The Alchemists Academy: Stones to Ashes Book 1 Read Online Free PDF

flush slightly at that, but he did not have time to question it, because Priscilla chose that moment to stand, hugging her friend.
    “Well, I had best be going. Time for class and so on.”
    “I’ll see you after school,” Alana promised, and the princess hurried off, the red dress billowing behind her in a way that made it look like she was being chased by a small hot-air balloon.
    Wirt took advantage of the comment to reach down and bite into his apple. He only glanced away for a moment. By the time he looked back though, things had changed dramatically. They were not in the cafeteria, for one thing. Instead, he found himself seated at a desk in what appeared to be a small laboratory. At the front of it, there was a chalkboard, on which the word “ALCHEMY” was written in large letters. Spencer was sitting next to him, so Wirt leaned over.
    “What just happened?”
    Spencer shrugged, like the sudden appearance of a science lab was not a big deal. “Alchemy is all about changing things, so generally the teacher just changes whatever spot they’ll let him have into a classroom. In theory, it is so nobody who isn’t meant to be in the class can look in. In practice, I heard that it has something to do with every real classroom used for it getting destroyed.”
    “I heard that, Spencer.” The voice came from the front, where an elderly man in a battered and rather stained white robe stood, a pair of thick half-moon spectacles perched on his nose. From where he sat, Wirt noticed that the teacher was missing both eyebrows. “Now, if everyone will give me a minute, we’ll begin with some simple sovereign remedies.”
    The teacher snapped his fingers, and a flame appeared in midair, apparently unsupported. Over it, he arranged a stand and a bowl, before starting to add ingredients to it.
    “Unicorn horn is generally regarded as the most important ingredient here,” the teacher said over his shoulder. Wirt saw twenty or so students start to make notes, and looked around for something to write on. From his other side, Alana pushed a couple of sheets of paper and a pencil in front of him. “Of course, that is nonsense. The same effects can be achieved just by…”
    The teacher droned on. As he did so, words appeared on the board in front of him, along with diagrams that Wirt could barely begin to understand. The teacher was not doing any writing. Indeed, he did not seem to be doing much of anything until he looked up quite suddenly.
    “I am afraid we have an unstable reaction, class. Places please.”
    With that, he dove behind a desk with the kind of speed Wirt wouldn’t have believed possible from a man his age. Wirt felt a tug on his arm, and didn’t protest as Spencer dragged him below the level of their workbench. Alana was already crouching there. Wirt could not help noticing now that the desk was extremely solidly built. Even as Wirt thought it, there was a bang that made his ears ring, and the desk shuddered. For no apparently reason, a dozen white doves flew overhead.
    “Am I still dreaming?” Wirt asked softly. He heard Alana laugh. She reached out to touch his hand.
    “You come out of thin air, and you are still wondering that? It feels real, doesn’t it?”
    It did. It also felt surprisingly nice. Wirt looked into Alana’s eyes again, and decided again that there were at least some good points to being trapped on another world.
    “Right class, let’s try that once more, shall we?”

Chapter 4
     
    T he alchemy class lasted for the space of another two explosions and a minor melting, before being dismissed and allowing the cafeteria to fade back into being. Wirt was so relieved that, when Spencer and Alana picked up bags and headed down into the school’s lobby, he followed without question. As he arrived, Spencer held out an arm to hold him back before Wirt could step into the path of a group of seven figures who looked rather odd even by the standards of this strange place.
    At their head was