The Study

27th January 1891

Josef Blight let a slithering tongue click at the back of his throat in impatience, pale, skeletal fingers rubbing absent-mindedly along a pointed nose. The bitter-sweet green of his eyes narrowed under slender black brows as he stared at the chalk lines on the floor before him. He had called three times now - still no demon.

The greying night sky outside his latticed window rumbled under the weight of the storm. Blight took in a deep breath and tried to hear his thoughts over the lashing of the rain on his side of the house, the stone walls still raggedly fighting it out against the raging wrath of the weather. The three summonings had almost totally drained him, but he squared his shoulders in determination and blinked the fatigue from his eyes. The girl wasn't so dangerous that the stupid demon might have been destroyed… unless he'd been so stupid as to reveal his true intent, in which the girl wouldn't have been totally unable to defend herself…

He shifted a foot encased in a patent leather boot, about to step out of the neat white symbols intertwined with the outline of his own pentacle, when a smudge in the air before him began to form. And grew wider. Blight's eyebrows met in a severe line under his high forehead, mimicking the shape of his emotionless mouth, as a small white cloud bubbled into being where the djinni should have appeared five minutes ago. As the magician continued to watch, the haze contorted itself into the shape of a dark-skinned boy, who stood within the limits of the pentacle, black eyes flushed with irritation, and placed his hands on his hips in a thoroughly irked fashion.

"What?"

A sly amusement crept over Blight's thin features. "I'm sorry," he said in a drawling voice. "Was I interrupting something..?"

The djinni seemed to shake itself slightly, as though ridding the boy's face of any kind of give-away. It stretched its expression into one of utterly false contentment. "No," it said slowly, rather deliberately. "As usual, oh master, your timing is exquisite…"

Blight gave a wan smile, while his eyes brimmed with sadistic glee at seeing his servant so inconvenienced. "Good," he said quietly. Then, "I called you three times, Bartimaeus, it took you an awfully long time to arrive." He smiled in mock concern. "Far away, were you?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "You know perfectly well where I was. What do you want?"

Another violent bout of rain slammed against the windows. The magician raised an eyebrow. "Merely a report on how you've been getting along," he said. "Have you managed to -"

"No," the djinni cut him off in a bored voice. "And I don't see why it should be my job to do it! It's not like her house is surrounded by marids or something… Typical magician - why can't you just do it yourself!"

A flicker of annoyance smarted the magician's composed features. "Don't interrupt me, demon," he uttered darkly. "I have told you before - this must all be done carefully."

"Yeah, yeah…" the boy cocked his head to one side and let out a feigned sigh, though for a moment Blight thought he saw something like anxiety in the fathomless eyes. It was gone in an instant as the djinni looked up and stared around at the papers strewn about the wooden floor, the two desks invisible under cascades of leather-bound tomes. "What happened in here?" the boy grinned. "Stampede?"

"Do you mean to tell me," Blight snapped, determinedly ignoring the djinni's attempt to change the subject. "That you have not uncovered a single thing worthy of my attention?"

The boy in the pentacle shrugged. "Erm… well, she says she hasn't got enough money to support herself just from teaching." He threw a meaningful look at the magician. "So she's had to try out some lowlife garbage working for commoners or something… you know, she's not at all the way you described her. Very unusual girl…"

A thought struck Blight, but he put it aside for the moment. "What was she doing when you left her?"

The djinni seemed to pause for only a fraction of a second before saying, a little too quickly, "Er - looking for a candle."

"Looking for a candle…" the magician repeated deliberately. He rubbed a finger along his lower lip. "Why?"

The boy's voice was much more casual this time. "The power went out because of the storm, of course." As though to exaggerate his point, the wind seemed to howl a little louder. "In a house like hers, what do you expect?"

Blight said nothing. If what the djinni reported was correct, she was, at this very moment, trapped in a dark house, all alone. The thought sent an uncomfortable shiver across the back of his neck.

"Why doesn't she live here, anyway?"

Annoyance formed a crease across the magician's forehead. "I'm asking the questions, demon."

"Fair enough. Can I go now?"

Blight stared at his feet, deep in thought. "Yes, you are dismissed. You are to remain in Miss Holloway's house in a disguise which she will not be able to detect, until you receive further instruction from myself. Is that clear?"

The boy let out something like a groan, but had vanished within seconds. Blight stepped carefully out of his pentacle, listening to the storm carry on valiantly outside. He crossed to his desk and sat down in the ruined leather of the chair. Fishing in his waistcoat pocket, he drew out a selection of keys on a piece of black cord and fitted one into a lock on one of the desk drawers. The drawer clicked open, and he reached inside. A collection of faded miniatures, various certificates and several important-looking documents were heaped unceremoniously into the depths of the wooden box, from which Blight tugged out a short, neatly-written letter and straightened it in his hands.

To whom it may concern,

Suffice to say that I no longer feel I can live as a resident in this household, owing to the unwanted attentions of one of your senior ministers. I do not wish to make accusations, and consequently the man in question shall remain unnamed. However, his actions have led me to the conclusion that my life would be better led away from the House of St. Mar.

yours faithfully,

Miss Catherine Holloway