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NextLyra woke up from a dream in which Pantalaimon had come back to her and revealed his final shape; and she had loved it, but now she had no idea what it was

The sun hadn’t long risen, and the air had a fresh blooh the open door of the little thatched hut she slept in, Mary’s house She lay for a while listening There were birds outside, and so quietly in her sleep nearby

Lyra sat up and found herself naked She was indignant for a moment, and then she saw some clean clothes folded beside her on the floor: a shirt of Mary’s, a length of soft, light patterned cloth that she could tie into a skirt She put the swamped in the shirt, but at least decent

She left the hut Pantalaimon was nearby; she was sure of it She could al It must mean that he was safe, and they were still connected soave her and ca, just telling each other everything

Will was still asleep under the shelter tree, the lazy thing Lyra thought of waking him up, but if she was on her own, she could swim in the river She happily used to swim naked in the river Cherith all the other Oxford children, but it would be quite different with Will, and she blushed even to think of it

So she went down to the water alone in the pearl-colored e there was a tall, slender bird like a heron, standing perfectly still on one leg

She walked quietly and slowly so as not to disturb it, but the bird took noon the water

"Well," she said

She left the clothes on the bank and slipped into the river It was seawater coe to Lyra, who had never swum in salt water before She swam hard to keep war Pan would help dry her, nor at her fro into the clothes to tickle her, or a bird? Or was he somewhere else entirely with the other daemon, and with Lyra not on his mind at all?

The sun arm now, and she was soon dry She dressed in Mary’s loose shirt again and, seeing some flat stones by the bank, went to fetch her own clothes to wash them But she found that someone had already done that: hers and Will’s, too, were laid over the springy twigs of a fragrant bush, nearly dry

Will was stirring She sat nearby and called him softly

"Will! Wake up!"

"Where are we?" he said at once, and sat up, reaching for the knife

"Safe," she said, looking away "And they washed our clothes, too, or Dr Malone did I’ll get yours They’re nearly dry"

She passed theh the curtain of leaves and sat with her back to him till he was dressed

"I swam in the river," she said "I went to look for Pan, but I think he’s hiding"

"That’s a good idea I ot years and years of dirt on one, Lyra wandered around the village, not looking too closely at anything in case she broke so she saw Some of the houses were very old and some quite new, but they were all built in much the sa crude about them; each door andframe and lintel was covered in subtle patterns, but patterns that weren’t carved in the wood: it was as if they’d persuaded the wood to grow in that shape naturally

The more she looked, the e, like the layers of er to puzzle it all out, to step lightly fro to another as she did with the instru they’d be able to stay here before they had toanywhere till Pan comes back, she said to herself

Presently Will came up from the river, and then Mary came out of her house and offered thee ca es of their houses to stare, and Lyra would suddenly turn and look at theh with terror

"Well, now," Mary said when they’d eaten so like mint "Yesterday you were too tired and all you could do was rest But you look a lot more lively today, both of you, and I think we need to tell each other everything we’ve found out And it’ll take us a good long tiht as well keep our hands busy while we’re doing it, so we’ll make ourselves useful and mend some nets"

They carried the pile of stiff tarry netting to the riverbank and spread it out on the grass, and Mary showed them how to knot a new piece of cord where it orn She ary, because Atal had told her that the fae nu out at sea, and everyone was prepared for a warning to leave at once; but work had to go on in thein the sun by the placid river, and Lyra told her story, froo when she and Pan decided to look in the Retiring Rooe

The tide can of the tualapi In the late afternoon Mary took Will and Lyra along the riverbank, past the fishing posts where the nets were tied, and through the wide salt o there when the tide was out, because the white birds only ca a hard path above the s the mulefa had made, it was ancient and perfectlyimposed on it

"Did they make the stone roads?" Will said

"No I think the roads made them, in a way," Mary said "I mean they’d never have developed the use of the wheels if there hadn’t been plenty of hard, flat surfaces to use them on I think they’re lava-flows from ancient volcanoes

"So the roads s caether as well Like the wheel trees themselves, and the way their bodies are formed - they’re not vertebrates, they don’t have a spine Soo must have meant that creatures with backbones had it a bit easier, so all kinds of other shapes developed, all based on the central spine In this world, chance went another way, and the diamond frame was successful There are vertebrates, to be sure, but not many There are snakes, for example Snakes are important here The people look after them and try not to hurt them

"Anyway, their shape, and the roads, and the wheel trees coether all ether When did your part of the story begin, Will?"

"Lots of little chances forof the cat under the hornbeam trees If he’d arrived there thirty seconds earlier or later, he would never have seen the cat, never have found the , never have discovered Citt&uazze and Lyra; none of this would have happened

He started fro, and they listened as they walked By the time they reached the mudflats, he had reached the point where he and his father were fighting on the mountaintop

"And then the witch killed him"

He had never really understood that He explained what she’d told him before she killed herself: she had loved John Parry, and he had scorned her

"Witches are fierce, though," Lyra said

"But if she loved him"

"Well," said Mary, "love is ferocious, too"

"But he loved my mother," said Will "And I can tell her that he was never unfaithful"

Lyra, looking at Will, thought that if he fell in love, he would be like that

All around the in the war of the ulls The tide was fully out, so the whole extent of the beach was clear and glistening under the bright sun A billion tiny mud creatures lived and ate and died in the top layer of sand, and the little casts and breathing holes and invisible movements showed that the whole landscape was aquiver with life

Without telling the others why, Mary looked out to the distant sea, scanning the horizon for white sails But there was only hazy glitter where the blue of the sky paled at the edge of the sea, and the sea took up the pallor andair

She showed Will and Lyra how to gather a particular kind oftubes just above the sand The mulefa loved theather them Whenever Mary came to the shore, she harvested as many as she could, and noith three pairs of hands and eyes at work, there would be a feast

She gave each of the, and they worked as they listened to the next part of the story Steadily they filled their bags, and Mary led thee of the

The story was taking a long tiet to the world of the dead that day As they neared the village, Will was telling Mary what he had learned about daehosts Mary was particularly interested in the three-part nature of hus

"You know," she said, "the Church - the Catholic Church that I used to belong to - wouldn’t use the word daemon, but St Paul talks about spirit and soul and body So the idea of three parts in hue"

"But the best part is the body," Will said "That’s what Baruch and Balthaels wish they had bodies They told els can’t understand e don’t enjoy the world more It would be sort of ecstasy for them to have our flesh and our senses In the world of the dead - "

"Tell it e get to it," said Lyra, and she se and joy that his senses felt confused He sht his expression showed more perfect trust than she’d ever seen on a human face

By this ti meal to prepare So Mary left the other two by the riverbank, where they sat to watch the tide flooding in, and went to join Atal by the cooking fire Her friend was overjoyed by the shellfish harvest

But Mary, she said, the tualapi destroyed a village further up the coast, and then another and another They’ve never done that before They usually attack one and then go back to sea And another tree fell today

No! Where!

AtalMary had been there only three days before, and nothing had seelass and looked at the sky; sure enough, the great strealy, and at inco between the riverbanks

What can you do? said Atal

Mary felt the weight of responsibility like a heavy hand between her shoulder blades, but htly

Tell them stories, she said

When supper was over, the three hus outside Mary’s house, under the warm stars They lay back, well fed and coht, and listened to Mary tell her story

She began just before she firstat the Dark Matter Research group, and the funding crisis Howfor money, and how little time there’d been left for research!