Part 13 (1/2)
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.
”Niten?” Nicholas asked.
”Battery's dead.” The immortal turned the key in the ignition, but it clicked uselessly.
Nicholas reached up to turn on the overhead light. Nothing happened. ”The Shadowrealm has drained the power.”
”What do we do?” Josh asked.
”We sit and wait,” the Alchemyst said.
With a growing sense of unease, Sophie watched as the mud figures crowded in closer around the car. Wherever they touched it, they deposited streaks of what looked like dried and flaking earth on the s.h.i.+ning metal. One flailing arm left a muddy smear across the winds.h.i.+eld; another pressed against her door, completely coating the gla.s.s in sticky brown-gray mud. There was a thump as something fell onto the roof, and then the car rocked from side to side with the ma.s.s of heavy bodies pressing against it.
”What's happening?” Josh asked, a tremor in his voice. A figure started to crawl across the hot hood of the car, the heat drying out its soft flesh, leaving chunks stuck to the metal.
”Don't open the windows!” Sophie said suddenly, her voice cracking. She sounded different than usual-old and hoa.r.s.e, her words heavy with an unidentifiable accent. ”They must not touch us.”
Aoife spun in the seat to look at her, green eyes narrowing suspiciously. ”How do you know that?”
”The Witch told me,” Sophie whispered. Her blue eyes flickered silver, then turned shockingly green for a single instant. She turned to look out the window. Directly in front of her, its unformed face inches from hers, was one of the muddy creatures. Sophie saw her own face reflected in the gla.s.s, superimposed over the blank mask, and she drew back in fright. She knew what had attracted the creatures and what they wanted. ”They're drawn to our auras,” she said very slowly, her voice still touched by the same accent. ”Though they move, they are without the spark of true life. If they can but touch us, then they will be able to suck our auras away and wrap them around themselves, giving themselves the semblance of life.”
Aoife's pale skin had turned ghastly white, her freckles looking like spots of blood across her cheeks and nose. ”You sound like... like...” She shook her head. ”But that's impossible.”
Sophie turned to look at Aoife. She brushed strands of blond hair away from her face and looked directly at the warrior. She concentrated hard, and her blue eyes gradually paled, fading almost to white, then settling into a metallic silver. The faintest of glows touched them, and the car was filled with the scent of vanilla.
”Who are you?” Aoife demanded. ”What are you?”
When Sophie didn't answer, Nicholas sat forward and said, ”Sophie was Awakened by Hekate, and then your grandmother taught her the Magic of Air. At the same time, the Witch pa.s.sed on her memories. Sophie knows all that the Witch knew.”
Aoife pulled back from Sophie, her face suddenly blank. ”I don't believe it.”
”It's true,” Josh said.
”Why are you frightened?” Sophie asked. Memories came flooding into her consciousness, and she nodded slowly as she answered her own question. ”You fear what I know.”
”I am afraid of nothing!” Aoife said quickly.
”I think you have been afraid all your life.”
”This is some sort of trick,” Aoife snapped, with the tiniest tremor in her voice. ”Flamel or the Sorceress has schooled you.” Wisps of her ugly gray aura coiled off her body like steam, leaking from her nose and ears. ”If you truly know all that the Witch of Endor knew, then tell me her true name, her secret name.”
”Zephaniah,” Sophie breathed. And even as she said the name, her heart started to hammer as sudden vivid memories washed over her. Closing her eyes, she drew in a deep breath...
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX.
Zephaniah drew in a deep breath and opened her eyes to look across the nameless Archon metropolis.
The city had been an ancient ruin before the Great Elders had stumbled across it and hacked it free of the primeval forest. There was even evidence to suggest that the mysterious Archons had not built the city, but had simply occupied the deserted gla.s.s-and-gold buildings, which dated from the Time Before Time. When the Great Elders relocated to the newly created Isle of Danu Talis, the unnamed city had been abandoned once again to the forest. Now the gleaming metal spires were wrapped around with thick vines, and the gla.s.s walls and glittering black stone streets were covered with creepers and trailing roots. It was deserted-no animals moved in the tumbled city, no birds flew overhead and the usual jungle noises were completely absent.
”This place frightens me,” she said aloud.
Her huge red-haired, red-bearded companion remained silent. Shading his eyes from the sun, he slowly looked across the city, searching for any signs of life or movement.
Zephaniah unrolled a map etched onto a piece of skin from a long-extinct lizard and pressed it against a green gla.s.s wall. Tilting her head to one side, she tried to make sense of the squiggles and arcane script. ”We're here,” she said doubtfully, pointing at the map.
An enormous hand reached over her shoulder, flattened the map against the wall, then slowly turned it upside down. A blunt-nailed finger pointed. ”We're here, sister!”
Zephaniah took hold of the coa.r.s.e red hair that covered the back of the man's hand and tugged hard.
”Ouch! What did you do that for?” Prometheus demanded.
”Because.”
”Because?”
”To remind you that not only are you my little brother, I'm in charge of this expedition.”
The warrior in the rust-colored leather armor grinned. ”That's only because Abraham likes you more than he likes me.”
Zephaniah's smile faded. ”To be honest, I don't think Abraham likes either of us,” she said softly.
Prometheus rested his hand on his sister's shoulder and brought his head down close to hers, strands of his graying red hair mingling with hers. His solid green eyes were troubled. ”I know you like him, but be careful, sister. I have heard rumors that he is mingling Archon technology and Elder magic in ways that have never been used before.” He saw something s.h.i.+ft behind his sister's green eyes and cupped her small chin in his hand, tilting her face upward. ”You knew this...,” he said accusingly.
”A little,” she admitted. ”He told me that he is creating an encyclopedia of the entire world's knowledge. He is calling it a Codex.”
”That must be a big book,” Prometheus said with a smile.
”He believes he can get it into twenty-one pages.”
The red-haired warrior started to shake his head. ”I was going to say impossible, and then I realized that for Abraham nothing is impossible. Did he tell you why?” Prometheus asked. But before his sister could answer, he spun around to look behind him, quickly scanning the edges of the encroaching forest. All morning he'd had the feeling that they were being followed. Although nothing moved in the city, the surrounding countryside teemed with life: he'd even spotted serpents that he'd thought had died out long ago. There were monstrous lizards in the rivers, and thunderbirds still soared high in the skies. But he didn't think it was a beast on their trail. On two separate occasions, he'd caught the smell of something rank and rotten, something long dead. He'd seen nothing, yet he knew this was not just his imagination: there was something in the forest, watching them.
”Abraham believes the world will end...,” the slight red-haired woman with the huge round green eyes said.
Prometheus laughed. ”He's been promising that for centuries. If he says it long enough, then one day he'll be right.”
Even though they were alone in the vast city, Zephaniah lowered her voice. ”He has entered into an alliance with Chronos...”
Prometheus's face twisted in disgust.
”I believe the Master of Time has given him a date for the end of the world.”
”I would not trust that old monster as far as I could throw him.”
Zephaniah smiled at the sudden image. Her brother, Prometheus, was immensely strong, and Chronos was tiny. Rolling up the map, she stuck it into the metal tube she wore strapped across her back. ”This way?” she asked.