15. Travelling without Moving

Lyra screwed up her face with frustration as she picked herself up, but then her face changed to wonder. The garden was totally different. There were fewer plants in the flowerbeds, more benches. Even the fountain looked newer.
Looked fearfully toward the gate she saw a road beyond it.
She was in Will's world. She looked round with delight, which quickly changed to disappointment, Will wasn't here.
But no sooner did she realise this, she was come over by a head-rush that nearly blinded her- she caught hold of the bench and opened her eyes again.
The garden had returned to normal. She was home again.
But it didn't feel it. She got as close as it seemed possible to seeing Will again, and it was gone.
Pantaliamon jumped into her arms and they sighed heavily.
She heard some people talking nearby and decided to leave, walking quickly they made straight for Jordan. Who could they talk to about this? There were only 4 people in reach that knew her story and most of them she still didn't feel comfortable talking to.
The porter nodded at her as she entered the grounds and made for her room. It seemed a good idea to talk to Katie, but the whole situation was beyond her, so even if she knew, she wouldn't understand.
The answer to their problem was dropped straight in front of them as they climbed onto the roof. Lyra could see for a mile in all directions from here, and as she looked across the canal, her eyes fell on a brightly painted narrow boat. Her heart leapt with delight as she recognised it as the Coasta's floating home. She quickly climbed back into her room and made for the little streets of Jericho and their crooked houses.
However, as she walked past the buildings on the Broadway, a man stepped out from an ally and purposely began to follow her. She didn't notice, but Pan did.
'That man behind us has been following us for the past five streets.' He said. Lyra didn't reply, but at the next corner she sneaked a glance at him. He didn't have a white collar, but he did have a crucifix around his neck. He was fairly young, and oddly familiar. She decided to ignore him. If he wanted to see where she went, that didn't matter because she was on her way to a Gyptian narrow boat. The man, it seemed, had other plans though. He increased his pace and caught up with her, when he was barely a metre behind, she was just about to run for it when he said:
'Can we talk?'
He spoke in a soft voice, one that carried anxiety. She turned to face him openly. 'Please don't make a scene, I just want a word, I'm not going to hurt you.'
Lyra and Pan repeated his words several times in their mind, trying to work out if it was a trick. His words and crucifix weren't convincing, but his tone of voice was.
'All right.' She said, 'where d'you want to go?'
'Here'll do, in here-' he motioned to a crowded tearoom. That was OK. He wouldn't hurt her in front of all those people, thought Lyra. And they weren't likely to be overheard with so much conversation around them.
She let him lead her to a table in the corner. There was a reserved sign on it, but he picked it up and put it in his pocket. He sat down an gave her a hard look.
'So?' she said scathingly.
'OK,' he said, taking a deep breath, 'Firstly, I'm not with the church-'
'Wos that round your neck then?'
He touched the crucifix briefly with his hand, and then started again.
'I'm not with the church,' he repeated
'So we've heard.'
He tuted and hissed at her,
'Listen will you?! I used to be a priest, but I'm not anymore. I'm still religious though. I've been watching you closely, it was me who told you about young Katie Naunton, and I want to help you because I think the church is becoming corrupted. They're power hungry and out of control.'
'I see.' Said Lyra unconvincingly, 'and how long have you been watching me?'
'About two weeks, I've been looking for you for months, but I only found you recently.'
'What's your name?' persisted Lyra, trying to see if he was faking it,
'William Parry'
Lyra stood up so quickly her chair fall back with a clatter. People who were next them looked round, but there was too much chatter for them to stay interested.
'You're lying.' She said,
The man looked genuinely starteled.
'What? That's my name. I don't have a reason to lie about it.'
Lyra swalloed hard and sat down again. Could this just be a horrible coincidence? She'd had a horrible feeling there might be a double of each person in the other worlds, after all, she'd seen Simon Parslow's initials in Will's world.
Was this Will's double? Or another person with the same name?
'Anyway,' he continued, oblivious to Lyra's suspicion, 'as you found, it looks like Katie was ok after all. Her father's a tough one. He's a good ally to have.'
'Yeah… He's been nice to me considering I roped him into this.'
'No, he's been an enemy of the church for a long time. Has he said anything about that?'
'He said something about being chased by the church, but nothing else.' said Lyra
His dæmon, Lyra noticed with a jolt of worry, was a cat. However, she was a sooty colour with dark brown shades and long fur. Maybe this was a different Will, but still a double?
'It was a good twenty years ago he made 'friends' with the magiterium…' His cat dæmon closed her eyes, as if remembering something. 'I was an agent at that time. I felt anyone who opposed the church was stupid. How could you not want to be with the church? They had the supreame leader! The best!,
'But then after a run in with Mr. Naunton, I wised up and began to see that other people have different opinions. We havn't seen each other since, so he still thinks I'm after him.'
'Great. What does this have to do with us?' said Pantaliamon suddenly,
'It matters to you because we are mutual allies. I can help you in anyway you need, cos I reckon you're going to cause some real trouble for the magisterium.'
'We allready have.'
'H'mm. Well I have to go, if someone catches me here I'll be in trouble. I'll contact you.'
He got up and left with the air of a spy who'd just met up with a gangsta.
Lyra and Pan stayed at the table for a minute or two, then got up and continued toward the canals.
When they got there they quickly located the Costa's narrow boat and found Tony Costa on the deck washing windows and scuttles.
'Hello Tony.' she said. Toney Costa whirled round and looked at Lyra, then he dropped his sponge and jumped off the boat.
'Lyra! We was hoping to run into you, we got here yesterday. How you bin?'
'Fine. How've you been?'
'Fairly good, we got battered my the rain comming up here. We've been cleaning up the boat for most of today. You want to come in?'
'Yes please, I wanted to talk to you about something...'
They both climbed onto the boat and Toney lead them into the interior. Lyra and Pan looked around, a thousand memories of the trip they'd spent in this small cabin comming back to them. She looked around, and saw Farder Coram sitting at the scrubbed table with Kerim.
'Farder Coram!' she cried blissfully. They two men got up to greet her, their dæmons rubbed eachother in welcome.
'Hello Lyra ol' gal, I heard the Coastas were a-travelling back up to oxford, so I thought I'd come along for the ride.'
They sat down together around the table, and presently Ma Costa bustled down from above to give Lyra a warm welcome back.
'So Lyra,' said Tony, 'you said you wanted to talk about something?'
'Well, you know that there are millions of universes and all that? Well, I was in the botanic garden this morning, cos Will wanted me-'
'Will wanted you?' said Farder Coram
'Yeah... I just kind of felt it. Like something was wrong.'
Farder Coram nodded for her to continue.
'Well anyway, we was sitting on our bench in the garden, and, we sort of felt him next to us, and when I put my hand out I felt him there. But I couldn't see him. So I tried to hug him, and he was there, I just couldn't see him.
'Then I just, sort of, fell forward, and when I looked up, I was in Will's world.'
'You moved into another world?' said Tony,
'Yeah, Will's one. Then I felt all dizzy and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I was back here.'
All five dæmons were balenced on shoulder or the back of a chair, looked at one another in turn, as if talking with expressions.
The three men and Ma Coasta all nodded at the strangeness of Lyra's story, and Kerim said,
'Hum.'
Everyone looked at him, except Farder Coram, who said, 'Well Lyra, you've told us a strange story there make no mistake.
'And what I'm a-thinking is that, meaning no disprespect, are you sure you didn't imagine this?'
Once Lyra would've been angry at such a patronizing question, but the Will and Kirjava in her and Pantalaimon reminded them that it was a fair question.
'No.' she said, 'I know it was real.'
Once again everyone round the table nodded.
'Maybe there was another window there?' said Tony, but Lyra shook her head.
Presently, she decided to tell them about the Will she'd just met in the cafe, wether it was coincidence or he was Will's double. But Ma Coasta waved this problem away.
'Ah I shouldn't fret over that.' she said airily, 'I'm no philisopher, but even if this man is the same as your Will, he doesn't act like him does he? He's older, was once with the church... What does it matter if he is a double?'
'Mmm, Ma's got a point there Lyra. As uncomfortable as is sounds, it doesn't really matter if this Will has a totally different personality.'
Comforted by Tony's words, Lyra felt more confidence and smiled.
'Well then,' said Ma Coasta in a matter-of-fact voice, 'can I offer you dinner young Lyra?'
'I'd love to, but I've got some homework I should be doing. But thanks all the same.' she said,
'That's allright,' said Tony, 'Come back over whenever you want though. We'll be here 'till the sun passes noon tomorrow.'
Lyra promised she would come back to see them off and left for Jordan Collage.
'Well, grown up or not, she's a remakable girl isn't she?' said Kerim
'You're true there friend, I hope it clears up for her. She's had her fair share of loss and trouble.'