"Enter," a man's voice boomed, and Kyrie walked in. "Hello, Tony.
Ah, Lyra Silvertongue's daughter," Lord Daire said, standing. He was
sitting at a long table with another man, an old man, who smiled
empathetically at the girl. She smiled back nervously. "What's your name?"
Lord Daire asked gently.
"Kyrie," she replied.
"Well, Kyrie, sit down," the tall man said as Tony Costa left. "You're in good hands. We were all friends of Lyra's, and this here's Lord Faa. Your mum must have told ye about him."
Kyrie nodded, somewhat in awe of the ancient man, who had led a group of gyptians, Farder Coram, and her mother to save the children at Bølvangar. "No need to be frightened," John Faa laughed softly, his crow daemon tilting her head, almost smiling. He reminded her of the man she had known as Farder Coram, a good friend of her mother's, whose beautiful cat daemon had piqued her curiosity as a child. He passed away when she was three, and she couldn't bring herself to look at his body, because the silky cat was gone forever.
"Now, child, we need to know exactly what's happened to ye since your mum's death," Lord Daire said, getting right to the point. "If we're going to find out what we can do about the change in the Dust, then we need your story. And please tell the truth, for I know that your mother could relate the most wondrous stories when she wanted to evade fact. As a boy, I listened to her tales and believed every word, so talented she was. Right, Kyrie, start at the beginning."
Kyrie took a deep breath, and her story spilled out. "My mum was fourteen when she had me, I don't know my father. She said he lives in another world. Mum gave me her alethiometer when I was five or so and asked me if I could read it, and I could. She started asking me all these questions about the Church and Dust right before she died three months ago. I don't know why she died. One morning I woke up, and Pantalaimon, her daemon, wasn't there. I en't stupid though, I know someone killed her, and it has to be cause of the whole Dust thing."
Lord Daire nodded. "Do ye know about 'the whole Dust thing'?"
Kyrie knit her brow. "My mother was Eve, right? And my father was Adam, and cause they chose to lose their innocence, everything that the Church was trying to mess up returned to its natural order. The Church doesn't like original sin, so they were trying to keep Eve from Falling again. But it's worse now; I know that from asking the alethiometer. When my mum died, Dust disappeared altogether. Someone's got to fix it now, or else something real bad is gonna happen, en't it?"
John Faa sighed. "We've been fighting with the Church for years. They suppress and hold back, and we're wild; we nurture, and grow." He looked tired. "We're going to have to disguise you as a gyptian, like we did Lyra, so the landlubbers won't find you. They'll be looking for you, especially the Church. They trust you less than your mother."
"Why?" Kyrie asked, bewildered. "I don't like them, sure, but I en't dangerous to them?"
John Faa shook his head. "Yes, you are. Your mother lives on in you, bright and deceptive and quick. Your soul is the same witch-oil as hers."
"Kyrie, you're young, and we are old. It is the duty of the old to protect the young, and for now, I would like to protect ye. There are hard days to come, hard days for everyone. Tonight, go join the dances. Lyra would bring ye as a youngun to our revelries when ye were small, so we taught ye the steps. Ask Ma Costa for proper dress, you'll be needing it anyway if ye want to pass as one of us," Lord Daire said, and opened the door. "I'll be checking in on you, Kyrie Silvertongue."
As Kyrie walked back through the festivities across the clearing, Khan changed into a hawk, like most gyptians' daemons, but even then he was different: more fiery, and his eyes were an intense green instead of the gyptian amber. When she reached the tent, Ma Costa gave her clothing and shooed the men out so she could change.
When she emerged, Linder's lips parted and he grinned mischieviously. Kyrie wore a loose, thin white blouse, a leather corset, gold hoop earrings, and a long red skirt with lacy petticoats underneath. Her feet were bare, and Khan the hawk circled above her head. Hands on her hips, she demanded, "Well?"
Linder nodded approvingly and took her hand, leading her to the bonfire dances, which swept her up in a whirl of untamed color and bright marsh fire.
The slow rocking of Kyrie's hammock leisurely brought her to her senses. Khan lay curled around her neck as an ebony ermine, and her rucksack hung from a tack on the wall. Bright sunshine streamed into the cabin, and she woke her daemon.
Above deck, Ma Costa greeted her warmly with breakfast. "We're out in the middle of Rider's River," she explained. "No landlubber can spot ye here, so you're safe for a while. Tony, Billy, and Linder are out for a while speaking with Lord Daire, and from what I've heard, you'll be journeying."
"Journeying?" Kyrie stopped abruptly, suddenly excited.
Ma Costa sighed. "That ye will, my child. Though, if I had my way, I would never let ye out of my sight… It en't right, a gal your age, to be going off by yourself just because of a witch's prophesy."
"Witch's prophesy?" Kyrie echoed again, thoroughly intrigued.
"Well, you'll have to ask Lord Daire and his witch about that," she answered, just as cryptically. "We'll be tying up in a bit, so go play for a while before the men want to talk to ye."
Kyrie rested her arms on the boat's railing and stared out at the vast river. The riverbank was nearing, an isolated, lonely spot, with Lord Daire's boat already there; she could just make out the five figures on the misty horizon. She turned to the gull next to her. "Khan, a journey sounds like a good idea. I know we have to do something to get Dust back."
"The Church will try to stop us," he replied. "They consider us rebels, like Lyra."
"Everyone says I look exactly like her. They say I act exactly like her. And the alethiometer…"
The night before, Kyrie had come back from the dances, unable to sleep. She reached into her rucksack and pulled out the velvet bag, then withdrew the golden compass with the quivering needles and intricate pictures. Smoothly falling into a trance, she simply turned the knob to the Madonna, but the alethiometer seemed to know that what question she was asking.
Khan watched the alethiometer's response in his cat form, tail swishing. The needle moved from the Madonna to the baby to the angel. Suddenly, the long, silver needle that had never moved before pointed to the hourglass, and the whole sequence repeated until Kyrie took a deep breath. Khan waited for her translation.
"It's impossible," she told him wryly. "I can't be reading it right."
"Why? You've never read it wrong before."
"But Khan… the Madonna stands for Lyra, the baby stands for childhood, the angel for an actual angel, and I think that the silver needle pointing to the hourglass means that Time is going to go backward."
Khan unhurriedly stood, stretched, and yawned daintily. "So?"
Exasperated, Kyrie picked him up and shook him, ignoring the dizziness in her head also as she did so. "Time can't go backward! Mum can never be alive again, much less a child! You en't stupid, Khan, can't you see I must be reading it wrong?"
Khan changed into a mouse and slipped out of her hold. "Calm down. Everything's possible. It may seem unlikely, but it's possible." Becoming a hawk, he flew up to the deck, and Kyrie had no choice but to follow him. They had arrived at the riverbank; Kyrie stepped off the boat, curtseying quickly to John Faa, Lord Daire, Linder, and the two Costa men.
Billy Costa, who she hadn't seen yet, was a young man in his mid-twenties. He stepped forward involuntarily when he saw Kyrie, his mind leaping to the assumption that she was Lyra, his friend and rescuer when he was in Bølvangar thirteen years before, before he realized the impossibility of his hope. Lyra was dead.
"Kyrie, child, I'm afraid we need to talk to ye again," Lord Daire said. "We're waiting for a friend of mine, a witch, who will explicate the situation." He looked to the sky, and Kyrie followed his gaze, watching a shadowy shape approach. "Here she comes."
When the young woman alighted from her spray of cloud-pine, Kyrie noted how ferocious she looked in her tattered, yet regal robes, her bare arms powerful and her bare feet light on the cold ground. The girl also caught the indecipherable look Lord Daire gave the witch, brimming with mixed emotions.
"Ruta Skadi, Queen of the Fire Forest clan," he announced, and the witch and her bluethroat daemon nodded gracefully.
"I have come to help explain the troubles in the worlds," the woman began. "Lyra Belaqua, called Lyra Silvertongue for defeating Iofur Raknison with her swift words, was known to the witches as Eve, Mother of All. Ever since the first Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, humans have been flawed individuals, which the Church regarded as a problem. They say that everyone is a sinner after they reach puberty and their daemon settles, and they were determined to change that, hoping to become God-like.
"When the worlds became aware that history would repeat itself and that Eve had been reincarnated into the form of Lyra Silvertongue, all humans were split in two: One group, the Church and its followers, were determined to keep Eve from Falling when she was tempted. The other group was content with being imperfect; realizing that to be mortal is to be easily tempted, and wanted Eve to give in to the serpent, played by Dr. Mary Malone, a former nun.
"The two groups began a lengthy battle in order to sway the outcome of the temptation. Mrs. Coulter, Lyra's mother, was sly and corrupted, starting with the Church but finishing with the rebels because of a newfound love for her daughter. Lord Asriel, Lyra's father, headed the rebel group against the Church, and our witch clan was among his supporters. We pledged to protect Lyra and Will, the carrier of the Subtle Knife, with our lives, and succeeded. She gave into temptation and slept with Will, losing her innocence and securing all humans as sinners, while Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel killed Metatron, the angel who had taken on the role of King of Heaven. Kyrie, you are the daughter of Adam and Eve, then known as Lyra and Will."
Ruta Skadi paused. "Questions?" she asked.
"What does Dust have to do with this?" John Faa asked. "I'm sorry, I may just be getting old, but you haven't mentioned Dust. And is it true that Dust has disappeared altogether since Lyra's death?"
Sergi, Ruta Skadi's bluethroat daemon, answered for the witch. "Dust is attracted to man's impurity. It is conscious matter that avoids children before their daemons have settled because they are innocent, untouched. Before Lyra as Eve accepted temptation, the natural scheme of the universe was interrupted, and Dust was being repelled by the Church's quest for lifelong innocence and perfection. When she slept with Will, everything was returned to the way it should be, and Dust went back to raining gently on humans with settled daemons.
"However, as I'm sure you all have guessed, Lyra was murdered. The witches believe it was by the Church, whose agents are now searching for Will, who holds the remnants of the Subtle Knife. They wish to kill both Adam and Eve, destroy the alethiometer and the Subtle Knife, and start again from the beginning. There is a new ruler in Heaven, the Son of God, and his name is Jesus. He has promised the Church a flood that will destroy all rebels, promised that he will save the Church and everyone who swears allegiance to their cause."
"Like Noah's Ark," Kyrie whispered, numb. She looked around and saw that John Faa, Lord Daire, Tony, Billy, and Linder were just as shaken by the inundation of knowledge.
Ruta Skadi nodded. "Bright child, hear this witch's prophesy: Eve has Fallen twice and will be tempted again. Serefina Pekkala dreamt that Lyra came to her and told her this, and it is my duty to tell you."
Khan, a mink, dug his claws lightly into Kyrie's skin, and she knew that he was reminding her of the alethiometer's counsel earlier.
"Now, I must leave," Ruta Skadi declared majestically, grasping her cloud- pine. She plucked a fresh flower from her hair and handed it to Kyrie. "Use this to call me if you ever need help. Lord Daire, you must tell Kyrie what she has to do. Farewell." She slowly rose into the air and flew into the hazy sky.
Lord Daire sighed. "Kyrie, ye are the only one who can find your father and take the Subtle Knife before the Church can find either Will or the shards of the knife. There are a few windows left, although the witches are fast closing them to stop Dusk from leaking out of the worlds and disappearing forever; the window between here and Will's world is only a day's journey away on foot. As much as this is against my will, and as much as I wish I could shield ye longer, I see no other choice but to let ye go."
Khan changed into cat form and began purring. Kyrie sprang to her feet. "You en't joking?" she demanded, forgetting her trepidation of Lord Daire and John Faa. "I can really go?"
John Faa nodded wearily. "Be careful, child. There are those who are watching out for you, but there are those who will harm you."
Kyrie glanced in Linder's direction. Blaise was ruffling her feathers sullenly, and the boy's eyes were dark.
Billy Costa noticed the gyptian prince's discontent also. "Speak, Linder, if you feel the need to voice an opinion. You are an adult and we will listen to you as such."
"I want to go with Kyrie," Linder said determinedly. "She shouldn't go alone."
Lord Daire flinched almost imperceptibly, "Ye are my only child, Linder," he said gruffly. "My heart will ache with missing ye if ye leave, but it is your decision. When your daemon settled, ye began to owe responsibility to yourself first and foremost, so choose your path wisely."
Linder stood. "I will miss you too, my Lord." The men rose to their feet as Lord Daire embraced his son.
"You should leave immediately," John Faa said, and for the first time, Kyrie noticed how very old he was. "The Church is gaining every second and the landlubbers are searching for Kyrie, so I would not hesitate if I were you. The window is behind Rider's Falls, farther down the river."
Kyrie ran back to the boat to say goodbye to Ma Costa and pick up her rucksack, then joined Linder. "Ready?" she asked softly, and he nodded.
The men watched the fierce girl and the hard golden boy melt into the mists, and Tony Costa sighed. "It was difficult to talk to her, when she looked that much like Lyra. In fact, I can't tell the difference between them except for her eyes."
"She has her father's eyes," John Faa said, pensively. "But she's Lyra all over again." He turned to Lord Daire, who was staring into space. "You didn't tell Linder who his mother is, did you?"
The gyptian king shook his head. "He knows she en't a gyptian, but that's all. I told him she died when he was little. Some things are better left unsaid."
"Now, I don't know if that was wise of you," replied the elderly man. "It might have been difficult for you, but the boy should know."
"Do you think they'll find the window before it's closed?" Billy wondered aloud. The others shrugged nervously, and headed back to their boats to immerse themselves in the comfort of the wandering, nomadic life they led like their forefathers.
"Kyrie," she replied.
"Well, Kyrie, sit down," the tall man said as Tony Costa left. "You're in good hands. We were all friends of Lyra's, and this here's Lord Faa. Your mum must have told ye about him."
Kyrie nodded, somewhat in awe of the ancient man, who had led a group of gyptians, Farder Coram, and her mother to save the children at Bølvangar. "No need to be frightened," John Faa laughed softly, his crow daemon tilting her head, almost smiling. He reminded her of the man she had known as Farder Coram, a good friend of her mother's, whose beautiful cat daemon had piqued her curiosity as a child. He passed away when she was three, and she couldn't bring herself to look at his body, because the silky cat was gone forever.
"Now, child, we need to know exactly what's happened to ye since your mum's death," Lord Daire said, getting right to the point. "If we're going to find out what we can do about the change in the Dust, then we need your story. And please tell the truth, for I know that your mother could relate the most wondrous stories when she wanted to evade fact. As a boy, I listened to her tales and believed every word, so talented she was. Right, Kyrie, start at the beginning."
Kyrie took a deep breath, and her story spilled out. "My mum was fourteen when she had me, I don't know my father. She said he lives in another world. Mum gave me her alethiometer when I was five or so and asked me if I could read it, and I could. She started asking me all these questions about the Church and Dust right before she died three months ago. I don't know why she died. One morning I woke up, and Pantalaimon, her daemon, wasn't there. I en't stupid though, I know someone killed her, and it has to be cause of the whole Dust thing."
Lord Daire nodded. "Do ye know about 'the whole Dust thing'?"
Kyrie knit her brow. "My mother was Eve, right? And my father was Adam, and cause they chose to lose their innocence, everything that the Church was trying to mess up returned to its natural order. The Church doesn't like original sin, so they were trying to keep Eve from Falling again. But it's worse now; I know that from asking the alethiometer. When my mum died, Dust disappeared altogether. Someone's got to fix it now, or else something real bad is gonna happen, en't it?"
John Faa sighed. "We've been fighting with the Church for years. They suppress and hold back, and we're wild; we nurture, and grow." He looked tired. "We're going to have to disguise you as a gyptian, like we did Lyra, so the landlubbers won't find you. They'll be looking for you, especially the Church. They trust you less than your mother."
"Why?" Kyrie asked, bewildered. "I don't like them, sure, but I en't dangerous to them?"
John Faa shook his head. "Yes, you are. Your mother lives on in you, bright and deceptive and quick. Your soul is the same witch-oil as hers."
"Kyrie, you're young, and we are old. It is the duty of the old to protect the young, and for now, I would like to protect ye. There are hard days to come, hard days for everyone. Tonight, go join the dances. Lyra would bring ye as a youngun to our revelries when ye were small, so we taught ye the steps. Ask Ma Costa for proper dress, you'll be needing it anyway if ye want to pass as one of us," Lord Daire said, and opened the door. "I'll be checking in on you, Kyrie Silvertongue."
As Kyrie walked back through the festivities across the clearing, Khan changed into a hawk, like most gyptians' daemons, but even then he was different: more fiery, and his eyes were an intense green instead of the gyptian amber. When she reached the tent, Ma Costa gave her clothing and shooed the men out so she could change.
When she emerged, Linder's lips parted and he grinned mischieviously. Kyrie wore a loose, thin white blouse, a leather corset, gold hoop earrings, and a long red skirt with lacy petticoats underneath. Her feet were bare, and Khan the hawk circled above her head. Hands on her hips, she demanded, "Well?"
Linder nodded approvingly and took her hand, leading her to the bonfire dances, which swept her up in a whirl of untamed color and bright marsh fire.
The slow rocking of Kyrie's hammock leisurely brought her to her senses. Khan lay curled around her neck as an ebony ermine, and her rucksack hung from a tack on the wall. Bright sunshine streamed into the cabin, and she woke her daemon.
Above deck, Ma Costa greeted her warmly with breakfast. "We're out in the middle of Rider's River," she explained. "No landlubber can spot ye here, so you're safe for a while. Tony, Billy, and Linder are out for a while speaking with Lord Daire, and from what I've heard, you'll be journeying."
"Journeying?" Kyrie stopped abruptly, suddenly excited.
Ma Costa sighed. "That ye will, my child. Though, if I had my way, I would never let ye out of my sight… It en't right, a gal your age, to be going off by yourself just because of a witch's prophesy."
"Witch's prophesy?" Kyrie echoed again, thoroughly intrigued.
"Well, you'll have to ask Lord Daire and his witch about that," she answered, just as cryptically. "We'll be tying up in a bit, so go play for a while before the men want to talk to ye."
Kyrie rested her arms on the boat's railing and stared out at the vast river. The riverbank was nearing, an isolated, lonely spot, with Lord Daire's boat already there; she could just make out the five figures on the misty horizon. She turned to the gull next to her. "Khan, a journey sounds like a good idea. I know we have to do something to get Dust back."
"The Church will try to stop us," he replied. "They consider us rebels, like Lyra."
"Everyone says I look exactly like her. They say I act exactly like her. And the alethiometer…"
The night before, Kyrie had come back from the dances, unable to sleep. She reached into her rucksack and pulled out the velvet bag, then withdrew the golden compass with the quivering needles and intricate pictures. Smoothly falling into a trance, she simply turned the knob to the Madonna, but the alethiometer seemed to know that what question she was asking.
Khan watched the alethiometer's response in his cat form, tail swishing. The needle moved from the Madonna to the baby to the angel. Suddenly, the long, silver needle that had never moved before pointed to the hourglass, and the whole sequence repeated until Kyrie took a deep breath. Khan waited for her translation.
"It's impossible," she told him wryly. "I can't be reading it right."
"Why? You've never read it wrong before."
"But Khan… the Madonna stands for Lyra, the baby stands for childhood, the angel for an actual angel, and I think that the silver needle pointing to the hourglass means that Time is going to go backward."
Khan unhurriedly stood, stretched, and yawned daintily. "So?"
Exasperated, Kyrie picked him up and shook him, ignoring the dizziness in her head also as she did so. "Time can't go backward! Mum can never be alive again, much less a child! You en't stupid, Khan, can't you see I must be reading it wrong?"
Khan changed into a mouse and slipped out of her hold. "Calm down. Everything's possible. It may seem unlikely, but it's possible." Becoming a hawk, he flew up to the deck, and Kyrie had no choice but to follow him. They had arrived at the riverbank; Kyrie stepped off the boat, curtseying quickly to John Faa, Lord Daire, Linder, and the two Costa men.
Billy Costa, who she hadn't seen yet, was a young man in his mid-twenties. He stepped forward involuntarily when he saw Kyrie, his mind leaping to the assumption that she was Lyra, his friend and rescuer when he was in Bølvangar thirteen years before, before he realized the impossibility of his hope. Lyra was dead.
"Kyrie, child, I'm afraid we need to talk to ye again," Lord Daire said. "We're waiting for a friend of mine, a witch, who will explicate the situation." He looked to the sky, and Kyrie followed his gaze, watching a shadowy shape approach. "Here she comes."
When the young woman alighted from her spray of cloud-pine, Kyrie noted how ferocious she looked in her tattered, yet regal robes, her bare arms powerful and her bare feet light on the cold ground. The girl also caught the indecipherable look Lord Daire gave the witch, brimming with mixed emotions.
"Ruta Skadi, Queen of the Fire Forest clan," he announced, and the witch and her bluethroat daemon nodded gracefully.
"I have come to help explain the troubles in the worlds," the woman began. "Lyra Belaqua, called Lyra Silvertongue for defeating Iofur Raknison with her swift words, was known to the witches as Eve, Mother of All. Ever since the first Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, humans have been flawed individuals, which the Church regarded as a problem. They say that everyone is a sinner after they reach puberty and their daemon settles, and they were determined to change that, hoping to become God-like.
"When the worlds became aware that history would repeat itself and that Eve had been reincarnated into the form of Lyra Silvertongue, all humans were split in two: One group, the Church and its followers, were determined to keep Eve from Falling when she was tempted. The other group was content with being imperfect; realizing that to be mortal is to be easily tempted, and wanted Eve to give in to the serpent, played by Dr. Mary Malone, a former nun.
"The two groups began a lengthy battle in order to sway the outcome of the temptation. Mrs. Coulter, Lyra's mother, was sly and corrupted, starting with the Church but finishing with the rebels because of a newfound love for her daughter. Lord Asriel, Lyra's father, headed the rebel group against the Church, and our witch clan was among his supporters. We pledged to protect Lyra and Will, the carrier of the Subtle Knife, with our lives, and succeeded. She gave into temptation and slept with Will, losing her innocence and securing all humans as sinners, while Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel killed Metatron, the angel who had taken on the role of King of Heaven. Kyrie, you are the daughter of Adam and Eve, then known as Lyra and Will."
Ruta Skadi paused. "Questions?" she asked.
"What does Dust have to do with this?" John Faa asked. "I'm sorry, I may just be getting old, but you haven't mentioned Dust. And is it true that Dust has disappeared altogether since Lyra's death?"
Sergi, Ruta Skadi's bluethroat daemon, answered for the witch. "Dust is attracted to man's impurity. It is conscious matter that avoids children before their daemons have settled because they are innocent, untouched. Before Lyra as Eve accepted temptation, the natural scheme of the universe was interrupted, and Dust was being repelled by the Church's quest for lifelong innocence and perfection. When she slept with Will, everything was returned to the way it should be, and Dust went back to raining gently on humans with settled daemons.
"However, as I'm sure you all have guessed, Lyra was murdered. The witches believe it was by the Church, whose agents are now searching for Will, who holds the remnants of the Subtle Knife. They wish to kill both Adam and Eve, destroy the alethiometer and the Subtle Knife, and start again from the beginning. There is a new ruler in Heaven, the Son of God, and his name is Jesus. He has promised the Church a flood that will destroy all rebels, promised that he will save the Church and everyone who swears allegiance to their cause."
"Like Noah's Ark," Kyrie whispered, numb. She looked around and saw that John Faa, Lord Daire, Tony, Billy, and Linder were just as shaken by the inundation of knowledge.
Ruta Skadi nodded. "Bright child, hear this witch's prophesy: Eve has Fallen twice and will be tempted again. Serefina Pekkala dreamt that Lyra came to her and told her this, and it is my duty to tell you."
Khan, a mink, dug his claws lightly into Kyrie's skin, and she knew that he was reminding her of the alethiometer's counsel earlier.
"Now, I must leave," Ruta Skadi declared majestically, grasping her cloud- pine. She plucked a fresh flower from her hair and handed it to Kyrie. "Use this to call me if you ever need help. Lord Daire, you must tell Kyrie what she has to do. Farewell." She slowly rose into the air and flew into the hazy sky.
Lord Daire sighed. "Kyrie, ye are the only one who can find your father and take the Subtle Knife before the Church can find either Will or the shards of the knife. There are a few windows left, although the witches are fast closing them to stop Dusk from leaking out of the worlds and disappearing forever; the window between here and Will's world is only a day's journey away on foot. As much as this is against my will, and as much as I wish I could shield ye longer, I see no other choice but to let ye go."
Khan changed into cat form and began purring. Kyrie sprang to her feet. "You en't joking?" she demanded, forgetting her trepidation of Lord Daire and John Faa. "I can really go?"
John Faa nodded wearily. "Be careful, child. There are those who are watching out for you, but there are those who will harm you."
Kyrie glanced in Linder's direction. Blaise was ruffling her feathers sullenly, and the boy's eyes were dark.
Billy Costa noticed the gyptian prince's discontent also. "Speak, Linder, if you feel the need to voice an opinion. You are an adult and we will listen to you as such."
"I want to go with Kyrie," Linder said determinedly. "She shouldn't go alone."
Lord Daire flinched almost imperceptibly, "Ye are my only child, Linder," he said gruffly. "My heart will ache with missing ye if ye leave, but it is your decision. When your daemon settled, ye began to owe responsibility to yourself first and foremost, so choose your path wisely."
Linder stood. "I will miss you too, my Lord." The men rose to their feet as Lord Daire embraced his son.
"You should leave immediately," John Faa said, and for the first time, Kyrie noticed how very old he was. "The Church is gaining every second and the landlubbers are searching for Kyrie, so I would not hesitate if I were you. The window is behind Rider's Falls, farther down the river."
Kyrie ran back to the boat to say goodbye to Ma Costa and pick up her rucksack, then joined Linder. "Ready?" she asked softly, and he nodded.
The men watched the fierce girl and the hard golden boy melt into the mists, and Tony Costa sighed. "It was difficult to talk to her, when she looked that much like Lyra. In fact, I can't tell the difference between them except for her eyes."
"She has her father's eyes," John Faa said, pensively. "But she's Lyra all over again." He turned to Lord Daire, who was staring into space. "You didn't tell Linder who his mother is, did you?"
The gyptian king shook his head. "He knows she en't a gyptian, but that's all. I told him she died when he was little. Some things are better left unsaid."
"Now, I don't know if that was wise of you," replied the elderly man. "It might have been difficult for you, but the boy should know."
"Do you think they'll find the window before it's closed?" Billy wondered aloud. The others shrugged nervously, and headed back to their boats to immerse themselves in the comfort of the wandering, nomadic life they led like their forefathers.