Michael Scott - The Alchemyst

Gripping the hilt tightly, Dee pressed the point of the blade against thegnarled bark of the ancient tree and pushed.

Excalibur slid smoothly into the wood, sinking right up to the hilt withoutresistance. For a long moment nothing happened, and then Yggdrasill began tomoan. The sound was like that of an animal in pain: beginning as a deepgrumbling, it quickly rose to a high-pitched whimpering. Where the hilt ofthe sword protruded from the tree, a blue stain appeared. Like dripping ink,it flowed down the tree and seeped into the ground, then the oily blue lightran along the veins and seams of wood. Yggdrasill s cries grew higher and higher, until they were almost beyond human hearing. The surviving Torc Alltafell to the ground, writhing in pain, clutching at their ears; birdmenwhirled in confusion and the cat-people began to hiss and howl in unison.

The blue stain raced around the tree, coating everything in a thin veneer ofglittering ice crystals that reflected the light. Blue-black and purple-greenrainbows shimmered in the air.

The oily stain shot up the length of the tree and out along the branches,turning everything it touched to faceted crystals. Even the fire was notimmune to it. Flames froze, fire caught in ornate and intricate patterns,then spiderwebbed, like ice on the surface of a pond, and dissolved tosparkling dust. Where the blue stain touched the leaves, they hardened andbroke away from the branches. They did not spiral to the ground: they felland shattered with tiny tinkling sounds, while the branches, now solid piecesof ice, ripped away from the trunk of the tree and crashed to the earth. Deethrew himself to one side to avoid being impaled by a three-foot length offrozen branch. Catching hold of Excalibur s hilt, he dragged the stone bladefree of the ancient tree and ran for cover.

The Yggdrasill was dying. Huge slabs of bark sheared off, like icebergsbreaking away from an ice cap, and crashed to the ground, littering thebeautiful Shadowrealm landscape with shards of razor-sharp ice.

Keeping his distance and watching for falling branches, Dee raced around thetree; he needed to see Hekate.

The Goddess with Three Faces was dying.

Standing quite still before the crumbling Yggdrasill, Hekate was flickeringthrough her three faces young, mature and old in heartbeats. The change washappening so fast that her flesh had no time to adapt and she was caughtbetween phases: young eyes in an old face, a girl s head on a woman s body, awoman s body with a child s arms. Her ever-changing dress had lost all colorand was the same solid black as her skin.

Dee stood beside the Morrigan and they watched in silence. Bastet rejoinedthem, and together the three observed Hekate and Yggdrasill s last moments.

The World Tree was now almost entirely blue, covered with a sheath of ice.Frozen roots had burst through the ground, destroying the perfect symmetry ofthe earth, cutting thick gouges in the soil. Huge holes had appeared in themassive trunk, revealing the circular rooms within, which were warped andstained with the blue ice.

Hekate s transformations slowed. The changes were taking longer tomaterialize because now the blue stain was slowly creeping up her body,hardening her skin, turning it to ice crystals.

The Morrigan glanced at the blade in Dee s hand, then quickly looked away.

Even after all these years in our employ, Dr. Dee, you can still surpriseus, she said quietly. I was not aware that you possessed the Sword of Ice.

I m glad I brought it, Dee said, not directly answering her. It seems Hekate s powers were stronger than we suspected. At least my guess that herstrength was connected to the tree was correct.

What remained of the Yggdrasill was now a solid block of ice. Hekate, too,was completely covered beneath a frozen sheet, though behind the blue crystals, her butter-colored eyes were bright and alive. The top of the treebegan to melt, dirty water running down the length of the bark, cutting deepgrooves into it.

When I realized that she had the power to nullify your spells, I knew I hadto do something, Dee said. I saw how the cats and birds were reverting totheir natural shapes.

That was not Hekate s doing, Bastet growled suddenly, her accent thick, hervoice beastlike.

The Morrigan and Dee turned to look at the Cat Goddess. The creature raised afurry claw and pointed across the field. It was the girl. Someone spokethrough her, someone who knew my true names, someone who used the girl s aurato wield a whip of pure energy: that s what reversed our spells.

Dee looked across the field where he had seen Flamel, Scatty and the twinsgathered around the oak tree. But there was no sign of them. He was turningto order the surviving cats and birds to find them when he spotted Senuhetstaggering up. The old man was spattered with mud and blood though none ofthe blood seemed to be his and he had lost one of his curved bronze swords. The second had snapped in half.

Flamel and the others have escaped, he gasped. I followed them out of the Shadowrealm. They re stealing our car, he added indignantly.

Howling his rage, Dr. John Dee spun around and flung Excalibur at theYggdrasill. The stone blade struck the ancient World Tree, which tolled withthe solemn sound of a great bell. The single note, high-pitched and serene,hung vibrating on the air and then the Yggdrasill began to crack. Longfractures and tears ran the height of the tree. They started small, butwidened as they raced upward in ragged patterns. Within moments the entiretree was covered in the crazed zigzagging. Then the Yggdrasill shattered andcame crashing down on the ice statue of Hekate, crushing it to dust.

J osh Newman jerked open the door of the black SUV and felt a wave of reliefwash over him. The keys were in the ignition. He pulled open the rear doorand held it while Nicholas Flamel hurried toward the car, carrying Sophie inhis arms. He reached in and gently stretched her out on the backseat. Scattyburst through the barrier of leaves and came hurtling down the path, a broadsmile on her face.

Now, that, she said as she launched herself into the back of the SUV, was the most fun I ve had in a millennium.

Josh climbed into the driver s seat, adjusted it and turned the key in theignition. The big V6 engine growled to life.

Flamel hopped into the passenger s seat and slammed the door. Get us out of here!

Josh pushed the gearshift into drive, gripped the leather steering wheel inboth hands and pressed the accelerator flat to the floor. The big Hummerlurched forward, kicking up stones and dirt as he spun it in a circle andthen set off down the narrow path, rocking and bouncing over the ruts, treebranches and bushes scraping its sides, scoring lines along its pristinepaintwork.

Although the sun had risen in both the Shadowrealm and the real world, theroad was still in deep shadow, and no matter where Josh looked, he stillcouldn t find the controls for the lights. He kept glancing in the side andrearview mirrors, expecting at any moment to see the Morrigan or the CatGoddess step through the wall of vegetation behind them. It was only when thepath ended in a burst of sunshine and he wrenched the steering wheel to theright, turning the heavy SUV onto the narrow, winding blacktop, that he easedoff the gas. The Hummer immediately lost speed.

Everyone OK? he asked shakily.

He tilted the rearview mirror down so that he could see into the back. His twin lay stretched across the wide leather seats, her head on Scatty s lap.The Warrior was using a scrap of cloth torn from her T-shirt to wipe thegirl s forehead. Sophie s skin was deathly white, and although her eyes wereclosed, her eyeballs moved erratically beneath her lids, and she twitched asif she was having a nightmare. Scatty caught Josh looking at them in theglass and she smiled in encouragement. She s going to be OK, she said.