"Jonathan Stroud - Bartimaeus 3 - Ptolemy's Gate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stroud Jonathan)

THE COMMONERS

Ms. Kitty Jones A student and barmaid
Mr. Clem Hopkins An itinerant scholar
Mr. Nicholas Drew A political agitator
Mr. George Fox Proprietor of the Frog Inn, Chiswick
Ms. Rosanna Lutyens A private tutor

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 Jonathan Stroud - Bartimaeus 3 - Ptolemy's Gate




THE SPIRITS

Bartimaeus A djinniтАФin service to Mr. Mandrake
Ascobol
Cormocodran
Greater djinnтАФin service to Mr. Mandrake
Mwamba
Hodge
Purip
Lesser djinnтАФin service to Mr. Mandrake
Fritang




Acknowledgments
My thanks to Laura Cecil, Delia Huddy, Alessandra Baker, and Jonathan Burnham; to the late
Rod Hall; and to everyone at Random House, Hyperion, and Miramax. And to Gina, most of all.




Part One
Alexandria: 125 B.C.
The assassins dropped into the palace grounds at midnight, four fleet shadows dark against the
wall. The fall was high, the ground was hard; they made no more sound on impact than the
pattering of rain. Three seconds they crouched there, low and motionless, sniffing at the air.
Then away they stole, through the dark gardens, among the tamarisks and date palms, toward
the quarters where the boy lay at rest. A cheetah on a chain stirred in its sleep; far away in the
desert, jackals cried.

They went on pointed toe-tips, leaving no trace in the long wet grass. Their robes flittered at
their backs, fragmenting their shadows into wisps and traces. What could be seen? Nothing but
leaves shifting in the breeze. What could be heard? Nothing but the wind sighing among the