I told you all I was going to update faster, and I did! Under two weeks for this one, and the next chapter is insanely long, too. It's 33 pages in Word, or about 10,600 words... which is the longest chapter I've ever written. It'll probably be the longest chapter in the entire fic, and it's the last chapter before the climax. I hadn't written much until last night when I sat down and wrote 7,000 words without taking a break. Never done that before, but I have no qualms about it.

And I just saw the cover for Book 3, Ptolemy's Gate. It's the English cover, but it's great, and I'm incorporating some of the bits on the front cover into the end of this. It actually helped me tie everything together, because there was one detail I couldn't figure out, but it's all good. They changed the title, but I'm okay with it. I think you'll see more about that at the end of the fic.

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Chapter Seventeen
What's the Story, Morning Glory?

"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough."- Frank Crane

Let me clear this up. I did not like Ffoukes, even as magicians go. He wasn't just corrupt, he was weak, pathetic. When I killed the Resistance member on his orders, he almost vomited. He blamed it on the food. I blamed it on weakness.

Yet here I was, voluntarily (okay, not really) standing at his front door with a convict and a traitor to the Empire, ready to force Ffoukes to help us against his will. Not that I expected this to be hard in any way. The opposite, rather. As I said, Ffoukes was a wimp.

So when he opened the door, I was expecting him to faint, or maybe even squeal. No such luck.

He screamed.

Oh, he screamed.

It wasn't a manly yell or shout. It was a full-blown shriek that could pierce thin air and shatter glass, such a force that hurt my essence. Luckily, Kitty had the good sense to knock the pansy upside the head, but still, it bloody hurt. Bastard. It's not like we opened his front door and started screaming at him.

Okay, to be fair, one of the most wanted criminals in the country was knocking at his doorstep, but he shouldn't have known who she was. When we had turned the captured Resistance members in, we had not mentioned Kitty at all. Nathaniel thought it would be disadvantageous to his career to mention that one got away, and so the officials never knew she was still alive.

"Hey, Ffoukes, did you –"

Well, that cleared things up.

"Hello, Morris," said Nathaniel dully. "How has your day been?"

Morris's eyes widened – he was not registering what Nathaniel had said at all. "You – you – you're her," he muttered stupidly, pointing at Kitty as he backed away. "You're Kitty Jones!"

"That's me." Kitty's tone might have been even duller than Nathaniel's. She wasn't taking joy in the situation, one I found quite hilarious. Stupid humans.

"You hit me on the head!" This was a little odd, actually. I had been expecting something along the lines of, "You're a wanted terrorist who desecrated Gladstone's tomb!" But then again, Morris was different than most people. "That really hurt!"

"Er… what?" Kitty asked, surprised. She had been thinking along the same lines as me.

"Just get away from me!" exclaimed Morris anxiously. "I really don't want to go to the hospital anytime soon, so I'll just walk away and forget that this never happened while you have your way with Ffoukes."

He blinked.

"Hey, you're that convict that broke open Gladstone's tomb," he mused. His eyes widened even more. "Oh, damn."

"Stop worrying, Morris," Nathaniel stated in as soothing a voice as he could manage. "She won't hurt you. She's on our side."

Morris looked at him skeptically. "What? She's wanted! Okay, technically she's supposed to be dead, but if the Empire knew she was alive, she'd be wanted."

"Yes, well…" Nathaniel was trying to figure out how to say it. "We're on her side now."

This was the part where Morris should have screamed. Did he scream?

Of course not. The kid wouldn't know normal if it gave him a lap dance.

"Hot damn!"

Instead, this was his preferred response. Like I said, the kid wouldn't know normal if it – well, you heard what I said. If you want to hear about lap dances again, then too bad. There's a story to tell, you little pervert.

Nathaniel's face was blank. "Er… what?" he said, repeating Kitty's thoughts only seconds beforehand.

"Hot damn!" repeated Morris, oblivious. "I thought you were some tight-arse or something, but here you are, with a convict and a djinni! And a girl convict, too!" He gave Nathaniel an all-too-obvious wink.

"Wait a second," piped up Kitty angrily. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Morris's face fell. It was clear he was still intimidated by the girl. "Nothing, ma'am!"

"Ma'am?" I laughed. Kitty shot me an irritated look. As if any human scared me. "Yes, because Kitty here is so ladylike."

If you cannot tell, my voice was dripping with sarcasm. Well, it wasn't actually dripping with sarcasm. It's called "figurative language", or something like that. As much as I would love to discuss this with you, let's just clear up that it wasn't physically dripping. I can never be too sure with these things, having spent so much time with Nathaniel and all.

"That aside," said Morris, attempting to be casual when he looked about to wet himself at the sight of Kitty, "what the hell happened to make you do a switcheroo?"

"Switcheroo?" Nathaniel was really getting into a habit of questioning people's grammar. "Actually, never mind that, I get your point. Rest assured, I have my reasons."

"Although I still don't know them," Kitty mumbled. Nathaniel glanced at her for a second, and something flickered in his eyes that I had never seen before. But he turned away, and I could not identify it.

"I've been thinking," he stated firmly.

Morris nodded. "You've finally seen the light, then?"

"The light?"

"The light at the end of the tunnel. You know," said Morris. "You realized how corrupt and unfair our government is, how commoners have zero to little chance of ever making a decent living, and of how we oppress all who oppose us: the Czechs, the Americans –" he tilted his head towards Kitty "– the common people."

"If you've already had such a revelation, why am I the one going out on a limb here and risking my arse?"

The teenager grinned. "I'm not that selfless, you know. And in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not the most skilled magician around. It would have been suicide. I didn't want to live like a commoner. Not that I really thought being a magician was a blast."

"So you'll help us?"

"I guess," replied Morris. "I think that if all three of you are in it, there's got to be a chance to do some good. And I'm getting fed up with being the underling to all of Whitehall. I'm not really that popular. Besides, if I didn't come voluntarily, you'd have forced me to. I'm betting that's why you came to Ffoukes's house in the first place, to get his help?"

"That would be correct."

"Whoa, I'm on a roll," Morris said, attempting a feeble joke. He looked at the limp body of Ffoukes. "Are you going to revive him anytime soon?"

"As soon as you stopped your babbling," Nathaniel stated icily as he kneeled down to inspect the fallen magician more closely. "As I don't have a Resuscitator on hand –"

"A what?"

"A Resuscitator," I said in response to Kitty's question. "It's a long, pipe-like thing that you point into someone's chest and it revives them instantaneously. They're pretty hard to come by, though."

"I forgot mine at my flat," said Nathaniel. His blush was undeniable, to my delight. "I did not have much time for thinking of such trivial little trinkets. But anyway, I'm going to do some patchwork magic. It won't heal this bruise on his head, as a Resuscitator would, but it'll do."

He reached his hand to Ffoukes's temple before shifting his head towards Kitty and showing a small smile. 'That was one hell of a blow."

"Thanks."

Fortunately for me, he turned back to the idiot on the ground and began reviving him. If I'd had to endure any more of that lovesick teenage nonsense, I was going to hurl. And I don't think it's physically possible for djinn to vomit, either.

A few seconds later, Ffoukes shot up, only to nearly pass out again at the sight of Kitty. Luckily, the girl had her wits about her.

"Scream again and you'll get the same result," she warned him. His mouth closed in a hurry.

"Not bad," I commented as I leaned closer to inspect my former master more carefully. That was an exaggeration, really. It was an almost seamless reviving spell. "That spell's pretty complex, isn't it?"

Nathaniel didn't answer, and instead Morris responded in his place. "I generally stay away from magic whenever I can. That way I can't screw it up. But I haven't seen that one in any of my spellbooks."

"I wouldn't know," Kitty said quietly. "It looks hard enough to me."

"It's not that difficult," said Nathaniel with a glance towards her as he straightened up. "But it took me a while to perfect it."

I was dangerously close to being seriously sick at this point, but luckily, the idiot saved me. "Bloody hell!"

"Good evening to you, too, Ffoukes," I stated sarcastically (in case you couldn't tell already). "How have you been doing?"

"Shut up, demon," growled Ffoukes bitterly.

I was about to reprimand him but Nathaniel cut me off. "Watch your words, Ffoukes. Bartimaeus is in my employ, and I don't think he appreciates the term 'demon' very much. And we've already got Morris… I don't suppose your life is of much worth to us anymore."

Ffoukes face paled considerably. I knew Nathaniel was just trying to intimidate him, but for some reason I couldn't help but feel as though there was some sincerity in his words. But most likely I was just getting soft.

"Now, we are holding all of the cards in this situation, so it would not be wise to do anything – er – rash. If you make a move to contact the government, we will not hesitate to stop you by whatever means necessary. Bartimaeus would certainly have fun with it."

I noticed Kitty's face hardened at this point; she was staring coldly at Ffoukes, and seemed to be muttering under her breath. Ah, yes: it was Ffoukes who had ordered me to kill her friend. Even I felt a bit guilty about it now that we were allies, and I liked Kitty (comparatively speaking – her competition mostly consisted of idiots like Ffoukes).

"And we have not forgotten what you ordered Bartimaeus to do," Nathaniel said softly, having picked up on Kitty's feelings at the moment. "Something you were never told to do, either. You are in a very bad situation, Ffoukes."

It was easy to tell that my former master was fearing for his life. He nodded slowly as a reply.

"Very good," Nathaniel continued in a more cheerful tone. "Now, we are intending to totally bring down the Empire – well, not totally, but basically we want to make radical changes to their governmental system – and we will need you to help us. It will be dangerous, difficult, a bit reckless, and it is most likely that we will all die. So, what do you say?"

The look on Ffoukes's face was priceless. "You make it sound like I'm going to die anyway."

'Yes, that's right. You're not a slow one." Nathaniel was positively beaming at this point, which I found rather humorous. The kid was learning the ropes. "And you'll probably be the first one we'd sacrifice if such a situation arose. So yes, we are offering you a road to what would probably be impending doom."

'Why am I supposed to agree?"

"Well, I can offer you –" Nathaniel checked his watch "– oh, at the very least a few more hours' worth of life. If you disagree, your punishment will be both painful and fatal. If you are mortally wounded in our little adventure, we'll have the decency to finish you off quickly, I'd think. But most likely, you would not die on our first exploit. When we actually go after whoever it is that has set everything up – Lovelace, the indestructible assassin, the tomb raid, the incident on the Paix Fausse – well, that is when you will most likely die. I would say, given the circumstances, that it is pretty much a certainty."

"You're a complete arse."

"I know."

"Fine," Ffoukes muttered angrily. "I don't seem to have much choice in the matter."

"No, you don't," I said, joining in on the fun. When Ffoukes glared at me, I merely scraped my talons on the ground menacingly and sneered back. He looked ready to faint again.

"Well, now that that's settled," Morris stated dryly, "how exactly are we going to bring down the most powerful empire the world may have ever seen?"

"Believe me, kid, Britain's got nothing on Rome." I checked my talons casually, if only to irritate Ffoukes. "And Rome wasn't really all that great, either. A bunch of arrogant murderers who walked around as if they owned the place – hey, that actually does remind me of Britain."

Nathaniel ignored me. "Well, we start by breaking out dangerous prisoners from the Tower."

"Her lot?" Morris asked.

"Yes, my lot," Kitty said coldly.

"Just checking." He turned back to Nathaniel. "And how, exactly, are we supposed to do that?"

"It shouldn't be that hard," I said. They all looked at me, dumbstruck. "Well, really, while I was out I saw dozens of cars looking for the crazy demon that kidnapped John Mandrake. Reporters from the tabloids were having a field day. And I'm assuming that this means that the Tower is a bit short-handed."

"Probably," mused Nathaniel thoughtfully, stroking his chin. When he saw Kitty smirking despite herself at his action, he quickly stopped. Ew. "Although I wouldn't have ever thought my disappearance would be of much importance to anyone at Whitehall, that does make sense. Why leave anyone to guard ordinary commoners who are locked in their cells? Maybe a few security guards, but everyone knows that they're fakes. This shouldn't be that hard."

"Yes, it shouldn't be that hard," spat Ffoukes irritably. "Forget the fact that the Tower is one of the most secure areas in the entire world, and that escaping it after we've rescued them could be hell as well. We've got a ridiculously tight timeframe."

Kitty glared at him. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Well, besides not trying to bring down the Empire, no."

"That's what I thought. We're going to have to trust John and Bartimaeus."

Nathaniel smiled. "That's the idea, anyway. But that's not to say that Ffoukes is completely useless. He is the only one who can access the security plans, as I can certainly not return to my computer at my flat or log on here,which would be suspicious. So, I trust you will go get them quickly, Ffoukes. We've already discussed your other option."

Ffoukes nodded reluctantly and walked away with a hung head, muttering something that sounded like, "bastard". Heh. He was getting ordered around by Nathaniel. What a loser.

Hey, it's not as if I had a choice or anything. And I wasn't really following orders as much as humoring him. I had him in the palm of my hand!

But you knew that already, right?

Right.

So, where was I? Ah, of course. After several moments of sweet silence on his part, Morris felt the need to remind us that he was still here. That or he had a point… Yeah, like Morris would ever have a point.

"So… what've you guys been up to lately?"

See? Purely a way to get conversation rolling while my dear old master did his part. Of course, Morris could have actually been interested in what we were up to lately. But I doubt that. It's common knowledge that humans don't have feelings, just like it's known that they have ridiculously small brains.

You pervert. You thought I was going to say something other than brains.

Not that your assumption is wrong or anything. But I wouldn't really know. I've just heard it from others.

And no, I don't care how they knew. It's bad enough that I'm on this subject anyway.

Er…

To continue the story, Nathaniel was the one to answer, as Kitty did not seem to be too fond of Morris. Or she really liked him and couldn't work up the nerve to talk to him, or her lips were swollen, or she wasn't paying attention. But whatever the reason was for her silence, Nathaniel took the opportunity with open arms (or is it mouth?).

"Oh, you know. Jumping into rivers, convincing each other to betray their government, hiding out in the middle of a park, sleeping through the day."

"Together?"

Kitty coughed loudly and her face became very red. I preferred Nathaniel's expression, however: he didn't look as if he'd comprehended what Morris had said.

"What?"

"No," said Kitty hastily, "one of us slept while the other kept guard."

"Oh. Again, just checking." Morris winked at me when Kitty wasn't looking, a large grin on his face. "But you know that what we're attempting to do might be impossible."

"I thought that we established that breaking into the Tower is possible," said Nathaniel hurriedly, trying to forget about Morris's comment.

Morris sighed. "Not that, you dolt. Completely reforming the Empire. No matter what you do, people are going to be resistant to change. It's human nature."

"I know. We're just going to have to change human nature."

"And if this doesn't work out, we could always just go to America and try to start over there," suggested Kitty, taking it all in stride.

"Supposing we all live through this," I said wryly.

"Yes." Nathaniel checked his watch. "It's not incredibly likely but every once in a while you have to bet on the long shot."

"It's a bit different when you are the long shot," Morris said.

"Of course," Kitty replied. "That just means we control our own destiny, and aren't idiot gamblers who've had too much to drink."

"What's wrong with drinking?"

Ffoukes had returned with a single sheet of paper in hand.

"Is that the security plan?" Nathaniel asked briskly.

Ffoukes rolled his eyes. "No, I printed out directions to the Tower. Of course it is! Not too detailed, either. I don't even see why they bother at all."

"Well, they have to have some sort of defense," Nathaniel mused as he grabbed the paper from Ffoukes's hand. "Is this the most recent copy?"

"Yes. It was just updated twenty minutes ago."

"Good," breathed Nathaniel airily (even by his standards). He swallowed uneasily. "Now, it will be best to plan here because of the convenience of geography; it's much closer to the Tower. This will be very brief, don't worry."

He coughed. "First, Ffoukes will gain entrance into the building and take care of the guard, with Bartimaeus's assistance if necessary."

"It won't be," I said instantly, glaring at Ffoukes. He nodded.

"I have that foliot you trusted me with, Aevod." He snapped his fingers and that blasted cherub appeared again. "Aevod, we will now be assisting Mr. Mandrake. For now, I wish you to be a thin trail of vapor on the first four planes."

The cherub nodded obediently and became said thin trail of vapor (on the first four planes, at least – it appeared he couldn't go higher than the fifth. Ha.).

"That will do." Nathaniel stroked his chin. "After that, it should be relatively easy until the fifth floor, where it appears that Kitty's old comrades are being held at the moment. And they're all in one cell. How convenient."

"More like unsanitary," Kitty grumbled angrily. "Damn magicians."

Nathaniel nodded and turned to face her swiftly. "You and I – and Bartimaeus, of course, in the guise of a gargoyle – will go ahead of Ffoukes and Morris up to the fifth floor. Those two will try to distract anyone coming behind us, or anyone in our path as we make our getaway. Actually, I think we will go directly from the fifth floor and to Bishop Park, where we have made our little headquarters. We will just send them down to you and hope that they can take care of anyone in their path."

"Are we going to escape out of the front door?" Morris inquired quietly.

"Yes."

"So we're supposed to grab around ten prisoners and just waltz them straight out the front door of the Tower."

"Yes."

"Sounds good to me." He folded his arms and looked at the ground, lost in thought.

"How are we going to get there?" Kitty asked. Nathaniel looked at something behind her and grinned.

Oh, boy.

"Well, Ffoukes, it seems I actually have one more task in mind for you before we set off to go get ourselves killed."

Ffoukes stared at him. "And what would that be?"

His grin widened. "I need your keys."

-

Let's get this straight before we go any further: the Tower of London is not a very handsome building.

In fact, it's pretty damn ugly.

But I don't really think it was meant to be a work of architectural genius in any fashion, except to keep prisoners locked up and to have room for some of the government's seedier exploits. In fact, no one really even knew what the top two floors even looked like: they were supposedly locked most of the time and only used for dangerous business.

The funny part is that the Tower supposedly started out as a museum or luxury project, maybe a hotel. But the government learned of this and bought it right away, and then turned it into this monstrosity. Maybe that's the reason that the world was slowly crumbling apart – the inhabitants were tearing it down.

"We're here," said Nathaniel as he brought the car to a stop. In the front seat was Kitty, while I shared the backseat with Ffoukes and Morris, to my chagrin.

"Really?" I quipped. "I didn't think that this could be the Tower, honestly! Why, it's only a large, dark, dank… tower."

He didn't acknowledge me and instead threw the car door open and stepped out into the cold evening air. Kitty followed, and after Morris and I finally drug Ffoukes from the car (which he seemed very reluctant to leave), we trailed after her.

Morris sighed and pulled his jacket tighter around him as he looked up at the rather impressive, if not terrifying, sight. "Just wondering, how are we going to get back?"

"There will be thirteen of us, including Bartimaeus and discounting Aevod, seeing as he's a vapor stream at the moment," Nathaniel thought out loud.

"Isn't that unlucky?"

"I don't believe in luck. I figure that we can fit around eight in your car, although it will be a tight fit, and then two of us can fly on Bartimaeus, so that takes care of another three. That means there'll be three left. If Aevod can transform into something large, like an enormous hawk, then that should take care of another two. It'll be uncomfortable, but we'll just have to make it work."

"Why do I have the feeling that we're not going to be comfortable for a long time?" Ffoukes muttered.

"Because you're finally using your brain, dear George." I cracked my stone knuckles in a bored fashion. "It's a pity you didn't use it earlier."

"As fun as this is, we've got work to do." I swear, Nathaniel was like an old man, always bringing me down. "Ffoukes, you will go gain entry with your foliot. Bartimaeus, you will follow behind him and make sure he doesn't do anything he might regret."

"Of course." While the prospect of having to spend more time with the git wasn't very endearing, I got to scare him senseless. Well, if he actually looked my way, which I sincerely doubted he would. "After you."

Ffoukes nodded and began to climb the steps up to the front door of the Tower. Before we go any further, I believe it is necessary to dispel any wrong bits of information you may have instilled in yourself about this door. It was huge, but not overly huge. It didn't have a doorbell, of course, and it wasn't a nice, plain door. The insignia of the Empire was engraved on it, and in the top corners, there were miniature stone gargoyles (little runts, they were) that looked menacingly down upon the door step.

It didn't look very inviting, to say the least.

Ffoukes opened it with a queasy expression on his face and the vapor trail trailed after him. Get it? The trail trailed after him? Ah, never mind. Forget I ever said it.

I was able to squeeze in right behind them, luckily enough for Ffoukes. If he was going to be rude enough to close the door on me, I was going to make his life hell. To be frank, it was dangerously close to being hell already.

The inside looked rather similar to the exterior, and I wasn't very pleased with being here again. The encounter with dear old Jessica Whitwell had put me off of the place. But I was here again, and this reception floor didn't look nearly as bad as the one that I had been in during that hole Mournful Orb incident. There was a small desk at which a security guard sat, and in front of him was a long row of metal bars so that unwelcome visitors could not drop by and say hello whenever they pleased. I hid behind a column, although it wasn't really that necessary, as I would've fit in with the whole Gothic theme, and it was far too dark for their own good.

Ffoukes approached the desk, or rather the bars in front of the desk, slowly and cleared his throat. The guard looked up with an expression that clearly read: get me out of this place. However, Ffoukes didn't seem to notice, just as the guard didn't notice the small cloud hovering behind him.

"Who are you?" he asked in a distracted voice.

"George Ffoukes." It was hard to tell which of the two was more idiotic.

The guard checked his computer slowly before grabbing something and shoving it through the bars towards Ffoukes. "Sign."

He obliged, and the guard retracted the object and put it into a compartment under his desk as he pushed a button with his other hand. A portion of the metal grille retracted, and Ffoukes stepped through briskly. His counterpart made a move to press the button again, but he spoke up.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the magician warned him.

"Why not?"

Just then, the cloud turned into a cherub and long tentacles sprung out of its hair, hitting the guard upside the head and knocking him out effectively. It looked like my assistance would not be needed.

"I've got some associates who need passage," Ffoukes smirked. He looked at me. "Are you just going to stand there or are you going to tell them that the coast is clear for now? There should be another guard coming by on his rounds."

I shot him an irritated look and flew to the door (not literally). Opening it just a crack, I called out in a raspy voice, "he's done it."

I retreated behind the opening and towards Ffoukes as the door burst open and the three others strode over to us quickly.

"How long to we have until the next guard comes?" Nathaniel checked quickly.

"Dunno. About ten minutes?" Ffoukes offered.

"Good. When he comes, you, Morris, and Aevod will need to take care of him so we have as easy of an escape route as we can. Take care of any others, also, but we will be taking the lift, so make sure that is also clear."

I gave him an inquisitive glance. "The lift? Are you sure?"

"Yes. They're huge, almost as big as a room. At least, the ones reserved for large groups of prisoners are. Only the higher members of the government have access to them."

"Meaning you."

"I am technically still part of the government, so yes."

Morris gave us a thumbs-up. "Got it. Don't worry, we'll get you your clear coast. If worst comes to worst, I'm just going to start biting people."

"Whatever is necessary," Nathaniel said with a grin. It was then that I noticed the gleam in his eye that I had never seen before – he looked alive, for the very first time in the period I had known him. This was a welcome change, although I'm not sure what it says about him that it took such a high crime to get this change.

"We'd better get moving," Kitty stated simply, looking at Nathaniel. "I don't know my way around this place, but…"

He nodded. "Of course. I've been here on enough occasions to last a lifetime, so don't worry. Just follow me. And Bartimaeus, stick close. I'm not sure how useful Kitty's resilience will be in here, especially if the guards resort to their guns. They might have silver bullets, but let's not chance it. Take out anyone you see as quickly as possible."

"Sounds easy."

"It always does," he chuckled as he beckoned for us to follow him into a narrow hallway with windowless walls adorned by plain steel doors. Without warning, he made a quick right turn and stopped in front of a rusty old door. "How do I open this again? Oh, right."

Nathaniel placed his hand on the door and it dissolved instantaneously. Behind it was a large, room-sized lift, much as he had said. There were cages in the corners, and on the sides straps that looked sickly similar to straight jackets. He hadn't been lying when he had said it was used to transport large groups of prisoners.

In that sense, it was perfect for our cause. Not that we would be tying them up or anything.

"And how are we supposed to get this thing going?" Kitty wondered aloud.

Nathaniel looked at her with an apologetic frown. "Unfortunately, it only recognizes me. Bartimaeus isn't a registered guard djinni, and you certainly aren't supposed to be running this thing, so…" He gestured to the straps.

"You've got to be kidding."

"Afraid not. Here, I'll help you, as they require a bit of magic to even loosen."

Kitty put her back against the wall hesitantly and he placed himself only inches in front of her as she crossed her arms over her chest. Tapping the straps with his finger, they slowly coiled into place, leaving Kitty very immobile and very much strapped in.

Satisfied, he turned around and looked at me doubtfully.

"Oh, don't worry," I said quickly, "I definitely won't require any help."

And to prove my point, I placed myself against the wall opposite Kitty, crossed my arms as she had, and tapped the straps with my elbow. They slithered into place, although they had to expand a bit just to fit my frame. They felt a bit weak, though, and I reckoned I could break out of them if I really wanted to.

"Now that we're settled in, there's only one way to go. Up!"

The lift, seeming to have heard him, began a slow crawl upwards that left me wondering if it was really moving at all. Kitty seemed to be thinking along these lines.

"Why is it going so slow?"

"Some obscure security measures," replied Nathaniel smartly. "They figure that if it goes too fast with too much weight, then it might break at one point, even with all of the magical defenses cast upon it. With our load, however, it could probably go a lot faster, but the government wasn't exactly thinking of convenience when they built this."

"Just like they weren't thinking of comfort," I snapped irritably.

"Prisoners are not usually their highest priority." Nathaniel looked from me to Kitty and smiled a smile I'd never seen from him – what, he goes to get himself killed and finally changes? What's up with that? "Although they've made mistakes with their priorities before."

"Well, of course they have, they're bloody magicians," I said wryly. Kitty laughed while Nathaniel looked somewhere between a chuckle and a frown, and instead just looked sick.

Kitty looked upwards, not an easy task, I can tell you, and tutted disapprovingly. "What, no lift music?"

"That can be fixed," Nathaniel responded, waving his hand. A slow, sad funeral overture filled the room, vibrating off the walls sinisterly. "I think that fits."

"Oh, yes, it's quite wonderful. Really, if only I had a drink to go along with it." She grinned widely at him.

"Actually, that's a wonderful idea!" I said hopefully. "Let's stop this madness and all go out for a cuppa!"

Of course, I don't drink anything, so this was just some ambitious banter. Nathaniel wouldn't have it.

"Madness? You're the one going barmy!" he retorted. "You don't even eat or drink!"

"Alright, alright," I admitted shamelessly. "I'm trying to skive off. But we do have a few more glorious moments of peace to reconsider this!"

Apparently, we actually didn't. At that moment the lift came to a screeching halt and a door-shaped hole appeared in the wall to my left. Nathaniel shook his head as he tapped Kitty's straps and released her.

"No, we're definitely going through with this."

"I know." I attempted to free myself, but I couldn't. And I didn't really want to break the straps, as that might've upset Nathaniel a bit. Well, a lot. "Could you get me out of these? I can't –"

"You can't get out, I know." He approached me and tapped the straps as he had with Kitty and they slackened considerably, freeing me. "They would be useless if a prisoner could release themselves."

"Wow, really?"

"Yes."

"So they're just through there?" Kitty asked as she rubbed her wrists. "They're all right through there?"

"Just through a few hallways," Nathaniel confirmed. Her face lightened considerably. "We'll see them soon."

She looked through the hole airily, and only snapped out of it when Nathaniel grabbed her shoulder worriedly. "Come on, we don't have long."

Kitty gave him a reassuring look, as if saying, "I'm ready." He nodded and gestured for us to again follow him as he walked through the hole and into another hallway not unlike the one we had gone through on the first floor.

But he stopped abruptly right at the end of it, holding up a hand for us to stop. We obliged, and faint footsteps could be heard coming our way.

"Bartimaeus," he whispered, "get ready."

A few long, dragged out moments later a guard appeared in front of us, whistling happily. He stopped in his tracks when he saw us, saying stupidly, "hello, how are you doing? I'm sorry, we don't have any guests scheduled – oh."

I hit him hard on the noggin, although not so hard as to kill him. The other two might've puked if I had, I'm afraid. Nathaniel crouched down near him and searched his pockets hastily, until finally he found a large key.

"Here we are. I believe this is the master key, also."

I looked at him with a wide smile. "Hey, you know, we could just set everyone free, to really take the mickey out of Devereaux and his cronies."

"No. Most of the people here are murderers."

"Exactly, they can go around killing the people who locked them up," I said as he led us through another winding corridor.

"I don't think so." The hallway ended and we found ourselves in a large room with cells all around us. "Here we are. Now, where are they?"

Finding them seems like an easy task, but I assure you, it is not. The number of cells in the room… well, it was ridiculous. But I did see a window as I was looking around, although it was barred up. Hold on, was that the one Duvall had jumped out of? I thought Nathaniel had said that he was five stories up…

"There they are!" exclaimed Kitty, running in a random direction very excitedly. Nathaniel and I shared a mutual look before jogging after her, only to discover that she was very right. In fact, they were all very awake, very angry, and very surprised.

"Hello, how has your day been?" said a young man (who I had taken care of quite deftly on the boat, thank you very much) with unhidden annoyance. "Mine hasn't been so great."

"Sod off, Elliot," said a girl behind him (another one I knocked out, actually). "At least she got here."

However, an older man – I think his name was Glen or Gary or something of the sort – gave Nathaniel and me a weary look. "That's Mandrake and his demon. What have you done, Kitty?"

"It's not really what she's done, it's what I've done," Nathaniel replied coolly. I leered over his shoulder at the oldie and chuckled darkly. If he was going to call me a demon, then I was going to be a demon, damn it!

He fit the key into the lock and twisted it suddenly. A blue streak of electricity surrounded the cell for a split second before the door burst open. They hurried out in a very disorganized manner, but I can't say I blamed them. I didn't like my stay in the Tower much, either.

"Follow the stairs all the way down," Nathaniel instructed them seriously. "If you come across anyone, take care of them. The stairs aren't as safe, but you can't operate the lift without us. Find the two magicians and the cherub called Aevod and instruct them to go to Bishop Park. They know what to do from there."

"Where are you going?" asked Elliot suspiciously.

Nathaniel smiled. "We're going ahead of you. We wouldn't want anybody ambushing all of us, would we?"

Glen/Gary looked at Kitty with an odd expression on his face. The young man behind him, Jack Johnson (that twerp in the museum), seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Kitty?"

She nodded. "Do what he says."

"Okay. Come on, we'd better get moving." The large group began making its way towards the stairwell, but Jack hung back.

"Are you alright?" He was looking directly at Nathaniel, who was gazing at him unblinkingly.

"I'm fine. Just go."

He obliged and followed the rest of the group into the stairwell and out of sight. Nathaniel, a frown still on his face, turned to me. "Bartimaeus?"

"Yes?"

He gestured his head towards the window and the frown disappeared, to be replaced by a mischievous smile. "That window looks pretty weak, don't you think?"

"Yes, it does."

"Well, then, what are you waiting for?"

"I like the way you think," I replied happily. Facing the wall, I gathered all of my energy and began running straight at it.

Headfirst, of course.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes: Finally, a chapter from Bartimaeus's POV! It's a decent chapter, I think, and Morris reappears. You see a little more into the pysche of Morris in this one, and you get a much closer view in the next chapter although Morris doesn't play as much of a part in it. Nathaniel is beginning to change, as you probably noticed - in fact, all of the characters are starting to change. But more about that next chapter, where there is character introspection galore, clues, and a good deal of foreshadowing.

Next Chapter: In Just Before We Say Goodbye, the three must return to Bishop Park, although they are distracted by an unexpected event. An old enemy reappears, and Kitty begins to learn more about Nathaniel and Bartimaeus. Nathaniel will discover, at a price, that revenge is a dish best served cold.