"The boy did the preliminaries, sealing the circles, erecting the bonds. Now we were all subject to the rules of the s…"

"The boy shrugged. "I've forgotten it," was all he said. And then, "I guess I wasn't taught well enough.""

"Together, we must advance unafraid into the modern age!"

"Perhaps he'd want me to conjure up an illusion. That might be fun: there was bound to be a way of misinterpreting his…"

"Remember this." he said in a soft voice. "Demons are very wicked. They will hurt you if they can. Do you understand t…"

"The old pain had started up again, throbbing in my chest, stomach, bones. It wasn't healthy to be encased in a body f…"

"No magical alarm sounded, though I did hit my head five times on a pebble†."

"I order you, Bartimaeus, to reveal whether you have diligently and wholly carried out your charge-" "Of course I have…"

"Too much hate is bad for you," I ventured. "Why?" "Um..."

"I'm Martha. And you are...?" A small snuffle, a smaller voice. "Nathaniel."