Engines of Alchemancy (The Alchemancer Book One)

Chapter 16. Cauldron Mountain

ERLEK SLAMMED HIS OPEN PALM on the writing desk.

"Concentrate!"

Looming over the desk, he looked as if he meant to reach out and throttle Shanna. Instead, a visible shudder coursed through him before he straightened and returned to his pacing. He walked one way and then the other before he spoke again. "You wish to learn the use of the Elements, do you not?" He did not allow her time to answer. "Yet you show not the slightest interest in doing so, disregarding my lessons and even lying to me."

"I never lied—" She had lied. Immediately upon his return, Erlek had asked her how far she'd read and she'd stupidly said all of it. A quick series of questions had laid bare the falsehoods of that claim. In frustration—or perhaps as punishment—he reverted to his original lesson plan by laying out a series of problems he expected her to solve immediately while he hovered over her.

"Discipline!" This time it was his fist that smacked the desk. The suddenness of it pushed Shanna back in her chair. "It is not earned or given as a gift! You must focus your mind! Embrace it! Learn it!"

Shanna let go of her pencil and folded her arms across her chest. "I don't understand how figuring out this—this—"

"Logic problem!"

"—is going to help me learn discipline. Who cares about hi-hidraw—"

"Hydraulics!"

"I can't even say it! How do you expect me to learn anything from it?"

Erlek took a deep breath. "The problem is not about hydraulics per se. Rather, it is a test of your ability to think through a problem to its logical conclusion. It shapes your mind's thoughts by providing a clear path that will ultimately allow you to control the Elements. Passion and emotion have no place here; the Elements are dangerous." An ashen hand went to his forehead. "We have been over these points already." He pointed a long, bony finger at the drawing he'd made on the parchment for her. "Look here. Fluid flows in this direction. How do you suppose—"

The savant's words were cut off as the door to his cabin slammed open. The sitheri guards, who stood inside the room as silent as obelisks, responded instantly by drawing short blades better suited to the room's confines than their spears. Shanna, whose heart had lurched into her throat at the suddenness of the interruption, breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was only Engus Rul. Such relief faded quickly, for the dwarf's expression was hateful and angry. In his hand, brandished openly, was a warhammer.

"You've gone too far, savant," he said, stepping into the cabin. It was the only step he was allowed as the sitheri attacked. Engus Rul was ready for them, knocking both swords aside and seeming to have the upper hand for at least a moment. Then one of the sitheri abandoned his sword, bending down to wrap powerful arms about the dwarf's torso while the other leveled its blade at his throat. Engus Rul's hammer was forced from his grip. The weapon hit the floor with a thud.

"Do not kill him," Erlek said. The man glided forward, stopping a single arm's reach from the dwarven clan-lord. A snarl signaled the dwarf's desire to reach out and strangle the man.

"You've killed one of my dwarves, bloodsucker," Engus Rul said, "and now I'm going to kill you."

"Really?" Erlek motioned for the sitheri holding the blade to step away, then he grasped his hands behind him. "How exactly do you plan on doing that? Hmmm?"

Engus Rul strained against his captor. His eyes bulged, his teeth gnashed, and Shanna, who'd risen as soon as the battle had begun, saw the muscles of his arms strain and ripple. Still, he was no match in raw strength for the reptilian sitheri.