Spiral 7
Yay! Summer holidays for me! I know, all you Americans are already on holiday, but still…
Bit more action in this, and some more of Nathaniel's point of view, specially for Lady Samurai (is there a space in your name? My internet was down while I was typing this so I can't check…)
And, name I called Kitty Katy on purpose. As I mentioned before, Kitty uses a fake name nowadays, even with the Resistance members. I couldn't find anywhere where I could put an explanation of that in the text, but I didn't want anyone to call her Kitty so I called her Katy and hoped everyone would not notice or assume this was Kitty. Sorry, will add explanation next time…
Here you go!
To Nathaniel's great annoyance, the disguised search sphere that had been planted on the captured terrorist had not turned up any new information. In fact, it hadn't turned up any information at all so far. The Resistance member had taken a train to an obscure area under what they assumed was a false name, then stayed at a B+B for a few days before taking another train to an equally remote area, and so on.
Nathaniel kept someone observing him, but made it less of a priority. He had lost hope that the surveillance would turn up any useful information after a few days; the boy had clearly realised what had been done to him, and taken appropriate measures.
What would it be like, to believe so strongly in a cause you would give up everything for it?
In a way, the conviction of the so called Exercitus Populo resembled the commitment Nathaniel had to his country. The only difference was that their conviction was ill-informed. How could commoners rule as well as their enlightened brothers? That was ridiculous.
But what do we have that they don't?
The demons…but how does control of them make us enlightened?
He shook his head. Such thoughts were on a par with treason. If he were a commoner, saying them would land him in the tower, or at the least, a re-education facility.
What was wrong with him nowadays? His mind was full of thoughts of treason, and he couldn't stop himself from brooding on the words of the commoner Kitty Jones, though she had died nearly three years ago.
It was her voice he could hear in his head, challenging the views he'd been taught since infancy. If she were still alive, she'd mock him for his indecision, for his confusion over simple issues.
Magicians alone had the right to rule, that was common knowledge.
Just keep telling yourself that…
The mood of the Resistance had not yet recovered from the depression brought by Stefan's disappearance, although the group was back to work and running as normal on the surface.
Bartimaeus had got to know the other members of the cell run personally by Kitty (there were, he had learned, four other cells, all founded by Kitty, who had relegated command of them once she deemed them ready), and achieved at least an uneasy truce with.
Oddly, the person who now trusted him most was the girl who had originally attacked him, Ciara. Most of the other members of the group had known each other for a long time, or had at least one person they knew well. Ciara had come from Prague at the advice of Kitty's friend Jacob (whom Bartimaeus remembered as weedy and irritating) and had not got any friends in London, possibly due to her tendency to switch between extremes of emotion without warning.
The others opinions of him ranged from a wary trust to a fragile truce, although there had been only one attack on him other than Ciara's: Rufus, a somewhat pompous man in his forties, had lunged at him, mistakenly thinking he was going to attack Lor, his son.
Of the Resistance members, Lor and Rufus annoyed Bartimaeus the most. They shared a tendency to disregard any opinion that differed from their own and an unshakable belief that they knew best. Both were useful – Rufus was rich and had access to the prestigious Bodleian library in Oxford, as well as owning a countryside villa and several houses across the country. Lor, a college student, was intelligent and fiercely opinionated, traits which had, inexplicably, made him very influential with the student community. He was responsible for at least half of the recruitments since he had joined.
Bartimaeus was with them now, on a mission. Actually, he was high circling above them in the shape of a pigeon, watching for watchers. He was bored. Very bored.
He knew perfectly well how useful he was as a lookout, and that he would be completely useless as a recruiter himself (having a predisposition towards sarcasm that didn't make him any friends in the human community. Or any community, come to think of it) but it didn't stop him thinking that this work was better suited to foliots or imps.
He'd have another go at persuading Kitty to summon a foliot for this tomorrow. It wouldn't work, though.
Kitty had put her foot down about summoning another spirit for lookout. It would make her no better than a magician, unless the spirit would help freely.
Such was the principle she had devised for herself: the use of summoning is not in itself evil; merely the misuse of it to force a spirit to do one's bidding.
She and Lor had written what Lor called a treatise on this. Rather, she had said what she wanted to say, and he had converted it into what she called posh-talk, mocking both his educated airs and her common-ness.
They'd published it in a student magazine, under a pseudonym. Kitty doubted anyone who would read it knew enough about the magician's craft to appreciate it; she resolved to write it more to outline morals for herself and her group than to make anyone agree with them.
Still, it was something to do. Stress, augmented by the pressure of keeping Bartimaeus on earth, made her tired and listless, and she'd opted out of going on a mission today. She'd slept as soon as she'd returned from the meeting, and just woken.
They would be returning from their assignments soon. Kev, Lyle and Luke had been "advertising" – graffiti-ing 'Exercitus Populo' messages, and Lor had been heading a student meeting in a café, accompanied by Rufus and Bartimaeus.
She smiled at that. Bartimaeus was a demon, and Lor and Rufus disagreed with demons. Bartimaeus returned that disagreement in the form of superior sarcasm. Still, Rufus and Lor's attitudes had ceased to be serious animosity, more irritation with something they didn't like, but had no power to change.
Lyle came running into the pub, pushing past the tables with no regard for others. Someone behind her swore as she knocked his glass off the table, spilling beer across the floor. She pushed past a young man who was on his feet, heading unsteadily to the bathroom.
She reached her destination: grabbed the handsome young man leaning back on his chair, his hand still gesturing although he'd fallen silent at her arrival. Correctly interpreting the alarm on her face, he got up, waving an apology to the group listening to him.
They left hastily, the man holding her back, murmuring something she knew about not announcing their nervousness, acting natural.
"Kev, he's… knocked out, I think." Her voice stayed low, but the strain in it was audible.
Kev was slumped across the filthy floor of the alleyway, something crouching over him.
It was a big cat, a panther? thought Lyle.
Irrelevant. It was a demon, of course.
They thing looked up at them, moved its graceful paw off Kev's limp body, as if relinquishing possession. For a split second it looked as if it was grinning.
Then it leaped, straight towards Lyle. Her companion, with lightning reactions, pulled his hand out of his pocket and threw something. The demon roared; Lyle leapt sideways, trying to pull her knife out of her jacket. It caught against the fabric.
The demon landed inches away from her, hissing in anger. It hissed, reared up; the man shoved her aside just as something flew out of its mouth and exploded against the wall behind where she had been. He threw another knife, and another; the demon screamed a very human cry of pain.
She got her knife free, held it in front of her. Wished she'd paid attention to Kev's lessons of fighting with it. Still, it was silver. Maybe that was enough.
The demon backed up, then changed. An eagle flew away into the sky. Lyle leaned against the wall, shaking. She slid down it, clutching her jacket to her.
The man with her asked if she was hurt, and she shook her head no.
"Just a bit shaken, I'll be OK in a minute. Really. Luke, I'm fine. Let's just get Kev home."
Luke picked Kev up, staggering under the bigger man's weight. Lyle got up, flitting around as if wanting to help. They made their slow way home, taking back routes so as not to attract attention.
Nathaniel punished the djinni when she returned, furious at her failure to capture even one of the Exercitus Populo terrorists when she'd had three of them trapped in one place. She'd retreated from an idiotic commoner throwing silver. Cowardly.
They'd blown every chance on this case, right from the start. He wished he'd never given that order to capture only. Still, pride kept him from taking it back, especially after how vehemently he had given it. He had managed to convince himself it was strategy: taking one alive would lead them to the rest.
And it had worked in the end with the New Resistance.
But before that, he had been so tempted to repeal it, and he was returning to that desperation now. They needed evidence they were winning against the threat, and there was none.
Because, when it came down to it… they weren't
At least they had the descriptions his djinni, Sephra, had given. None of them looked like Kitty Jones, he realised. He felt half glad, half disappointed. When the djinni had mentioned a girl, his heart had leaped.
How inane of you, he told himself. There's more than one commoner girl in London.
What was wrong with him? His curiosity about Kitty Jones was practically an obsession…
He couldn't concentrate on work. He dismissed Sephra (rudely; demons didn't require courtesy, after all) and slumped in his chair, eyes half closed.
There was a knock on the door.
That's it folks? It's a cliff-hanger - or is it? It could just be his personal waiter bringing him his tea!
This chapter is proof that I have decided to make it a Nat/Kitty – it works so well with the storyline I'm thinking up. Does it work?
Also, we see quite a lot of the rest of Kitty's Resistance gang here. What do you think? I want them to have their own personalities and not just be a faceless mob of Kitty's supporters, but I don't want a load of Mary Sue-ish people to be killed off at the next opportunity.
Hopefully I'll update again before I go on holiday, if not, sorry but you'll have quite a wait – I'm going away for nearly a month.