01_-_The_Alchemyst

sword whipped around, slicing away the arms, but that didn’t even slow
them down. She shoved her nunchaku back into her belt and pulled out her
second sword. She struck out again, both swords forming an X in the middle
of the air, and lopped off both heads, sending them bouncing back into the
fog. The skeletons crumpled into a disarray of bones.
“Josh,” Sophie called again, her voice high in desperation. “Josh.
Where are you?” Maybe the mummies and skeletons had gotten to him first.
Maybe he was going to loom up out of the fog any minute now, eyes blank
and staring, head twisted at an awkward angle. She shook her head, trying to
clear the ghoulish thoughts.
Flamel’s hands burned with cold green fire, and the damp fog was rich
with the odor of mint. He snapped his fingers and sent a sheet of virescent
fire blazing into the fog. The fogbanks glowed emerald and aquamarine, but
otherwise, the magic had no effect. Flamel next threw a small ball of green
light directly in front of two lurching skeletons who loomed up before him.
Fire blazed over the creatures, crisping the remains of their gray Confederate
uniforms. They continued forward, bones clacking on the street, closing in on
him, and there were hundreds more behind them.
“Sophie, get the Witch! We need her help.”
“But she can’t help us,” Sophie said desperately. “There’s nothing more
she can do. She has no power left: she’s given everything to me.”
“Everything?” Flamel gasped, ducking beneath a swinging fist. He
placed his hand on the center of the dead man’s rib cage and pushed, sending
the skeleton flying back into the crowd, where it fell in a tangle of bones.
“Well then, Sophie, you do something!”
“What?” she called. What could she do against an army of the undead?
She was a fifteen-year-old girl.
“Anything!”
A mummified arm shot out of the fog and cracked her across the
shoulder. It was like being hit by a wet towel.
Fear, revulsion and anger lent her strength. Right at that moment,
however, she couldn’t remember anything the Witch had taught her, but then