Chapter 3: The Reunion
By Conception.Creation
Disclaimer: The Bartimaeus Trilogy is property of Jonathan Stroud
A/N: First of all, I forgot to mention that anonymous reviews are now enabled. Thanks Duckweed! Secondly, this is Bartimaeus' first chapter, which was terribly difficult for me to write. If you have any suggestions or notice anything horribly wrong, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Thank you everyone for the kind reviews last chapter!
Less than a year had passed, but I was already itching to get back to earth. Now don't go thinking I've gone soft, let me explain. The Other Place had undergone a terrible transformation in the short time since Nathaniel (May he rest in peace) had returned me here. What was once a bright realm teeming with the joyous medley of intertwining essences was now an echoing, shadowy chasm of depression. The occasional dribble of essence flittered about here and there, in a melancholy sort of way. The Other Place was nearly empty.
The truth was we spirits were disappearing. You can't honestly expect us to hold out forever after all. Not with hordes of good-for-nothing, slave-driving magicians risking our necks, while they lounge around on silk pillows getting fat. I had really expected our favourite freedom-fighter, Kitty Jones, to put an end to our misery. After all, she blathered on and on about how djinn and humans should work together. You should hear that girl talk; she was quite the visionary. I'd almost thought of her as a second Ptolemy. There was a time when I would have done anything for her, just out of gratitude for the show of trust she made to me. You think you know a girl. But judging from the looks of wasteland around me, she hadn't lifted a finger to put an end to our servitude. In fact, things looked even worse now. We were dying in droves.
So much for her promises.
I admit I was feeling a little bitter. I half-wished I could go down there and give that two-faced little commoner a piece of my mind.
Which is why when the summons came, I didn't resist it.
I surrendered my essence to the familiar insistent tug without any struggle. Unfortunately, I wasn't expecting the aggressiveness of the spell. My essence was yanked from the place where it meekly rested, Pounded back and forth like a piece of dough being kneaded in some cosmic bakery, and spewed into the pentacle with an unseemly degree of violence. What kind of feckless bungler just shoves a djinni into a pentacle like that? I think I'd gotten whiplash.
I gathered my battered essence and rose up from the floor in the form of a seriously pissed off hydra. I was determined to show this foolish hack just who they were dealing with. Smoke billowed from my ears, my nine pairs of glowing red eyes smoldered with rage. My mouths growled and snapped, each one dribbling a steady stream of rabid froth. I gave the magician a sideways glance to make sure she was duly impressed.
She hadn't even noticed me.
Instead, the skinny female magician was looking to her left, where another woman stood ranting in a separate pentacle.
"–dead! How on Earth can you not know? You worked with Nathaniel, you heard the story. You must have!" The girl was turning an intriguing shade of purple.
I would know that preachy tone anywhere. It was Kathleen Jones in the flesh. I was surprised I hadn't sensed her aura the moment I materialized in the room. (Missing that blinding dance of colour is nearly as unbelievable as not noticing when you are standing in a room with a ravenous hydra monster.) I should have known that girl had something to do with my recent summons.
I gave Kitty the old once-over. She hadn't changed much since I last saw her, physically speaking. Same willowy figure, same dark eyes, same incongruous grey hair. And that exasperated expression on her face certainly seemed familiar. I interrupted the girl's tirade.
"Did either of you call, or should I just go?" I asked peevishly. Kitty's eyes shot to the gargantuan monster coiled in the centre of the kitchen. I flicked my tail as if to say, yep, I've been here the whole time.
"Who are you?" She asked edgily. I rolled several of my eyes. How dense can you get? It wasn't like I was some stranger who'd broken down the door and forced my way in. I had been called. Quite viciously too, I might add. I shifted. My heavy coils and impressive collection of heads shrunk down to form Ptolemy's shape. I was pretty certain the girl would recognize me in that form.
Kitty's eyes boggled out of her head. (Metaphorically speaking of course.)
"Bartimaeus?"
I nodded, grinning.
"You're alive?"
"Looks like it."
There was an awkward pause.
"What's going on here?" Interrupted the skinny magician who'd summoned me. Apparently she was feeling left out of the conversation, such as it was.
"That's what I'd like to know," I said, trying to keep from sounding too sulky.
Something dawned in Kitty's face. She'd put two and two together I guess. Her dark eyes met mine soberly.
"Did Nathaniel…" Her voice trailed off.
"Yes." I answered her unspoken question. The scrawny kid had saved my life by releasing me from my ties to the Earth at the last moment. I'd never known he'd had it in him.
Kitty's eyes glistened. She took a step towards me, nearing the edge of the pentacle.
"I thought you were dead," She choked out, "I thought everyone was dead."
"Not everyone," I said brightly, "Just Nathaniel… unless maybe you count a few British Magicians. And countless spirits. And all those people who used to be in the resistance I guess…" I trailed off. Kitty began to sob. Oops.
The magician interrupted my pathetic attempts at comfort before I had a chance to start feeling guilty.
"Kitty!" She shrieked in panic, "You're far too close to the edge of the pentacle. Get back! It's trying to make you get upset and break the circle!" Typical magician that one was. Liked giving orders, but no observation skills whatsoever. You'd think she'd have noticed by now that Kitty and I weren't exactly strangers.
Kitty pulled herself together.
"Rebecca, this is Bartimaeus." She said. The skittish magician girl still looked upset. Actually, now that I thought about it, the magician seemed vaguely familiar. I think she'd once been in Nathaniel's employ.
"I know its name," She said, "I summoned it. Kitty, please just sit down and let me deal with the demon." She gave Kitty a supplicating look. I think she was longing to throw Kitty from the room. I don't suppose there was actually much hope of her doing so, unfortunately. She'd have to break the pentacle, and no one is stupid enough to throw themselves to the mercy of a fearsome djinni like myself. (Of course, in general magicians aren't quite your paragons of intelligence, so there's always that chance. Nathaniel did it.)
"Let me explain," Kitty spoke, "I know Bartimaeus. We've worked together. He's different from other demons…"
"Spirits," I interjected. Demon is a rather derogatory word, after all.
"Yes, that's what I meant. Thank you Bartimaeus." She shot me an annoyed look, as though to say this wasn't the moment to be worrying about political correctness. "As I was saying, Bartimaeus is our ally. We have nothing to fear from him."
Well Kitty certainly didn't. As much as I was annoyed with her, we still shared a certain bond. She was the first human to visit the Other Place since the days of Ptolemy. (Probably the last, too, at the rate things were going.) Rebecca Piper was fair game, however.
Rebecca must have noticed the gleam in my eye. She took a wary step back. (Not far enough, unfortunately.)
"No demon is an ally. They are either servants or enemies."
I plastered a scowl on Ptolemy's face. This was exactly the kind of attitude that Kitty had tricked me into thinking she could change. I turned to the girl.
"By the way Kitty," I snarled, "Thanks for all your help saving us spirits from human persecution. Your achievements are truly stunning."
"What do you mean?" She looked at me in seemingly innocent confusion. I knew better.
"I think you know exactly what I mean," I growled, "Are you forgetting a little incident where a certain djinni saved a certain city at the request of a certain commoner? Where's all your talk of righting injustice now that you've got what you wanted?"
Kitty flushed red. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
"Magic isn't something we can just get rid of." She protested, "We've managed to cut back on the amount of magicians in England. Rebecca here is our last magical politician. And for your information, most countries are magician-free these days. We're leaving you alone–"
"Oh is that why the Other Place is so empty? There is hardly anyone left."
Kitty froze.
"Empty?" She tugged the ends of her hair as she contemplated the enormity of my statement. "It can't be. Are you sure?"
I gave her a look. Of course I was sure! Kitty wasn't the one who'd been floating alone in the vacuum of the Other Place for a year. I'm very social. It was traumatic.
"Yes, Kitty. Finally you humans have managed to destroy the djinn race. It was bound to happen eventually–"
"Bartimaeus–"
"I'm surprised we managed to last as long as we did–"
"Bartimaeus–"
"Of course, you could have tried to help us like you promised. You certainly took care of your own people–"
"Bartimaeus, shut up and listen to me!"
My, wasn't she the little despot today!
"I'm listening." I doubled the size of Ptolemy's ears for dramatic effect.
Kitty drew in a deep breath.
"Look, I see your point. I promised you the end of your enslavement. If I failed, I'm sorry. All I can say is, I'm going to make it up to you."
I scoffed, waggling my gigantic ears. But Kitty had that determined look in her eye; the one that always makes me nervous. She took a step forward, crossing the lines of the pentacle on the floor. I felt the spells around her snap.
"Kitty what are you doing?" Yelped the magician who, until this moment, had remained blessedly silent.
Kitty ignored her protests. She walked steadily across the floor, her eyes fixed on mine. She stood in front of me, just outside the pentacle that bound my essence.
"Bartimaeus," She said, "I trust you. I've proved that to you before. And you proved to me that you were worthy of that trust."
So saying, she reached out and drew her foot across the white chalk lines that formed the pentacle, smearing them irreparably. The magic of the pentacle dissolved immediately. I stood there motionless, facing Kitty, unable to tear myself away from the girl's dark, serious eyes. Kitty had displayed her trust in me before, of course. But you have to admit, that was a lot different from setting me free entirely.
"What have you done?" Rebecca's horrified voice broke through the profound moment.
Kitty stepped back.
"If Bartimaeus is going to help us," She said, "He is going to do so on his own terms, of his own free will."
A strangled sound emanated from Rebecca's throat. No doubt the twiggy magician expected me to immediately jump at her throat. (Not that my gloating expressions were helping to put her at ease, either.) Normally it's wise for humans to be wary of us higher beings; just look at what happened in the demon rebellion. However, once in a while you get a gracious being like me, who's willing to let you puny humans live.
I waltzed out of my pentacle, enjoying the spindly magician's newfound pallor. It made her look like a transparent toothpick. I winked at her. She whimpered, backed out of her pentacle and bumped right into the wall. (It was kind of a waste, really. I only seem to be able to scare magicians out of their pentacles when it doesn't really count. Bad luck, I guess.)
Kitty cleared her throat. I gave her my full attention.
"We're on a mission," She declared. It figured. The girl was always on a mission. "I'm going to be infiltrating a secret society to rescue an old friend of mine, who I suspect has been kidnapped." Well that was kind of interesting.
"Bartimaeus," She continued, "You know you are the only one I'd want by my side. But I'm not going to force you to help me. I'm only going to ask you." She gazed at me appealingly.
I looked at Kitty. Her face was lit by the fluctuating radiance of her aura. If anything its brightness was even more intense then I'd remembered. When I'd first entered the room, I'd been upset with her, even felt a bit betrayed. But looking at her now, I could already tell that she still carried that same streak of passionate altruism that I'd always found myself fascinated by. Whose cause had she taken up now? Another adventure by her side wouldn't be so bad, would it? I certainly wasn't interested in heading back to the newly vacant Other Place to wait out the rest of eternity in virtual isolation. (What a waste of talent and intelligence that would be.) Slowly I nodded my head. Kitty's smile was like the sun breaking through the clouds.
I smiled back at her. I always enjoyed Kitty's company. Unlike most mortals, she was neither a dullard nor a slime bucket. She always managed to surprise me, and that was quite a feat. When you're five thousand years old there isn't much you haven't already seen.
I let myself wander around the room a bit, ignoring the cowering magician in the corner.
"Nice place you've got here," I said. The previous drama had prevented me from properly observing our surroundings, but now I took a good look.
I was in a small kitchen of some kind. The rug had been rolled away to make room for the three now-useless pentacles. There were a handful of stumpy candles burning down upon the countertop. Embroidered wall hangings and colourful hand-woven baskets livened up the neutral interior with splashes of colour. From the window above the sink, my heightened eyesight could make out the dark shapes of palm trees against the night sky.
Something about the view led me to the conclusion that we were no longer in England. (A little something I call deductive reasoning.) I shot Kitty a quizzical look. A secretive smile lit up her face, making me wonder what I had gotten myself into here.
"Welcome back to Egypt, Bartimaeus." She said.