There was a shake of snow, a clank of metal, and the bear was there. He had been sleeping calmly under the falling snow. In the light spilling from the lamp Thorold was holding at the window, Lyra saw the long faceless head, the narrow eye slits, the gleam of white fur below red-black metal, and wanted to embrace him and seek some comfort from his iron helmet, his ice-tipped fur.
He didnt say. He was listening intently, but she could hear nothing. Then she did hear something: a mysterious, vastly distant rustling and crackling. It was a sound she had heard before: the sound of the Aurora. Out of nowhere a veil of radiance had fallen to hang shimmering in the northern sky. All those unseen billions and trillions of charged particles, and possibly, she thought, of Dust, conjured a radiating glow out of the upper atmosphere. This was going to be a display more brilliant and extraordinary than any Lyra had yet seen, as if the Aurora knew the drama that was taking place below, and wanted to light it with the most awe-inspiring effects.
She had struggled all this way to bring something to Lord Asriel, thinking she knew what he wanted; and it wasnt the alethiometer at all. What he wanted was a child.
“It was because he needed a child to finish his experiment, miss! And Lord Asriel has a way special to himself of bringing about what he wants, he just has to call for something and—”
“lorek—” she sobbed, pushing the servant aside. “Wheres lorek Byrnison? The bear? Is he still outside?”
“Come then,” he said, and she leaped on his back.
She had brought him Roger.
“He told me to wake him and dress him, and I didnt think to argue—I never have—the boy kept on asking for you, miss—but Lord Asriel wanted him alone—you know when you first came to the door, miss? And he saw you and couldnt believe his eyes, and wanted you gone?”
“Well?” he said.
Now Lyras head wasfull of a roar, as if she were trying to stifle some knowledge from her own consciousness.
Impossible.! she thought weakly, but it was true, for another arrow clattered off the armor of lorek, standing above her. These were not Serafina Pekkalas witches; they were from another clan. They circled above, a dozen of them or more, swooping down to shoot and soaring up again, and Lyra swore with every word she knew.
The old man shrugged helplessly.
“Roger? Hes taken Roger?”
Lyra looked around, back across the vast open plain leading to Lord Asriels house, back toward the tumbled mountains theyd crossed earlier, and saw nothing. The Aurora grew more intense. The first veils trembled and raced to one side, and jagged curtains folded and unfolded above, increasing in size and brilliance every minute; arcs and loops swirled across from horizon to horizon, and touched the very zenith with bows of radiance. She could hear more clearly than ever the immense singing hiss and swish of vast intangible forces.
Lyras head was in such a whirl of weariness and fear that she could hardly think, but “Yes? Yes?” she said.
There was no need to ask which way to go: the tracks of the sledge led straight out from the courtyard and over the plain, and lorek leaped forward to follow them. His motion was now so much a part of Lyras being that to sit balanced was entirely automatic. He ran over the thick snowy mantle on the rocky ground faster than hed ever done, and the armor plates shifted under her in a regular swinging rhythm.
Oh, the bitter anguish! She had thought she was saving Roger, and all the time shed been diligently working to betray him....
“Miss—miss—get up quickly. I dont know what to do. Hes left no orders. I think hes mad, miss.”
Lyra felt lorek Byrnison change pace. Something had caught his attention. He was slowing and lifting his head to cast left and right.
He put the lamp down and did as she told him. When she commanded, in that imperious way, she was very like her father, for all that her face was wet with tears and her lips trembling.While Pantalaimon paced the floor lashing his tail, his fur almost sparking, Thorold hastened to bring her stiff, reeking furs and help her into them. As soon as all the buttons were done up and all the flaps secured, she made for the door, and felt the cold strike her throat like a sword and freeze the tears at once on her cheeks.
“Witches!” came a cry in a bear voice, and Lyra turned in joy and relief.
She had just realized what shed done.
She woke to find a stranger shaking her arm, and then as Pantalaimon sprang awake and growled, she recognized Thorold. He was holding a naphtha lamp, and his hand was trembling.
“We got to catch Lord Asriel. Hes taken Roger and hes a going to—I darent think—oh, lorek, I beg you, go quick, my dear!”
That was why hed criedout, “I did not send for you!” when he saw her; he had sent for a child, and the fates had brought him his own daughter. Or so hed thought, until shed stepped aside and shown him Roger.
I got to go. Now.1 Do it quick!”
“Yes,” he said, on her wrist a moment later; “its Lord Asriel, and hes lashing his dogs on furiously, and theres a boy in the back....”
“Lord Asriel, miss. Hes been almost in a delirium since you went to bed. Ive never seen him so wild. He packed a lot of instruments and batteries in a sledge and he harnessed up the dogs and left. But hes got the boy, miss!”
“What? Whats happening?”
“What is it?” Lyra said.
Lyra shook and sobbed in a frenzy of emotion. It couldnt be true.
The way was clear, for the moon was high and the light it cast over the snowbound world was as bright as it had been in the balloon: a world of bright silver and profound black. The tracks of Lord Asriels sledge ran straight toward a range of jagged hills, strange stark pointed shapes jutting up into a sky as black as the alethiometers velvet cloth. There was no sign of the sledge itself—or was there a feather touch of movement on the flank of the highest peak? Lyra peered ahead, straining her eyes, and Pantalaimon flew as high as he could and looked with an owls clear vision.
She had got out of bed, and was reaching for her clothes, and then she suddenly collapsed, and a fierce cry of despair enveloped her. She was uttering it, but it was bigger than she was; it felt as if the despair were uttering her. For she remembered his words: the energy that links body and daemon is immensely powerful; and to bridge the gap between worlds needed a phenomenal burst of energy....
“Help me!” she said, trembling all over with weakness and fear. “Help me dress.
Behind them, the other bears paced easily, pulling the fire hurler with them.
But a heavy muzzle knocked her forward, and with no breath left to gasp she could only pant and shudder, for there in the place where she had been standing was the plume of a green-feathered arrow. The head and the shaft were buried in the snow.
But none of the bears were looking up: their attention was all on the earth. It wasnt the Aurora, after all, that had caught loreks attention. He was standing stock-still now, and Lyra slipped off his back, knowing that his senses needed to cast around freely. Something was troubling him.
Thorold tried to comfort her, but he didnt know the reason for her extremity of grief, and could only pat her shoulder nervously.
“lorek!” she called. “lorek Byrnison! Come, because I need you!”
