Nancy Keane's Booktalks -- Quick and Simple

Stroud, Jonathan.  
PTOLEMY’S GATE 
New York : Miramax Books/Hyperion Books For Children, c2006.
IL 5-8, RL 6.3
ISBN 0786818611
Click on the book to read Amazon reviews
 Okay, I’d had it. My essence had hardly begun to heal when I felt the summons once again, plunging me back to the hard, bitter earth. I had been too near to death to feel the righteous anger at my master that I should have the last time I was there. After all, it was his fault that I had nearly died. Imagine, keeping me on earth for so long that a demon like myself was so weak that I almost died. I needed at least two or three days (earth time) to recover. He had promised me that, and once again he had lied.

I was at the end of my rope. I would use his name against him now, even if it meant both our deaths, as it surely would. I had absorbed just enough energy to come back as a true fire and brimstone, spear-tailed demon with wings, hooves, claws, whips, etc., etc. Oh, and a howl set to frighten death itself. Then I saw the figure in the pentacle opposite.

It wasn't my master. It was Kitty Jones. She wasn't even a magician. The summoning shouldn't have worked. I should have found a mistake, a weakness. I should have been able to escape. But, I couldn't.

So, I changed to a lion, minus the mane. She wanted a partnership. With demons. With me. Because we were friends. Or so she thought. I tried to explain it to her. Why we could never be anything but enemis. Then she brought up Ptolemy. He had been unique. We argued, but she persisted.

Finally, I suggested she step out of the pentacle to show her trust in me. She refused. She was still in charge, and I was still the captive slave to her every wish.

I also explained why her plan wouldn't work. Why demons and humans could never work together. She dismissed me.

Another few hours passed and another summons. This time from my master. Hey, a day without enslavement is a day that's wasted. That's my motto,

NOT!   (Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award Nominees 2007-2008)
SUBJECTS:     Magic -- Fiction.
                        Wizards -- Fiction.
                        Genies -- Fiction.
                        London (England) -- Fiction.
                        England -- Fiction.
                        Fantasy.

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