Michael Scott - The Alchemyst

Thank you, Sophie said carefully into the long silence that followed.

J osh stepped out of the antiques shop, cheeks flaming red, the Witch s last words ringing in his ears. You have to leave. What I teach is not for the ears of a humani.

Looking around the room, at Flamel and Scatty and finally his twin sister, Josh had suddenly realized that he was the last pure human in the room. Obviously, in the Witch of Endor s eyes, Sophie was no longer entirely human.

No problem. I ll wait, he began, voice suddenly cracking. He coughed and tried again. I ll wait in the park across the road. And then, without a backward glance, he left the shop, the jangling of the bell mocking him as he closed the door.

But it was a problem. A huge problem.

Sophie Newman watched her brother leave the shop, and even without her Awakened senses, she knew he was upset and angry. She wanted to stop him, to go after him, but Scatty was standing in front of her, eyes wide in warning, finger raised to her lips, the tiniest shake of her head warning Sophie to say nothing. Catching her shoulder, Scatty led her to stand in front of the Witch of Endor. The old woman raised her hands and ran surprisingly gentle fingers over the contours of Sophie s face. The girl s aura shivered and fizzed with each gentle touch.

How old are you now? she asked.

Fifteen. Well, fifteen and a half. Sophie wasn t sure if the half year made a difference.

Fifteen and a half, Dora said, shaking her head. I can t remember back that far. She dipped her chin, then tilted it toward Scatty. Can you remember back to when you were fifteen?

Vividly, Scathach said grimly. Wasn t that about the time I visited you in Babylon and you tried to marry me off to King Nebuchadnezzar?

I m sure you re wrong, Dora said happily. I think that was later. Though he would have made an excellent husband, she added. She looked up at Sophie and the girl found herself reflected in the mirrors that were the Witch s eyes. There are two things I must teach you. To protect yourself that is simplicity itself. But instructing you in the magic of Air is a little trickier. The last time I instructed a humani in Air magic, it took him sixty years to master the basics, and even then he fell out of the sky on his first flight.

Sixty years. Sophie swallowed. Did that mean she was destined to spend a lifetime trying to control this power?

Gran, we haven t got that sort of time. I doubt we ve even got sixty minutes.

Dora glared into a mirror and her reflection looked out from the glass of anempty picture frame. So why don t you do this, you re such an expert, eh?

Gran Scathach sighed.

Don t Gran me in that tone of voice, Dora said warningly. I ll do this my way.

We don t have time to do it the traditional way.

Don t talk to me about tradition. What do the young know about tradition?Trust me, when I m finished, Sophie will know all that I know about theelemental Air magic. She turned back to Sophie. First things first: areyour parents alive?

Yes, she said, blinking in surprise, not sure where this was going.

Good. And you talk to your mother?

Yes, almost every day.

Dora glanced sideways at Scatty. You hear that? Almost every day. She took one of Sophie s hands in hers and patted the back of it. Maybe you should beteaching Scathach a thing or two. And have you a grandmother?

My Nana, yes, my father s mother. I usually call her on Fridays, she added,realizing with a guilty start that today was Friday and that Nana Newmanwould be expecting a call.

Every Friday, the Witch of Endor said significantly, and looked at Scattyagain, but the Warrior deliberately turned away and concentrated on an ornateglass paperweight. She put it down when she saw that there was a tiny man ina three-piece suit frozen inside the glass. He had a briefcase in one handand a sheaf of papers in the other. His eyes were still blinking.

This will not hurt, the Witch said.

Sophie doubted it could be any worse than what she d already gone through.Her nose wrinkled at the odor of burnt wood, and she felt a cool breeze washover her hands. She looked down. A gossamer-thin white spiderweb was twistingand spinning from the Witch of Endor s fingers and wrapping itself like abandage around each of Sophie s fingers. It curled across her palm,completely covering it, then wrapped around her wrist and crept up her arm.She realized then that the Witch had been distracting her with her questions.Sophie looked into the Witch s mirrored eyes and found that she could not puther questions into words. It was as if she had lost the ability to speak. Shewas also surprised that instead of feeling frightened, from the moment theWitch had taken her hand, a wave of peace and calm had washed through herbody. She glanced sideways at Scatty and Flamel. They were watching theprocess, wide-eyed with shock and, in Scathach s case, with something likehorror on her face.

Gran are you sure about this? Scathach demanded.

Of course I m sure, the old woman snapped, a note of anger in her voice.

And even though the Witch of Endor was speaking to Scathach, Sophie couldhear her voice in her head, talking to her, whispering ancient secrets,murmuring archaic spells, divulging a lifetime of knowledge in the space of

This is not a spiderweb, Dora explained to a stunned and silent Flamel,noticing that he was leaning forward, staring intently at the webs spinningaround Sophie s arms. It is concentrated air mixed with my own aura. All myknowledge, my experience, even my lore is gathered in this web of air. Onceit touches Sophie s skin, she will begin to absorb that knowledge.

Sophie breathed deeply, drawing the wood-scented air deep into her lungs.Images flashed impossibly fast in her head, times and places long past,cyclopean walls of stone, ships of solid gold, dinosaurs and dragons, a citycarved into a mountain of ice and faces hundreds, thousands of faces, fromevery race of mankind, from every time period, human and half human,werebeast and monster. She was seeing everyone the Witch of Endor had everseen.

The Egyptians got it wrong, Dora continued, her hands now moving too fastfor Flamel to see. They wrapped the dead, she continued. They did notrealize I wrapped the living. There was a time when I put a little of myselfinto my followers and sent them out into the world to teach in my name.Obviously someone saw this process in the ancient past and tried to copy it.

Sophie suddenly saw a dozen people wrapped up like her, and a younger-lookingDora moving among them, dressed in a costume from ancient Babylon. SomehowSophie understood that these were the priests and priestesses in the cultthat worshipped the Witch. Dora was passing on a little of her knowledge tothem so that they could go out into the world and teach others.

The white weblike air now flowed down Sophie s legs, binding them together.Unconsciously, she brought her hands up across her chest, right hand on herleft shoulder, left hand on her right shoulder. The Witch nodded approvingly.

Sophie closed her eyes and saw clouds. Without knowing how, she knew theirnames: cirrus, cirrocumulus, altostratus and stratocumulus, nimbostratus andcumulus. All different, each type with unique characteristics and qualities.She suddenly understood how to use them, how to shape and wield and movethem.

Images flickered.

Flashed.

She saw a tiny woman under a clear blue sky raise a hand and make a cloudgrow directly overhead. Rain irrigated a parched field.

Flashed again.

A tall bearded man standing on the edge of a huge sea raised his hands and ahowling wind parting the waters.

And flashed again.

A young woman brought a raging storm to a shuddering stop with a singlegesture, freezing it in place, then ran into a flimsy wooden house andgrabbed a child. A heartbeat later and the storm ate the house.