Alchemist Academy: Book 1 (18 page)

Deegan, carrying a coat over his arm, flung the door open. We chased after him. He stood by a door a few doors down from room ten. It didn’t have any unusual marks on it, beyond the typical carvings of circles and symbols most of the doors had. He fumbled with his keys until he found one he liked and slid it into the door.

It didn’t work.

“Been a while. I think this is the one.” He slid the next key in and the door clicked open, revealing a small room. Then he motioned for all of us to pile into the tiny space.

The floor moved up and down a few inches as each person walked in. Deegan squeezed in last and pulled the door closed.

I pressed my body hard against Mark’s and felt his arm wrapping over my shoulder and down my back. I didn’t want to think of being packed into a small room, so I looked at his excited face. It was the first time I could remember since arriving at the Academy that he’d had a genuinely happy expression.

“This elevator will take us all the way to the top. If I can just find the next key….” Deegan struggled as the air became damp and used, and the temperature of the confined space rose to sweltering levels.

“Hurry the hell up or I’m going to freak,” Jackie said.

Sweat built up between me and Mark, but I didn’t mind. His arm felt hot on my back, and I hoped he didn’t mind getting a bit sweaty with me either. His face told me he didn’t.

“Ah, here we go.” Deegan pushed the key into a slot and turned it. The elevator moved up in a jolt.

The ride lasted a minute before at the elevator came to a stop. When the door finally slid open and a gust of frigid air swooshed in, it felt like daggers against my sweaty skin. Deegan moved out of the elevator and Jackie jumped out behind him.

I broke away from Mark and stepped outside.

The icy wind told me how far away we really were from home. My first breath blew out in front of my face in a cloud and the inhale felt like needles in my chest. A thin layer of snow crunched under my feet as I walked across a tiny roof no larger than my bedroom.

“Below thirty, I bet,” Deegan said.

The bright sky shone down on us and I thought if I looked only at it, I could be anywhere in the world. Seeing the blue sky made the whole trip worth it. I lowered my gaze and took in the pure white landscape beyond. The stiff winds stirred up a bit of snow from a nearby mountain and swept it down to the valley just twenty feet below us. The flakes pelted my face and stung my cheeks. White covered everything, including the small section of the Academy oddly jutting out from the frozen tundra below. Even a plane flying directly overhead would probably have a tough time making out the structure.

“Antarctica?” Jackie asked.

Deegan nodded.

“No freaking way.” I couldn’t believe my eyes. How could we be at the bottom of the world? People didn’t live down here, only the penguins. The supply drops to support all the people below would be staggering.

I walked to the edge and looked out as far as I could, squinting at the horizon. They had to be wrong. A fresh gust of wind blew more bits of snow into my face.

Mark moved behind me and rubbed my arms. “We’d better get inside. You’re going to freeze out here.”

“No, this can’t be right,” I said.

“Allie, I’ve seen enough, and so have you. Let’s get off this roof, for real.”

I paused briefly before complying and then walked sideways toward the door, staring at the white landscape. A gust of wind pushed against me, feeling like frigid razor blades against my face. I’d never been in such cold weather, not even close.

I wasn’t really sure what I’d expected, but it wasn’t this. Even if I got the life stone and healed Mark, where would we go? We would be dead in minutes out in that frozen landscape.

“Everyone in? Good.” Deegan closed the elevator door.

Mark gave me a comfortable spot to nuzzle up against. My whole body shook against his and he rubbed my arm and held me tight. The elevator descended for a minute and then stopped. Deegan opened the door and the warm, stagnant air swept in. We got out, rubbing our arms, still shivering.

“Well, that’s it for today. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Deegan hurried back to room ten.

“Thanks for the ice roof field trip, Allie,” Jackie said.

“Maybe she should have let the Blues win,” Mark said as he stepped in front of me.

“At least we know where we are,” Carly offered.

“Yeah, for now, and then we’ll move again and be who knows where,” Jackie said.

“Move?” I asked.

“Yeah, every few months they freaking move this whole place.”

Carly had mentioned that the halls moved, but she couldn’t have meant the entire building. I didn’t understand. The building had to weigh millions of pounds. How could they transport it to and from Antarctica?

Mark asked the question first. “How do you move this place? What stone?”

“Portal stone. Or, should I say, a master portal stone. We just boost it until it’s enough to move us all,” Jackie said.

“Let me guess. Verity has this master stone.” He rolled his eyes.

“Yep,” Carly said. “Her stone absorbs others and we jump. It sort of feels like we’re falling for a few seconds and then the world firms up and we move on.”

“Why do we move? I don’t get it.”

Jackie sighed and crossed her arms. “Am I the freaking Academy wiki here? Wasn’t at least one of your parents an alchemist?”

“My mom’s dead, and my dad’s in the Navy,” I said. “I haven’t seen him in months. My mom never mentioned anything about being an alchemist, and my dad sure doesn’t know. This crap is all new to me.”

Jackie looked at the stone floor. I didn’t want her to feel bad that I’d brought up the dead mom stuff, but they needed to know I wasn’t some alchemist kid, growing up with a wooden spoon and a bowl in front of me. What I knew about alchemy wouldn’t fill a page.

Mark struggled to smile, and he kept his hand over his stomach. I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath. These people seemed preoccupied by the most mundane things, like getting back at the Blues, when they should be trying to figure out the mystery around them. This whole place was under a blanket of snow at the bottom of the world, and none of them seemed interested in that fact.

“Sorry about your mom,” Carly said.

“Yeah, that sucks.” Jackie stuck her thumbs in her pockets. “When the academy found me, they didn’t quite … explain it right in the brochure.”

“My mom fed me similar tales,” Carly said. “All the parents did. I bet it was some unspoken rule not to tell us what really happened here. If we knew the truth, we might have stayed home and never become alchemists.”

“Same here,” Mark added.

“Why do we move, again?” I tried to steer the conversation back to the question at hand.

“Young people are more powerful in the creation of stones.” Jackie laughed. “They say we have the raw emotions it takes to make them. So our parents send us here to make rocks in a charitable effort to help the world. Noble, isn’t it? Just think, all those growth stones may fertilize land in some poor country. But there are people out there who want to take what we make and control the world, or use the stones for profit. They’re always searching for the Academy and every few months, they find it.”

I shook my head in disbelief and looked at Mark. He gazed at me, judging my reaction. How could he not have told me how big the world of alchemy was? There were people who were after us, or me. One of those dark alchemists could have taken me and done who knows what.

The ground beneath my feet shook. Wisps of dust fell from the ceiling and everyone in the hub stopped. They all would have looked frozen in place if they hadn’t looked up.

“What was that?”

The ground shook again.

Jackie raised both eyebrows and took a deep breath. “Looks like we talk about the devil and we get the devil. That”—she pointed to the ceiling--“is caused by the dark alchemists.”

Two deep buzzer tones blared through the speakers of the building. My heart pounded and I saw the fear on everyone’s faces. Well, not Jackie; she bounced and clapped her hands in excitement.

Verity’s voice came through the speakers. “All students, report to your classrooms for the immediate making of booster stones. Your teachers are setting up the rooms now for their creation. They seem to be hitting us much harder this time, so we don’t have much time. Do your best work, people.”

The speakers sounded two more buzzers and then went silent. The hub filled with noise as everyone ran in every direction. Several guys brushed by me, running to their classes.

“What the hell do we do?” I asked, staring at Jackie.

She smiled and pointed to room ten and to the teacher’s door. “Watch. They just don’t use these stones for making the world better. They use them as weapons and defense mechanisms.”

The building shook again, much harder than before. Deegan’s door was flung open first. A black ribbon was strung across his chest like a Girl Scout sash, but instead of badges, it held stones. Deegan rushed down the line of doors and stopped at the elevator. With gloved hands he grabbed several stones from his sash, opened a hatch and stuffed them in. It sounded like a vacuum hose sucking up a stone. He waited a few seconds, then sent up another set.

“See?” Jackie pointed. “I don’t know what they’re sending up, but I bet it’s nasty stuff.”

“Get to your classes,” Verity yelled. Her voice carried over the hubbub. Everyone who had been walking started running.

“Come on,” Carly said.

We jogged to room ten just as Deegan showed up at the door. The Blues came in behind us as we entered the classroom. I took my same seat and everyone rushed to their own chairs.

Another explosion shook the building and the lights flickered.

“Get your bowls and spoons ready, kids,” Deegan said, and he rummaged through the lower cabinets behind his desk. He plopped a five-gallon bucket on his desk, then went back to the cabinet.

Carly slid a bowl and a spoon across my desk. “Here. I think we’re going to need you for this one.”

“What are we making?” I asked.

“Booster stones,” Deegan answered as he set another five-gallon bucket on the table. “We need to boost Verity’s portal stone enough that we can move this entire place. Unfortunately, they have the shelf life of a gnat, so we make them quick and get them out to her.”

Everyone rushed around me to get to the two buckets on Deegan’s desk. They formed two lines, Blues and Reds, and in an orderly fashion took a scoop out of each bucket, filling smaller bowls. Carly rushed to my side and pushed the bowls in front of me.

One looked like black sand, and the other looked like vegetable oil and reeked like a dead fish. Carly pushed a group of blue vials towards me.

I stared at the mixture and looked up at Mark sitting in front of me. He hadn’t gathered any ingredients and no one had brought him anything.

“What do you think, Mark?” I asked.

The building shook again and I grabbed at my supplies, keeping them from crashing to the floor. The sound of glass breaking and the subsequent cursing told me several others hadn’t been as successful.

Mark looked to the ceiling and shook his head. “I don’t know, but I really don’t want to find out who’s trying to break in.”

“Five minutes, everyone.” Deegan held a finger to his ear.

“Five! Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” Jackie said. “Let’s make some freaking rocks, Reds.”

Jackie started mixing in the black sand and oil. Finally she dropped in the blue liquid and stirred. No mist or anything seemed to be happening. She grunted and grabbed the bowl, rushed to the trash can and scraped the contents into it.

“Pick it up, Allie,” Jackie said upon returning.

“I’ve got one,” a kid on the Blue side called out.

“Good! Keep it going. Two more minutes.”

“Done,” Leo said. He smiled smugly as he held the stone over his head, wrapped in a black cloth.

I didn’t like getting beaten, especially by some Blue who’d had his hands all over me just a day ago. I felt my anger build. I always felt anger simmering, but I’d spent my entire life it keeping at bay. Here, and with these stones, I didn’t have to pretend not to be mad. I could push my rage to its limits.

I dumped the entire container of metal shavings into my bowl while I shook with anger at Bridget’s stupid comments about me and what a freak I was.

Carly said something, but I didn’t listen as I took the oil and poured it in. My thoughts traveled to Janet and Spencer. The anger enveloped me, like throwing gasoline on a fire, making my hands shake and my vision shrink down to a narrow tunnel.

I thought of my dad and why he hadn’t been coming home anymore. It’d been too long. He’d left me, just like my mom had. It was a thought I usually never dared to think, but it skittered across the edge of my consciousness and once I grabbed it, it overwhelmed me.

The half-dozen blue vials clattered as I scooped them up. Blackness filled the edges of my vision and I hoped the blue liquid made it into the bowl as I turned my wrist. But really, I didn’t care. I grabbed at the spoon, pulling and yanking it around the bowl. Mist covered everything, like a deep fog had just rolled in. The spoon broke free from its stubborn path and I heard a plunking sound at the bottom of the bowl.

“Holy salt on a cracker,” Jackie said, fanning the fog away from me. “You actually made one.”

Sweat beaded on my brow and I leaned back, staring at the bowl. A metallic silver stone looked back at me.

Deegan emerged from the fog and leaned over my desk with a concerned expression. He tilted the bowl and watched the stone roll around before leveling the bowl back down.

“That isn’t supposed to be possible. Not using that much,” he whispered.

The speaker blared with Verity’s voice. “All students to the hub, and bring your stones.”

Deegan adjusted his sash. I noticed the stone I had made not long ago, the suspended animation stone, sitting in a pocket on his sash. “Let’s go,” he instructed.

The stone glimmered as it reflected the light from the ceiling back at me. I stared at it until Mark used a black cloth to pick it up.

“That stone is going to hit Verity like a ton of bricks,” Jackie said. “I can’t wait to see it.” She pulled out a small bag from her pocket. “Here, Mark, put that thing in here before you hurt yourself.”

He pursed his pretty lips, but complied and handed the bag to me. I clasped it with my shaky hand. The weight of it shocked me. It must’ve weighed several pounds.

“You guys coming?” Deegan popped his head back in the room.

“Yeah,” Jackie said.

The hub was full of motion, everyone moving for positions near the center statue. I followed Jackie and Carly as they led the way through the crowd. The Blue and Reds moved aside as she forced her way to the front. Verity was standing barefoot on the edge of the water fountain. She held her hands high above her and tried to silence the crowd.

“All those with stones, I need you up at the front. Everyone else, back up and make room.” She walked on the edge, looking over the groups as they rearranged in priority.

Jackie stayed by my side, as well as Mark.

“There’s no way I’m missing this,” Jackie whispered to me. “I have no idea how the woman holds a stone for as long as she does. Her anger’s the freaking Mariana Trench.”

“As soon as I place the portal stone in my hand, nothing can interrupt me, and no matter what happens, you need to keep putting your stones on mine until it’s powerful enough to move us.”

The building shook again. I looked to the ceiling where a deep crack had formed. Drips of water fell from the crack.

“Get ready, everyone.” She nodded to a few teachers. They looked on high alert as they scanned the walls and ceiling. Verity took a deep breath and placed the portal stone on her bare palm. Her face contorted with strain as she kept it from dissolving into her hand.

A person nearby pinched their booster stone with a cloth and touched it against Verity’s portal stone. It absorbed into it, and the next person did the same.

Jackie nudged me, wearing a wicked smile. Most of the people had walked in front of me and I got in line maybe ten people back. I watched Verity as she received each stone; the strain grew in her face and she shook. Not just her hands, but her whole body.

Two more people placed their stones on hers. I opened my bag and used a thin cloth to lift the stone. It wanted to slip from my fingers, so I gripped it tight.

Something slammed against the building. I stumbled and Mark held me steady. Bits and pieces of the ceiling rained down. Some screamed and ran from the falling debris. A small beam of light shone through the ceiling. I stared at the light and something dropped through the crack. As it got closer, I saw it was a stone.

Deegan ran toward the falling stone, holding one of his own.

The stone struck the floor and bounced. An instant later, a man appeared in its place. He was wearing a sash much like Deegan’s, and he pulled a stone from it. He searched the people around him, looking over the heads of many.

“Dad?” a Blue called out. “Dad!”

“Son—”

Deegan threw a stone at the man, striking him on the side of the face. I recognized the stone, as I had just recently made one like it. The suspended animation stone dissolved into his skin and he fell to the floor. Wait—had he said
son
?

Jackie nudged me again. I turned to face Verity. She shook violently and stared past me, through me. Her look made me take a step back, but there were no more students to add to her portal stone. They formed a half circle and nudged me toward her shaking arm.

As I got close, I heard her teeth chatter and saw in her eyes that she was somewhere far, far away. I took the heavy stone, pinching it with all my might, and placed it against her stone.

Verity’s head jerked back and she exhaled a long breath as she fell backward into the fountain. The water splashed around her body.

I gasped as a wave of air pushed past me. I fell through the floor … at least I thought I was falling. It felt just like the time stone, a feeling of falling. I grasped for the air around me until the ground firmed under my feet once more.

The water sloshed around the fountain, and Verity stayed under the surface. Priscilla rushed to her with a couple of other students and they pulled her out. Her arms and head bobbed around with no muscle control. Her eyes stayed closed as they laid her on the floor.

“Is she breathing?” Deegan asked.

Priscilla put her ear near Verity’s mouth and nodded.

“Then get her to her room. I’ll handle the intruder,” Deegan said.

Priscilla and a couple of other teachers lifted Verity and carried her past me. As she passed by, my mouth hung open. The woman had sacrificed her body to protect us. I didn’t know why I thought it was so weird. I guess I just hadn’t thought the woman had it in her. She’d saved us all from the dark alchemists. They were about to start falling from the ceiling, like that Blue’s dad.

“You okay?” Mark asked and rubbed my shoulder.

“Yeah, just a bit freaked out.”

He and I looked at the kid on the ground, holding his dad, sobbing into his black jacket.

“What did you do?” the Blue asked no one in particular.

Deegan rushed to the boy’s dad but didn’t answer. I could have answered. I’d made the very stone which had put him in the stupor. I resisted the urge to tell the Blue that his dad had become a modern-day Sleeping Beauty.

“Get him out of here,” Deegan said, and pointed to the Blue holding his dad.

The Blue fought and screamed, but a group of Blues pulled him away all the same.

Deegan motioned for the bald teacher and a few others to grab the practically dead man and pick him up.

They discussed something in a hushed manner as they carried him toward the teachers’ hall. In another minute, the teachers, the dark alchemist, and Verity were gone. Most of the students stayed in the hub, looking more like zombies than anything else. They staggered around, looking at the ceiling and floors. I felt the same way. Confused and scared, mixed with angry.