Michael Scott - The Alchemyst

Now what? she asked.

Now we get some help and we hide until I figure out what to do with youboth. Flamel smiled. We re good at hiding; Perry and I have been doing itfor more than half a millennium.

What about Perry? Sophie asked. Will Dee harm her? She d come to know and like the tall, elegant woman over the past few weeks as she came into thecoffee shop. She didn t want anything to happen to her.

Flamel shook his head. He can t. She s too powerful. I never studied thesorcerous arts, but Perry did. Right now all Dee can do is contain her,prevent her from using her powers. But in the next few days she will start to age and weaken. Possibly in a week, certainly within two weeks, he would beable to use his powers against her. Still, he ll be cautious. He will keepher trapped behind Wards and Sigils. Flamel saw the look of confusion on Sophie s face. Magical barriers, he explained. He ll only attack when heis sure of victory. But first he will try to discover the extent of herarcane knowledge. Dee s search for knowledge was always his greateststrength and his weakness. He absently patted his pockets, looking forsomething. My Perry can take care of herself. Remind me to tell you thestory sometime of how she faced down a pair of Greek Lamiae.

Sophie nodded, though she had no idea what Greek Lamiae were.

As Flamel strode down the street, he found what he was looking for: a pair ofsmall round sunglasses. He put them on, stuck his hands in the pockets of hisleather jacket and began to whistle tunelessly, as if he hadn t a care in theworld. He glanced back over his shoulder. Well, come on.

The twins looked at each other blankly, then hurried after him.

I checked him out online, Josh muttered, looking quickly at his sister.

So that s what you were doing. I didn t think e-mail could be thatimportant.

Everything he says checks out: he s there on Wikipedia and there are nearlytwo hundred thousand results for him on Google. There are over ten millionresults for John Dee. Even Perenelle is there, and it mentions the book andeverything. It even says that when he died, his grave was dug up by peoplesearching for treasure and they found it empty no body and no treasure.Apparently, his house is still standing in Paris.

He sure doesn t look like an immortal magician, Sophie murmured.

I m not sure I know what a magician looks like, Josh said quietly. The only magicians I know are Penn and Teller.

I m not a magician, Flamel said, without looking at them. I m an alchemyst, a man of science, though perhaps not the science you would befamiliar with.

Sophie hurried to catch up. She reached out to touch his arm and slow himdown, but a spark like static electricity snapped into her fingertips.

Aaah! She jerked her hand back, fingertips tingling. Now what?

I m sorry, Flamel explained. That s an aftereffect of the well, what youwould call magic. My aura the electrical field that surrounds my body isstill charged. It s just reacting when it hits your aura. He smiled, showingperfectly regular teeth. It also means you must have a powerful aura.

What s an aura?

Flamel strode on a couple of steps down the sidewalk without answering, thenturned to point to a window. The word TATTOO was picked out in fluorescentlighting. See there see how there is a glow around the words?

I see it. Sophie nodded, squinting slightly. Each letter was outlined inbuzzing yellow light.

Every human has a similar glow around their body. In the distant past,people could see it clearly and they named it the aura. It comes from the Greek word for breath. As humans evolved, most lost the ability to see theaura. Some still can, of course.

Josh snorted derisively.

Flamel glanced over his shoulder. It s true. The aura has even been photographed by a Russian couple called the Kirlians. The electrical fieldsurrounds every living organism.

What does it look like? Sophie asked.

Flamel tapped his finger on the shop window. Just like that: a glow aroundthe body. Everyone s aura is unique different colors, different strengths.Some glow solidly, others pulse. Some appear around the edge of the body,other auras cloak the body like an envelope. You can tell a lot from aperson s aura: whether they are ill or unhappy, angry or frightened, forexample.

And you can see these auras? Sophie said.

Flamel shook his head, surprising them. No, I cannot. Perry can, sometimes.I cannot. But I know how to channel and direct the energy. That s what youwere seeing earlier today: pure auric energy.

I think I d like to learn how to do that, Sophie said.

Flamel glanced at her quickly. Be careful what you wish for. Every use ofpower has a cost. He held out his hand. Sophie and Josh crowded around onthe quiet side street. Flamel s hand was visibly trembling. And when Sophielooked into his face, she noticed that his eyes were bloodshot. When you useauric energy, you burn as many calories as if you had run a marathon. Thinkof it like draining a battery. I doubt I could have lasted very much longeragainst Dee back there.

Is Dee more powerful that you?

Flamel smiled grimly. Infinitely. Shoving his hands back into the pocketsof his leather jacket, he continued down the street, Sophie and Josh nowwalking on either side of him. In the distance, the Golden Gate Bridge beganto loom over the rooftops. Dee has spent the past five centuries developinghis powers; I ve spent that same time hiding mine, concentrating only onthose few little things I needed to do to keep Perenelle and myself alive.Dee was always powerful, and I dread to think what he is capable of now. At the bottom of the hill he paused, looking left and right, then abruptlyturned to the left and headed into California Street. There ll be time for questions later. Right now, we have to hurry.

Have you known Dee long? Josh persisted, determined to get some answers.

Nicholas Flamel smiled grimly. John Dee was a mature man when I accepted himas my apprentice. I still took apprentices in those days, and so many of themwent on to make me proud. I had visions of creating the next generation ofalchemists, scientists, astronomers, astrologers and mathematicians: thesewould be the men and women who would create a new world. Dee was probably thefinest student I ever had. So I suppose you could say that I ve known him fornearly five hundred years though our encounters have been somewhat sporadicover the past few decades.

What turned him into your enemy? Sophie asked.

Greed, jealousy and the Codex, the Book of Abraham the Mage, Flamel answered. He s coveted that for a long time, and now he has it.

Not all of it, Josh reminded him.

No, not all of it. Flamel smiled. He walked on, with the twins still oneither side of him. When Dee was my apprentice in Paris, he found out aboutthe Codex. One day I caught him attempting to steal it, and I knew then thathe had allied himself with the Dark Elders. I refused to share its secrets with him and we had a bitter argument. That night he sent the first assassinsafter Perry and me. They were human and we dealt with them easily. The nextnight, the assassins were decidedly less than human. So Perry and I took theBook, gathered up our few belongings and fled Paris. He s been chasing usever since.

They stopped at a cross light. A trio of British tourists was waiting for thelight to change and Flamel fell silent, a quick glance at Sophie and Joshwarning them to say nothing. The light changed and they crossed, the touristsheading to the right, Nicholas Flamel and the twins moving to the left.

Where did you go when you left Paris? Josh asked.

London, Flamel said shortly. Dee nearly caught us there in 1666, he continued. He loosed a Fire Elemental after us, a savage, mindless creaturethat almost devoured the city. History calls it the Great Fire.

Sophie looked over at Josh. They had both heard of the Great Fire of London;they had learned about it in world history. She was surprised by how calm shefelt: here she was, listening to a man who claimed to be more than fivehundred years old, recounting historical events as if he had been there whenthey happened. And she believed him!