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Here and there, fires had been lit a the ruins The toas a jumble, with no streets, no squares, and no open spaces except where a building had fallen A few churches or public buildings still stood above the rest, though their roofs were holed or their walls cracked, and in one case a whole portico had crumpled onto its colus, a ether out of lengths of roofing timber, beaten-out petrol cans or biscuit tins, torn plastic sheeting, scraps of plywood or hardboard
The ghosts who had co toward the town, and from every direction carains of sand that trickle toward the hole of an hourglass The ghosts walked straight into the squalid confusion of the town, as if they knew exactly where they were going, and Lyra and Will were about to follow theure stepped out of a patched-up doorway and said, "Wait, wait"
A di behind him, and it wasn’t easy to host He was like thee, dressed in a drab and tattered business suit, and he was holding a pencil and a sheaf of papers held together with a clip The building he’d stepped out of had the look of a customs post on a rarely visited frontier
"What is this place?" said Will, "And why can’t we go in?"
"You’re not dead," said thearea Go farther along the road to the left and give these papers to the official at the gate"
"But excuse , but how can we have come this far if we en’t dead? Because this is the world of the dead, isn’t it?"
"It’s a suburb of the world of the dead So co area before they can go on"
"Wait for how long?"
"Until they die"
Will felt his head swiue, and before she could speak, he said, "Can you just explain what happens then? I hosts who come here, do they stay in this town forever?"
"No, no," said the official "This is just a port of transit They go on beyond here by boat"
"Where to?" said Will
"That’s not so I can tell you," said the man, and a bitter smile pulled his , please Youarea"
Will took the papers the ed her away
The dragonflies were flying sluggishly now, and Tialys explained that they needed to rest; so they perched on Will’s rucksack, and Lyra let the spies sit on her shoulders Pantalaimon, leopard-shaped, looked up at the the track, skirting the wretched shanties and the pools of sewage, and watching the never-ending strea without hindrance into the town itself
"We’ve got to get over the water, like the rest of the place will tell us how They don’t seee And these papers"
They were simply scraps of paper torn from a notebook, with random words scribbled in pencil and crossed out It was as if these people were playing a gae theh And yet it all looked so real
It was getting darker and colder, and tiht they walked for half an hour, or ; the look of the place didn’t change Finally they reached a little wooden shack like the one they’d stopped at earlier, where a dilowed on a bare wire over the door
As they approached, aa piece of bread and butter in one hand, and without a word looked at their papers and nodded
He handed theo inside when Will said, "Excuse o now?"
"Go and find somewhere to stay," said the , saainst the cold, and the travelers turned down into the heart of the shanty tohere the living people had to stay
It was very much like the main town: shabby little huts, repaired a dozen tiated iron, leaning crazily against each other over muddy alleyways At some places, an anbaric cable looped down froh feeble current to power a naked lightbulb or two, strung out over the nearby huts Most of what light there was, however, calow flickered redly over the scraps and tatters of building reat conflagration, staying alive out of pure malice
But as Will and Lyra and the Gallivespians caures sitting in the darkness by theroups, talking quietly
"Why aren’t those people inside?" said Lyra "It’s cold"
"They’re not people," said the Lady Sal else, but I don’t knohat"
The travelers caroup of shacks, which were lit by one of those big weak anbaric bulbs on a cable swinging slightly in the cold wind, and Will put his hand on the knife at his belt There was a group of those people-shaped things outside, crouching on their heels and rolling dice, and when the children came near, they stood up: five of them, all men, their faces in shadow and their clothes shabby, all silent
"What is the name of this town?" said Will
There was no reply Some of theether, as if they were afraid Lyra felt her skin crawling, and all the tiny hairs on her arh she couldn’t have said why Inside her shirt Pantalaio away, let’s go back, please"
The "people" ood evening to you anyway," and ures they spoke to, and all the tirew
"Will, are they Specters?" Lyra said quietly "Are we grown up enough to see Specters now?"
"I don’t think so If ere, they’d attack us, but they seem to be afraid themselves I don’t knohat they are"
A door opened, and light spilled out on the- stood in the dooratching theures around the door moved back a step or two, as if out of respect, and they saw the man’s face: stolid, harmless, and mild
"Who are you?" he said
"Travelers," said Will "We don’t knohere we are What is this town?"
"This is the holding area," said theway, yes, and we’re tired," said Will "Could we buy so past them, into the dark, and then he came out and looked around further, as if there were so by and said:
"Did you see any death?"
They shook their heads, and the children heard a murmur of "No, no, none"
The man turned back Behind hi out: a wo children, another man They were all nervous and apprehensive
"Death?" said Will "We’re not bringing any death"
But that fact see they orried about, because when Will spoke, there was a soft gasp froures outside shrank away a little
"Excuseforward in her best polite way, as if the housekeeper of Jordan College were glaring at her "I couldn’t help noticing, but these gentle, if it’s rude, but where we come from it’s very unusual, and we never saw anyone like the your pardon But you see, in my world, we have daemons, everyone has a daemon, and we’d be shocked ifsomeone without one, just like you’re shocked to see us And noe’ve been traveling, Will and me - this is Will, and I’m Lyra - I’ve learned there are some people who don’t seem to have daemons, like Will doesn’t, and I was scared till I found out they were just ordinary like ht be just a bit sort of nervous when they see us, if you think we’re different"
The man said, "Lyra? And Will?"
"Yes, sir," she said hu to the spies on her shoulder
"No," said Lyra, and she was tempted to say, "They’re our servants," but she felt Will would have thought that a bad idea; so she said, "They’re our friends, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Sal with us Oh, and this ismouse-Pantalaimon out of her pocket "You see, we’re harmless, we promise on’t hurt you And we do need food and shelter We’ll move on tomorrow Honest"
Everyone waited The man’s nervousness was soothed a little by her huood sense to look modest and harh it’s strange, I suppose these are strange tiures outside nodded, one or two of theave little bows, and they stood aside respectfully as Will and Lyra walked into the warht The man closed the door behind them and hooked a wire over a nail to keep it shut
It was a single room, lit by a naphtha lamp on the table, and clean but shabby The plyalls were decorated with pictures cut froerprints of soot There was an iron stove against one wall, with a clothes-horse in front of it, where so table there was a shrine of plastic flowers, seashells, colored scent bottles, and other gaudy bits and pieces, all surrounding the picture of a jaunty skeleton with a top hat and dark glasses
The shanty was crowded: as well as thechildren, there was a baby in a crib, an older man, and in one corner, in a heap of blankets, a very old wo eyes, her face as wrinkled as the blankets As Lyra looked at her, she had a shock: the blankets stirred, and a very thin ared, in a black sleeve, and then another face, a man’s, so ancient it was almost a skeleton In fact, he lookedhu; and then Will, too, noticed, and all the travelers together realized that he was one of those shadowy, polite figures like the ones outside And all of them felt as nonplussed as the man had been when he’d first seen them
In fact, all the people in the crowded little shack - all except the baby, as asleep - were at a loss for words It was Lyra who found her voice first
"That’s very kind of you," she said, "thank you, good evening, we’re very pleased to be here And like I said, we’re sorry to have arrived without any death, if that’s the nors But on’t disturb you anyfor the land of the dead, and that’s hoe happened to come here But we don’t knohere it is, or whether this is part of it, or how to get there, or what So if you can tell us anything about it, we’ll be very grateful"
The people in the shack were still staring, but Lyra’s words eased the atmosphere a little, and the wo out a bench Will and Lyra lifted the sleeping dragonflies up to a shelf in a dark corner, where Tialys said they would rest till daylight, and then the Gallivespians joined the a dish of stew, and she peeled a couple of potatoes and cut the her husband to offer the travelers soht out a bottle of clear and pungent spirit that syptians’ jenniver, and the two spies accepted a glass into which they dipped little vessels of their own
Lyra would have expected the family to stare most at the Gallivespians, but their curiosity was directed just asto ask why
"You’re the first people we ever saithout a death," said the man, whose name, they’d learned, was Peter "Since we come here, that is We’re like you, we coot to wait till our death tells us it’s time"
"Your death tells you?" said Lyra
"Yes What we found out e coht our deaths with us This is where we found out We had ’em all the tioes everywhere with ’eht close by Our deaths, they’re outside, taking the air; they’ll come in by and by Granny’s death, he’s there with her, he’s close to her, very close"
"Doesn’t it scare you, having your death close by all the time?" said Lyra
"Why ever would it? If he’s there, you can keep an eye on hi where he was"
"And everyone has their own death?" said Will,
"Why, yes, the moment you’re born, your death comes into the world with you, and it’s your death that takes you out"
"Ah," said Lyra, "that’s e need to know, because we’re trying to find the land of the dead, and we don’t kno to get there Where do we go then, e die?"