“Not war, Kaisa. We are going to free the children taken from us. And I hope the witches will help.”
“Greetings,” said Farder Coram. “And Im happy and proud to see you again, Kaisa. Now, would you like to come inside, or would you prefer to stay out here in the open?”
When they returned to the ship, Farder Coram and John Faa and the other leaders spent a long time in conference in the saloon, and Lyra went to her cabin to consult the alethiome-ter. Within five minutes she knew exactly where the bears armor was, and why it would be difficult to get it back.
The goose daemon began to explain. He spoke of valleys and hills, of the tree line and the tundra, of star sightings. Lyra listened awhile, and then lay back in the deck chair with Pantalaimon curled around her neck, and thought of the grand vision the goose daemon had brought with him. A bridge between two worlds...This was far more splendid than anything she could havehoped for! And only her great father could have conceived it. As soon as they had rescued the children, she would go to Svalbard with the bear and take Lord Asriel the alethiometer, and use it to help set him free; and theyd build the bridge together, and be the first across....
“He has done,” said John Faa. “Well, if not dozens, then some. When they first took his armor away, he went a rampaging round looking for it. He tore open the police house and the bank and I dont know where else, and theres at least two men who died. The only reason they didnt shoot to kill him is because of his wondrous skill with metals; they wanted to use him like a laborer.”
“They have a company of Northern Tartars armed with rifles. They are good soldiers, but they lack practice, because no one has ever attacked the settlement since it was built. Then there is a wire fence around the compound, which is filled with anbaric force. There may be other means of defense that we dont know about, because as I say they have no interest for us.”
She dressed quickly and ran on deck to find nothing very much happening. All the stores had been unloaded, sledges and dog teams had been hired and were waiting to go; everything was ready and nothing was moving. Most of the gyp-tians were sitting in a smoke-filled cafe facing the water, eating spice cakes and drinking strong sweet coffee at the long wooden tables under the fizz and crackle of some ancient anbaric lights.
“She sends her greetings to you, Farder Coram, and she is well and strong. Who are these two people?”
“Be that as it may, they might have shot him for the killings he done, but they didnt. And they bound him over to labor in the towns interest until hes paid off the damage and the blood money.”
That surprised all three of them. Lyra looked at Farder Coram, who looked back in mild wonder, and at John Faa, whose expression was troubled.
“But what are they afraid of? Do they think hes going to go round killing people as soons he gets his armor on? He could kill dozens of em now!”
There was a lightness in Lyras head.
“We will,” said John Faa firmly. “But now, sir, can you tell us how to get to Bolvangar from here?”
“And where are they now, these Dust hunters?” “Four days northeast of here, at a place called Bolvangar. Our clan made no agreement with them, and because of our longstanding obligation to you, Farder Coram, I have come to show you how to find these Dust hunters.”
The goose made his stately way to the stern of the ship, where he looked around, elegant and wild simultaneously, and a cause of fascinated terror to Lyra, who felt as though she were entertaining a ghost.
“They think he intends to use Dust in some way in order to make a bridge between this world and the world beyond the Aurora.”
He raised his wings and spread them wide before folding them again.
“Lee Scoresby,” he said.
“The aeronaut!” she exclaimed. “Wheres your balloon? Can I go up in it?”
“Its packed away right now, miss. You must be the famous Lyra. How did you get on with lorek Byrnison?”
Sometime in the night John Faa must have carried Lyra to her bunk, because that was where she awoke. The dim sun was as high in the skyas it was going to get, only a hands breadth above the horizon, so it must be nearly noon, she thought.
“Yeah!” she said, and explained all about him. As she talked, someone else pulled a chair up and joined the group at the table.
“John,” said Farder Coram, “I dont know how you feel, but its my belief theyll never let him have that armor back. The longer they keep him, the more angry hell be when he gets it.”
“That is a question with too complicated an answer. Firstly, the witches are not united. There are differences of opinion among us. Secondly, Lord Asriels bridge will have a bearing on a war being waged at the present between some witches and various other forces, some in the spirit world. Possession of the bridge, if it ever existed, would give a huge advantage to whoever held it.
“But not all bears!” Lyra said. “Theres one who ent on Svalbard at all. Hes an outcast bear, and hes going to come with us.”
“Because of your father, and his knowledge of the other worlds,” the daemon replied.
Lyra was bursting to ask a question, and the goose dasmon knew it and looked at her as if giving permission.
“There,” he said, “I have just brushed ten million other worlds, and they knew nothing of it. We are as close as a heartbeat, but we can never touch or see or hear these other worlds except in the Northern Lights.”
Soon, when they moved further north, there would be no sun at all.
He held out his hand and she shook it warily.
The bird said:
But something was moving across it, and as she tried to focus her eyes on the movement, she felt faint and dizzy, because the little thing moving wasnt part of the Aurora or of the other universe behind it. It was in the sky over the roofs of the town.
“But if we get his armor back, hell come with us and never bother em again,”
Once they were on, she had to go out on deck, and a minute later she opened the door at the top of the compan-ionway and stepped out.
“We have few dealings with bears. Their desires are as strange to us as ours are to them. If this bear is an outcast, he might be less reliable than they are said to be. You must decide for yourselves.”
“I would rather stay outside, thank you, Farder Coram. Are you warm enough for a while?”
“So youve spoken to old lorek?” he said.
You can see them sometimes in the Northern Lights. They arent part of this universe at all; even the furthest stars are part of this universe, but the lights show us a different universe entirely. Not further away, but interpenetrating with this one. Here, on this deck, millions of other universes exist, unaware of one another....”
She wondered whether to go to the saloon and tell John Faa and the others, but decided that theyd ask her if they wanted to know. Perhaps they knew already.
The sight filled the northern sky; the immensity of it was scarcely conceivable.
“We heard a different story,” said John Faa. “Hes a dangerous rogue, is what we heard.”
At once she saw that something strange was happening in the sky. She thought it was clouds, moving and trembling under a nervous agitation, but Pantalaimon whispered:
Her wonder was so strong that she had to clutch the rail to keep from falling.
She turned and scampered down the companionway to the cabin Farder Coram occupied, and opened the door to speak into the darkness:
“Why do the witches talk about me?” she said.
said Lyra. “I promise, Lord Faa.”
There was a silence, in which they all three became aware of the witchs daemon and his fixed stare at Lyra. All three turned to him, and their own daemons too, who had until then affected the extreme politeness of keeping their eyes modestly away from this singular creature, here without his body.
“What do you think, sir?” said John Faa to the witchs daemon.
“They have put up buildings of metal and concrete, and some underground chambers. They burn coal spirit, which they bring in at great expense. We dont know what they do, but there is an air of hatred and fear over the place and for miles around. Witches can see these things where other humans cant. Animals keep away too. No birds fly there; lemmings and foxes have fled. Hence the name Bolvangar: the fields of evil. They dont call it that. They call it the station. But to everyone else it is Bolvangar.”
“I—hes—Ill go and get him....”
The flying thing came closer and circled the ship on outspread wings. Then it glided down and landed with brisk sweeps of its powerful pinions, and came to a halt on the wooden deck a few yards from Lyra.
And suddenly Lyra realized who it must be. This was the daemon of Serafina Pekkala, the clan queen, Farder Corams witch friend.
“I have heard of this child,” he said. “She is talked about among witches. So you have come to make war?”
Farder Coram smiled, and John Faa clapped his great hands together in satisfaction.
Pale green and rose-pink, and as transparent as the most fragile fabric, and at the bottom edge a profound and fiery crimson like the fires of Hell, they swung and shimmered loosely with more grace than the most skillful dancer. Lyra thought she could even hear them: a vast distant whispering swish. In the evanescent delicacy she felt something as profound as shed felt close to the bear. She was moved by it; it was so beautiful it was almost holy; she felt tears prick her eyes, and the tears splintered the light even further into prismatic rainbows. It wasnt long before she found herself entering the same kind of trance as when she consulted the alethiometer. Perhaps, she thought calmly, whatever moves the alethiometers needle is making the Aurora glow too.
Witches have always known this, but we seldom speak of it.”
“And why there?” said Farder Coram.
“Where is Farder Coram?”
She heard Farder Coram say, “And does he?”
“Is it the city in the lights?” said Lyra. “It is, ent it?”
“Indeed no.”
Lyra said, “Do the witches want him to make this bridge? Are they on his side or against him?”
Do you mean the stars?”
The goose gave Lyra another of his piercing looks. This time she could feel his cold surprise.
“On the side of anyone who pays them. They have no interest whatever in these questions; they have no daemons; they are unconcerned about human problems. At least, that is how bears used to be, but we have heard that their new king is intent on changing their old ways....At any rate, the Dust hunters have paid them to imprison Lord Asriel, and they will hold him on Svalbard until the last drop of blood drains from the body of the last bear alive.”
“Other worlds?” John Faa said. “Pardon me, sir, but what worlds would those be?
“Nor that.”
“I thought I did, child. I ent so certain of things as you are.”
She lay on her bunk thinking of that savage mighty bear, and the careless way he drank his fiery spirit, and the loneliness of him in his dirty lean-to. How different it was to be human, with ones daemon always there to talk to! In the silence of the still ship, without the continual creak of metal and timber or the rumble of the engine or the rush of water along the side, Lyra gradually fell asleep, with Pantalaimon on her pillow sleeping too.
“But he said they tricked him! They made him drunk and stole it away!”
“Is that what you call the Oblation Board?” “I dont know what this board may be. They are Dust hunters. They came to our regions ten years ago with philosophical instruments. They paid us to allow them to set up stations in our lands, and they treated us with courtesy.” “What is this Dust?”
“Ah, but you ent seen him, John,” said Farder Coram. “And I do believe Lyra. We could promise on his behalf, maybe. He might make all the difference.”
She stammered to reply:
“Because the charged particles in the Aurora have the property of making the matter of this world thin, so that we can see through it for a brief time.
“The Aurora!”
“Farder Coram! The witchs daemons come! Hes waiting on the deck! He flew here all by hisself—I seen him coming in the sky—”
“You wont be surprised,” said the goose, “to know that the alethiometer is one other reason the witches are interested in you, Lyra. Our consul told us about your visit this morning. I believe it was Dr. Lanselius who told you about the bear.”
As if from Heaven itself, great curtains of delicate light hung and trembled.
Then Farder Coram came up, wrapped in his cold-weather gear, closely followed by John Faa. Both old men bowed respectfully, and their daemons also acknowledged the visitor.
And as she gazed, the image of a city seemed to form itself behind the veils and streams of translucent color: towers and domes, honey-colored temples and colonnades, broad boulevards and sunlit parkland. Looking at it gave her a sense of vertigo, as if she were looking not up but down, and across a gulf so wide that nothing could ever pass over it. It was a whole universe away.
“My father believes in it,” Lyra said. “I know because I heard him talking and showing pictures of the Aurora.”
Farder Coram assured him that they were well wrapped up, and said, “How is Serafina Pekkala?”
“It comes from the sky. Some say it has always been there, some say it is newly falling. What is certain is that when people become aware of it, a great fear comes over them, and theyll stop at nothing to discover what it is. But it is not of any concern to witches.”
“Yes,” he said. “Witches have known of the other worlds for thousands of years.
“What about the bears?” said Lyra. “Whose side are they on?”
Thirdly, Serafina Pekkalas clan—my clan—is not yet part of any alliance, though great pressure is being put on us to declare for one side or another. You see, these are questions of high politics, and not easily answered.”
“And how are we going to do that?”
“Yes,” said the goose daemon. “They dont believe he can, because they think he is mad to believe in the other worlds in the first place. But it is true: that is his intention. And he is so powerful a figure that they feared he would upset their own plans, so they made a pact with the armored bears to capture him and keep him imprisoned in the fortress of Svalbard, out of the way. Some say they helped the new bear king to gain his throne, as part of the bargain.”
“Yes, it was,” said John Faa. “And she and Farder Coram went theirselves and talked to him. I daresay what Lyra says is true, but if we go breaking the law of these people well only get involved in a quarrel with them, and what we ought to be doing is pushing on towards this Bolvangar, bear or no bear.”
Witches and their daemons felt no cold, but they were aware that other humans did.
She was dreaming of her great imprisoned father when suddenly, for no reason at all, she woke up. She had no idea what time it was. There was a faint light in the cabin that she took for moonlight, and it showed her new cold-weather furs that lay stiffly in the corner of the cabin. No sooner did she see them than she longed to try them on again.
“Like a slave!” Lyra said hotly. “They hadnt got the right!”
“Thank you kindly, sir,” he said to the goose. “But tell us this: do you know anything more about these Dust hunters? What do they do at this Bolvangar?”
“And how are they defended?”
“But why?” Lyra said.
Farder Coram shifted uncomfortably, and said, “The fact is, Lyra, I dont think he is. We heard hes serving out a term as an indentured laborer; he ent free, as we thought he might be, hes under sentence. Till hes discharged he wont be free to come, armor or no armor; and he wont never have that back, either.”
Farder Coram introduced them both. The goose daemon looked hard at Lyra.
She looked at the newcomer with surprise. He was a tall, lean man with a thin black moustache and narrow blue eyes, and a perpetual expression of distant and sardonic amusement. She felt strongly about him at once, but she wasnt sure whether it was liking she felt, or dislike. His daemon was a shabby hare as thin and tough-looking as he was.
“Wheres Lord Faa?” she said, sitting down with Tony Costa and his friends. “And Farder Coram? Are they getting the bears armor for him?”
“If—” Lyra was passionate; she could hardly speak for indignation. “—if the alethiometer says something, I know its true. And I asked it, and it said that he was telling the truth, they did trick him, and theyre telling lies and not him. I believe him, Lord Faa! Farder Coram—you saw him too, and you believe him, dont you?”
The goose turned his stately head toward her. His eyes were black, surrounded by a thin line of pure sky-blue, and their gaze was intense.
“Not all of them will. Some clans are working with the Dust hunters.”
“Who can say?” said the goose daemon. “All I can tell you is that the Dust hunters are as frightened of it as if it were deadly poison. That is why they imprisoned Lord Asriel.”
In the Auroras light she saw a great bird, a beautiful gray goose whose head was crowned with a flash of pure white. And yet it wasnt a bird: it was a daemon, though there was no one in sight but Lyra herself. The idea filled her with sickly fear.
The old man said, “Ask him to wait on the afterdeck, child.”
When she could see it clearly, she had come fully awake and the sky city was gone.
“Perhaps the world of spirits?” said Farder Coram.
“Theyre a talking to the sysselman. Thats their word for governor. You seen this bear, then, Lyra?”
“I know where it is!”
It might even be Dust itself. She thought that without noticing that shed thought it, and she soon forgot it, and only remembered it much later.
“Is this anything to do with Dust?” said John Faa.
