Ethan Wright and the Alchemist's Order, (Book 2) (16 page)

“It was a good match,” stated Heinrich, “…too bad you cannot … earn … extra points for being
clever
in a duel such as this.”

“You’re right, Heinrich — it’s over….”

Edison let go of the Guard Captain’s foot, sending him off balance and tumbling forward. The history professor undid the top clasp of his alchemy jacket and the remaining fasteners quickly came free. Heinrich hissed and held his hand outward. A stream of golden dust coalesced and shot through the air at an amazing velocity, right toward Edison — toward an alchemist with no armor.

Ethan gasped as Edison quickly removed his jacket. The professor dropped two stones behind himself, whipped the garment to the side and re-clasped the top fastener. Using the jacket as a vessel, he caught all the dust inside. The fasteners clasped shut as the velocity ripped the garment from Edison’s hands, shooting it through a portal that formed behind him.

“YOU…,” stuttered Heinrich, furious.

“Won some extra points for being … clever,” interrupted Edison, snidely.

“MY GOLD DUST,” he shrieked. Heinrich picked up his sword and marched forward. “Fine!” he spat, furious. “But, without an alchemy jacket, you’re worthless!”

Heinrich cocked back his sword — but was unprepared for the history professor’s trickery. Edison turned while walking into his opponent, revealing that he had been wearing his alchemy cloak underneath his jacket. The cloak reacted instantly, blocking the elementary attack above Edison’s head. The history professor countered with cutting Ethan’s sword free from Heinrich’s waist. He flicked the fire sword with a controlled swing, sending it toward the boys. The blade slid across the hall, skidding to a stop right at the Orobori’s feet. Ethan quickly snatched it up and fastened it to his waist.

Heinrich jumped back and spat on the floor in disgust. He held his sword firmly and re-engaged his opponent. Back and forth the two swung, each swing more precise than the one before. Edison’s cloak made up the difference in sword skills, helping him fend off Heinrich’s accurate attacks. Edison attempted to disarm his opponent by slipping his blade tip through Heinrich’s sword guard, as he had last year, but the Guard Captain was ready and grabbed Edison’s wrist. They struggled back and forth until, exhausted, they both ended up on the floor. Edison gasped for breath and was sweating profusely. The Captain of the Guard fared no better, becoming pale as a result of being so winded.

“You give up yet?” breathed Edison.

“Never,” grumbled Heinrich. “You?”

“Not today, my rival….”

Heinrich tried to lift his sword, but it was too heavy. “This has to come to a conclusion — can’t have a draw.”

“You let the boys go and we can indeed have a draw,” snapped Edison.

“I let them go … but get to take
you
in,” conceded Heinrich, still gasping for breath.

Edison nodded and sheathed his sword. Heinrich followed suit.

Chapter 14
A Summer Vow

The
CRACK
of swords sounded throughout the great Stadion, followed by the deafening roar of the crowd. Availia was in the final round, competing against the tall skinny boy named Renkins, who had trained under Heinrich. Stanley paced back and forth on one side of the ring, shouting tactical advice to Availia. Keavy, using his great size as a deterrent, kept the admiring fans at bay.

Renkins lunged his sword toward Availia, but was deflected downward. He continued the momentum of his blade in a full circle and jumped high, unleashing a powerful overhead strike. Availia did her best to block, but the violent blow knocked her flat on her back. Her head bounced, sending her helmet rolling. Seeing his opponent down, Renkins quickly scrambled toward his prey, and toward victory. He leaped and swung wildly at Availia’s unprotected face.

Magnus, seeing a possible disaster, started toward the two combatants, but it was too late. Renkins’ sword was inches from Availia’s head. She rolled to avoid the strike at the last moment and got to her feet. Renkins, now unbalanced and on the ground, was completely exposed to Availia. But instead of taking the shot, she slowly composed herself, picked up her helmet and calmly fitted it back to her head. The crowd went mad with delight. They roared as the Tanbe daughter disregarded Renkins’ scorn for the rules and left him on the ground in shame. He composed himself and stumbled to his feet. Embarrassed, he adjusted his own helmet. Magnus quickly stepped in and had a word with the boy as Availia gave a small wave to the crowd. They ate it up as they roared and hollered. Keavy was now physically restraining the more adamant admirers from swarming the ring.

“WEEL, GIE OAN WI’ IT ‘EN, MAGNUS!” yelled Keavy over the roaring.

Magnus gave the signal for the match to continue and the Tanbe daughter whirled with sword extended, slapping Renkins on the back. She then followed up with a downward strike on the back of his leg, bringing him to one knee. She finished the move by spinning again, executing a controlled upward swing that stopped just short of Renkins’ chin. Renkins slowly put his hands up and dropped his sword in submission.

The crowd was ecstatic. Stanley clapped his hands together as Magnus happily awarded Availia the victory. Stanley was separated from Availia as the mob of students and admirers broke past Keavy and swarmed their new champion. Red’s voice echoed through the great Stadion, announcing Availia’s victory. He rambled on about how it was the first time in many years that any alchemy student had won the Summer Sword.

Ethan and Auren strode down the stairs and entered the arena. They quickly found Stanley, who was collecting Availia’s armor and sword. They hurried over to him, but were assailed by Keavy.

“Whit ur ye wee ones daein’ haur? Did ye gie th’ ne alchemist? Hae ye spoken tae Edison yit?” barraged Keavy. “Weel … oot wi’ it alreddy!”

“Yeah — we got the new alchemist,” replied Ethan.

“You should’ve seen him!” interrupted Auren ecstatically, pushing his way in front of Ethan. “Edison fought Heinrich! It was amazing! He vanished … and reappeared, and vanished again — never thought an old man could move like that!”

The news caught Stanley’s ear as he pushed through a group of students and into the conversation. “What’s this about Edison getting into a fight?”

Auren snatched the dulled sword from Stanley and started swinging. “He was like this!” he exclaimed as he lunged the sword toward Stanley’s middle. “And like this!”

Stanley easily avoided the blows, caught the competition sword and yanked it out of Auren’s hand. “So what happened to him — is he okay?”

“Yeah, he seemed alright,” replied Ethan, placing his hand on his reclaimed fire sword. Stanley eyed up the sword and nodded.

“Sae he won th’ barnie ‘en, eh?”

Auren gave Keavy a strange look. “He
what?
”

“He beat Heinrich in a duel?” asked Stanley sharply. “What for?”

Ethan shrugged. “Auren and I had a bit of trouble with Marcus. He ticked off a giant stone lady at the cemetery, and she went after him. He evidently thought it was Auren and I that sent the statue after him. To make a long story short, Edison got us out of trouble by dueling Heinrich and giving himself up.”

“If Edison would’ve won, he would’ve been free to go as well,” grumbled Auren.

“And if he would have lost we’d all be in prison,” added Ethan.

“Well — good you made it then,” said Stanley.

“I thought the competition would be cancelled with the attack and all,” said Auren.

“Yeah, I did too. Turns out the Castellan wanted everyone to stay inside the Stadion ‘til the danger had cleared, so to keep everyone calm, Magnus decided to keep the tournament going. Good thing, too — Availia won.”

Red and several officials carrying trophies pushed their way through the crowd. The short, chubby announcer congratulated Availia and started making a grandiose speech. Availia seemed taken aback but coolly stood with the runners-up of the Summer Sword.

Ethan refocused his attention on Keavy. “Anyhow — we need to go … now,” stated Ethan. “Keavy, you need to see if you can get Edison out of prison while we go to Losalfar to find out about Loka Tattur. Can you go talk to the Castellan or something — maybe try and persuade him that Edison didn’t kill anyone?”

Keavy nodded.

Stanley also nodded, dropped his pack and pushed his way through the mob surrounding the celebration. He whispered into Availia’s ear, which was just enough to disrupt Red’s grandiose speech.

“And just what are you up to this time?” grumbled Red. “I need to have focus to bring you the attention you deserve,” he added.

Availia looked at him sternly. “It’ll have to wait,” she announced. She walked off, pulling Stanley along with her.

“Wait a minute — what should I do with your trophy then?” whined Red, holding a massive gold trophy depicting a young boy holding a sword.

Availia looked at the trophy with the boy on it, then back at Red. “Keep it,” she answered, chuckling.

She marched up to Ethan and Auren. “Stanley gave me the update — we leavin’ then?” she asked as she put on her alchemy jacket.

Ethan nodded and the four left the Stadion together. Keavy rushed to pick up the armor, mumbling to himself about accepting the alchemy professor position at the academy.

***

Ethan threw the final lever and the airship soared into the sky. He and Stanley had worked on the vessel tirelessly over the last several months. Stanley had applied a decorative metal skin to the bottom of the ship, which helped protect them from any encounters with the Aegis below. Ethan had designed a new bowsprit that made the ship more aerodynamic. It connected the bow directly to the balloon in a swept-back position, allowing for higher speeds. A silver plaque was affixed to the back of the ship with the word
‘GERTRUDE’
engraved into it. The two young alchemists were fairly proud of their work as they quickly rose over the great stone city.

“I noticed you brought your bow with,” probed Stanley as the ship slowly floated upward.

Ethan nodded as he threw a lever on the control panel of the airship.

“Even though you got your fire sword back?”

“Can’t always control it — Edison thinks I should practice the bow. He thinks I’d regret it, if I didn’t.”

“Well, you did save him and Auren with it.” Stanley threw a switch and a blaze erupted in the fire chamber.

“YOU KNOW…,” shouted Ethan over the
WHOOSH
of the airship’s chamber, “if there’s anything I
don’t
regret while being in Tirguard — it’s being up here!”

Stanley nodded as he adjusted additional levers and the ship leveled out. “I felt the same way when I first started flying, long ago.”

“Not sure why Red doesn’t want to fly anymore,” added Ethan.

“I think he’s been ready to hand the reigns over for a while now. Besides, I think he feels there’s ‘less danger’ in the Stadion,” answered Stanley with a smile.

“I still feel like I want to barf!” exclaimed Auren with a grin.

The airship quieted down after they reached altitude. Ethan made a few adjustments that aimed the airship in the general direction of Losalfar and then took a seat to enjoy the view. Auren’s face regained color shortly after they leveled out. Feeling better, he began to pester Availia about her win at the Summer Sword. He attempted to pry every last detail from her. Availia obliged Auren for a short time, but soon grew impatient with him and punched him in the shoulder.

“Ow! What was that for?” grumbled Auren, rubbing the sore spot on his upper arm.

“Shut up about spin moves! They’re practically useless
ninety-nine
percent of the time!” griped Availia. “Men are so …
stupid
sometimes!”

“Okay, okay, I was just curious is all,” conceded Auren.

While Auren and Availia bickered, Ethan pulled out his map of Tirguard. Before he could unfold it, he felt a sharp sting in the palm of his alchemy hand. He spread his palm open, looking at the remnant of the wound in the middle of his alchemy symbol where the torture arrow had pierced. He rubbed his palm, squeezed his hand in a fist a few times and unfolded the map.

“Hey, what’s that?” interrupted Availia, leaning over to get a peek at the map Ethan was holding.

“It’s nothing!” exclaimed Auren. “Just let him do his thing,” he added as he tried to block her view of the map with his hand.

“No … it’s okay, Auren. I don’t want to keep it secret from them — not anymore … not from my friends.” Ethan held out the map and Availia reluctantly took it. She studied it for a moment and looked back up to Ethan.

“It’s a map,” she stated, “of Tirguard, of course — but why’s it a secret?”

“It was Isaac’s, I guess — my father left it to him. And … well, somehow I ended up with it. I think it may have something to do with Isaac’s whereabouts. That is … if he’s still—”

“Hey, look!” exclaimed Auren as he snatched the map from Availia’s grasp. He pointed to the center of the compass in the lower left corner. “Just before you got shot with that torture arrow, I thought you said this was an
‘O’
?”

Ethan leaned down to re-examine the compass on the map. There was indeed a letter
‘V’
centered in the Oroborus symbol, in place of the letter
‘O’.
“Is that … the letter
‘V’
? I mean, it was an
‘O’
, I’m sure of it — and before that it was an
‘M’
… or maybe a
‘W’
— not entirely sure,” replied Ethan, puzzled.

Stanley pulled a few levers and turned a control knob. He looked over his shoulder and shouted over the
whoosh
of the airship. “It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“Um … no … it really isn’t,” replied Ethan loudly, perking up.

Stanley walked over and pointed at the letter
‘V’.
“Yeah … that’s it. You see, even the Oroborus is circling around the letter.”

Ethan, Auren and Availia stared at him blankly.

“What’s the name of the new alchemist you guys went to pick up?”

“Abbey … Abbey Valisa — but she insisted on being called Valisa — that’s it! Her name is Abbey Valisa!” gasped Ethan.