01_-_The_Alchemyst

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nicholas Flamel watched Sophie and Josh follow Scathach into the
tree. Only when the door had closed behind them did his colorless eyes
betray the worry he felt. That had been close: another heartbeat or two and
Hekate would have reduced Josh to bubbling liquid. He wasn’t sure if she
would have been able to reconstitute him in the morning when she had taken
on her maiden form. He had to get the twins away from her before their
ignorance got them into trouble.
Flamel walked away from the ruined table and followed the slope of the
tree limb down to the pool. He stepped off the branch and onto a narrow
unpaved path. There were a multitude of marks in the mud—some were boar
tracks, others looked more like human feet…and some were a curious
mixture of both. He knew he was being followed, that his every movement
was being tracked by creatures he couldn’t see, and he guessed that the Torc
Allta were probably the least of Hekate’s guards.
Crouching by the water’s edge, he took a deep breath and allowed
himself a moment to relax. It would be true to say that this had been one of
the more eventful days in his long life, and he was exhausted.
From the moment Dee had snatched Perry and the Codex and the twins
had appeared, Flamel knew that one of the first prophecies he had read in the
Book half a millennium previously was beginning to come true.
“The two that are one, the one that is all.”
The Codex was full of cryptic phrases and incomprehensible sayings.
Most of them were concerned with the annihilation of Danu Talis, the ancient
homeland of the Elder Race, but there was also a series of prophecies that
had to do with the return of the Dark Elders and the destruction and
enslavement of the humani.