01_-_The_Alchemyst

“Well, imagine what would happen if tens of thousands of birds
gathered.”
“Tens of thousands,” Sophie whispered.
“More like hundreds of thousands,” Scatty said, turning into a narrow
corridor. “The nathair scouts estimate maybe half a million.”
“And didn’t you say something about cats?” Josh asked.
“Yes, I did. More than we can count.”
Josh looked at his sister, the realization of the terrible danger they faced
really beginning to sink in now. They could die in this strange Shadowrealm
and no one would ever know. He felt tears prickling his eyes and blinked
them away; their parents would spend the rest of their lives wondering what
had happened to them.
The corridor they were following turned into another, even narrower
passageway. The ceiling was so low that both twins had to walk with their
heads ducked down. There were no steps or stairs, but the corridor circled
down and down in a long, slow spiral. The twins realized that they were
going into the ground deep beneath the tree. The walls became darker, the
smooth wood now scarred with straggling roots that curled out and pulled at
their hair with clutching fingers. The air turned damp, perfumed with loam
and fresh earth, rotting leaves and new growth.
“The house is alive,” Sophie said in wonder as they turned into another
twisting, spiraling corridor that was completely composed of the gnarled and
bulbous roots of the great tree that rose above them. “Even with us moving
around inside, with the rooms and the windows and the pools—it’s still a
living tree!” She found the idea both astonishing and frightening at the same
time.
“This tree was grown from a seed of the Yggdrasill, the World Tree,”
Scatty said quietly, rubbing the palm of her hand against the exposed roots.
She brought her palm to her face and breathed deeply, drawing in the aroma.
“Millennia ago, when Danu Talis sank beneath the waves, a few of the
Elders were able to rescue some of the flora and fauna and transplant it to