The Sorceress by Michael Scott Read Free Book Online Page A

was pale and there was a light sheen of sweat on his forehead. She gripped his arm and squeezed lightly. “How are you doing?” She knew what he was going through: the noise, the smells, the sounds of the city were starting to overwhelm his recently Awakened senses. She’d experienced the same shocking sensory overload when Hekate had Awakened her. But while the Witch of Endor and Joan had helped her control the wash of emotions and sensations, there was no one to help her brother.
    “I’m fine,” Josh said quickly. “OK, not so well,” he admitted a moment later, seeing the look of disbelief on his sister’s face. She’d been through the same transformation; she knew what he was feeling. “It’s just that everything …” He struggled to find the words.
    “It’s just too much,” Sophie finished for him.
    Josh nodded. “Too much,” he agreed. “I can even taste the car exhaust.”
    “Everything adjusts,” she promised, “and it gets easier. Or maybe you just get used to it.”
    “I don’t think I could ever get used to this,” he said, dipping his head and squinting against the brilliant sunshine breaking through the blue-black clouds. Sunlight sparkling on the wet streets sent painful daggers into his eyes. “I need sunglasses.”
    “That’s a good idea.” Sophie trotted ahead a few steps. “Nicholas, wait up,” she called.
    But though the Alchemyst glanced over his shoulder, he didn’t stop. “We cannot delay,” he snapped, and continued at a brisk pace.
    Sophie stopped in the middle of the street and pulled her brother to a halt with her. Nicholas had walked half a dozen paces before he realized that the twins were no longer behind him. He stopped and turned, waving them forward. They ignored him, and when he strode back to them there was something dark and ugly about the set of his face. “I’ve no time for this nonsense.”
    “We need sunglasses for Josh, and for me too,” Sophie said, “and water.”
    “We’ll get them later.”
    “We need them now,” she said firmly.
    Nicholas opened his mouth to spit out a reply, but Josh took a step forward, bringing him close to the Alchemyst. “We need them now.” There was something like arrogance inhis voice. Standing on the parvis in front of the cathedral in Paris, feeling the raw power flow through his body, watching the animated stone gargoyles shatter to dust, he had realized just how powerful he and his sister were. At this moment they might need the Alchemyst, but he needed them also.
    Nicholas looked into the boy’s bright blue eyes, and whatever he saw in them made him nod and turn back to a row of shops. “Water and sunglasses,” he said. “Any particular color sunglasses?” he asked sarcastically.
    “Black,” the twins answered in unison.
    Sophie stood with Josh outside the shop. She was exhausted, but she knew Josh was feeling even worse. Now that the rain had blown over, the street was beginning to fill up. People of a dozen different nationalities walked past, chatting in a variety of languages.
    Sophie suddenly tilted her head to one side, brow creasing in a frown.
    “What’s wrong?” Josh asked immediately.
    “Nothing’s wrong,” she said slowly, “it’s just that …”
    “What?”
    “I thought I recognized some of the words those people were speaking.”
    Her brother turned to follow her gaze. Two women in the long flowing abaya of the Middle Eastern countries, their heads covered and their faces hidden behind burkas, chatted together animatedly.
    “They’re sisters …. They’re going to see a doctor justaround the corner in Harley Street …,” Sophie said in wonder.
    Josh turned to hear better and pushed his hair back off his ear. Concentrating hard, he managed to isolate the voices of the two women. “Sophie, I can’t make out a word they’re saying; I think they’re speaking Arabic.”
    Two smartly dressed businessmen walked past, heading toward Regent’s Park tube station. They were both