01_-_The_Alchemyst

Scathach’s name. “All in all, a good day’s work, I think.” He focused his full
attention on the biggest rat and issued two simple commands: “Attack. Kill.”
Dee closed his eyes as the rat uncoiled and launched itself into the
room.
The green light flowed out from Flamel’s fingers and ran along the
floorboards, outlining the planks in green light. Abruptly, the wooden floor
sprouted twigs, branches, leaves and then a tree trunk…then another…and a
third. Within a dozen heartbeats a thicket of trees sprouted out of the floor
and were visibly climbing toward the ceiling. Some of the trunks were no
thicker than a finger, others were wrist thick and one, close to the door, was
so wide it almost filled the opening.
The rats turned and scattered, squealing as they raced down the
corridor, desperately attempting to leap over the click-clacking blades.
Flamel scrambled back and climbed to his feet, brushing off his hands.
“One of the oldest secrets of alchemy,” he announced to the wide-eyed twins
and Scatty, “is that every living thing, from the most complex creatures right
down to the simplest leaf, carries the seeds of its creation within itself.”
“DNA,” Josh murmured, staring at the forest sprouting and growing
behind Flamel.
Sophie looked around the once-spotless dojo. It was now filthy,
spattered and splashed with muddy water, the smoothly polished floorboards
broken and cracked with the trees growing from them, more foul-smelling
mud in the hallway. “Are you saying that alchemists knew about DNA?” she
asked. The Alchemyst nodded delightedly. “Exactly. When Watson and Crick
announced that they had discovered what they called ‘the secret of life’ in
1953, they were merely rediscovering something alchemists have always
known.”
“You’re telling me that you somehow woke the DNA in those
floorboards and forced trees to grow,” Josh said, choosing his words
carefully. “How?”