The little ghost nodded. And so, in a shocked silence, the column of the dead began their journey along the edge of the abyss. How long it took, neither Lyra nor Will could guess; how fearful and dangerous it was, they were never able to forget. The darkness below was so profound that it seemed to pull the eyesight down into it, and a ghastly dizziness swam over their minds when they looked. Whenever they could, they looked ahead of them fixedly, on this rock, that foothold, this projection, that loose slope of gravel, and kept their eyes from the gulf; but it pulled, it tempted, and they couldnt help glancing into it, only to feel their balance tilting and their eyesight swimming and a dreadful nausea gripping their throats.
While they were talking together, another conversation had been taking place a little way off: the Chevalier Tialys was talking quietly with the ghosts of Lee Scoresby and John Parry.
"Yes, and so am I," said Wills father. "But I believe that if those of us who are used to fighting could manage to hold ourselves back, we might be able to throw ourselves into the battle on Asriels side. And if it came at the right moment, it might make all the difference."
The two children, sheltering the Gallivespians, crouched down with their arms over their heads; and then in a horrible sliding movement they found themselves being borne away down to the left, and they held each other fiercely, too breathless and shaken even to cry out. Their ears were filled with the roar of thousands of tons of rock tumbling and rolling down with them.
"Will, my boy, you and Lyra can go out now for a brief rest; you need that, and you deserve it; but then you must come back into the dark with me and Mr. Scoresby for one last journey."
"Cut the short hair off right down to her scalp. Collect it carefully, every single hair. Dont miss even one. Then open another world, any will do, and put the hair through into it, and then close it again. Do it now, at once."
They moved on. And that abominable fall yawned all the time, and one little slip, one footstep on a
The harpy was watching, the ghosts behind were crowding close. Lyra could see their faint faces in the dimness. Frightened and bewildered, she stood biting her lip while Will did as his father told him, his face close up to the knifepoint in the paling dragonfly light. He cut a little hollow space in the rock of another world, put all the tiny golden hairs into it, and replaced the rock before closing the window.
"You found an open space?"
"So what are you saying, John?" said Lee. "Youre saying we ought not to go out into the open air? Man, every single part of me is aching to join the rest of the living universe again!"
"Hush," said Will, and asked his fathers ghost, "What must I do?”
The other ghosts followed Roger, and Will and Lyra fell exhausted on the dew-laden grass, every nerve in their bodies blessing the sweetness of the good soil, the night air, the stars.
But the little boys whispering voice said, "Lyra, be careful, remember, you ent dead like us...”
Finally their movement stopped, though all around them smaller rocks were still tumbling and
And she turned in delight.
Lyra watched with aching eyes as Will took the knife and began to search the air, touching, withdrawing, searching, touching again.
loose rock, one careless handhold, would send you down forever and ever, thought Lyra, so far down youd die of starvation before you ever hit the bottom, and then your poor ghost would go on falling and falling into an infinite gulf, with no one to help, no hands to reach down and lift you out, forever conscious and forever falling...
Will felt electric with fear. He watched in anguish as Lyra slid farther and farther, knowing he could do nothing, and knowing he had to watch. He couldnt hear the desperate wail he was uttering any more than she could. Another two seconds, another second, she was at the edge, she couldnt stop, she was there, she was falling...
"Me too, honey. But listen to me, theyre working some trouble out there, and its aimed at you, dont ask me how. Is this the boy with the knife?"
And in the faint gleam, he could see it: just above her left temple, there was a little patch of hair that was shorter than the rest.
"Well, Im with you, my friend."
The dust was clearing, and from somewhere there was light: a strange faint golden glimmer, like a luminous misty rain falling all around them. It was enough to strike their hearts ablaze with fear, for it lit up what lay to their left, the place into which it was all falling, or flowing, like a river over theedge of a waterfall.
In the faint, faint light she made out the lean form and the sardonic smile of the Texan aeronaut, and her hand reached forward of its own accord, in vain.
"But Mr. Parry," said Lyra, "how do you know our daemons have gone into my fathers world?"
The first ghosts trembled with hope, and their excitement passed back like a ripple over the long line behind them, young children and aged parents alike looking up and ahead with delight and wonder as the first stars they had seen for centuries shone through into their poor starved eyes.
They clambered on, up and farther up, with every step moving farther from the abyss. And as they climbed, they found the ground firmer, the handholds more secure, the footholds less liable to roll and twist their ankles.
Will was speechless, but his father said:
"And you, sir," said John Parrys ghost to the Chevalier: "I have spoken to the ghosts of your people. Will you live long enough to see the world again, before you die and come back as a ghost?"
"We must have climbed a fair way now," Will said. "I could try the knife and see what I find."
It was true: the slope was getting easier, and it was even possible to climb slightly, up and away from the edge. And ahead: wasnt that a fold in the wall of the cliff? Could that really be a way out?
Will wanted to turn and denounce them, but Lyra held his arm; they were unhappy and frightened, she said.
"Will," said his fathers ghost, "stop a moment. Listen to me."
They carried on quietly, hand, foot, weight, move, test, hand, foot...Their fingers were raw, their knees and hips were trembling with the effort, their heads ached and rang with exhaustion. They climbed the last few feet up to the foot of the cliff, where a narrow defile led a little way into the shadow.
"Bomb?" said Lyra, frightened; but then she said, "Roger, are you there?"
the wide savanna.
Her body convulsed with terror. She wasnt aware of the ghosts who flung themselves down to try and catch her, only to find her hurtling through them like a stone through mist; she didnt know that Will was yelling her name so loudly that the abyss resounded with it. Instead, her whole being was a vortex of roaring fear. Faster and faster she tumbled, down and down, and some ghosts couldnt bear to watch; they hid their eyes and cried aloud.
He held her tight, pressing her to his chest, feeling the wild beat of her heart against his ribs. She wasnt Lyra just then, and he wasnt Will; she wasnt a girl, and he wasnt a boy. They were the only two human beings in that vast gulf of death. They clung together, and the ghosts clustered around, whispering comfort, blessing the harpy. Closest at hand were Wills father and Lee Scoresby, and how they longed to hold her, too; and Tialys and Salmakia spoke to No-Name, praising her, calling her the savior of them all, generous one, blessing her kindness.
bounding down a slope that hadnt been there a minute before. Lyra was lying on Wills left arm. With his right hand he felt for the knife; it was still there at his belt.
"Ghosts?" said Tialys, trying to hold the skepticism from his voice, and failing. "How could you fight?"
The night air filled their lungs, fresh and clean and cool; their eyes took in a canopy of dazzling stars, and the shine of water somewhere below, and here and there groves of great trees, as high as castles, dotting
It was a vast black emptiness, like a shaft into the deepest darkness. The golden light flowed into it and died. They could see the other side, but it was much farther away than Will could have thrown a stone. To their right, a slope of rough stones, loose and precariously balanced, rose high into the dusty gloom.
Will and Lyra exchanged a look. Then he cut a window, and it was the sweetest thing they had ever seen.
"You did a wrong thing when you came to our land! You should have stayed in your own world and waited to die before you came down to disturb us!"
"No," said Will, "take your hand away, I cant see."
"I was a shaman when I was alive. I learned how to see things. Ask your alethiometer, itll confirm what I say. But remember this about daemons," he said, and his voice was intense and emphatic. "The man you knew as Sir Charles Latrom had to return to his own world periodically; he could not live permanently in mine. The philosophers of the Guild of the Torre degli Angeli, who traveled between worlds for three hundred years or more, found the same thing to he true, and gradually their world weakened and decayed as a result.
"No, because I couldnt, some of them. But I know I should. Things go wrong if theyre left open. And one that big..." He gestured downward, not wanting to look. "Its wrong. Something bad will happen."
hearts and their entrails, and they heard vicious whispers:
Lyra felt herself strengthened by hearing this, and that was really the Ladys intention. And so they toiled on, with painful effort.
Lyra looked into Wills brilliant, strong eyes and smiled.
"Yeah," came the little whisper. "Mr. Parry, he saved me. I was going to fall, and he caught hold."
No-Name the harpy had led them into a system of caves that would bring them, she said, to the nearest point in the world of the dead from which they could open a window to another world. Behind them came the endless column of ghosts. The tunnel was full of whispers, as the foremost encouraged those behind, as the brave urged on the fainthearted, as the old gave hope to the young.
"We should never have come, at least back in the world of the dead we had a little light and a little company, this is far worse!"
"By what right are you leading us? You are only children! Who gave you the authority?"
The harpy turned back and moved on. The dragonfly shine was getting dimmer by the minute, and Lyra knew it would soon be completely gone.
"Its true, our lives are short compared to yours. I have a few days more to live," said Tialys, "and the Lady Salmakia a little longer, perhaps. But thanks to what those children are doing, our exile as ghosts will not be permanent. I have been proud to help them."
"Mr. Scoresby! Oh, Im so glad to hear you! And it is you, I can see, just, oh, I wish I could touch you!"
They lay still for some minutes. Once the terror had begun to subside, they set off again, Will holding Lyras hand tightly in his good one. They crept forward, testing each spot before they put any weight on it, a process so slow and wearisome that they thought they might die of fatigue; but they couldnt rest, they couldnt stop. How could anyone rest, with that fearful gulf below them?
It was dark, with an enfolding blackness that pressed on Lyras eyes so heavily that she almost felt the weight of the thousands of tons of rock above them. The only light they had came from the luminous tail of the Lady Salmakias dragonfly, and even that was fading; for the poor insects had found no food in the world of the dead, and the Chevaliers had died not long before.
Lyra checked: at least the alethiometer was safe. Suppressing her fear, she looked around, found Rogers little face, and said:
As soon as Lyra could move, she reached out trembling for the harpy and put her arms around her neck, kissing and kissing her ravaged face. She couldnt speak. All the words, all the confidence, all the vanity had been shaken out of her.
But some didnt trust them. They crowded close behind, and both children felt cold hands on their
"Yes, I can," said Will. "But I cant feel it at all. And I tell you something about that hole down there. Its the same kind of thing as when I cut a window. The same kind of edge. Theres something special about that kind of edge; once youve felt it you never forget it. And I can see it there, just where the rock falls away into the dark. But that big space down there, thats not another world like all the others. Its different. I dont like it. I wish I could close it up."
"Just follow. If you cant see, listen. If you cant hear, feel."
"Tialys? Salmakia?" said Will shakily.
"Is it much farther, No-Name?" said Lyra quietly. "Because this poor dragonflys dying, and then his lightll go out."
"Where is the upper world? How much farther?"
"Come on, then, were all still here, we ent been hurt. And we can see now, at least. So just keep going, just keep on moving. We cant go any other way than round the edge of this..." She gestured at the abyss. "So we just got to keep going ahead. I swear Will and mell just keep on till we do. So dont be scared, dont give up, dont lag behind. Tell the others. I cant look back all the time because I got to watch where Im going, so I got to trust you to come on steady after us, all right?"
The first ghost to leave the world of the dead was Roger. He took a step forward, and turned to look back at Lyra, and laughed in surprise as he found himself turning into the night, the starlight, the air... and then he was gone, leaving behind such a vivid little burst of happiness that Will was reminded of the bubbles in a glass of champagne.
"Friends, be brave! Stay together and keep going! The way is hard, but Lyra can find it. Be patient and cheerful and well lead you out, dont fear!"
"Look," said the ghost of John Parry. "But hold still to the rock, and dont move."
"What will happen when you go outside?" Will said. "Will you just vanish?"
The harpy stopped and turned to say:
Then the Lady Salmakia spoke, and her clear, calm voice carried a long way in the great emptiness.
"Were frightened here!"
"Lyra, Lyra, child..."
"I think so..."
"Not yet," said the harpy. "Farther to go yet. This is a bad place to open. Better place higher up."
A strange thing happened to her mind then. The thought of falling induced a kind of vertigo in Lyra, and she swayed. Will was ahead of her, just too far to reach, or she might have taken his hand; but at that moment she was more conscious of Roger, and a little flicker of vanity blazed up for a moment in her heart. Thered been an occasion once on Jordan College roof when just to frighten him, shed defied her vertigo and walked along the edge of the stone gutter.
"Not yet. Mr. Scoresby and I have an idea. Some of us will remain here for a little while, and we shall need you to let us into Lord Asriels world, because he might need our help. Whats more," he went on somberly, looking at Lyra, "youll need to travel there yourselves, if you want to find your daemons again. Because thats where theyve gone."
The air was full of dust, and of the cordite smell of smashed rock. It was hard to breathe, and impossible to see: the dragonfly was dead.
And then the ground began to shake. From somewhere very deep came a growling, grinding noise, as if the whole center of the earth were turning on itself like a vast millwheel, and little fragments of stone began to fall from the roof of the tunnel. The ground lurched suddenly to one side. Will seized Lyras arm, and they clung together as the rock under their feet began to shift and slide, and loose pieces of stone came tumbling past, bruising their legs and feet...
"Im here," said Lee, close by. "I guess the bomb went off, and I guess it missed."
"Look ahead. I think theres a way out..."
"Ah," he said.
Oh, that would be far worse than the gray, silent world they were leaving, wouldnt it?
So while Tialys sat on Wills shoulder, Lyra held the Ladys dragonfly in her hands as the Lady soothed it and whispered to the trembling creature, feeding it first on crumbs of biscuit and then on her own blood. If Lyra had seen her do that, she would have offered hers, since there was more of it; but it was all she could do to concentrate on placing her feet safely and avoiding the lowest parts of the rock above.
She looked back to remind him of it now. She was Rogers Lyra, full of grace and daring; she didnt need to creep along like an insect.
And out of the dark swooped that creature whose claws had raked her scalp not long before, No-Name the harpy, woman-faced, bird-winged, and those same claws closed tight around the girls wrist. Together they plunged on down, the extra weight almost too much for the harpys strong wings, but they beat and beat and beat, and her claws held firm, and slowly, heavily, slowly, heavily, the harpy carried the child up and up out of the gulf and brought her limp and fainting to Wills reaching arms.
And it seemed to happen so slowly, but there was nothing she could do: her weight shifted, the stones moved under her feet, and helplessly she began to slide. In the first moment it was annoying, and then it was comic: How silly! she thought. But as she utterly failed to hold on to anything, as the stones rolled and tumbled beneath her, as she slid down toward the edge, gathering speed, the horror of it slammed into her. She was going to fall. There was nothing to stop her. It was already too late.
"Mr. Scoresby?" said Lyra. "We cant see anything... What happened?"
"Both here, both alive," said the Chevaliers voice near his ear.
And behind them, as the dust cleared, more and more of the ghosts were gazing in horror at the abyss. They were crouching on the slope, too frightened to move. Only the harpies were unafraid; they took to their wings and soared above, scanning backward and forward, flying back to reassure those still in the tunnel, flying ahead to search for the way out.
"You havent closed every window youve made."
And after another hour of toil, he said to her:
Will put down the knife and turned. In all the effort he hadnt been able to think of his father, but it was good to know he was there. Suddenly he realized that they were going to part for the last time.
"Listen, theres no time to talk about this, just do exactly as I say. Take the knife now and find a place where a lock has been cut from Lyras hair."
But as she stumbled forward, a voice spoke just beside her, a familiar voice.
"Those Specters," said Lee.
"Who did that?" said Lyra. "And...”
Will had been looking at him, eager to see this old companion of Lyras; but now his eyes went right past Lee to look at the ghost beside him. Lyra saw at once who it was, and marveled at this grown-up vision of Will, the same jutting jaw, the same way of holding his head.
"And then there is what happened to me. I was a soldier; I was an officer in the Marines, and then I earned my living as an explorer; I was as fit and healthy as its possible for a human to be. Then I walked out of my own world by accident, and couldnt find the way back. I did many things and learned a great deal in the world I found myself in, but ten years after I arrived there, I was mortally sick.
Will enlarged the window as wide as he could, moving across the grass to left and right, making it big enough for six, seven, eight to walk through abreast, out of the land of the dead.
"And this is the reason for all those things: your daemon can only live its full life in the world it was born in. Elsewhere it will eventually sicken and die. We can travel, if there are openings into other worlds, but we can only live in our own. Lord Asriels great enterprise will fail in the end for the same reason: we have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.
"Just what I was thinking. They make for the daemon, dont they? And our daemons are long gone. Its worth a try, Lee."
His tone was urgent, and Will didnt waste time asking why. Lyra, her eyes wide with alarm, held up the dragonfly with one hand and felt herhair with the other.
"Will," said Lyra after some minutes, "can you hear that wind?"
From time to time the living ones looked back and saw the infinite line of the dead winding out of the crack theyd come through: mothers pressing their infants faces to their breasts, aged fathers clambering slowly, little children clutching the skirts of the person in front, young boys and girls of Rogers age keeping staunch and careful, so many of them... And all following Will and Lyra, so they still hoped, toward the open air.
Her eyes shone fierce in the gloom. Lyra nodded and said, "Yes, I will, but Im not as strong as I used to be, and Im not brave, not very anyway. Please dont stop. Ill follow you, we all will. Please keep going, No-Name."
"We couldnt hurt living creatures, thats quite true. But Asriels army is going to contend with other kinds of being as well."
The children and their companions were clinging to what was not even a ledge, just some lucky hand- and footholds, on the edge of that abyss, and there was no way out except forward, along the slope, among the shattered rocks and the teetering boulders, which, it seemed, the slightest touch would send hurtling down below.
