Page 8 (1/2)

Chapter Eight

Frustration

Lyra had to adjust to her new sense of her own story, and that couldn’t be done in a day To see Lord Asriel as her father was one thing, but to accept Mrs Coulter as her o she would have rejoiced, of course, and she knew that too, and felt confused

But, being Lyra, she didn’t fret about it for long, for there was the fen town to explore and yptian children to amaze Before the three days were up she was an expert with a punt (in her eyes, at least) and she’d gathered a gang of urchins about her with tales of her hty father, so unjustlythe Turkish Auest at Jordan for dinner And he was under orders froht, and he had a ring on his finger with a hollow stone full of poison And when the wine colass, and he sprinkled the poison in It was done so quick that no one else saw him, but - "

"What sort of poison?" deirl

"Poison out of a special Turkish serpent," Lyra invented, "what they catch by playing a pipe to lure out and then they throw it a sponge soaked in honey and the serpent bites it and can’t get his fangs free, and they catch it and milk the venom out of it Anyway, my father seen what the Turk done, and he says, Gentlemen, I want to propose a toast of friendship between Jordan College and the College of Ized to And to show our willingness to be friends, he says, we’ll swap glasses and drink each other’s wine

"And the Ambassador was in a fix then, ’cause he couldn’t refuse to drink without giving deadly insult, and he couldn’t drink it because he kneas poisoned He went pale and he fainted right away at the table And when he co at him And then he had to either drink the poison or own up"

"So what did he do?"

"He drunk it It took him five whole minutes to die, and he was in torment all the time"

"Did you see it happen?"

"No, ’cause girls en’t allowed at the High Table But I seen his body afterwards when they laid him out His skin was all withered like an old apple, and his eyes were starting from his head In fact, they had to push ’em back in the sockets"

And so on

Meanwhile, around the edges of the fen country, the police were knocking at doors, searching attics and outhouses, inspecting papers and interrogating everyone who claiirl; and in Oxford the search was even fiercer Jordan College was scoured from the dustiest boxroom to the darkest cellar, and so were Gabriel and St Michael’s, till the heads of all the colleges issued a joint protest asserting their ancient rights The only notion Lyra had of the search for her was the incessant drone of the gas engines of airships crisscrossing the skies They weren’t visible, because the clouds were low and by statute airships had to keep a certain height above fen country, but who knehat cunning spy devices they ht carry? Best to keep under cover when she heard theht distinctive hair

And she questioned Ma Costa about every detail of the story of her birth She wove the details into a mental tapestry even clearer and sharper than the stories she ht froe, the conceale, the clash of swords -

"Swords? Great God, girl, you dreaun, and Lord Asriel knocked it out his hand and struck him doith one blow Then there o shots I wonder you don’t reht to, little as you were The first shot was Edward Coulter, who reached his gun and fired, and the second was Lord Asriel, who tore it out his grasp a second tiht between the eyes and dashed his brains out Then he says cool as paint, ’Co the baby,’ because you were setting up such a howl, you and that daemon both; and he took you up and dandled you and sat you on his shoulders, walking up and down in high good humor with the dead man at his feet, and called for wine and bade me swab the floor"

By the end of the fourth repetition of the story Lyra was perfectly convinced she did remember it, and even volunteered details of the color of Mr Coulter’s coat and the cloaks and furs hanging in the closet Ma Costa laughed

And whenever she was alone, Lyra took out the alethiome-ter and pored over it like a lover with a picture of the beloved So each is, did it? Why shouldn’t she work thehter?

Re what Farder Coram had said, she tried to focus her mind on three symbols taken at random, and clicked the hands round to point at them, and found that if she held the alethioazed at it in a particular lazy way, as she thought of it, the long needle

would begin to ations around the dial it swung smoothly from one picture to another Sometimes it would pause at three, soh she understood nothing of it, she gained a deep cal she’d known Pantalaimon would crouch over the dial, so his head round after the needle; and once or twice the two of the that felt as if a shaft of sunlight had struck through clouds to light up afar beyond, and never suspected And Lyra thrilled at those times with the sa the word North

So the three days passed, withbetween theof the second roping The hall was more crowded than before, if that was possible Lyra and the Costas got there in tihts showed that the place was crammed, John Faa and Farder Coram came out on the platform and sat behind the table John Faa didn’t have to reat hands flat on the table and looked at the people below, and the hubbub died

"Well," he said, "you done what I asked And better than I hoped I’ to call on the heads of the six faold and recount their promises Nicholas Rokeby, you come first"

A stout black-beardedon the table

"That’s our gold," he said "And we offer thirty-eight men"

"Thank you, Nicholas," said John Faa Farder Cora a note The first man stood at the back of the platform as John Faa called for the next, and the next, and each ca on the table, and announced the number of men he could muster The Costas were part of the Stefanski family, and naturally Tony had been one of the first to volunteer Lyra noticed his hawk daes as the Stefanski money and the promise of twenty-three men were laid before John Faa

When the six family heads had all come up, Farder Coram showed his piece of paper to John Faa, who stood up to address the audience again

"Friends, that’s a muster of one hundred and seventy old, Ideep in your coffers, and o out for that as well

"What we’re a going to do next is this We’re a going to charter a ship and sail north, and find theht be so to do It won’t be the first tiht yet with people who kidnap children, and we shall have to be unco to come back without our kids Yes, Dirk Vries?"

A man stood up and said, "Lord Faa, do you knohy they captured theicalan experiment, but what nature it is we don’t know To tell you all the truth, we don’t even knohether any harood or bad, they got no right to reach out by night and pluck little children out the hearts of their families Yes, Raymond van Gerrit?"

Thestood up and said, "That child, Lord Faa, the one you spoke of as being sought, the one as is sitting in the front ro I heard as all the folk living around the edge of the fens is having their

houses turned upside down on her account I heard there’s a move in Parliaes on account of this child Yes, friends," he said, over the babble of shocked whispers, "they’re a going to pass a law doing aith our right to free movement in and out the fens Now, Lord Faa, ant to know is this: who is this child on account of which we yptian child, not as I heard How coer?"

Lyra looked up at John Faa’sso much she could hardly hear the first words of his reply

"Now spell it out, Rayive this child up to theht?"

The

"Well, perhaps you would, and perhaps you wouldn’t," John Faa continued "But if any ood, ponder on this That little girl is the daughter of Lord Asriel, no less For theotten, it were Lord Asriel who interceded with the Turk for the life of Sayptian boats free passage on the canals through his property It were Lord Asriel who defeated the Watercourse Bill in Parlia 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 Koopotten that? Shame, shame on you, shame

"And now that saions of the wild, captive, in the fortress of Svalbard Do I need to tell you the kind of creatures a guarding hihter 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"