The Pyramid of Souls Read Online Free PDF Page A

gone.
       "Yes. Exactly the same."
       Theo put his glasses down on the desk. He waved his hands, and Nick felt himself being lifted from his seat.
       "What are you doing?" Nick asked. He tried to grab his chair, but he soon found himself suspended in midair.
       "And now Isabella," Theo said.
       Nick's cousin was soon in midair, too, only she started turning somersaults.
       "Showoff," Nick muttered.
       "Now…Isabella, you are light as a butterfly. And Kolya," Theo scolded, "you have been eating too much pizza." As Theo spoke, his left hand lowered, bringing Nick closer to the ground. His right hand—for Isabella—raised up, and she soon was touching the ceiling. "So no, it is not exactly the same . Not moving you in flight and not making you disappear."
       He moved his hands, and Nick and Isabella were once again seated at their desks. "Now think, Nicholai. You know the true answer to this. Does it feel exactly the same when yo u make Vladimir disappear versus Sascha?"
    At the mention of her name, the big cat lifted her head lazily.
       Nick shut his eyes and tried to recall how it felt the first time he made his hedgehog disappear. Then he pictured the magic act at the precise moment when he had to transform Sascha into Isabella—and the big cat disappeared for just a moment or two. "Well, I guess now that you mention it, when I have to make Sascha disappear, I have to try harder. I can't explain it, really, but it's like the air is heavier."
       "Precisely. So then how do you propose to make an elephant disappear?"
       "I don't know." Nick sighed, grinning slightly. "Why do you always speak in riddles and questions? Why can't you just tell me?"
       "I suppose we should start, my cousin, with a little instruction on the physics of disappearing into thin air."
       "Physics? You do know I barely escaped sixth grade, right?"
       "Perhaps," said Theo, "but we have a fabulous teacher at our disposal: one of the world's greatest magicians, Sir Isaac Newton."
       Nick furrowed his brow. "Wasn't he the guy who discovered gravity? Like from a falling apple or something?"
       Theo pointed a finger at a crystal ball—one of hundreds perched on pedestals around their classroom—along with potions and mice in golden cages. There were also all sorts of mysterious ingredients and creatures that glowed and moved in mason jars—everything from hairy spiders, purple crickets, and speckled frogs to whale milk and gleaming fluorescent goop that smelled like cauliflower. "The boy who got a C in science and an F in math. Why am I not surprised you think it was all about an apple?"
       "You mean to tell me that one of the most famous guys in history was one of us? A Magickeeper?"
       The crystal ball was now floating through the air and landed on Theo's desk. Inside, it turned pink, then grew darker and darker until it glowed ruby red—and then darker still until it looked like the crimson color of blood. "Time, cousins, for another history lesson."
       "I was afraid of that," Nick sighed.

    ***

    Cambridge, England, July 5, 1687
    Sir Isaac Newton sat at a wooden desk furiously scribbling with a quill pen, which he repeatedly dipped into a short, square bottle of black ink as dark as liquid mica. His assistant entered the room.
       "Today, Professor Newton, is a day of great accomplishment," said the young assistant, dressed in clothes of the day, with a fancy ruffled shirt, cuffs and trousers that ballooned out, and a long coat. He grinned earnestly. "Today, your three laws of motion are published, and all the world will know of your genius."
       "Indeed," said Newton. "Lex I: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare. Every body persists in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by