Good evening! (At least, it is here.) Enjoy chapter 12!

--

Vivian stared at the cup of coffee in her hand. Almost a half and hour had passed since Vivian and her djinn and crash landed in Kathleen Jones's front yard, leaving a small crater where Bartimaeus's head had become stuck. The two djinn were now busy telling Ms. Jones how they had ended up here. The story went something like this:

Bartimaeus began by saying, "So I'm just floating around in the Other Place, minding my own business, when this little brat—," he waved his had at Vivian "—decided to summon me. Then she—

"Ms. Gray is not a brat!" Amadahy interrupted

The boy's arm turned into a large wing, which he used to blow Amadahy away."As I was saying, this little brat summoned me, but when she realized how powerful I was, she sent me right back. Then, not even a day later, she dares to summon me again, and forces me to fight a marid, who this little waste of essence has already failed to defeat."

The smoke gave a cry of outrage and launched itself at him. One wing-flap sent it back to the other side of the room. "Then, after a fierce battle, I managed to escape with the brat and the Queen of Smoke Puffs." He then told the whole Necalli-sends-army-of-vicious-foliots-and-bloodthirsty-imps-after-them-which-he-heroically-destroys story. "After that, we rested in an alley for a while before going back to the house, getting the letter, nearly getting crushed by a falling house, and, finally, arriving here."

"Very interesting," Kathleen Jones said, looking slightly amused. "But you left out a part."

"Oh, and what would that be?" Bartimaeus asked.

"Why were you impersonating an ostrich?"

"Would you please stop mentioning that?" the djinni snapped.

"I would, if you would tell me how it happened."

Bartimaeus said something in a foreign language, which Vivian was glad she didn't understand. "It was my fault," she said. "I was having a dream and I suddenly woke up. I think I tried to sit up and my head hit Bartimaeus's. It would explain why my head started hurting again."

Actually, it had been more of a nightmare. All Vivian remembered was the smell of rosemary, but that was all she needed to remember to know what she had dreamed about.

Ms. Jones turned her head and looked at the girl. "Vivian Gray, right?"

Vivian nodded.

"Well, then you probably have something to give me."

Vivian's useless right hand tried to reach for the box she had in her jacket, but all it did was twitch. "How did you know?"

"I've been expecting your brother to arrive for sometime now. He sent me a message, saying that he had discovered something very important in Prague."

"What was Mr. Gray doing in Prague?" Amadahy asked, floating back to Vivian's side. The girl was wondering the exact same thing. Nick had always had a bad case of xenophobia. He couldn't so much as look at a foreigner without going completely pale. As far as Vivian knew, her brother had never left the country.

Ms. Jones looked confused. "Didn't he tell you? The Prime Minister himself sent him to Prague a month ago."

"How does Nick know the Prime Minister?" Vivian asked.

"What do you mean? He was one of the government's top magicians. The Commoner's Council picked him themselves. He could have probably been elected Prime Minister, if he'd wanted to be."

"Nick works in a bookstore."

Ms. Jones raised one of her eyebrows. "I guess he didn't tell you. He was always secretive. He had to be."

"Why?"

"Because he was a spy." Ms. Jones said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"After your parents were killed, he stopped going on missions, but he did say he would start working again when you turned fifteen. But you can't be older than twelve or thirteen."

"I turned fifteen a month ago." Around the time he disappeared and supposedly got sent to Prague, Vivian realized.

Bartimaeus and Ms. Jones stared at her curiously. "You don't look fifteen."

"Well, I am. Could we—"

"I agree. She's too shrimpy to be fifteen," Bartimaeus interrupted. "Not even Nat was this shrimpy."

Ms. Jones's eyes hardened. "That reminds me, why are you the only one that escaped the Glass Palace?"

The Egyptian boy also became serious. "Perhaps we should discuss this later. You need to focus of helping the brat, and I need to focus on staying alive long enough to return to the Other Place."

Vivian didn't really understand what they were talking about, and she didn't really care right now. "Excuse me, but could we get back to discussing Nick?"

The woman and the djinni reluctantly stopped glaring at each other. "Sorry. So, do you have the package?" Ms. Jones asked.

Vivian placed the cup of coffee down on the table and took the box out of her pocket. "Here it is."

"This is it?"

"Yes. Were you expecting something different?"

"I didn't think it would be so small." Ms. Jones examined the squashed box for a few moments.

"Go ahead," Bartimaeus said quietly, "open it."

"I wonder what's inside." Amadahy was hovering just above Vivian's head now.

"Everyone get ready," Kitty said. Then she slowly began to open the box. As the lid began to lift, a pale green glow came from within, accompanied by the sound of someone speaking.

Everyone leaned forward to see what was inside.

The lid was lifted and . . .

--

Sorry, chapter over. You'll have to wait to see what's inside the box. ;)