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"Let me see the knife," said Iorek Byrnison "I understandmade of iron or steel is a mystery to a bear But I have never seen a knife like yours, and I would be glad to look at it closely"

Will and the bear-king were on the foredeck of the river stea sun, and the vessel was ress upstream; there was plenty of fuel on board, there was food that Will could eat, and he and Iorek Byrnison were taking their second measure of each other They had taken the first already

Will held out the knife toward Iorek, handle first, and the bear took it froer claws, letting him manipulate objects as skillfully as a hu it closely to his eyes, holding it to catch the light, testing the edge - the steel edge - on a piece of scrap iron

"This edge is the one you cut e I cannot tell what it is, what it will do, hoas made But I want to understand it How did you come to possess it?"

Will told hi out only what concerned him alone: his ht for this, and lost two fingers?" the bear said "Show me the wound"

Will held out his hand Thanks to his father’s oint well, but they were still very tender The bear sniffed at the else I cannot identify Who gave you that?"

"A man who told me what I should do with the knife Then he died He had some ointment in a horn box, and it cured my wound The witches tried, but their spell didn’t work"

"And what did he tell you to do with the knife?" said Iorek Byrnison, handing it carefully back to Will

"To use it in a war on the side of Lord Asriel," Will replied "But first I ue"

"Then we shall help," said the bear, and Will’s heart leapt with pleasure

Over the next few days Will learned why the bears were e into Central Asia, so far from their homeland

Since the catastrophe that had burst the worlds open, all the Arctic ice had begun to e currents appeared in the water Since the bears depended on ice and on the creatures who lived in the cold sea, they could see that they would soon starve if they stayed where they were; and being rational, they decided how they should respond They would have to rate to where there was snow and ice in plenty: they would go to the highest e that touched the sky, half a world away but unshakable, eternal, and deep in snow From bears of the sea they would beco as it took the world to settle itself again

"So you’re notwar?" Will said

"Our old enemies vanished with the seals and the walruses If we ht there was a great war coht for in that case?"

"The side that gave advantage to the bears What else? But I have so humans One was a man who flew a balloon He is dead The other is the witch Serafina Pekkala The third is the child Lyra Silvertongue First, I would do whatever serves the bears Second, whatever serves the child, or the witch, or avenges my dead comrade Lee Scoresby That is why I will help you rescue Lyra Silvertongue from the abominable woman Coulter"

He told Will of how he and a few of his subjects had swum to the river old, and hired the crew, and turned the draining of the Arctic to their own advantage by letting the river take them as far inland as it could - and as it had its source in the northern foothills of the very ht, and as Lyra was is had fallen out well so far

So ti the day Will dozed on deck, resting, gathering strength, because he was exhausted in every part of his being He watched as the scenery began to change, and the rolling steppe gave way to low grassy hills and then to higher land, with the occasional gorge or cataract; and still the boat steamed south

He talked to the captain and the crew, out of politeness, but lacking Lyra’s instant ease with strangers, he found it difficult to think of much to say; and in any case they were little interested in him This was only a job, and when it was over they would leave without a backward glance, and besides, they didn’t ner, and as long as he paid for his food, they cared little what he did Besides, there was that strange daemon of his, which seemed so like a witch’s: sometimes it was there, and sometimes it seemed to have vanished Superstitious, like many sailors, they were happy to leave him alone

Baltharief would beco for hih aht or taste of air, any shooting stars or pressure ridges that ht remind him of experiences he had shared with Baruch When he talked, at night in the dark of the little cabin Will slept in, it was only to report on how far they had gone, and how much farther ahead the cave and the valley lay Perhaps he thought Will had little syht it, he would have found plenty He becah never sarcastic; he kept that promise, at least

As for Iorek, he examined the knife obsessively He looked at it for hours, testing both edges, flexing it, holding it up to the light, touching it with his tongue, sniffing it, and even listening to the sound the air made as it flowed over the surface Will had no fear for the knife, because Iorek was clearly a craftshest accomplishment; nor for Iorek hihty paws

Finally Iorek ca you have not told me about What is it, and how does it work?"

"I can’t show you here," said Will, "because the boat isAs soon as we stop, I’ll show you"

"I can think of it," said the bear, "but not understand what I a I have ever seen"

And he gave it back to Will, with a disconcerting, unreadable long stare out of his deep black eyes

The river by this ti the remains of the first floodwaters that had swept down out of the Arctic The convulsions had affected the earth differently in different places, Will saw; village after village stood up to its roofs in water and hundreds of dispossessed people tried to salvage what they could with rowboats and canoes The earth must have sunk a little here, because the river broadened and slowed, and it was hard for the skipper to trace his true course through the wide and turbid streaher in the sky, and the bears found it hard to keep cool; so their native waters in this foreign land

But eventually the river narrowed and deepened again, and soon ahead of thereat central Asian plateau Will saw a rirew, separating itself into different peaks and ridges and passes between theh that it seemed that they must be close at hand - only a few miles But they were far off still; it was just that the mountains were immense, and with every hour that they cah