01_-_The_Alchemyst

dribble and drip sticky green light. The scarred head of a tabby cat pushed
through the opening, mouth gaping, fangs glinting. It spotted Scatty and lunged
for her—and a drop of the gooey light splashed off the top of its head. The
cat-headed human went wild. It threw itself back into the corridor, where it
immediately attacked everything in its path. A birdman stepped up to the
opening, and was doused in the dripping green light. Its black wings abruptly
developed holes and tears, and it fell back with a hideous chattering cawing.
Josh noticed that although the green light, which had the consistency of honey,
burned the creatures, it had no effect on the wood. He knew he should be
paying more attention, but all his concern was focused on his sister. She was
breathing quickly, and behind her closed eyelids her eyes were dancing.
Scatty scrambled to her feet and darted back to Flamel and Josh. “Very
impressive, I’m sure,” she muttered. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Flamel spun the staff like a baton. “This focuses my power.”
Scatty looked around. “We seem to be trapped.”
“Hekate went this way,” Nicholas said, turning to the right and pointing
to what looked like an impenetrable barrier of knotted roots. “I saw her come
running out of the chamber and walk straight through this.” He stepped up to
the knotted wood and stretched out his arm. It disappeared right up to the
elbow.
“I’ll go first,” Scatty said. Josh noticed that although she had been
fighting the deadly combination of birds and cats, there was neither a scratch
on her body nor a hair out of place. She wasn’t even breathing hard—though
if she really was a vampire, then maybe she didn’t need to breathe at all, he
thought. Scatty darted forward, and in the last moment before she reached the
wall of roots, she dived straight into the opening, swords crossed over her
chest.
Flamel and Josh looked at one another in the brief moment that
followed…and then Scatty’s head poked through the solid-looking tangle of
roots. “All clear.”
“I’ll take the rear,” Flamel said, stepping back to allow Josh to go
ahead of him. “I’ll deal with anything that follows us.”