“Where do I go?” Josh called again from the front seat.

“Just follow my directions,” Palamedes said, leaning forward. “Go left. Stick to the back roads, there should be no traffic…”

The road behind them suddenly lit up with blue and white light. Headlights flashed and sirens blared. “Police,” Josh said, unnecessarily.

“Keep going,” Palamedes commanded. “Stop for nothing.” He looked out the rear window at the police cars and turned to Sophie. “Is there anything you can do?”

Sophie shook her head. “I have nothing left.” She lifted her hand. It was trembling violently, and tiny wisps of smoke curled off her fingertips.

“We have three police cars closing in on us,” Josh yelled back from the front seat. “Do something!”

“You do something,” Palamedes said. “Sophie has no power left. It’s up to you, Josh.”

“I’m driving,” he protested.

“Think of something,” the knight snapped.

“What should I do?” he asked desperately.

“Think of rain,” Sophie murmured.

Josh kept his foot pressed to the floor, the cab roaring down the road, speedometer touching ninety. Rain. OK, they’d lived in Chicago, New York, Seattle and San Francisco. He knew all about rain. The boy imagined water falling from the skies: thick fat drops of rain, torrential rain, misty summer rain, frozen winter rain.

“Nothing’s happening,” he called.

Abruptly, a torrential downpour washed across the road behind them, sluicing from a cloud that hadn’t been there a heartbeat earlier. The nearest police car hit a patch of water and skidded sideways, and the second car crashed into its back passenger door. A tire exploded. The third car rear-ended the second and the three cars slid across the road, completely blocking it in a tangle of metal. The sirens died to squawks.

“Nicely done,” Palamedes commented.

“Where to now?”

The knight pointed. “Over there.”

Josh ducked his head to look to the left. Stonehenge was smaller than he’d imagined, and the road came surprisingly close to the standing stones.

“Stop here. We’ll get out and run,” Palamedes said.

“Stop where?” Josh asked, looking around.

“Right here!”

Josh hit the brakes and the car skidded to a halt. Palamedes leapt from the car, the Alchemyst unceremoniously draped over his shoulder. “Follow me,” the knight shouted. His huge sword slashed a metal fence to ribbons.

Josh grabbed the Persian sword and wrapped his arm around his sister, who was struggling to stay conscious, holding her as they raced across the grass toward the circle of standing stones.

“And whatever you do,” the Saracen Knight shouted, “don’t look back.”

Sophie and Josh both looked back.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

“You know her?” Billy the Kid asked, dipping his head and speaking out of the corner of his mouth. He was looking at the back of the woman they were following through the maze of stone and metal corridors.