Michael Scott - The Alchemyst

Sophie watched the images and learned from them.

The Witch of Endor touched Sophie s cheek and the girl opened her eyes. Thewhites were dotted with silver sparkles. There are those who will tell youthat the magic of Fire or Water or even Earth is the most powerful magic ofall. They are wrong. The magic of Air surpasses all others. Air canextinguish fire. It can churn water to mist and can rip up the earth. But aircan also bring fire to life, it can push a boat across still water, can shapethe land. Air can clean a wound, can pluck a splinter from a fingertip. Aircan kill.

The last of the white cobwebbed air closed across Sophie s face, completelyencasing her, wrapping her like a mummy.

This is a terrifying gift I have given you. Within you now is a lifetime avery long lifetime of experience. I hope some will be of use to you in thedire days ahead.

Sophie stood before the Witch of Endor completely encased in the whitebandagelike air. This was not like the Awakening. This was a gentler, subtlerprocess. She discovered that she knew things incredible things. She hadmemories of impossible times and extraordinary places. But mixed with thesememories and emotions were her own thoughts. Already she was beginning tofind it hard to tell them apart.

Then the smoke began to curl and hiss and steam.

Dora suddenly turned to look for Scatty. Come and give me a hug, child. Iwill not see you again.

Gran?

Dora wrapped her arms around Scathach s shoulders and put her mouth close toher ear.

Her voice dropped to little more than a whisper. I have given this girl arare and terrible power. Make sure this power is used for good.

Scathach nodded, not entirely sure what the old woman was suggesting.

And call your mother. She worries about you.

I will, Gran.

The mummylike cocoon suddenly dissolved into steam and mist as Sophie s auraflared brilliant silver. She stretched out her arms, fingers splayed wide,and the merest whisper of a wind rattled through the shop.

Careful. If you break anything, you pay for it, the Witch warned.

Then, suddenly, Scathach, Dora and Sophie turned to look out into thedarkening afternoon. An instant later Nicholas Flamel smelled theunmistakable rotten-egg odor of sulfur. Dee!

Josh! Sophie s eyes snapped open. Josh is out there!

D r. John Dee finally arrived in Ojai as the last light was fading inspectacular shades of pink over the surrounding Topa Topa Mountains. He dbeen traveling all day; he was tired and irritable and looking for an excuseto hurt someone.

Hekate s Shadowrealm had drained his cell battery, and it had taken him overan hour before he could find a phone to contact his office. He d then beenforced to sit, fuming, by the side of the road for another ninety minuteswhile a team of drivers scoured Mill Valley s backroads looking for him. Itwas close to nine-thirty before he finally returned to his offices at EnochEnterprises in the heart of the city.

There he d learned that Perenelle had already been moved to Alcatraz. Hiscompany had recently purchased the island from the state and had closed it tothe public while restoration work was being carried out. There was talk inthe papers that it was going to be turned into a living history museum. Inreality, the doctor intended to return it to its original use as one of themost secure prisons in the world. The doctor briefly thought about flying outto the island to talk to Perenelle, but dismissed the idea as a waste oftime. The missing pages from the Codex and the twins were his priorities.Although Bastet had said to kill them if he couldn t kidnap them, Dee hadother ideas.

Dee knew of the famous prophecy from the Book of Abraham the Mage. The Eldershad known that twins were coming, the two that are one, the one that isall. One to save the world, one to destroy it. But which one was which? hewondered. And could their powers be shaped and twisted by the instructionthey received? Finding the boy was becoming as important as finding themissing pages of the Codex. He had to have that gold aura.

Dr. John Dee had lived in Ojai briefly at the turn of the twentiethcentury it was still called the city of Nordhoff then when he d beenplundering the surrounding Chumash burial grounds for their preciousartifacts. He d hated it: Ojai was too small, too insular and, in the summermonths, simply too hot for him. Dee was always happiest in the largest ofcities, where it was easier to be invisible and anonymous.

He d flown from San Francisco down to Santa Barbara in the companyhelicopter, and rented a nondescript-looking Ford at the small airport. Thenhe d driven down from Santa Barbara, arriving in Ojai just as the sun wassetting in a spectacular display, painting the town in long, elegant shadows.Ojai had changed dramatically in the hundred or so years since he d last seenit but he still didn t like it.

He turned the car onto Ojai Avenue and slowed. Flamel and the others wereclose; he could feel it. But he had to be careful now. If he could sensethem, then they especially the Alchemyst and Scathach would be able to sensehim. And he still had no idea what the Witch of Endor was capable of doing.It was extremely worrying that a very senior Elder had been living inCalifornia and he d been totally unaware of her presence. He thought he knewthe locations of most of the important Elders and human immortals in theworld. Dee wondered if it was significant that he had not been able to contact the Morrigan throughout the day. He d phoned her with persistentregularity on the drive down, but she wasn t answering her cell. She waseither on eBay or playing one of the interminable online strategy games shewas addicted to. He didn t know where Bastet was and didn t care. She frightened him, and Dee tended to destroy those people who scared him.

Flamel, Scathach and the twins could be anywhere in the town. But where?

Dee allowed a little energy to trickle into his aura. He blinked as his eyesblurred with sudden tears, and blinked again to clear them. Suddenly, thepeople in the car next to his, those crossing the road, and the pedestrianson the sidewalk were outlined in shifting multicolored auras. Some auras werejust wisps of diaphanous tinted smoke, others were dark spots and sheets ofsolid muddy colors.

In the end, he found them entirely by chance: he was driving down Ojai Avenueand had gone past Libbey Park when he spotted the black Hummer parked on FoxStreet. He pulled in behind it and parked. The moment he got out of his car,he caught the merest hint of a pure gold aura coming from the park, close tothe fountain. Dee s thin lips curled in a humorless smile.

They would not escape this time.

Josh Newman sat by the long, low fountain in Libbey Park directly across fromthe antiques shop and stared into the water. Two flower-shaped bowls, onelarger than the other, were set in the center of a circular pool. Waterspouted from the top bowl and flowed over the sides into the larger bowlbeneath. This in turn overflowed into the pool. The sound helped drown outthe nearby traffic noises.

He felt alone, and more than a little lost.

When the Witch had made him leave the antiques shop, he d walked beneath theshaded promenade and stopped in front of the ice cream shop, lured there bythe odors of chocolate and vanilla. He stood outside, reading the menu ofexotic flavors, and wondered why his sister s aura smelled of vanilla icecream and his of oranges. She didn t even really like ice cream; he was theone who loved it.

His finger tapped the menu: blueberry chocolate chip.

Josh shoved his hand in the back pocket of his jeans and felt a rising momentof panic as realized his wallet was missing. Had he left it in the car, hadhe? He stopped.

He knew exactly where he d left it.

The last place he d seen his wallet, along with his dead cell, his iPod andhis laptop, was on the floor next to his bed in his room in the Yggdrasill.Losing his wallet was bad enough, but losing his computer was a disaster. Allhis e-mails were on it, along with his class notes, a partially writtensummer honors project, three years of photos including the trip to Canc n atChristmas and at least sixty gigs of MP3s. He couldn t remember the last timehe had backed up, but it definitely wasn t recently. He actually feltphysically ill, and suddenly, the odors from the ice cream parlor didn tsmell so sweet and enticing.