The Golem's Eye

figure, the skeleton bent its knees and sprang; as it did so, magical energies erupted from its mouth and hands. It landed directly on the golem's chest, bony arms circling the neck, legs twining around the torso. Blue flames erupted where it touched. The golem stopped dead, raised a massive clublike hand, and seized the skeleton by a shoulder blade.
    For a long moment, the two adversaries remained locked, motionless, in utter silence. The flames licked higher. There was a smell of burning, a radiation of the utmost cold.
    Then, all at once—a rush of sound, a pulse of blue light...
    The skeleton shattered.
    Fragments of bone shot out across the cobblestones like a squall of hail.
    "Strange..." Bartimaeus was seated cross-legged on the ground. He had the look of a fascinated spectator. "That was really very strange. Honorius didn't need to do that, you know. It was totally foolhardy, a suicidal act—though brave, of course. Despite being mad, he must have known it would destroy him, don't you think? Golems negate our magic, pulverize our essences, even when encased in bone. Very odd. Perhaps he was tired of this world after all. Do you understand it, Kitty Jones?"
    "Kitty..." This was Jakob, plucking urgently at her sleeve. "The exit's clear. We can slip away."
    "Yes..." She snatched another look across at Mandrake. Eyes closed, he was still reciting the words of some spell.
    "Come on..."
    The golem had been stationary since the destruction of the skeleton. Now it moved again. Its watch-eye glittered, swiveled, fixed upon Mandrake and the Staff.
    "Looks like Mandrake's for it." Bartimaeus's voice was neutral, matter-of-fact.
    Kitty shrugged and began to inch after Jakob, along the edge of the wall.
    Just then, Mandrake looked up. At first he seemed oblivious of the coming danger; then his gaze fell upon the advancing golem. His face broadened into a smile. He held the Staff out before him and spoke a single word. A nebulous light of pinks and purples drifted around the body of the Staff, rising toward its top. Kitty paused in her inching. A soft reverberation, a humming—as of a thousand bees trapped underground—a tremble in the air; the ground shook slightly.
    "He can't have," Bartimaeus said. "He can't have mastered it. Not the first time."
    The boy's smile widened. He pointed Gladstone's Staff toward the golem, which paused uncertainly. Colored lights played about the carvings on the Staff; the boy's face was alive with their radiance and a terrible joy. In a deep, commanding voice, he uttered a complex charm. The Flux about the Staff flared. Kitty screwed up her eyes, half looked away; the golem rocked back on its heels. The Flux wobbled, sputtered, shot back down the Staff and along the magician's arm. His head jerked back; he was lifted bodily off his feet and straight into the wall behind him with a melancholy thud.
    The boy sprawled on the ground, tongue lolling. The Staff clattered from his hand.
    "Ah." Bartimaeus nodded sagely. "He hadn't mastered it. Thought as much."
    "Kitty!" Jakob was already some way off along the wall. He was gesticulating furiously. "While there's still time."
    The giant clay figure had resumed its stately progress toward the prone figure of the magician. Kitty made to follow Jakob, then turned back to Bartimaeus.
    "What's going to happen?"
    "Now? After my master's little error? Simple enough. You'll run off. The golem will kill Mandrake, grab the Staff, and take it to whichever magician's watching through that eye."
    "And you? You won't help him?"
    "I'm powerless against the golem. I've tried once already. Besides, when you were escaping just now, my master overruled all his previous charges—which included my duty to protect him. If Mandrake dies, I go free. It's hardly in my interest to help the idiot out."
    The golem was drawing abreast of the limousine now, nearing the body of the chauffeur. Kitty looked again at Mandrake, lying unconscious by the wall. She bit her lip and turned away.
    "I don't have free will most of the time, you see," the demon said behind her loudly. "So when I do, I'm hardly likely to act in a way that injures myself, if I can help it. That's what makes me superior to muddled humans like you. It's called common sense. Anyway, off you go," it added. "Your resilience might well not work against the golem. It's refreshing to see you doing exactly what I would do and getting out while the going's good."
    Kitty blew her cheeks out and took a few steps