Josh was about to protest that he had no idea… but even as he was shaking his head, he suddenly knew the answer. “With no idea what’s coming at us, it’s impossible to say.” He looked around. “On the one hand, we are secure behind a cleverly designed and booby-trapped fortress. We know there is a protective zone around the castle and that the houses are occupied by creatures loyal to the knight. I’m sure that Shakespeare and Palamedes have other defenses. But if we do stay and fight, we’ll be stuck here, and since this is Dee’s country, there will be time for him to bring in reinforcements, completely trapping us.” He looked at his sister. “I say we run. When we fight, we need to do it on our terms.”

“Well said.” The Alchemyst nodded. “I agree. We run now and live to fight another day.”

Palamedes appeared out of the darkness, trailing the scent of cloves. His transformation into the Saracen Knight who had fought with King Arthur was now complete. He was dressed from head to foot in smooth black metal plate armor over a suit of black chain mail. A chain-link coif completely protected his head and neck and spread over his shoulders. Over that was a smooth metal bascinet helmet with a long nose guard. A curved shamshir sword dangled by his side and an enormous claymore sword was strapped to his back. The armor made the already-huge man look monstrous. Before he could speak, Shakespeare hurried up, five of the red-eyed dogs silently following him. “How bad is it?” Palamedes rumbled.

“Bad,” Shakespeare murmured. “A little while ago, a few individuals-immortals, mainly, and some humani bounty hunters-entered the streets patrolled by the larvae and the lemurs. They did not get far.” Shakespeare’s aura crackled dull yellow and the air was touched with lemon. A suit of modern police body armor grew over the immortal’s soiled mechanic’s overalls. He carried a mace and chain loosely in his left hand, the studded head of the mace trailing in the mud. One of the dogs licked it with its forked tongue. “The larvae and lemurs are our first line of defense,” he continued, looking from the Alchemyst to the twins. “They are loyal, but none too bright. And once they feed, they’ll sleep. The attackers will be at the walls before midnight.”

“The castle will hold,” Palamedes said confidently.

“No castle is completely impregnable,” Josh said simply, and then stopped as a huge red-eyed shape loomed out of the night. Everyone turned to follow his gaze. It was the largest of the dogs. Its fur was matted with filth and there was a long cut on its back dangerously close to its spine.

“Gabriel!” Shakespeare cried.