The Magician (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #2) Read Free Page A

all right but one that walks on two legs”, Scatty snapped. “You’re smelling the rank odor of Niccol Machiavelli.”
    Flamel knelt on the floor in front of the massive main doors and ran his hands over the locks. Wisps of green smoke curled from his fingers. “Machiavelli!” he spat. “Dee didn’t waste any time contacting his allies, I see.”
    “You can tell who it is from the smell?” Josh asked, still surprised and a little confused.
    “Every person has a distinctive magical odor”, Scatty explained, standing with her back to the Alchemyst, protecting him. “You two smell of vanilla ice cream and oranges, Nicholas smells of mint”
    “And Dee smelled of rotten eggs”, Sophie added.
    “Sulfur”, Josh said.
    “Which was once known as brimstone”, Scatty said. “Very appropriate for Dr. Dee.” Her head was moving from side to side as she paid particular attention to the deep shadows behind the statues. “Well, Machiavelli smells of snakes. Appropriate too.”
    “Who is he?” Josh asked. He felt as if he should know the name, almost as if he’d heard it before. “A friends of Dee’s?”
    “Machiavelli is an immortal allied to the Dark Elders”, Scatty explained, “and no friend to Dee, though they are on the same side. Machiavelli is older than the Magician, infinitely more dangerous and certainly more cunning. I should have killed him when I had the chance”, she said bitterly. “For the past five hundred years he has been at the heart of European politics, the puppet master working in the shadows. The last I heard, he had been appointed the head of the DGSE, the Direction Genarale de la Securite Ext rieure.”
    “Is that like a bank?” Josh asked.
    Scatty’s lips curled in a tiny smile that exposed her overlong vampire incisors. “It means the General Board of External Security. It is the French secret service.”
    “The secret service! Oh, that’s just great”, Josh said sarcastically.
    “The smell is getting stronger”, Sophie said, her Awakened senses acutely aware of the odor. Concentrating hard, she allowed a little of her power to trickle into her aura, which bloomed into a ghostly shadow around her. Crackles of lustrous silver threads sparkled in her blond hair, and her eyes turned to reflective silver coins.
    Almost unconsciously, Josh stepped away from his sister. He’d seen her like this before, and she’d scared him.
    “That means he’s close by. He’s working some magic”, Scatty said. “Nicholas?”
    “I just need another minute.” Flamel’s fingertips glowed emerald green, smoking as they traced a pattern around the lock. A solid click sounded from within, but when the Alchemyst tried the handle, the door didn’t move. “Maybe more than a minute.”
    “Too late”, Josh whispered, raising an arm and pointing. “Something’s here.”
    At the opposite end of the great basilica, the banks of candles had gone out. It was as if an unfelt breeze was sweeping down the aisles, snuffing out the flickering circular night-lights and thicker candles as it passed, leaving curls of gray-white smoke hanging on the air. Abruptly, the smell of candle wax grew stronger, much, much stronger, almost obliterating the odor of serpent.
    “I can’t see anything”, Josh began.
    “It’s here!” Sophie shouted.
    The creature that flowed up off the cold flagstones was only marginally human. Standing taller than a man, broad and grotesque, it was a gelatinous white shape with only the vaguest hint of a head set directly onto broad shoulders. There were no visible features. As they watched, two huge arms separated from the trunk of the body with a squelch and grew hand like shapes.
    “Golem!” Sophie shouted in horror. “A wax Golem!” She flung out her hand and her aura blazed. Ice-cold wind surged from her fingertips to batter the creature, but the white waxy skin simply rippled and flowed beneath the breeze.
    “Protect Nicholas!” Scathach commanded, darting forward,