The Sorceress (8 page)

Before Palamedes could answer, Nicholas suddenly stiffened, staring out the window.

“You see them?” Palamedes asked in a deep rumble.

“I see them,” the Alchemyst whispered.

“What?” Sophie and Josh said simultaneously, sitting forward, following the Alchemyst’s gaze.

“The three men on the opposite side of the street,” he said shortly.

A trio of shaven-headed, pierced and heavily tattooed young men swaggered down the center of the road. In their stained blue jeans, dirty T-shirts and construction boots, they looked threatening, but not particularly otherworldly.

“If you squint,” Flamel explained, “you should be able to see their auras.”

The twins closed their eyes to little more than slits, and they immediately saw the ugly gray tendrils of smoky light that flowed off the trio. The gray was shot through with purple.

“Cucubuths,” Palamedes explained.

The Alchemyst nodded. “Very rare. They are the offspring of a vampire and a Torc Madra,” Flamel told the twins. “They often have tails. They’re mercenaries, hunters. Blood drinkers.”

“And as dumb as dirt.” Palamedes pulled up beside a bus, shielding the car from the cucubuths. “They’ll trace your scent as far as the church; then it will vanish. That will confuse them. With luck, they’ll end up arguing with one another and start fighting.”

The car slowed, then stopped as the lights changed.

“There, at the traffic lights,” Nicholas whispered.

“Yes, I passed them on the way down here,” Palamedes said.

The twins scanned the intersection but saw nothing out of the ordinary. “Who?” Sophie asked.

“The schoolgirls,” Palamedes rumbled.

Two red-haired and pale-skinned young women were chatting, waiting for the lights to change. They were alike enough to be sisters and seemed to be wearing school uniforms. Both were carrying expensive-looking handbags.

“Don’t even look at them,” Palamedes warned. “They’re like beasts; they can sense when they’re being watched.”

Sophie and Josh stared hard at the floor, concentrating fiercely on not thinking about the two girls. Nicholas picked up a newspaper he’d found on the backseat and held it open in front of his face, focusing on the most boring item he could find, the international exchange rates.

“They’re crossing right in front of the car,” Palamedes murmured, turning to look back into the cabin, hiding his face. “I’m sure they wouldn’t recognize me, but I don’t want to take the risk.”

The lights changed and Palamedes pulled away with the rest of the traffic.

“Dearg Due,” Flamel said, before the twins could ask the question. He swiveled to look through the rear window. The girls’ red hair was still visible as they disappeared into the crowd. “Vampires who settled what became the Celtic lands after the Fall of Danu Talis.”

“Like Scatty?” Sophie asked.

Nicholas shook his head. “Nothing like Scatty. These are most definitely not vegetarian.”

“They were heading toward the church too,” Palamedes said, chuckling. “If they encounter the cucubuths, that should make for an interesting meeting. They hate one another.”

“Who would win?” Sophie asked.

“Dearg Due, every time,” Palamedes said with a cheery smile. “I fought them in Ireland. They’re vicious fighters, impossible to kill.”

They continued down Marylebone Road before turning left onto Hampstead Road. Traffic slowed to a crawl, then finally ground to a halt. Somewhere ahead of them horns blared, and an ambulance wail started up. “We might be here for a while.” Palamedes pulled the emergency brake and twisted in his seat once again to look at the twins and Flamel. “So you’re the legendary Nicholas Flamel, the Alchemyst. I’ve heard a lot about you over the years,” he said. “None of it good. Do you know, there are Shadowrealms where your very name is used as a curse?”

The twins were startled by the vehemence in the man’s voice. They were unsure whether he was joking.

Palamedes focused on the Alchemyst. “Death and destruction follow in your wake—”

“The Dark Elders have been ruthless in their attempts to stop me,” Flamel said slowly, with a definite chill in his voice.

“—as do fires, famines, floods and earthquakes,” Palamedes rumbled on, ignoring the interruption.

“What are you suggesting?” Nicholas asked pointedly, and for an instant there was a whiff of mint in the back of the taxi. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, hands clasped in a tight knot.

“I am suggesting that perhaps you should have chosen less populated places to live out your long life. Alaska, maybe, or Mongolia, Siberia, the Outback or some far reaches of the Amazon. Places without people. Without victims.”

An icy silence descended on the back of the car. The twins looked at one another, and Josh raised his eyebrows in silent question, but Sophie shook her head imperceptibly. She pressed her index finger to her earlobe; Josh got the message: listen, say nothing.

“Are you suggesting I’ve caused the deaths of innocent people?” Flamel asked very softly.

“Oh yes.”

Color flushed Flamel’s pale face. “I have never—” he began.

“You could have disappeared from this world,” Palamedes pressed on, deep voice vibrating through the cab. “You faked your own death once, you could have done it again, and made a home someplace remote and inaccessible.
You could even have slipped into one of the Shadowrealms. But you didn’t; you choose to remain in this world. Why is that?” Palamedes asked.

“I have a duty to protect the Codex,” the Alchemyst snapped, genuine anger in his voice, the scent of mint stronger now, filling the air.

Car horns started to blare again, and Palamedes swiveled in the seat, released the brake and drove on.

“A duty to protect the Codex,” he repeated, staring straight ahead. “No one forced you to become the Guardian of the book. You took that role gladly and without question … just like all the other Guardians before you. But you were different from your predecessors. They went into hiding with it. But not you. You stayed in this world. And because of that, many humani have died: a million in Ireland alone, more than one hundred and forty thousand in Tokyo.”

“Killed by Dee and the Dark Elders!”

“Dee followed you.”

“And if I had surrendered the Book of Abraham,” Flamel said evenly, “then the Dark Elders would have returned to this world and the earth would have learned the true meaning of the word
Armageddon.
Ripping open the Shadowrealms would have sent shock waves across the earth, bringing with it hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunami. Millions would die. Pythagoras once calculated that perhaps half the earth’s entire population would be destroyed just by the initial event. And then the Dark Elders would have come pouring back into this world. You’ve met some of them, Palamedes; you know what they are like, you know what they
are capable of. If they ever return to this planet, it will be a catastrophe of global proportions.”

“They say it will herald a new Golden Age,” the driver replied mildly.

Josh watched Flamel’s face for his reaction; Dee had made the same claims.

“That is what they say, but it is untrue. You’ve seen what they’ve done as they’ve tried to take the Book from me. People have died. Dee and the Dark Elders have no regard for human life,” Flamel argued.

“But have you, Nicholas Flamel?”

“I don’t like your tone.”

In the rearview mirror, Palamedes’ smile was ferocious. “I don’t care whether you like it or not. Because I really do not like you, nor those others like you, who think they know what is best for this world. Who appointed you the guardian of the humani?”

“I am not the first; there were others before me.”

“There have always been people like you, Nicholas Flamel. People who think they know what’s best, who decide what people should see and read and listen to, who ultimately try to shape how the rest of the world thinks and acts. I’ve spent my entire life fighting against the likes of you.”

Josh leaned forward. “Are you with the Dark Elders?”

But it was Flamel who answered. His voice was scornful. “Palamedes the Saracen Knight has not taken sides in centuries. He is similar to Hekate in that respect.”

“Another of your victims,” Palamedes added. “You brought ruin to her world.”

“If you dislike me so much,” Flamel said icily, “then what are you doing here?”

“Francis asked me to help, and despite his many faults, or perhaps because of them, I consider him a friend.” The taxi driver fell silent, and then his brown eyes flickered in the rearview mirror to look over Sophie and Josh. “And, of course, because of this latest set of twins,” he added.

Sophie broke in and asked the question that was forming on her brother’s lips. “What do you mean, the
latest
set?”

“You think you’re the first?” Palamedes barked a laugh. “The Alchemyst and his wife have been looking for the twins of legend for centuries. They’ve spent the past five hundred years collecting young men and women just like you.”

Sophie and Josh looked at one another, shocked. Josh lurched forward. “What happened to the others?” he demanded.

Palamedes ignored the question, so the boy rounded on Nicholas. “What happened to the others?” he repeated, his voice cracking as it rose almost to a shout. For a single heartbeat his eyes blinked gold.

The Alchemyst looked down, then slowly and deliberately peeled Josh’s fingers off his arm where he had grabbed him.

“Tell me!” Josh could see the lie forming behind the immortal’s eyes and shook his head. “We deserve the truth,” he snapped. “Tell us.”

Flamel took a deep breath. “Yes,” he said finally. “There have been others, it is true, but they were not the twins of legend.” Then he sat back in the seat and folded his arms
across his chest. He looked from Josh to Sophie, his face an expressionless mask. “You are.”

“What happened to the other twins?” Josh demanded, voice trembling with a combination of anger and fear.

The Alchemyst turned his face away and stared out the window.

“I heard they died,” Palamedes said from the front seat. “Died or went mad.”

he flaking sign had originally said
CAR PARTS
, but the second
R
had fallen off and had never been replaced. Behind a tall concrete wall tipped with shards of broken glass and curls of razor wire, hundreds of broken rusted cars rested one atop the other in precariously balanced towers. The wall surrounding the car yard was thick with peeling posters advertising long-past concerts, year-old “just released” albums and countless indy groups. Ads had been pasted over each other to create a thick multicolored layer, then covered again in graffiti. It was almost impossible to see the
DANGER
—
KEEP OUT
and
NO TRESPASSING
signs.

Palamedes pulled the car up to the curb about a block away from the heavily chained entrance and turned off the engine. Wrapping both arms over the top of the steering wheel, he leaned forward and carefully took in his surroundings.

Flamel had fallen asleep, and Sophie was lost in thoughts that occasionally turned her pupils silver. Josh pushed himself out of his seat and crouched on the floor behind the glass partition. “Is that where you’re taking us?” Josh asked, nodding toward the car yard.

“For the moment.” Palamedes’ teeth flashed in the gloomy interior of the car. “It might not look like much, but this is probably the safest place in London.”

Josh looked around. The redbrick houses on either side of the narrow road were dilapidated beyond repair, and the whole area was shabby and run-down. Most of the doors and windows had been boarded over, and some had even been bricked up. Every pane of glass was broken. The rusted hulk of a burnt-out car squatted on concrete blocks by the side of the road, and nothing moved on the streets. “I’m surprised this area hasn’t been redeveloped or anything.”

“It will be, eventually,” Palamedes said ruefully. “But the present owner is prepared to sit on the land and let it appreciate in value.”

“What will happen when he sells it?” Josh asked.

Palamedes grinned. “I’ll never sell it.” His thick right index finger moved, pointing straight ahead. “There used to be a car factory here, and there was full employment in these streets. When the factory closed in the 1970s, the houses began to empty as people died off or moved away looking for work. I started buying up the properties then.”