“I don’t have any,” she said tearfully. She knew she should be doing something, but she couldn’t think, couldn’t focus. All she could see was the old man in her arms, the terrible black arrow protruding from his chest. She wanted to help him; she just didn’t know how.

The king’s lips moved in a painful smile. “Not to drink,” he rasped. “Water: the ultimate weapon.”

Before she could respond, the Archon tore away the entire front of the barn. She spun around, and through the gaping hole she could see what was happening outside. Nicholas Flamel, his aura green and glowing, was battling with Dr. John Dee, who was wrapped in smoking sulfurous yellow. Dee fought with a long whip of sallow energy while the Alchemyst tried to keep him at bay with a solid spear of green light. Palamedes was surrounded by the remainder of the Wild Hunt, the huge wolves darting in to snap and claw at him, threatening to overwhelm him as he slashed and cut with the longsword.

“Josh.” Sophie was calm. “The king said we should use water.”

“Water?” Her twin glanced down. “But I don’t know how…”

“Remember what I said about instinct?” She stretched up her right hand and her twin reached down with his left to take it.

Cernunnos finished demolishing the front of the building and pulled a savage-looking stone-headed club out of its belt. “You cannot defend yourself and the girl,” it grunted.

“I only have to defend the girl,” Josh whispered.

Cernunnos took a step forward… and then the ground opened up beneath it. What had been hard-baked earth turned to a sticky quagmire, swallowing its ankles. Water, thick and muddy, bubbled up from beneath the ground. A tiny geyser squirted from a fissure, and then a whole section of the earth cracked and suddenly dissolved into muck. The Archon lurched forward, the club falling from his hand. Another patch of earth turned to soupy marsh and the creature sank up to its knees, then its hips. Grimly silent now, its oval amber eyes fixed on the twins, blazing with hate, Cernunnos dug its huge hands into the ground and attempted to heave itself up.

“Mistake,” Josh whispered.

The ground liquefied around the Archon’s hands.

“We just need a little more water,” Sophie whispered.

Josh actually felt the water surging through the hard-baked earth, experienced its power as it pushed its way upward, driven by incredible pressure from below, slicing through mud, pulverizing the soil, pushing rocks and tree roots ahead of it.