the Codex. One day I caught him attempting to steal it, and I knew then that
he 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 assassins
after Perry and me. They were human and we dealt with them easily. The next
night, the assassins were decidedly less than human. So Perry and I took the
Book, gathered up our few belongings and fled Paris. He s been chasing us
ever since.
They stopped at a cross light. A trio of British tourists was waiting for the
light to change and Flamel fell silent, a quick glance at Sophie and Josh
warning them to say nothing. The light changed and they crossed, the tourists
heading 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 creature
that 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 she
felt: here she was, listening to a man who claimed to be more than five
hundred years old, recounting historical events as if he had been there when
they happened. And she believed him!
Dee came dangerously close to capturing us in Paris in 1763, Flamel
continued, and again in 1835, when we were in Rome working as booksellers,
as it happens. That was always my favorite occupation, he added. He fell
silent as they approached a group of Japanese tourists listening intently to
their guide, who was standing beneath a bright yellow umbrella. When they
were out of earshot, he continued, the events of more than a century and a
half earlier obviously still fresh and bitter in his memory.
We fled to Ireland, thinking he would never find us on that island at the
edge of Europe. But he pursued us. He had managed to master the control of
Wights then, and brought two over with him: the Disease Wight and the Hunger
Wight, no doubt intending to set them on our trail. At some point he lost
control of the creatures. Hunger and disease ravaged that poor land: a
million people died in Ireland s Great Famine in the 1840s. Nicholas
Flamel's face hardened into a mask. I doubt if Dee even paused to think
about it. He always had nothing but contempt for humankind.
Sophie glanced at her brother again. She could tell by the expression on his
face that he was concentrating hard, trying to keep up with the deluge of
information. She knew he would want to go online and check out some of the
details. But he never caught you, she said to Flamel.
Not until today. He shrugged and smiled sadly. It was inevitable, I
suppose. Throughout the twentieth century, he kept getting closer. He was
becoming more powerful, his organization was melding ancient magic and modern
technology. Perry and I hid out in Newfoundland for a long time until he
loosed Dire Wolves on us, and then we drifted from city to city, starting on
the East Coast in New York in 1901 and gradually moving westward. I suppose
it was only a matter of time before he caught up with us, he added.
Cameras, videos, phones and the Internet make it so much harder to remain
hidden nowadays.
This book this Codex he was looking for , Josh began.
The Book of Abraham the Mage, Flamel clarified.
What s so special about it?
Nicholas Flamel'stopped in the middle of the sidewalk so suddenly that the
twins walked right past him. They turned and looked back. The rather
ordinary-looking man spread his arms wide, as if he were about to take a bow.
Look at me. Look at me! I am older than America.
about the book. Flamel lowered his voice and continued urgently. But you
know something the secret of life eternal is probably the
secrets in the Codex.
Sophie found herself slipping her hand into her brother s. He squeezed
lightly and she knew, without his saying a word, that he was as frightened as
she was.
With the Codex, Dee can set about changing the world.
Changing it? Sophie s voice was a raw whisper, and abruptly, the May air
felt chilly.
Changing it how? Josh demanded.
Remaking it, Flamel'said softly. Dee and the Dark Elders he serves will
remake this world as it was in the unimaginably ancient past. And the only
place for humans in it will be as slaves. Or food.
CHAPTER SIX
Dee preferred this century s method of choice: the cell phone. Settling back
into the cool leather interior of the limousine, he flipped open the phone,
pointed it to where Perenelle Flamel was slumped unconscious between two
dripping Golems and took a quick picture.
Madame Perenelle Flamel. His prisoner. Now,
the photo album.
Dee keyed in a number and hit Send, then he tilted his head, looking at the
graceful woman across from him. Capturing Perenelle had been an extraordinary
stroke of good fortune, but he knew he d only managed it because she d used
up so much energy destroying his Golem. He stroked his small triangular
beard. He was going to have to make more Golems soon. He looked at the two
opposite: in the brief time they had been outside in the early-afternoon sun,
they had started to crack and melt. The big one on Perenelle s left was
dripping black river mud across the leather seat.
Perhaps he would choose something other than Golems next time. The brutish
creatures worked fine in damper climates, but were especially unsuited to a
West Coast summer. He wondered if he still had the recipe to create a ghoul.
It was Perenelle who presented him with a problem, however a serious problem:
he simply wasn't sure how powerful she was.
Dee had always been rather in awe of the tall, elegant Frenchwoman. When he d
first apprenticed himself to Nicholas Flamel, the Alchemyst, he d made the
mistake of underestimating her. He d quickly found that Perenelle Flamel was
at least as powerful as her husband in fact, there were some areas in which
