This is a follow on from the Amber Spyglass, (DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE AMBER SPYGLASS) it was really written to make me feel better after the ending and I just thought you guys/gals might want to hear it too.
All of these characters (except for the ones not in his books, which I made up) are owned by Phillip Pullman.
I realise that this story has a lot of faults and as this is my very first draft then I will improve it and continue it until I feel I like the ending. Please don't flame me too much as this is my very first story.
Chapter one: The revelation
The buzzing of the zeppelin speeding over the countryside below was usually enough to make Lyra fall asleep, but she could not sleep at all these days. She missed Will terribly and she knew that if he were here he'd calm her down and soothe her with his soft voice. But he wasn't there and they would never see each other again. "Never see him again" she thought, "is a thought worse than anything I've ever had in my life" and Pantalaimon felt her sorrow and clung close to her, in his permanent pine marten form, feeling the beating of her heart against his soft fur and wishing that they could go back to Will's world, to see him again. But thinking only brought the pain back into focus. Lyra tried to concentrate on the althiometer, remembering all she knew and she was going to learn more. Very soon. With that thought she dozed off to sleep in the uncomfortable seat, holding Pantalaimon close.
At that very same time, Will was regretting parting with Lyra. It was only four weeks ago but it seemed like four years. She was constantly on his mind, although he tried to put on a happy face, Dr. Malone could see what he was thinking, and she had felt the same about her boyfriend when she was younger. As Will and Mary drove home in her car, they spoke little, each with their own private thoughts. That had been the last place that could have helped Will's mother, and they turned them away, just like all the others. Will had always been a quiet boy, keeping to himself a lot and being secretive, but with Lyra he had felt truly trusting and comfortable, and now that was gone, and his Mother's condition was deteriorating fast. He was about to lose both the people he had most loved and cared about in the world and all he had to cling to in memory was the shattered remains of the once beautiful knife. As they drove forward on the ring road, they slowed due to the traffic and the passed the hornbeam trees in a row along the edge of the garden. The Tabby cat that they had rescued, so long ago, in Cittagazze sat on the wall, licking it's paws and Will was reminded so strongly of Pantalaimon licking his wound in the Torre Del Angeli in Cittagazze that he had to hold back his tears. Mary pulled round the corner and stopped on the side of the road. She knew why he was silent and she knew she could do nothing to amend it.
"There there, Tokin, We'll be alright," Came Will's mothers voice from the back seat, and will realised that she was talking to a mouse. What would have astonished him even more, had he not known Lyra, was that the mouse than spoke, weakly and dreamlike, like his mothers, but still audible.
"Just as long as we get back to our world we'll be fine dear, we'll be fine…" Will was shocked, and so was Mary obviously as she squealed the breaks and brought several cars dangerously close to the small Ford. Mrs Parry was continuing "We should never have left the city Tok, if we'd have done as we were told and stayed at the house instead of following the traveller we'd be fine now. We'd be gone by now if he hadn't come all that time ago. We have to find where he took us, get back to where we belong, we could use Johnny's co-ordinates, but we can't get up there in our condition…" Will's mother had a dæmon, and what was she talking about, 'back to our own World'. The angel queen, Xaphania, who had told them that they must part had said that Lyra's world was the only place she knew of to have dæmons, but surely his mother was not born in a different world. She had been there for them all his life, he could never remember a time, without her, and then it dawned on him. He could see Mary's enquiring eyes and he knew she was about to ask the same question. How did she survive seventeen years without going home to her world, Lyra's world?
Before this question could be asked though Will said "nine years ago, when I was eight years old, I stayed with my piano teacher for about a month. Mum said she had to go and attend to business. She wouldn't tell Mrs. Cooper or me where, or how to contact her, but she went, and came back fine and well."
A police car had pulled up beside them and was gesturing for them to move along, as they were stopped on double yellow lines. Mary drove them slowly back to her flat and they sat down in the living room, Will's mother had gone to bed and Mary and Will sat sipping their tea in silence.
"Will!" she said, suddenly excited and he looked up, alarmed by this sudden noise, shattering the silence. She didn't wait for him to say anything and continued.
"I've just remembered something the I Ching told me when I was with the Muelfa, when I asked about shadow particles!" Will looked blank but she continued anyway; "Will, if I remember correctly, it told me that inside your genetics, there was a specific world that you can stay in without getting ill, that it was inherited. It speaks in a round about way but I'm almost sure that's what it meant, wait a second, I'll get the book" Will was beginning to understand, but there must be a catch somewhere, mustn't there? Mary continued, finding the page "this is it,
'Written into you, it cannot change,
Where it says, there you must stay,
Move about and you will not live,
Stay in your parents place just there'"
Will realised he was holding his breath and let it out slowly.
"Will, if you're mother came from Lyra's world, you can live there too! It's in your genes! You can find Lyra and live with her Will."
"But there's no doorways" He said, disheartened, "I'll never get through, the angels closed them all remember?"
"Will, if there's one thing I've learned about you during all the time that I've been with you it's that you never give up hope. That's what Lyra loved about you! You can't abandon her and your mother, you have to try Will!"
So Will set about researching this, and while Mary went to a conference in Belgium, he searched all the Universities for anyone who knew about other universes or gates between them or anything at all. Of course this was quite hard as he was not able to mention the fact that there were parallel universes or they would think he was just a child playing a game. He searched for days and still he found nobody interested in anything of the sort. He couldn't give up, but he felt that that was the only option, he couldn't call on anybody he had ever known, the Angels Baruch and Bathamos had gone and were in a different world, Iorek Byrnison was safe in his World, ruling his kingdom and Lyra, his lovely Lyra couldn't hear him or see him. He was stuck in this world; it seemed, but the more he thought, the more possibilities appeared, one might work, if he found the right one.
Chapter 2: Dame Hannah
Dame Hannah was really a wonderful person, Lyra thought, curled up in a ball with the pine marten Pantalaimon around her neck, She had had three days under the tuition of the aging woman and she was beginning to build those ladders of meanings inside the Althiometer again. Every night, she asked how Will was and if he still remembered her, and every night she got the same answer "He Loves you more than anything else, he longs to see you again" Lyra was content and just as she moved her eyes away from the golden compass, the needle flickered again, Left, Right, Right again, Left and came to rest. Lyra memorised the pictures that it showed and got up straight away, crossed the room to her books and took out the thickest one, laid it on her lap and began to slowly turn the pages. The meanings formulated in her mind, but that couldn't be, she must have got it wrong. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and climbed back into bed, Pantalaimon nestling around her neck again. She tried to sleep, but it just wouldn't come and so she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling until the waves of sleep drifted over her like a soft blanket.
The next morning ran according to schedule, the three girls in her dormitory and Lyra were woken up at half past seven in the morning and they washed and cleaned their faces and dæmons, at eight o'clock they traipsed downstairs, merging with the girls from the other dormitories. Her particular friend, called Alicia was there, at the top of the stairs and Lyra walked over to greet her.
"Oh, hullo," said Alicia, as she saw Lyra, but Lyra was certain something was wrong. There was a troubled look in her eyes and her dæmon was trembling in her hand.
"What's wrong Ali?" asked Lyra kindly
"Oh it's so terrible Lyra!" she sobbed, clutching onto Lyra's shoulder, reminding her strongly of when she and Will found out that they would have to part. Lyra fought back her tears, brought back with a sharp pang in her heart and tried to comfort Alicia. "My aunt is a witch Lyra, I was afraid to tell you but I know you've got many friends who are witches and maybe they're in trouble too and oh!" she sobbed deeply, clutching her dæmon to her breast. Lyra waited until she could continue. "They're fighting these horrible ghosts that eat dæmons Lyra! My aunt is dead, I just found out, they took away her dæmon!" Lyra was so stunned that she had to grasp the nearby rail with her hand until her knuckles turned white. Serafina and the angels, led by Xaphania were supposed to have fought the spectres away and won easily. Now it appeared that the spectres were stronger than was estimated.
"Ali, I have to go help the witches, I promise I'll come back, I promise." And with that she leapt down the stairs, leaving the confused Alicia at the top of the stairs, staring in bewilderment. Lyra had raced all the way to the headmistress's office and asked to be excused from the school until further notice.
"Certainly not Lyra, We can't just go letting children run around in the world when they should be studying. Now go to your first class, now." There was firmness in her voice that demanded respect and obedience, so Lyra left with a heavy heart to go to her classes. She spent the whole day searching her books so she could ask the althiometer what she should do but all it ever seemed to say, however she asked it, was on the water, leave on the water This made no sense to Lyra and so she was forced to climb back up the stairs to her dormitory. At the top of the stairs however, she heard a very familiar voice.
"Lyra, we need you, the angels and the Witches are dying faster than we can fire our arrows. Your part in this is not over yet." All this was said to Lyra from somewhere above her and she didn't dare look up for fear of disappointment. But she was too excited to not look up, so she did and there was Serafina Pekkala, hovering above her through an open skylight.
"Serafina!" Lyra whispered, "I will come, but they won't let me out of here, I tried to come this morning but…"
"Hush child" Serafina replied soothingly, "Everything is sorted, we shall fly again together, as Will requested, I shall love you as my daughter, until I die." She smiled so kindly and with understanding of Lyra that seemed deeper than Lyra's own. "Now we must hurry, come, I shall meet you outside the door to the garden, go swiftly my child" and with that she was gone, the swoosh of her cloud pine ringing in Lyra's ears. She walked into her room quietly and retrieved her small backpack in which she placed the althiometer. Then she crept down the stairs, Pantalaimon leading the way with his beautiful red fur, which glinted in the moonlight.
She had to hide in a broom cupboard once as the caretaker walked past and his small poodle dæmon trotted along beside him, sniffing at the cupboard while Lyra tried not to breathe. Eventually the hallway was quiet once more and she and Pantalaimon crept out the back door, and found Serafina alighting on the rockery.
Serafina had a bag of Lyra's belongings, including her furs, which she had used in Bolvangar and something small and quite heavy for it's size. She looked up at the witch but her expression revealed nothing.
"I must leave you now Lyra, there is a terrible battle," Serafina said, distracted "I must help my sisters. Go to the canal in this town, the Gyptians are waiting there, be prepared for a task of a similar importance to your last one." Lyra simply stared as the whoosh of the cloud pine branch faded away into the distance, to be replaced by the gentle swaying of the huge oaks on the other side of the garden
She pulled the althiometer from her bag and began to laboriously turn the needles, nothing like she had used to when she had first me Serafina or her dæmon, on the deck of the liner bound for the North. After what seemed like an hour of searching through books in the warm air she finally thought she had the intentions of the witches assessed. She had to go to the Canal and travel on the water. Of course this made little sense to her, but it was quite often that the Althiometer made little sense to her recently so she shrugged, placed her books and the golden instrument into her bag and set off, dragging the bulky furs behind her.
Lyra was panting and puffing for about ten minutes and by this time her legs were feeling weak and even Pantalaimon's darting from shadow to shadow had slowed.
"Wait Pan, I have to rest" she puffed and Pantalaimon stopped beside the large marble pillar marking the corner of the town square. She shrugged her bag off her shoulder and walked slowly to the well in the centre. Bringing the bucket upwards, she splashed her face with the chill water and dipped her hand in to drink some of the refreshing water when Pantalaimon came dashing up to her and she felt the urgency in his voice.
"Lyra, there are men shouting by the canal, I couldn't get close enough really, but some of them are Tartars and they have guns." With all of her weariness gone, she leapt up and sprinted to her bags. As she picked them up however, a low clang told her that something had fallen out of her rucksack, but she didn't stop to think what it might have been before she was off down the road, racing toward the canal, her bags flailing behind her.
When she got close to the riverbank she spotted the men that Pan had spoken about, and they were definitely Tartars. The arctic Wolf dæmons constantly prowled up and down the bank and the booming voice she knew so well came echoing off the walls as John Faa yelled at the Tartar captain.
"We are travelling through this waterway whether you like it or not, Sir" he boomed, with deliberate sarcasm on the Sir. "We have perfect rights through here and nobody is going to stop us." Suddenly Lyra caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and she realised that it was Farder Coram's beautiful cat dæmon beckoning at her to come to the shadowy hull of the boat. Lyra crept there through the shadows of the buildings and before she knew what was happening, she was inside, the door was shut and the boat was moving, the Tartar's voice trailing along behind the boat. The warmth enveloped her and Farder Coram pushed her down into a chair and motioned for her to keep quiet.
A shadowy form crept through the alleys. A black cat crept along behind the form, a shadowy black cat, scrawny and mangy; it's fur patchy and dull. The emaciated animal would have seemed dead if not for the fiery gleam in it's eyes, eyes like those of a man dying with a burning fever, half mad, yet half knowing and understanding. The black figure wrapped in shawls crept in front of it, scanning the floor. Suddenly it found what it was looking for and bent down to pick it up, the small, yet surprisingly heavy, object was picked up and examined closely, by the figure and it's dæmon, and the bundle of rags and emaciated flesh grinned suddenly, a grin of malice and hatred, the single tooth of that grin glinting in the dull naphtha light. The cloaked figure began to chuckle, and then to laugh. The laugh was a high-pitched cackle, ringing out over the town, emanating from where Lyra's bags had been not an hour before.
All of these characters (except for the ones not in his books, which I made up) are owned by Phillip Pullman.
I realise that this story has a lot of faults and as this is my very first draft then I will improve it and continue it until I feel I like the ending. Please don't flame me too much as this is my very first story.
Chapter one: The revelation
The buzzing of the zeppelin speeding over the countryside below was usually enough to make Lyra fall asleep, but she could not sleep at all these days. She missed Will terribly and she knew that if he were here he'd calm her down and soothe her with his soft voice. But he wasn't there and they would never see each other again. "Never see him again" she thought, "is a thought worse than anything I've ever had in my life" and Pantalaimon felt her sorrow and clung close to her, in his permanent pine marten form, feeling the beating of her heart against his soft fur and wishing that they could go back to Will's world, to see him again. But thinking only brought the pain back into focus. Lyra tried to concentrate on the althiometer, remembering all she knew and she was going to learn more. Very soon. With that thought she dozed off to sleep in the uncomfortable seat, holding Pantalaimon close.
At that very same time, Will was regretting parting with Lyra. It was only four weeks ago but it seemed like four years. She was constantly on his mind, although he tried to put on a happy face, Dr. Malone could see what he was thinking, and she had felt the same about her boyfriend when she was younger. As Will and Mary drove home in her car, they spoke little, each with their own private thoughts. That had been the last place that could have helped Will's mother, and they turned them away, just like all the others. Will had always been a quiet boy, keeping to himself a lot and being secretive, but with Lyra he had felt truly trusting and comfortable, and now that was gone, and his Mother's condition was deteriorating fast. He was about to lose both the people he had most loved and cared about in the world and all he had to cling to in memory was the shattered remains of the once beautiful knife. As they drove forward on the ring road, they slowed due to the traffic and the passed the hornbeam trees in a row along the edge of the garden. The Tabby cat that they had rescued, so long ago, in Cittagazze sat on the wall, licking it's paws and Will was reminded so strongly of Pantalaimon licking his wound in the Torre Del Angeli in Cittagazze that he had to hold back his tears. Mary pulled round the corner and stopped on the side of the road. She knew why he was silent and she knew she could do nothing to amend it.
"There there, Tokin, We'll be alright," Came Will's mothers voice from the back seat, and will realised that she was talking to a mouse. What would have astonished him even more, had he not known Lyra, was that the mouse than spoke, weakly and dreamlike, like his mothers, but still audible.
"Just as long as we get back to our world we'll be fine dear, we'll be fine…" Will was shocked, and so was Mary obviously as she squealed the breaks and brought several cars dangerously close to the small Ford. Mrs Parry was continuing "We should never have left the city Tok, if we'd have done as we were told and stayed at the house instead of following the traveller we'd be fine now. We'd be gone by now if he hadn't come all that time ago. We have to find where he took us, get back to where we belong, we could use Johnny's co-ordinates, but we can't get up there in our condition…" Will's mother had a dæmon, and what was she talking about, 'back to our own World'. The angel queen, Xaphania, who had told them that they must part had said that Lyra's world was the only place she knew of to have dæmons, but surely his mother was not born in a different world. She had been there for them all his life, he could never remember a time, without her, and then it dawned on him. He could see Mary's enquiring eyes and he knew she was about to ask the same question. How did she survive seventeen years without going home to her world, Lyra's world?
Before this question could be asked though Will said "nine years ago, when I was eight years old, I stayed with my piano teacher for about a month. Mum said she had to go and attend to business. She wouldn't tell Mrs. Cooper or me where, or how to contact her, but she went, and came back fine and well."
A police car had pulled up beside them and was gesturing for them to move along, as they were stopped on double yellow lines. Mary drove them slowly back to her flat and they sat down in the living room, Will's mother had gone to bed and Mary and Will sat sipping their tea in silence.
"Will!" she said, suddenly excited and he looked up, alarmed by this sudden noise, shattering the silence. She didn't wait for him to say anything and continued.
"I've just remembered something the I Ching told me when I was with the Muelfa, when I asked about shadow particles!" Will looked blank but she continued anyway; "Will, if I remember correctly, it told me that inside your genetics, there was a specific world that you can stay in without getting ill, that it was inherited. It speaks in a round about way but I'm almost sure that's what it meant, wait a second, I'll get the book" Will was beginning to understand, but there must be a catch somewhere, mustn't there? Mary continued, finding the page "this is it,
'Written into you, it cannot change,
Where it says, there you must stay,
Move about and you will not live,
Stay in your parents place just there'"
Will realised he was holding his breath and let it out slowly.
"Will, if you're mother came from Lyra's world, you can live there too! It's in your genes! You can find Lyra and live with her Will."
"But there's no doorways" He said, disheartened, "I'll never get through, the angels closed them all remember?"
"Will, if there's one thing I've learned about you during all the time that I've been with you it's that you never give up hope. That's what Lyra loved about you! You can't abandon her and your mother, you have to try Will!"
So Will set about researching this, and while Mary went to a conference in Belgium, he searched all the Universities for anyone who knew about other universes or gates between them or anything at all. Of course this was quite hard as he was not able to mention the fact that there were parallel universes or they would think he was just a child playing a game. He searched for days and still he found nobody interested in anything of the sort. He couldn't give up, but he felt that that was the only option, he couldn't call on anybody he had ever known, the Angels Baruch and Bathamos had gone and were in a different world, Iorek Byrnison was safe in his World, ruling his kingdom and Lyra, his lovely Lyra couldn't hear him or see him. He was stuck in this world; it seemed, but the more he thought, the more possibilities appeared, one might work, if he found the right one.
Chapter 2: Dame Hannah
Dame Hannah was really a wonderful person, Lyra thought, curled up in a ball with the pine marten Pantalaimon around her neck, She had had three days under the tuition of the aging woman and she was beginning to build those ladders of meanings inside the Althiometer again. Every night, she asked how Will was and if he still remembered her, and every night she got the same answer "He Loves you more than anything else, he longs to see you again" Lyra was content and just as she moved her eyes away from the golden compass, the needle flickered again, Left, Right, Right again, Left and came to rest. Lyra memorised the pictures that it showed and got up straight away, crossed the room to her books and took out the thickest one, laid it on her lap and began to slowly turn the pages. The meanings formulated in her mind, but that couldn't be, she must have got it wrong. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and climbed back into bed, Pantalaimon nestling around her neck again. She tried to sleep, but it just wouldn't come and so she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling until the waves of sleep drifted over her like a soft blanket.
The next morning ran according to schedule, the three girls in her dormitory and Lyra were woken up at half past seven in the morning and they washed and cleaned their faces and dæmons, at eight o'clock they traipsed downstairs, merging with the girls from the other dormitories. Her particular friend, called Alicia was there, at the top of the stairs and Lyra walked over to greet her.
"Oh, hullo," said Alicia, as she saw Lyra, but Lyra was certain something was wrong. There was a troubled look in her eyes and her dæmon was trembling in her hand.
"What's wrong Ali?" asked Lyra kindly
"Oh it's so terrible Lyra!" she sobbed, clutching onto Lyra's shoulder, reminding her strongly of when she and Will found out that they would have to part. Lyra fought back her tears, brought back with a sharp pang in her heart and tried to comfort Alicia. "My aunt is a witch Lyra, I was afraid to tell you but I know you've got many friends who are witches and maybe they're in trouble too and oh!" she sobbed deeply, clutching her dæmon to her breast. Lyra waited until she could continue. "They're fighting these horrible ghosts that eat dæmons Lyra! My aunt is dead, I just found out, they took away her dæmon!" Lyra was so stunned that she had to grasp the nearby rail with her hand until her knuckles turned white. Serafina and the angels, led by Xaphania were supposed to have fought the spectres away and won easily. Now it appeared that the spectres were stronger than was estimated.
"Ali, I have to go help the witches, I promise I'll come back, I promise." And with that she leapt down the stairs, leaving the confused Alicia at the top of the stairs, staring in bewilderment. Lyra had raced all the way to the headmistress's office and asked to be excused from the school until further notice.
"Certainly not Lyra, We can't just go letting children run around in the world when they should be studying. Now go to your first class, now." There was firmness in her voice that demanded respect and obedience, so Lyra left with a heavy heart to go to her classes. She spent the whole day searching her books so she could ask the althiometer what she should do but all it ever seemed to say, however she asked it, was on the water, leave on the water This made no sense to Lyra and so she was forced to climb back up the stairs to her dormitory. At the top of the stairs however, she heard a very familiar voice.
"Lyra, we need you, the angels and the Witches are dying faster than we can fire our arrows. Your part in this is not over yet." All this was said to Lyra from somewhere above her and she didn't dare look up for fear of disappointment. But she was too excited to not look up, so she did and there was Serafina Pekkala, hovering above her through an open skylight.
"Serafina!" Lyra whispered, "I will come, but they won't let me out of here, I tried to come this morning but…"
"Hush child" Serafina replied soothingly, "Everything is sorted, we shall fly again together, as Will requested, I shall love you as my daughter, until I die." She smiled so kindly and with understanding of Lyra that seemed deeper than Lyra's own. "Now we must hurry, come, I shall meet you outside the door to the garden, go swiftly my child" and with that she was gone, the swoosh of her cloud pine ringing in Lyra's ears. She walked into her room quietly and retrieved her small backpack in which she placed the althiometer. Then she crept down the stairs, Pantalaimon leading the way with his beautiful red fur, which glinted in the moonlight.
She had to hide in a broom cupboard once as the caretaker walked past and his small poodle dæmon trotted along beside him, sniffing at the cupboard while Lyra tried not to breathe. Eventually the hallway was quiet once more and she and Pantalaimon crept out the back door, and found Serafina alighting on the rockery.
Serafina had a bag of Lyra's belongings, including her furs, which she had used in Bolvangar and something small and quite heavy for it's size. She looked up at the witch but her expression revealed nothing.
"I must leave you now Lyra, there is a terrible battle," Serafina said, distracted "I must help my sisters. Go to the canal in this town, the Gyptians are waiting there, be prepared for a task of a similar importance to your last one." Lyra simply stared as the whoosh of the cloud pine branch faded away into the distance, to be replaced by the gentle swaying of the huge oaks on the other side of the garden
She pulled the althiometer from her bag and began to laboriously turn the needles, nothing like she had used to when she had first me Serafina or her dæmon, on the deck of the liner bound for the North. After what seemed like an hour of searching through books in the warm air she finally thought she had the intentions of the witches assessed. She had to go to the Canal and travel on the water. Of course this made little sense to her, but it was quite often that the Althiometer made little sense to her recently so she shrugged, placed her books and the golden instrument into her bag and set off, dragging the bulky furs behind her.
Lyra was panting and puffing for about ten minutes and by this time her legs were feeling weak and even Pantalaimon's darting from shadow to shadow had slowed.
"Wait Pan, I have to rest" she puffed and Pantalaimon stopped beside the large marble pillar marking the corner of the town square. She shrugged her bag off her shoulder and walked slowly to the well in the centre. Bringing the bucket upwards, she splashed her face with the chill water and dipped her hand in to drink some of the refreshing water when Pantalaimon came dashing up to her and she felt the urgency in his voice.
"Lyra, there are men shouting by the canal, I couldn't get close enough really, but some of them are Tartars and they have guns." With all of her weariness gone, she leapt up and sprinted to her bags. As she picked them up however, a low clang told her that something had fallen out of her rucksack, but she didn't stop to think what it might have been before she was off down the road, racing toward the canal, her bags flailing behind her.
When she got close to the riverbank she spotted the men that Pan had spoken about, and they were definitely Tartars. The arctic Wolf dæmons constantly prowled up and down the bank and the booming voice she knew so well came echoing off the walls as John Faa yelled at the Tartar captain.
"We are travelling through this waterway whether you like it or not, Sir" he boomed, with deliberate sarcasm on the Sir. "We have perfect rights through here and nobody is going to stop us." Suddenly Lyra caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and she realised that it was Farder Coram's beautiful cat dæmon beckoning at her to come to the shadowy hull of the boat. Lyra crept there through the shadows of the buildings and before she knew what was happening, she was inside, the door was shut and the boat was moving, the Tartar's voice trailing along behind the boat. The warmth enveloped her and Farder Coram pushed her down into a chair and motioned for her to keep quiet.
A shadowy form crept through the alleys. A black cat crept along behind the form, a shadowy black cat, scrawny and mangy; it's fur patchy and dull. The emaciated animal would have seemed dead if not for the fiery gleam in it's eyes, eyes like those of a man dying with a burning fever, half mad, yet half knowing and understanding. The black figure wrapped in shawls crept in front of it, scanning the floor. Suddenly it found what it was looking for and bent down to pick it up, the small, yet surprisingly heavy, object was picked up and examined closely, by the figure and it's dæmon, and the bundle of rags and emaciated flesh grinned suddenly, a grin of malice and hatred, the single tooth of that grin glinting in the dull naphtha light. The cloaked figure began to chuckle, and then to laugh. The laugh was a high-pitched cackle, ringing out over the town, emanating from where Lyra's bags had been not an hour before.
