I'm sorry about the wait. The next chapter wouldn't be written for a while (or I couldn't convince myself to write it), and for the past few days, I've only been able to write it after midnight, and to be honest, my writing skills aren't that wonderful at such a late hour. But I got some time today and finally finished it up, and it's continuing the trend of each chapter being longer. I suspect that Chapter Eighteen is going to be very long, but I'm really going to start making an effort to get each chapter out in two weeks or less, because I'm reaching the end and Book 3 is going to be released fairly soon.

On a different note, you'll all start to notice that this story is going to get progressively darker. It's been somewhat dark so far, but it's going to get a lot more sinister as we go forward. Basically all of you have noticed my shipping slant, but I'm going to warn you beforehand, the ending won't be as happy as you'd all like. Character deaths? Of course. I've decided who's going to die very firmly, and have a particularly nasty injury in mind for one of our characters. I've thought out a lot of the backstory for my original characters, and that too will come into play. In fact, after this chapter, I think we've got six chapters left, unless I feel the need to add one for some reason. Also, thank you for all of the wonderful reviews! They help, I promise.

And with that said... Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment!Tweak! (Had to honor the release of HBP.)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Bartimaeus Trilogy, which belongs to Jonathan Stroud and his respective publishing companies. I do not own the characters, settings, or situations that are familiar to the Bartimaeus Trilogy, and only own my plot and my characters. And I definitely don't own Bishop Park.

NOTE: I edited a mistake in this in which Bartimaeus said Nathaniel's name. Thanks to the reviewer that pointed it out! throws cookie

Chapter Sixteen
We've Got a Hostage Situation

"I'm no stranger to this place
Where real life and dreams collide.
And even though I fall from grace,
I will keep the dream alive."
-Oasis's "Keep the Dream Alive"

The Thames was certainly not the most comfortable river Nathaniel knew of. He definitely would not take a casual swim in it if he had a choice in the matter, and this was much worse than a casual swim, also.

Of course, the girl – no, young woman – in his arms certainly didn't make thinks any cozier. Well, some part of him that he tried to ignore enjoyed the situation at hand, but it was awkward, to say the least. After all, she was a fugitive, and he was the one who had been chasing her. But he didn't really want to think about that… yet.

Those weren't all of his worries as he had made the fall with Kitty and Bartimaeus. His main concern had been the Shield and whether his plan broke any law of physics. By the true definition of a Shield, he had inferred that the waters would not seep in through the magical barrier and fill their lungs until they could no longer breathe, and that they would not hit the hard bottom of the river but bounce off of it.

Luckily, he was right.

The Shield had gone a step further, actually, and appeared to be maintaining the exact air pressure of the spot up on the roof that they had jumped from, not that air pressure was anything to really get too anxious about. It was also filtering in clean oxygen and filtering out the carbon dioxide, which impressed Nathaniel tremendously. The definition he had memorized was simple: a Shield protects its inhabitants from anything that could seriously cause them physical harm. Nathaniel had never bothered to test it in water, nor had he had a reason to, but it had worked, and now he was relieved.

There was the slight matter of what they would do from their position floating around in a river that was not known as the kindest route to travelers, but he was rather pleased that they were alive at the moment and thus took a few seconds to revel in his victory.

No doubt Bartimaeus was very pleased with himself, also. He would be boasting on the quality of his spell for weeks.

The minutes dragged on as the current pushed them along as if they were weightless, bouncing off of the rocks at the bottom of the river like a rubber ball. No one spoke, or if they did they just weren't heard over the roar of the rushing water. If Bartimaeus had a barbed jibe to annoy Nathaniel with, he kept it to himself.

They had gone quite some distance when they tumbled rather forcefully off a large rock in the middle of their path. To Nathaniel's surprise, they were pushed out of the water and onto land, actual dry land. Somehow the current had been overpowered by a stone.

"Get us back in there," he said weakly to Bartimaeus.

But the djinni didn't listen to him, and instead took down the shield completely. "No."

"What?"

"I couldn't hold it up much longer," Bartimaeus replied simply. "And besides, this is as good as it's going to get for us."

It was then that Nathaniel looked around for the first time. They were sitting on a strip of grass overlooking a long stretch of the Thames, and a small, dense forest was behind them. It was a familiar sight to Nathaniel, but he wasn't one for parks, so – parks. Of course.

"Bishop Park?" Bartimaeus nodded. Nathaniel wiped the water from his eyes and blinked. "I remember that we had to add a forest to this park around three years ago because of some irritated conservationists. It used to be a fairly small park, but now… that's the forest behind us, I'd guess. A real masterpiece that is; it took some good magic to get all of that growth to occur in only a few weeks."

"It seems that your lot's tampering nature will help us," stated the gargoyle as he grabbed Kitty's hand and helped her stand. Nathaniel hurried to his feet and brushed his suit off tediously, noticing the criminal once more, and not wanting to appear as unorganized as he had. He was now on the run from the government as well, but one's image is always important, no matter the circumstances.

Suit properly brushed off and image restored (he hoped), he returned to Bartimaeus's comment. "I don't see how it can help us, although it does provide a nice backdrop if we want to shoot a movie."

"Well, you don't want to go hiding out in broad daylight, do you?"

"Oh. Good point."

And so Nathaniel and Kitty followed Bartimaeus into the thick underbrush as the gargoyle cleared the way until finally they reached a small, cramped clearing. There wasn't much room to move about, but it was completely cut off from the rest of the park, and would serve them just fine.

"This'll do," grunted Bartimaeus. He sat down upon a rock and crossed his legs as if he was preparing to meditate. "I'll go get some food later, unless you both want to try your hand at finding edible berries in this fake old thing. But for now… I need to rest. I don't really care what the hell you both do as long as it doesn't get the army swarming down on us."

"Always a pleasure to travel with," Nathaniel said in a quiet voice, the words not coming out as biting as he had originally intended them to be. Bartimaeus was actually being helpful on his own. The last time Nathaniel recalled this happening was when the djinni had been angling to get released. Nathaniel took his own seat next to Bartimaeus, a safe distance from Kitty, and laid his head back on the grass lazily. Lying down was good for thinking, and he thought he might as well get comfortable. They weren't going out in public any time soon.

He could see from the corner of his eye that Bartimaeus was looking at him carefully, like he didn't really know what to think of what he was seeing. After a few moments of this Bartimaeus turned his head away and instead diverted his attention onto Kitty.

"That's some gash," he stated. This only served to further Nathaniel's suspicions – Bartimaeus had never shown any interest in the injuries of mortals before. "Out here it might get infected with who-knows-what unless you take the proper action. I know of a flower, the sagacious lily, which'll help you with that. Of course, only if you're interested. I think it grows around here, but the magicians have been messing with nature so much lately that I don't know what to think."

Nathaniel heard a small cough from a few feet away. "I'm interested."

"I thought you might be. It's pretty distinguishable: it's got red, blue, and green petals with a stem that has one single thorn. Be careful for the thorn, though, as it'll poison you if it cuts you."

"Red, blue, and green," came Kitty's reply. "I guess that should be easy to find." She paused. "Thanks."

Bartimaeus showed a toothy smile. "No problem. I live to serve. Quite literally, actually."

Nathaniel heard a rustling in the direction they had come from and a sigh escape from Bartimaeus.

"Now she's gone. I thought you might loosen your tongue if she wasn't around."

"What?"

Bartimaeus raised his embossed eyebrow. "You can't tell me you seriously thought I was being nice and caring just for the fun of it."

"No, of course not," said Nathaniel, laughing despite himself. "I wondered. But… that flower. It doesn't exist, does it? I've never heard of such a thing."

"No," the gargoyle said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Made it up completely. She'll come back in a bit saying she couldn't find it, and I'll say it's because of you damn magicians, which she'll accept without further prodding. But it gives us about fifteen minutes, I'd guess."

A bird chirped somewhere around them. "Fifteen minutes for what?"

"To talk, smart one. And I thought you were some prodigy or something." He threw a stone into the forest and swore as another chirp came. "I was hoping to kill it. That chirping is bloody annoying. But I digress –"

"'Digress'? Along with 'sagacious', that's two in as many minutes."

"Ha, ha. I guess it's ironic that when I want to be serious you're looking to improve your stand-up comedy skills." The bird hummed and he scowled momentarily as his hands searched the ground for a suitable throwing rock. "I want to know why you did it, of course."

The question didn't catch Nathaniel unawares. He had been expecting it, and trying to delay it, as he didn't know the answer himself. "Did what?"

"Saved the girl."

The incident in his flat came hurrying back to him in one swift rush of blood to the head.

-

"That was certainly fun," Bartimaeus remarked dryly as the door to the flat opened.

Nathaniel grunted in response. "Depends on what your definition of 'fun' is."

His words were low and mumbled. He did not want to talk right now, and was not in a talking mood. He was extremely disappointed at the moment.

Bartimaeus slammed the door shut behind him and laughed. "Oh, don't tell me you're sour about not getting the girl. I mean, she is very difficult to capture. Even the more able magicians would have a spot of trouble with her." It was easy to tell that he was baiting him, but Nathaniel was not in the mood for such games.

"Shut up. I'm tired" He sighed, wondering how his disgruntled tone would appear to an outsider.

Sirens began to come into earshot as he took a seat on the sofa. "No time for that. The police cars are right behind us," Bartimaeus mused. "I guess they think this Kitty is going to come after you. She's not that thick, is she?"

Nathaniel heard something knock above them. Probably more rats. He hated rats, but they loved his home.

"Hm," he said, making a mental note to himself to call an exterminator sometimes soon. But speaking of calling, a phone would actually help him. "Where is Morris? I might call him to make sure cars are outside his residence also, if only to get some of these blasted police away from me."

"Well, he ran straight out of the ship and called in reinforcements after you started screaming like a pansy." Bartimaeus was trying to annoy him again, but this time Nathaniel held his comments to himself. "And then… the cops came and got the Resistance members we captured. No doubt they took them to the Tower. Morris left before they even arrived, I remember, because he never even saw the lot that I reeled in. No worries, I'll show him when we interrogate them eventually."

Nathaniel did not voice that he thought it sad that Bartimaeus was so hopeless he tried to impress anybody he met, even Morris.

"He did pretty well, didn't he? He took out three of them. You wouldn't expect it of him, though. I doubt he knows what the word 'aggression' means."

Nathaniel coughed. "Morris isn't aggressive. He's just very good at solving problems. He was presented with a problem: how to detain three members of a terrorist group. And he solved it. It's what he does."

He had learned this from previous experience with the technician, and also from talk he had heard. Although Morris didn't know it, his efforts didn't go totally unappreciated, but his personality was talked about in a different way. He was known as a clever magician, if not a powerful or ambitious one.

"I guess," said Bartimaeus as he inspected his fingernails casually. "I think I'm going to go do something productive. I'm far too bored. Would you mind if I rampaged through your wardrobe to pass the time?"

Nathaniel processed the information, but knew the djinni well enough to know that he would do nothing of the sort. He would stay as far away from Nathaniel's clothes as he could. "Sure. Go ahead."

"Okay, then. Call if you've got any more – er – adventures you'd like to share."

He turned on his heel and stomped up the stairs next to the scarcely used attic and guest bedroom. After a few moments, Nathaniel could hear no more signs of him, and thus assumed he was alone, as he wanted to be. It wouldn't have really mattered if Bartimaeus had decided to not go through with his plans and instead stayed at the top of the stairs, for Nathaniel was too immersed in the chessboard in front of him to acknowledge anything else. He was in his own world.

The game had gotten too complicated from the previous night's events to really play it out at all. They had decimated the Resistance, at least if his estimates were correct. That warranted the removal of, oh, both knights, both rooks, a bishop, and a pawn. That worked out nicely.

But something still bothered him. The queen was still out there. And behind her, the king.

He was wary of the fact that Kitty Jones was probably not the mastermind behind all of this. After all, the assassin that had nearly destroyed him in Prague two years before had mentioned another master above Lovelace, one even more powerful, and Nathaniel strongly doubted this could be Pennyfeather, or Jones. There was no way. They weren't intelligent enough. Someone else was pulling the strings, whether Jones knew it or not.

Unfortunately – or maybe even fortunately – it was at that moment something came crashing down on the ground behind him.

Nathaniel's head snapped up jerkily as he gazed dumbly at the very real body of none other than Kitty Jones strewn across his floor.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. "K-Kitty Jones. What a pleasant surprise."

Smooth, dolt. That'll intimidate her. A smile flickered across his face. Then again, she's the one on the ground in an enemy's home.

The convict rushed to her feet as carefully and elegantly as she could, something that would have been rather humorous in any other situation

"Hello, Mandra- Mr. Mandrake. I have come with a proposition."

"Please, call me John," said Nathaniel with a smile that would have chilled lesser commoners to the bone. But it was just hiding the fact that he had just realized that with Bartimaeus upstairs, she had a very distinct opportunity to kill him. "You have proven that despite your… social status that you may be considered my equal, that I will admit."

She didn't appear to know that his steely, snake-like façade was fairly thin, although he may have showed off a bit too much of his interest in the situation. But no one was perfect.

"So, Kitty – if I may have the honor of calling you by that name." He waited for her affirmation and then continued. "What is this proposition?"

"I need your help."

He chuckled in a nasty, icy manner that would have made villains from Makepeace's plays proud. "That much is obvious. But why should I help you?"

"Because it's what's right," responded Jones – Kitty – in a very resilient, very squeaky voice. "Magicians aren't above commoners. You know it's immoral. Magicians are corrupt, they're power hungry. Commoners are mistreated, and you know it. You aren't as tainted as the rest of them, I can feel that you aren't! As I have no more allies, I need your help! You aren't like them, Man- John! You aren't corrupt!"

His interest was grabbing a dangerous hold of him. He shook it off, knowing fully well that this could not happen.

"You have not convinced me," he stated.

"Please." Was she… begging? "You have to help me. You must!"

"Really, Kitty, I would have thought you had some real proposition." Well, his voice broke a bit from surprise, but overall it was a conciliatory yet hostile statement.

"I can't believe this!" she growled angrily. He could hear the desperateness in her voice. She had taken a gamble, and it wasn't paying off. "I can't believe this at all! To think that I saved your life for no reason – twice! I could have left you to die, but I didn't! And this is my repayment!"

If he had been at all prepared, this should not have affected him. He should have seen it coming; after all, it was her greatest claim over him. She, a mere commoner, had saved him from a golem for no apparent reason, when he had betrayed her for his job.

The tension was broken by the ringing of a phone. He pushed a button on the machine and softly said, "Hello?"

"Mr. Mandrake? This is Lieutenant Griffin from the police. We believe the convict Kathleen Jones may have sought you out. Would you let us search the area?"

This was the point of no return. Now he must make his decision, and he had a nagging suspicion that he would not be able to turn back from whichever path he chose. If someone had explained the events of the day beforehand to him, he would not have believed it. He would never think to consider such a ludicrous offer. But seeing Kitty personally, hearing her voice, hearing her reminder that his life was a borrowed one, it struck something in him. It struck something that had belonged to the little boy that had not known a lick of magic, to the little boy who had not known much of anything and had no alias. Bartimaeus would say that it was the boy that wasn't John Mandrake, that it wasn't the ambitious magician known to the general public, but Nathaniel, the scared, innocent, little boy.

This was his last chance. Would he continue as John Mandrake, or try to reclaim the person known as Nathaniel? The two metaphorical roads were diverging in the woods; would he choose the path of the magician, the path more traveled, or the other, the road not taken?

Finally, his hand moved over to the chessboard. He had chosen.

"The rules have changed," he said to no one in particular as he knocked down the two kings. After a few moments of contemplation, he turned his attention elsewhere.

He stood and brushed his cuffs. "Hold on one minute, Lieutenant. I'll check my security tapes and then get back to you. We won't want to be too conspicuous, will we?"

He was laying it on thick now. No going back. No returning.

"Oh, of course not, Mr. Mandrake. We'll be waiting."

He looked at Kitty one last time and he knew that she knew, he knew that she recognized that he had changed. He had made a choice.

Nathaniel was repaying his debt.

"Come," he hissed to her, as he grabbed her by the hand and dragged her up the stairs, where Bartimaeus was waiting expectantly.

-

Nathaniel blinked. Had that only been minutes before? It seemed so distant, so faded, as if it had happened somewhere in his long forgotten past.

Someone cleared his or her throat. "Whenever you come down from the stratosphere, you can answer my question."

"Huh?"

"You've been out of it for a few minutes," Bartimaeus explained irritably. "I asked you a question and your eyes glassed over and you became a mute all of a sudden."

"Oh, yeah. I was thinking."

"Must've been one hell of a thought."

"Kind of." Nathaniel scratched his head lazily. "What was your question again?"

It was not like him to be so ignorant or forgetful, and Bartimaeus showed his concern by smirking. "Are you losing your memory? I didn't think that you were aging that quickly. Why, I remember the days when your voice was as high as a whistle."

"What was the question?" snapped Nathaniel.

"I was getting to that." Bartimaeus squished a bug with his foot. "Why did you save the girl, Kitty Jones?"

"Oh," Nathaniel said. "Just got to thinking and made a decision."

Bartimaeus snorted. "Thank you for being so precise."

Nathaniel exhaled a breath he hadn't consciously been holding and tilted his head backwards. "I didn't want to be John Mandrake anymore. I'm sick of all of the rules that come with being a magician, I'm sick of not having a conscience anymore, and I'm sick of feeling guilty about my job and my decisions. I owed my life to her, and I decided to repay that debt. You were the one going on and on about the corruptness of magicians. I just acted."

Bartimaeus surveyed him with a cautious eye before smiling. "I have to say, I'm somewhat impressed. You chose the path of most resistance. It won't be easy, but if it's where you want to go, it's the only path you can take." He laughed. "You're right about that rules bit. Magicians aren't supposed to have kids. It's frowned upon. So that takes a little pressure off you with the ladies."

"You're exactly right, Bartimaeus. That's why I did it."

"I'm not called Bartimaeus the Intuitive for nothing."

At that moment the branches parted, revealing a slightly scratched, slightly annoyed Kitty.

"I didn't find any sagacious lily in the forest," she said icily.

Bartimaeus put up his best poker face. "Oh, really? That's a pity. I tell you, these damn magicians have gone and screwed up the entire ecosystem."

"Right. And you didn't know that."

Nathaniel noticed that her tongue had loosened, if only because she was angry. Interesting.

"Nope, didn't know it at all," he replied smoothly. "Of course, my knowledge of the mortal world is a bit limited, but I've got a full encyclopedia up here – " he pointed to his head " – about the Other Place, so if you've ever got any questions about my humble abode, fire away."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"As wonderful as this conversation is," Nathaniel stated in his best peacemaker tone, "I think we should start planning ahead. Actually, we don't even have a plan yet. I don't know what we're trying to do."

Kitty tugged at her sleeve. "Bring down the magicians."

"That's not fair," he said. "I'm a magician, but I'm helping you. I definitely plan on staying a magician, as I don't think the commoner life would suit me. Perhaps it would be better if you would clarify."

"Fine, I'll clarify. Our goal is to bring down this magician government."

Bartimaeus stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Why?"

She glared at him. This was not a light subject. "What do you mean?"

"Why?" he repeated. "For every great cause there must be an actual reason behind it. Why should we bring down the magicians? How will it help?"

"They're horrible rulers. They've made the country a land of poverty."

"Yes, but they rule through fear and intimidation. If you bring them down, there will be mass chaos. People won't know what to do with themselves, and anarchy will spread."

Kitty was silent. Nathaniel, however, was intrigued by the concept. "What if we balance the government and make everyone equal? It's certainly not in my best interest to bring down all magicians, but if we could bring down our current government and make it so that commoners have the same opportunities as magicians, not only would the corruptness end, everyone would be satisfied."

"That sounds good," Kitty said to his surprise. "Yeah, I like that. If we brought down all magicians, we'd be no better than they are. If we brought balance, then we could fix things."

"If you're both for it, I guess I'm for it as well," Bartimaeus added.

"It won't be easy," Nathaniel said.

Kitty laughed dryly. "Of course. Nothing worth fighting for ever is."

He did not question her, but he had a feeling that she knew this from personal experience.

Bartimaeus smiled. "I guess it's settled then. Our goal is to bring balance to the government. We are now a team, a team made of a djinni, a convict, and a crackpot magician aiming to bring down the most powerful empire in the world, but we're a team nonetheless."

"That sums it up nicely," commented Nathaniel wittily. "The most unlikely team aiming for the most unlikely goal of any group of vigilantes ever to defy a magician government. It has a nice ring to it."

Kitty grinned at him. "But what is our first order of business?"

"Well, we should probably start with freeing your friends from the Tower. Rescuing so many people successfully from the Tower has never been succeeded before, and the last known escape of any kind that did not result in death, as in the escape of Duvall, was the escape of Bartimaeus here, and that was only because he was summoned."

"We'll need help from the inside," Bartimaeus said simply. "Right now they may think I kidnapped both of you so Na- I mean, John over here is clear for the moment, but once the smarter magicians get wind of the incident, they'll realize that I would never put myself in the company with the two of you if I had a choice. So you're probably both about to be convicts. Officially, at least."

Tucking her hair behind her ear, Kitty clucked her tongue doubtfully. "Are there any magicians that would help us?"

"Morris might," Nathaniel stated, wary of the fact that Bartimaeus had almost let his name slip. "He's kind of a loner. He's not big on causes or anything, but he'd probably just go along for the ride. He doesn't like the government that much. Everyone makes fun of him or ignores him completely."

"That's too risky," argued Bartimaeus. He flicked a stone into the air with one hand and caught it deftly with the other. "Is there anyone we could intimidate into helping us, just for a little bit?"

It only took a few seconds before Nathaniel's jesting looks prompted him into answering his own question.

"Oh. Of course. Ffoukes."

"Yeah."

Kitty's eyes darted between the two uneasily. "Who? The guy that summoned you?"

"Yep, the one and only," replied the gargoyle. "He was my master. That is, until John here intimidated him into swapping servants. He got a measly foliot in return. He'll do anything to save his own skin."

"Not too intelligent or skilled, though." Nathaniel rubbed his eyes. He hadn't slept in over a day. "We might need better help."

"We'll have to do with what we can. I suggest we also attack as soon as possible, late tonight if we can. I'll go get some food and let you both get rest, but make sure one of you is keeping guard. Just because we're in the middle of Bishop Park doesn't mean we've fallen off the end of the Earth."

"Of course," Nathaniel replied. "Sounds good to me. I suppose we'll be making our actual plan as we go along?"

"Seeing as we don't have any information on the Tower's scheduled defenses yet, that makes sense." Bartimaeus leapt to his feet and approached the edge of the thicket. "I'll be going now. Just don't get yourselves caught."

"Got it."

He stepped into the forest and out of sight, and Nathaniel turned to Kitty.

"I'll keep watch first if you want…"

"No, I don't think I'd be able to sleep just yet," she said. She made a movement as if to pat him on the shoulder but pulled back. "You go ahead."

He nodded. "Alright."

Summoning a sleeping bag and an old pillow, he was about to lay down when he stopped. "Do you want me to summon you one as well?"

"That would be great."

He obliged, and another sleeping bag and pillow appeared on the ground next to her.

"Those should work," he said as he settled into the blanket and rested his head on the pillow. It was ridiculous that he was sleeping in a suit, but there wasn't much he could do. "G'night… or actually, g'day."

"Uh, yeah, g'day," she mumbled back.

Nathaniel was about to close his eyes when he heard her voice again.

"John?"

He rolled to face her. "Yes?"

She smiled again, and he couldn't help but feel as if this wasn't Kitty Jones the convict, but just Kitty Jones, who seemed to be a radically different person. "Thanks."

The simple show of gratitude caught him off-guard, but he recovered quickly. "You're welcome. It was no problem."

Nathaniel rolled back over and closed his eyes, although this time there was a definitive grin plastered onto his face.

They were a team.

-

He kept watch after Kitty and then they switched once more and then one final time before Bartimaeus returned with not only food but clothing. Nathaniel and Kitty ate the food without question, but as their meal came to an end, they turned to the clothes.

"What are those for?" Nathaniel asked. "I like my suit."

"Yes, well, it's filthy," replied Bartimaeus. "I transformed into you both so the clothes should fit although I couldn't directly transform into either of you, but they're close. All the essentials are in there, so don't worry about that. I was about to pick up a tooth brush but I settled on a comb."

Nathaniel held up his clothes doubtfully. "They look so –"

"Casual?" suggested the djinni. "I figured that that suit wouldn't do you much good, because the way I figure it, we're going to be running quite a bit, not that you're in any shape to run. That suit is not made for any kind of activity, so I settled on fairly nice clothing that wasn't too strict. They aren't overly casual, and you'd fit in at a casual restaurant if you went as a pair of teenagers going on a date, but if you're looking for Italian suits… well, I had to steal these, so tough luck. Also, Ffoukes is at his flat right now, so hurry up before he leaves. Don't worry, I'll close my eyes."

"Right," said Nathaniel to Kitty, still not sold on the clothes. "I guess we should both go change in the forest to avoid any uncomfortable situations."

"Of course. I'll take this side."

"Got it. And I'll take the opposite side."

They entered their respective sides of the forest and the clearing quickly vanished from sight. Nathaniel could not see much at all besides trees, and dirt, but as he changed, he preferred to block these things out. It was all so unsanitary. Surprisingly, everything fit rather well, even his fairly cheap, casual trainers, and he emerged from the forest shortly after Kitty.

"Well, you're changed. That's good. And I also go you these –" Bartimaeus held up two pairs of sunglasses and two hats "– just to help disguise you. It's not much, but it'll help. Although I recommend you put both in your pockets as we're flying again and we don't want them to fly off. That would be rather inconvenient."

"Right," said Nathaniel, stuffing the two accessories in his pocket without inspecting them for fear of saying something belittling and stupid. "If you will, shift to the eagle again, Bartimaeus."

He winked. "Got it, boss." Where the gargoyle had stood, a proud eagle now looked out upon the forest. "Good, no?"

"It's excellent," Kitty complimented. She nudged Nathaniel in the ribs lightly and extended her arm as an invitation. "Shall we?"

It took him a while to realize she was joking, but Nathaniel finally did. He took her arm and grinned. "Of course."

They jumped onto Bartimaeus once more, ignoring the djinni's complaints. "Your flirting makes me sick to the stomach, you know. Really, I'm about to vomit."

"Would you go already?"

"Alright, alright, hold on to your horses, I'm going."

They took off into the evening air, the wind whipping by them steadily. Nathaniel was in the rear position once more, his arms latched around Kitty securely, although this time their alliance was less rocky, and the tension was lessened. Bartimaeus chatted incessantly during the entire flight, but Nathaniel and Kitty mostly were able to ignore him and instead talked among themselves at intervals.

"The sad thing is, he's one of the more sane spirits out there," Nathaniel whispered to Kitty, his head over her shoulder as they began to descend.

She sighed. "I know."

"Oh, that's right. You were involved in the incident with the afrit, Honorius. I forgot. My mistake."

"Did you say Honorius?" squawked Bartimaeus. "Don't get me started on that crazy old bugger. Totally off his rocker. Not a sane bone in his skeleton. And also, he was – oh, whoops, rough landing."

It was an understatement; both Nathaniel and Kitty were thrown from his back and onto the pavement. There was minimal injury, at least for Nathaniel, as he landed on Kitty. It made for an awkward position.

"Sorry," grunted a blushing Nathaniel as he rushed to his feet and offered Kitty a hand. She rolled her eyes.

"You might want to take back that statement about him being sane."

Bartimaeus made an indignant noise. "I'm not deaf, you know."

"Trust me, I know," Nathaniel retorted, annoyed. They were in front of a small flat, modest and humble with paint scratched off in several patches. "I suppose this is it?"

"Yes. Bottom floor, flat on the left. Check, check."

Nathaniel brushed off his shirt and his collar before approaching the door carefully. A crooked number nine hung from a nail on the door, indicating that he was definitely at the right house.

With one last glance back at the others, he turned forward and knocked on the door of the flat of the magician known as Ffoukes.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes: This isn't my favorite chapter yet, but it's a necessary one. If you didn't read Nathaniel's little flashback that was very similar to the bit in Chapter Fifteen, you might want to, as it explains a lot. In fact, if you compare the two, you'll notice some little funny similarities. But this was definitely a needed chapter. It builds towards a lot, and now you know who's on what side. There is also something very important in that flashback about the enemy they must go after, but it's inevitable that they'd go after them already.

Next Chapter: In What's The Story, Morning Glory?, Bartimaeus and co. confront Ffoukes, but it's not as simple as it seems. The Tower is mysteriously unguarded, although that doesn't mean their task is easy. And what's Morris been up to during all of this?