Alchemist Illusion (The Alchemist Book 3)

by Dan Michaelson

  One of the doors came open, and James poked his head out.

  “Get back inside,” Sam said.

  “Sam? You’re back? What happened?”

  Sam shook his head. “Later. Right now, you need to get back inside.”

  “There’s an attack.”

  “I know,” Sam said.

  “Are you…”

  Sam waited for him to finish, wondering what he might ask.

  And realized that maybe he needed to be more careful.

  He had been gone for a time, abducted, and his disappearance would possibly look like he was working with the Nighlan, especially given the attack.

  At least the students. Hopefully, Havash and the other instructors could have tried to ensure that he didn’t get accused of working with them, but they might have been preoccupied with other aspects.

  “I’m trying to do all I can to prevent the Nighlan from destroying the Academy,” Sam said, “and there is something that I can do that—”

  He didn’t have a chance to finish.

  He felt the coming of power.

  It was building behind him, a surge of energy, and he spun. Both he and Tara reacted at the same time, weaving the pattern together, trapping the Nighlan, and constricting the dark-haired woman inside.

  James gasped.

  “Back inside,” Sam said.

  James looked over to Sam and then took a step inside of his room, closing the door.

  “We could seal him in,” Tara suggested.

  “I’m not sure that’s necessary,” Sam said.

  They hurried through the tower again, watching for any sign of any of the other Nighlan, but found it empty. By the time they made their way through grishenack, then olwand, they were left with sharan. They had dispatched several other Nighlan but hadn’t encountered any other students.

  On the first level of the sharan tower, Sam saw three Academy students confronting three Nighlan.

  It wasn’t going well for the students.

  Sam and Tara came up behind the Nighlan, and the two of them hurriedly used their woven spell to trap the Nighlan inside. They constricted, trapping them, and then the three Nighlan collapsed.

  Only when they were done did Sam look and see who they had helped.

  “Stone? You aren’t supposed to be here.”

  “You’re welcome,” Tara said, frowning at Gresham. “Get back in your room.”

  “What are you doing out?”

  “It looks like we are saving the sharan tower from the Nighlan.”

  “We don’t need the help of tolath.”

  “Is that right?” Tara asked. “Because it looks like you do.”

  “We should go,” Sam said.

  “Listen to the Barlands boy,” Gresham said. “Leave our tower.”

  Sam glanced back at him. He was drawing upon the source, and with what he had learned, he no longer even feared Gresham.

  He started toward the stairs, and when he went up, he heard Gresham shout after him.

  Tara joined him, and neither of them said anything.

  “He’s not going to like that,” she said.

  “He doesn’t like much,” Sam said. “And I don’t even care.”

  They hurried up the tower, finding several different Nighlan on the other levels, which they incapacitated. By the time they were heading back down, Gresham was on the stairs, blocking their way.

  Tara started to glow, her buildup of the arcane arts flowing from her.

  Sam rested a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. “You aren’t supposed to use the arcane arts on somebody else like that,” he said.

  She looked over to him, arching a brow.

  Sam blasted Gresham with a surge of the source.

  “But I don’t use the arcane arts,” he said.

  He started past when Gresham tried to reach for him. Sam could feel the pattern he was forming and immediately slid a bar of his source over the power Gresham was trying to call, cutting him off.

  “He’s not going to handle that well,” Tara said.

  “I’m sure he’s not,” Sam said.

  They raced downstairs. They had gone through all of the towers, through the Study Hall, and had cleared as many of the Nighlan as they could.

  Still, he could feel power.

  It was outside.

  He pointed to the main entrance of the Academy. “We have to go,” he said.

  “Are you sure? The instructors can do this.”

  “The instructors might be able to do some of it, but think about what our combined power has been able to do. They aren’t able to counter it.”

  She sighed and then followed him outside.

  As soon as they were outside, he realized the barrier had fallen.

  Dozens of Nighlan were and the outskirts of the Academy. They were blasting at instructors, pushing them back.

  He found Havash and could feel that power but knew Havash and the others here weren’t going to be able to stop this attack alone.

  He and Tara needed to help.

  Sam stepped forward, using the source.

  They focused on the three enemies nearest them, who were attacking Havash. He was using a complicated series of angulation to defend himself.

  Sam and Tara wove their magic together, and Sam angled the power toward the three Nighlan, wrapping it around and trapping them. It sealed them inside, constricting the same way as it had within the towers.

  Havash glanced back at them, frowning, but he didn’t have an opportunity to question anything more. More Nighlan pressed forward, and Sam and Tara continued working their way through.

  There were too many. Worse, the Nighlan started targeting them. Havash tried to deflect the power, but it wasn’t enough.

  Something struck Sam. It wasn’t until he was thrown back that he realized he was still holding on to a hint of barrier around himself, which protected him. He crashed into the ground but quickly stood up and shook himself off. His head rang from the explosion.

  He surveyed the area. Tara lay on the ground, unmoving. He raced over to her and checked for a pulse. She was still alive. A barrier hadn’t been protecting her.

  Without Tara, how were they going to do this?

  An explosion thundered, throwing Havash back. Chasten joined Sam, and the two of them worked side by side. Chasten tossed small metallic objects they went rolling away from him, glowing with a pale green light. He triggered them with a connection to the arcane arts, explosions bursting away from him.

  Sam tried to draw upon the source and add it to the barrier.

  There were too many Nighlan, and they were overwhelming the Academy.

  Sam stood by Tara’s unconscious form, holding on to as much power as he could. Within that power was a sense of desperation.

  The attacks shifted, turning toward him. He pulled on power from the source, and the only thing he could do was to create enough of a barrier to protect himself and Tara. He tried to maximize that power, but even as he did, he couldn’t tell whether there was enough strength within him for what was coming next. The only option remaining was to try to draw power from the vrandal.

  Sam focused on the source, and he drew it up through him, calling it through the vrandal. He created the barrier around him and solidified it. Power beat and blasted against it, but the barrier held. For now.

  He looked around. Havash was down. Chasten was down. Tara was down. He saw the motionless forms of others around him. Instructors. Familiar faces that he had seen inside of the Academy during his time there.

  Sam had stopped the Nighlan within the Academy, sealed off the hidden tunnels, even closed the secret room. All of that seemed to be what the Nighlan were targeting. But if they were after that, why would they have been heading into the Academy itself?

  They should have succeeded.

  That was what bothered him more than anything. They had locked the seal yet again. Sam didn’t even know if Rasan Tel had escaped, but maybe they didn’t even care. The Nighlan intended
to destroy the entire Academy just to ensure that the seal could never be closed again.

  And with as powerful as they were, they might even succeed.

  Almost too late, he realized that others were coming toward him. Bethal was there, and so was the man he’d faced on the bridge. There were other Nighlan behind them, dozens of them. Power battered at him, one burst after another, and though Sam pulled energy through the vrandal and tried to protect himself, he could feel that it wasn’t going to be enough.

  Everything they were attempting would fail.

  With another blast of energy, the barrier around him collapsed.

  Bethal turned to him, a dark smile curving her mouth.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Bethal stalked toward him, rage glittering in her eyes. Sam could practically feel the power crackling from her, and he prepared to resist, though he wasn’t sure if he could.

  She watched him. “So much trouble,” she said, circling him. Her gaze flicked to the ground. “And look what you have done to poor Ms. Stone. All because you thought you should involve her in what you were doing.”

  Sam reached for the source and grabbed it for a moment before her attack slammed into him. He was able to create only a thin barrier, little more than that. It barely protected him.

  “We’ve sealed off everything within the Academy,” Sam said. “You won’t be able to free Rasan Tel.”

  “Are you so confident in your ability? I seem to recall that you only came to this Academy a few months ago. And you believe you know enough to stop what has been in motion for decades?”

  Had it been that long?

  Lilith hadn’t told him all about Rasan Tel, only that he had been imprisoned and that the seals that were placed would keep him there. Would destroying the entire structure free him?

  There was a flicker of power, and Sam looked beyond her. More Nighlan were appearing. Even the distant rumble of thunder and the occasional crackle of lightning did nothing to help him feel any better.

  “How many lands do you think we have conquered?” Bethal swept her gaze around. “None have been quite so troublesome as this, but now that we have stopped this land’s most difficult weapon, I think the rest of it will fall into line quite easily.”

  Sam tried to reach for power and summon more from the source, but he struggled with each attempt. He could feel the source within him, but that power was faint and ever fading. He thought the only thing that might help would be using the vrandal, but he didn’t know if it would create enough power to make a difference.

  He had come back to the Academy, thinking that he could close the lock and prevent the Nighlan from having access to the power they wanted, but they proved to be too much.

  At least, too much for him to do alone.

  He needed Tara.

  “You don’t even understand what you are freeing,” he said, using what Lilith had told him.

  “I know well enough. Once he is free, he will lead the Nighlan.”

  “Why do you even need him?”

  A burst of unseen power struck Sam, nearly knocking him down. It took all his concentration to hold his barrier and keep from being thrown to the ground and prevent her from separating him from the source.

  “Once you see his power, you will understand. He will show us how to draw that power.”

  Sam laughed, shaking his head. He knew better than to antagonize Bethal, but he needed to distract her. By himself time. Somehow. “He seeks to destroy.”

  Another burst of power hit him, this time from behind.

  “You would do well not to laugh at your future master,” a voice said.

  Sam turned and felt a moment of panic that Rasan Tel might be there, but it was the massive man he’d faced on the bridge.

  Bethal eyed the newcomer. “I have this well in hand, Jerdal.”

  “I am not sure you do. You seem to struggle with this boy.” Jerdal slammed another burst of power into Sam.

  Sam struggled to maintain his connection, and each time a blast struck him, he felt his grip on the source begin to fade. Eventually, he would lose it altogether, and he wouldn’t have any chance of getting out of here alive.

  Not that Sam had much of a chance of that now. Anyone who had a possibility of helping him was lying on the ground, all of his allies unmoving.

  “Finish this so that we can destroy the Academy. It is time the seal remains open.”

  That was what they were after. Not just to open it, but to destroy it so that it couldn’t be closed again.

  Could it be about something more than this Rasan Tel?

  Sam didn’t know. He didn’t even know if he had time.

  Panic built within him.

  He tried to reach for the source, trying to pull upon it but didn’t have enough strength remaining. After everything he had done, he was going to fail here, destroyed by Bethal and the Nighlan.

  Bethal took another step toward him, power building from her. He tried to ignore it, but it was too potent for him. He could feel how she was holding on to that energy, and he knew there wasn’t anything he could do when she turned the full force of it against him.

  And that was only Bethal. If Jerdal and the other Nighlan all added their attacks, it would definitely be more than what he could defend against.

  Energy crackled around him. Sam tried to focus only on what he could of the source. There was enough power within him that he thought he might get one opportunity. It might only offer him hope, but he was going to take that chance. He had to.

  Bethal neared him, and Sam dug deep into the source, pushing out to the vrandal. What he drew upon now was not complex. It connected to the source, but there was nothing within the almanac that described what he needed to do here. Instead, he thought about how he had triggered the vrandal, releasing stored power within it. In this case, he wanted to not only release the stored power within the vrandal, but he wanted to add to it by drawing on the source.

  And he didn’t aim at Bethal.

  Sam didn’t know if he could harm her. She was too powerful. Too gifted.

  But he could release the energy a different way.

  He aimed at the ground beneath her feet.

  It exploded, tossing her into the air.

  There was a moment of chaos. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, and then power wrapped around him. Sam wasn’t strong enough to escape that magic, and he could feel the way they were constricting power around him.

  Instead, he forced himself to relax, focusing on the vrandal and on what he could of the source. Sam created a barrier and extended it around him and Tara.

  Bethal got to her feet, her face bloodied. Her gray jacket was torn, tattered by the explosion. Sam struggled to feel any sympathy.

  She glared at him. “I will make sure you suffer—”

  Another explosion sounded. This one was close, loud enough to sound similar to the storm, but it wasn’t lightning or thunder. At least, Sam didn’t think it was. He felt a surge of hope. Could more help be coming?

  Others fought the Nighlan. There had to be some way to call to them and get them to join in the fight.

  The Nighlan turned their attention toward that sound and raced away. He and Bethal were alone now.

  Bethal would destroy him in the best of conditions, but Sam was tired and overwhelmed by what he had faced since returning to Tavran.

  She would still have the strength to attack, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop her. The power continued to explode all around him.

  How many more Nighlan had appeared?

  Bethal circled him slowly. Eyes narrowed as she watched him. It was almost as if she hesitated to get too close. The brief moment of reprieve gave Sam a chance to recover, and he was able to dip into the source even deeper.

  The thundering around him intensified. Was there a storm coming? If so, its presence seemed to make a difference for him. He didn’t know why that would be, only that it seemed to do so. Bethal circled him, and Sam realized what she was d
oing.

  He recognized the pattern that she was forming.

  All he needed to do was find a way to disrupt it. He had found that he could disrupt patterns, that he could slide his angulation of the source into it, and maybe he could push it.

  Somehow, he had to find that within himself. It didn’t take strength. It took his knowledge. His precision.

  And he had that. Bethal might have experience, knowledge, and understanding about using various patterns, but Sam had the almanac. He had studied it. He had studied everything within the library that he could consume.

  And he knew that a slight disruption would be enough.

  He had to stop her.

  Since he could see the pattern, he could trace which strand might be the key to it all and possibly disrupt it. Doing that would at least buy him time. And it might not even take that much energy. All he needed was to interrupt the angulation of arcane arts.

  He had to hope it would be enough.

  Movement near him drew his attention, and he flicked his gaze down to see Tara starting to stir. They locked eyes for a moment, and she blinked slowly. Lines of arcane arts began to snake out from her. Sam waited until those lines became solid enough, then he added his own connection. He felt the energy of their conjoined magic. It was enough of a connection that it tied them together, surging power between them.

  He hurriedly directed it toward Bethal and tied it off. She struggled against it, and he ignored the way she was trying to rage against what he had placed.

  The pattern constricted. He hadn’t been sure whether this pattern would be able to hold a powerful Nighlan, but as he saw the energy link together and squeeze around her, he knew it would hold. She wasn’t going to be able to escape.

  Sam helped Tara to her feet as Bethal fought against the barrier. Tara focused on it, adding a hint of another connection and twisting additional power lines through it.

  Bethal screamed.

  “That was for betraying the Academy,” Tara said, satisfaction gleaming in her eyes.

  Sam supposed Bethal deserved that. They turned their attention to Havash, who was starting to come around. Sam reached for him and helped him stand.

  “What happened?” Havash asked.