The Alchemyst

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

T urn here, Nicholas Flamel instructed.

Josh eased his foot off the accelerator and turned the battered and scarred

SUV down a long narrow track that was barely wide enough to accommodate the

car. They had spent the last thirty minutes driving north out of San

Francisco, listening to the increasingly hysterical radio reports as a

succession of experts gave their opinions about the bird attack on the

bridge. Global warming was the most commonly cited theory: the sun s

radiation interfering with the birds natural navigation system.

Flamel directed them north, toward Mill Valley and Mount Tamalpais, but they

quickly left the highway and stuck to narrow two-lane roads. Traffic thinned

out until there were long stretches where they were the only car in sight.

Finally, on a narrow road that curved and turned with sickening complexity,

he had Josh slow almost to a crawl. He rolled down his window and peered out

into a thick forest that came right up to the edge of the road. They had

actually driven past the unmarked path before Flamel'spotted it. Stop. Go

back. Turn here.

Josh looked at his sister as he eased the car onto the rough, unpaved and

rutted track. Her hands were folded in her lap, but he could see that her

knuckles were white with tension. Her nails, which had been neat and perfect

only a few hours previously, were now rough and chewed, a sure sign of her

stress. He reached over and squeezed her hand; she squeezed tightly in

return. As with so much of the communication between them, there was no need

for words. With their parents away so much, Sophie and Josh had learned from

a very early age that they could only really depend on themselves. Moving

from school to school, neighborhood to neighborhood, they often found it

difficult to make and keep friends, but they knew that whatever happened,

they would always have each other.

On either side of the overgrown path, trees rose high into the heavens and

the undergrowth was surprisingly thick: wild brambles and thorn bushes

scraped at the side of the car, while furze, gorse, and stinging nettles,

wrapped through with poison ivy, completed the impenetrable hedge.

I ve never seen anything like it, Sophie murmured. It s just not natural.

And then she stopped, realizing what she d just said. She swiveled around in

the seat to look at Flamel. It s not natural, is it?

He shook his head, suddenly looking old and tired. There were dark rings

under his eyes, and the wrinkles on his forehead and around his mouth seemed

deeper. Welcome to our world, he whispered.

There s something moving through the undergrowth, Josh announced loudly.

Something big I mean really big. After everything he d seen and experienced

so far today, his imagination started working overtime. It s keeping pace

with the car.

So long as we stay on the track, we shall be fine, Flamel'said evenly.

Sophie peered into the dark forest floor. For a moment she saw nothing, then

she realized that what she d first taken for a patch of shadow was, in fact,

a creature. It moved, and sunlight dappled its hairy hide. She caught a

glimpse of a flat face, a pug nose and huge curling tusks.

It s a pig a boar, she corrected herself. And then she spotted three more,

flanking the right-hand side of the car.

They re on my side too, Josh said. Four of the hulking beasts were moving

through the bushes to his left. He glanced in the rearview mirror. And

behind us.

Sophie, Scatty and Nicholas turned in their seats to stare through the rear

window at the two enormous boars that had slipped through the undergrowth and

were trotting along on the path behind them. Sophie suddenly realized just

how big the creatures were each one was easily the size of a pony. They were

hugely muscled across the shoulders, and the tusks jutting up from their

lower jaws were enormous, starting out as thick as her wrist before tapering

to needle-sharp points.

I didn't think there were any wild boars in America, Josh said, and

certainly not in Mill Valley, California.

There are wild boars and pigs all over the Americas, Flamel'said absently.

They were first brought over by the Spanish in the sixteenth century.

Josh shifted gears, eased off the accelerator and allowed the car to move

forward at a crawl. The road had come to a dead end. The barrier of bushes,

thorns and trees now stretched across the path. End of the road, he

announced, putting the car into park and setting the emergency brake. He

looked left and right. The boars had also stopped moving, and he could see

them, four to a side, watching. In the rearview mirror, he could see that the

two larger boars had stopped too. They were boxed in. What now, he wondered,

what now? He looked at his sister and knew she was thinking exactly the same

thing.

Nicholas Flamel leaned forward between the seats and looked at the barrier.

I believe this is here to discourage the foolhardy who have traveled this

far. And if one were exceptionally foolish, one might be tempted to get out

of one s vehicle.

But we are neither foolhardy nor foolish, Scatty snapped. So what do we

do? She nodded at the boars. I haven t seen this breed in centuries. They

look like Gaulish war boars, and if they are, then they are virtually

impossible to kill. For every one we can see, there are probably at least

three more in the shadows, and That'snot counting their handlers.

These are not Gaulish; this particular breed has no need of handlers,

Flamel'said gently, the merest hint of his French accent surfacing. Look at

their tusks.

Sophie, Josh and Scatty turned to look at the tusks of the huge creatures

standing in the middle of the track behind them. They ve got some sort of

carvings on them, Sophie said, squinting in the late-afternoon light.

Curls.

Spirals, Scatty said, a touch of wonder in her voice. She looked at Flamel.

They are Torc Allta?

Indeed they are, Flamel'said. Wereboars.

By wereboars, Josh said, do you mean like werewolves?

Scatty shook her head impatiently. No, not like werewolves

That'sa relief, Josh said, because for a second there I thought you were

taking about humans who changed into wolves.

Werewolves are Torc Madra, Scatty continued, as if she hadn't heard him.

They re a different clan altogether.

Sophie stared hard at the nearest boar. Beneath its piglike features, she

thought she could begin to see the shapes and planes of a human face, while

the eyes cool and bright, bright blue regarded her with startling

intelligence.

Josh turned back to the steering wheel, gripping it tightly. Wereboars of

course they are different from werewolves. Different clan entirely, he

muttered, how silly of me.

What do we do? Sophie asked.

We drive, Nicholas Flamel'said.

Josh pointed at the barrier. What about that?

Just drive, the Alchemyst commanded.

But , Josh began.

Do you trust me? Flamel asked for the second time that day. The twins

looked at each other, then back at Flamel, and nodded, heads bobbing in

unison. Then drive, he said gently.

Josh eased the heavy SUV into gear and released the emergency brake. The

vehicle crept forward. The front bumper touched the seemingly impenetrable

barrier of leaves and bushes and vanished. One moment it was there; the next,

it was as if the bushes had swallowed the front of the car.

The SUV rolled into the bushes and trees, and for a single instant everything

went dark and chill, and the air was touched with something bittersweet like

burnt sugar and then the path appeared again, curving off to the right.

How , Josh began.

It was an illusion, Flamel explained. Nothing more. Light twisted and

bent, reflecting the images of trees and bushes in a curtain of water vapor,

each drop of moisture acting as a mirror. And just a little magic, he added.

He pointed ahead with a graceful motion. We re still in North America, but

now we've entered the domain of one of the oldest and greatest of the Elder

Race. We ll be safe here for a while.

Scatty made a rude sound. Oh, she s old, all right, but I m not so sure

about great.

Scathach, I want you to behave yourself, Flamel'said, turning to the

young-looking but ancient woman sitting beside him.

I don't like her. I don't trust her.

you've got to put aside your old feuds.

She tried to kill me, Nicholas, Scatty protested. She abandoned me in the

Underworld. It took me centuries to find my way out.

That was a little over fifteen hundred years ago, if I remember my

mythology, Flamel reminded her.

I ve got a long memory, Scatty muttered; for an instant she looked like a

sulky child.

Who are you talking about? Sophie demanded, and then Josh hit the brakes,

bringing the heavy car to a halt.

wouldn't be a tall woman with black skin, would it? windshield Josh asked.

Sophie spun around to look through the cracked, while Flamel and Scatty

leaned forward.

That'sher, Scatty said glumly.

The figure stood in the path directly in front of the car. Tall and broad,

the woman looked as if she had been carved from a solid slab of jet-black

stone. The merest fuzz of white hair covered her skull like a close-fitting

cap, and her features were sharp and angular: high cheekbones; straight,

pointed nose; sharply defined chin; lips so thin they were almost

nonexistent. Her pupils were the color of butter. She was wearing a long,

simple gown made of a shimmering material that moved gently in a wind that

didn't seem to touch anything around her. As it shifted, rainbow colors ran

down its length, like oil on water. She wore no jewelry, though Sophie

noticed that each of her short blunt fingernails was painted a different

color.

doesn't look a day over ten thousand years old, Scatty muttered.

Be nice, Flamel reminded her.

Who is it? Sophie asked again, staring hard at the woman. Although she

looked human, there was something different, something otherworldly about

her. It showed in the way she stood absolutely still and in the arrogant tilt

of her head.

This, Nicholas Flamel'said, a note of genuine awe in his voice, is the

Elder known as Hekate. He pronounced the name slowly, HEH-ca-tay.

The Goddess with Three Faces, Scatty added bitterly.