01_-_The_Alchemyst

“It’s all written down in the Codex…and, in the course of my long life,
I’ve seen beasts that are considered myths, I’ve fought beings from legend,
I’ve faced down creatures that looked like they crawled from a nightmare.”
“We did Shakespeare in school last term…. There’s a line from
Hamlet.” Sophie frowned, trying to remember. “There are more things in
heaven and earth…”
Nicholas Flamel nodded delightedly. “…than are dreamt of in your
philosophy,” he finished the quotation. “Hamlet, act one, scene five. I knew
Will Shakespeare, of course. Now, Will could have been an alchemist of
extraordinary talent…but then he fell into Dee’s clutches. Poor Will; do you
know that he based the character of Prospero in The Tempest on Dee?”
“I never liked Shakespeare,” Scatty muttered. “He smelled.”
“You knew Shakespeare?” Josh was unable to keep the disbelief out of
his voice.
“He was my student briefly, very briefly,” Flamel said. “I’ve lived a
long time; I’ve had a lot of students—some made famous by history, most
forgotten. I’ve met a lot of people, human and unhuman, mortal and immortal.
People like Scathach,” Flamel finished.
“There are more like you…more of the Elder Race?” Sophie asked,
looking at the red-haired girl.
“More than you might think, though I try not to associate with them,”
Scatty said uneasily. “There are those amongst the Elders who cannot accept
that our time is past, that this age belongs to the humani. They want to see a
return to the old ways, and they believe that their puppet Dee and others like
him are in a position to bring that about. They are called the Dark Elders.”
“I don’t know if anyone has noticed,” Josh interrupted suddenly, “but
would you say there are a lot of birds gathering?”
Sophie turned to stare through the windshield, while Flamel and Scatty
peered through the back window.
The spars and pylons, the braces, ropes and wires of the Golden Gate
Bridge were slowly filling with birds: thousands of them. Mainly blackbirds