“I’m impressed,” Dee said. “I take it that you are controlling the Thoughtform from a distance?”

“Farther than you can imagine,” Cernunnos said.

“I had come to the conclusion that you did not have any mastery of magic,” Dee admitted, returning to his desk. The fancy silver business card was slowly steaming, curls of off-white smoke drifting away to be absorbed by the stag-headed man sitting on the opposite side of the desk.

“Not magic, just Archon technology,” Cernunnos said simply. “You would find the two indistinguishable.”

“I assume you are here for a reason,” Dee said, “and not just to demonstrate this… this technology.”

The stag nodded, smiling brilliantly. “I know where Flamel, Gilgamesh, Palamedes and the twins are.”

“Right now?”

“Right now,” the creature agreed. “They are an hour from here.”

“Tell me,” Dee demanded, then added, “please.”

The Archon held up its right hand. Dee noticed that it had one too many fingers. “My terms remain the same, Magician. I want Flamel, Gilgamesh and Palamedes alive. And I want Clarent.”

“Agreed,” Dee said without hesitation. “All yours. Just tell me where they are.”

“And I want Excalibur.”

At that moment the Magician would have promised the creature anything. “Done. I will put it in your hands myself, the moment Flamel is dead. How many others are with him?” he asked eagerly.

“None.”

“None? What about the Gabriel Hounds?”

“The Ratchets and their master, the Bard, have vanished. The Alchemyst, the knight and the king are with the twins.”

“How did you find them?” Dee asked. He had to admit he was impressed. “I’ve looked everywhere.”

The creature was changing again as it stood, horns retracting back into its skull. A head and face that was subtly, disturbingly different from its previous head appeared. “I went back to their metal fortress, and then I simply followed their scent.”

“You tracked them across this city by smell?” Dee found that an even more astonishing feat than controlling the Thoughtform. He bit back a smile at the sudden image of the Horned God on all fours running through traffic, sniffing after a car.

“Archon technology. It was simplicity itself,” the Thoughtform said. “Now, if you will just accompany me, I will endeavor to arrange for you to be transported…”

“The Thoughtform is impressive,” the Magician said sincerely, “but if you intend to pass among the humani, you really need to work on the voice. And the clothes.”

“It is of little consequence,” the creature said. “Soon the humani will be no more.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

Perenelle Flamel was disappointed.

Huddled in the watchtower where she had spent the night, the Sorceress had been hoping against hope that any one of the small sailing boats scattered across the bay would suddenly veer toward the island, and Scatty and Joan would come ashore.

But as the day wore on, she’d realized that they were not coming.