The Sorceress

This is the third book in the serie

From The Editor
Nicholas Flamel's heart almost broke as he watched his beloved Paris crumble before him. The city was destroyed by Dee and Machiavelli, but Flamel played his own role in the destruction. Sophie and Josh Newman show every sign of being the twins of prophecy, and Flamel had to protect them and the pages from the Dark Elders.

But Nicholas grows weaker with each passing day. Perenelle is still trapped in Alcatraz, and now that Scatty has gone missing, the group is without protection. Except for Clarent—the sister sword to Excalibur. But Clarent’s power is unthinkable, its evil making it nearly impossible to use without its darkness seeping into the soul of whoever wields it.

If he hopes to defeat Dee, Nicholas must find an Elder who can teach Josh and Sophie the third elemental magic—Water Magic. The problem? The only Elder who can do that is Gilgamesh, and he is quite, quite insane."

Plot Summary
The well known immortal Alchemyst Nicholas Flamel must take a risk and take Josh and Sophie Newman (twins foretold to save the world) to London, where the oldest immortal human lives: the master of the element of water, Gilgamesh the King. But what Nicholas Flamel withholds from the twins is that Gilgamesh the King is insane. Though he has no aura - and hence cannot use his powers, he can still pass on his knowledge to an awakened human. If Gilgamesh refuses to teach the twins they will be unable to escape back to San Francisco using the Ley Lines, and will be trapped in Dr. John Dee's city. Even worse, they will be in his hometown of London, where he is at his strongest. Flamel uses Francis to enlist Palamedes, a Saracen Knight to help them. Palamedes takes them to his home, a junkyard in North London, where the twins discover that Flamel has a feud with Palamedes' roommate, William Shakespeare. Mercifully, the two set aside their old dispute and manage to work to gether to contact Perenelle. Perenelle is trapped on Alcatraz with the friendly but untrustworthy spider elder, Areop-Enap, after narrowly escaping the Sphinx and defeating The Morrigan. Morrigan has been suppressed sufficiently by the Words of Power that resided on the island that her body was retaken by her two sisters, Macha and Badb. Perenelle can also make fleeting contact with Scathach and Joan of Arc using scrying. Areop-Enap and his spider army are then attacked by an onslaught of poisoned flies, killing most of the spiders and wounding Areop-Enap. Billy the Kid has joined forces with Machiavelli in an attempt to kill the sorceress, but the pair are tricked and Perenelle steals their boat, travelling back to the mainland with her new ally, the Crow Goddess. Unfortunately, the Dark Elders have awakened an ancient being even more powerful and mysterious than them: an Archon. The Archon, named Cernunnos, is known as the Horned God and is the leader of a pack of wolf people called the Wild Hunt. He has amazing brute strength and retains the power to make people members of his pack. According to myth he was once extremely beautiful, but now only his face is. He is part beast, and Dr. Dee believes that he has little or no magical powers. The Archon and the Wild Hunt attack Flamel, the twins, Palamedes, and Shakespeare in the junkyard, but are held off by Palamedes, Shakespeare, and their companions, the Gabriel Hounds. Flamel and Palamedes take the twins to Stonehenge, where they enlist the help of Gilgamesh. While the twins are adjusting to the powers Gilgamesh has taught them, Cernunnos returns with the Wild Hunt and attacks the twins and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is wounded by the Archon, but the twins use their newly found powers to trap the Horned God. During the escape, Josh loses Clarent, and Dee grabs the sword, reuniting it with its twin, Excalibur. The two swords fuse together to make a new sord. The two swords may have been the twins of legend "the two that are one, the one that is all." Sophie and Josh activate the Ley Line, and are greeted by Perenelle on the other end.