresham in the chest, his eyes widened, and he fell back.

  Several of the other sharan tower students made their way over to him, including Mia. She looked up at Sam, frowning. Pain still lingered in her eyes, leaving him wondering just how injured she’d been.

  “Alchemy?” he heard Gresham saying. “Did he buy something to use on me with this?”

  Sam knew better than to linger here too long. If Gresham thought that he had purchased some alchemy item, then it was dangerous for him to remain.

  But he wasn’t that far off.

  Sam made his way to the edge of the garden. He didn’t feel comfortable here. As he wandered past rows of flowers, a carefully manicured line of shrubbery, past a few flowering trees, he began to feel something. At first, he wasn’t sure what it was, but the further he went, the more certain he was of what he detected.

  Power.

  Why would it be helpful here, though?

  He reached the low wall that surrounded the Academy and noticed several devices stationed around the wall.