reality, the doctor intended to return it to its original use as one of the
most secure prisons in the world. The doctor briefly thought about flying out
to the island to talk to Perenelle, but dismissed the idea as a waste of
time. The missing pages from the Codex and the twins were his priorities.
Although Bastet had said to kill them if he couldn t kidnap them, Dee had
other ideas.
Dee knew of the famous prophecy from the Book of Abraham the Mage. The Elders
had known that twins were coming, the two that are one, the one that is
all. One to save the world, one to destroy it. But which one was which? he
wondered. And could their powers be shaped and twisted by the instruction
they received? Finding the boy was becoming as important as finding the
missing pages of the Codex. He had to have that gold aura.
Dr. John Dee had lived in Ojai briefly at the turn of the twentieth
century it was still called the city of Nordhoff then when he d been
plundering the surrounding Chumash burial grounds for their precious
artifacts. He d hated it: Ojai was too small, too insular and, in the summer
months, simply too hot for him. Dee was always happiest in the largest of
cities, where it was easier to be invisible and anonymous.
He d flown from San Francisco down to Santa Barbara in the company
helicopter, and rented a nondescript-looking Ford at the small airport. Then
he d driven down from Santa Barbara, arriving in Ojai just as the sun was
setting in a spectacular display, painting the town in long, elegant shadows.
Ojai had changed dramatically in the hundred or so years since he d last seen
it but he still didn't like it.
He turned the car onto Ojai Avenue and slowed. Flamel and the others were
close; he could feel it. But he had to be careful now. If he could sense
them, then they especially the Alchemyst and Scathach would be able to sense
him. And he still had no idea what the Witch of Endor was capable of doing.
It was extremely worrying that a very senior Elder had been living in
California and he d been totally unaware of her presence. He thought he knew
the locations of most of the important Elders and human immortals in the
world. Dee wondered if it was significant that he had not been able to
contact the Morrigan throughout the day. He d phoned her with persistent
regularity on the drive down, but she wasn't answering her cell. She was
either on eBay or playing one of the interminable online strategy games she
was addicted to. He didn't know where Bastet was and didn't care. She
frightened him, and Dee tended to destroy those people who scared him.
Flamel, Scathach and the twins could be anywhere in the town. But where?
Dee allowed a little energy to trickle into his aura. He blinked as his eyes
blurred with sudden tears, and blinked again to clear them. Suddenly, the
people in the car next to his, those crossing the road, and the pedestrians
on the sidewalk were outlined in shifting multicolored auras. Some auras were
just wisps of diaphanous tinted smoke, others were dark spots and sheets of
solid muddy colors.
In the end, he found them entirely by chance: he was driving down Ojai Avenue
and had gone past Libbey Park when he spotted the black Hummer parked on Fox
Street. He pulled in behind it and parked. The moment he got out of his car,
he caught the merest hint of a pure gold aura coming from the park, close to
the fountain. Dee s thin lips curled in a humorless smile.
They would not escape this time.
Josh Newman sat by the long, low fountain in Libbey Park directly across from
the antiques shop and stared into the water. Two flower-shaped bowls, one
larger than the other, were set in the center of a circular pool. Water
spouted from the top bowl and flowed over the sides into the larger bowl
beneath. This in turn overflowed into the pool. The sound helped drown out
the nearby traffic noises.
He felt alone, and more than a little lost.
When the Witch had made him leave the antiques shop, he d walked beneath the
shaded promenade and stopped in front of the ice cream shop, lured there by
the odors of chocolate and vanilla. He stood outside, reading the menu of
exotic flavors, and wondered why his sister s aura smelled of vanilla ice
cream and his of oranges. She didn't even really like ice cream; he was the
one who loved it.
His finger tapped the menu: blueberry chocolate chip.
Josh shoved his hand in the back pocket of his jeans and felt a rising moment
of panic as realized his wallet was missing. Had he left it in the car, had
he ? He stopped.
He knew exactly where he d left it.
The last place he d seen his wallet, along with his dead cell, his iPod and
his laptop, was on the floor next to his bed in his room in the Yggdrasill.
Losing his wallet was bad enough, but losing his computer was a disaster. All
his e-mails were on it, along with his class notes, a partially written
summer honors project, three years of photos including the trip to Canc n at
Christmas and at least sixty gigs of MP3s. He couldn t remember the last time
he had backed up, but it definitely wasn't recently. He actually felt
physically ill, and suddenly, the odors from the ice cream parlor didn't
smell so sweet and enticing.
Thoroughly miserable, he walked to the corner and crossed at the lights
facing the post office, then turned left, heading toward the park.
The iPod had been a Christmas present from his parents. How was he going to
explain to them that he d lost it? Plus there was close to another thirty
gigs of music on the little hard drive.
But worse than losing his iPod, his wallet or even his computer was losing
his phone. That was a total nightmare. All his friends numbers were on it,
and he knew he hadn't written them down anywhere. Because their parents
traveled so much, the twins were rarely more than one or two semesters at the
same school. They made friends easily especially Sophie and they were still
in touch with friends they d met years earlier in schools scattered across
America. Without those e-mail addresses and phone numbers, how was he
supposed to get in touch with them, how would he ever find them again?
There was a water fountain in a little nook before the entrance to the park,
and he bent his head to drink. An ornamental metal lion s head was set into
the wall over the fountain, and below it there was a small rectangular plaque
with the words
splash over his lips and straightened to look over at the shop, wondering
what was happening inside. He still loved his sister, but did she love him?
Libbey Park was quiet. Josh could hear children racing around the nearby
playground, but their voices sounded high and very distant. A trio of old
