contained only in the Codex and that was one of the many reasons why Dee, and
the Dark Elders he sided with, wanted the Codex. With it in their possession,
they would be able to control time itself.
Along with Perenelle, Nicholas Flamel had spent most of his long life
studying the elemental forces. While Perry had trained herself in different
styles of magic, he had concentrated on the formulae and theorems from the
Codex. These formed the basis of the study of alchemy, which was a type of
science. Using the formulae, he had learned how to turn base metal into gold
and coal into diamonds, but there was very little magic involved. True, it
was a remarkably complex formula and required months of preparation, but the
process itself was almost ridiculously simple. One day he had been poor, the
next wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Taking Perry s advice, he had founded
hospitals, established orphanages and funded schools in his native Paris.
Those had been good times no, more than that they had been great times. Life
had been so much simpler then. They had not known about the Elder Race, had
not begun to suspect even the tiniest portion of dark knowledge the Codex
contained.
In recent years, Nicholas would sometimes awaken at the quietest hour of
night with a single thought spinning round and round in his head: if he had
known then what he knew now about the Codex, would he have continued his
research into the philosopher s stone? That path had ultimately brought him
into contact with the Elder Race notably the Dark Elders and had brought Dr.
John Dee into his life. It had forced Perry and him to fake their own deaths
and flee Paris and ultimately to spend the next half millennium in hiding.
But the study of the Codex had also made them both immortal. Most nights he
answered yes: even knowing all he knew now, he would still have continued his
studies and become the Alchemyst.
But there were rare occasions, like today, when the answer was no. Now he
stood to lose Perenelle, probably the lives of the innocent twins and the
not-so-innocent Scathach though she would not be so easy to kill and there
was also a chance that he had doomed the world.
Nicholas felt himself grow cold at the thought. The Book of Abraham was full
of what he had first assumed to be stories, legends, myths and tales. Over
the centuries, his research had revealed that all the stories were true, all
the tales were based on fact, and what he believed to be legends and myths
were simply reports of real beings and actual events.
The Elder Race existed.
They were creatures that looked human sometimes but had the powers of gods.
They had ruled for tens of thousands of years before the creatures they
called the humani humankind appeared on the earth. The first primitive humani
worshipped the Elder Race as gods and demons and over generations had
constructed whole mythologies and belief systems based around an individual
or a collection of Elders. The gods and goddesses of Greece and Egypt, of
Sumeria and the Indus Valley, of the Toltec and the Celt, existed. They
weren t different gods, however; they were simply the same Elders called by
different names.
The Elder Race divided into two groups: those who worked with the humani and
those who regarded them as little better than slaves and, in some cases,
food. The Elders warred against one another in battles that took centuries to
complete. Occasionally humani would fight on one side, and their exploits
were recalled in great legends like those of Gilgamesh and Cuchulain, Atlas
and Hippolytus, Beowulf and Ilya of Murom.
Finally, when it became clear that these wars might destroy the planet, the
mysterious Abraham, using a powerful collection of spells, forced all of the
Elder Race even those who supported the humani to retreat from the earth.
Most were like Hekate and went willingly, settling into a Shadowrealm of
their own creation, and afterward had little or no contact with the humani.
Others, like the Morrigan, though she was greatly weakened, continued to
venture out into the humani world and worked to restore the old ways. Others
still, like Scathach, lived anonymously among humankind. Flamel eventually
came to understand that the Codex, which contained the spells that had driven
the Elder Race from this world and into their Shadowrealms, also contained
the spells that would allow them to return.
And if the Dark Elders returned, then the civilization of the twenty-first
century would be wiped away in a matter of hours as the godlike creatures
warred among themselves. It had happened before; mythology and history
recorded the event as the Flood.
Now Dee had the Book. All he needed were the two pages Flamel could feel
pressed against his flesh. And Nicholas Flamel knew that Dee and the Morrigan
would stop at nothing to get those pages.
Flamel hung his head and wished he knew what to do. He wished Perenelle were
with him; she would surely have a plan.
A bubble burst on the surface of the water.
Another bubble popped and burst.
Flamel'scrambled back from the pool s edge. Tendrils of mist were rising from
the surface of the water, tiny bubbles popping and snapping. A shape began to
form out of the mist cloud a surprising shape: that of an elderly man in a
security guard s uniform. The shape hovered, twisting and curling over the
pond. The late-evening sunshine shone through the water drops, turning each
one into a brilliant rainbow of light. You are a ghost? Nicholas asked.
Yes, sir, I am. Or I was until Mrs. Flamel freed me.
Do you know me? Nicholas Flamel asked. He wondered quickly if this might be
a trick of Dee s, but then he dismissed the idea: the sorcerer was powerful,
but there was no way he could penetrate Hekate's defenses.
The mist shifted and thickened. Yes, sir, I believe I do: you are Nicholas
Flamel, the Alchemyst. Mrs. Flamel asked me to go in search of you. She
suggested that I would find you here, in this particular Shadowrealm. She
overheard Dee mention that you were here.
She is unharmed? Flamel asked eagerly.
She is. The small man they call John Dee is terrified of her, though the
other woman is not.
What woman?
A tall woman, wearing a cloak of black feathers.
The Morrigan, Flamel'said grimly.
Aye, and That'sthe message A fish leapt out of the pond and the figure
dissolved into a thousand water droplets that hung frozen in the air, each
one a tiny portion of a jigsaw that made up the ghost. Mrs. Flamel'says you
have to leave and leave now. The Crow Goddess is gathering her forces to
invade the Shadowrealm.
