The Alchemists Academy Book 2: Elemental Explosions (4 page)

            A knock sounded at the door, cutting off what would undoubtedly have been the start of an instruction for Wirt to leave, and Wirt went to answer it automatically. Maybe it would be Spencer, with some kind of explanation for what was going on. It wasn’t. It was Ms. Lake, however, and she stepped into the room without being asked.

            “Hello boys,” she said with a smile. “Are you both getting along with your new roommate?”

            “New roommate?” Wirt and Roland said it almost at the same time.

            “Ms. Lake,” Wirt continued, “what about Spencer?”

            Ms. Lake smiled. “Oh, Spencer got a new room alone. His father asked for it. He said something about wanting to keep Spencer away from disruptive influences to allow him to study more effectively.”

“But Spencer already studies harder than anyone in the school,” Wirt pointed out. “Way harder than I do, anyway.”

Ms. Lake shook her head. “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, Wirt, but studying harder than you doesn’t necessarily mean anything. You still owe me homework from last term.”

“You know what I mean, though,” Wirt insisted.

“I do.” Ms. Lake’s tone was soothing. “And it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. But when Mr. Bentley insisted, there wasn’t really anything else to do but move Spencer, so he is located at the end of the hall now.”

            “I’m a disruptive influence?” Wirt asked. “Really?”

            “Apparently.” Ms. Lake’s smile widened. “Though frankly, I just don’t think that Mr. Bentley likes the idea of his son having to share with anyone. After all, Spencer was in a single when you showed up, remember.”

            Wirt nodded, though he couldn’t help a glance across at Roland Black. He had a feeling that things wouldn’t be quite as peaceful as they had been around Spencer. And judging by the way Roland was looking at him, he shared the same sentiment.

            A moment later, Roland gave voice to it. “Ms. Lake,” he said. “There must be some mistake. I thought I was supposed to a single room. How can Spencer Bentley get one when I cannot?”

            Ms. Lake put a hand on Roland’s shoulder.  “Spencer’s father put in a request for that room months ago, when Wirt first appeared here at the Academy, Roland. As such, his request took priority. You boys will simply have to share for now.”

            Wirt couldn’t believe that his friend would have wanted a room alone that badly and not said anything. Of course, it sounded like Spencer’s father had a lot to do with it, but even so, couldn’t Spencer have stood up to him over it?

            Roland still seemed just as unhappy, looking at Wirt with a skeptical expression. “Ms. Lake-”

            “Roland.” Ms. Lake didn’t raise her voice as she cut the boy off, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to tolerate anything more from him. “I am sure that you and Wirt will get along wonderfully. After all, the two of you share many interests.”

            “We do?” Roland looked at Wirt like he couldn’t imagine what sort of interest Wirt could possibly share with someone like him.

            “You do. Besides, Wirt knows almost every corner of the academy, and will be well-placed to show you the ropes.” Ms. Lake appeared to think for a moment. “We have quite a nice collection of magical climbing ones in the collection of artifacts at the moment, actually, so you might even be able to take that one literally. Wirt, you must do what you can to make sure that Roland settles in. After all you know what it was like when you first got here.”

            “What, Ms. Lake? People plotting to take over the school and trying to kill me?”

            Ms. Lake sighed. “I was actually thinking of what it would have been like without someone to show you around, Wirt. You do remember that part, don’t you?”

            Wirt could remember. It had been Spencer who had pulled him under the desk before the beginning explosion of his first alchemy class. Spencer who had explained how to use the transport tubes, and Spencer who had introduced him to Alana and Priscilla on his first day. In fact, without Spencer, Wirt doubted he would have lasted very long at the school, and not just in the usual sense. Thanks to its headmaster, the Alchemists Academy wasn’t a place that believed in a safe learning environment for its pupils.

            In fact, other people had been instrumental in getting Wirt through those first days. He was in a place where nymphs ran the kitchen and turning one another into things was a course requirement, where the librarian was some sort of bright green Thing and the internal transport system could deposit the unwary almost anywhere. Wirt didn’t want to think about some of the things that might have happened to him had he not had the help of his newfound friends. He guessed he owed it to the new boy, and to Ms. Lake, to make sure that Roland Black knew about the dangers.

            “I’ll do my best, Ms. Lake,” Wirt promised.

            “Good,” the school’s second in command said. “I know you’ll have fun. I’m certainly having an interesting time of things with Ms. Burns as
my
new roommate. One of the joys of having an elemental fae around: there’s actually someone who doesn’t mind the bottom of a lake for sleeping quarters. I haven’t had so much fun in years.” Ms. Lake thought for a moment. “Centuries, possibly. Now, I can’t hang around. I must see how all the other new students at the school are settling in. Some strange boy tried to bring an owl. Would you believe that? And another one started skimming stones on my lake. Honestly, I
hate
having things thrown at me.”

“Yes, Ms. Lake,” Wirt agreed, and the teacher seemed to realize that she was wasting time.

“Well, that’s all sorted out anyways. Now, if you want me, I’ll probably be in my office at some point. Good luck, Roland. Don’t forget your first transportation class, Wirt.”

            With that, she left, closing the door behind her. Wirt sat back on his bed.

            “So,” he said, “do you want the complete tour of the place now or later?”

            Roland just looked at him.

            “Come on,” Wirt said. “You heard Ms. Lake. I’m supposed to show you around.”

            “You think I need that?” Roland demanded. He sounded faintly insulted at the prospect of having to learn something from someone like Wirt.

            “Maybe not, but there are things you need to watch out for. This school can be a dangerous place if you aren’t careful.”

            Roland shrugged. “I can look out for myself. The last thing I need is someone tagging along after me trying to cramp my style and taking up all the space. Talking of which…”

            He sat down at the desk, working on the network of silver strings like it was a musical instrument, though no sound came out. Roland’s face was a mask of concentration as he did it.

            “What are you doing?” Wirt asked, partly out of interest, and partly to make sure that his new roommate hadn’t decided that turning him into something was the best way to get around the space issues.

            “I’m finishing unpacking, of course.”

            Wirt didn’t understand what the other boy meant until he reached into the network of wires, his hand disappearing to the wrist, and started to pull out objects one by one.

Chapter 4

T
he first thing Roland pulled out was an electric guitar, which was dark blue and dangerous looking, with strange, sideways mounted volume controls. He put it up on the wall and, much to Wirt’s annoyance, the tree extruded a couple of hooks for Roland to hang it on. A skateboard followed next, getting a spot in the corner of the room.

            After that, the things that Roland pulled out of the silver network of wires became a little stranger. There was a lead box that looked like it had seen better days, and a brass compass with an intricate collection of symbols etched into its lid. There were a few more books, and there was a set of different-colored stones linked together with string.

            “Roland,” Wirt said. “Is there much more? Your stuff is taking up all the space.”

            “Like you need much of it.”

            Finally, Roland pulled out a sphere the size of a basketball. At first glance, it seemed to be black, but Wirt could see flashes of other colors too, as though they were swirling just under the surface. As he watched, the movement of those colors seemed to accelerate, and as it did so they started to shine through, glowing in a way barely restrained by the outer layer of the ball.

            “What’s that?”

            “It’s called a quantum ball,” Roland said, spinning it idly between his hands until the colors beneath the surface shone like stars. “It’s used for playing hyper-leap.”

            “Hyper-leap?” Wirt asked. “Is that some kind of game?”

            Roland nodded. “They don’t play it much now. You throw the quantum ball at your opponent, and they have to use transportation magic to get themselves away. If they just try to run, the ball follows them.”

            “And when it catches them?” Wirt asked.

            “It disintegrates them. Scatters their constituent atoms across the hundred kingdoms.”

Roland made to throw the ball at him, and it was all Wirt could do to keep from reacting. The other boy laughed and put the ball down carefully. It faded to black as he did so.

“Not bad,” Roland said. “Most people run screaming.”

Wirt didn’t say what he would have liked to do to Roland in that moment. Instead, he looked at the ball, just sitting there on the floor.

“It’s safe like that?”

“Sure. It doesn’t do anything until someone with magic spins it up to speed for the game.”

“And you’ve
played
hyper-leap? For real, I mean?”

Roland shook his head. “My father did, though. They used to play it here in the academy. That was his ball.”

Wirt wasn’t sure he wanted to ask how many of his fellow students Roland’s father had disintegrated. Knowing the academy, he wouldn’t have gotten into any trouble for it, however many it was. Even Ms. Lake tended to take quite a rough and tumble attitude to learning, while Ender Paine…

Wirt had seen what the school’s permanently acting headmaster was capable of last year, when he had turned Ms. Preville to stone without so much as a second thought, and handed Urlando Roth over to the school’s mysterious ‘governors’. Wirt had seen the statues of them near Ender Paine’s office. They had been the sort of things that would probably have driven most stonemasons mad carving them. For all that he dressed like some sort of harmless stage magician, the man was deadly.

“So why are you here, Roland?” Wirt asked.

The other boy gave him a sharp look. “What do you mean?”

“Here at the academy. You must have transferred in from another school, so why switch now?”

Roland shrugged. “Why does anybody come here? It’s meant to be the best place to learn if you want real power. It’s definitely the best place to come if you want to work with royalty or big business afterwards. I did a year at the North Star Academy, but this place is better, so why wouldn’t I want to come here?”

Wirt nodded. That made sense. Certainly, it fit with what everyone else there had told him. The Alchemists Academy was
the
place to learn magic, and produced most of the major advisors to royalty, thanks to its association with Merlin. Momentarily, Wirt thought of his dream again, but dismissed it. Compared to the kind of things that happened at the academy every day, one odd dream was nothing.

“Do you still want to give me that tour?” Roland asked.