Page 7 (1/2)

Chapter Seven

John Faa

Now that Lyra had a task inMrs Coulter had been all very well, but Pantalai any work there, she was just a pretty pet On the gyptian boat, there was real work to do, and Ma Costa made sure she did it She cleaned and swept, she peeled potatoes and s, she kept the weed trap clear over the propeller, she washed dishes, she opened lock gates, she tied the boat up atposts, and within a couple of days she was as yptian

What she didn’t notice was that the Costas were alert every second for unusual signs of interest in Lyra from the waterside people If she hadn’t realized it, she was important, and Mrs Coulter and the Oblation Board were bound to be searching everywhere for her Indeed, Tony heard fro raids on houses and far yards and factories without any explanation, though there was a ruirl And that in itself was odd, considering all the kids that had gonelooked for Gyptians and land folk alike were getting jumpy and nervous

And there was another reason for the Costas’ interest in Lyra; but she wasn’t to learn that for a few days yet

So they took to keeping her below decks when they passed a lockkeeper’s cottage or a canal basin, or anywhere there were likely to be idlers hanging about Once they passed through a tohere the police were searching all the boats that ca up the traffic in both directions The Costas were equal to that, though There was a secret compartment beneath Ma’s bunk, where Lyra lay craed up and down the length of the boat unsuccessfully

"Why didn’t their daeh?" she asked afterward, and Ma showed her the lining of the secret space: cedarwood, which had a soporific effect on daemons; and it was true that Pantalaimon had spent the whole time happily asleep by Lyra’s head

Sloith many halts and detours, the Costas’ boat drew nearer the fens, that wide and never fully e skies and endless led indistinguishably with the creeks and tidal inlets of the shallow sea, and the other side of the sea uishably with Holland; and parts of the fens had been drained and dyked by Hollanders, soe of the fens was thick with Dutch But parts had never been drained or planted or settled at all, and in the wildest central regions, where eels slithered and waterbirds flocked, where eerie marsh fires flick-ered and waylurkers tes, the gyptian people had always found it safe tochannels and creeks and watercourses, gyptian boats were her ground in the hundreds of squarehall there with a huddle of pers around it, and wharves and jetties and an eel - a summons or muster of families - so many boats filled the ays that you could walk for a mile in any direction over their decks; or so it was said The gyptians ruled in the fens No one else dared enter, and while the gyptians kept the peace and traded fairly, the landlopers turned a blind eye to the incessant syptian body floated ashore down the coast, or got snagged in a fishnet, well - it was only a gyptian

Lyra listened enthralled to tales of the fen dwellers, of the great ghost dog Black Shuck, of the an to think of herself as gyptian even before they reached the fens She had soon slipped back into her Oxford voice, and now she was acquiring a gyptian one, complete with Fen-Dutch words Ma Costa had to reyptian, Lyra You yptian with practice, but there’s e There’s deeps in us and strong currents We’re water people all through, and you en’t, you’re a fire person What you’re most like is yptian scheot witch oil in your soul Deceptive, that’s what you are, child" Lyra was hurt

"I en’t never deceived anyone! You ask" There was no one to ask, of course, and Ma Costa laughed, but kindly

"Can’t you see I’?" she said, and Lyra was pacified, though she didn’t understand

When they reached the byanplats it was evening, and the sun was about to set in a splash of bloody sky The low island and the Zaal were hus around; threads of smoke rose into the still air, and fro fish, of smokeleaf, of jenniver spirit

They tied up close to the Zaal itself, at a enerations Presently Ma Costa had the frying pan going, with a couple of fat eels hissing and sputtering and the kettle on for potato powder Tony and Kerim oiled their hair, put on their finest leather jackets and blue spotted neckerchiefs, loaded their fingers with silver rings, and went to greet solass or two in the nearest bar They caot here just in ti in the tohat d’you think of this? - they’re saying that theto appear tonight at the Roping!"

He laughed loudly and ruffled Lyra’s hair Ever since they’d entered the fens he had been loouise And Lyra felt an excite in her breast as she ate quickly and washed the dishes before co the alethio ashore with all the other fa their way up the slope to the Zaal

She had thought Tony was joking She soon found that he wasn’t, or else that she looked less like a gyptian than she’d thought, for many people stared, and children pointed, and by the ti alone between a crowd on either side, who had fallen back to stare and give thean to feel truly nervous She kept close to Ma Costa, and Pantalai as he could and took his panther shape to reassure her Ma Costa trudged up the steps as if nothing in the world could possibly either stop her or o more quickly, and Tony and Kerim walked proudly on either side like princes

The hall was lit by naphtha lah on the faces and bodies of the audience, but left the lofty rafters hidden in darkness The people cole to find room on the floor, where the benches were already crowded; but fa laps and dae out of the way on the rough wooden walls

At the front of the Zaal there was a platforht carved wooden chairs set out As Lyra and the Costas found space to stand along the edge of the hall, eight men appeared from the shadows at the rear of the platform and stood in front of the chairs A ripple of excitement swept over the audience as they hushed one another and shoved themselves into spaces on the nearest bench Finally there was silence and seven of the men on the platform sat down

The one who remained was in his seventies, but tall and bull necked and powerful He wore a plain canvas jacket and a checked shirt, liketo th and authority he had Lyra recognized it: Uncle Asriel had it, and so did the Master of Jordan This man’s daemon was a crow, very like the Master’s raven

"That’s John Faa, the lord of the western gyptians," Tony whispered

John Faa began to speak, in a deep slow voice "Gyptians! Welco We’ve come to listen and come to decide You all knohy There are many families here who’ve lost a child So the children too We have no quarrel with landlopers over this

"Now there’s been talk about a child and a reward Here’s the truth to stop all gossip The child’s naht by the landloper police There is a reward of one thousand sovereigns for giving her up to them She’s a landloper child, and she’s in our care, and there she’s going to stay Anyone tens had better find a place neither on land nor on water We en’t giving her up"

Lyra felt a blush from the roots of her hair to the soles of her feet; Pantalai to them, and she could only look up at Ma Costa for reassurance

But John Faa was speaking again:

"Talk all we e things Here’s another fact for you: the Gobblers, these child thieves, are a taking their prisoners to a town in the far North, way up in the land of dark I don’t knohat they do with ’em there Some folk say they kill ’em, other folk say different We don’t know

"What we do know is that they do it with the help of the landloper police and the clergy Every power on land is helping ’e on and they’ll help it whenever they can

"So what I’reehters up north to rescue the that we put our gold into this, and all the craft and courage we can muster Yes, Raymond van Gerrit?"

A man in the audience had raised his hand, and John Faa sat down to let hi pardon, Lord Faa There’s landloper kids as well as gyptians been taken captive Are you saying we should rescue them as well?"

John Faa stood up to answer

"Rayh every kind of danger to a little group of frightened children, and then say to some of them that they can come home, and to the rest that they have to stay? No, you’re a better man than that Well, do I have your approval, ht them by surprise, for there was a moment’s hesitation; but then a full-throated roar filled the hall, and hands were clapped in the air, fists shaken, voices raised in excited clamor The rafters of the Zaal shook, and fro birds woke up in fear and flapped their wings, and little showers of dust drifted down

John Faa let the noise continue for a ain

"This’ll take a while to organize I want the heads of the faain here in three days’ ti to talk with the child I mentioned before, and with Farder Coraht to ye all"

His h to calreat doors into the chilly evening, to go to their boats or to the crowded bars of the little settlement, Lyra said to Ma Costa:

"Who are the other men on the platform?"

"The heads of the six families, and the other man is Farder Coram"

It was easy to see who she meant by the other man, because he was the oldest one there He walked with a stick, and all the ti behind John Faa he’d been treue

"Come on," said Tony "I’d best take you up to pay your respects to John Faa You call him Lord Faa I don’t knohat you’ll be asked, but mind you tell the truth"

Pantalaimon was a sparro, and sat curiously on Lyra’s shoulder, his claws deep in the wolfskin coat, as she followed Tony through the crowd up to the platfor that everyone still in the hall was staring at her, and conscious of those thousand sovereigns she was suddenly worth, she blushed and hesitated Pantalai up in her ar softly as he looked around

Lyra felt a push, and stepped forward to John Faa He was stern and massive and expressionless, more like a pillar of rock than a man, but he stooped and held out his hand to shake When she put hers in, it nearly vanished

"Welcome, Lyra," he said

Close to, she felt his voice ru like the earth itself She would have been nervous but for Pantalaimon, and the fact that John Faa’s stony expression had warently

"Thank you, Lord Faa," she said

"Now you come in the parley room and we’ll have a talk," said John Faa "Have they been feeding you proper, the Costas?"

"Oh, yes We had eels for supper"

"Proper fen eels, I expect"

The parley roo fire, sideboards laden with silver and porcelain, and a heavy table darkly polished by the years, at which twelve chairs were drawn up

The otherman was still with them John Faa helped him to a seat at the table

"Now, you sit here on ht," John Faa said to Lyra, and took the chair at the head of the table himself Lyra found herself opposite Farder Corahtened by his skull-like face and his continual tre His daemon was a beautiful autu the table with upraised tail and elegantly inspected Pantalai on Farder Cora softly

A woman whom Lyra hadn’t noticed calasses, set it down by John Faa, curtsied, and left John Faa poured little glasses of jenniver from a stone crock for himself and Farder Coram, and wine for Lyra

"So," John Faa said "You run away, Lyra"

"Yes"

"And as the lady you run away froht she was nice, but I found out she was one of the Gobblers I heard someone say what the Gobblers were, they were called the General Oblation Board, and she was in charge of it, it was all her idea And they was all working on so to et kids for ’em But they never knew"

"They never knehat?"

"Well, first they never knew that I knew soer the kitchen boy froirl out the covered ht, Lord Asriel 1 heard the about his journeys to the North, and I don’t reckon he’s got anything to do with the Gobblers Because I spied on the Master and the Scholars of Jordan, right, I hid in the Retiring Rooo except them, and I heard him tell them all about his expedition up north, and the Dust he saw, and he brought back the head of Stanislaus Grumman, what the Tartars had ot hi him And I want to rescue him"

She looked fierce and stubborn as she sat there, sh carved back of the chair The two old , but whereas Farder Coram’s smile was a hesitant, rich, coht chasing shadows on a windy March day, John Faa’s smile was sloarm, plain, and kindly

"You better tell us what you did hear your uncle say that evening," said John Faa "Don’t leave anything out, "

Lyra did, more slowly than she’d told the Costas but more honestly, too She was afraid of John Faa, and what she was most afraid of was his kindness When she’d finished, Farder Coram spoke for the first time His voice was rich and musical, with as many tones in it as there were colors in his daemon’s fur

"This Dust," he said "Did they ever call it anything else, Lyra?"

"No Just Dust Mrs Coulter told me what it was, elementary particles, but that’s all she called it"

"And they think that by doing so to children, they can find out more about it?"

"Yes But I don’t knohat Except ot to tell you When he was showing them lantern slides, there was another one he had It was the Roarer - "

"The what?" said John Faa

"The Aurora," said Farder Coraht, Lyra?"

"Yeah, that’s it And in the lights of the Roarer there was like a city All towers and churches and domes and that It was a bit like Oxford, that’s what I thought, anyway And Uncle Asriel, he was more interested in that, I think, but the Master and the other Scholars were more interested in Dust, like Mrs Coulter and Lord Boreal and them"

"I see," said Farder Cora"