Author's Note: This chapter was originally going to be much bigger but I decided to split it into two smaller ones. I'll upload the next chapter tomorrow.
Enjoy!
Lyra opened her eyes and quickly sat up, breathing heavily, her heart raging in her chest. Another nightmare. She brushed the tears and sweat from her face and looked around to make sure she was back in reality. The dorm room was dim and Lyra guessed it was probably the early hours of morning. She looked at the clock in the room. Four thirty. Her gaze fell on her daemon Pantalaimon, who was just awakening at the foot of the bed, and then she cast a glance her roommate Emma, still fast asleep. Lyra knew that she wasn't going to get any more sleep after that dream. She had already forgotten how many times that nightmare had chased away her sleep.
It had been no more than three months after her great adventure ended. No more than three months after she and Will had parted ways forever; and her heart was ripped from her chest. And she feared that the pain was slowly eating away at her sanity.
Pan crawled tiredly to her and she held her daemon tightly to her chest. They needn't speak. They both knew what the other felt.
Lyra reached behind her pillow and felt her fingers touch the cold metal of the alethiometer. She grabbed it and sat cross-legged in her bed. At times like these she would ask what her dream meant or if Will was okay. But now she would ask something else
She took a deep breath and looked at the intricately painted symbols. She concentrated on her dream, specifically at the end, and tried to interpret its meanings. She got down to them and selected the moon, the angel and the bull. Then she held the question in her mind and watched the needle dart. It stopped on the serpent and stayed there. Lyra ran through her mind all the meanings of the serpent she knew of but didn't understand what it was telling her. She wanted to know more.
As if understanding her, the alethiometer worked again. Now it darted from symbol to symbol. It selected the owl, the serpent again, then the moon, griffin and many more symbols. Despite her limited knowledge of the meanings strangeness occurred then; even though she had lost the subconscious grace that allowed her to understand the golden compass, she felt it was telling her about someone dark, powerful and dangerous, but also protective and knowledgeable and almost ancient. Lyra didn't trust her interpretation of the symbols and yet she had a feeling that the person the alethiometer showed her knew something important.
"Lyra? How long have you been awake?"
Lyra hid the alethiometer under the covers and looked at Emma, who was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She then glanced at the clock. It was seven thirty.
"A couple 'o hours." Lyra shrugged. Pan shook himself awake and flowed into her lap. "I couldn't sleep."
"Been having nightmares again?" The other girl asked. "There's nothing to worry about. There haven't been any kidnappings by the Gobblers for months." Emma got out of her bed and tiredly made her way to the bathroom.
"It's not the Gobblers I'm worried about." Lyra murmured to herself.
"Oh Lyra." Pan jumped on her shoulder and nuzzled her neck, feeling her anxiety. "I'm sure they're alright."
"I don't know Pan." Lyra whispered. "It's been like this for months now. I always see him, how frightened he is, pleading for help. And I can't reach him. I can never save him. And every day I feel like I'm getting weaker. It's the same every night. Darkness and death." She shook her head and clutched her daemon tightly. "I'm going insane, aren't I?"
"We're not going insane. We just miss them so much. And today it was different." Pan's voice was matter of fact. "I know it was different."
"You're right. But why was it different? I asked the alethiometer and it was too confusing. I think it meant that something dangerous is going to happen. And I don't know how that's all related."
"We'll think on it later." Pan said and jumped back on the bed. "First we'll have to get through school."
School. If hell really existed Lyra would compare it with this building.
Never having been to a real school before, Lyra had a hard time getting used to it. When Dame Hannah had offered Lyra to study at the boarding school in north Oxford, Lyra was ever so grateful to her. She'd made up her mind very soon after that and now she'd been studying in St. Sofia's for nearly three months. At first she was excited and looked forward to making new friendships and learning new things and most of all learning how to read the alethiometer again. But everything quickly went south in a matter of days.
It was hard for Lyra to fit in with everything being so different from the life she'd known before. She didn't get along with any of the girls in the school – they were as different as chalk and cheese, and all the teachers were giving her a hell of a rough time because she had to catch up with her education. Years' worth of studying couldn't be achieved in mere days and Lyra resented the entire extra work and studying she was forced to do. The only things that made all of this bearable were her friendship with Emma, a girl not unlike herself, and the private alethiometer lessons with Dame Hannah.
So, another two weeks in St. Sofia's School seemed to drag on forever to the young girl. She tried staying awake, tried keeping her mind on her subjects but every once in a while her thoughts would drift back to that dream. Usually her nightmares would show her vivid images of Will dying in horrific ways; choking to death, or spitting blood, or clutching his slit throat. Lyra had thrown up so many times after her nightmares that she resolved not to eat for hours before going to bed. The nights tormented her still and each day she felt she was becoming weaker; the loss of weight and dark circles around her eyes were more than enough evidence.
However, that night she had finally gotten an image of what ended Will's life and now she clearly recalled it. She saw an angled blade fall from above, about to severe his head from his shoulders. Only Lyra couldn't remember the name of the execution device but it looked and felt so familiar that it made her nauseous every time she thought of it. She knew that something was coming. And she felt being pulled to it.
So, with her mind full of thoughts and questions she could not voice, Lyra entered her history class and took her place on the last desk, far away from the teacher.
"Settle down girls." The middle-aged lady said. "Today we will be talking about a major event in our history that had an enormous impact on our world. It was a time of uprisings, terror and blood. It was a period of radical social and political upheaval. The French Revolution. The French Revolution started in seventeen eighty-nine, after…" And that's when Lyra zoned out.
She kept thinking about the device in her dream. She even thought about asking the alethiometer about it but later decided against that idea, wanting to reconcile with her teachers from their last disagreements. So, she just pretended to write down what her teacher said while Pan was lying curled up by her bag. It wasn't until half an hour later that she perked up.
"The guillotine was a common, if not popular, device for carrying out executions in France during that period. It consists of a tall upright frame in which a weighted and angled blade is raised to the top and suspended. The condemned person is secured at the bottom of the frame, with his or her neck held directly below the blade. The blade is then released, to fall swiftly and sever the head from the body. Its first prototype was built by…"
Lyra stopped listening again. The description of the guillotine fit perfectly with her dream. But what was the connection between Will and it? Lyra quickly fished out the alethiometer from her bag and, making sure no one was looking, turned the hands of the instrument.
"Lyra what are you doing?" Pan whispered.
"Hush Pan." Lyra said, too excited to explain.
"If she catches you, we'll be in trouble. Again."
"She won't. Now keep quiet." She told him and held her question in her mind.
The needle darted slowly, as if the instrument itself wasn't sure what she meant. Lyra concentrated harder, holding her question and just following the needles. The needle then stopped right before a symbol and started again, pointing to completely different symbols than the last time. Lyra's eyes followed the darting needle and tried so hard to find those ladders of meaning which weren't there anymore. She tried putting all she'd learned from her lessons with Dame Hannah into this one question, needing just one answer. And then the symbols started glowing.
Lyra gasped slightly but held her state of mind. The symbols on which the needle had stopped seemed to be glowing with an eerie white light. And the answer was clear now; she just had to read it. A bringer of death…
"Lyra Belacqua!" The stern voice of the teacher came, followed by the laughter of girls.
Lyra snapped out of her trance. It was becoming a bad habit for her to always try and decipher the meaning of the ancient device at every moment her teachers looked away. However, this time she managed to get a lead.
"Yes Mrs. Wright." Lyra straightened at attention.
"I asked you a question. When was the French Revolution?" The middle-aged woman repeated with less patience than before.
"Um… it was in seventeen-" Just then the bell rang, signaling the end of history class. "I gotta go. Goodbye Mrs. Wright." Lyra quickly escaped the classroom before the teacher could react. Dame Hannah would hear of this but Lyra would deal with it later.
"Saved by the bell, Belacqua. Hopefully next time you won't be so lucky." A girl sneered.
"And let's hope the teacher makes a rule 'no dogs in class' so I won't have to look at your powdered face, Marion."
Lyra gave the girl the best fierce look she could manage, remembering how Will did it.
Will.
The thought quickly extinguished all the fire she'd built up for a long heated fight. Most of the girls at St. Sophia came from wealthy families, always bragging about their riches and blue blood. But, as Lyra had noticed from her few weeks in the school, they acted more like pack dogs, always choosing their own and isolating the rest. Lyra was one of those isolated, or she wished she was. She wished she was invisible, but for some reason the snobs always chose to pick on her and that forced her and Pan to sometimes defend themselves. But given her record as a wild child back in Jordan College, she was always given the benefit of the doubt.
But she had a goal here: to learn how to read the alethiometer again. And nothing would stand in her way.
"Oh Lyra." A voice called from behind her. Lyra turned to her French class teacher. "Lyra, Dame Hannah wants to see you immediately." The teacher said.
"Now? But Ms. Bonnet, my lesson with her is after mathematics." Lyra protested. She'd already skipped enough classes, lying that Dame Hannah wanted to speak with her. And how would she be in trouble if she was late for another lesson.
"No, Dame Hannah said it was of utmost importance." Ms. Bonnet insisted.
Lyra reluctantly nodded and hurriedly made her way to the office. "What do you think's the problem, Pan? She's never called for me like this." Lyra asked, holding Pantalaimon to her chest.
"I don't know. I got a bad feeling." The pine marten said, nuzzling into her neck.
"You always say that. But this time I feel it too."
"Honestly, I can't believe you actually agreed to that meeting." The young woman said casually with a smile, standing in the office of Dame Hannah Relf, inspecting the books and items on the shelf of a cabinet. Her back was turned to the Dame but that in no way made the old woman feel more comfortable. The curtains were pulled together and the only light coming in the room was from the hearth behind the coffee table and from the candelabras above it. The light cast perfect shadows that helped the young woman blend in the dark, almost becoming invisible. "I thought I'd have to send Xander to give you a second letter to show you that the matter was of utmost importance." She said and turned to the Dame. Her cat daemon gave a soft growl and butted his head against her boots.
"And then I'd be the one responsible for giving the woman a heart attack." He hissed lowly to his girl. She bent down and put the big cat on her shoulder, lovingly rubbing him behind the ears.
"You should know I'm not that old." The Dame said with a scowl on her face, having heard the daemon's comment.
The girl's face became from casual and cocky to clean and serious. "I am aware of that, Dame Hannah. But you must understand that I couldn't take any chances. Not here. Not now. It was important that I keep a low profile so as not to bring harm to anybody. I don't want innocent people to suffer because of my mission. Besides, I needed some relief of my conscience to think more clearly." The young woman gently smoothed the long black piece of mane atop her daemon's head. The cat rolled his eyes and pushed himself off from her shoulder, landing silently and gracefully. Xander jumped on an armchair and nestled in the cushions, his striped silky fur blending with the tapestry.
Dame Hannah knew from the very beginning that this young woman was dangerous but just how dangerous she'd only just begun to understand.
"I figured it would be best if we met somewhere away from the public's eye. Even though the Magisterium doesn't keep track of things as it did before, we should always remain vigilant." The young woman continued her polite talk.
The Dame shifted in her armchair, her back to the fire. "I find it unbelievable myself that I agreed to meet a mysterious person in the dead of night in a secluded place. Considering that I still haven't seen your face." Fear was slowly creeping up the old woman's voice but she tried to keep a poker face.
The young woman smiled underneath her mask. In addition to the mask that covered all her face, except for her striking green eyes, she also wore a hood, which cast shadows that made her eyes look pitch black and soulless. "I promise you that you will see my face when the girl comes. And please forgive me for causing you this fear and anxiety. I have that effect on people sometimes." Her proud and nonchalant tone made Dame Hannah take a shuddering breath. "Since you don't know me you can ask me anything you like. About me, that is." The girl added as an afterthought.
The Dame sized up the young woman for the umpteenth time since she'd seen her. Tall, stocky build, clearly strong. She was clad in an odd costume made of hard leather. Basically her visitor was made for battle and was no stranger to it. Even her voice was slightly rough, muffled by the mask as it was. "How old are you? It would be good to know that I'm entrusting the girl into the hands of an adult. You seem like in your early twenties." She asked tentatively.
Her visitor chuckled. "Close enough. Fifteen."
"Fifteen?!" The Dame asked incredulously.
"And a half." The daemon added. "We're three years older than the Belacqua girl."
Now the Dame was intrigued. "Fascinating. And where do you come from? You're so young and yet seem clearly experienced in handling dangerous situations."
"Many years of training, battles and struggle for survival can do wonders, darling. That's enough of a hint that I'm not from around these parts." The girl chuckled lightly but the old woman still remained on edge.
"I want to make sure of one more thing." Dame Hannah said. "Will you promise to take care of Lyra? I know she's been through a lot and it pains me to see someone so young to be thrust into such conflicts again."
The young woman put a hand over her heart, dead serious again. "Dame Hannah, I swear that Lyra Silvertongue will not be alone. I promise to protect her with my life and take care of her as if she were my sister."
Just then the door to the office opened and Lyra burst in. "Dame Hannah, you wanted to see me?"
"Lyra, sit down. There's something we have to tell you." Dame Hannah said tiredly.
Lyra was a bit confused about the 'we' part but decided the Dame meant her marmoset daemon. She closed the door behind her but before she could take another step she said "Dame Hannah, I'm not in trouble or anything, right? You know that every word that comes out of Marion's mouth is a lie and-"
"Lyra this has nothing to do with your school life. This is really important and I don't know how you'll take the news." Dame Hannah looked anxious again, her eyes darting between the wild determined girl and the youth who unbeknownst to Lyra was standing two feet away from her.
"Is it something about my parents?" Lyra made to sit in the armchair opposite of the Dame when a soft growl came from it.
"Watch it, you almost sat on me." A large cat said. Lyra noticed he was larger than Will's daemon Kirjava. Before she could speak her surprise the cat daemon jumped from the chair and hid behind the legs of…
Lyra's mouth promptly dropped open at the sight of the girl standing before her.
"Lyra," said Dame Hannah, "I'd like you to meet Alessandra Samara. You will be entrusted in her care from now on."
"What's going on here?" Lyra glanced at Dame Hannah, who now wore a sad look on her face.
"Lyra, before you jump to any conclusions, I want you to know that I mean you no harm, I only wish to protect you." Alessandra held her hand in a peaceable manner. Her hood was down and she held her mask in her hand, her face completely exposed in the light of the room.
"But what's going on? I-I don't understand." Lyra shook her head, fearfully staring up at the tall teenager. She was well a head taller than Lyra. And the long black coat and numerous scars on her face made her all the more horrifying.
"Lyra you must know something: you're in grave danger. I came here to take you to a safe place for protection. I'm not sure if you know this but you are very important and there are people who mean you harm because of that." Alessandra said.
"Lyra I know it's hard for you to understand now but you must go with Sandra." This time Dame Hannah answered. "She contacted me two weeks ago and told me there was a threat hanging above your head. And there are only so many things that I can keep you safe from."
"You know that the Magisterium wanted you dead but you had no idea why, right?" Alessandra asked softly. Lyra shook her head. "Well, it's not only them; there are many more people and organizations that want you, either to kill you, use you or worse. And it ain't gonna be pretty if they get their hands on you."
"How should I trust you then?" Lyra asked. "How do I know you en't sent here from the Magisterium to get me and trick Dame Hannah?"
Sandra sighed through her nose. She worried at her bottom lip, choosing her next words carefully. "Look, I know that you have no reason to trust me; I'm a stranger that could be an assassin and I've come out of the blue to take you God knows where. But… don't you think that there is a reason for this? If I really was sent here by the Magisterium to get you, don't you think I would've done it without giving myself away? Here I am, in Dame Hannah's office after requesting an audience with her, telling you that I'm going to protect you." She took a step back, spreading her arms wide. "What do you think? Am I really here to hurt you?"
Lyra stared hard at the girl. She knew that she shouldn't trust her. But there was something in the strange girl's open and pleading expression that told her otherwise. And if what she said was saying was true… Lyra made up her mind. "I'll go with you. But on two conditions: one, you will tell me everything I want to know about all this; why people are searching for me, where'll you take me and what exactly you plan to do. And two, you will make sure that no harm comes to Dame Hannah or the school. Got that?"
Alessandra blinked once before nodding her head. "Alright." She said simply. She hid her face beneath her mask and hood. "Pack your things and get the alethiometer. Meet me at the Botanic Garden in about two hours." In two long strides Alessandra was at the door, Xander close behind her. She opened the door and stepped into the hallway… and was gone.