The smell is getting stronger, Sophie said, her Awakened senses acutely
aware of the odor. Concentrating hard, she allowed a little of her power to
trickle into her aura, which bloomed into a ghostly shadow around her.
Crackles of lustrous silver threads sparkled in her blond hair, and her eyes
turned to reflective silver coins.
Almost unconsciously, Josh stepped away from his sister. He d seen her like
this before, and she' d scared him.
That means he' s close by. He s working some magic, Scatty said.
Nicholas ?
I just need another minute. Flamel s fingertips glowed emerald green,
smoking as they traced a pattern around the lock. A solid click sounded from
within, but when the Alchemyst tried the handle, the door didn't move. Maybe
more than a minute.
Too late, Josh whispered, raising an arm and pointing. Something s here.
At the opposite end of the great basilica, the banks of candles had gone out.
It was as if an unfelt breeze was sweeping down the aisles, snuffing out the
flickering circular night-lights and thicker candles as it passed, leaving
curls of gray-white smoke hanging on the air. Abruptly, the smell of candle
wax grew stronger, much, much stronger, almost obliterating the odor of
serpent.
I can' t see anything , Josh began.
It' s here! Sophie shouted.
The creature that flowed up off the cold flagstones was only marginally
human. Standing taller than a man, broad and grotesque, it was a gelatinous
white shape with only the vaguest hint of a head set directly onto broad
shoulders. There were no visible features. As they watched, two huge arms
separated from the trunk of the body with a squelch and grew handlike shapes.
Golem! Sophie shouted in horror. A wax Golem! She flung out her hand and
her aura blazed. Ice-cold wind surged from her fingertips to batter the
creature, but the white waxy skin simply rippled and flowed beneath the
breeze.
Protect Nicholas! Scathach commanded, darting forward, her matched swords
flickering out, biting into the creature, but without any effect. The soft
wax trapped her swords, and it took all her strength to pull them free. She
struck again and chips of wax sprayed into the air. The creature struck at
her, and she had to abandon her grip on her swords as she danced backward to
avoid the crushing blow. A bulbous fist thundered into the floor at her feet,
spattering globules of white wax in every direction.
Josh grabbed one of the folding wooden chairs stacked outside the gift shop
at the back of the church. Holding it by two legs, he slammed it into the
creature s chest where it stuck fast. As the wax shape turned toward Josh,
the chair was wrenched from his hands. He grabbed another chair, darted
around behind the creature and slammed the chair down. It shattered across
the creature' s shoulders, leaving scores of splinters protruding like bizarre
porcupine spines.
Sophie froze. She desperately tried to recall some of the secrets of Air
magic that the Witch of Endor had taught her only a few hours ago. The Witch
said it was the most powerful of all magics and Sophie had seen what it had
done to the undead army of long-deceased humans and beasts Dee had raised in
Ojai. But she had no idea what would work against the wax monster before her.
She knew how to raise a miniature tornado, but she couldn't risk calling it
up in the confined space of the basilica.
Nicholas! Scatty called. With her swords stuck in the creature, the Warrior
was using her nunchaku two lengths of wood attached by a short chain to
batter at the Golem. They left deep indentations in its skin but otherwise
seemed to have no effect. She delivered one particularly fierce blow that
embedded the polished wood in the creature s side. Wax flowed around the
nunchaku, trapping them. When the creature twisted toward Josh, the weapon
was ripped from the Warrior s hands, sending her spinning across the room.
A hand that was only thumb and fused fingers, like a giant mitten, caught
Josh' s shoulder and squeezed. The pain was incredible and drove the boy to
his knees.
Josh! Sophie screamed, the sound echoing in the huge church.
Josh tried to pull the hand away, but the wax was too slippery and his
fingers sank into the white goo. Warm wax began to flow off the creature s
hand, then curl and wrap around his shoulder and roll down onto his chest,
constricting his breathing.
Josh, duck!
Sophie grabbed a wooden chair and swung it through the air. It whistled over
her brother s head, the wind ruffling his hair, and she brought it down
hard edge-first on the thick wax arm where the elbow should have been. The
chair stuck halfway through, but the movement distracted the creature and it
abandoned Josh, leaving him bruised and coated in a layer of candle wax. From
his place kneeling on the ground, Josh watched in horror as two gelatinous
hands reached for his twin s throat.
Terrified, Sophie screamed.
Josh watched as his sister s eyes flickered, the blue replaced with silver,
and then her aura blazed incandescent the moment the Golem s paws came close
to her skin. Immediately, its waxy hands began to run liquid and spatter to
the floor. Sophie stretched out her own hand, fingers splayed, and pressed it
against the Golem' s chest, where it sank, sizzling and hissing, into the mass
of wax.
Josh crouched on the ground, close to Flamel, his hands thrown up to protect
his eyes from the brilliant silver light. He saw his sister step closer to
the creature, her aura now painfully bright, arms spread wide, an invisible
unfelt heat melting the creature, reducing the wax to liquid. Scathach s
swords and nunchaku clattered to the stone floor, followed, seconds later, by
the remains of the wooden chair.
Sophie' s aura flickered and Josh was on his feet and by her side to catch her
as she swayed. I feel dizzy, she said thickly as she slumped into his arms.
She was barely conscious, and she felt ice cold, the usually sweet vanilla
scent of her aura now sour and bitter.
Scatty swooped in to gather up her weapons from the pile of semiliquid wax
that now resembled a half-melted snowman. She fastidiously wiped her blades
clean before she slipped them back into the sheaths she wore on her back.
Picking curls of white wax off her nunchaku, she slipped them back into their
holster on her belt; then she turned to Sophie. You saved us, she said
gravely. That' s a debt I' ll not forget.
Got it, Flamel said suddenly. He stood back, and Sophie, Josh and Scathach
