put to rest an extremely ugly Snakeman.
I m not sure I even want to know what a Snakeman is, Sophie muttered, then
paused. You know, a couple of hours ago, I could never have imagined myself
saying something like that?
Nicholas Flamel'sat back in the comfortable seats and folded his arms across
his chest. Your lives yours and your brother s are now forever altered. You
know that, don't you?
Sophie nodded. That'sbeginning to sink in now. It s just that everything s
happening so fast that it s hard to take it all in. Mud men, magic, books of
spells, rats She looked at Scathach. Ancient warriors
Scatty dipped her head in acknowledgment.
And of course, a six-hundred-year-old alchemyst Sophie stopped, a sudden
thought crossing her mind. She looked from Flamel to Scatty and back again.
Then she took a moment to formulate her question. Staring hard at the man,
she asked, You
Nicholas Flamel grinned. Yes. Perhaps a little more than human, but yes, I
was born and will always be one of the human race.
Sophie looked at Scathach. But you re
Scathach opened her green eyes wide, and for a single instant, something
ancient was visible in the planes and angles of her face. No, she said very
quietly. I am not of the race of humani. My people were of different stock,
the Elder Race. We ruled this earth before the creatures who became humani
climbed down from the trees. Nowadays, we are remembered in the myths of just
about every race. We are the creatures of legend, the Were clans, the
Vampire, the Giants, the Dragons, the Monsters. In stories we are remembered
as the Old Ones or the Elder Race. Some stories call us gods.
Were you ever a god? Sophie whispered.
Scatty giggled. No. I was never a god. But some of my people allowed
themselves to be worshipped as gods. Others simply became gods as humani told
tales of their adventures. She shrugged. We were just another race, an
older race than man, with different gifts, different skills.
What happened? Sophie asked.
The Flood, Scatty said very softly, amongst other things.
The earth is a lot older than most people imagine, Flamel'said quietly.
Creatures and races that are now no more than myth once walked this world.
Sophie nodded slowly. Our parents are archaeologists. They ve told us about
some of the inexplicable things that archaeology sometimes reveals.
Remember that place we visited in Texas, Taylor something , Josh said,
carefully easing the heavy SUV into the middle lane. He d never driven
anything so big before, and was terrified he was going to hit something. He d
had a couple of near misses and was convinced he d actually clipped someone s
side mirror, but he d kept going, saying nothing.
The Taylor Trail, Sophie said, at the Paluxy River in Texas. There are
what look like dinosaur footprints and human prints in the same fossilized
piece of stone. And the stone is dated to one hundred million years old.
I have seen them, Flamel replied, and others like them all across the
world. I have also examined the shoe print that was found in Antelope Springs
in Utah in rock about five hundred million years old.
My dad says things like that can be easily dismissed as either fakes or
misinterpretation of the facts, Josh said quickly. He wondered what his
father would say about the things they had seen today.
Flamel'shrugged. Yes, that is true. But what science cannot understand, it
dismisses. Not everything can be so easily brushed aside. Can you dismiss
what you've seen and experienced today as some sort of misinterpretation of
the facts?
Sophie shook her head.
Beside her, Josh shrugged uncomfortably. He didn't like the direction this
conversation was taking. Dinosaurs and humans living together at the same
time was simply inconceivable. The very idea went against everything his
parents had taught them, everything they believed. But somewhere at the back
of his mind, a small voice kept reminding him that every year
archaeologists including his parents kept making extraordinary discoveries. A
couple of years earlier, it was
Indonesia, nicknamed Hobbits; then there was the species of dwarf dinosaur
discovered in Germany, and the hundred-and-sixty-five-million-year-old
dinosaur tracks found in Wyoming and, only recently, the eight new
prehistoric species discovered in a cave in Israel. But what Flamel was
suggesting was staggering in its implications. You re saying that humans and
dinosaurs existed on the earth at the same time, Josh said, surprised that
he sounded so angry.
I m saying that humans have existed on the earth with creatures far
stranger, and much older than the dinosaurs, Flamel'said seriously.
How do you know? Sophie demanded. He claimed to have been born in 1330, he
couldn t have seen dinosaurs could he?
It s all written down in the Codex and, in the course of my long life, I ve
seen beasts that are considered myths, I ve fought beings from legend, I ve
faced down creatures that looked like they crawled from a nightmare.
We did Shakespeare in school last term . There s a line from
frowned, trying to remember. There are more things in heaven and earth
Nicholas Flamel nodded delightedly. than are dreamt of in your philosophy,
he finished the quotation.
Shakespeare, of course. Now, Will could have been an alchemist of
extraordinary talent but then he fell into Dee s clutches. Poor Will; do you
know that he based the character of Prospero in
I never liked Shakespeare, Scatty muttered. He smelled.
You knew Shakespeare? Josh was unable to keep the disbelief out of his
voice.
He was my student briefly, very briefly, Flamel'said. I ve lived a long
time; I ve had a lot of students some made famous by history, most forgotten.
I ve met a lot of people, human and unhuman, mortal and immortal. People like
Scathach, Flamel finished.
There are more like you more of the Elder Race? Sophie asked, looking at
the red-haired girl.
More than you might think, though I try not to associate with them, Scatty
said uneasily. There are those amongst the Elders who cannot accept that our
time is past, that this age belongs to the humani. They want to see a return
to the old ways, and they believe that their puppet Dee and others like him
are in a position to bring that about. They are called the Dark Elders.
I don't know if anyone has noticed, Josh interrupted suddenly, but would
