The Alchemyst

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

T he cats of San Francisco left the city in the dead of night.

Singly and in pairs, feral and scarred street cats, plump, smooth-coated

house cats, all shapes, every size, purebred and mixed, long-haired and

short-haired, they moved through the shadows in a silent feline wave. They

surged across the bridges, boiled through alleys, raced through the tunnels

beneath the streets, leapt across roofs.

All heading north.

They darted past shocked and terrified late-night revelers, skirted rats and

mice without stopping to feed, ignored birds nests. And although they moved

in complete silence, their passage was marked by an extraordinary sound.

That night the city of San Francisco echoed with the primeval howls of a

hundred thousand dogs.

Dr. John Dee was unhappy.

And just a little bit frightened. It was all very well to talk about

attacking Hekate in her own Shadowrealm, but it was another thing entirely to

sit at the entrance to her invisible kingdom and watch the cats and birds

arrive, called by their respective mistresses, Bastet and the Morrigan. What

could those small creatures do against the ancient magic of Hekate of the

Elder Race?

Dee sat in a huge black Hummer alongside Senuhet, the man who acted as

Bastet s servant. Neither of them had spoken during the short flight in Dee s

private jet from L.A. to San Francisco earlier, though there were a thousand

questions Dee wanted to ask the older man. Over the years he had come to

recognize that the servants of the Dark Elders like himself did not like to

be questioned.

They had reached the entrance to Hekate's Shadowrealm close to two o clock,

and were in time to see the first of the Morrigan s creatures arriving. The

birds swooped in from the north and east in long, dark flocks, the only sound

the snapping of their wings, and settled in the trees in Mill Valley,

gathering so thickly that some of the branches cracked beneath the strain.

Over the next few hours, the cats arrived.

They poured out of the darkness in a never-ending stream of fur, and then

stopped all facing the hidden opening to the Shadowrealm. Dee looked out his

car window: he couldn t see the ground. It was covered, as far as he could

see in every direction, with cats.

Finally, just as the eastern horizon began to pale with salmon-colored light,

Senuhet lifted a small black statue from a bag he wore around his neck and

placed it on the dashboard. It was a beautifully carved Egyptian cat no

bigger than his little finger. It is time, he said softly.

The eyes of the black statue glowed red.

She is coming, Senuhet said.

Why didn't we attack earlier, when Hekate'slept? Dee asked. Despite several

hundred years of study about the Dark Elders, he realized that, in truth, he

knew very little. But that gave him some comfort, because he realized that

they knew equally little about humans.

Senuhet waved his hand, gesturing to the gathered birds and cats. We needed

our allies, he said shortly.

Dee nodded. He guessed that Bastet was even now moving through the various

Shadowrealms that bordered the human world. The Elder Race s aversion to iron

meant that certain modern conveniences like cars and planes were off limits

to them. His thin lips curled in a humorless smile; that was why they needed

people like him and Senuhet to act as their agents.

He felt, rather than saw, the birds move in the trees: half a million maybe

more heads turned to the west. He followed their gaze, looking toward the

darkest spot in the sky. At first, he could see nothing, but then a shape

appeared high in the heavens, noticeable only because it blotted out the

stars. The Morrigan was coming.

Dee knew that at the heart of every legend there is a grain of truth. Looking

up into the night sky, watching the pale-faced creature appear out of the

west, her feathered cloak spread behind her like enormous wings, Dee believed

he knew where the legends of the Nosferatu vampires originated. Over the

course of his long life, he had met vampires real ones and none of them were

as terrifying as the Crow Goddess.

The Morrigan settled to the ground directly in front of the Hummer, cats

scattering at the last moment as she folded her cloak and landed. In the

gloom, only the white oval of her face was visible; her eyes were as black as

night, looking like holes burned in paper.

Then the cats growled, a low rumbling that trembled through the very air, and

Bastet stepped out of the shadows. The Cat Goddess was wearing the white

cotton robes of an Egyptian princess and holding a spear that was as tall as

she was. She strode through the sea of cats, which parted before her and

closed in behind. Towering over the Morrigan, she bowed deeply to the Crow

Goddess. Niece, is it time? she purred.

It is, the Morrigan replied, returning the bow. Shrugging back her cloak,

she revealed a longbow strapped across her shoulders. She unslung the bow and

notched an arrow from the quiver at her hip.

Then, turning as one, the two Dark Elders raced toward the seemingly

impenetrable hedge and leapt through.

The cats and birds flowed after them.

Now it begins, Senuhet said gleefully, gathering his weapons two curved

Egyptian bronze swords and climbing out of the car.

Or ends, Dee thought, but he kept his fears to himself.

FRIDAY,

1st June