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Holding the heavy gun, Will swept his hand sideways and knocked the golden roaned aloud and the le free

In aaway frorasshoppers The three children had no time to be astonished The man was concerned: he felt his companion’s shoulder and ar to Will

"You! Boy!" he said, and although his voice was srown ot the knife?"

"Of course I have," said Will If they didn’t knoas broken, he wasn’t going to tell theirl will have to follow us Who is the other child?"

"Ae," said Will

"Tell her to return there Move now, before the Swiss come"

Will didn’t hesitate Whatever these two intended, he and Lyra could still get away through thehe’d opened behind the bush on the path below

So he helped her up and watched curiously as the two se as seagulls, which had been waiting in the darkness Then they darted forward to the cave mouth, where Mrs Coulter lay She was half-stunned with pain and drowsy fro, but she reached up as they went past her, and cried:

"Lyra! Lyra, o!"

Lyra looked down at her, anguished; but then she stepped over her mother’s body and loosened Mrs Coulter’s feeble clutch frolistening on her cheeks

Crouching just beside the cave mouth, the three children waited until there was a brief pause in the shooting, and then followed the dragonflies as they darted down the path The light had changed: as well as the cold anbaric glea orange of flalare Mrs Coulter’s face was apiteously to her as she knelt and held out her ar:

"Lyra! Lyra, my love! My heart’s treasure, o, don’t leavereat and furious sob shook Lyra herself, for, after all, Mrs Coulter was the only mother she would ever have, and Will saw a cascade of tears run down the girl’s cheeks

But he had to be ruthless He pulled at Lyra’s hand, and as the dragonfly rider darted close to his head, urging the run down the path and away froain from the blow he’d landed on the monkey, was Mrs Coulter’s pistol

"Make for the top of the cliff," said the dragonfly rider, "and give yourself up to the Africans They’re your best hope"

Mindful of those sharp spurs, Will said nothing, though he hadn’t the least intention of obeying There was only one place he wasfor, and that was thebehind the bush; so he kept his head low and ran fast, and Lyra and Ama ran behind him

"Halt!"

There was athe path ahead - unifor daemons - the Swiss Guard

"Iorek!" cried Will at once "Iorek Byrnison!" He could hear the bear crashing and snarling not far away, and hear the screah to meet him

But someone else came from nowhere to help them: Balthamos, in a blur of desperation, hurled himself between the children and the soldiers Thein front of them

But they were trained warriors, and a e teeth flashing white in the gloom - and Balthamos flinched: he cried out in fear and shas hard Will watched in disuide and friend soared up to vanish out of sight a it all with still-dazed eyes It had taken no h for the Swiss to regroup, and now their leader was raising his crossbow, and Will had no choice: he swung up the pistol and claer, and the blast shook his bones, but the bullet found the man’s heart

The soldier fell back as if he’d been kicked by a horse Simultaneously the two little spies launched theonflies at their victims before Will could blink The woman found a neck, the man a wrist, and each asp, and the tiss died, their dae in mid-howl

Will leapt over the bodies, and Lyra ith hi wildcat-forht, and he saw her in the sa down a different path Now she’ll be safe, he thought, and a second later he saw the pale gleam of thedeep behind the bushes He seized Lyra’s arm and pulled her toward it Their faces were scratched, their clothes were snagged, their ankles twisted on roots and rocks, but they found theand tuh, into the other world, onto the bone-white rocks under the glaringof the insects broke the i Will did was to hold his sto with a mortal horror That o men now that he’d killed, not to els Will did not want this His body revolted at what his instinct hadspell of kneeling and vo until his stomach and his heart were e Pan, rocking hiainst her breast

Will finally recovered a little and looked around And at once he saw that they weren’t alone in this world, because the little spies were there, too, with their packs laid on the ground nearby Their dragonflies were ski the shoulder of the woman, and both of theht and their features so distinct that there was no doubt about their feelings, and Will knew they were a formidable pair, whoever they were

He said to Lyra, "The alethiometer’s in my rucksack, there"

"Oh, Will - I did so hope you’d find it - whatever happened Did you find your father? And ot to do, oh, I daren’t even think of it And it’s safe! You brung it all this way safe for ently that even she didn’t expect answers She turned the alethioold and the smooth crystal and the knurled wheels they kneell

Will thought: It’ll tell us how to mend the knife!

But he said first, "Are you all right? Are you hungry or thirsty?"

"I dunno yeah But not too much Anyway - "

"We should move away from this ," Will said, "just in case they find it and coh"

"Yes, that’s true," she said, and theyhis rucksack and Lyra happily carrying the little bag she kept the alethiometer in Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw the two s, but they kept their distance and made no threat

Over the brow of the rise there was a ledge of rock that offered a narrow shelter, and they sat beneath it, having carefully checked it for snakes, and shared some dried fruit and some water from Will’s bottle

Will said quietly, "The knife’s broken I don’t kno it happened Mrs Coulter did soht of my mother and that made the knife twist, or catch, or - I don’t knohat happened But we’re stuck till we can get it mended I didn’t want those two little people to know, because while they think I can still use it, I’ve got the upper hand I thought you could ask the alethiometer, maybe, and - "

"Yeah!" she said at once "Yeah, I will"

She had the golden instruht so she could see the dial clearly Looping back the hair behind her ears, just as Will had seen her an to turn the wheels in the old familiar way, and Pantalaimon, mouse-formed now, sat on her knee

She had hardly started before she gave a little gasp of excite eyes as the needle swung But it hadn’t finished yet, and she looked back, frowning, until the instru, "Iorek? Is he nearby, Will? I thought I heard you call hi Is he really?"

"Yes Could he mend the knife? Is that what the alethio with metal, Will! Not only ars as well" She told him about the small tin box Iorek had made for her to shut the spy-fly in "But where is he?"

"Close by He would have co And Balthahtened"

"Who?"

He explained briefly, feeling his cheeks ith the sha

"But I’ll tell you e He told s, and I think I understand theh his hair and rubbed his eyes

"You got to tellyou did since she caught ? Your poor hand"

"No My father cured it I just opened it up when I hit the golden ave me some ointment that he’d made - "

"You found your father?"

"That’s right, on the ht"

He let her clean his wound and put on some fresh ointment from the little horn box while he told her soer, the revelation that came to them both a second before the witch’s arrow struck hoels, his journey to the cave, and his , and I was asleep," she marveled "D’you know, I think she was kind to me, Will - I think she was, I don’t think she ever wanted to hurt s, but"

She rubbed her eyes

"Oh, but e it was! It was like when I read the alethio so deep you can’t see the bottom, but clear all the way down

"It was Reer, and how the Gobblers caught hi and Lord Asriel killed hiain, only he was dead, he was a ghost, and he was, like, beckoning toto me, only I couldn’t hear He didn’t want me to be dead, it wasn’t that He wanted to speak to me

"And It was ot killed, it was ht back to e used to play in Jordan College, Roger and h the town, in the er and all the others And I went to Bolvangar to fetch him safe home, only I made it worse, and if I don’t say sorry, it’ll all be no good, just a huge waste of tio down into the land of the dead and find him, and and say sorry I don’t care what happens after that Then we can I can It doesn’t matter after that"

Will said, "This place where the dead are Is it a world like this one, like et to with the knife?"

She looked at him, struck by the idea