Michael Scott - The Alchemyst

The two Golems that had been sitting on either side of Perenelle were nownothing more than ash. But there was no sign of the woman except for the rentin the opposite door that looked as if it had been hacked by an axe.

Dee folded to the ground with his back to the ruined car and beat both handsinto the filthy mixture of mud, oil, melted plastic and burnt rubber. Hehadn t secured the entire Codex, and now Perenelle had escaped. Could thisday get any worse?

Footsteps tip-tapped.

From the corner of his eye, Dr. John Dee watched as pointy-toed,stiletto-heeled black boots came into view. And he knew then the answer to his question. The day was about to get worse: much worse. Fixing a smile onhis lips, he rose stiffly to his feet and turned to face one of the few ofthe Dark Elders who genuinely terrified him.

Morrigan.

The ancient Irish had called her the Crow Goddess, and she was worshipped andfeared throughout the Celtic kingdoms as the Goddess of Death andDestruction. Once there had been three sisters: Badb, Macha and the Morrigan,but the others had disappeared over the years Dee had his own suspicionsabout what had happened to them and the Morrigan now reigned supreme.

She stood taller than Dee, though most people stood taller than the doctor,and was dressed from head to foot in black leather. Her jerkin was studdedwith shining silver bolts, giving it the appearance of a medievalbreastplate, and her leather gloves had rectangular silver studs sewn ontothe back of the fingers. The gloves had no fingertips, allowing theMorrigan s long, spearlike black nails to show. She wore a heavy leather beltstudded with small circular shields around her waist. Draped over hershoulders, with its full hood pulled around her face and sweeping to theground behind her, was a cloak made entirely of ravens feathers.

In the shadow of the hood, the Morrigan s face seemed even paler than usual.Her eyes were jet-black, with no white showing; even her lips were black. Thetips of her overlong incisors were just visible against her lower lip.

This is yours, I believe. The Morrigan s voice was a harsh whisper, hervoice ragged and torn, like a bird s caw.

Perenelle Flamel came forward, moving slowly and carefully. Two enormousravens were perched on her shoulders, and both held their razor-sharp beaksdangerously close to her eyes. She had barely scrambled out of the burningcar, desperately weakened by her use of magic, when she d been attacked bythe birds.

Let me see it, the Morrigan commanded eagerly.

Dee reached into his coat and produced the metal-bound Codex. Surprisingly,the Crow Goddess did not reach for it.

Open it, she said.

Puzzled, Dee held the book in front of the Morrigan and turned the pages,handling the ancient object with obvious reverence.

The Book of Abraham the Mage, she whispered, leaning forward, but notapproaching the book. Let me see the back.

Reluctantly, Dee turned to the back of the book. When the Morrigan saw thedamaged pages, she hissed with disgust. Sacrilege. It has survived tenthousand years without suffering any damage.

The boy tore it, Dee explained, closing the Codex gently.

I ll make sure he suffers for this. The Crow Goddess closed her eyes andcocked her head to one side, as if listening. Her black eyes glittered andthen her lips moved in a rare smile, exposing the rest of her pointed teeth.

He will suffer soon; my children are almost upon them. They will allsuffer, she promised.

Josh spotted an opening between two cars a VW Beetle and a Lexus. He pushedhis foot to the floor and the heavy car shot forward. But the gap wasn tquite wide enough. The SUV s grill struck the side mirrors on the other twocars and snapped them off. Oops Josh immediately took his foot off thegas.

Keep going, Flamel ordered firmly. He had Sophie s phone in his hand andwas talking urgently in a guttural, rasping language that sounded likenothing the twins had ever heard before.

Deliberately not looking in the rearview mirror, Josh roared across thebridge, ignoring the honks and shouts behind him. He shot along the outsidelane, then cut into the middle lane, then back out again.

Sophie braced herself against the dashboard, peering through half-closedeyes. She saw the car hit another side mirror; it came spinning, almostslowly, up onto the hood of their SUV, scoring a long scrape in the blackpaint before it bounced away. Don t even think about it, she muttered as a tiny open-topped Italian sports car spotted the same gap in the traffic thatJosh was aiming for. The driver, an older man with far too many gold chainsaround his neck, put his foot down and raced for the gap. He didn t make it.

The heavy SUV caught the right front edge of the little car, just tapping iton the bumper. The sports car was flung away, spinning in a complete360-degree turn on the crowded bridge, bouncing off four other cars in theprocess. Josh tore through the opening.

Flamel twisted around in the seat, looking through the rear window at thechaos they had left in their wake. I thought you said you could drive, he murmured.

I can drive, Josh said, surprised that his voice sounded so calm andsteady, I just didn t say I was good at it. Do you think anyone got ourlicense plates? he asked. This was nothing like one of his driving games!The palms of his hands were slick and wet and beads of sweat were runningdown the sides of his face. A muscle twitched in his right leg from theeffort of keeping the accelerator pressed hard to the floor.

I think they ve got other things to worry about, Sophie whispered.

The crows had descended on the Golden Gate Bridge. Thousands of them. Theycame in a black wave, cawing and screaming, wings cracking and snapping. Theyhovered over the cars, darting low, occasionally even landing on car roofsand hoods to peck at the metal and glass. Cars crashed and sideswiped oneanother along the entire length of the bridge.

They ve lost focus, Scathach said, watching the birds behavior. They relooking for us, but they ve forgotten our description. They have such tinybrains, she said dismissively.

Something distracted their dark mistress, Nicholas Flamel said.

Perenelle, he said delightedly. I wonder what she did. Something dramatic,no doubt. She always did have a sense of the theatrical.

But even as he was speaking, the birds rose into the air again, and then, asone, their black eyes turned in the direction of the fleeing black SUV. Thistime when they cawed, it sounded like screams of triumph.

They re coming back, Sophie said quickly, breathlessly. She realized thather heart was pumping hard against her rib cage. She looked at Flamel and theWarrior for support, but their grim expressions gave her no comfort.

Scathach looked at her and said, We re in trouble now.

In a huge black-feathered mass, the crows took off after the car.

Most of the traffic on the bridge was now stalled. People sat frozen interror in their cars as the birds flowed, foul and stinking, over the roofs.The SUV was the only car moving. Josh had his foot pressed flat to the floor,and the needle on the speedometer hovered close to eighty. He was becomingmore comfortable with the controls he hadn t hit anything for at least aminute. The end of the bridge was in sight. He grinned; they were going tomake it.

And then the huge crow landed on the hood.

Sophie screamed and Josh jerked the wheel, attempting to knock theevil-looking creature off, but it had hooked its feet into the raised ridgeson the hood. It cocked its head to one side, looking first at Josh, thenSophie, and then, in two short hops, it came right up to the windshield anddeliberately peered inside, black eyes glittering.

It pecked at the glass and a tiny starred puncture mark appeared.

It shouldn t be able to do that, Josh said, trying to keep his eyes on theroad.