But her mind was on JohnFaa and the parley room, and before long she slipped away up the cobbles again to the Zaal. There was a light in the parley room window. It was too high to look through, but she could hear a low rumble of voices inside.
“Nicholas Rokeby, Im a putting you in charge of finding a vessel, and commanding her once we sail. Adam Stefanski, I want you to take charge of the arms and munitions, and command the fighting. Roger van Poppel, you look to all the other stores, from food to cold-weather clothing. Simon Hartmann, you be treasurer, and account to us all for a proper apportionment of our gold.
The man stood obstinately frowning, but said nothing.
And the time will come under judgment. Not under passion.
We all heard rumors and stories of fearful things. We hear about children with no heads, or about children cut in half and sewn together, or about things too awful to mention. Im truly sorry to distress anyone, but we all heard this kind of thing, and I want to get it out in the open. Now in case you find anything of that awful kind, Lord Faa, I hope youre a going to take powerful revenge. I hope you ent going to let thoughts of mercy and gentleness hold your hand back from striking and striking hard, and delivering a mighty blow to the heart of that infernal wickedness. And Im sure I speak for any mother as has lost a child to the Gobblers.”
“We will go,” she said to Pantalaimon. “Let em try to stop us. We will!”
But Raymond van Gerrit had sunk to his seat, and nothing would make him stand. A low hiss of disapproval sounded through the great hall, and Lyra felt the shame he must be feeling, as well as a deep glow of pride in her brave father.
Another woman stood up.
“Lord Faa, I heard you say that Lord Asriel is in captivity. Is it part of your plan to rescue him? Because if it is, and if hes in the power of them bears as I think you said, thats going to need more than a hundred and seventy men. And good friend as Lord Asriel is to us, I dont know as theres any call on us to go as far as that.”
If we rescue the kids but we cant punish the Gobblers, weve done the main task. But if we aim to punish the Gobblers first and by doing so lose the chance of rescuing the kids, weve failed.
He shook his head.
Lyra looked up at John Faas massive frame. Her heart was thumping so much she could hardly hear the first words of his reply.
She sat down and a man stood up.
“Tell you what,” said Tony, “Ill bring you back a walrus tooth, thats what Ill do.”
“And now that same Lord Asriel is held in the farthest coldest darkest regions of the wild, captive, in the fortress of Svalbard. Do I need to tell you the kind of creatures a guarding him there? And this is his little daughter in our care, and Raymond van Gerrit would hand her over to the authorities for a bit of peace and quiet. Is that right, Raymond? Stand up and answer, man.”
So she walked up to the door and knocked on it firmly five times. The voices stopped, a chair scraped across the floor, and the door opened, spilling warm naphtha light out on the damp step.
“Well, I hadnt thought of that,” John Faa admitted. “Well consider that most carefully when we retire into the parley room, you have my promise.”
“But I ent done nothing yet!” Lyra protested, as she followed the others reluctantly out of the hall and down the cobbled road toward the jetty. “All I done was run away from Mrs. Coulter! Thats just a beginning. I want to go north!”
“Nothing will hold my hand, Margaret, save only judgment. If I stay my hand in the North, it will only be to strike the harder in the South. To strike a day too soon is as bad as striking a hundred miles off. To be sure, theres a warm passion behind what you say. But if you give in to that passion, friends, youre a doing what I always warned you agin: youre a placing the satisfaction of your own feelings above the work you have to do. Our work here is first rescue, then punishment. It ent gratification for upset feelings. Our feelings dont matter.
After a moment a woman stood up.
“Well, perhaps you would, and perhaps you wouldnt,” John Faa continued. “But if any man or woman needs a reason for doing good, ponder on this. That little girl is the daughter of Lord Asriel, no less. For them as has forgotten, it were Lord Asriel who interceded with the Turk for the life of Sam Broekman. It were Lord Asriel who allowed gyptian boats free passage on the canals through his property. It were Lord Asriel who defeated the Watercourse Bill in Parliament, to our great and lasting benefit. And it were Lord Asriel who fought day and night in the floods of 53, and plunged headlong in the water twice to pull out young Ruud and Nellie Koopman. You forgotten that? Shame, shame on you, shame.
Lyra scowled. For his part, Pantalaimon occupied himself by making monkey faces at Tonys daemon, who closed her tawny eyes in disdain. Lyra drifted to the jetty and hung about with her new companions, dangling lanterns on strings over the black water to attract the goggle-eyed fishes who swam slowly up to be lunged at with sharp sticks and missed.
“I want to come north,” Lyra said so they could all hear it. “I want to come and help rescue the kids. Thats what I set out to do when I run away from Mrs.
But no one did, and presently John Faa reached for the closing bell and rang it hard and loud, swinging it high and shaking the peals out of it so that they filled the hall and rang the rafters.
“Lord Faa, ent you a taking any women on this expedition to look after them kids once you found em?”
She was inside the room now, and all the men and their daemons were watching her, some with amusement and some with irritation, but she had eyes only for John Faa. Pantalaimon sat up in her arms, his wildcat eyes blazing green.
“Is there anyone else who wants to speak? Speak if you will.”
“But be assured of this, Margaret. When the time comes to punish, we shall strike such a blow asll make their hearts faint and fearful. We shall strike the strength out of em. We shall leave them ruined and wasted, broken and shattered, torn in a thousand pieces and scattered to the four winds. Dont you worry that John Faas heart is too soft to strike a blow when the time comes.
“But supposing you find out that you cant rescue em without some women in disguise as guards or nurses or whatever?”
John Faa turned away, and looked at the other men on the platform.
Coulter. And before that, even, I meant to rescue my friend Roger the kitchen boy from Jordan who was took. I want to come and help. I can do navigation and I can take anbaromagnetic readings off the Aurora, and I know what parts of a bear you can eat, and all kind of useful things. Youd be sorry if you got up there and then found you needed me and found youd left me behind. And like that woman said, you might need women to play a part—well, you might need kids too. You dont know. So you oughter take me, Lord Faa, excuse me for interrupting your talk.”
John Faa and the other men left the platform for the parley room. Lyra was a little disappointed. Didnt they want her there too? But Tony laughed.
“Yes?” said the man whod opened it.
John Faa said, “Lyra, there ent no question of taking you into danger, so dont delude yourself, child. Stay here and help Ma Costa and keep safe. Thats what you got to do.”
“Adriaan Braks, youre not wrong. What I had it in my mind to do was to keep our eyes and ears open and see what knowledge we can glean while were in the North.
Pantalaimon hissed quietly, but John Faas daemon took off from the back of his chair and flew at them with black wings, not threateningly, but like a reminder of good manners; and Lyra turned on her heel as the crow glided over her head and wheeled back to John Faa. The door shut behind her with a decisive click.
There was a loud murmur of agreement as she sat down. Heads were nodding all over the Zaal.
“They got plans to make,” he said. “You done your part, Lyra. Now its for John Faa and the council.”
Beyond him Lyra could see the other men around the table, with bags of gold stacked neatly, and papers and pens, and glasses and a crock of jenniver.
“Lord Faa, we dont know what them Gobblers mightve been doing to our children.
“No,” he said. “I know your heart was set on going north, but its my belief not even Mrs. Coulter was going to take you. If you want to see the North, youll have to wait till all this troubles over. Now off you go.”
John Faa waited for silence, and said:
“Now Ive made my dispositions according to custom, and if any man or woman seeks to disagree, they may do so freely.”
“No, Nell. We shall have little space as it is. Any kids we free will be better off in our care than where theyve been.”
“Now spell it out, Raymond, dont be shy,” he said. “You want us to give this child up to them shes a fleeing from, is that right?”
“But Im learning how to read the alethiometer, too. Its coming clearer every day! Youre bound to need that—bound to!”
Benjamin de Ruyter, I want you to take charge of spying. Theres a great deal we ought to find out, and Im a giving you the charge of that, and youll report to Farder Coram. Michael Canzona, youre going to be responsible for coordinating the first four leaders work, and youll report to me, and if I die, youre my second in command and youll take over.
It may be that we can do something to help him, and it may not, but you can trust me not to use what youve provided, man and gold, for any purpose outside the stated one of finding our children and bringing em home.”
