Page 22 (1/2)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Betrayal

She woke to find a stranger shaking her arnized Thorold He was holding a naphtha laet up quickly I don’t knohat to do He’s left no orders I think he’s ?"

"Lord Asriel, miss He’s been almost in a delirium since you went to bed I’ve never seen him so wild He packed a lot of instrus and left But he’s got the boy, er?"

"He told ue - I never have - the boy kept on asking for you, miss - but Lord Asriel wanted him alone - you knohen you first came to the door, miss? And he saw you and couldn’t believe his eyes, and wanted you gone?"

Lyra’s head was in such a whirl of weariness and fear that she could hardly think, but "Yes? Yes?" she said

"It was because he needed a child to finish his experiment,about what he wants, he just has to call for so and - "

Now Lyra’s head was full of a roar, as if she were trying to stifle soe froot out of bed, and was reaching for her clothes, and then she suddenly collapsed, and a fierce cry of despair enveloped her She was uttering it, but it was bigger than she was; it felt as if the despair were uttering her For she rey that links body and daeap betorlds needed a phenoy

She had just realized what she’d done

She had struggled all this way to bring so she knehat he wanted; and it wasn’t the alethiometer at all What he wanted was a child

She had brought hier

That hy he’d cried out, "I did not send for you!" when he saw her; he had sent for a child, and the fates had brought hiht, until she’d stepped aside and shown hiht she was saving Roger, and all the ti to betray him

Lyra shook and sobbed in a frenzy of emotion It couldn’t be true

Thorold tried to comfort her, but he didn’t know the reason for her extrerief, and could only pat her shoulder nervously

"lorek - " she sobbed, pushing the servant aside "Where’s lorek Byrnison? The bear? Is he still outside?"

The old ed helplessly

"Helpall over eakness and fear "Help o Now1 Do it quick!"

He put the lamp down and did as she told him When she commanded, in that imperious way, she was very like her father, for all that her face ith tears and her lips tre his tail, his fur al furs and help her into them As soon as all the buttons were done up and all the flaps secured, she made for the door, and felt the cold strike her throat like a sword and freeze the tears at once on her cheeks

"lorek!" she called "lorek Byrnison! Come, because I need you!"

There was a shake of snow, a clank ofcal fro at the , Lyra saw the long faceless head, the narrow eye slits, the gleam of white fur below red-black metal, and wanted to embrace him and seek some comfort from his iron helmet, his ice-tipped fur

"Well?" he said

"We got to catch Lord Asriel He’s taken Roger and he’s a going to - I daren’t think - oh, lorek, I beg you, go quick, my dear!"

"Come then," he said, and she leaped on his back

There was no need to ask which way to go: the tracks of the sledge led straight out from the courtyard and over the plain, and lorek leaped forward to follow the that to sit balanced was entirely autoround faster than he’d ever done, and the ar rhythm

Behind the the fire hurler with theht it cast over the snowbound world was as bright as it had been in the balloon: a world of bright silver and profound black The tracks of Lord Asriel’s sledge ran straight toward a range of jagged hills, strange stark pointed shapes jutting up into a sky as black as the alethioe itself - or was there a feather touch of hest peak? Lyra peered ahead, straining her eyes, and Pantalaih as he could and looked with an owl’s clear vision

"Yes," he said, on her wrist ahis dogs on furiously, and there’s a boy in the back"

Lyra felt lorek Byrnison change pace So his head to cast left and right

"What is it?" Lyra said

He didn’t say He was listening intently, but she could hear nothing Then she did hear so It was a sound she had heard before: the sound of the Aurora Out of nowhere a veil of radiance had fallen to hang shi in the northern sky All those unseen billions and trillions of charged particles, and possibly, she thought, of Dust, conjured a radiating glow out of the upper at to be a display more brilliant and extraordinary than any Lyra had yet seen, as if the Aurora knew the draht it with theeffects

But none of the bears were looking up: their attention was all on the earth It wasn’t the Aurora, after all, that had caught lorek’s attention He was standing stock-still now, and Lyra slipped off his back, knowing that his senses needed to cast around freely So him

Lyra looked around, back across the vast open plain leading to Lord Asriel’s house, back toward the tu The Aurora grew more intense The first veils treed curtains folded and unfolded above, increasing in size and brilliance every minute; arcs and loops swirled across from horizon to horizon, and touched the very zenith with bows of radiance She could hearhiss and swish of vast intangible forces

"Witches!" came a cry in a bear voice, and Lyra turned in joy and relief

But a heavy asp she could only pant and shudder, for there in the place where she had been standing was the plureen-feathered arrow The head and the shaft were buried in the snow