The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #6) (32 page)

“This is an island, Alchemyst, there is no place to hide,” Xolotl howled.

“I am not hiding,” Nicholas said, stepping away from the flame. “I am coming for you, monster.”

“You will die on this island!”

“And you will die with me.”

Nicholas turned back to Perenelle and the Crow Goddess. “We need to awaken Areop-Enap now. She is our only hope.”

“And what if we cannot?” the Crow Goddess asked.

Perenelle and Nicholas looked at her, saying nothing. Finally Perenelle spoke. “We will awaken her,” she said shortly. “Or we will die trying.”

“And probably be eaten,” Nicholas added with a smile.

“Is it always this exciting around you two?” the Crow Goddess asked.

“Even for us, this last week has been … exceptional,” Nicholas said.

“S
tay here. Do not leave the room,” Isis ordered.

“Touch nothing,” Osiris added. “The age of most of the artifacts here can be measured in tens of millennia.”

“Do not leave the room,” Isis repeated. “When we leave, lock the door behind us. Do not open it for anyone.”

“What about you?” Josh asked.

Isis frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You said not to open it for anyone—does that include you?”

She sighed. “Josh, you’re being deliberately stupid now. Of course you’ll open it for us. We’ll be back in less than an hour to take you up to be presented to the council.”

Osiris rubbed his hands together eagerly, and in that moment resembled the man the twins had called Dad. “We were able to speak to some Elders already, so everyone knows you’re here. There will be huge excitement when you arrive.”

“Yes. Everyone is talking about you,” Isis added. “Now, remember …”

“Lock the door,” Josh finished.

“Don’t leave the room,” Sophie added.

Isis nodded, but there was no smile on her face. She clearly didn’t find the twins’ attitude funny. She pulled the heavy door behind her as she left and it closed with an echoing boom. Josh struggled to turn the massive circular key the Elders had left in the lock. It finally clicked into place, leaving the twins alone in one of the largest rooms they had ever seen.

“It’s enormous,” Josh breathed. “You could fit a football field in here.”

Sophie walked toward the center of the floor. “More than one,” she said, looking left, then right. The twins stood in a windowless room so big that they couldn’t see the walls to their left or their right through the gloomy shadows. The wall directly in front of them slanted inward at an angle.

Sophie pointed toward it. “That must be the outer wall of the pyramid.”

“It looks like this room runs the entire length of the building,” Josh said.

“That would make it about a mile and a half long.”

“Now, that’s a big room,” he said. “I’m surprised it’s not divided up into smaller rooms. It would make more sense.”

“Josh, these people make worlds, they create entire Shadowrealms. They are never going to divide up a room just to be practical.” She paused for a moment, then said, “I wonder what it’s used for, though. It sort of looks like a gallery.” She
pointed to a wall where faded rectangles were visible against the stones. “See? Something used to hang there.” She turned in a complete circle. “No windows, only one door …”

“So where’s the light coming from?” Josh asked. He couldn’t find any source.

“I think it’s coming from the walls themselves,” Sophie said in wonder.

Josh walked over to the wall and placed his hand flat against the gold stones, but they were cool to the touch.

“There’s something here.” Sophie pointed to the floor, where the remains of an ancient pattern were barely visible. Josh came back from the wall, dropped to the ground and blew hard. Dust swirled away to reveal a series of perfect circles, one within the other, made from thousands of tiny gold and silver tiles. The inner circle was filled with yellow and gold squares, and silver tiles had been used to create a long C shape, like a moon.

Sophie traced the outline of the silver crescent with the toe of her boot. Then she tapped the innermost circle. “Sun and moon.” She stepped back and looked closely at the design. “It looks like this section of the floor is older than the rest. See? The stones are completely different.” She knelt and ran her hand across it, tracing the outline of the moon with her finger. The merest wisp of her silver aura dribbled from her fingertip and seeped through the glove of her armor to puddle in the crescent, running like mercury. “I wonder where it came from….”

… a wall …

… impossibly long, incredibly high …

 … in a scarred desert where the sky and earth were brown, and the sun was a distant dot …

She shuddered as the images filled her mind, then faded. She looked over at her brother. “It’s older than the pyramid. Much older. I don’t even think it’s from this world.”

Josh circled the pattern, studying it. “This world is such a crazy mixture of magic and technology. They’ve got this amazing mile-high pyramid with lighted walls, and yet they can’t even fix the vimana. They can create Shadowrealms and make human-animal hybrids, but they wear armor and everyone carries swords. There are no cars, no phones, and nothing that even
looks
like a TV!”

“I think we’re seeing a dying world, Josh,” Sophie said slowly. “Whoever created the original technology and built the pyramids is either gone or Changing. Sure, there are people like Isis and Osiris who have amazing abilities. But what do they do: instead of using those powers to do something useful, they’ve spent thousands of years working to make sure that we’ll rule Danu Talis.”

“For them,” Josh said suddenly. He crouched down and looked at his sister. “They’ve gone to all this trouble to make sure that we’ll rule Danu Talis
for them
.” He emphasized the last two words as he looked into Sophie’s blue eyes.

“I guess they just expect us to do whatever they want.”

“I guess they’re going to be disappointed.”

“And then what happens?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I have no idea. Well, I do, actually, but I don’t want to even think about it yet.” Josh
straightened and rolled his shoulders. “It’s kind of creepy in here, don’t you think?”

“Creepy? What do you have to be scared about?” Sophie stood, dusting off her gloves, and stepped away from the ancient tiled pattern. “Josh, did you get a good look at some of the people we just walked past? I guess they weren’t really people, but just think of all we’ve seen and done over the past few days.”

Josh nodded.

“You should never be scared again,” Sophie concluded.

Her twin shrugged. “I’m a little scared now,” he admitted.

“Don’t be,” she said firmly.

Josh rolled his eyes. “You’re always bossing me around. I can be scared if I want to.”

They both grinned, and then Sophie leaned in and lowered her voice. “Maybe it’s my enhanced senses, but I think we’re being watched.”

Josh nodded again. He rubbed the back of his neck casually. “My neck is tingling—you know that feeling you get when someone is staring at you?”

“Isis and Osiris?” she suggested.

“I don’t think so. What reason would they have to spy on us? They’re used to us doing what we’re told, like good little boys and girls. They trained us to be obedient, just like they trained their servants.”

“Let’s walk,” she said very softly. “Our boots will echo off the walls in here and it’ll be harder to listen to us.” She clasped her hands behind her back and started down the center of the
room, eyes seeking out the dark corners, watching for movement in the shadows.

Josh fell into step beside her. Their metal boots pinged off the floor, then echoed and reechoed off the stone.

“Maybe this was a library. It looks like there were shelves on the walls here,” Sophie said loudly, pointing. “You can see the marks.” Then she frowned. “Osiris said not to touch anything”—she looked at her twin and lowered her voice—“but there’s really nothing here to touch.”

“So whatever
was
here was removed,” Josh said, rubbing his hand across his mouth as he spoke.

“And Isis and Osiris don’t know about it yet,” Sophie added.

“I get the impression they don’t spend a lot of time here,” he said.

Sophie nodded in agreement. “I wonder why.”

The twins moved back to the center of the floor, as far away from the walls as possible. They spoke loudly about the size of the room, its height, the light. Josh even whistled and clapped his hands to hear the echo.

After they’d been walking for quite some time, they reached one of the end walls. Horizontal lines etched into the gold stone clearly marked the outlines of shelves, and tiny punctures in the brickwork showed where they’d been fixed in place. But the shelves themselves were missing, and along with them, whatever they’d held.

Josh ran his finger along the wall and it came away clean. “This happened recently. Dust hasn’t even had time to gather.”

Sophie looked at her brother, impressed. “That was smart. I wouldn’t have thought to check that.”

“I saw it in an old Sherlock Holmes movie,” he admitted with a grin.

The twins started back toward where Isis and Osiris had left them. Sophie hesitated for a moment, then reached over to touch her brother’s arm. Her metal glove scraped against his armor. “They’re not our parents, are they?”

Josh continued walking. He had taken almost a dozen steps before he answered. “I’ve been thinking about that almost from the first moment they told us who they were.”

“So have I,” Sophie admitted.

“On earth, for all these years, they sure acted like our parents. They were good parents to us too, and they did everything the right way. But …”

“But they were always a little cold,” Sophie said, nodding. “Even before all this happened, there were times when I’d wonder if they’d read instructions out of a book on how to be parents. There was something weird about it. Everyone else’s mom and dad were more …” She paused, looking for the word.

“Natural?” Josh said.

“Yeah. Natural. It seemed easy for them, and I don’t think that was ever the case with our parents. I even said something to Mom—Isis—about it once; right after we settled in Austin. She just laughed and said that of course we were different, and of course we’d feel weird about it. We were twins, and new to the school, of course we were going to feel out of place.”

“And remember what they said?” Josh added. “That they were educating us …”

“Preparing us.”

“Training us,”

“They just didn’t say it was for this role,” Sophie finished.

“But if they’re not our parents, then what are we?” Josh slowed and stopped. “I was thinking about this earlier. You know the Flamels spent all their lives looking for Gold and Silver twins….”

Sophie started to nod; then her eyes widened in shock, realizing what he was suggesting.

“Maybe Isis and Osiris did the same thing. Only they found us first.”

Sophie’s jaw dropped. “But then who does that make us, Josh? Where do we come from? Are we adopted?” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Are we even twins?”

Josh rested his hand on her shoulder and brought his forehead down to rest against hers, strands of their blond hair mingling. “I will always be your brother, Sophie. I will always look after you.”

She blinked away tears. “I know that. I just wish I knew who we are.”

“Would the Witch know?” Josh wondered. “Would it be in her memories?”

“I’m not sure …,” Sophie began, but even as she was speaking, a tumble of images sent her staggering. Josh grabbed her arm, holding her upright. The girl shuddered, then gasped for breath. She opened her eyes, swaying in place.

“What did you see?” he asked.

“The Witch’s memories …”

“Of what?”

“You and me on top of this pyramid. Fighting.”

He shook his head firmly. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Yes, it is,” she said simply. “It will happen today. Soon.”

“No, you’re seeing one of those probable futures. One that will never happen,” he said fiercely.

A single silver tear leaked from the corner of Sophie’s eye.

“Did you learn anything about us?” he asked.

“No,” she lied. She didn’t want to tell him what else she had seen. That she had seen him alone and lost on the pyramid, abandoned, while she fled….

“But I did see Scathach. I saw Joan and Saint-Germain, Shakespeare and Palamedes. They were all here.”

“Where?” he demanded.

“Here, on the steps of this pyramid,” she insisted.

“That’s impossible.”

They heard a scuffle of footsteps outside the door and a brief hurried knock.

“About time,” Josh muttered. “I was starting to feel like a prisoner.”

The ornate door handle, a gold circle showing a snake swallowing its own tail, turned and the door rattled on its hinges.

“Hang on, hang on.” Josh hurried over to the door and turned the key in the lock. He glanced over his shoulder at his sister. “How would they all get here?” he asked.

And then the door slammed open, sending Josh skidding into the room on his back. He tumbled over and over, his
golden armor striking sparks from the stone floor. Sophie raced to her brother’s side.

A hooded shape moved through the doorway and stepped into the room. Two more followed, and the last one to enter closed the door and turned the key in the lock once more.

The figures were tall and muscular, and even before they had shrugged off the hooded cloaks, it was clear that they were not entirely human. Although their bodies were those of men, they had the heads, claws and feet of black bears. Their clothing hung in rags about their bodies, and they wore thick bearskin belts around their waists.

“Bear-sarks,” Sophie whispered. “Berserkers.”

The three creatures produced short-handled battle-axes and black obsidian glass knives.

Josh scrambled to his feet and pulled his two swords free. Sophie took up a position to his left and balled her hands into fists. “Do you have any idea who we are?” Josh demanded.