The Accidental Alchemist Read Online Free PDF Page A

something greater than its original whole by making the corruptible into something pure.
    I feared I was beyond my depth here. I closed my eyes and clutched the gold locket I wore around my neck. The locket I always kept close to me yet hadn’t opened in many years. I hadn’t even wanted to think about practicing alchemy for decades. Not since Ambrose.
    Stop it, Zoe. It wasn’t your fault.
    I repeated my mantra of that past century a few times before opening the book again. Pushing all thoughts of Ambrose to the back of my mind, I tried to focus on the calligraphy of the title page. I wasn’t sure where to start. Many of my old alchemy books were packed in the shipping crates. It would take some time to locate what I needed. For the time being, I took a cursory look at how the book was organized and snapped a few photos of interesting pages with my cell phone. As I did so, I became more certain than ever that this wasn’t alchemy. The illustrations resembled alchemical symbolism only superficially, as if the person making the illust rations had never studied it. Perhaps that explained the convoluted title.
    I wasn’t sure how long I’d been absorbed in Not Untrue Alchemy when a heavenly aroma wafted out from the kitchen. Sage, rosemary, and onions. Dorian carried a hot casserole dish from the kitchen and set it down on a cork matt on the solid oak table. He ran back to the kitchen for the plates and utensils I’d brought inside earlier.
    “You made this with what I had in the house?” I asked, my eyes wide and my mouth watering.
    He grinned proudly. “Butternut squash roasted in olive oil with onions, sage, and a hint of rosemary. The sauce is lemon tahini, with cayenne-infused salt and toasted pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top. The fat from the sesame seeds used to make the tahini fools the senses into thinking there is a ham base.”
    “This is amazing,” I said.
    Dorian ate quickly but with refinement, serving himself a second helping before I was halfway through eating my first. I ate slowly, savoring the exquisite flavors. With the same ingredients I was planning on using to create a simple meal, Dorian had created a feast.
    “ Pardon, ” he said after a small burp.
    “That meal was incredible,” I said.
    “ C’est rien ,” he said. “It was nothing. I would have made something better if I was not so hungry.”
    “I haven’t eaten such a gourmet meal in ages,” I said.
    “You will help me with my book?” he said, looking across the table expectantly.
    “You haven’t told me exactly what you need done with it, remember? If you’re looking for a translator, I’m not the best person.”
    “ Mais oui! ” he said. “Now that we have satisfied our earthly needs, we may discuss practical business.” He scrambled off his chair and returned a moment later with the book I’d left on the couch.
    “You are an alchemist. You can help me not only translate my book, but decipher it.”
    “I’m sorry to disappoint you,” I said. “Especially after you traveled all this way. But this isn’t an alchemy book.”
    “You are correct it is not a normal one,” Dorian said, “but there are alchemy tenets inside. The philosopher’s stone, Alkahest, recipes with the three essential ingredients of mercury, sulfur, and salt. It is all here. It is the same principles for creating an Elixir of Life, no?”
    “Yes, but that doesn’t mean—”
    “I,” Dorian said, cutting me off, “was once stone. This book is what brought me to life.”
    I stared across the table at the gargoyle. “That’s not possible.”
    The philosopher’s stone was the alchemical creation that enabled both the tr ansformation of eternal life and the creation of gold. But it wasn’t something that could be used to bring an inanimate object to life. There was a natural order to things. Steps that had to be taken both outwardly and inwardly—planetary alignments, clockwise rotations, separating and rejoining elements in the proper