The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

research using super computers to replicate the melting of ice sheets suggests that water levels could have risen over sixty feet in two hundred years. Significantly, just about every culture on this planet has stories of a great flood that devastated the world, wiping away whole cities and tribes and instigating great migrations as people fled the rising waters. And as we know—at the heart of just about every legend is a grain of truth.
    So perhaps there really is an Atlantis—an island kingdom destroyed by a series of natural disasters, waiting to be rediscovered. If there is, odds are that it will be nothing like we imagined.
    And the name Danu Talis?
    I had often said that the only characters I created for this series were the twins. Everything else was grounded in history or mythology. I did, however, take a little license with the name Danu Talis.
    In a collection of Irish poems and stories called the
Lebor Gabála Érenn
, or
The Book of the Taking of Ireland
, there are the stories of the Tuatha De Danann, the People of Danu. They are the fifth invaders of Ireland, and unlike some of the others, whom we can ground firmly in history, the Tuatha De Danann are a magical and mysterious people, refugees from the west who sailed to Ireland on ships at a time of the “dark cloud.”
    So, for the purposes of this story, the Tuatha De Danann were the survivors of the fall of Atlantis, and Atlantis became Danu Talis.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    This book ends a very long journey, which began in May 1997 when I first wrote the word
Alchemyst
with a
Y
in my notebook. A decade later, in May 2007, almost to the day, the first book of the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series,
The Alchemyst
, was published. Now, six years later,
The Enchantress
brings the series to a conclusion.
    I am especially pleased that many of the same people who began that journey with me are here with me at the end.
    This book, and indeed this series, would not have happened without the constant support and encouragement (and endless patience) of Beverly Horowitz and the wonderful Krista Marino at Delacorte Press.
    A very special thanks goes out to Colleen Fellingham (who has kept me safe and out of trouble), Tim Terhune, and the entire team at Delacorte Press and Random House, especially Elizabeth Zajac, Jocelyn Lange and Andrea T. Sheridan, for taking care of me.
    Thank you, as always, to Barry Krost at BKM, Frank Weimann at the Literary Group, Richard Thompson and Bernard Sidman.
    Surrounding me as I wrote the series have been a number of people whose help, advice and support I have come to depend on. Claudette Sutherland is chief amongst them, but there are many others, and their thoughts, suggestions, ideas and criticisms have been more than invaluable: they have been essential. In alphabetical order (so there’s no fighting), let me thank: Michael Carroll, Colette Freedman, Jumeaux (who are Antonio Gambale and Libby Lavella), Patrick Kavanagh (for too many things), Renee Lascala (and the flock, and especially Pookie, who taught me everything I know about parrots), Alfred Molina and Jill Gascoine (not alphabetical, I know, but I cannot separate them), Brooks and Maurizio Papalia, Melanie Rose, Mitch Ryan, Sonia Schorman, and Sherrod Turner and Jim Di Bella (equally inseparable).
    This series has brought me into contact with many extraordinary and fascinating people. Again, in alphabetical order: Marilyn Anderson and Laysa Quintero, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Topher Bradfield, LeVar Burton, Edie Ching, Jackie Collins, the Cooperkawa Clan, the Crooks Family, Simon Curtis, Jennifer Daugherty, Trista Delamere and Carleen Cappelletti, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, Jim and Marissa Durham, Lynn Ferguson, Robin and Stephanie Gammell, Jerry Gelb, Melissa Gilbert, Alex Gogan, Andrea Goyan and Ron Freed, Bruce Hatton, Anne Kavanagh, Arnold and Anne Kopelson, Tina Lau, Gussie Lewis (and all her fabulous team, who were there right from the very beginning), Laura Lizer, Dwight L. MacPherson, Lisa Maxson, O. R. Melling, Chris Miller and Elaine Sir (and as I was completing this book, Eliana “Elle” Sir Miller appeared), Pat Neal, Mark Ordesky, Pierre O’Rourke, Christopher Paolini, Sidney and Joanna Poitier, Rick Riordan, Frank Sharp, Ronald Shepherd, Armin Shimerman and Kitty Swink, Becky Stewart, Simon and Wendy Wells, Cynthia True and Eric Wiese, Bill Young, and Hans and Suzanne Zimmer.
    And of course, the team at Flamel’s Immortal Portal, who know