Thanks very much to those who reviewed.

Author's Note: I owe the inspiration for this chapter to Cried Nevermore - thanks again.

This is supposed to be what was said between Nathaniel and Bartimaeus on their walk from the train station to the village in The Amulet of Samarkand. As a result, the date here is a random guess at when the book was supposed to be set.

Another Note: I've posted a Bartimaeus trilogy forum, but there isn't a section for that yet. If anybody wants to add anything to it, it's situated in the Miscellaneous Books section.

The Track

21 November, 1998

The boy stared at his surroundings with glazed eyes; suddenly, it all seemed so real to him. This open space represented how far he had stepped out of the boundaries of what he knew. This young magician was about to venture not only into unknown territory, but an unknown world.

The djinni didn't seem to care less. He was strolling along at a rather leisurely pace, his guise of a young boy seeming to fit perfectly with the natural surroundings. Of course - spirits liked baseness, reverting back to nature, they despised the buildings and man-made creations that Nathaniel found so comforting.

The boy folded his arms tightly, the cold seeping through his thin clothes. He breathed out a silvery mist into the air before him and sniffed. "Will we get some food there?"

"You humans," the djinni muttered. "If your mind's not pondering world domination, it's on your stomach… Yes, we'll get some food."

The boy nodded, staring down at his shoes as they walked. The dirt of the track was glistening with frost, tiny sparkling flecks that dazzled Nathaniel's exhausted eyes. He blinked and looked up, deciding to concentrate on the trees still half a mile ahead of them. The open space more than unnerved him, he would have given anything for at least a low wall between the track and the vast expanse of grassy field stretching into the horizon on either side of them.

"I hope you've thought again about what you're getting us into," the djinni broke into Nathaniel's train of thought.

The boy blinked at him. "What? Oh… what do you mean? I have to do this - I've got no choice."

The djinni snorted, glaring at the steadily nearing gate that led into the village. "Of course you've got a choice. You could run away and save us both. Times change, people evolve - you should just let it take its course. If the government isn't prepared to battle whatever Lovelace's going to throw at them, then perhaps they're not the right people in power anyway. I've seen it happen too many times… your government is going to be overthrown eventually, it may as well happen now."

Nathaniel sniffed again, and rubbed at his freezing shoulders. "It's not right," he stated. "It shouldn't happen."

"I'm afraid 'shouldn't' has got nothing to do with it," the djinni sighed. "Besides, sometimes it's for the better. Look at Napoleon, look at Charles I."

"That's a matter of opinion," Nathaniel muttered.

"Oh silly me, I forgot," the djinni drawled. "The idea of just one man ruling the country would be absolute paradise to you magicians, wouldn't it? No wonder all Hell broke loose once you'd got rid of him. You got all psyched up about the idea of democracy, then realised that would mean giving power to the Commoners as well and panicked."

Nathaniel frowned. "Hey, I wasn't even there!"

"I'm just saying…" the djinni continued. "Things never change. They just repeat themselves. Take this Lovelace character for a start - he may be the first slime-ball to tick you off, but I assure you, he won't be the last."

"He's trying to take over the country!" the boy cried. "This isn't a personal thing, you know. I'm not just doing it because of what he did to me -"

"Ooh - your first big lie! How does it feel?"

"Shut up." He stared down at the floor again to avoid the djinni's smirking face. How dare he… what does he know? "Why do you care, anyway?" Nathaniel said childishly. "It's not like you live here. All I've asked you to do is protect me."

"I don't care," the djinni said casually. "I'll let things play out as they will. And as for protecting you, pal, all I can say is I'll do my best."

"Yeah, right," Nathaniel snorted. "You'll protect me if you want your freedom. If I die, you're straight in the tin."

The djinni scuffed a foot along the track. "A fact I have unfortunately not forgotten." He paused, then carried on in a rather pensive tone. "I'm merely pointing out that sometimes you can do all you want to make something happen, like protect someone, or stop somebody overthrowing the British government, and it just doesn't work. It all blows up in your face. That's life, I'm afraid…"

The Egyptian boy had a strange look on his face, and Nathaniel had the sudden suspicion that perhaps the djinni wasn't talking about Lovelace anymore. He dared not ask about it, though; Bartimaeus seemed to be in a bizarre enough mood as it was, and the last thing he needed was an estranged djinni when it came to surviving on his own.

He looked up again, and saw that they had almost reached the gate. He began to walk a little faster; the peculiar ramblings of the djinni had distracted him somewhat from the space around him, but now he felt as though every inch of field was growing wider and wider, the silence of the countryside almost deafening. He rushed at the gate and threw it open, delighted to hear the creaking of the rusty hinges - something man-made.

The djinni sighed and followed him past the wooden gate posts into the tiny, tumble-down village. The were a couple of houses on either side of a piece of narrow road leading to the square, where Nathaniel could detect the faint sounds of a couple of people talking, and where the spire of the church was visible above mounds of messy yellow thatch.

Nathaniel started forward, eager to once again be safely surrounded by houses, no matter how engulfed by nature they had become. He paused when he heard no footsteps behind him, and turned round. He frowned. The djinni was simply standing, staring at one of the houses, a tiny white cottage with a broken fence and a tangle of roses in the front garden. The Egyptian boy's countenance was a disquieting mixture of diluted shock and intense sadness, an expression which unnerved Nathaniel the moment he saw it.

"What's the matter with you?" He said, rather more aggressively than he had intended. "What are you looking at?"

The djinni didn't answer, but continued to gaze at the cottage. Now Nathaniel grew impatient; he stalked over to stand beside his companion, glaring at the ivy-covered house with a profound crease across his forehead. "Bartimaeus?"

"Um… I… er -" the djinni stammered, shaking his head slightly. "Nothing. I just thought I saw something, but - it's nothing. Let's go."

He strode along the path towards the village, turning back when he realised that Nathaniel wasn't following him. On the contrary, the boy was now raking the house with his eyes in search of whatever it was that had so intrigued the djinni. "What on earth were you looking at..?" he murmured. "Did you see a magician? An imp or something? Do you think Lovelace is staying in one of these cottages?"

"I said, drop it!" the djinni snapped.

Nathaniel blinked at him. He was tempted to ask more questions, to demand what had upset the djinni so, but he didn't want to risk the kind of outburst that had occurred back in the library. "Alright," he said finally. "Let's go."