Nicholas Flamel 1 - The Alchemyst sotinf-1

by Michael Scott

  extinguish fire. It can churn water to mist and can rip up the earth. But air

  can also bring fire to life, it can push a boat across still water, can shape

  the land. Air can clean a wound, can pluck a splinter from a fingertip. Air

  can kill.

  The last of the white cobwebbed air closed across Sophie s face, completely

  encasing her, wrapping her like a mummy.

  This is a terrifying gift I have given you. Within you now is a lifetime a

  very long lifetime of experience. I hope some will be of use to you in the

  dire days ahead.

  Sophie stood before the Witch of Endor completely encased in the white

  bandagelike air. This was not like the Awakening. This was a gentler, subtler

  process. She discovered that she knew things incredible things. She had

  memories of impossible times and extraordinary places. But mixed with these

  memories and emotions were her own thoughts. Already she was beginning to

  find it hard to tell them apart.

  Then the smoke began to curl and hiss and steam.

  Dora suddenly turned to look for Scatty. Come and give me a hug, child. I

  will not see you again.

  Gran?

  Dora wrapped her arms around Scathach s shoulders and put her mouth close to

  her ear.

  Her voice dropped to little more than a whisper. I have given this girl a

  rare and terrible power. Make sure this power is used for good.

  Scathach nodded, not entirely sure what the old woman was suggesting.

  And call your mother. She worries about you.

  I will, Gran.

  The mummylike cocoon suddenly dissolved into steam and mist as Sophie s aura

  flared brilliant silver. She stretched out her arms, fingers splayed wide,

  and the merest whisper of a wind rattled through the shop.

  Careful. If you break anything, you pay for it, the Witch warned.

  Then, suddenly, Scathach, Dora and Sophie turned to look out into the

  darkening afternoon. An instant later Nicholas Flamel'smelled the

  unmistakable rotten-egg odor of sulfur. Dee!

  Josh! Sophie s eyes snapped open. Josh is out there!

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  D r. John Dee finally arrived in Ojai as the last light was fading in

  spectacular shades of pink over the surrounding Topa Topa Mountains. He d

  been traveling all day; he was tired and irritable and looking for an excuse

  to hurt someone.

  Hekate's Shadowrealm had drained his cell battery, and it had taken him over

  an hour before he could find a phone to contact his office. He d then been

  forced to sit, fuming, by the side of the road for another ninety minutes

  while a team of drivers scoured Mill Valley s backroads looking for him. It

  was close to nine-thirty before he finally returned to his offices at Enoch

  Enterprises in the heart of the city.

  There he d learned that Perenelle had already been moved to Alcatraz. His

  company had recently purchased the island from the state and had closed it to

  the public while restoration work was being carried out. There was talk in

  the papers that it was going to be turned into a living history museum. In

  reality, the doctor intended to return it to its original use as one of the

  most secure prisons in the world. The doctor briefly thought about flying out

  to the island to talk to Perenelle, but dismissed the idea as a waste of

  time. The missing pages from the Codex and the twins were his priorities.

  Although Bastet had said to kill them if he couldn t kidnap them, Dee had

  other ideas.

  Dee knew of the famous prophecy from the Book of Abraham the Mage. The Elders

  had known that twins were coming, the two that are one, the one that is

  all. One to save the world, one to destroy it. But which one was which? he

  wondered. And could their powers be shaped and twisted by the instruction

  they received? Finding the boy was becoming as important as finding the

  missing pages of the Codex. He had to have that gold aura.

  Dr. John Dee had lived in Ojai briefly at the turn of the twentieth

  century it was still called the city of Nordhoff then when he d been

  plundering the surrounding Chumash burial grounds for their precious

  artifacts. He d hated it: Ojai was too small, too insular and, in the summer

  months, simply too hot for him. Dee was always happiest in the largest of

  cities, where it was easier to be invisible and anonymous.

  He d flown from San Francisco down to Santa Barbara in the company

  helicopter, and rented a nondescript-looking Ford at the small airport. Then

  he d driven down from Santa Barbara, arriving in Ojai just as the sun was

  setting in a spectacular display, painting the town in long, elegant shadows.

  Ojai had changed dramatically in the hundred or so years since he d last seen

  it but he still didn't like it.

  He turned the car onto Ojai Avenue and slowed. Flamel and the others were

  close; he could feel it. But he had to be careful now. If he could sense

  them, then they especially the Alchemyst and Scathach would be able to sense

  him. And he still had no idea what the Witch of Endor was capable of doing.

  It was extremely worrying that a very senior Elder had been living in

  California and he d been totally unaware of her presence. He thought he knew

  the locations of most of the important Elders and human immortals in the

  world. Dee wondered if it was significant that he had not been able to

  contact the Morrigan throughout the day. He d phoned her with persistent

  regularity on the drive down, but she wasn't answering her cell. She was

  either on eBay or playing one of the interminable online strategy games she

  was addicted to. He didn't know where Bastet was and didn't care. She

  frightened him, and Dee tended to destroy those people who scared him.

  Flamel, Scathach and the twins could be anywhere in the town. But where?

  Dee allowed a little energy to trickle into his aura. He blinked as his eyes

  blurred with sudden tears, and blinked again to clear them. Suddenly, the

  people in the car next to his, those crossing the road, and the pedestrians

  on the sidewalk were outlined in shifting multicolored auras. Some auras were

  just wisps of diaphanous tinted smoke, others were dark spots and sheets of

  solid muddy colors.

  In the end, he found them entirely by chance: he was driving down Ojai Avenue

  and had gone past Libbey Park when he spotted the black Hummer parked on Fox

  Street. He pulled in behind it and parked. The moment he got out of his car,

  he caught the merest hint of a pure gold aura coming from the park, close to

  the fountain. Dee s thin lips curled in a humorless smile.

  They would not escape this time.

  Josh Newman sat by the long, low fountain in Libbey Park directly across from

  the antiques shop and stared into the water. Two flower-shaped bowls, one

  larger than the other, were set in the center of a circular pool. Water

  spouted from the top bowl and flowed over the sides into the larger bowl

  beneath. This in turn overflowed into the pool. The sound helped drown out

  the nearby traffic noises.

  He felt alone, and more than a little lost.

  When the Witch had made him leave the antiques shop, he d walked beneath the

  shaded promenade and stopped in fr
ont of the ice cream shop, lured there by

  the odors of chocolate and vanilla. He stood outside, reading the menu of

  exotic flavors, and wondered why his sister s aura smelled of vanilla ice

  cream and his of oranges. She didn't even really like ice cream; he was the

  one who loved it.

  His finger tapped the menu: blueberry chocolate chip.

  Josh shoved his hand in the back pocket of his jeans and felt a rising moment

  of panic as realized his wallet was missing. Had he left it in the car, had

  he ? He stopped.

  He knew exactly where he d left it.

  The last place he d seen his wallet, along with his dead cell, his iPod and

  his laptop, was on the floor next to his bed in his room in the Yggdrasill.

  Losing his wallet was bad enough, but losing his computer was a disaster. All

  his e-mails were on it, along with his class notes, a partially written

  summer honors project, three years of photos including the trip to Canc n at

  Christmas and at least sixty gigs of MP3s. He couldn t remember the last time

  he had backed up, but it definitely wasn't recently. He actually felt

  physically ill, and suddenly, the odors from the ice cream parlor didn't

  smell so sweet and enticing.

  Thoroughly miserable, he walked to the corner and crossed at the lights

  facing the post office, then turned left, heading toward the park.

  The iPod had been a Christmas present from his parents. How was he going to

  explain to them that he d lost it? Plus there was close to another thirty

  gigs of music on the little hard drive.

  But worse than losing his iPod, his wallet or even his computer was losing

  his phone. That was a total nightmare. All his friends numbers were on it,

  and he knew he hadn't written them down anywhere. Because their parents

  traveled so much, the twins were rarely more than one or two semesters at the

  same school. They made friends easily especially Sophie and they were still

  in touch with friends they d met years earlier in schools scattered across

  America. Without those e-mail addresses and phone numbers, how was he

  supposed to get in touch with them, how would he ever find them again?

  There was a water fountain in a little nook before the entrance to the park,

  and he bent his head to drink. An ornamental metal lion s head was set into

  the wall over the fountain, and below it there was a small rectangular plaque

  with the words Love is the water of life, drink deeply. He let the icy water

  splash over his lips and straightened to look over at the shop, wondering

  what was happening inside. He still loved his sister, but did she love him?

  Could she love him, now that he was ordinary?

  Libbey Park was quiet. Josh could hear children racing around the nearby

  playground, but their voices sounded high and very distant. A trio of old

  men, identically dressed in sleeveless shirts, long shorts, white socks and

  sandals, gathered on a shady bench. One of the men was feeding bread crumbs

  to a quartet of fat and lazy pigeons. Josh sat down on the edge of the low

  fountain and leaned over to trail his hand in the water. After the oppressive

  heat, it felt deliciously cool, and he ran his wet fingers through his hair,

  feeling water droplets roll down his neck.

  What was he going to do?

  Was there anything he could do?

  In just over twenty-four hours, his life and his sister s life too had

  changed utterly and incomprehensibly. What he had once believed to be merely

  stories now turned out to be versions of the truth. Myth had become history,

  legends had become facts. When Scatty had revealed earlier that the

  mysterious Danu Talis was also called Atlantis, he had almost laughed in her

  face. To him, Atlantis had always been a fairy tale. But if Scathach and

  Hekate and the Morrigan and Bastet were real, then so was Danu Talis. And so

  his parents life work archaeology was suddenly worthless.

  Josh knew deep down that he had also lost his twin, the constant in his life,

  the one person he could always count on. She had changed in ways he could not

  even begin to comprehend. Why hadn't he been Awakened too? He should have

  insisted that Hekate Awaken him first. What would it be like to have those

  powers? The only thing he could compare it to was being a superhero. Even

  when Sophie s newly Awakened senses were making her sick, he was jealous of

  her abilities.

  From the corner of his eye, Josh became aware that a man had sat down on one

  of the other edges of the fountain, but he ignored him. He absently picked at

  a broken fragment of one of the blue tiles that ran around the fountain.

  What was he going to do?

  And the answer was always the same: what could he do?

  Are you a victim too?

  It took him a moment before he realized that the figure sitting to his right

  was talking to him. He started to stand up, the golden rule with creeps being

  that you never responded, and you never ever entered into any conversation

  with them.

  It seems we are all victims of Nicholas Flamel.

  Startled, Josh looked up and found he was staring at Dr. John Dee, the man

  he d hoped never to see again. The last time he d seen Dee had been in the

  Shadowrealm. Then, he d held the sword Excalibur in his hands. Now he sat

  facing him, looking out of place in his impeccably tailored gray suit. Josh

  looked around quickly, expecting to see Golems or rats, or even the Morrigan

  lurking in the shadows.

  I am alone, Dee said pleasantly, smiling politely.

  Josh s mind was racing. He needed to get to Flamel, he needed to warn him

  that Dee was in Ojai. He wondered what would happen if he simply got up and

  ran. Would Dee try to stop him with magic in front of all these people? Josh

  looked over at the three old men again, and it dawned on him that they

  probably wouldn't even notice if Dee changed him into an elephant right in

  the middle of downtown Ojai.

  Do you know how long I ve been chasing Nicholas Flamel, or Nick Fleming, or

  any of the hundreds of other aliases he s used? Dee continued quietly,

  conversationally. He leaned back and trailed his fingers through the water.

  At least five hundred years. And he s always given me the slip. He s tricky

  and dangerous that way. In 1666, when I was closing in on him in London, he

  set a fire that nearly burned the city to the ground.

  He told us you caused the Great Fire, Josh blurted. Despite his fear, he

  was curious. And now he suddenly remembered one of the first pieces of advice

  Flamel had given them: Nothing is as it seems. Question everything. Josh

  found himself wondering if that advice also applied to the Alchemyst himself.

  The sun had set, and there was a definite chill in the evening air. Josh

  shivered. The three old men shuffled away, none of them even glancing in his

  direction, leaving him alone with the magician. Strangely, he didn't feel

  threatened by the man s presence.

  Dee s thin lips flickered in a smile. Flamel never tells anyone everything,

  he said. I used to say that half of everything he said was a lie, and the

  other half wasn't entirely truthful either.

  Nicholas says you re working with the Dark Elders. Once you have the


  complete Codex, you will bring them back into this world.

  Correct in every detail, Dee said, surprising him. Though no doubt

  Nicholas has twisted the story somewhat. I am working with the Elders, he

  continued, and yes, I am looking for the last two pages from the Book of

  Abraham the Mage, commonly called the Codex. But only because Flamel and his

  wife stole it from the original Biblioth que du Roi in the Louvre.

  He stole it?

  Let me tell you about Nicholas Flamel, Dee said patiently. I m sure he s

  told you about me. He has been many things in his time: a physician and a

  cook, a bookseller, a soldier, a teacher of languages and chemistry, both an

  officer of the law and a thief. But he is now, and has always been, a liar, a

  charlatan and a crook. He stole the Book from the Louvre when he discovered

  that it contained not only the immortality potion, but also the philosopher s

  stone recipe. He brews the immortality potion each month to keep Perenelle

  and himself at exactly the same age they were when they first drank it. He

  uses the philosopher s stone formula to turn cheap copper and lead into gold

  and chunks of common coal into diamonds. He uses one of the most

  extraordinary collections of knowledge in the world purely for personal gain.

  And That'sthe truth.

  But what about Scatty and Hekate? Are they Elders?

  Oh, absolutely. Hekate was an Elder and Scathach is Next Generation. But

  Hekate was a known criminal. She was banished from Danu Talis because of her

  experiments on animals. I suppose you would call her a genetic engineer: she

  created the Were clans, for example, and loosed the curse of the werewolf

  onto humanity. I believe you saw some of her experiments yesterday, the boar

  people. Scathach is nothing more than a hired thug, cursed for her crimes to

  wear the body of a teen for the rest of her days. When Flamel knew I was

  closing in, they were the only people he could go to.

  Josh was now hopelessly confused. Who was telling the truth? Flamel or Dee?

  He was cold now. Night had not yet fully fallen, but a low mist had crept in

  over the town. The air smelled of damp earth and just the faintest hint of

  rotten eggs. What about you? Are you really working to bring back the

  Elders?

  Of course I am, Dee said, sounding surprised. It is probably the single