The Golem's Eye

look out of the back window at the passing lights of the city. He treated the girl with a confusing combination of officious politeness and barely concealed scorn, asking eager questions one minute and uttering veiled threats the next. By contrast, the rest of us in the car were grave and silent. Hyrnek and Kitty stared rigidly to the front (Hyrnek with the foliot still entwined about his face), while the chauffeur beyond the glass made stolidity an art form. [6]  I—though forced through lack of space to assume the form of a stoic guinea pig crouched between the girl's shoe and the glove compartment—was my usual dignified self.
     
    [6] A block of wood wearing a peaked cap would have had more verve and individuality.
     
    We drove steadily through the London night. There was nothing on the roads. The stars began winking out above the rooftops: dawn was fast approaching. The car engine hummed drearily. Out of sight of Nathaniel, four red lights bobbed and weaved directly above the roof of the limousine.
    In contrast to my master, the girl seemed very self-possessed. It occurred to me that she knew he would betray her—let's face it, it didn't need a djinni's brain to guess that much—but was going to her doom calmly nonetheless. The guinea pig nodded regretfully to itself. More than ever, I admired her resolve—and the grace with which she exerted it. But that's free will for you. I did not have that luxury in this world.
    Under the girl's direction, we drove south through the center of the city, across the river, and into a downmarket region of light industry and commerce, where ramshackle tenement housing rose three stories tall. A few hunched pedestrians were already in evidence, stumbling to early shifts. A couple of bored demi-afrits drifted past, and once a portly messenger imp also, laboring under a giant package. At length, we turned into a narrow cobbled lane that ran under a low arch and into a deserted mews.
    "Here." The girl rapped on the partition glass. The block of wood pulled over and sat motionless, awaiting orders. The rest of us disembarked, stiff and cold in the first light of the dawn. The guinea pig stretched out its essence and returned to Ptolemy's form. I glanced about, and saw the watching spheres loitering at a distance.
    On either side of us were rows of narrow, white-painted mews houses, residential and a little unkempt. Without a word, the girl approached a set of steps leading down to a basement door. Nudging Hyrnek in front of him, Nathaniel followed. I brought up the rear.
    My master glanced at me over his shoulder. "If she tries any tricks, kill her."
    "You'll have to be more specific," I said. "What kind of tricks? Card, coin, Indian rope—what?"
    He gave me a look. "Anything that breaks my agreement with her, with the intention of causing me harm or assisting her escape. That clear enough?"
    "Crystal."
    The girl had been scrabbling around in the dimness by the door; from some crevice or other she withdrew a key. A moment later, the door scraped open. Without a word, she stepped through; the three of us shambled after.
    We twisted and turned through a series of labyrinthine basements, Kitty, Hyrnek, Nathaniel, and I, one close after the other as if doing a slow and dreary conga. She seemed to know her way well enough, flicking light switches on at intervals, ducking under low arches that caused the rest of us to bang our foreheads, never looking back. It was a circuitous route; I began to wonder if my minotaur guise wouldn't have been more appropriate.
    Looking back, I saw the glow of at least one sphere trailing in our wake. We were still being observed from afar.
    When the girl halted at last, it was in a small side room off the main basement. She switched on a meager bulb. The room was empty, except for a pile of logs in the far corner. Water dripped from the ceiling and trickled in rivulets across the floor. Nathaniel wrinkled his nose. "Well?" he snapped. "I don't see anything."
    The girl stepped over to the logs and extended a foot somewhere into the pile. A squeaking; a section of brickwork swung open beyond her. Shadows yawned.
    "Stop right there! You're not going in." Leaving Hyrnek for the first time, my master hurried forward to stand between Kitty and the secret door. "Bartimaeus— go inside and report what you find. If the Staff is there, bring it out to me."
    Rather more diffidently than is my wont, I approached the door, erecting a Shield about me in case of