And then the smile faded as he felt his cell phone buzz silently in his back
pocket. For an instant he was tempted to ignore it; he d given his staff
strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed unless it was an absolute
emergency. He pulled out the ultraslim Nokia and glanced down.
A picture of a sword pulsed gently on the large LCD screen.
Machiavelli s smile vanished completely. In that second he knew he was not
going to be able to buy the Kabuki masks this century. Turning on his heel,
he strode out of the room and pressed the phone to his ear. Behind him, he
could hear the auctioneer s gavel hit the lectern. Sold. For two hundred and
sixty thousand euro.
I m here, Machiavelli said, reverting to the Italian of his youth.
The connection popped and crackled, and then, from the other side of the
world, in the city of Ojai, north of Los Angeles, an English-accented voice
responded in the same language, using a dialect that had not been heard in
Europe for more than four hundred years. I need your help.
The man on the other end of the line didn't identify himself, nor did he need
to; Machiavelli knew it was the immortal magician and necromancer Dr. John
Dee, one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the world.
Niccol Machiavelli hurried out of the small hotel into the broad cobbled
square of the Place du Tertre and stopped to breathe in the chill night air.
What can I do for you? he asked cautiously. He detested Dee and knew the
feeling was mutual, but they both served the Dark Elders, and that meant they
had been forced to work together through the centuries. Machiavelli was also
slightly envious that Dee was younger than he and looked it. Machiavelli had
been born in Florence in 1469, which made him fifty-eight years older than
the English Magician.
Flamel is back in Paris.
Machiavelli straightened. When?
Just now. He got there through a leygate. I ve no idea where it comes out.
He s got Scathach with him.
Machiavelli s face twisted into an ugly grimace. The last time he d
encountered the Warrior, she d pushed him through a door. It had been closed
at the time, and he d spent nearly a month picking splinters from his chest
and shoulders. He hadn't been able to sit down for a week.
There are two humani children with him. Americans, Dee said, voice echoing
and fading on the transatlantic line. Twins, he added.
Say again? Machiavelli asked.
Twins, Dee snapped, with pure gold and silver auras. You know what that
means, he said.
Yes, Machiavelli muttered. It meant trouble.
The girl s powers were Awakened by Hekate before the goddess and her
Shadowrealm were destroyed. I believe the Witch of Endor has instructed the
girl in the Magic of Air.
What do you want me to do? Machiavelli asked carefully, although he already
had a very good idea.
Find them, Dee snapped. Capture them. I m on my way over there, but it s
going to take me fourteen or fifteen hours to get to Paris.
What happened to the leygate? Machiavelli wondered aloud.
Destroyed by the Witch of Endor, Dee said bitterly, and she nearly killed
me, too. I was lucky to escape with a few cuts and scratches, he added, and
then ended the call without saying good-bye.
Niccol Machiavelli closed his phone carefully and tapped it against his
bottom lip. Somehow he doubted that Dee had been lucky if the Witch of Endor
had wanted him dead, then even the legendary Dr. Dee would not have escaped.
Machiavelli turned and walked across the square to where his driver was
patiently waiting with the car. If Flamel, Scathach and the AmeriCan'twins
had come to Paris via a leygate, then there were only a few places in the
city where they could have landed. It should be relatively easy to find and
capture them.
If he could do it tonight, then he would have fifteen hours to work on his
captives before Dee arrived.
And in that time they would tell him everything they knew. Half a millennium
on this earth had taught Niccol Machiavelli how to be very persuasive
indeed.
Where exactly are we? Josh Newman demanded, looking around, trying to make
sense of what had just happened. One second he d been in the Witch of Endor s
shop in Ojai and the next Sophie had pulled him
been a chill of disorientation and he d squeezed his eyes shut. When he d
opened them again, he d found he was standing in what looked like a tiny
storage room. Pots of paints, stacked ladders, broken pieces of pottery and
bundled paint-spattered cloths were piled around a large, rather
ordinary-looking, grimy mirror fixed to the stone wall. A single low-wattage
bulb shed a dim yellow light over the room.
We re in Paris, Nicholas Flamel'said delightedly. The city of my birth.
How? Josh asked. He looked at his twin sister, but she had pressed her head
to the room s only door and was listening intently. She waved him away. He
looked at Scathach, but she just shook her head, both hands pressed to her
mouth. She looked as if she was about to throw up. How did we get here? he
said to Flamel.
This earth is crisscrossed with invisible lines of power sometimes called
ley lines or cursus, Flamel explained. Where two or more lines intersect, a
gateway exists. Gates are incredibly rare now, but in ancient times the Elder
Race used them to travel from one side of the world to the other in an
instant just as we did. The Witch opened the leygate in Ojai and we ended up
here, in Paris.
I hate them, Scatty mumbled. Even in the gloomy light, she looked green.
You ever been seasick? she asked.
Josh shook his head. Never.
Sophie lifted her head from the door. Josh gets seasick in a swimming pool.
She grinned, then pressed the side of her face back against the door
Seasick. That'sexactly what it feels like. Only worse.
Sophie lifted her head to look at the Alchemyst. Do you have any idea where
we are in Paris?
Someplace old, Flamel'said, joining her at the door.
Sophie shook her head and stepped back. I m not so sure, she said. With her
Awakened powers and the Witch of Endor s knowledge, she was struggling to
make sense of the countless emotions and impressions surging within her. The
building they were in didn't feel old, but if she listened carefully enough,
she could actually hear the murmurs of countless ghosts. She touched the wall
