That night, Nathaniel accompanies his master and his wife to Parliament for the state address.Ī wild youth who is thought to have been a member of the Resistance, a group of commoners who have been stealing magical items and damaging magicians’ property, throws an Elemental Sphere into the crowd, unleashing chaos and injuring several people. He tells Bartimaeus that he will imprison him in the tin and throw it into the Thames unless he follows his commands for 30 days, after which he will be freed. However, Nathaniel uses a Perpetual Confinement charm on a tin of rosemary, which damages the essence of demons. He selects the name John Mandrake.īartimaeus confronts Nathaniel in the attic and tells him he knows his birth name and can use it to deflect any punishment. His master tries to convince him to select an absurd-sounding name. Nathaniel goes into his master’s study to choose an official name from an almanack. He hears Mrs Underwood call Nathaniel by his birth name. Bartimaeus is told to return to him after completing the task. He manages to escape and returns to Nathaniel, who tells him to keep the amulet in his master’s study for safekeeping. He runs into a group of commoner teenagers who somehow sense the amulet and attempt to steal it from him. In it, he saw a mercenary bring him the Amulet of Samarkand, which was stolen from a powerful magician who was murdered for it.īartimaeus steals the amulet with some difficulty from Lovelace’s house and is accosted by Lovelace’s djinn Jabor and Faquarl. He also used a rudimentary scrying glass to spy on Lovelace. He read several books on magic and summoned several demons by himself. His master did not do anything to stop him.Īfter the incident, Nathaniel had nothing but contempt for his master and decided to become his own master.

The year before, Nathaniel was humiliated by Lovelace in front of his master. He was taught several subjects between the ages of 6 and 12. Arthur Underwood had to take him in as a requirement.Īrthur did not want an apprentice, but his wife Martha welcomed the boy into her home and took care of him, leading to Nathaniel forging a strong bond with her. Nathaniel was 5 when his parents gave him to the magicians’ adoption agency in exchange for some money. The Amulet protects the wearer from all magical attacks. Nathaniel summons a fourth-level djinni named Bartimaeus and tasks him with stealing the Amulet of Samarkand, an ancient amulet in which a very powerful entity resides, from the magician Simon Lovelace, the junior Minister for Trade. Nathaniel is a 12-year-old apprentice to Arthur Underwood, the Minister of Internal Affairs in a modern-day London which magicians rule.

The amulet of samarkand