the rest of the house. If he had delayed a moment longer, he would have
walked right past the opening.
Enough of these games, Flamel'snapped, stepping into the room.
Hekate'spun to face him. She had aged in the few moments she had spent
running down the corridor. She now looked about fifteen. Her face was set in
an ugly mask and her yellow eyes were bitter. How dare you speak to me that
way! She raised her hands threateningly. You know what I can do to you.
You would not dare, Flamel'said with a calm that he did not feel.
And why not? Hekate asked, surprised. She was not used to being
contradicted.
Because I am the Guardian of the Book.
The book you lost
I am also the Guardian who appears in the prophecies in the Book, Flamel
snapped. The next-to-last Guardian, he added. The twins also appear in the
book. You say you knew Abraham you know then how accurate his prophecies and
foretellings were.
He was often wrong, Hekate muttered.
As Guardian, I am asking you to do something I believe to be essential to
the survival of not only the Elder Race, but humani, too: I want you to
Awaken the twins magical potential.
It could kill them, the goddess stated flatly. She didn't really care if
the humani cattle lived or died.
That is a possibility, Flamel admitted, feeling something icy settle in the
pit of his stomach, but if you do not help us, then their deaths are a
certainty.
Hekate turned and walked to the window. Across the sloping lawn, Scathach was
demonstrating a series of punches for the twins. They were smoothly mimicking
her moves. Flamel went to join Hekate by the window.
What a world we live in, he commented, sighing, when everything possibly
even the continuance of the human race lies on the shoulders of those
teenagers.
You know why the humani triumphed and the Elder Race was ultimately
banished? Hekate asked suddenly.
Because of iron, wasn't it?
Yes, because of iron. We survived the Fall of Danu Talis, we survived the
Flood, and the Age of Ice. And then, about three thousand years ago, a single
metalworker, who had been crafting in bronze, began to experiment in the new
metal. He was just one man and yet he managed to wipe out an entire race of
people and a way of life. Great change always comes down to the actions of a
single person. Hekate fell silent, watching the twins punch and kick next to
Scathach. Silver and gold. The rarest of all auras, she muttered, and for a
single heartbeat, the auras bloomed around the twins. If I do this and it
kills them, will you be able to live with it on your conscience?
I am old now, so old, Nicholas said very softly. Do you know how many
friends I ve buried over the centuries?
And did you feel their loss? There was a note of genuine curiosity in
Hekate's voice.
Every one.
Do you still?
Yes. Every day.
The goddess reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. Then you are
still human, Nicholas Flamel. The day you stop caring is the day you become
like Dee and his kind. She turned back to the garden and looked at the
twins. They were both trying, and failing, to land blows on Scathach, who was
ducking and weaving, though not moving from the one spot. From the distance
they looked like three ordinary teenagers practicing a new dance, but Hekate
knew that there was nothing ordinary about any of them.
I'll do it, she said eventually, I'll Awaken their powers. The rest is up
to you. You will have to train them.
Flamel bowed his head so she would not see the tears in his eyes. If the
twins survived the Awakening, then there was a chance, albeit a slim one,
that he would get to see Perenelle again. Tell me, he began, then coughed
to clear his throat. The man who discovered how to process iron that
blacksmith three thousand years ago. What happened to him?
I killed him, Hekate'said, her yellow eyes wide and innocent. His actions
destroyed us. What else could I do? But it was too late. The secret of iron
had been introduced into the world.
Flamel looked at the twins, watched Josh haul his sister to her feet, watched
her hook a leg behind his and drop him to the ground. Their laughter hung
bright and clear in the predawn air. He prayed that they were not too late
this time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Singly and in pairs, feral and scarred street cats, plump, smooth-coated
house cats, all shapes, every size, purebred and mixed, long-haired and
short-haired, they moved through the shadows in a silent feline wave. They
surged across the bridges, boiled through alleys, raced through the tunnels
beneath the streets, leapt across roofs.
All heading north.
They darted past shocked and terrified late-night revelers, skirted rats and
mice without stopping to feed, ignored birds nests. And although they moved
in complete silence, their passage was marked by an extraordinary sound.
That night the city of San Francisco echoed with the primeval howls of a
hundred thousand dogs.
Dr. John Dee was unhappy.
And just a little bit frightened. It was all very well to talk about
attacking Hekate in her own Shadowrealm, but it was another thing entirely to
sit at the entrance to her invisible kingdom and watch the cats and birds
arrive, called by their respective mistresses, Bastet and the Morrigan. What
could those small creatures do against the ancient magic of Hekate of the
Elder Race?
Dee sat in a huge black Hummer alongside Senuhet, the man who acted as
Bastet s servant. Neither of them had spoken during the short flight in Dee s
