Read Online The Alchemists Academy: Stones to Ashes Book 1 by Kailin Gow - Free Book Online Page B

me by…hang on, you aren’t Ender, are you?”
    Wirt found his wrist snatched and held up for inspection. The glamour on it flickered, and the woman’s eyes narrowed. She snapped a couple of words, and Wirt found himself staring at his own arm again.
    “Well, this is unexpected. And dangerous, of course. You really should not be here, child.”
    “I’m not a child,” Wirt said.
    “Of course you are. And a foolish one too, to come here clothed in such a weak glamour. You need to leave, before Ender catches you and you end up like everyone else who has annoyed him.” She gestured to the other cages. “And this is if you are lucky. How did you even come to be here… Wirt?”
    Wirt didn’t bother asking how she knew his name. Instead, he gave the woman a short version of events to date. Since she was already in a position to get him into trouble with the Head, there didn’t seem to be much point in avoiding it.
    “I am not in a position to do much, in my cage,” the woman said, “but I do have a piece of advice for you, young Wirt. Beware of Ender Paine.”
    Wirt shrugged. “That’s hardly news.”
    The woman’s eyes flashed. “Don’t trust your Ms. Lake too much either. She’ll betray you. It’s what she does. No, I don’t expect you to believe me. For now though, you need to leave.”
    “And how do I do that?” Wirt asked.
    “Like this.”
    Wirt found himself standing in Ender Paine’s office once more, which was both a relief and a worry. A relief, because at least he was not talking to strange women in a room full of cages. A worry, because the door to Ender Paine’s office seemed to be opening, and Wirt realized that since he was not covered by his glamour anymore, he was not going to cut a very impressive figure behind the Head’s desk.
    Why he reached for Ms. Genovia’s transformation spell rather than another glamour, Wirt couldn’t say. Maybe it was the thought that his first attempt had been so easy to see through, or that things hadn’t gone very well for him in the original lesson. As a result he found himself saying the words to the other spell, and trying to concentrate on the image of the Headmaster.
    Wirt just had time to catch a glimpse of Ender Paine stepping into his office just before the world disappeared upwards, perhaps it wouldn’t. Presumably, the Headmaster would have had a better idea than most that the version of him standing in front of him was not the real one, had Wirt succeeded.
    As it was, Wirt found himself under the table, with the familiar green feet of a toad spread in front of him. He hopped further under the table, out of sight, as Ender Paine came fully into the room, apparently arguing with someone.
    “No Aloea, selling off artifacts is not the way to stabilize the school’s financial position.”
    “Something has to be.” Wirt recognized the voice of Ms. Preville, which he considered to be quite a feat considering his current condition. ‘And you won’t even consider it.’
    “I won’t consider it because it is foolish, and puts power into hands it shouldn’t be in.”
    “Hands other than yours, you mean,” Ms. Preville shot back.
    “Be very careful, Aloea.”
    “At least tell me that you will consider it.”
    “If you felt this way,” Ender Paine said, “you should have made the case for it at the board meeting. Not that it would have helped. You know that our custodian of artifacts would have opposed it.”
    “Oppose it? The odds are that she has already started it. That chalice has to have gone somewhere. Really, Ender,” the tone of Ms. Preville’s voice changed abruptly, ‘is there nothing I can do to persuade you? I’m sure between us, we could…”
    “I think you should leave now, Aloea, unless you have a particular desire to experience life as… I think an alley cat would be appropriate, don’t you?”
    Ms. Preville said a word that Wirt suspected teachers weren’t supposed to know, and he heard her opening the door. It