The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #6) (47 page)

The hook-handed man pulled down his hood. He crouched before Nicholas and Perenelle, took both their hands in his and looked into their faces. “You know me,” he said.

Nicholas searched the young man’s lined and scarred face, and Perenelle reached up to run her fingers across his chin, tracing the plane of his forehead and the curve of his cheekbone. “Josh? Josh Newman?”

“You knew me as Josh Newman …,” he said very gently. “But that was before this”—he held up his hook—“which is a long story.”

“What of Sophie?”

“A night has gone by for you. Almost seven hundred years have passed for her, but she has not aged. She’s had a lot of adventures over the years, but this morning she returned safe and well to San Francisco and Aunt Agnes.”

“And you, Josh? What of you?”

“Josh is no more. Now I am Marethyu. I am Death, and I am here to take you home.” His hook moved and a golden arc appeared over the bench. The air suddenly smelled of oranges, and he smiled. “You did say Paris, didn’t you?”

The leygate opened and then winked out of existence.

My Dearest Sister,

I cannot promise you too many letters—you know how bad I am at writing, and there aren’t really phones where I’ve been.

I wanted you to know that I am safe and well and getting used to the hook. I did scratch my head with it, but that’s a mistake you make only once. I’ve had a couple of offers to turn it into a proper silver hand or a golden glove, but to be honest, I’ve grown rather fond of it. And of course, it does have some wonderful advantages. I used it to make this most amazing Shadowrealm only last month. I put some great prehistoric animals in it and added two moons—and of course, there are no snakes.

I believe you are off to London shortly with Aunt Agnes. Give my regards to Gilgamesh. It’s probably best not to tell him who I was/am/will be. He’s confused enough as it is.

Please do not worry about me.

I know that is like telling you not to breathe, but I do need you to know that I am fine. More than fine. I am discovering more and
more of my powers every day. I am immortal and eternal and I regret nothing. We did the right thing: one to save the world, one to destroy it.

You know that if you ever need me, all you have to do is look into a mirror and call my name three times. (Use the new name; I’m not sure calling Josh would have any impact.)

If you ever call me, I will come to you.

But even if you do not call, Sophie, know that I will watch over you all the days of your life.

It’s what a brother is supposed to do, isn’t it?

P.S. The Flamels send their love.

Marethyu

P.P.S. We were at Aoife and Niten’s wedding last month. Scathach was her bridesmaid. Everyone cried.

—M

Did Atlantis really exist?

There are thousands of books that will tell you it did, and an equal number that will say it did not. Was it in the Atlantic? The Mediterranean? Off the west coast of Spain or Africa, or the east coast of America, or perhaps in Mexico? Was it south of India? Is it buried under Antarctica, or was it in the heart of Ireland?

The huge outpouring of research and speculation originates from a surprisingly small piece of text. Everything we know about Atlantis comes from the dialogues of Timaeus and Critias, written by Plato around 350 B.C. The word
Atlantis
is specifically used in Timaeus, where it is described as a vast island empire existing “beyond the Pillars of Hercules,” which are the Straits of Gibraltar, between Spain and North Africa. Plato gives us a very clear description of Atlantis, including the rings of land and water and the canals, walls and bridges. Each bridge, for example, was described as being one hundred feet wide—a detail I used when creating the Danu Talis that appears in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel books.

In the second work, the unfinished
Critias
, there is a lengthier description of a catastrophic war and the ultimate destruction of the island in a single day and night by a combination of earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.

Plato is supposed to have based his text on a story told to the Greek lawgiver Solon three hundred years earlier. An
Egyptian priest in the temple of Neith at Sais showed Solon the ancient story inscribed in stone. Some early Greek writers claimed to have seen those stones, but they have never been found.

Significantly, in Plato’s own time, very few people believed he was writing about a real place—they considered Atlantis to be an idealized world that had been perfect in every way until it was destroyed by greed.

There is, sadly, no evidence for the advanced civilization of Atlantis; however, every year, there are new revelations about Earth’s past, and we keep discovering that “primitive” peoples were not as primitive as we suspected. It is also true that around ten thousand years ago, at the end of the last ice age, the sea rose, and many shoreline communities would have been swamped. Recent research using supercomputers to replicate the melting of ice sheets suggests that water levels could have risen over sixty feet in two hundred years. Significantly, just about every culture on this planet has stories of a great flood that devastated the world, wiping away whole cities and tribes and instigating great migrations as people fled the rising waters. And as we know—at the heart of just about every legend is a grain of truth.

So perhaps there really is an Atlantis—an island kingdom destroyed by a series of natural disasters, waiting to be rediscovered. If there is, odds are that it will be nothing like we imagined.

And the name Danu Talis?

I had often said that the only characters I created for this series were the twins. Everything else was grounded in
history or mythology. I did, however, take a little license with the name Danu Talis.

In a collection of Irish poems and stories called the
Lebor Gabála Érenn
, or
The Book of the Taking of Ireland
, there are the stories of the Tuatha De Danann, the People of Danu. They are the fifth invaders of Ireland, and unlike some of the others, whom we can ground firmly in history, the Tuatha De Danann are a magical and mysterious people, refugees from the west who sailed to Ireland on ships at a time of the “dark cloud.”

So, for the purposes of this story, the Tuatha De Danann were the survivors of the fall of Atlantis, and Atlantis became Danu Talis.

This book ends a very long journey, which began in May 1997 when I first wrote the word
Alchemyst
with a
Y
in my notebook. A decade later, in May 2007, almost to the day, the first book of the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series,
The Alchemyst
, was published. Now, six years later,
The Enchantress
brings the series to a conclusion.

I am especially pleased that many of the same people who began that journey with me are here with me at the end.

This book, and indeed this series, would not have happened without the constant support and encouragement (and endless patience) of Beverly Horowitz and the wonderful Krista Marino at Delacorte Press.

A very special thanks goes out to Colleen Fellingham (who has kept me safe and out of trouble), Tim Terhune, and the entire team at Delacorte Press and Random House, especially Elizabeth Zajac, Jocelyn Lange and Andrea T. Sheridan, for taking care of me.

Thank you, as always, to Barry Krost at BKM, Frank Weimann at the Literary Group, Richard Thompson and Bernard Sidman.

Surrounding me as I wrote the series have been a number of people whose help, advice and support I have come to depend on. Claudette Sutherland is chief amongst them, but there are many others, and their thoughts, suggestions, ideas and criticisms have been more than invaluable: they have been essential. In alphabetical order (so there’s no fighting),
let me thank: Michael Carroll, Colette Freedman, Jumeaux (who are Antonio Gambale and Libby Lavella), Patrick Kavanagh (for too many things), Renee Lascala (and the flock, and especially Pookie, who taught me everything I know about parrots), Alfred Molina and Jill Gascoine (not alphabetical, I know, but I cannot separate them), Brooks and Maurizio Papalia, Melanie Rose, Mitch Ryan, Sonia Schorman, and Sherrod Turner and Jim Di Bella (equally inseparable).

This series has brought me into contact with many extraordinary and fascinating people. Again, in alphabetical order: Marilyn Anderson and Laysa Quintero, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Topher Bradfield, LeVar Burton, Edie Ching, Jackie Collins, the Cooperkawa Clan, the Crooks Family, Simon Curtis, Jennifer Daugherty, Trista Delamere and Carleen Cappelletti, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, Jim and Marissa Durham, Lynn Ferguson, Robin and Stephanie Gammell, Jerry Gelb, Melissa Gilbert, Alex Gogan, Andrea Goyan and Ron Freed, Bruce Hatton, Anne Kavanagh, Arnold and Anne Kopelson, Tina Lau, Gussie Lewis (and all her fabulous team, who were there right from the very beginning), Laura Lizer, Dwight L. MacPherson, Lisa Maxson, O. R. Melling, Chris Miller and Elaine Sir (and as I was completing this book, Eliana “Elle” Sir Miller appeared), Pat Neal, Mark Ordesky, Pierre O’Rourke, Christopher Paolini, Sidney and Joanna Poitier, Rick Riordan, Frank Sharp, Ronald Shepherd, Armin Shimerman and Kitty Swink, Becky Stewart, Simon and Wendy Wells, Cynthia True and Eric Wiese, Bill Young, and Hans and Suzanne Zimmer.

And of course, the team at Flamel’s Immortal Portal, who know the books better than I do: Julie Blewett-Grant, Jeffrey
Smith, Jamie Krakover, Sean Gardell, Kristen Nolan Winsko, Rachel Carroll, Elena Charalambous, Bert Beattie, Genny Colby, Brittney Hauke and Joshua Ezekiel Crisanto.

I’ve forgotten someone. I know I have. If it is you—then I apologize.

An authority on mythology and folklore, Michael Scott is one of Ireland’s most successful authors. A master of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and folklore, he has been hailed by the
Irish Times
as “the King of Fantasy in these isles.”
The Enchantress
is the sixth book in the
New York Times
bestselling series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. Look for book one,
The Alchemyst;
book two,
The Magician;
book three,
The Sorceress;
book four,
The Necromancer;
and book five,
The Warlock
, all available from Delacorte Press.

You can follow Michael Scott on Twitter
@flamelauthor
and visit him at
dillonscott.com
.