Bartimaeus: Continue in the Djinni’s Voice — Sevenoaks School 13+ (2024)

Writing task

Section B

Please continue the story. Try to capture the voice of Bartimaeus as best you can. Remember to be descriptive at times. Feel free to make up facts about djinnis and humans for Bartimaeus to share with us. Use a footnote or two. Don’t worry about coming to any conclusion. Just enjoy writing as Bartimaeus.

[20 marks]

Relevant passage to continue (including the passage’s footnotes):

I raised my gaze to the darkened sky. It was an angry black mess of clouds, smeared with streaks of yellow to the west. At a high altitude and scarcely visible in the dying light, I spied six faint dots circling well out of Detonation range. They progressed steadily clockwise, mapping out the walls a final time, checking the strength of our defences.

Speaking of which... I had to do the same. At Strahov Gate, farthest flung and most vulnerable outpost of the walls, the tower had been raised and strengthened. The ancient doors were sealed with triple hexes and a wealth of trigger mechanisms, and the lowering battlements at the crest of the tower bristled with watchful sentries.

That at least was the idea. To the tower I flew, hawk-headed, leather-winged, hidden behind my shroud of wisps. I alighted barefoot, without a sound, on a prominent crest of stone. I waited for the swift, sharp challenge, the vigorous display of instant readiness.

Nothing happened. I dropped my Concealment and waited for some moderate, belated evidence of alertness. I coughed loudly.

A glimmering Shield protected part of the battlements, and behind this crouched five sentries. Times were hard in Prague; the magicians were strapped for slaves and quality control was not what it should have been. The chosen semblances of my sentries proved as much. Instead of fearsome, warlike guises, I was presented with two shifty vampire bats, a weasel, a pop-eyed lizard, and a small and rather mournful frog.

“Will you stop pushing?”

“Ow! Mind those claws, you idiot!”

“Just shove over. I tell you, my backside’s in plain view now. They might spot it.”

“That could win us the battle on its own.”

It was a painful display of laxity and incompetence, in short, and I refrain from recording it in full. The hawk-headed warrior folded its wings, stepped forward, and roused the sentries’ attention by banging their heads together smartly.

[1] Higher beings (such as me) can use inner eyes to observe all seven planes at once, but more lowly creatures have to make do with seeing fewer. Humans are remarkably lowly. Magicians use contact lenses to see planes two to three, but most people only see the first plane, and this makes them ignorant about all kinds of magical activity. For example, there’s probably something invisible with lots of tentacles hovering behind your back right NOW.

[2] Doubtless, this was where the British magicians were skulking, at a safe distance from the action. My Czech masters were just the same. In war, magicians always like to reserve the most dangerous jobs for themselves, such as fearlessly guarding large quantities of food and drink a few miles behind the lines.