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"Maybe," Pan said, "the --you know "

"Yeah As if the birds--and the whole city--"

"Protecting us? Could it be that?"

They stood still Their city lay quietly around them, and the only voice was the bird's, and they couldn't understand what it said

"Things don't s as simply as that," Lyra said, uncertainly "Do they? Not like s, mixed up"

"But it feels like it," Pan said "It feels as if the whole city's looking after us So e feel is part of the , isn't it?"

"Yes! It is It must be Not the whole of it, and there's a lot more we don't even know is there, probably Like all those s in the

alethios you never suspect But that's part of it, no question"

The city, their city--belonging was one of the s of that, and protection, and home

Very shortly afterward, as they clih the pantry ith the loose latch, they found the remains of an apple pie on the marble worktop

"We must be lucky, Pan," Lyra said, as they carried it upstairs "See, that's another thing it means"

And before they went to bed, they put the crumbs out on the sill, for the birds

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