CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
It took him several seconds before he realized where he was: sitting on the
edge of the fountain in Libbey Park, while all around him thick,
foul-smelling banks of fog shifted and twisted and crawled with half-glimpsed
skeletons and mummified bodies clothed in rags.
Sophie!
He had to get to his sister. To his right, in the middle of the gray-black
fog, green light sparkled and silver flared, briefly illuminating the mist
from within, casting monstrous shadows. Sophie was there; Flamel and
Scathach, too, fighting these monsters. He should be with them.
He came shakily to his feet and discovered Dr. John Dee standing directly in
front of him.
Dee was outlined in a sickly yellow aura. It sparked and spat and hissed like
burning fat and gave off the rancid odor of rotten eggs. The man had his back
to him. He was leaning both forearms against the low stone wall next to the
drinking fountain Josh had used earlier. Dee was staring intently at the
events taking place in the street, concentrating so hard he was shaking with
the effort of controlling the seemingly endless line of skeletons and
mummified humans shuffling past. Now that he was on his feet, Josh noticed
that there were other creatures in the fog too. He could see the remains of
bears and tigers, mountain cats and wolves.
He heard Flamel'shout and Sophie scream, and his first thought was to rush at
Dee. But he doubted he d even get close. What could he do against this
powerful magician? He wasn't like his twin: he had no powers.
But that didn't mean he was useless.
Sophie s scream sent out a shock wave of icy air that shattered the
saber-toothed tiger to powder and knocked back the nearest skeletons. The
huge bear crashed to the ground, crushing a dozen skeletons beneath its bulk.
The blast of air had also cleared away a patch of fog, and for the first
time, Sophie realized the enormity of what they were facing. There weren t
dozens or even hundreds, there were thousands of the Old West s dead marching
down the street toward them. Dotted through the mass were the bony remains of
the animals that had hunted in the surrounding mountains for centuries. She
didn't know what else she could do. The final use of magic exhausted her, and
she slumped against Scathach, who caught her in her left arm while holding
one sword in her right hand.
Flamel climbed tiredly to his feet. Using magic had drained his reserves of
energy as well, and even in the past few minutes he had aged. The lines
around his eyes were deeper, his hair thinner. Scathach knew he could not
survive much longer.
Give him the pages, Nicholas, she urged.
He shook his head stubbornly. I will not. I cannot. I ve spent my life
protecting the Book.
He who retreats lives longer, she reminded him.
He shook his head. Flamel was bent over, breathing in great heaving gulps of
air. His skin was deathly pale, with two spots of unnaturally bright red on
his cheeks. This is the exception, Scathach. If I give him the pages, then
I ve condemned all of us Perry, too, and the entire world to destruction. He
straightened and turned to face the creatures for what they all knew would be
the last time. Could you get Sophie away from here?
Scathach shook her head. I cannot fight them and carry her.
Could you get away on your own?
I could fight my way out, she said carefully.
Then go, Scatty. Escape. Get to the other Elders, contact the immortal
humans, tell them what happened here, start fighting the Dark Elders before
it is too late.
I'll not leave you and Sophie here, Scathach said firmly. We re in this
together to the end. Whatever that may be.
It s time to die, Nicholas Flamel, Dee called out of the gloom. I'll make
sure to tell Perenelle about this moment in every little detail.
A rustle ran through the mass of skeletal human and animal bodies, and then,
as one, they surged forward.
And a monster came out of the fog.
Huge and black, howling savagely, with two huge yellow-white eyes and dozens
of smaller eyes blazing, it drove straight through the Libbey Park fountain,
crushing it to powder, shattering the ornamental vases, and bore down on Dr.
John Dee.
The necromancer managed to fling himself to one side before the black Hummer
crashed into the wall, pounding it to dust. It stuck nose-down against the
remains of the wall, back wheels caught in the air, engine screaming. The
door opened and Josh climbed out and carefully lowered himself to the ground.
He was holding his chest where the seat belt had cut into it.
Ojai Avenue was littered with the remains of the long dead. Without Dee to
control them, they were just so many bones.
Josh staggered into the street and picked his way through the bones and
scraps of cloth. Something crunched beneath his feet, but he didn't even look
down.
Suddenly, the dead were gone.
Sophie didn't know what had happened. There had been a tremendous roar, a
scream of tortured metal and a crunch of stone and then silence. And in the
silence, the dead had fallen down like windblown grass. What had Dee summoned
now?
A shape moved in the twisting fog.
Flamel gathered the last of his energy into a solid sphere of green glass.
Sophie straightened and tried to muster the dregs of her energy. Scathach
flexed her fingers. She d once been told that she d die in an exotic
location; she wondered if Ojai in Ventura County qualified as exotic enough.
The shape loomed closer.
Flamel raised his hand, Sophie gathered the winds and Scathach lifted her
notched sword. Josh stepped out of the night. I ve wrecked the car, he
said.
Sophie screamed with delight. She ran to her brother, and then her scream
turned to one of horror. The skeletal bear had risen from the ground behind
him, paws poised to strike.
Scathach moved, hitting Josh hard, shoving him out of the way, and sent him
tumbling into a mess of bones. The Warrior s swords parried the bear s
sweeping blow, sparks blinking in the fog. She struck out again, and a bear
claw as long as her hand tumbled through the air.
