Page 21 of Give the Dark My Love

I glanced behind me as the first form of alchemy slammed into my head. Shifting life forces. The rats in the cages that lined one wall of the laboratory stared at me with their beady black eyes.

“Don’t be timid, girl,” Master Ostrum growled.

I crossed the room to the cages. My hand shook as I opened a door, the rat inside hissing at me.

At least this was a smaller rat, bred for science, not one of the snarling, spitting things that lurked in barns, stealing grain from Jojo’s stall. I thought of the little kitten Ernesta had when we were younger, and the way a rat had attacked him so brutally his face never fully healed. Taking a deep breath, I threw my hand into the cage, grabbing the rat by its torso, yanking it out, and throwing it into the golden crucible before I could talk myself out of it.

Master Ostrum grunted his approval.

The first form of alchemy required that I connect with a living creature, the crucible acting as a tether. The textbooks I’d read suggested that new alchemists start with a frog or a worm, but Master Ostrum didn’t offer me anything but the rat. Most of the texts I readalso warned that first efforts usually failed. I bit my lip. Master Ostrum didn’t seem the type to forgive failure.

I held the base of the crucible with both hands, whispering the runes I’d memorized from Papa’s books. They lit up with bright white light as they activated, and the rat inside the vessel squeaked in fear.

Master Ostrum leaned down, watching me.

I closed my eyes. Through my connection with the golden crucible, I felt for the rat’s life. Alchemy might be a science, but it seemed like magic as I sensed the rat’s heartbeat through my own veins. I breathed out, and when I breathed in again, Ipulled. The rat’s life flowed into me, and I felt sparking, crackling energy within my body, a jolt of power. I breathed out andpushed. The rat scampered at the base of the crucible, its claws tinny against the metal as it tried to escape.

I pulled again. The rat flopped down, passive, its energy filling me. It wasn’t dead, just empty, its black eyes dull and its body lax. I let its life force return, and the rat scrambled up, terror sparking its movements.

“You have a natural talent,” Master Ostrum said, a flare of new interest in his solemn eyes.

I suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable, like I was the rat in the crucible, trapped under the gaze of a predator. I nodded in acquiescence I didn’t quite feel.

“Progress to Form Two,” Master Ostrum commanded, turning back to his own experiments.

The dead eyeball that still floated in the jar on the table watched me as I silently reached for another rat.

TEN

Grey

It didn’t takelong for the others to notice Nedra hadn’t attended any lectures since the first day of class. In only a few weeks, it became the biggest topic of speculation, whispers floating around her before Master Ostrum’s morning session began.

“What doyouthink our little gutter rat does all day?” Tomus drawled, loud enough for Nedra to hear. She kept her head down and flicked up the hood of her cloak. It was barely fall; I was surprised she was even wearing such a heavy garment.

I sat my bag down on the floor beside my desk. “Drop it,” I muttered.

“Does she even meet with Master Ostrum for her evening report?” Tomus was very aware that every student was listening to him.

“Of course,” I said, not mentioning that she often simply sat in while I gave my report, then was dismissed. Occasionally, she mentioned what she learned in a history study hall or a book she read outside of her private lessons.

“Ofcourse.” Tomus emphasized the last word in a mocking tone. There was a tittering of laughter in the rows behind me.

The door at the front of the room swung open, and Master Ostrum stomped inside. “Pack up,” he growled at the class. Nedra was the first to move, standing and slinging her unopened bag over her shoulder. When most of the other students didn’t move, Master Ostrum glared at us. “I said, let’s go! We have a ferry to catch.”

Excitement washed over us, and we all hurried to follow his command. Master Ostrum’s class was the most advanced medicinal alchemy course at Yugen, and his surgical laboratories were so renowned that sometimes even other professors would join the students to observe.

Master Ostrum led the way, not pausing to explain anything as he stomped down the quad and through the gate. No carriage awaited us, and Master Ostrum didn’t hesitate as he headed down the main road to Blackdocks.

Tomus fell into step beside me. “I hope there’s a carriage to carry us back up,” I said.

“A ferry means the quarantine hospital,” he answered, glowering at Master Ostrum’s back. “That place is for poor people. We should be going to the Governor’s Hospital, where there’s a chance we’ll meet the alchemists we’ll actually work for. None of us wants to dirty our hands at a slum like that.” His voice carried down the street, and I knew Master Ostrum heard him, but the old man didn’t even turn his head.

Nedra, however, had stopped so abruptly that the girl behind her almost ran into her. “You’re disgusting,” she snarled at Tomus.

Tomus laughed. The sound was not amused, but bitter, spiteful. Nedra strode away, a sense of pride in her step. I thought first of what Nedra had told me, about loyalty. But then I remembered the way Tomus had gotten his governess fired when he was seven because she’d dared to give him a subpar grade for his subpar work.

Master Ostrum had reserved a ferry just for our class. It cut across the water, a cool morning wind whipping up the girls’ hair. Nedra pushed through the crowd of students to the front of the boat, her cloak wrapped tightly around her.

---