Michael Scott - The Alchemyst

It was the center of the world in the Elder Times. The Elder Race ruled this planet from an island continent known as Danu Talis. It stretched from whatis now the coast of Africa to the shores of North America and into the Gulf of Mexico.

I ve never heard of Danu Talis, Sophie whispered.

Yes, you have, Scathach said. The Celts called it the De Danann Isle; thismodern world knows it as Atlantis.

In the mirror, Josh could see that Sophie s hand was now glowingsilver-white. It looked as if she were wearing a glove. Tiny sparkingtendrils of silver wrapped themselves around Scatty s fingers like ornaterings, and she shuddered.

Danu Talis was ripped apart because the Ruling Twins the Sun and Moon foughton top of the Great Pyramid. The incredible magical forces they releasedupset the balance of nature. I ve been told that that same wild magicswirling around the atmosphere caused the changes in the Next Generation.Some of us were born as monsters, others were caught between shapes, a fewpossessed extraordinary powers of transformation and could become beasts atwill. And others, like those of us who eventually formed the Clan Vampire,found that we were unable to feel.

Josh looked sharply at Scathach. What do you mean, feel?

The Warrior smiled and looked at him. Suddenly, her teeth seemed very long inher mouth. We had little or no emotion. We lacked the capacity to feel fear,to experience love, to enjoy the sensations of happiness and delight. Thefinest warriors are not only those who do not know fear, but those who arewithout anger.

Josh stepped back from Scatty and breathed deeply. His legs were beginning tocramp, and pins and needles were tingling in his toes. But he also needed toget away from the vampire. Now all the mirrors and polished glass surfaces inthe shop showed the silver light flowing from Sophie s hand up Scatty s arm.It disappeared into her flesh before it reached her elbow.

Scatty turned her head to look at Josh, and he noticed that the whites of hereyes had turned silver. Bloodsucking vampires don t need the blood. Theyneed the emotions, the sensations carried in the blood.

You re stealing Sophie s feelings, Josh whispered, horrified. Sophie, stopher.

No! his twin snapped, eyes opening wide. The whites of her eyes, likeScatty s, had turned reflective silver. I can actually feel the pain flowingaway.

The sensations are too much for your sister to bear. They are becomingpainful, and this makes her afraid. I m just taking away that pain and fear.

Why would anyone want to feel pain or fear? Josh wondered aloud, bothintrigued and repelled by the very idea. It seemed somehow wrong.

So they can feel alive, Scatty said.

E ven before she opened her eyes, Perenelle Flamel knew she had been moved toa much more secure prison. Someplace deep and dark and sinister. She couldfeel the old evil in the walls, could almost taste it on the air. Lyingstill, she tried to expand her senses, but the blanket of malevolence anddespair was too strong, and she found she couldn t use her magic. Shelistened intently, and only when she was absolutely sure that there was noone in the room with her did she open her eyes.

She was in a cell.

Three walls were solid concrete, the fourth was metal bars. Beyond the barsshe could see another row of cells.

She was in a prison block!

Perenelle swung her legs out of the narrow cot and came slowly to her feet.She noticed that her clothes smelled slightly of sea salt, and she thoughtshe could detect the sounds of the not-too-distant ocean.

The cell was bare, little more than an empty box, about ten feet long by fourfeet wide, with a narrow cot holding a thin mattress and a single lumpypillow. A cardboard tray lay on the floor just inside the bars. It containeda plastic jug of water, a plastic cup and a thick chunk of dark bread on apaper plate. Seeing the food made her realize just how hungry she was, butshe ignored it for the moment and crossed to the bars and peered out. Lookingleft and right, all she could see were cells, and they were empty.

She was alone in the cell block. But where

And then a ship s horn, plaintive and lost, sounded in the distance. With ashiver, Perenelle suddenly knew where Dee s men had taken her: she was on theprison island of Alcatraz, The Rock.

She looked around the room, paying particular attention to the area aroundthe metal gate. Unlike in her previous prison, she couldn t see any magicalwards or protective sigils painted on the lintel or the floor. Perenellecouldn t resist a tiny smile. What were Dee s people thinking? Once she hadrecovered her strength, she d charge up her aura, and then bend this metallike putty and simply walk out of here.

It took her a moment before she realized that the click-click she d first assumed to be dripping water was actually something approaching, movingslowly and deliberately. Pressing herself against the bars, she tried to seedown the corridor. A shadow moved. More of Dee s faceless simulacra? she wondered. They would not be able to hold her for long.

The shadow, huge and misshapen, moved out of the darkness and stepped downthe corridor to stand before her cell. Perenelle was suddenly grateful forthe bars that separated her from the terrifying entity.

Filling the corridor was a creature that had not walked the earth since amillennium before the first pyramid rose over the Nile. It was a sphinx, anenormous lion with the wings of an eagle and the head of a beautiful woman.The sphinx smiled and tilted her head to one side, and a long black forked tongue flickered. Perenelle noticed that her pupils were flat and horizontal.

This was not one of Dee s creations. The sphinx was one of the daughters ofEchidna, one of the foulest of the Elders, shunned and feared even by her ownrace, even the Dark Elders. Perenelle suddenly found herself wondering who,exactly, Dee was serving.

The sphinx pressed her face against the bars. Her long tongue shot out,tasting the air, almost brushing Perenelle s lips. Do I need to remind you,Perenelle Flamel, she asked in the language of the Nile, that one of the especial skills of my race is that we absorb auric energy? Her huge wingsflapped, almost filling the corridor. You have no magical powers around me.

An icy shiver ran down Perenelle s spine as she realized just how clever Deewas. She was a defenseless and powerless prisoner on Alcatraz, and she knewthat no one had ever escaped The Rock alive.

T he bell jangled as Nicholas Flamel pushed open the door and stepped back toallow a rather ordinary-looking elderly woman in a neat gray blouse and grayskirt to precede him into the shop. Short and round, her hair tightly permedand touched faintly with blue, only the overlarge black glasses covering muchof her face set her apart. A white cane was folded in her right hand.

Sophie and Josh immediately realized that she was blind.

Flamel cleared his throat. Allow me to introduce He stopped and looked atthe woman. Excuse me. What do I call you?

Call me Dora, everyone else does. She spoke English with a decided New Yorkaccent. Scathach? she suddenly said. Scathach! And then her words dissolved into a language that seemed to consist of a lot of spittingsounds which Sophie was surprised to find she could understand.

She wants to know why Scatty hasn t come to see her in the past threehundred and seventy-two years, eight months and four days, she translated for Josh. She was staring intently at the old woman and didn t see the fearand envy that flickered across his face.

The old woman moved quickly around the narrow room, head darting left andright, never looking directly at Scatty. She continued to speak, seeminglywithout stopping for breath.

She s telling Scatty that she could have been dead and no one would haveknown. Nor cared. Why, only last century she was desperately ill, and no onecalled, no one wrote