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Over her head, returning, the other swans came past so low that Lyra felt the snap of feathers in her hair and felt the sound they e of the water and she bent down, treht of hirasp and into the dark water with a splash After aup in the water to beat theain and paddled away Farther along the canal, the other swans skimmed down onto the water one after the other, and swam toward him, faint white patches in the dark

Lyra felt a hand on her shoulder She was too shaken already to be further startled; she merely turned, to see a ed face and scarred, sooty hands His black cat daemon was close in conversation with Pan, at their feet

"This way," he said quietly, "and you won't be caught up in anyone's curiosity Now she's dead, the street will begin to wake up"

He led the way along the canal path to the right, toward the ironworks, and slipped through a narrow gate in the wall The faint e between the wall and the high brick side of the building With Pan on her shoulder, whispering, "It's safe--we're safe with hi and around a corner into a bleak little courtyard, where he lifted a trapdoor

"This takes us intoWhen they find her body there'll be a big fuss You don't need to be mixed up in that"

She went down the wooden steps and into a hot, close, sulfurous rooreat iron furnace in one corner Benches along each ere laden with glass beakers and retorts, with crucibles and sets of scales and every kind of apparatus for distilling and condensing and purifying Everything was thick with dust, and the ceiling was completely black with years of soot

"You're Mr Makepeace," Lyra said

"And you're Lyra Silvertongue"

He shut the door Pan was ranging curiously here and there, touching delicately with a nose or a paw, and the black cat calmly leapt up to a chair and licked her paws

"She was lying," said Lyra "Her daemon lied to us Why?"

"Because she wanted to kill you She wanted to trick you into co here, and then kill you, and put the blame on me"

"I thought I could trust witches," Lyra said, and there was a quiver in her voice that she couldn't prevent "I thought "

"I know But witches have their own causes and alliances And some are trustworthy, others are not; why should they be different from us?"

"Yes I should know that But why did she want to kill me?"

"I'll tell you To begin with, ere lovers, she and I, o"

"I wondered," Lyra said

"We had a son, and--you know the way of things a childhood, he had to leave the north and corew up, and beca for Lord Asriel's cause in the late war"

Lyra's eyes widened