The Alchemists Academy: Stones to Ashes Book 1 by Kailin Gow Page B

you give me the next stack of essays, please?”
    The green blob quivered for a moment, then turned until the spectacles faced a patch of space somewhere beside Wirt’s head. Wirt flinched instinctively as a rope-like green tentacle lashed out from it, disappearing through a shimmering patch of air just inches from his right ear. For a brief instant, Wirt thought that maybe he was under attack, but the others seemed unconcerned by it. A second later, and the tentacle pulled back like an angler pulling in their line, another folder stuck to the end of it. The green thing passed it to Alana.
    “Thank you.”
    “What is that thing?” Wirt asked. Alana shrugged.
    “It’s a Thing. Come on Wirt, you can help.” She indicated another of the armchairs.
    “I thought you were going to ask Priscilla’s mirror for help?” Wirt said.
    Alana shrugged. “It was being irritating, and told me that looking it up myself would be good for me. Still, it suggested that maybe I should look at the old essays of those teachers who were students here once. Apparently, they never throw anything away here.”
    “So here we are,” Spencer walked up, “reading through things like “seven variations on toad spells”. Ms. Genovia only got a B for that, incidentally.”
    “She has obviously practiced since,” Wirt said. Alana nodded her agreement.
    “How did your ‘Transportation class’ go?” she asked. “Please tell me you weren’t caught breaking into the records.”
    Wirt saw Spencer’s eyes widen.
    “You really-”
    “Yes,” Wirt said. He was not surprised that Alana had guessed. “I didn’t find anything very useful. Not unless you count the fact that someone has sent Mr. Roth flowers or that he seems to have a middle name beginning with A.”
    “What?” Alana asked, so Wirt started to explain about the note, but Spencer interrupted.
    “Eureka!”
    Wirt hadn’t known that it was possible for a Thing with no real face to give disapproving glares, but this one managed it. Spencer muttered a hasty apology before holding up an essay. The title was slightly more catchy than Ms. Genovia’s frog one, and slightly more relevant too. “Ervana: Enemy or Friend?” was written across the top, along with the name of the student who had written it: Ms. Preville. Alana took it from Spencer, and started to read through it.
    “This is for her history of the hundred worlds class,” Alana said, “so Ms. Preville would have been what? About our age? She argues here that Ervana was not as evil as people have made out, and that it was actually Merlin who was the evil one, manipulating Arthur into taking over and maintaining his position through violence, then setting up this school to increase his own power. She tries to suggest that Ervana’s attack on the school was actually her trying to save it.”
    “I bet she didn’t get a very good mark,” Wirt guessed. Alana shook her head.
    “Actually, she got an A. I can only think that she was good at messing with people’s heads even then, because no teacher would have given her an A otherwise.”
    “So Ms. Preville is behind all this,” Wirt said. “We should tell someone.”
    “Maybe,” Spencer replied. “I’m not sure I would want to be thrown to the Headmaster on the strength of one student essay.”
    Spencer had a point. Besides, Wirt suspected that things wouldn’t be quite that easy. They could accuse Ms. Preville, certainly, but all she had to do was say that it was silly, and that there was no evidence of her actually having taken the chalice, and then it would be the three of them in trouble, rather than her. Besides, unless she was stupid enough to have it hidden in her sock drawer, accusing Ms. Preville didn’t do anything to help them recover the chalice.
    “I think,” Alana said, “that the best thing we can do now is-”
    “Keep a constant watch on Ms. Preville, search her room, and wait for her to try to use the chalice?” Spencer said. He sounded like he