Nicholas Flamel 1 - The Alchemyst sotinf-1

by Michael Scott

  into the polished floorboards, his fingers actually penetrating the wood. The

  tiny ball of green energy splashed across the room like a stain. Then the

  Alchemyst closed his eyes and his aura flared around his body. Concentrating,

  he directed his auric energy to flow through his fingers into the floor.

  The wood started to glow.

  Still watching from the landing, the twins were unsure what Flamel was doing.

  They could see the faint green glow around his body, rising off his flesh

  like mist, but they couldn t work out why the furry mass of rats gathered in

  the doorway had not burst into the room.

  Maybe there s some sort of spell keeping them from coming in, Sophie said,

  knowing instinctively that her twin was thinking the same thing.

  Scatty heard her. She was systematically shredding the yellow square of paper

  she d taken from the Golem s mouth to tiny pieces. It s just a simple

  warding spell, she called up, designed to keep bugs and vermin off the

  floor. I used to come in here every morning and find bug droppings and moths

  all over the place; it took ages to sweep it clean. The warding spell is

  keeping the rats at bay but all it takes is one to break through and the

  spell will be broken. Then they ll all come.

  Nicholas Flamel was fully aware that John Dee could probably see him though

  the eyes of the rats. He picked out the largest, a cat-sized creature that

  remained unmoving while the rest of the vermin scuttled and heaved about it.

  With his right hand still buried in the floorboard, Flamel pointed his left

  hand directly at the rat. The creature twitched and, for a single instant,

  its eyes blazed with sickly yellow light.

  Dr. John Dee, you have made the biggest mistake of your long life. I will be

  coming for you, Flamel promised aloud.

  Dee glanced up from his scrying bowl to see that Perenelle Flamel was wide

  awake and watching him intently. Ah, Madame, you are just in time to see my

  creatures overpower your husband. Plus, I'll finally have an opportunity to

  deal with that pest Scathach, and I'll have the pages of the book. Dee

  didn't notice that Perenelle s eyes had widened at the mention of Scathach s

  name. All in all, a good day s work, I think. He focused his full attention

  on the biggest rat and issued two simple commands: Attack. Kill.

  Dee closed his eyes as the rat uncoiled and launched itself into the room.

  The green light flowed out from Flamel's fingers and ran along the

  floorboards, outlining the planks in green light. Abruptly, the wooden floor

  sprouted twigs, branches, leaves and then a tree trunk then another and a

  third. Within a dozen heartbeats a thicket of trees sprouted out of the floor

  and were visibly climbing toward the ceiling. Some of the trunks were no

  thicker than a finger, others were wrist thick and one, close to the door,

  was so wide it almost filled the opening.

  The rats turned and scattered, squealing as they raced down the corridor,

  desperately attempting to leap over the click-clacking blades.

  Flamel'scrambled back and climbed to his feet, brushing off his hands. One

  of the oldest secrets of alchemy, he announced to the wide-eyed twins and

  Scatty, is that every living thing, from the most complex creatures right

  down to the simplest leaf, carries the seeds of its creation within itself.

  DNA, Josh murmured, staring at the forest sprouting and growing behind

  Flamel.

  Sophie looked around the once-spotless dojo. It was now filthy, spattered and

  splashed with muddy water, the smoothly polished floorboards broken and

  cracked with the trees growing from them, more foul-smelling mud in the

  hallway. Are you saying that alchemists knew about DNA? she asked. The

  Alchemyst nodded delightedly. Exactly. When Watson and Crick announced that

  they had discovered what they called the secret of life in 1953, they were

  merely rediscovering something alchemists have always known.

  You re telling me that you somehow woke the DNA in those floorboards and

  forced trees to grow, Josh said, choosing his words carefully. How?

  Flamel turned to look at the forest that was now taking over the entire dojo.

  It s called magic, he said delightedly, and I wasn't sure I could do it

  anymore until Scatty reminded me, he added.

  CHAPTER TEN

  S o let me get this straight, Josh Newman said, trying to keep his voice

  perfectly level, you don't know how to drive? Neither of you?

  Josh and Sophie were sitting in the front seats of the SUV Scatty had

  borrowed from one of her martial arts students. Josh was driving, and his

  sister had a map on her lap. Nicholas Flamel and Scathach were sitting in the

  back.

  Never learned, Nicholas Flamel'said, with an expressive shrug.

  Never had the time, Scatty said shortly.

  But Nicholas told us you re more than two thousand years old, Sophie said,

  looking at the girl.

  Two thousand five hundred and seventeen, as you humani measure time with

  your current calendar, Scatty mumbled. She looked into Flamel's clear eyes.

  And how old do I look?

  Not a day over seventeen, he said quickly.

  Couldn t you have found time to learn how to drive? Sophie persisted. She d

  wanted to learn how to drive since she was ten. One of the reasons the twins

  had taken summer jobs this year, rather than go on the dig with their

  parents, was to get the money for a car of their own.

  Scathach shrugged, an irritated twitch of her shoulders. I ve been meaning

  to, but I ve been busy, she protested.

  You do know, Josh said to no one in particular, that I m not supposed to

  be driving without a licensed driver with me.

  We re nearly fifteen and a half and we can both drive, Sophie said. Well,

  sort of, she added.

  Can either of you ride a horse? Flamel asked, or drive a carriage, or a

  coach-and-four?

  Well, no , Sophie began.

  Handle a war chariot while firing a bow or launching spears? Scatty added.

  Or fly a lizard-nathair while using a slingshot?

  I have no idea what a lizard-nathair is and I m not sure I want to know

  either.

  So you see, you are experienced in certain skills, Flamel'said, whereas we

  have other, somewhat older, but equally useful skills. He shot a sidelong

  glance at Scathach. Though I m not so sure about the nathair flying

  anymore.

  Josh pulled away from a stop sign and turned right, heading for the Golden

  Gate Bridge. I just don't know how you could have lived through the

  twentieth century without being able to drive. I mean, how did you get from

  place to place?

  Public transportation, Flamel'said with a grim smile. Trains and buses,

  mainly. They are a completely anonymous method of travel, unlike airplanes

  and boats. There is far too much paperwork involved in owning a car,

  paperwork that could be traced directly to us, no matter how many aliases we

  used. He paused and added, And besides, there are other, older methods of

  travel.

  There were a hundred questions Josh wanted to ask, but he was concentrating

  furiously on controlling the heavy car. Although he knew how to drive, the

  only vehicles he
d actually driven were battered Jeeps when they accompanied

  their parents on a dig. He d never driven in traffic before, and he was

  terrified. Sophie had suggested that he pretend it was a computer game. That

  helped, but only a little. In a game, when you crashed, you simply started

  again. Here, a crash was for keeps.

  Traffic was slow across the famous bridge. A long gray stretch limo had

  broken down in the inside lane, causing a bottleneck. As they approached,

  Sophie noticed that there were two dark-suited figures crouched under the

  hood on the passenger s side. She realized she was holding her breath as they

  drew close, wondering if the figures were Golems. She heaved a sigh as they

  pulled alongside and discovered that the men looked like harassed

  accountants. Josh glanced at his sister and attempted a grin, and she knew he

  had been thinking the same thing.

  Sophie twisted in her seat, and turned to look back at Flamel and Scatty. In

  the darkened, air-conditioned interior of the SUV, they seemed so ordinary:

  Flamel looked like a fading hippy, and Scatty, despite her rather military

  dress sense, wouldn't have looked out of place behind the counter at The

  Coffee Cup. The red-haired girl had propped her chin on her fist and was

  staring through the darkened glass across the bay toward Alcatraz.

  Nicholas Flamel dipped his head to follow the direction of her gaze. Haven t

  been there for a while, he murmured.

  We did the tour, Sophie said.

  I liked it, Josh said quickly. Sophie didn't.

  It was creepy.

  And so it should be, Flamel'said quietly. It is home to an extraordinary

  assortment of ghosts and unquiet spirits. Last time I was there, it was to

  put to rest an extremely ugly Snakeman.

  I m not sure I even want to know what a Snakeman is, Sophie muttered, then

  paused. You know, a couple of hours ago, I could never have imagined myself

  saying something like that?

  Nicholas Flamel'sat back in the comfortable seats and folded his arms across

  his chest. Your lives yours and your brother s are now forever altered. You

  know that, don't you?

  Sophie nodded. That'sbeginning to sink in now. It s just that everything s

  happening so fast that it s hard to take it all in. Mud men, magic, books of

  spells, rats She looked at Scathach. Ancient warriors

  Scatty dipped her head in acknowledgment.

  And of course, a six-hundred-year-old alchemyst Sophie stopped, a sudden

  thought crossing her mind. She looked from Flamel to Scatty and back again.

  Then she took a moment to formulate her question. Staring hard at the man,

  she asked, You are human, aren't you?

  Nicholas Flamel grinned. Yes. Perhaps a little more than human, but yes, I

  was born and will always be one of the human race.

  Sophie looked at Scathach. But you re

  Scathach opened her green eyes wide, and for a single instant, something

  ancient was visible in the planes and angles of her face. No, she said very

  quietly. I am not of the race of humani. My people were of different stock,

  the Elder Race. We ruled this earth before the creatures who became humani

  climbed down from the trees. Nowadays, we are remembered in the myths of just

  about every race. We are the creatures of legend, the Were clans, the

  Vampire, the Giants, the Dragons, the Monsters. In stories we are remembered

  as the Old Ones or the Elder Race. Some stories call us gods.

  Were you ever a god? Sophie whispered.

  Scatty giggled. No. I was never a god. But some of my people allowed

  themselves to be worshipped as gods. Others simply became gods as humani told

  tales of their adventures. She shrugged. We were just another race, an

  older race than man, with different gifts, different skills.

  What happened? Sophie asked.

  The Flood, Scatty said very softly, amongst other things.

  The earth is a lot older than most people imagine, Flamel'said quietly.

  Creatures and races that are now no more than myth once walked this world.

  Sophie nodded slowly. Our parents are archaeologists. They ve told us about

  some of the inexplicable things that archaeology sometimes reveals.

  Remember that place we visited in Texas, Taylor something , Josh said,

  carefully easing the heavy SUV into the middle lane. He d never driven

  anything so big before, and was terrified he was going to hit something. He d

  had a couple of near misses and was convinced he d actually clipped someone s

  side mirror, but he d kept going, saying nothing.

  The Taylor Trail, Sophie said, at the Paluxy River in Texas. There are

  what look like dinosaur footprints and human prints in the same fossilized

  piece of stone. And the stone is dated to one hundred million years old.

  I have seen them, Flamel replied, and others like them all across the

  world. I have also examined the shoe print that was found in Antelope Springs

  in Utah in rock about five hundred million years old.

  My dad says things like that can be easily dismissed as either fakes or

  misinterpretation of the facts, Josh said quickly. He wondered what his

  father would say about the things they had seen today.

  Flamel'shrugged. Yes, that is true. But what science cannot understand, it

  dismisses. Not everything can be so easily brushed aside. Can you dismiss

  what you've seen and experienced today as some sort of misinterpretation of

  the facts?

  Sophie shook her head.

  Beside her, Josh shrugged uncomfortably. He didn't like the direction this

  conversation was taking. Dinosaurs and humans living together at the same

  time was simply inconceivable. The very idea went against everything his

  parents had taught them, everything they believed. But somewhere at the back

  of his mind, a small voice kept reminding him that every year

  archaeologists including his parents kept making extraordinary discoveries. A

  couple of years earlier, it was Homo floresiensis, the tiny people in

  Indonesia, nicknamed Hobbits; then there was the species of dwarf dinosaur

  discovered in Germany, and the hundred-and-sixty-five-million-year-old

  dinosaur tracks found in Wyoming and, only recently, the eight new

  prehistoric species discovered in a cave in Israel. But what Flamel was

  suggesting was staggering in its implications. You re saying that humans and

  dinosaurs existed on the earth at the same time, Josh said, surprised that

  he sounded so angry.

  I m saying that humans have existed on the earth with creatures far

  stranger, and much older than the dinosaurs, Flamel'said seriously.

  How do you know? Sophie demanded. He claimed to have been born in 1330, he

  couldn t have seen dinosaurs could he?

  It s all written down in the Codex and, in the course of my long life, I ve

  seen beasts that are considered myths, I ve fought beings from legend, I ve

  faced down creatures that looked like they crawled from a nightmare.

  We did Shakespeare in school last term . There s a line from Hamlet. Sophie

  frowned, trying to remember. There are more things in heaven and earth

  Nicholas Flamel nodded delightedly. than are dreamt of in your philosophy,

  he finished the quotation. Hamlet, act one, scene five. I knew Will

&
nbsp; Shakespeare, of course. Now, Will could have been an alchemist of

  extraordinary talent but then he fell into Dee s clutches. Poor Will; do you

  know that he based the character of Prospero in The Tempest on Dee?

  I never liked Shakespeare, Scatty muttered. He smelled.

  You knew Shakespeare? Josh was unable to keep the disbelief out of his

  voice.

  He was my student briefly, very briefly, Flamel'said. I ve lived a long

  time; I ve had a lot of students some made famous by history, most forgotten.

  I ve met a lot of people, human and unhuman, mortal and immortal. People like

  Scathach, Flamel finished.

  There are more like you more of the Elder Race? Sophie asked, looking at

  the red-haired girl.

  More than you might think, though I try not to associate with them, Scatty

  said uneasily. There are those amongst the Elders who cannot accept that our

  time is past, that this age belongs to the humani. They want to see a return

  to the old ways, and they believe that their puppet Dee and others like him

  are in a position to bring that about. They are called the Dark Elders.

  I don't know if anyone has noticed, Josh interrupted suddenly, but would

  you say there are a lot of birds gathering?

  Sophie turned to stare through the windshield, while Flamel and Scatty peered

  through the back window.

  The spars and pylons, the braces, ropes and wires of the Golden Gate Bridge

  were slowly filling with birds: thousands of them. Mainly blackbirds and

  crows, they covered all available surfaces, with more arriving every moment.

  They re coming from Alcatraz, Josh said, dipping his head to look across

  the choppy waters toward the island.

  A dark cloud had gathered above Alcatraz. It rose out of the abandoned prison

  in a dark curl and hung in the air looking like smoke, but this smoke didn't

  dissipate: it moved and circled in a solid mass.

  Birds. Josh swallowed hard. There must be thousands of them.

  Tens of thousands, Sophie corrected him. She turned to look at Flamel.

  What are they?

  The Morrigan s children, he said enigmatically.

  Trouble, Scatty added. Big trouble.

  Then, as if driven by a single command, the huge flock of birds moved away

  from the island and headed across the bay, directly toward the bridge.

  Josh hit his window button and the tinted glass hummed down. The noise of the