Nicholas Flamel 1 - The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

Author:Michael Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

S cathach was waiting by the enormous open doors when Sophie and Josh

returned to the tree. The pterosaur hopped along behind them, and the other

two circled low in the sky over their heads, the downdraft of their wings

setting eddies of dust circling and dancing around them. Although nothing was

said, the twins knew they were being gently but firmly herded back toward the

house.

In the gloom, Scathach s face was unnaturally pale, her cropped red hair

black in the shadows. Although her lips were set in a grim line, her voice,

when she spoke, was carefully neutral. Do you really want me to tell you

just how stupidly dangerous that was?

Josh opened his mouth to reply, but Sophie caught his arm, silencing him. We

just wanted to go home, she said simply, tiredly. She already knew what the

Warrior was going to say.

You cannot, Scathach said, and turned away.

The twins hesitated at the door, then turned to look back at the pterosaur.

It tilted its snakelike head and regarded them with a huge slit-pupiled eye,

and its voice echoed flatly in their heads. don't worry too much about

Scathach; her bark is much worse than her bite. The creature opened its

mouth to show hundreds of triangular teeth in what might have been a smile.

I do believe she was worried about you, it added, then turned away, ran in

a series of short hops and took to the air with a crack of wings.

don't say a word, Sophie warned her brother. Josh s quips and comments were

always getting him into trouble. Whereas Sophie had the ability to see

something and keep her mouth shut, her brother always had to make a comment

or observation.

You re not the boss of me, Josh snapped, but his voice was shaky. Josh had

a fear of snakes going back to the time he d gone camping with their father

and had fallen into a rattlesnake nest. Luckily, the deadly serpent had just

fed and had chosen to ignore him, giving him the seconds he d needed to

scramble away. He d had nightmares about snakes for weeks after that, and

still did occasionally, when he was particularly stressed usually at exam

time. The huge, serpentlike pterosaurs belonged to his darkest nightmares,

and when they d come hopping out of the night, he d felt his heart hammering

so powerfully that the skin on his chest had actually pulsed. When that

long-toothed face had leaned toward him, he d been sure he was going to

faint. Even now, he could feel the icy sweat trickling along the length of

his spine.

Sophie and Josh followed Scathach through Hekate's house. The twins were

aware now of movement in the shadows, floorboards creaking underfoot, wooden

walls popping and cracking as if the house were moving, shifting, growing.

They were also conscious that the voices, the screams and shouts of earlier,

had fallen silent.

Scathach led them to an empty circular room where Nicholas Flamel was

waiting. He stood facing away from them, hands clasped tightly against the

small of his back, and stared out into the shadowed night. The only light in

the room came from the huge moon now starting to dip toward the horizon.

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