transformation spells were failing: was Hekate that powerful? He had to end
this now.
Dr. John Dee lifted the short-bladed sword in his hand. Dirty blue light
coiled down its length, and for an instant the ancient stone blade hummed as
an invisible breeze moved across the edge. The twisting snakes carved into
its hilt came to twisting, hissing life.
Gripping the hilt tightly, Dee pressed the point of the blade against the
gnarled bark of the ancient tree and pushed.
Excalibur slid smoothly into the wood, sinking right up to the hilt without
resistance. For a long moment nothing happened, and then Yggdrasill began to
moan. The sound was like that of an animal in pain: beginning as a deep
grumbling, it quickly rose to a high-pitched whimpering. Where the hilt of
the sword protruded from the tree, a blue stain appeared. Like dripping ink,
it flowed down the tree and seeped into the ground, then the oily blue light
ran along the veins and seams of wood. Yggdrasill s cries grew higher and
higher, until they were almost beyond human hearing. The surviving Torc Allta
fell to the ground, writhing in pain, clutching at their ears; birdmen
whirled in confusion and the cat-people began to hiss and howl in unison.
The blue stain raced around the tree, coating everything in a thin veneer of
glittering ice crystals that reflected the light. Blue-black and purple-green
rainbows shimmered in the air.
The oily stain shot up the length of the tree and out along the branches,
turning everything it touched to faceted crystals. Even the fire was not
immune to it. Flames froze, fire caught in ornate and intricate patterns,
then spiderwebbed, like ice on the surface of a pond, and dissolved to
sparkling dust. Where the blue stain touched the leaves, they hardened and
broke away from the branches. They did not spiral to the ground: they fell
and shattered with tiny tinkling sounds, while the branches, now solid pieces
of ice, ripped away from the trunk of the tree and crashed to the earth. Dee
threw himself to one side to avoid being impaled by a three-foot length of
frozen branch. Catching hold of Excalibur s hilt, he dragged the stone blade
free of the ancient tree and ran for cover.
The Yggdrasill was dying. Huge slabs of bark sheared off, like icebergs
breaking away from an ice cap, and crashed to the ground, littering the
beautiful Shadowrealm landscape with shards of razor-sharp ice.
Keeping his distance and watching for falling branches, Dee raced around the
tree; he needed to see Hekate.
The Goddess with Three Faces was dying.
Standing quite still before the crumbling Yggdrasill, Hekate was flickering
through her three faces young, mature and old in heartbeats. The change was
happening so fast that her flesh had no time to adapt and she was caught
between phases: young eyes in an old face, a girl s head on a woman s body, a
woman s body with a child s arms. Her ever-changing dress had lost all color
and was the same solid black as her skin.
Dee stood beside the Morrigan and they watched in silence. Bastet rejoined
them, and together the three observed Hekate and Yggdrasill s last moments.
The World Tree was now almost entirely blue, covered with a sheath of ice.
Frozen roots had burst through the ground, destroying the perfect symmetry of
the earth, cutting thick gouges in the soil. Huge holes had appeared in the
massive trunk, revealing the circular rooms within, which were warped and
stained with the blue ice.
Hekate's transformations slowed. The changes were taking longer to
materialize because now the blue stain was slowly creeping up her body,
hardening her skin, turning it to ice crystals.
The Morrigan glanced at the blade in Dee s hand, then quickly looked away.
Even after all these years in our employ, Dr. Dee, you can still surprise
us, she said quietly. I was not aware that you possessed the Sword of Ice.
I m glad I brought it, Dee said, not directly answering her. It seems
Hekate's powers were stronger than we suspected. At least my guess that her
strength was connected to the tree was correct.
What remained of the Yggdrasill was now a solid block of ice. Hekate, too,
was completely covered beneath a frozen sheet, though behind the blue
crystals, her butter-colored eyes were bright and alive. The top of the tree
began to melt, dirty water running down the length of the bark, cutting deep
grooves into it.
When I realized that she had the power to nullify your spells, I knew I had
to do something, Dee said. I saw how the cats and birds were reverting to
their natural shapes.
That was not Hekate's doing, Bastet growled suddenly, her accent thick, her
voice beastlike.
The Morrigan and Dee turned to look at the Cat Goddess. The creature raised a
furry claw and pointed across the field. It was the girl. Someone spoke
through her, someone who knew my true names, someone who used the girl s aura
to wield a whip of pure energy: That'swhat reversed our spells.
Dee looked across the field where he had seen Flamel, Scatty and the twins
gathered around the oak tree. But there was no sign of them. He was turning
to order the surviving cats and birds to find them when he spotted Senuhet
staggering up. The old man was spattered with mud and blood though none of
the blood seemed to be his and he had lost one of his curved bronze swords.
The second had snapped in half.
Flamel and the others have escaped, he gasped. I followed them out of the
Shadowrealm. They re stealing our car, he added indignantly.
Howling his rage, Dr. John Dee spun around and flung Excalibur at the
Yggdrasill. The stone blade struck the ancient World Tree, which tolled with
the solemn sound of a great bell. The single note, high-pitched and serene,
hung vibrating on the air and then the Yggdrasill began to crack. Long
fractures and tears ran the height of the tree. They started small, but
widened as they raced upward in ragged patterns. Within moments the entire
tree was covered in the crazed zigzagging. Then the Yggdrasill shattered and
came crashing down on the ice statue of Hekate, crushing it to dust.
CHAPTER THIRTY
wash over him. The keys were in the ignition. He pulled open the rear door
and held it while Nicholas Flamel hurried toward the car, carrying Sophie in
