The Magician nodded. "Exactly."

"I presume you have a plan?" Dare asked.

Dee sat back in his chair and swiveled around to look out across the city again. "I always have a plan," he said. "I was just thinking about it when you came in. Almost everything is in place." He pointed into the night. "Alcatraz is out there. My company owns the island now, and access is restricted. All the cells are filled with monsters and there is a sphinx wandering free."

Virginia Dare shuddered. "I hate those creatures."

"They are useful. We thought it would be able to control Perenelle Flamel. We were wrong."

"We?"

"My masters and I," Dee clarified.

Virginia went around the desk to stand beside the English Magician. "Pretty," Dare said.

"My favorite view," Dee murmured. Unlike his offices in London or New York, where he was so high he could barely see the streets, here he could look across Pioneer Park and see San Francisco spread out below him, close enough to touch. Almost directly opposite was the triangular shape of the Transamerica Building picked out in lights against the night sky.

"You know your masters will never rest until they have hunted you down," Virginia said quietly.

"Yes. I know that."

"Every moment you remain free and unpunished offends them. Your masters will lose status with the other Elders. They must make an example of you."

Dee nodded again. He could see himself and Virginia reflected in the dark gla.s.s. They looked as if they were floating over the city. "You killed your master... and yet no one came after you," he said.

Virginia laughed, but the sound was brittle and false. "I did not kill my master. The fool became both arrogant and careless in his old age. He made the mistake of challenging the authority of a Deer Woman and then insulted her and her tribe of Shapeshifters."

"What happened?"

Virginia laughed again. "What do you think happened? There were Deer Women on this land long before the Elders fled Danu Talis. They know every hidden trail, secret pathway and leygate, and how and where they all connect. One moment my Elder was in Oklahoma, threatening the woman... the next he was in Badwater, in the heart of Death Valley at the height of summer. I believe he used his aura to keep himself cool for the first few days... until he had no aura left." She clapped her hands together suddenly and the Magician jumped. "His own aura finally consumed him in a ball of flame. There wasn't even dust left."

"How do you know all this?" Dee wondered.

"Because I was there," Dare said lightly. "Who do you think led the Deer Woman to him?" She patted Dee's shoulder. "I was tired of him: he had lied to me once too often, made me promises he had no intention of keeping." Her voice dropped to a whisper and her fingers curled slightly. "Don't make the same mistake."

"I won't," Dee answered, watching Dare's reflection the whole time.

"So tell me, what you are going to do, Doctor?" Virginia demanded.

Dee came stiffly to his feet. Without saying a word, he crossed the room and stepped into a small private elevator. Dare hesitated a moment, then followed him. The elevator was uncomfortably small, obviously designed for only one person. With great care, the Magician pushed his burnt thumb against a b.u.t.ton marked Emergency Stop. The b.u.t.ton glowed a dull blue and then the doors hissed closed.

"The latest in fingerprint recognition," Dee explained. "If anyone else pushed the b.u.t.ton, the lift would fill with gas."

"Very clever," the woman said sarcastically.

Although there had been no sense of movement, the lift door suddenly opened. Virginia stepped out, followed by Dee. "Where are we?" she asked, looking around.

They had stepped out into a vast open-plan living room. All four walls were gla.s.s and featured panoramic views of the city. Various configurations of leather couches and chairs were scattered around the room, and four enormous flat-screen television sets arranged in a square hung from the ceiling. They were all tuned to the History Channel. At the far end of the s.p.a.ce was a kitchen, and at the other end, behind a series of ornate painted screens, was a sleeping area centered around a j.a.panese futon.

"We're on the thirteenth floor."

"Your building does not have a thirteenth floor," Dare snapped.

"Not on the floor plans," Dee agreed, "but there is a thirteenth floor, accessible via this lift and a narrow maintenance stairway. Welcome to my home," he said with a broad sweep of his arms. "It is built between the twelfth and fourteenth floors and steals square footage from both. The windows are one way and the entire floor is completely soundproofed."

Virginia looked around. "It needs a woman's touch," she said, unimpressed. "You do know that couches come upholstered in material other than leather, and metal and gla.s.s tables haven't been chic since the nineteen eighties." She turned and stopped, suddenly speechless. "Artificial flowers? John, you can't be serious."

"The real ones kept dying," Dee said. "And when did you become an interior decorator? The last time I met you, you lived in a tent."

"Still do," she said. "You're never homeless in a tent."

Dee crossed the floor to the area that served as a kitchen and pulled open the fridge door.

"If you ate, I'd wager you'd have paper plates," Virginia said, following him. "I suppose it would be pointless asking you for milk?" she asked as he reached into the fridge.

"Pointless," he agreed. "You can have water, flat or sparkling," Dee pulled out two bottles and then, from the back of the fridge, a short narrow object wrapped in a rag. He laid it on the table before Dare, and then reached back into the fridge to pull out two more similarly shaped objects. One was wrapped in red silk, the other in green leather.

Virginia Dare felt the tickling crawl of ancient power across her skin and stepped back, automatically brushing her tingling hands along the length of her jacket. She felt as if ants were crawling across her skin.

Dee then pulled open the oven and extracted a rectangular wooden box, which he also laid on the table.

"I'm not going to even ask you why you store things in the fridge and the oven," Dare muttered. "Are these what I think they are?" she asked.

"What do you think they are?" he asked.

"Dangerous. Powerful. Deadly."

"That they are." The Magician carefully unwrapped the object in red silk, slowly peeling back the wafer-thin cloth. "I was thinking earlier that I've been a fool."

Virginia Dare squeezed her lips tightly shut and resisted the temptation to comment.

"Why did I spend centuries working for the Elders, doing their errands like a servant or a trained dog?"

"Because they made you immortal?" Virginia reminded him.

"Others have become immortal without an Elder," Dee pointed out. "The Flamels, Saint-Germain and Shakespeare, too. Maybe if I had searched for the secret of immortality, I would have found it myself."

"Maybe you would have died before you'd found it," Virginia suggested.

"I gave the Elders centuries of service..."

"I know, I know, I know. I'm becoming bored with this self-pitying nonsense," Dare snapped, deliberately goading him. She knew the Magician well enough to know that he hated to be interrupted. If Dee had a failing, it was that he loved the sound of his own voice. "Tell me what you intend to do."

"First, I am going to summon Coatlicue from her prison and set her loose into the Shadowrealms," he said, burnt fingers fumbling with the red silk.

Dare watched him closely but made no attempt to help him.

"The Elders will be forced to draw most of their forces on earth back into the Shadowrealms to battle the Mother of All the G.o.ds. They will not care what happens here. In the meantime, Machiavelli should have released the monsters on Alcatraz into the city."

Dare blinked in surprise but knew better than to interrupt him now.

The red silk fell away, revealing a simple stone sword. The hilt was unadorned and the gray blade polished so that it looked like metal. Dee looked over at Virginia, his eyes sparkling. "Do you recognize it?" he asked.

"One of the swords of power," she breathed. "Which one?"

"Durendal," he whispered.

"The indestructible." Dare stepped closer to look at the ancient weapon. "You've always been fascinated with these toys, haven't you, Doctor?"

"A one-handed man once read my fortune; he told me that my destiny lay entwined with the swords."

"I thought it would look more impressive," Virginia said.

The Magician pulled at the thick string knotted tightly around the green-leather-wrapped object. "San Francisco will quickly fall to the beasts," he continued, ignoring her comment. "The humani armies will not be able to stand against the monsters. The fear factor alone gives us a tremendous advantage. And there are similar caches of creatures in all the major cities around the globe. The world will dissolve into chaos in a matter of days."

"And what about those Elders who refuse to leave the earth to fight Coatlicue in the Shadowrealms?" Virginia asked. "And the immortals who are not allied to the Dark Elders? They will fight the monsters."

"Oh, I'm counting on it," Dee muttered. Two of the cords fell away from the object he was fumbling with, but he could not undo the third knot. He looked at the woman. "Would you...?"

"I'm going nowhere near it," Virginia said. She slipped a short flat-bladed knife from a hidden sheath in her sleeve and tossed it to the Magician. He deftly caught it and sliced open the last knot.

"I know the locations of most of the Elders, Next Generation and immortals here on earth. Once they come out of hiding, I can pick them off one by one. When I'm finished, you and I will be the last two immortals on this planet. My Elder masters once promised me this planet: now I'm taking it on my terms."

"And sharing it with me," Virginia reminded him.

"And sharing it with you," he agreed.

"You still haven't told me what you want me for," Dare said.

"Why, my dear, you are central to my plan." He stopped and looked up, smiling slyly. "I always knew we would end up together."

"Did you, now?"

"We are alike, you and I."

"I'm sure we are," Virginia Dare muttered. She dipped her head and said nothing. Dee had known her for most of his life and still had no idea just what she was, or what she was capable of. He had grown up in the Elizabethan Age and his opinions of women had been shaped by that age. Dare was convinced it was one of the many reasons he-and Machiavelli, too-had consistently underestimated Perenelle Flamel.

Dee carefully unfolded the green leather to reveal a twin of the first sword.

"A twin blade," Virginia Dare said, surprised. "It must be Joyeuse, Charlemagne's sword."

"The first sword I ever owned," the Magician said. "And now I have the complete set." Dee laid Excalibur and Clarent alongside the first two swords.

Now that the swords lay together on the gla.s.s-topped table, the similarities between them were obvious-they were all about twenty inches long and carved from a single piece of stone. Of the four swords, only Clarent was dull and ugly-the rest were polished to a high shine. Virginia noticed subtle differences in the patterns of their hilts, but had she not watched Dee lay them out, she doubted she would have been able to tell them apart-except for Clarent, of course.

"Once I have located and killed any remaining Elders, Next Generation and immortals on this world, I am going to use the swords to destroy the entrances to the Shadowrealms here on earth. Then this will truly become our world."

"Very clever, I'm sure," Dare said. "I have just one question..."

"Just one?"

"Why me?"

Dee looked at her blankly.

"You have this so neatly planned out: what do you need me for?" The Magician opened his mouth, but Dare held up her hand to stop him. "And don't even think about lying," she whispered. "Not when there are four swords on the table in front of me." Although the smile did not leave her lips, the threat was plain.

The Englishman nodded. "I came to you because... well, I told you: you are central to my plan. I need your flute."

"My flute?" Virginia was completely taken aback.

Dee looked vaguely embarra.s.sed. "Well, yes. When the monsters have been released into the city, I should be able to control them for a few days. But once they've fed and become feral, I will lose control..." His voice trailed off as he watched for Dare's reaction.

"And you believe my flute will be able to enchant and control them."

"I'm sure of it. Remember, I was with you when you stood on the banks of the Red River and turned back a herd of three thousand stampeding buffalo. I have some inkling of the flute's powers."

"There is a difference between buffalo and whatever menagerie of nightmares you've collected."

Dee shook his head. "They are all beasts. And earlier, I watched you fell both cucubuths and humani. I have absolute confidence in you."

"Thank you," Virginia said sarcastically. "So once I render the creatures unconscious what do you intend to do with them when they wake up?"

Dee shrugged dismissively. "Kill them, or return them to Alcatraz and let them fend for themselves." He reached for the rectangular wooden box on the table, opened the lid and lifted out a small copper-bound book.

The air in the room immediately crackled with static electricity, green sparks running across all the metal surfaces.

Virginia felt as if all the breath had been sucked from her body. "Is that what I think it is?"

Dee placed the book on the table in the center of the swords. Bound in tarnished green copper, the book was about six inches across by nine inches long, the pages within thick and yellow with ragged edges.

"The Codex-the Book of Abraham the Mage," Dee said, almost reverentially. "I devoted my entire life to finding this book..." Wrapping a corner of the red silk around his fingers, he carefully opened the cover. "And when I finally acquired it, the last two pages were ripped out." He turned to the back of the book, where the torn edges of two thick leaves jutted from the binding. The Magician giggled, the sound high-pitched and unnerving. "And do you know something, Virginia: the last two pages contain the Final Summoning, the formula needed to bring the Elders from their Shadowrealms into this world. My masters were very upset that I'd lost it." His giggling turned to laughter, which quickly grew louder and more hysterical, shaking his entire body. "But now it turns out that we don't need the Final Summoning, because the Elders will not be coming back."

"Doctor!" Virginia snapped, suddenly growing frightened of Dee. She'd never seen him like this. "Control yourself."

John Dee drew in a deep shaky breath. "Of course. I apologize." He closed the Codex and ran his silk-covered hand across the metal surface. "We will let the monsters ravage the earth for a week, we'll allow the armies, navies and air forces to exhaust themselves battling the creatures, and then, just when all seems lost, you and I will announce ourselves as the saviors of mankind. We'll draw away the creatures and take control of the planet. We will become the immortal rulers of the world. You have no master, and mine will either be dead or trapped in a Shadowrealm with no access to this world, so I am safe. I can use this book to remake and reshape the earth in any way that we wish." He smiled. "The only limits are our imaginations."

"I've got a very vivid imagination," Virginia murmured. "However, haven't you forgotten one tiny thing?" she added calmly.

Dee looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"All of this depends on Coatlicue's doing your bidding."

"She will," he said confidently. "The real moment of danger is when she first awakens: she will be ravenous. I just have to make sure to feed her."

"Coatlicue is not a vegetarian," Virginia reminded him.

The Magician's smile turned feral. "Yes, I know. And I've got such a tasty feast lined up for her."