01_-_The_Alchemyst

were short and splayed, their cheekbones pronounced, and their chins
receded sharply. The hint of yellow teeth was visible behind thin lips. The
men were bare-chested and barefoot, wearing only leather kilts, onto which
rectangular plates of metal had been sewn. And their chests, legs and heads
were covered with coarse red hair.
Sophie suddenly realized that she was staring, and deliberately turned
away. The men looked like some breed of primitive hominid, but she knew
the differences between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, and her father had
plaster skulls of Australopithecus, Peking man and the great apes in his
study. These men were none of those. And then she noticed that their eyes
were blue: bright blue, and incredibly intelligent-looking.
“They’re Torc Allta,” she said, and then froze in surprise when
everyone turned to look at her. She hadn’t realized she had spoken aloud.
Josh, who’d been staring suspiciously at what might have been a chunk
of fish he’d forked out of a big bowl of stew, glanced at the backs of the four
young men. “I knew that,” he said casually.
Sophie kicked him under the table. “You did not,” she muttered. “You
were too busy checking out the food.”
“I’m hungry,” he said, then leaned across to his twin. “It was the red
hair and piggy noses that gave it away,” he murmured. “I thought you’d
realized that.”
“It would be a mistake to let them hear you say that,” Nicholas Flamel
interrupted quietly. “It would also be a mistake to judge by appearances or to
comment on what you see. In this time, in this place, different standards,
different criteria apply. Here words can kill—literally.”
“Or get you killed,” Scathach added. She had piled her plate high with
an assortment of vegetables, only some of which were familiar to the twins.
She nodded in the direction of the tree. “But you are right: they are Torc Allta
in their humani form. Probably the finest warriors of any time,” she said.
“They will accompany you when you leave here,” the old woman said
suddenly, her voice surprisingly strong coming from such a frail-looking
body.