The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

them.
    “Ard-Greimne wants me to tell you what to do,” Aten continued. “I want you to look toward the Pyramid of the Sun and tell me what you see.”
    As one, the crowd turned. Outlined in the setting sun against the clear evening sky, they could see streaks of light as vimanas fell to the earth. The sky was filled with fliers.
    The shiver of excitement that ran through the crowd was a physical thing. They started to shout and scream.
    “The People of the Tree have risen up,” Aten said. “Human people. They are led by Hekate and commanded by Huitzilopochtli. Prometheus protects and guides them. Abraham the Mage watches over them. Elder and human together. Equal, as one.”
    The crowd roared.

    Scathach watched Ard-Greimne step up to Aten. Immediately she started to run, flying across the ground directly toward the massed anpu ranks.
    Dee shot out his hand and gripped Virginia’s arm. He too had seen Ard-Greimne move and knew what he was going to do. “Take my aura, Virginia, and do what you have to do.”
    Virginia Dare carefully lifted his hand off her arm and then wrapped her fingers around his. “Thank you, John.”
    “John,” he breathed.
    She looked at him quizzically.
    “In all the years we have known one another, you have never called me by my name,” he said.
    “Of course I have. Many times.”
    “But never with affection . . .”
    “That’s because for all the years I’ve known you, you have been an arrogant immortal called Dee.”
    Ard-Greimne stepped up to Aten and sighed loudly. The two Elders looked down over the cheering, screaming crowd. And then Ard-Greimne looked to the Pyramid of the Sun. “I am guessing they will not be needing you tonight?”
    “I guess not,” Aten answered.
    Ard-Greimne put his hand on Aten’s shoulder. “But you should see this first,” he said, then shouted, “Fire at will!” to the line of archers.
    Two hundred bowstrings sang and the arrows loosed, again and again and again. The arrows each had a tiny hole cut into the head so that they screamed as they flew through the air. They arched high into the night and fell in a shrieking, deadly rain into the crowd.
    And then the salty evening air of Danu Talis suddenly smelled of sage and sulfur.
    A pale green fire outlined Virginia Dare, while the faintest nimbus of yellow steamed off the English Magician.
    “Give it everything you have,” Dee had advised her when he’d outlined the plan earlier. “You will only get this one chance.”
    “I’ve never done anything like this before,” she had answered.
    “This is as good a time as any to start.”
    Virginia Dare was a mistress of Air magic. She had learned her skills in the woods on the East Coast of North America and perfected them in the wild forests of the Pacific Northwest. She knew how to make and shape clouds, how to use air as a tool . . . and a weapon.
    The immortal called upon every iota of her aura and gathered it for one massive outpouring. She could feel the Magician’s heat flooding into her hand, seeping through her flesh, strengthening her. His was a dark, bitter power, but it complemented hers.
    The arrows rose.
    Virginia Dare closed her eyes The arrows screamed down.
    The American immortal’s aura burned brighter and brighter, until she was a blazing green beacon. Dee’s aura burned a bright sickly yellow, sending grotesque shadows dancing across the ground. Virginia’s eyes snapped open and she felt John squeeze her hand.
    “Now,” he whispered.
    Virginia exhaled in a great bellowing breath.
    And the arrows stopped, hanging suspended over the stricken crowd, caught by an invisible wall of air.
    Everyone in the crowd and along the walls fell utterly silent.
    Then the wind shifted, and the hundreds of arrows turned in the air to face the opposite direction. With another burst of wind, they screamed into the massed ranks of armored warriors standing before the prison walls, mowing them down in a clatter of metal and armor.
    On top of the walls, watching the guards fall beneath him, Aten nodded. “I am glad you made me wait to see that. What will you do now, Ard-Greimne?” he asked. “It looks like about three-quarters of your troops are dead, and I’m not sure how keen the rest will be to fight. And do you know, I believe it was a human who did that to you.” He nodded toward the Pyramid of the Sun, which was now speckled with fires. “Where will you go?”
    “I will survive,” the Elder snapped, “which is more