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"Mine was called Matapan - "

"We used to play hide-and-seek, she’d change like a chaood - "

"Once I hurt uided me all the way home - "

"He never wanted to settle, but I wanted to grow up, and we used to argue - "

"She used to curl up in o to sleep - "

"Are they still there, soain?"

"No When you die, your daeoes out like a candle flah - I never said good-bye - "

"They en’t nowhere! They must be somewhere! My daemon’s still there sohosts were ani and their cheeks war life from the travelers

Will said, "Is there anyone here from my world, where we don’t have daee nodded, and Will turned to him

"Oh yes," came the answer "We didn’t understand what daemons were, but we knehat it felt like to be without them There’s people here from all kinds of worlds"

"I knew rowing up When I heard the like our deaths I ain I’ he said to me, and then he went forever When he ith me, I always knew there was so and what to do But I ain’t got hiain"

"There ain’t nothing going to happen!" so, forever!"

"You don’t know," said another "They ca to happen"

Shethat ever happened here," said a ghost boy "Maybe it’s all going to change now"

"What would you do, if you could?" said Lyra

"Go up to the world again!"

"Even if it meant you could only see it once, would you still want to do that?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"Well, anyway, I’ve got to find Roger," said Lyra, burning with her new idea; but it was for Will to know first

On the floor of the endless plain, there was a vast, slow hosts The children couldn’t see it, but Tialys and Salures all ration of immense flocks of birds or herds of reindeer At the center of thesteadily on; not leading, and not following, but so the movement into an intention of all the dead

The spies, their thoughts ed a glance and brought the dragonflies to rest side by side on a dry, withered branch

"Do we have daeot into that boat, I have felt as ifon the shore," he said "But it wasn’t; it’s still working in irl’s dae of yours, too, Salmakia, because your face is drawn and your hands are pale and tight Yes, we have daemons, whatever they are Maybe the people in Lyra’s world are the only living beings to know they have Maybe that’s why it was one of them who started the revolt"

He slipped off the dragonfly’s back and tethered it safely, and then took out the lodestone resonator But he had hardly begun to touch it when he stopped

"No response," he said so?"

"Beyond help, certainly Well, we kneere coo with her to the end of the world"

"Will his knife open the way back, do you think?"

"I’m sure he thinks so But oh, Tialys, I don’t know"

"He’s very young Well, they are both young You know, if she doesn’t survive this, the question of whether she’ll choose the right thing when she’s tempted won’t arise It won’t matter anymore"

"Do you think she’s chosen already? When she chose to leave her daemon on the shore? Was that the choice she had to make?"

The Chevalier looked down on the slow-after that bright and living spark Lyra Silvertongue He could just loom, and beside it the boy’s head, black-haired and solid and strong

"No," he said, "not yet That’s still to co her to it safely"

"Bring theether now"

The Lady Salonfly darted off the branch at once and sped doard the living children, with the Chevalier close behind

But they didn’t stop with theht, they flew on ahead, partly because the dragonflies were restless, and partly because they wanted to find out how far this dis overhead and felt a pang of relief that there was still soloith beauty Then, unable to keep her idea to herself anymore, she turned to Will; but she had to whisper She put her lips to his ear, and in a noisy rush of warmth, he heard her say:

"Will, I want us to take all these poor dead ghost kids outside - the grownups as well - we could set ’eer and your father, and then let’s open the way to the world outside, and set ’eave her a true s stumble and falter inside her; at least, it felt like that, but without Pantalaiht have been a neay for her heart to beat Deeply surprised, she told herself to walk straight and stop feeling giddy

So theyout faster than they could er - Lyra’s here" passed froe that one cell in the body passes on to the next

And Tialys and Salonflies, and looking all around as they flew, eventually noticed a new kind of yration of activity Skinored, for the first ti theexcitedly in their near-silent whispers, they were pointing, they were urging someone forward

Salmakia fle, but couldn’t land: the press was too great, and none of their hands or shoulders would support her, even if they dared to try She saw a young ghost boy with an honest, unhappy face, dazed and puzzled by what he was being told, and she called out:

"Roger? Is that Roger?"

He looked up, bemused, nervous, and nodded

Salether they sped back to Lyra It was a long way, and hard to navigate, but by watching the patterns of movement, they finally found her

"There she is," said Tialys, and called: "Lyra! Lyra! Your friend is there!"

Lyra looked up and held out her hand for the dragonfly The great insect landed at once, its red and yellow gleas stiff and still on either side Tialys kept his balance as she held him at eye level

"Where?" she said, breathless with excitement "Is he far off?"

"An hour’s walk," said the Chevalier "But he knows you’re co The others have told hi, and soon you’ll find him"

Tialys saw Will ht and force hied with it already, and plied the Gallivespians with questions: how did Roger seelad? Were the other children aware of as happening, and were they helping, or were they just in the way?

And so on Tialys tried to answer everything truthfully and patiently, and step by step the living girl drew closer to the boy she had brought to his death