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Lyra and the Birds

LYRA didn't often climb out of her bedroomthese days She had a better way onto the roof of Jordan College: the Porter had given her a key that let her onto the roof of the Lodge Tower He'd let her have it because he was too old to climb the steps and check the stonework and the lead, as was his duty four times a year; so she made a full report to hie she was able to get out onto the roof whenever she wanted

When she lay down on the lead, she was invisible from everywhere except the sky A little parapet ran all the way around the square roof, and Pantalaimon often draped his pine- south, and dozed while Lyra sat beloith her back against the sun-drenched stone, studying the books she'd brought up with her Sometimes they'd stop and watch the storks that nested on St Michael's Tower, just across Turl Street Lyra had a plan to teed several planks of wood up to the roof and laboriously nailed theether to make a platform, just as they'd done at St Michael's; but it hadn't worked The storks were loyal to St Michael's, and that was that

"They wouldn't stay for long if we kept on co here, anyway," said Pantalaimon

"We could tame them I bet we could What do they eat?"

"Fish," he guessed "Frogs"

He was lying on top of the stone parapet, lazily grooold fur Lyra stood up to lean on the stone beside hiazed out toward the southeast, where a dusty dark-green line of trees rose above the spires and rooftops in the early evening air

She aiting for the starlings That year an extraordinary number of the they would rise out of the trees like sh the skies above the city in their thousands

"Millions," Pan said

"Maybe, easily I don't knoho could ever count them There they are!"

They didn't seeainst the blue; it was the flock itself that was the individual It was like a single piece of cloth, cut in a very coh itself and double over and stretch and fold in three di itself inside out and elegantly waving and crossing through and falling and rising and falling again

"If it was saying so ," said Lyra

"Like signaling"

"No one would know, though No one could ever understand what it meant"

"Maybe itIt just is"

"Everything ," Lyra said severely "We just have to find out how to read it"

Pantalaiap in the parapet to the stone i

n the corner, and stood on his hind legs, balancing with his tail and gazingflock over the far side of the city

"What does that mean, then?" he said

She knew exactly what he was referring to She atching it too Solike, ceaseless s, as if that et rid of a knot

"They're attacking so her eyes

And cory er was darting to right and left, now speeding upward, now dropping almost to the rooftops, and when it was no closer than the spire of the University Church, and before they could even see what kind of bird it was, Lyra and Pan found theh it was bird-shaped; it was a daemon A witch's daemon

"Has anyone else seen it? Is anyone looking?" said Lyra

Pan's black eyes swept every rooftop, everyin sight, while Lyra leaned out and looked up and down the street on one side and then darted to the other three sides to look into Jordan's front quadrangle and along the roof as well The citizens of Oxford were going about their daily business, and a noise of birds in the sky wasn't interesting enough to disturb thenizable as what he was, and to see one without his human would have caused a sensation, if not an outcry of fear and horror

"Oh, this way, this way!" Lyra said urgently, unwilling to shout, but ju to attract the dae across the gaps and spinning around to leap back again

The birds were closer now, and Lyra could see the daemon clearly: a dark bird about the size of a thrush, but with long arched wings and a forked tail Whatever he'd done to anger the starlings, they were possessed by fear and rage, swooping, stabbing, tearing, trying to batter him out of the air

"This way! Here, here!" Pan cried, and Lyra flung open the trapdoor to give the daemon a way of escape

The noise, now that the starlings were nearly overhead, was deafening, and Lyra thought that people belowup to see this war in the sky And there were so many birds, as thick as flakes in a blizzard of black snow, that Lyra, her ar them

But Pan had him As the daemon-bird dived loard the tower, Pan stood up on his hind legs, and then leapt up to gather the daemon in his paws and roll with hih cluht and then tu the trapdoor shut behind her

She crouched on the steps just beneath it, listening to the shrieks and screaency With their provocation out of sight, the starlings soon forgot that they were provoked

"What nohispered Pan, just below her

These wooden steps led up fro, and were closed by a door at the botto led to the roo Dr Polstead, as one of the few Scholars capable of cli young, he had all his faculties in working order, and Lyra was sure hethe trapdoor shut

She put her finger to her lips Pantalai up in the near-dark, saw and turned his head to listen There was a faint patch of a lighter color on the step next to him, and as Lyra's eyes adjusted she made out the shape of the daemon and the V-shaped patch of white feathers on his rump

Silence Lyra whispered down:

"Sir, we --if that would be all right--I could carry you to our room"

"Yes," ca whisper from below

Lyra pressed her ear to the trapdoor, and, hearing no more tumult, opened it carefully and then darted out to retrieve her bag and the books she'd been studying The starlings had left evidence of their last meals on the covers of both books, and Lyrait to the Librarian of St Sophia's She picked the books up gingerly and took theh the trapdoor, to hear Pan whispering, "Shhh "

Voices beyond the lower door: twoDr Polstead's rooun, and he wouldn't be holding tutorials yet

Lyra held open her bag The strange daemon hesitated He was a witch's daemon, and he was used to the wide Arctic skies The narrow canvas darkness was frightening to him

"Sir, it will only be for five minutes," she whispered "We can't let anyone else see you"

"You are Lyra Silvertongue?"

"Yes, I am"

"Very well," he said, and delicately stepped into the bag that Lyra held open for him

She picked it up carefully, waiting for the visitors' voices to recede down the stairs When they'd gone, she stepped over Pan and opened the door quietly Pan flowed through like dark water, and Lyra set the bag gently over her shoulder and followed, shutting the door behind her

"Lyra? What's going on?"

The voice from the doorway behind her made her heart leap Pan, a step ahead, hissed quietly

"Dr Polstead," she said, turning "Did you hear the birds?"

"Was that what it was? I heard a lot of banging," he said