The Quantum Games(The Alchemists Academy)

Chapter 13



The hardest part was still having lessons after spending the morning running through a potentially deadly obstacle course. Given the way some of the lessons at the school went, the contrast perhaps wasn’t quite as great as it might have been in some other places, but it still felt strange to Wirt that he should have to accompany Robert to a lesson on political theory so soon after almost being eaten by a giant squid. There were some things, he suspected, that should get people out of classes.

Apparently not though, so Wirt had to sit through a lecture on the idea of a ruler doing the most good for their subjects possible, while working with Robert on exercises designed to explore the balancing act of a kingdom. The tutor seemed a little exasperated by Robert’s insistence that the best way to produce happiness in subjects was to tell them jokes. So much so that he barely seemed to notice when Robert came up with quite a good idea in an exercise on grain distribution based around the idea of a starving kingdom.

Eventually though, the lessons finished. Wirt headed off to one of the student common rooms, hoping to maybe see Alana there. After everything she had said the previous day, he wanted to talk to her so much. He had so many things to say, and this time he wanted to say them to her, rather than blurting them out accidentally to Robert. She was nowhere to be found though. Even in the lessons earlier, she and Priscilla hadn’t been present, apparently being off doing the kind of lessons in magic that Priscilla wanted to do so much.

It seemed that she wasn’t here either. Maybe she was avoiding him. Wirt paused. Why had he thought that? Maybe because of everything Alana had said? He could imagine her wanting to keep away from him after that, at least for a while. Or maybe he was thinking too much, and it was simply that she was busy with her school work, or with Priscilla, or something.


Wirt looked around the common room, and he immediately thought about going back to the room he shared with Robert. It wasn’t very busy in there, but there was the one person he didn’t want to see. Roland was there, standing with a group of students younger than him, apparently telling them tales of what it had been like facing the first challenge earlier.

“Well, I knew that I had to hurry across the first bridge, because I was sure the others would make it impossible to pass if I didn’t get over it first. They’d try, anyway.” He said that in a tone that made it clear that if he didn’t, Wirt or Spencer would have succeeded. Wirt didn’t point out that he hadn’t succeeded totally either. The last thing he needed right then was an argument.

Instead, he took a seat, grabbing a book from one of the shelves lining the room. It was a copy of Sir Gawain faces the Green Knight and Wirt started to read while Roland continued.

“The mirrors didn’t give me any problems at all. I knew that if I simply shattered them all, I’d be fine. It was the direct approach. That’s what works.”

Several of the students around him looked at Roland admiringly. Wirt shook his head and kept reading. He got through the introduction, getting to the part where the knight challenged anyone who wanted to try in Arthur’s court to a head-chopping contest. Wirt could remember Robert mentioning someone similar, and found himself wondering if it was the same person.

“Like with the walls and things I used to slow them down. It’s like the headmaster says, you have to go and take what you want in this world. You can’t afford to go around being nice. You have to be strong, instead.”

Roland was strong, Wirt thought to himself. At least, he had powerful magic for someone their age. It was almost enough to make him wonder what someone like him was doing on the fringes of the elite class, really. He should have gone through easily.

The vague shape of something started to lurk at the edges of Wirt’s thoughts, but he couldn’t pin it down immediately. Instead, he kept reading, and kept listening to Roland.

“The squid was probably the hardest part, though obviously it all went pretty well in the end. It was just a question of seeing the danger and dealing with it rather than blundering in blindly.”

That was obviously aimed at Wirt, suggesting that Roland wasn’t so utterly wrapped up in being the center of attention that he’d missed him walking in. Wirt wondered a little about that too. Roland hadn’t been friendly since he arrived. Even when they’d first been roommates, Roland had been aloof, and had even taken those opportunities that arose to make life difficult for Wirt. At the time, it had seemed like just his natural arrogance and competitiveness, but now Wirt wasn’t quite so sure. It felt almost like Roland had something personal against him.

Wirt kept reading, going through to the part where the green knight tricked Gawain into accepting his challenge, using Gawain’s confidence that he couldn’t lose against him and then surviving the knight’s best attempt at decapitation. Wirt assumed that it had to be the same person Robert had mentioned, because he couldn’t imagine two people able to survive that kind of thing. Though he also couldn’t imagine why the green knight would do something like that; going around pretending to be weak just so that he could force knights to play the game he wanted…

This time, Wirt caught the stray thought, bringing it out and looking at it as pieces started to fall into place. The truth was that Roland should have made the elite class outright. Even the briefest of comparisons to some of the students who got through should have seen him in that group. And when he thought about it, wasn’t the same true about both himself and Spencer? People in the school were always saying what an exceptional talent for some branches of magic he had. Well, wasn’t the elite class all about encouraging that kind of unique talent? As for Spencer, no one in the school worked harder than he did. No one had taken more subjects, and he’d often done even better than Wirt had in the more academic classes.

So why hadn’t they gotten into the elite class? Wirt knew the answer to that. They’d failed at too many of the tasks and tests the teachers had set in the last term, so that they’d gone from being potentially promising candidates to not quite making the grade. Alana, who had been teamed up with them on so many tasks, had only made it because she’d found Priscilla when the princess went “missing” that time, and possibly because Priscilla had spoken up for her.

Yet why had they failed? When it had come to the big one, the quest for the magical ropes, Wirt knew the answer to that too. Roland had damaged their chances by trying to steal from the giant whose home they had searched. He’d put Wirt off during tests, and talked down his performances wherever he could. In anything that gave him an opportunity to do so, he’d also battered and bruised Wirt as much as he could.

At the time, Wirt had put it down to Roland wanting one of the fourteen places in the elite class so much that he was prepared to cheat to get it. He’d put it down to him hating Spencer too, and wanting to do anything he could to sabotage Spencer’s chances. What if that wasn’t the whole story, though.

“You must have trained pretty hard for the Games,” one of the other students said to Roland.

Roland shrugged. “All my life.”

“All your life? But you didn’t even know you’d be in the Games until the end of last term.”

Roland smiled in a way that disarmed that comment. “What I mean is that everything in my life so far has been leading up to this point. I feel like it’s my destiny to get through to the elite class.”

Wirt was beginning to suspect that destiny had nothing to do with it. He thought back to those conversations he’d heard Roland having with whatever it was he kept in that old lead box of his. They’d talked about some kind of plans for the school, and about dealing with potential threats, but Wirt had never thought that it might mean him.

That, however, was exactly what it was starting to look like. Him and Spencer, because Roland had gone to great lengths to ensure that they wouldn’t quite be good enough to pass through into the elite class automatically. Which meant that he’d known about the re-institution of the Quantum Games, and had specifically tried to get them involved.

Why? The answer to that was obvious as Wirt looked over at Roland and saw the other boy staring back with eyes that were as cold and dead as any he’d seen. Roland wanted to kill them. He wanted to do it, but he wanted to do it in a way that wouldn’t attract suspicion. That would probably even attract plaudits from the headmaster, given the way Ender Paine had reacted after the obstacle course.

Wirt stood up, putting his book away and heading back to the room that he now shared with Robert. It didn’t make sense, did it, that anyone would want to kill him? As far as he knew, he didn’t have any enemies. Except that what Roland was doing told him that he did. Or maybe it wasn’t as personal as that. Spencer’s inclusion in the scheme felt personal. It felt like a continuation of the feud between their families that had started with the death of the girl, Elise.

With him though, what if it were just a way to get at one of the most powerful students in the school? What if someone had heard the whispers about him that people seemed to think Wirt didn’t hear? The ones suggesting that he had some kind of destiny? The ones where Ms. Lake, Ender Paine, and practically everyone else in the school seemed to have plans for him that he didn’t know about?


If they’d heard those, wouldn’t someone wanting to harm the school target him? At the very least, killing him would upset whatever plans Ms. Lake and the rest had for him. Someone cautious might also want to get rid of him before he became any more powerful, especially if they knew about the role Wirt had played in stopping Ervana.

Robert was in their room when Wirt arrived, apparently experimenting with using a broadsword while on a unicycle. He fell off as Wirt entered the room.

“Wirt, you can’t go around surprising me like that.”

“I think we have bigger problems than that,” Wirt said, helping the prince to his feet. “I think… I think something big is happening around the school, and I’m pretty sure that whatever it is, the first step involves Roland trying to kill me.”

Robert put the sword away. “Then you don’t let him do it. You make sure that you win. Dead advisors are no use to anyone, for a start.”

Wirt nodded, knowing that Robert meant it to be reassuring. The trouble was, he wasn’t sure how he was going to stop it from happening. The Quantum Games had only just begun, and Roland was already ahead.