"This is the place." Will whispered to Kirjava as they reached the street. The row of Hornbeam trees looked just the same as it had done the very moment he had turned the corner and set eyes on the window in the air that destiny-changing day two years ago, and followed the cat through into the spectre-ridden world of Citegazze.
The air was empty now, and the street was quiet as Will cautiously made his way into the shade of the Hornbeam trees.
Almost to make absolutely certain the window wasn't there, Will reached out, and waved his hand through the space, half hoping to feel something there. Nothing.
"What are you doing?"
Will started and whipped round to face the speaker, Kirjava on his shoulder hissing and spitting, her claws digging into his flesh.
"Who are you?"
"You didn't answer my question: what are you doing?"
"That's none of your business, but if you must know, I was taking a walk." Will's tone was quick and angry, though his rage was only due to the fact that he had been taken by surprise, and he hadn't wanted to be seen.
"Ah, but you're not. I can see through lies, you know. You were looking for a way through."
"A way through to where?" Will was lying through his teeth now, desperate to look as though he was clueless as to what the stranger was talking about.
"A way through to what indeed! You know perfectly well what I'm talking about, boy! A way through to another world."
Will felt as though someone had just tipped a bucket of icy water down the back of his shirt. How did they know?
"Who are you?" He asked suspiciously, reaching up and burying his fingers in Kirjava's fur for reassurance.
"You first, boy. It's only polite to introduce yourself first."
"No." Will answered flatly. "I answered your first question, now you answer mine. It's only polite."
There came a soft cynical laugh, followed by a slow intake of breath. Will shivered a little as he heard the breath hiss slightly as it went in, and wondered what would make it do that.
"Very well." The reply came after a few seconds. It was a female voice, but hardly recognisable as one. It was harsh, rough and not entirely human sounding. The stranger spoke with a slight accent, although Will couldn't place it.
"My name, boy, is Aluchhia Fince. Now that you have mine, I might ask for yours, seein' as that was the deal."
"My name's Will Parry, son of John Parry. But as you're quite obviously not from this world, maybe the name Stanislaus Grummand will mean something more to you."
"Ah, yes, it does. Now, Will Parry son of Stanislaus Grummand, or John Parry as you call him, why would you be lookin' for a way back through?"
"Again, I don't see that that's any of your business. And I told you: I'm taking a walk." Will retorted, feeling somewhat more confident and calm as he turned his back on Aluchhia Fince and began walking away.
"Oh but it is, boy. I happen to know that if you're really doin' what you say you are, you wouldn't've been feelin' around for that window, would you?"
Will stopped guiltily, and turned to face the speaker again.
"There isn't much I can say to that." He replied matter-of-factly. "It's quite obvious that you have the advantage in this conversation as you know something about me, and I know nothing about you except your name."
Aluchhia Fince gave another soft laugh.
"Quite right. But your answer also confirms my theory. You just as good as told me I was right in thinkin' you weren't just takin' a walk by sayin' I knew somethin' about you."
Will could have kicked himself. How could he have been so stupid? After all those years experience of making himself invisible and unnoticed, here he was having just been outwitted by a mere stranger. Well, there was nothing he could do now.
"Yeah, alright!" He hissed heatedly back. "You win! Now can I carry on with what I was doing now?"
"You could, I suppose, if only that knife of yours wasn't broken."
Will thumped his clenched fist into his hip with anger. This smart-alec was really starting to get on his nerves.
"And what concern of yours is it if it is?"
Although he couldn't see the speaker who was still standing hidden in the shadows, Will had an instinctive feeling that the stranger smiled just at that moment, and it was then that she would choose to reveal herself. He was right, but what he saw couldn't have shocked him more.
He had been right in thinking that Aluchhia Fince wasn't from his world, and that she wasn't human, but he was not prepared for what stepped out of the shadows infront of him.
She had pair of over-sized grey cockerel's feet and legs, with fierce spurs sprouting from her backwards-bent knees. Her fingers, which could only just been seen poking out from the ends of her long flaring sleeves, were long and spindly, tapering down to javelin-tip points, and covered in hard, tiny dark-ruby scales, and her whip-like tail was held stiff and straight, and curved gently upwards behind her back; it reminded Will very much of the tails of the Veloceraptors in Jurassic Park .
Her mane of coarse, thick, storm-coloured hair framed her dark-grey-skinned face; Will couldn't see her facial features too well just then, because they were overshadowed by the huge, wide brim of the crooked, battered old burgundy witch's hat she was wearing.
Only her steely silver eyes were visible, as they observed everything around her, as bright and sharp as any hawk's; they looked straight through your lies and false, fixed smiles and saw what you were really thinking. Will was just glad he didn't have a particularly guilty conscience right then.
When her face could be seen, it was neither pretty nor entirely human. She had a large, hooked nose, like a raptor's beak, under which was her peculiar mouth; a strange, twisted slash above her sharp chin, and out of which occasionally flicked a forked serpent's tongue.
Her ears were large, leathery and like a bat's. In fact, they were so large that Aluchhia had had to cut two holes in her hat brim to allow them to poke through.
The only words that sprang into Will's mind when he tried to describe Aluchhia Fince were dragon, bird, cockatrice and basilisk, none of which truly fitted, so he decided that she was somewhere in the middle of all four.
She was wearing a jacket of stiff burgundy leather, polished until it shone but covered in scratches and blemishes, just like her hide. Around her waist was a tightly fastened brown belt with a huge gold buckle at the front. Over the jacket, she wore a kind of bib made out of some thick, strong navy blue cloth, and it bore a faded yellow symbol of three outwards facing spearheads, all joined at the centre. She wore no trousers or skirt, but the hard, stiff bottom of the coat flared out from beneath the belt like a very short kilt which reached down to mid-thigh, leaving the rest of her chicken-like, grey, scaly legs bare. No matter how hard he tried, Will couldn't imagine her attire to be all that comfortable, no matter how worn and old it looked.
The creature walked forwards towards him, picking her huge four-toed feet up off the ground and placing them cautiously down again, so that her walk was a little reminiscent of a peacock's strut.
She glanced about her with those cold, metallic eyes as she approached Will, making sure no one was around to see them.
When she was satisfied that no one else was in the street, she quickened her walk and came confidently forward, until her face was only inches from Will's, though he still couldn't make out her face.
"I'm willin' to make a bargain with you, Will." Her tone was quiet and hoarse. Her breath didn't smell unpleasant and it certainly didn't reek of anything rotten, rather it smelt of must and old cloth.
"When you an' that girl Lyra closed all the windows two years ago, I'd lost my way during my wanderin's and ended up here. As a result of you two closin' them, I got trapped here, and for seven hundred and twenty days, I've been trying to hide in this city; tryin' to go unnoticed and remain unknown."
"I know how that feels." Will mumbled.
"So, as I said," Aluchhia continued. "I'm willin' to make a deal with you. I happen to know some things about smithy's work; I won't say I'm the best there is, but I know enough to mend that knife and I'm all you got, so that's my part said. If I mend that knife, you'll be able to get where you're going to, but I'll mend it on one condition and one condition only: when you go through and leave this world, you take me with you. I'm sick of hiding in shadows and only comin' out at night. I haven't seen the Sun for two years, boy. I want to feel warmth on my skin again, 'cause I'm cold."
Aluchhia paused, and took a deep breath, before looking Will straight in the eye.
"So what do you say?"
Kirjava, who had up until now stayed silent and sat at Will's heel, stood up and spoke, her green eyes smouldering.
"How do we know we can trust your word?"
"I don't lie." Aluchhia replied solemnly. "I can see through other peoples' lies, and I don't tell 'em. I never have done, and I never will. You can have my word on that and all."
Kirjava looked up at Will, who looked back.
"What do you want to do, Will?" His dæmon asked.
"It's our only option Kirja." The boy replied. "If we don't get the knife mended, we don't go anywhere."
The cat nodded once in understanding.
Will turned back to Aluchhia, who stood listening patiently.
"Done." Will said, offering his hand out to the creature.
Aluchhia took it with her long-fingered scaly one and they shook on the deal. The corners of Aluchhia's eyes were creased in a smile as she did so, but it wasn't a warm sort of smile. It was more like the sort of smile someone develops when they have spent their life living in a world that is cruel, judging and insulting to them, and their humour becomes sardonic, and good things are few and far between. It wasn't an evil or a sinister smile, nor a cold or brutal one, but more of a cynical, matter-of-fact smile that said 'How long is this good thing going to last for before it disappears like all the others?'.
Will recognised that smile, because it was almost identical to his own, and felt a sudden surge of empathy for his new companion; a brief second of strange understanding passed between them for a fleeting moment, and Will knew she wasn't a liar.
"So..." He spoke again as they released hands. "When can you start on the knife?"
"Just find me a conspicuous place to do it, and I can start right now."
