Michael Scott - The Alchemyst

Flamel reached out and pressed his forefinger to Scatty s lips, preventingher from saying another word. His smile was enigmatic. Do you trust me? he asked her eventually.

Her response was immediate. Without question.

Then trust me. I want you to protect the twins. And train them, he added.

Train them! Do you know what you re asking?

Flamel nodded. I want you to prepare them for what is to come.

And what is that? Scathach asked.

I have no idea Flamel smiled except that it is going to be bad.

We re fine, Mom, honestly, we re fine. Sophie Newman tilted the cell phoneslightly so that her brother could listen in. Yes, Perry Fleming was feelingsick. Something she ate, probably. She s fine now. Sophie could feel thebeads of sweat gathering in the small hairs at the back of her neck. She wasuncomfortable lying to her mother even though her mother was so wrapped up inher work that she never bothered to check.

Josh and Sophie s parents were archaeologists. They were known worldwide fortheir discoveries, which had helped reshape modern archaeology. They wereamong the first in their field to discover the existence of the new speciesof small hominids that were now commonly called Hobbits in Indonesia. Joshalways said that their parents lived five million years in the past and wereonly happy when they were up to their ankles in mud. The twins knew that theywere loved unconditionally, but they also knew that their parents simplydidn t understand them or much else about modern life.

Mr. Fleming is taking Perry out to their house in the desert and they veasked us if we d like to go with them for a little break. We said we had to

ask you first, of course. Yes, we spoke to Aunt Agnes; she said so long as itwas OK with you. Say yes, Mom, please.

She turned to her brother and crossed her fingers. He crossed his too; theyhad talked long and hard about what to say to their aunt and their motherbefore they made the calls, but they weren t entirely sure what they weregoing to do if their mother said they couldn t go.

Sophie uncrossed her fingers and gave her brother a thumbs-up. Yes, I ve gottime off from the coffee shop. No, we won t be a bother. Yes, Mom. Yes. Loveto you, and tell Dad we love him too. Sophie listened, then moved the phoneaway from her mouth. Dad found a dozen Pseudo-arctolepis sharpi in near-perfect condition, she reported. Josh looked blank. A very rareCambrian crustacean, she explained.

Her brother nodded. Tell Dad that s great. We ll keep in touch, he called out.

Love you, Sophie said, cutting the conversation short, then hung up. I hate lying to her, she said immediately.

I know. But you couldn t really tell her the truth, now, could you?

Sophie shrugged. I guess not.

Josh turned back to the sink. His laptop was perched precariously on thedraining board next to his cell phone. He was using the cell to go onlinebecause, shockingly, there was no phone line or Internet connection in thedojo.

Scatty lived above the dojo in a small two-room apartment with a kitchen atone end of the hall and a bedroom with a tiny bathroom at the other. A littlebalcony connected the two rooms and looked down directly onto the dojo below.The twins were standing in the kitchen while Flamel brought Scatty up to dateon the events of the past hour in her bedroom at the other end of the hall.

What do you think of her? Josh asked casually, concentrating on his laptop.He d managed to get online, but the connection speed was crawlingly slow. Hecalled up Altavista and typed in a dozen versions of Scathach before he finally got a hit with the correct spelling. Here she is: twenty-seventhousand hits for Scathach, the shadow or the shadowy one, he said, thenadded offhandedly, I think she s cool.

Sophie picked up on the too-casual tone immediately. She smiled broadly andher eyebrows shot up. Who? Oh, you mean the two-thousand-year-old warriormaid. Don t you think she might be a little too old for you?

A wash of color rose from beneath the neck of Josh s T-shirt, painting hischeeks bright red. Let me try Google, he muttered, fingers rattling acrossthe keyboard. Forty-six thousand hits for Scathach, he said. Looks like she s real too. Let s see what Wiki has to say about her, he went on, andthen realized that Sophie wasn t even looking at him. He turned to her anddiscovered that she was staring fixedly through the window.

There was a rat standing on the rooftop of the building across the alley,staring at them. As they watched, it was joined by a second and then a third.

They re here, Sophie whispered.

Dee concentrated on keeping his lunch down.

Looking through the rat s eyes was a nauseating experience. Because of theirtiny brain, it required a huge effort of will to keep the creaturefocused which, in an alleyway filled with rotten food, was no easy task. Deewas momentarily grateful that he had not used the full force of the scryingspell, which would have allowed him to hear, to taste and this was aterrifying thought to smell everything the rat encountered.

It was like looking at a badly tuned black-and-white television. The imageshifted, pitched and lurched with the rat s every movement. The rat could gofrom running horizontally on the ground, to running vertically up a wall,then upside-down across a rope, all within a matter of seconds.

Then the image stabilized.

Directly in front of Dee, outlined in purple-tinged gray and glowing ingrayish black, were the two humans he had seen in the bookshop. A boy and agirl in their midteens, perhaps and similar enough in appearance for them tobe related. A sudden thought struck him hard enough to break hisconcentration: brother and sister, possibly or could they be something else?Surely not!

He looked back into the scrying dish and concentrated with his full will,forcing the rat he was controlling to stand absolutely still. Dee focused onthe young man and woman, trying to decide if one was older than the other,but the rat s vision was too clouded and distorted for him to be sure.

But if they were the same age that meant they were twins. That was curious.He looked at them again and then shook his head: they were humans. Dismissingthe thought, he unleashed a single command that rippled through every ratwithin a half-mile radius of the twins position. Destroy them. Destroy themutterly.

The gathering crows took to the air, cawing raucously, as if applauding.

Josh watched openmouthed as the huge rat leapt from the roof opposite,effortlessly bridging the six-foot space. Its mouth was wide and its teethwere wickedly pointed. He managed a brief Hey! and jerked away from thewindow just as the rat hit the glass with a furry, wet thump. It slid down tothe alley one floor below, where it staggered around in stunned surprise.

Josh grabbed Sophie s hand, and dragged her out of the kitchen and onto thebalcony. We ve got a problem, he shouted. And stopped.

Below them, three huge Golems, trailing flaking dried mud, were pushing theirway through the wide-open alley door. And behind them, in a long sinuousline, came the rats.

The three Golems moved stiffly into the corridor, spotted the open door atthe far end of the hallway and moved toward it. The finger-length metal dartshissed from the walls and stuck deeply into their hardened mud skin, butdidn t even slow the creatures down.

The half-moon blades close to the floor were a different matter altogether.The blades clicked out of their concealed sheaths in the walls and sliced into the ankles of the clay men. The first creature crashed to the floor,hitting it with the sound of wet mud. The second tottered on one foot beforeit slowly toppled forward, hit the wall and slid down, leaving a muddy smearin its wake. The semicircular blades click-clacked again, slicing thecreatures completely in two, and then the Golems abruptly reverted to theirmuddy origin. Thick globules of mud spattered everywhere.