Free The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

from his scrying bowl to see that Perenelle Flamel was wide awake and watching him intently. “Ah, Madame, you are just in time to see my creatures overpower your husband. Plus, I’ll finally have an opportunity to deal with that pest Scathach,
and
I’ll have the pages of the book.” Dee didn’t notice that Perenelle’s eyes had widened at the mention of Scathach’s name. “All in all, a good day’s work, I think.” He focused his full attention on the biggest rat and issued two simple commands: “Attack. Kill.”
    Dee closed his eyes as the rat uncoiled and launched itself into the room.
             
    The green light flowed out from Flamel’s fingers and ran along the floorboards, outlining the planks in green light. Abruptly, the wooden floor sprouted twigs, branches, leaves and then a tree trunk…then another…and a third. Within a dozen heartbeats a thicket of trees sprouted out of the floor and were visibly climbing toward the ceiling. Some of the trunks were no thicker than a finger, others were wrist thick and one, close to the door, was so wide it almost filled the opening.
    The rats turned and scattered, squealing as they raced down the corridor, desperately attempting to leap over the click-clacking blades.
    Flamel scrambled back and climbed to his feet, brushing off his hands. “One of the oldest secrets of alchemy,” he announced to the wide-eyed twins and Scatty, “is that every living thing, from the most complex creatures right down to the simplest leaf, carries the seeds of its creation within itself.”
    “DNA,” Josh murmured, staring at the forest sprouting and growing behind Flamel.
    Sophie looked around the once-spotless dojo. It was now filthy, spattered and splashed with muddy water, the smoothly polished floorboards broken and cracked with the trees growing from them, more foul-smelling mud in the hallway. “Are you saying that alchemists knew about DNA?” she asked. The Alchemyst nodded delightedly. “Exactly. When Watson and Crick announced that they had discovered what they called ‘the secret of life’ in 1953, they were merely rediscovering something alchemists have always known.”
    “You’re telling me that you somehow woke the DNA in those floorboards and forced trees to grow,” Josh said, choosing his words carefully. “How?”
    Flamel turned to look at the forest that was now taking over the entire dojo. “It’s called magic,” he said delightedly, “and I wasn’t sure I could do it anymore…until Scatty reminded me,” he added.

CHAPTER TEN
    “S o let me get this straight,” Josh Newman said, trying to keep his voice perfectly level, “you don’t know how to drive? Neither of you?”
    Josh and Sophie were sitting in the front seats of the SUV Scatty had borrowed from one of her martial arts students. Josh was driving, and his sister had a map on her lap. Nicholas Flamel and Scathach were sitting in the back.
    “Never learned,” Nicholas Flamel said, with an expressive shrug.
    “Never had the time,” Scatty said shortly.
    “But Nicholas told us you’re more than two thousand years old,” Sophie said, looking at the girl.
    “Two thousand five hundred and seventeen, as you humani measure time with your current calendar,” Scatty mumbled. She looked into Flamel’s clear eyes. “And how old do I look?”
    “Not a day over seventeen,” he said quickly.
    “Couldn’t you have found time to learn how to drive?” Sophie persisted. She’d wanted to learn how to drive since she was ten. One of the reasons the twins had taken summer jobs this year, rather than go on the dig with their parents, was to get the money for a car of their own.
    Scathach shrugged, an irritated twitch of her shoulders. “I’ve been meaning to, but I’ve been busy,” she protested.
    “You do know,” Josh said to no one in particular, “that I’m not supposed to be driving without a licensed driver with me.”
    “We’re nearly fifteen and a half and we can