Michael Scott - The Alchemyst

Dee noticed that Perenelle s eyes had widened in shock at the mention of thename. He grinned in delight. Tell her I need her special talents andparticular skills. Then he snapped the phone shut and looked over atPerenelle Flamel. It would have been so much easier if they had just givenme the Codex. Now the Morrigan is coming. And you know what that means.

Sophie spotted the rat first.

The twins had grown up in New York and had spent most of their summers inCalifornia, so encountering a rat was nothing new. Living in San Francisco, aport city, one quickly got used to seeing the creatures, especially early inthe morning and late at night, when they came out of the shadows and sewers.Sophie wasn t especially frightened of them, though like everyone else shehad heard the horror stories, urban legends and FOAF friend of afriend stories about the scavengers. She knew they were mostly harmlessunless cornered; she thought she remembered reading somewhere that they couldjump to great heights. She d also read an article in the New York Times Sunday magazine that said that there were as many rats in the United Statesas there were people.

But this rat was different.

Sleek and black, rather than the usual filthy brown, it crouched, unmoving,at the mouth of the alleyway, and Sophie could have sworn that its eyes werebright red. And watching them.

Maybe it was an escaped pet?

Ah, you ve noticed, Flamel murmured, catching her arm, urging her forward.

We re being watched.

Who? Josh asked, confused, turning quickly, expecting to see Dee s longblack car cruising down the street. But there was no sign of any car, and noone seemed to be paying them any special attention. Where?

The rat. In the alleyway, Nicholas Flamel said quickly. Don t look.

But it was too late. Josh had already turned and looked. By a rat? A rat iswatching us: you cannot be serious. He stared hard at the rat, expecting itto turn and scuttle away. It just raised its head and looked at him, itsmouth opening to reveal pointed teeth. Josh shuddered. Snakes and rats: hehated them equally though not as much as he hated spiders. And scorpions.

Rats don t have red eyes, do they? he asked, looking at his sister, who, asfar as he knew, was afraid of nothing.

Not usually, she said.

When he turned back, he discovered that there were now two jet-black ratsstanding still in the alleyway. A third scuttled out of the gloom and settleddown to watch them.

OK, Josh said evenly, I ve seen men made of mud, I guess I can acceptspying rats. Do they talk? he wondered aloud.

Don t be ridiculous, Flamel snapped. They re rats.

Josh really didn t think it was such a ridiculous suggestion.

Has Dee sent them? Sophie asked.

He s tracking us. The rats have followed our scent from the shop. A simplescrying spell allows him to see what they see. They are a crude but effectivetool, and once they have our scent they can follow us until we cross water.But I m more concerned about those. He tilted his chin upward.

Sophie and Josh looked up. Gathering on the rooftops of the surroundingbuildings were an extraordinary number of black-feathered birds.

Crows, Flamel said shortly.

That s bad? Sophie guessed. From the moment Dee had stepped into the shop,there hadn t been a whole lot of good news.

It could be very bad. But I think we ll be OK. We re nearly there. He turned to the left and led the twins into the heart of San Francisco s exotic Chinatown. They passed the Sam Wong Hotel, then turned right into a crampedback street, then immediately left into an even narrower alleyway. Off therelatively clean main streets, the alleyways were piled high with boxes andopen bins that stank with that peculiarly sweet-sour odor of rotten food. Thenarrow alley they had turned into was especially foul-smelling, the airpractically solid with flies, and the buildings on either side rose so highthat the passage was in gloomy shadow.

I think I m going to be sick, Sophie muttered. Only the day before, she dsaid to her twin that the weeks working in the coffee shop had reallyheightened her sense of smell. She d boasted that she was able to distinguishodors she d never smelled before. Now she was regretting it: the air wasrancid with the stink of rotten fruit and fish.

Josh just nodded. He was concentrating on breathing through his mouth, thoughhe imagined that every foul breath was coating his tongue.

Nearly there, Flamel said. He seemed unaffected by the rank odors whirlingabout them.

The twins heard a rasping, skittering sound and turned in time to see fivejet-black rats scramble across the tops of the open bins behind them. A hugeblack crow settled on one of the wires that crisscrossed the alleyway.

Nicholas Flamel suddenly stopped outside a plain, unmarked wooden door soencrusted with grime that it was virtually indistinguishable from the wall.There was no handle or keyhole. Spreading his right hand wide, Flamel placedhis fingertips at specific locations and pressed. The door clicked open.Grabbing Sophie and Josh, he pulled them into the shadow and eased the doorshut behind them.

After the bitter stench of the alleyways, the hallway smelled wonderful:sweet with jasmine and other subtle exotic odors. The twins breathed deeply.

Bergamot, Sophie announced, identifying the orange odor, and Ylang-Ylangand patchouli, I think.

I m impressed, Flamel said.

I got used to the herbs in the tea shop. I loved the odors of the exoticteas. She stopped, suddenly realizing that she was talking as if she wouldnever go back to the shop and smell its gorgeous odors again. Right aboutnow, the first of the early-afternoon crowd would be coming in, orderingcappuccinos and lattes, iced tea and herbal infusions. She blinked away thesudden tears that prickled at her eyes. She missed The Coffee Cup because it

Where are we? Josh asked, looking around now that his eyes had becomeaccustomed to the dim light. They were standing in a long, narrow, spotlesslyclean hallway. The walls were covered in smooth blond wood, and there wereintricately woven white reed mats on the floor. A simple doorway covered inwhat looked like paper stood at the opposite end of the corridor. Josh wasabout to take a step toward the door when Flamel s iron hand clamped onto hisshoulder.

Don t move, he murmured. Wait. Look. Notice. If you keep those three wordsin mind, you just might survive the next few days. Digging into his pocket,he picked out a quarter. Positioning it on his thumb, he flicked it into theair. It spun over and over and began to fall toward the middle of thehallway.

There was a barely perceptible hiss and a needle-tipped dart punched rightthrough the metal coin, impaling it in midair and pinning it to the oppositewall.

You ve left the safe and mundane world you once knew, Nicholas Flamel said seriously, looking at each twin in turn. Nothing is as it seems. You mustlearn to question everything. To wait before moving, to look before steppingand to observe everything. I learned these lessons in alchemy, but you willfind them invaluable in this new world you ve unwittingly wandered into. He pointed down the corridor. Look and observe. Tell me: what do you see?

Josh spotted the first tiny hole in the wall. It was camouflaged to look likea knot in the wood. Once he found the first one, he realized that there weredozens of holes in the walls. He wondered if each hole held a tiny dart thatwas powerful enough to punch through metal.

Sophie noticed that the floor did not join neatly with the wall. In threeseparate places on both the left-and right-hand sides, close to theskirting there was a definite gap.

Flamel nodded. Well done. Now watch. We ve seen what the darts can do, butthere is another defense. He took a tissue out of his pocket and tossed itonto the floor, close to one of the narrow openings. There was a singlemetallic clink and then a huge half-moon-shaped blade popped out from thewall, sliced the tissue into confetti and slid back into hiding.