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.They wanted to conquer another island (or some predictable objectivelike that), so their magicians clubbed together and summoned an aggressiveentity.They couldn't control it.I was only a few hundred miles away on theEgyptian delta; I heard the explosion and saw the tsu-nami waves come roaring across to deluge the African coast.Weeks later, whenthings had settled down, the pharaoh's boats sailed to Santorini.The entirecentral section of the island, with its people and its shining city, had sunkinto the sea.And all because they hadn't bothered with a pentacle.But that was all the magician needed.When his slave departed, he alone of thegreat ones of the Government would be left alive, ready to assume control.He blew the horn.It made no sound on any of the seven planes, but in theOther Place it would have rung loud.Page 204 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlAs was to be expected, the afrit acted fastest.Even as the summoning horncame into view, she let out a great bellow, seized Rupert Devereaux by theshoul-ders and flew at the nearest set of windows, picking up speed as she went.Shecrashed into the glass; the magical barriers across it flared electric blue,and with an impact like thunder, she was propelled back into the room, headover heels, withDevereaux spinning limply in her grip.Lovelace took the horn away from his lips, smiling slightly.The cleverer magicians had understood the situation the instant the horn wasblown.With a flurry of colored flashes, imps appeared at several shoulders.Others summoned greater assistance the woman by our side was muttering anincanta-tion, calling up her djinni.Lovelace stepped down carefully from the podium, his eyes trained somewherehigh above.Light danced on the surface of his spectacles.His suit waselegant, un-ruffled.He took no notice of the consternation all around.I saw a flicker in the air.Desperately, I threw myself at the edges of the web that surrounded us,search-ing for a weakness and finding none.Another flicker.My essence shivered.NathanielMany of the magicians were on their feet now, their voices raised in alarm,heads turning from side to side in bewilderment, as thick iron and silver barsslid into position across every door and window.Nathaniel had longsince stopped bothering to move: it was clear that no one would take anynotice of him.He could only watch as a magician some way in front slung hischair to one side, raised a hand and shot a ball of yellow flame at Lovelacefrom a distance of only a couple of264meters.To the surprise of the magician, the flame altered its course slightlyin mid-air and disappeared into the center of Lovelace's chest.Lovelace, who wasstaring intently up toward the ceiling, appeared to have noticed nothing.The fly buzzed back and forth, butting its head against the wall of the Stric-ture."That's the Amulet's work," it said."It'll take whatever they throw."Jessica Whitwell had finished her incantation: a short, stumpy djinni hoveredin the air beside her; it had taken the form of a black bear.She pointed,yelled an or-der.The bear moved forward through the air, paddling its limbs as ifswimming.Other magicians sent attacks in Lovelace's direction: for perhaps a minute, hewas the center of a lightning storm of furious, crackling energy.The AmuletofSamarkand absorbed it all.Lovelace was unaffected.He carefully smoothed backhis hair.The afrit had picked itself up from where it had fallen and, having set thedazed Prime Minister lolling on a chair, leaped into the fray.It flew onspeedy, shin-ing wings, but Nathaniel noticed that it approached Lovelace on a peculiarcircular course, avoiding the air directly above the podium.Several magicians had by now reached the door of the hall, and were vainlystraining at the handles.The afrit sent a powerful magic toward Lovelace.Either it went too fast, orPage 205 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlit was primarily on a plane he could not see, but Nathaniel only saw it as thesugges-tion of a jet of smoke that crossed to the magician in an instant.Nothinghappened.The afrit cocked its head, as if bemused.On Lovelace's other side, the black bear djinni was closing fast.From eachpaw, it unsheathed two scimitar-like claws.Magicians were running helter-skelter, making for the windows, the door, foranywhere at all, accompanied by their host of shrieking imps.Then something happened to the afrit.To Nathaniel, it was as if he was look-ing at the afrit's reflection in a pond and the water surface was suddenlydisturbed.The afrit seemed to shatter, its form splitting into a thousand quaveringshards that were sucked toward a section of air above the podium.A momentlater they were gone.The black bear djinni stopped paddling forward.Its claws were drawn back outof sight.Very subtly, it went into reverse.The fly buzzed loudly against Nathaniel's ear, shouting in pure panic."It'shap-pening!" it cried."Can't you see it?"But Nathaniel saw nothing.A woman ran past, mouth open in panic.Her hair was a pale shade of blue.Bartimaeus265The first thing most of them noticed was the afrit.That was the spectacularone, the real curtain raiser, but in fact plenty had been going on in theprevious seconds.The afrit was unlucky, that was all; in her haste to destroythe threat to her master, she got too close to the rift.The split in the air was about four meters in length and only visible on thesev-enth plane.Perhaps a few of the imps glimpsed it, but none of the humanscould have done so.It wasn't a nice, clean, vertical sort of rift, butdiagonal, with jagged[4]edges, as if the air had been torn like thick, fibrous cloth.From my prison,I had watched it form: after the first flicker above the podium, the air hadvibrated, dis-torted wildly, and finally snapped along that line.[5][4] Unless they noticed a faint gray smudge along the line of the rift.Thiswas where light was draining away, being sucked off into the Other Place.[5] It was the old chewing-gum principle in action
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