Nicholas Flamel peered over her shoulder and read it. That'sgood, very
good, and it explains why the bookshop is closed too. Flamel glanced over
his shoulder to where Josh was tapping furiously at his keyboard. Let s go!
Just checking my mail, Josh muttered, powering off the machine and closing
it.
At a time like this? Sophie asked incredulously.
Life goes on. E-mail stops for no man. He attempted a smile, and failed.
Sophie grabbed her bag and vintage denim jacket, taking a last look around
the coffee shop. She had the sudden thought that she would not be seeing it
again for a long time, but that was ridiculous, of course. She turned out the
lights, ushered her brother and Nick Fleming Flamel through the door ahead of
her and hit the alarm. Then she pulled the door shut, turned the key in the
lock and dropped the key chain through the letter box.
Now what? she asked.
Now we get some help and we hide until I figure out what to do with you
both. Flamel'smiled. We re good at hiding; Perry and I have been doing it
for more than half a millennium.
What about Perry? Sophie asked. Will Dee harm her? She d come to know and
like the tall, elegant woman over the past few weeks as she came into the
coffee shop. She didn't want anything to happen to her.
Flamel'shook his head. He Can't. She s too powerful. I never studied the
sorcerous arts, but Perry did. Right now all Dee can do is contain her,
prevent her from using her powers. But in the next few days she will start to
age and weaken. Possibly in a week, certainly within two weeks, he would be
able to use his powers against her. Still, He'll be cautious. He will keep
her trapped behind Wards and Sigils . Flamel'saw the look of confusion on
Sophie s face. Magical barriers, he explained. He'll only attack when he
is sure of victory. But first he will try to discover the extent of her
arcane knowledge. Dee s search for knowledge was always his greatest
strength and his weakness. He absently patted his pockets, looking for
something. My Perry Can'take care of herself. Remind me to tell you the
story sometime of how she faced down a pair of Greek Lamiae.
Sophie nodded, though she had no idea what Greek Lamiae were.
As Flamel'strode down the street, he found what he was looking for: a pair of
small round sunglasses. He put them on, stuck his hands in the pockets of his
leather jacket and began to whistle tunelessly, as if he hadn't a care in the
world. He glanced back over his shoulder. Well, come on.
The twins looked at each other blankly, then hurried after him.
I checked him out online, Josh muttered, looking quickly at his sister.
So That'swhat you were doing. I didn't think e-mail could be that
important.
Everything he says checks out: he s there on Wikipedia and there are nearly
two hundred thousand results for him on Google. There are over ten million
results for John Dee. Even Perenelle is there, and it mentions the book and
everything. It even says that when he died, his grave was dug up by people
searching for treasure and they found it empty no body and no treasure.
Apparently, his house is still standing in Paris.
He sure doesn't look like an immortal magician, Sophie murmured.
I m not sure I know what a magician looks like, Josh said quietly. The
only magicians I know are Penn and Teller.
I m not a magician, Flamel'said, without looking at them. I m an
alchemyst, a man of science, though perhaps not the science you would be
familiar with.
Sophie hurried to catch up. She reached out to touch his arm and slow him
down, but a spark like static electricity snapped into her fingertips.
Aaah! She jerked her hand back, fingertips tingling. Now what?
I m sorry, Flamel explained. That'san aftereffect of the well, what you
would call magic. My aura the electrical field that surrounds my body is
still charged. It s just reacting when it hits your aura. He smiled, showing
perfectly regular teeth. It also means you must have a powerful aura.
What s an aura?
Flamel'strode on a couple of steps down the sidewalk without answering, then
turned to point to a window. The word TATTOO was picked out in fluorescent
lighting. See there see how there is a glow around the words?
I see it. Sophie nodded, squinting slightly. Each letter was outlined in
buzzing yellow light.
Every human has a similar glow around their body. In the distant past,
people could see it clearly and they named it the aura. It comes from the
Greek word for breath. As humans evolved, most lost the ability to see the
aura. Some still can, of course.
Josh snorted derisively.
Flamel glanced over his shoulder. It s true. The aura has even been
photographed by a Russian couple called the Kirlians. The electrical field
surrounds every living organism.
What does it look like? Sophie asked.
Flamel tapped his finger on the shop window. Just like that: a glow around
the body. Everyone s aura is unique different colors, different strengths.
Some glow solidly, others pulse. Some appear around the edge of the body,
other auras cloak the body like an envelope. You Can'tell a lot from a
person s aura: whether they are ill or unhappy, angry or frightened, for
example.
And you can see these auras? Sophie said.
Flamel'shook his head, surprising them. No, I cannot. Perry can, sometimes.
I cannot. But I know how to channel and direct the energy. That'swhat you
were seeing earlier today: pure auric energy.
I think I d like to learn how to do that, Sophie said.
Flamel glanced at her quickly. Be careful what you wish for. Every use of
power has a cost. He held out his hand. Sophie and Josh crowded around on
the quiet side street. Flamel's hand was visibly trembling. And when Sophie
looked into his face, she noticed that his eyes were bloodshot. When you use
auric energy, you burn as many calories as if you had run a marathon. Think
of it like draining a battery. I doubt I could have lasted very much longer
against Dee back there.
Is Dee more powerful that you?
Flamel'smiled grimly. Infinitely. Shoving his hands back into the pockets
of his leather jacket, he continued down the street, Sophie and Josh now
walking on either side of him. In the distance, the Golden Gate Bridge began
to loom over the rooftops. Dee has spent the past five centuries developing
his powers; I ve spent that same time hiding mine, concentrating only on
those few little things I needed to do to keep Perenelle and myself alive.
Dee was always powerful, and I dread to think what he is capable of now. At
the bottom of the hill he paused, looking left and right, then abruptly
turned to the left and headed into California Street. There ll be time for
questions later. Right now, we have to hurry.
Have you known Dee long? Josh persisted, determined to get some answers.
Nicholas Flamel'smiled grimly. John Dee was a mature man when I accepted him
as my apprentice. I still took apprentices in those days, and so many of them
went on to make me proud. I had visions of creating the next generation of<
br />
alchemists, scientists, astronomers, astrologers and mathematicians: these
would be the men and women who would create a new world. Dee was probably the
finest student I ever had. So I suppose you could say that I ve known him for
nearly five hundred years though our encounters have been somewhat sporadic
over the past few decades.
What turned him into your enemy? Sophie asked.
Greed, jealousy and the Codex, the Book of Abraham the Mage, Flamel
answered. He s coveted that for a long time, and now he has it.
Not all of it, Josh reminded him.
No, not all of it. Flamel'smiled. He walked on, with the twins still on
either side of him. When Dee was my apprentice in Paris, he found out about
the Codex. One day I caught him attempting to steal it, and I knew then that
he had allied himself with the Dark Elders. I refused to share its secrets
with him and we had a bitter argument. That night he sent the first assassins
after Perry and me. They were human and we dealt with them easily. The next
night, the assassins were decidedly less than human. So Perry and I took the
Book, gathered up our few belongings and fled Paris. He s been chasing us
ever since.
They stopped at a cross light. A trio of British tourists was waiting for the
light to change and Flamel fell silent, a quick glance at Sophie and Josh
warning them to say nothing. The light changed and they crossed, the tourists
heading to the right, Nicholas Flamel and the twins moving to the left.
Where did you go when you left Paris? Josh asked.
London, Flamel'said shortly. Dee nearly caught us there in 1666, he
continued. He loosed a Fire Elemental after us, a savage, mindless creature
that almost devoured the city. History calls it the Great Fire.
Sophie looked over at Josh. They had both heard of the Great Fire of London;
they had learned about it in world history. She was surprised by how calm she
felt: here she was, listening to a man who claimed to be more than five
hundred years old, recounting historical events as if he had been there when
they happened. And she believed him!
Dee came dangerously close to capturing us in Paris in 1763, Flamel
continued, and again in 1835, when we were in Rome working as booksellers,
as it happens. That was always my favorite occupation, he added. He fell
silent as they approached a group of Japanese tourists listening intently to
their guide, who was standing beneath a bright yellow umbrella. When they
were out of earshot, he continued, the events of more than a century and a
half earlier obviously still fresh and bitter in his memory.
We fled to Ireland, thinking he would never find us on that island at the
edge of Europe. But he pursued us. He had managed to master the control of
Wights then, and brought two over with him: the Disease Wight and the Hunger
Wight, no doubt intending to set them on our trail. At some point he lost
control of the creatures. Hunger and disease ravaged that poor land: a
million people died in Ireland s Great Famine in the 1840s. Nicholas
Flamel's face hardened into a mask. I doubt if Dee even paused to think
about it. He always had nothing but contempt for humankind.
Sophie glanced at her brother again. She could tell by the expression on his
face that he was concentrating hard, trying to keep up with the deluge of
information. She knew he would want to go online and check out some of the
details. But he never caught you, she said to Flamel.
Not until today. He shrugged and smiled sadly. It was inevitable, I
suppose. Throughout the twentieth century, he kept getting closer. He was
becoming more powerful, his organization was melding ancient magic and modern
technology. Perry and I hid out in Newfoundland for a long time until he
loosed Dire Wolves on us, and then we drifted from city to city, starting on
the East Coast in New York in 1901 and gradually moving westward. I suppose
it was only a matter of time before he caught up with us, he added.
Cameras, videos, phones and the Internet make it so much harder to remain
hidden nowadays.
This book this Codex he was looking for , Josh began.
The Book of Abraham the Mage, Flamel clarified.
What s so special about it?
Nicholas Flamel'stopped in the middle of the sidewalk so suddenly that the
twins walked right past him. They turned and looked back. The rather
ordinary-looking man spread his arms wide, as if he were about to take a bow.
Look at me. Look at me! I am older than America. That is what is so special
about the book. Flamel lowered his voice and continued urgently. But you
know something the secret of life eternal is probably the least of the
secrets in the Codex.
Sophie found herself slipping her hand into her brother s. He squeezed
lightly and she knew, without his saying a word, that he was as frightened as
she was.
With the Codex, Dee can set about changing the world.
Changing it? Sophie s voice was a raw whisper, and abruptly, the May air
felt chilly.
Changing it how? Josh demanded.
Remaking it, Flamel'said softly. Dee and the Dark Elders he serves will
remake this world as it was in the unimaginably ancient past. And the only
place for humans in it will be as slaves. Or food.
CHAPTER SIX
A lthough there were other ways he could have used to communicate, Dr. John
Dee preferred this century s method of choice: the cell phone. Settling back
into the cool leather interior of the limousine, he flipped open the phone,
pointed it to where Perenelle Flamel was slumped unconscious between two
dripping Golems and took a quick picture.
Madame Perenelle Flamel. His prisoner. Now, that was certainly something for
the photo album.
Dee keyed in a number and hit Send, then he tilted his head, looking at the
graceful woman across from him. Capturing Perenelle had been an extraordinary
stroke of good fortune, but he knew he d only managed it because she d used
up so much energy destroying his Golem. He stroked his small triangular
beard. He was going to have to make more Golems soon. He looked at the two
opposite: in the brief time they had been outside in the early-afternoon sun,
they had started to crack and melt. The big one on Perenelle s left was
dripping black river mud across the leather seat.
Perhaps he would choose something other than Golems next time. The brutish
creatures worked fine in damper climates, but were especially unsuited to a
West Coast summer. He wondered if he still had the recipe to create a ghoul.
It was Perenelle who presented him with a problem, however a serious problem:
he simply wasn't sure how powerful she was.
Dee had always been rather in awe of the tall, elegant Frenchwoman. When he d
first apprenticed himself to Nicholas Flamel, the Alchemyst, he d made the
mistake of underestimating her. He d quickly found that Perenelle Flamel was
at least as powerful as her husband in fact, there were some areas in which
she was even more powerful. Those traits that made Flamel'such a brilliant
alchemyst his attention to detail, his knowledge of ancient languages, his
<
br /> infinite patience made him a poor sorcerer and a terrible necromancer. He
simply lacked the imaginative spark of pure visualization that was needed for
that work. Perenelle, on the other hand, was one of the most powerful
sorceresses he had ever encountered.
Dee pulled off one of his gray leather gloves and dropped it onto the seat
beside him. Leaning toward Perenelle, he dipped his finger in the puddle of
mud dripping from one of the Golems and traced a curling symbol on the back
of the woman s left hand. Then he painted a mirror image of the symbol on her
right hand. He dipped his hand in the sticky black mud again and was
inscribing three wavy lines on her forehead when she suddenly opened her
bright green eyes. Dee abruptly sat back in his seat.
Madame Perenelle, I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to see you again.
Perry opened her mouth to speak, but no words would form. She tried to move,
but not only were the Golems gripping her arms tightly, her muscles refused
to obey.
Ah, you must excuse me, but I ve taken the liberty of placing you under a
warding spell. A simple spell, but it will suffice until I can organize
something more permanent. Dee smiled, but there was nothing humorous in his
expression. His cell phone trilled, playing the theme from The X-Files, and
he flipped it open. Excuse me, he said to Perenelle.
You got the photo? Dee asked. Yes, I thought that would amuse you: the
legendary Perenelle Flamel in our hands. Oh, I m quite sure Nicholas will
come after her. And we ll be ready. This time he will not escape.
Perenelle could clearly hear the cackle of laughter on the other end.
Yes, of course. Dee reached into an inside pocket and took out the
copper-bound book. We have the Codex. Finally. He began to turn the thick
rough-edged pages as he spoke. His voice fell, and it was unclear whether he
was talking to the caller or to himself. Ten thousand years of arcane
knowledge in one place
Then his voice trailed away. The phone dropped from his hand and bounced
across the floor of the car.
At the back of the book, two pages were missing, roughly torn out.
Dee closed his eyes and then licked his lips with a quick flicking movement
of his tiny tongue. The boy, he rasped, the boy, when I pulled it from his
hand. He opened his eyes and began to sCan'the preceding pages carefully.
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