one .
Oh, you re smelling a snake, 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 Generale de la Securite Exterieure.
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 handlike 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, her matched swords
flickering out, biting into the creature, but without any effect. The soft
wax trapped her swords, and it took all her strength to pull them free. She
struck again and chips of wax sprayed into the air. The creature struck at
her, and she had to abandon her grip on her swords as she danced backward to
avoid the crushing blow. A bulbous fist thundered into the floor at her feet,
spattering globules of white wax in every direction.
Josh grabbed one of the folding wooden chairs stacked outside the gift shop
at the back of the church. Holding it by two legs, he slammed it into the
creature s chest where it stuck fast. As the wax shape turned toward Josh,
the chair was wrenched from his hands. He grabbed another chair, darted
around behind the creature and slammed the chair down. It shattered across
the creature' s shoulders, leaving scores of splinters protruding like bizarre
porcupine spines.
Sophie froze. She desperately tried to recall some of the secrets of Air
magic that the Witch of Endor had taught her only a few hours ago. The Witch
said it was the most powerful of all magics and Sophie had seen what it had
done to the undead army of long-deceased humans and beasts Dee had raised in
Ojai. But she had no idea what would work against the wax monster before her.
She knew how to raise a miniature tornado, but she couldn't risk calling it
up in the confined space of the basilica.
Nicholas! Scatty called. With her swords stuck in the creature, the Warrior
was using her nunchaku two lengths of wood attached by a short chain to
batter at the Golem. They left deep indentations in its skin but otherwise
seemed to have no effect. She delivered one particularly fierce blow that
embedded the polished wood in the creature s side. Wax flowed around the
nunchaku, trapping them. When the creature twisted toward Josh, the weapon
was ripped from the Warrior s hands, sending her spinning across the room.
A hand that was only thumb and fused fingers, like a giant mitten, caught
Josh' s shoulder and squeezed. The pain was incredible and drove the boy to
his knees.
Josh! Sophie screamed, the sound echoing in the huge church.
Josh tried to pull the hand away, but the wax was too slippery and his
fingers sank into the white goo. Warm wax began to flow off the creature s
hand, then curl and wrap around his shoulder and roll down onto his chest,
constricting his breathing.
Josh, duck!
Sophie grabbed a wooden chair and swung it through the air. It whistled over
her brother s head, the wind ruffling his hair, and she brought it down
hard edge-first on the thick wax arm where the elbow should have been. The
chair stuck halfway through, but the movement distracted the creature and it
abandoned Josh, leaving him bruised and coated in a layer of candle wax. From
his place kneeling on the ground, Josh watched in horror as two gelatinous
hands reached for his twin s throat.
Terrified, Sophie screamed.
Josh watched as his sister s eyes flickered, the blue replaced with silver,
and then her aura blazed incandescent the moment the Golem s paws came close
to her skin. Immediately, its waxy hands began to run liquid and spatter to
the floor. Sophie stretched out her own hand, fingers splayed, and pressed it
against the Golem' s chest, where it sank, sizzling and hissing, into the mass