Ptolemy's Gate

shrugged. "That may well be."
    "So, my idea, or my proposal, really," Kitty said, "is that the djinn and other spirits give us that help." She sat back.
    The boy looked at her. "Say again."
    "You help us out. After all, like you said just now—we're all victims here, both djinn and commoners. The magicians subjugate us the same whether we're human or spirit. So. We can team up and defeat them."
    The boy's face was expressionless. "Just like that?"
    "Well, it's not going to be easy, of course. But there's bound to be a way. For instance, if commoners like me can summon important djinn like you, why can't we take on the government together? It needs a bit of thought, and a lot more de— spirits to get involved, but we'd have the advantage of surprise, wouldn't we? And it would be so much more effective for us to fight as an equal force: no slaves, no masters. No scrapping among ourselves or undermining each other. Just smooth cooperation. We'd be unstoppable!"
    She was leaning forward in the pentacle now; eyes bright and shining with her vision. The boy seemed transfixed too; for a long while he did not answer. At last he spoke. "Insane," he said. "Nice hair, nice outfit, but quite, quite mad."
    Kitty squirmed with frustration. "You just have to listen —"
    "Quite a few of my masters over the years have been mad," the boy continued. "I've had religious zealots beating their bottoms with brambles, dead-eyed emperors joylessly committing mass murder, misers lusting after hoards of gold. I've had countless abusers of themselves and others.. . .You are a perverse and unappetizing species. I'll go as far as to say that your particular madness, Kitty, is less harmful than most, but it will lead to your death, and to mine also if I'm not careful, so I'll be frank with you. What you have just suggested is ridiculous in a thousand ways, and if I went through them all, we'd still be here when the British Empire finally does fall. So let me single out two reasons. No djinni, no afrit, no city-trampling marid or skin-tickling mite, will ever, ever team up (as you put it) with any kind of human. Team up . . . I ask you! Do you see us all wearing the same jersey or something, going into battle hand in hand?"The boy laughed—a harsh, unpleasant sound. "No! We've suffered too much pain for us ever to view a human as an ally."
    "That's a lie!" Kitty shouted. "I say again—what about Ptolemy?"
    "He was unique!" The boy clenched his fists. "He was the exception. Don't bring him into this!"
    "He disproves everything you've said!" Kitty shouted. "Sure, it would be difficult to persuade most demons, but—"
    "Difficult? It could never be done!"
    "That's what you said about me learning enough to summon you. But I did it!"
    "Utterly irrelevant. Let me tell you something. I've been sitting here, talking nicely, keeping pretty manners as a djinni will, but all the time I've been watching you like a hawk, waiting to see if you stuck so much as a toe outside the circle. If you had, I'd have been onto you faster than blinking, and you'd have learned something about humans and demons then, I can tell you."
    "Yeah?" Kitty sneered. "Instead of which you stuck your own stupid toe out and blew your skirt off. Which more or less sums up your last few thousand years. You're going nowhere on your own, pal."
    "Is that so?"The boy's face was livid with fury. "Well, let me get on to the second reason why your plan's a dud, shall I? Even if I wanted to help you, even if a hundred other djinn almost as potent as me shared that sentiment and wanted nothing better than to cast their lot in with some oat-brained humans, we couldn't. Because the only way we can come to Earth is through summoning. And that means losing free will. It means pain. It means obeying your master. And there's no equality in that equation."
    "Rubbish," Kitty said. "It doesn't have to be that way."
    "Of course it does. What's the alternative? Every summons binds us. That's what they do. Would you seek some way to let us off the leash? With our power? Would you be happy to give us control?"
    "Of course," Kitty said stoutly. "If that was what it took."
    "You wouldn't! Not in a million years."
    "I would. If the trust was there, I'd do it."
    "Is that so? Well, why not prove it right now? Step out of your pentacle."
    "What?"
    "You heard me well enough. Step out, across those lines. Yes, those ones right there. Let's see this trust of yours in action, shall we? Give me power for a moment.