The Alchemyst (17 page)

FRIDAY,

1st June

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

J
osh stood at the edge of the ancient forest with his sister and watched a trio of tiny winged creatures that looked astonishingly like dragons whirl and dance through the first shafts of dawn sunlight. Josh glanced at her, then looked quickly away. “I don’t want you to do this,” he said quickly.

Sophie laid her hand on her brother’s arm. “Why not?” she said. She moved in front of her twin, forcing him to look at her. Over his left shoulder, in front of the entrance to the incredible Yggdrasill, she could see Flamel, Scatty and Hekate watching them. All around, thousands of Torc Allta, both in their human and wereboar forms, were scurrying about, preparing for battle. The boars wore plates of leather armor across their haunches and backs, and the human Torc Allta were carrying bronze spears and swords. Huge flocks of nathair swooped across the skies and the bushes, and tall grasses were alive with unseen crawling, slithering, scuttling creatures. Guards were taking up positions all around the Yggdrasill, clambering out onto the huge branches, standing guard with bows and spears in every window.

Sophie looked into her brother’s bright blue eyes. She could see herself reflected there, and she abruptly realized that his eyes were magnified behind unshed tears. She reached for him, but he caught her hand and squeezed her fingers gently. “I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he said simply.

Sophie nodded, unwilling to trust herself to speak. She felt exactly the same way about her twin.

Three of the enormous pterosaur-like nathair flew overhead, the downdraft of their wings sending plumes of dust along the ground below. Neither Sophie nor Josh looked up.

“Nicholas said that there are risks,” Josh continued, “but Hekate said that it’s dangerous, possibly even deadly. I don’t want you to go through with this Awakening in case something goes wrong,” he finished quickly.

“We have to do it. Nicholas said—”

“I’m not entirely sure I trust him,” Josh interrupted. “I have a feeling he’s up to something. He’s too eager for Hekate to Awaken our powers despite the dangers.”

“He said it’s our only chance,” Sophie persisted.

“Yesterday, he said he had to get us away from the shop to keep us safe…now, all of a sudden, we have to be trained so that we can protect ourselves from Dee and these Dark Elders. Trust me, Sophie, Nicholas Flamel is playing his own game.”

Sophie’s gaze drifted to the Alchemyst. She’d known him for a couple of months, and she remembered writing in her blog that she thought he was
cool.
Of course, now she realized that she didn’t really know him at all. The man she’d thought of as Nick Fleming was an imposter. A lie. Flamel was staring intently at her, and for the briefest of moments, she imagined that he knew what they were talking about.

“Both of us don’t have to go through this Awakening,” Josh continued. “Let me do it.”

Again, Sophie looked into his eyes. “And how do you think I’d feel if something happened to you?”

This time it was Josh who found he couldn’t speak. The idea that something terrible could happen to his sister had only occurred to him a little while before. But the very thought of it terrified him.

Sophie took her brother’s hands in hers. “From the moment we were born, we’ve done everything together,” she said, her voice low and serious. “And with Mom and Dad away so much, it’s really always been just you and me. You’ve always looked after me, I’ve always looked out for you. I’m not going to allow you to go through this…process by yourself. We’ll do this—just like we’ve done everything else—together.”

Josh looked long and hard at his sister. “Are you sure?” he asked. He was beginning to see a new Sophie.

“I’ve never been more sure.”

They both knew what remained unsaid: neither wanted to be left behind if anything happened during the Awakening.

Josh finally nodded. He then squeezed his sister’s hand and they both turned to face the Alchemyst, Hekate and Scatty.

“We’re ready,” the twins said.

“The Morrigan is here,” Scatty informed them as they followed Nicholas and Hekate through the huge door into the heart of the tree. She had changed into black pants, a high-necked black T-shirt that left her arms bare and thick-soled combat boots. She wore two short swords strapped to her back, the hilts protruding slightly over her shoulders, and had daubed her eyes and cheekbones with a black dye that gave her face a startlingly skull-like appearance. “She’s brought Bastet with her. They’re already surging into the Shadowrealm.”

“Hekate can hold them back, can’t she?” Sophie asked. She only had an inkling of the goddess’s powers, but the thought that there was something more powerful than her was terrifying.

Scatty shrugged. “I have no idea. They’ve arrived in force; they’ve brought their armies with them.”

“Armies?” Josh echoed. “What kind of armies? More mud people?”

“No Golems this time. They have brought the birds of the air and the cats of the earth with them.”

Sophie laughed shakily. “Birds and cats…what can
they
do?”

Scatty glanced at the girl, the whites of her eyes startling against the black war paint. “You saw what the birds did to the car on the way here.”

Sophie nodded, suddenly feeling sick in the pit of her stomach. Images of the filthy black crows battering the windshield and pecking holes in the metal hood would haunt her to her dying day.

“Well, imagine what would happen if tens of thousands of birds gathered.”

“Tens of thousands,” Sophie whispered.

“More like hundreds of thousands,” Scatty said, turning into a narrow corridor. “The nathair scouts estimate maybe half a million.”

“And didn’t you say something about cats?” Josh asked.

“Yes, I did. More than we can count.”

Josh looked at his sister, the realization of the terrible danger they faced really beginning to sink in now. They could die in this strange Shadowrealm and no one would ever know. He felt tears prickling his eyes and blinked them away; their parents would spend the rest of their lives wondering what had happened to them.

The corridor they were following turned into another, even narrower passageway. The ceiling was so low that both twins had to walk with their heads ducked down. There were no steps or stairs, but the corridor circled down and down in a long, slow spiral. The twins realized that they were going into the ground deep beneath the tree. The walls became darker, the smooth wood now scarred with straggling roots that curled out and pulled at their hair with clutching fingers. The air turned damp, perfumed with loam and fresh earth, rotting leaves and new growth.

“The house
is
alive,” Sophie said in wonder as they turned into another twisting, spiraling corridor that was completely composed of the gnarled and bulbous roots of the great tree that rose above them. “Even with us moving around inside, with the rooms and the windows and the pools—it’s still a living tree!” She found the idea both astonishing and frightening at the same time.

“This tree was grown from a seed of the Yggdrasill, the World Tree,” Scatty said quietly, rubbing the palm of her hand against the exposed roots. She brought her palm to her face and breathed deeply, drawing in the aroma. “Millennia ago, when Danu Talis sank beneath the waves, a few of the Elders were able to rescue some of the flora and fauna and transplant it to other lands. But only two of the Elders, Hekate and Odin, managed to nurture their Yggdrasill seeds to life. Odin, like Hekate, had power over magic.”

Josh frowned, trying to remember what little he knew about Odin. Wasn’t he the one-eyed Norse god? But before he could ask, Hekate disappeared into an opening framed by knots of twisted roots. Nicholas Flamel stopped and waited for the twins and Scatty to catch up. His pale eyes were deeply shadowed, and a thin vertical crease showed between his eyebrows. When he spoke, he chose his words with care, his nervousness making his French accent even more pronounced. “I wish you did not have to do this,” he said, “but you must believe me when I say that there is no other way.” He reached out and put one hand on Sophie’s right shoulder and one on Josh’s left shoulder. Their auras—silver and gold—flared briefly, and the heavy air was touched with the scents of vanilla ice cream and oranges. “I’m afraid that when you helped Perenelle and me, you placed yourselves in the most dreadful danger. If—
when
Hekate Awakens your magical potential, I will teach you some protective spells, and there are others I will take you to, specialists in the five ancient forms of magic. I’m hoping they will complete your training.”

“We’re going to be trained as magicians?” Sophie asked. She guessed she should be more excited, but she kept remembering Scatty’s words, that once Hekate Awakened their powers, they would be in
grave
danger.

“As magicians and sorcerers, as necromancers, warlocks and even enchanters.” Flamel smiled. He glanced over his shoulder, then turned back to the twins. “Now go inside and do whatever she tells you. I know you are afraid, but try not to be. Let me tell you, there is no shame in fear.” He smiled, his lips curling upward, but the smile never reached his troubled eyes. “When you come out of that room, you will be different people.”

“I don’t want to be a different person,” Sophie whispered. She wanted everything to be just as it had been a couple of hours earlier, when everything was ordinary and boring. Right now, she would give anything to go back to a boring world.

Flamel stepped back from the doorway and ushered the twins inside. “From the moment you laid eyes on Dee, you started to change. And once begun, change cannot be reversed.”

It was dark inside the chamber, whose walls were composed entirely of knotted and twisted roots. Sophie could feel her brother’s hand in hers and she squeezed his fingers slightly. His hand tightened in return.

As the twins moved deep into the hollow, which was obviously larger than it had first seemed, their eyes gradually adjusted to the gloom and the room took on a greenish glow. Thick, furry moss covered the twisted roots and radiated a watery jade green light, making it appear as if everything were underwater. The air was heavy with moisture, and drops of liquid gathered on their hair and skin like tiny beads of sweat. Although it wasn’t cold, they both shivered.

“You should consider yourselves honored.” Hekate’s voice came from the green gloom directly ahead of them. “I have not Awakened a humani for many generations.”

“Who…,” Josh began, and then his voice cracked. He gave a dry cough and tried again. “Who was the last human you Awakened?” He was determined not to let his fear show.

“It was some time ago—in the twelfth century, as you humani measure time—a man from the land of the Scots. I do not remember his name.”

Both Sophie and Josh instinctively knew that Hekate was lying.

“What happened to him?” Sophie asked.

“He died.” There was a peculiar high-pitched giggle. “He was killed by a hailstone.”

“Must have been some hailstone,” Josh whispered.

“Oh, it was,” Hekate murmured. And in that moment, they both knew that she had something to do with the mysterious man’s death. To Josh the goddess suddenly seemed like a vindictive child.

“So what happens now?” Josh asked. “Do we stand or sit or lie down?”

“You do nothing,” Hekate snapped, “and this is not something to be done lightly. For thousands of generations, you humani have deliberately distanced yourselves from what you laughingly call magic. But magic is really only the utilization of the entire spectrum of the senses. The humani have cut themselves off from their senses. Now they see only in a tiny portion of the visible spectrum, hear only the loudest of sounds, their sense of smell is shockingly poor and they can only distinguish the sweetest and sourest of tastes.”

The twins were aware that Hekate was moving about them now. They couldn’t hear her move, but were able to track her by the sound of her voice. When she spoke from behind them, they both jumped.

“Once, mankind needed all those senses simply to survive.” There was a long pause, and when she spoke again, she was so close that her breath ruffled Sophie’s hair. “Then the world changed. Danu Talis sank beneath the waves, the Age of the Lizards passed, the Time of Ice came, and the humani grew…
sophisticated.
” She made the word into a curse. “The humani grew indolent and arrogant. They found they did not need all their senses, and gradually, they lost them.”

“You’re saying we lost the powers of magic because we grew lazy,” Josh said.

Sophie suppressed a groan; one of these days her brother was going to get them into real trouble.

But when Hekate replied, her voice was surprisingly soft, almost gentle. “What you call magic is nothing more than an act of the imagination fired by the senses, then given shape by the power of your aura. The more powerful the aura, the greater the magic. You two have extraordinary potential within you. The Alchemyst is correct: you could be the greatest magicians the world has ever known. But here’s the problem,” Hekate continued, and now the room grew a little lighter, and they could see the shape of the woman standing in the center of the room, directly beneath a tangle of roots that looked exactly like a clutching hand reaching down from the roof. “The humani have learned to live without their senses. The brain filters so much data from your consciousness that you live in a type of fog. What I can do is Awaken your dormant powers, but the danger—the very real danger—is that it will overload your senses.” She stopped, then asked, “Are you prepared to take that risk?”