SIXTEEN - THE INTENTION CRAFT
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"My child! My daughter! Where is she? What have you done? My Lyra, youd do better to tear the fibers from my heart, she was safe with me, safe, and now where is she?"Mrs. Coulters cry resouhrough the little chamber at the top of the adamant tower. She was bound to a chair, her hair disheveled, her clothing torn, her eyes wild; and her monkey daemon thrashed and struggled on the floor in the coils of a silver .
Lord Asriel sat nearby, scribbling on a piece of paper, taking no notice. An orderly stood beside him, glang nervously at the woman. When Lord Asriel handed him the paper, he saluted and hurried out, his terrier daemon close at his heels with her tail tucked low.
Lord Asriel turo Mrs. Coulter.
"Lyra? Frankly, I dont care," he said, his voice quiet and hoarse. "The wretched child should have stayed where she ut, and done what she was told. I t waste any more time or resources on her; if she refuses to be helped, let her deal with the sequences."
"You dohat, Asriel, or you wouldnt have…"
"I mean every word of it. The fuss shes caused is out of all proportion to her merits. An ordinary English girl, not very clever...”
"She is!" said Mrs. Coulter.
"All right; bright but not intellectual; impulsive, disho, greedy...”
"Brave, generous, loving."
"A perfectly ordinary child, distinguished by nothing...” "Perfectly ordinary? Lyra? Shes unique.
Think of what shes done already. Dislike her if you will, Asriel, but dont you dare patronize your daughter. And she was safe with me, until...”
"Youre right," he said, getting up. "She is uo have tamed and softened you, thats no everyday feat. Shes drawn your poison, Marisa. Shes taken your teeth out. Your fires been quenched in a drizzle of seal piety. Who would have thought it? The pitiless agent of the Church, the fanatical persecutor of children, the ior of hideous maes to slice them apart and look ierrified little beings for any evidence of sin, and along es a foul-mouthed, ignorant little brat with dirty fingernails, and you clud settle your feathers over her like a hen. Well, I admit: the child must have some gift Ive never seen myself. But if all it does is turn you into a doting mother, its a pr<big>..</big>etty thin, drab, puny little gift. And now you might as well be quiet. Ive asked my chief ao e in for an urgent ference, and if you t trol your noise, Ill have you gagged."
Mrs. Coulter was more like her daughter than she knew. Her ao this was to spit in Lord Asriels face. He wiped it calmly away and said, "A gag would put ao that kind of behavior, too."
"Oh, do correct me, Asriel<samp></samp>," she said. "Someone who displays to his under-officers a captive tied to a chair is clearly a prince of politeness. Untie me, or Ill force you to gag me."
"As you wish," he said, and took a silk scarf from the drawer; but before he could tie it around her mouth, she shook her head.
"No, no," she said, "Asriel, dont, I beg you, please dont humiliate me."
Angry tears dashed from her eyes.
"Very well, Ill untie you, but he stay in his s," he said, and dropped the scarf ba the drawer before cutting her bonds with a clasp knife.
She rubbed her wrists, stood up, stretched, and only then noticed the dition of her clothes and hair. She looked haggard and pale; the last of the Gallivespian venom still remained in her body, causing agonizing pains in her joints, but she was not going to show him that.
Lord Asriel said, "You wash in there," indig a small room hardly bigger than a closet.
She picked up her ed daemon, whose baleful eyes glared at Lord Asriel over her shoulder, ahrough to make herself tidier.
The orderly came in to announce:
"His Majesty King Ogunwe and the Lord Roke."
The Afri general and the Gallivespian came in: King Ogunwe in a uniform, with a wound on his temple freshly dressed, and Lord Roke gliding swiftly to the table astride his blue hawk.
Lord Asriel greeted them warmly and offered wihe bird let his rider step off, and theo the bracket by the door as the orderly annouhe third of Lord Asriels high anders, an angel by the name of Xaphania. She was of a much higher rank than Baruch or Balthamos, and visible by a shimmering, discerting light that seemed to e from somewhere else.
By this time Mrs. Coulter had emerged, much tidied, and all three anders bowed to her; and if she was surprised at their appearance, she gave no sign, but ined her head and sat down peaceably, holding the pinioned monkey in her arms.
Without wasting time, Lord Asriel said, "Tell me what happened, King Ogunwe."
The Afri, powerful and deep-voiced, said, "We killed seventeen Swiss Guards aroyed two zeppelins. We lost five men and one gyropter. The girl and the boy escaped. tured the Lady Coulter, despite her ceous defense, and brought her here. I hope she feels we treated her courteously."
"I am quite tent with the way you treated me, sir," she said, with the fai possible stress on the you.
"Any damage to the yropters? Any wounded?" said Lord Asriel.
"Some damage and some wounds, but all minor."
"Good. Thank you, King; your force did well. My Lord Roke, what have you heard?"
The Gallivespian said, "My spies are with the boy and girl in another world. Both children are safe and well, though the girl has bee in a drugged sleep for many days. The boy lost the use of his knife during the events in the cave: by some act, it broke in pieces. But it is now whole again, thanks to a creature from the north of your world, Lord Asriel, a giant bear, very skilled at smithwork. As soon as the knife was mehe boy cut through into another world, where they are now. My spies are with them, of course, but there is a difficulty: while the boy has the knife, he ot be pelled to do anything; a if they were to kill him in his sleep, the knife would be useless to us. For the time being, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia will go with them wherever they go, so at least we keep track of them. They seem to have a plan in mind; they are refusing to e here, at any rate. My two will not lose them."
"Are they safe in this other world theyre in now?" said Lord Asriel.
"Theyre on a beaear a forest of large tree-ferns. There is no sign of animal life nearby. As we speak, both boy and girl are asleep; I spoke to the Chevalier Tialys not five minutes ago."
"Thank you," said Lord Asriel. "Now that your two agents are following the children, of course, we have no eyes in the Magisterium anymore. We shall have to rely on the alethiometer. At least...”
Then Mrs. Coulter spoke, to their surprise.
"I dont know about the other branches," she said, "but as far as the sistorial Court is ed, the reader they rely on is Fra Pavel Rasek. Ahh, but slow. They wont know where Lyra is for another few hours."
Lord Asriel said, "Thank you, Marisa. Do you have any idea what Lyra and this boy io do ?"
"No," she said, "none. Ive spoken to the boy, and he seemed ;.:; to be a stubborn child, and one well used to keepis. I t guess what he would do. As for Lyra, she is quite impossible to read."
"My lord," said King Ogunwe, "may we know whether the Lady is now part of this anding cil? If so, what is her fun? If not, should she not be taken elsewhere?"
"She is our captive and my guest, and as a distinguished fent of the Church, she may have information that would be useful."
"Will she reveal anything willingly? Or will she o be tortured?" said Lord Roke, watg her directly as he spoke.
Mrs. Coulter laughed.
"I would have thought Lord Asriels anders would know better than to expect truth to e out of torture," she said.
Lord Asriel couldnt help enjoying her barefaced insiy.
"I will guarantee Mrs. Coulters behavior," he said. "She knows what will happen if she betrays us; though she will not have the ce. However, if any of you has a doubt, express it now, fearlessly."
"I do," said King Ogunwe, "but I doubt you, not her."
"Why?" said Lord Asriel.
"If she tempted you, you would not resist. It was right to capture her, but wrong to invite her to this cil. Treat her with every courtesy, give her the greatest fort, but place her somewhere else, and stay away from her."
"Well, I invited you to speak," said Lord Asriel, "and I must accept your rebuke. I value your presence more than hers, King. Ill have her taken away."
He reached for the bell, but before he could ring, Mrs. Coulter spoke.
"Please," she said urgently, "listen to me first. I help. Ive been closer to the heart o?he Magisterium than anyone youre likely to find again. I know how they think, I guess what theyll do.
You wonder why you should trust me, whats made me leave them? Its simple: theyre going to kill my daughter. They dare her live. The moment I found out who she is, what she is, what the witches prophesy about her, I knew I had to leave the Church; I knew I was their enemy, and they were mine. I didnt know what you all were, or what I was to you, that was a mystery; but I khat I had to set myself against the Church, against everything they believed in, and if need be, against the Authority himself. I..."
She stopped. All the anders were listening ily. Now she looked Lord Asriel full in the fad seemed to speak to him alone, her voice loassionate, her brilliant eyes glittering.
"I have been the worst mother in the world. I let my only child be taken away from me when she was a tiny infant, because I didnt care about her; I was ed only with my own adva. I didnt think of her for years, and if I did, it was only tret the embarrassment of her birth.
"But then the Church began to take an i in Dust and in children, and something stirred in my heart, and I remembered that I was a mother and Lyra was... my child.
"And because there was a threat, I saved her from it. Three times now Ive stepped in to pluck her out of danger. First, when the Oblation Board began its work: I went to Jordan College and I took her to live with me, in London, where I could keep her safe from the Board... or so I hoped. But she ran away.
"The sed time was at Bolvangar, when I found her just in time, uhe... uhe blade of the... My heart nearly stopped... It was what they, we, what I had doo other children, but when it was mine... Oh, you t ceive the horror of that moment, I hope you never suffer as I did then... But I got her free; I took her out; I saved her a sed time.
"But even as I did that, I still felt myself part of the Church, a servant, a loyal and faithful aed servant, because I was doing the Authoritys work.
"And then I learhe witches prophecy. Lyra will somehow, sometime sooempted, as Eve was, thats what they say. What form this temptation will take, I dont know, but shes growing up, after all. Its not hard to imagine. And now that the Churows that, too, theyll kill her. If it all depends on her, could they risk letting her live? Would they dare take the ce that shed refuse this temptation, whatever it will be?
"No, theyre bound to kill her. If they could, theyd go back to the Garden of Eden and kill Eve before she was tempted. Killing is not difficult for them; Calvin himself ordered the deaths of children; theyd kill her with pomp and ceremony and prayers and lamentations and psalms and hymns, but they would kill her. If she falls into their hands, shes dead already.
"So when I heard what the witch said, I saved my daughter for the third time. I took her to a place where I kept her safe, and there I was going to stay."
"Yed her," said King Ogunwe. "You kept her unscious."
"I had to," said Mrs. Coulter, "because she hated me," and here her voice, which had been full of emotion but under trol, spilled over into a sob, and it trembled as she went on: "She feared me and hated me, and she would have fled from my presence like a bird from a cat if I hadnt drugged her into oblivion. Do you know what that means to a mother? But it was the only way to keep her safe! All that time in the cave... asleep, her eyes closed, her body helpless, her daemon curled up at her throat... Oh, I felt such a love, such a tenderness, such a deep, deep... My own child, the first time I had ever been able to do these things for her, my little...! washed her and fed her a her safe and warm, I made sure her body was nourished as she slept... I lay beside her at night, I cradled her in my arms, I wept into her hair, I kissed her sleeping eyes, my little one..."
She was shameless. She spoke quietly; she didnt declaim or raise her voice; and when a sob shook her, it was muffled almost into a hiccup, as if she were stifling her emotions for the sake of courtesy. Which made her barefaced lies all the more effective, Lord Asriel thought with disgust; she lied in the very marrow of her bones.
She directed her words mainly at King Ogunwe, without seeming to, and Lord Asriel saw that, too. Not
only was the king her chief accuser, he was also human, uhe angel or Lord Roke, and she knew how to play on him.
In fact, though, it was on the Gallivespian that she made the greatest impression. Lord Roke sensed in her a nature as close to that of a scorpion as he had ever entered, and he was well aware of the power iing he could deteder her geone. Better to keep scorpions where you could see them, he thought.
So he supported King Ogunwe wheter ged his mind and argued that she should stay, and Lord Asriel found himself outflanked: for he now wanted her elsewhere, but he had already agreed to abide by his anders wishes.
Mrs. Coulter looked at him with an expression of mild and virtuous . He was certain that no one else could see the glitter of sly triumph in the depths of her beautiful eyes.
"Stay, then," he said. "But youve spoken enough. Stay quiet now. I want to sider this proposal farrison on the southern border. Youve all seen the report: is it workable? Is it desirable? I want to look at the armory. And then I want to hear from Xaphania about the dispositions of the angelic forces. First, the garrison. King Ogunwe?"
The Afri leader began. They spoke for some time, and Mrs. Coulter was impressed by their accurate knowledge of the Churchs defenses, and their clear assessment of its leaders strengths.
But now that Tialys and Salmakia were with the children, and Lord Asriel no longer had a spy in the Magisterium, their knowledge would soon be dangerously out of date. An idea came to Mrs. Coulters mind, and she and the monkey daemon exged a glahat felt like a powerful anbaric spark; but she said nothing, and stroked his golden fur as she listeo the anders.
Then Lord Asriel said, "Enough. That is a problem well deal with later. Now for the armory. I uand theyre ready to test the iion craft. Well go and look at it."
He took a silver key from his pocket and unlocked the around the golden monkeys feet and hands, and carefully avoided toug eveip of one golden hair.
Lord Roke mounted his hawk and followed with the others as Lord Asriel set off dowairs of the tower and out onto the battlements.
A cold wind was blowing, snapping at their eyelids, and the dark blue hawk soared up in a mighty draft, wheeling and screaming in the wild air. King Ogunwe drew his coat around him aed his hand on his cheetah daemons head.
Mrs. Coulter said humbly to the angel:
"Excuse me, my lady: your name is Xaphania?"
"Yes," said the angel.
Her appearance impressed Mrs. Coulter, just as her fellows had impressed the witch Ruta Skadi when she found them in the sky: she was not shining, but shone on, though there was no source of light. She was tall, naked, winged, and her lined face was older than that of any living creature Mrs. Coulter had ever seen.
"Are you one of the angels who rebelled so long ago?"
"Yes. And sihen I have been wanderiween many worlds. Now I have pledged my allegiao Lord Asriel, because I see in his great enterprise the best hope of destroying the tyranny at last."
"But if you fail?"
"Then we shall all be destroyed, and cruelty will reign forever."
As they spoke, they followed Lord Asriels rapid strides along the wien battlements toward a mighty staircase going down so deep that even the flaring lights on sces down the walls could not disclose the bottom. Past them swooped the blue hawk, gliding down and down into the gloom, with each flaring light making his feathers flicker as he passed it, until he was merely a tiny spark, and then nothing.
The angel had moved on to Lord Asriels side, and Mrs. Coulter found herself desdio the Afri king.
"Excuse my ignorance, sir," she said, "but I had never seen or heard of a being like the man on the blue hawk until the fight in the cave yesterday... Where does he e from? you tell me about his people? I wouldnt offend him for the world, but if I speak without knowing something about him, I might be uionally rude."
"You do well to ask," said King Ogunwe. "His people are proud. Their world developed unlike ours; there are two kinds of scious being there, humans and Gallivespians. The humans are mostly servants of the Authority, and they have been trying to extermihe small people sihe earliest time anyone remember. They regard them as diabolic. So the Gallivespians still ot quite trust those who are our size. But they are fierd proud warriors, and deadly enemies, and valuable spies.
"Are all his people with you, or are they divided as humans are?"
"There are some who are with the enemy, but most are with us."
"And the angels? You know, I thought until retly that angels were an iion of the Middle Ag藏书网e; they were just imaginary...To find yourself speaking to one is discerting, isnt it...How many are with Lord Asriel?"
"Mrs. Coulter," said the king, "these questions are just the sort of things a spy would want to find out."
"A fine sort of spy Id be, to ask you so transparently," she replied. "Im a captive, sir. I could away even if I had a safe place to flee to. From now on, Im harmless, you take my word for that."
"If you say so, I am happy to believe you," said the king. "Angels are more difficult to uand than any human being. Theyre not all of one kind, to begin with; some have greater powers than others; and there are plicated alliances among them, and a enmities, that we know little about. The Authority has been suppressing them since he came into being."
She stopped. She was genuinely shocked. The Afri king halted beside her, thinking she was unwell, and ihe light of the flaring sce above her did throw ghastly shadows over her face.
"You say that so casually," she said, "as if it were something I should know, too, but... How it be? The Authority created the worlds, didnt he? He existed before everything. How he have e into being?"
"This is angeliowledge," said Ogunwe. "It shocked some of us, too, to learn that the Authority is not the creator. There may have been a creator, or there may not: we dont know. All we know is that at some point the Authority took charge, and sihen, angels have rebelled, and human beings have struggled against him, too. This is the last rebellion. Never before have humans and angels, and beings from all the worlds, made a on cause. This is the greatest force ever assembled. But it may still not be enough. We shall see."
"But what does Lord Asriel intend? What is this world, and why has he e here?"
"He led us here because this world is empty. Empty of scious life, that is. We are not ialists, Mrs. Coulter. We havent e to quer, but to build."
"And is he going to attack the Kingdom of Heaven?"
Ogunwe looked at her levelly.
"Were not going to ihe Kingdom," he said, "but if the Kingdom invades us, they had better be ready for war, because repared. Mrs. Coulter, I am a king, but its my proudest task to join Lord Asriel iing up a world where there are no kingdoms at all. No kings, no bishops, no priests. The Kingdom of Heaven has been known by that name sihe Authority first set himself above the rest of the angels. And we want no part of it. This world is different. We io he free citizens of the Republic of Heaven."
Mrs. Coulter wao say more, to ask the dozeions that rose to her lips, but the king had
moved on, unwilling to keep his ander waiting, and she had to follow.
The staircase led so far down that by the time it reached a level floor, the sky behind them at the head of the flight was quite invisible. Well before halfway she had little breath left, but she made no plaint and moved on down till it opened out into a massive hall lit by glowing crystals in the pillars that supported the roof. Ladders, gantries, beams, and walkways crossed the gloom above, with small figures moving about them purposefully.
Lord Asriel eaking to his anders when Mrs. Coulter arrived, and without waiting to let her rest, he moved on across the great hall, where occasionally a bright figure would sweep through the air or alight on the floor for a brief snatched word with him. The air was dense and warm. Mrs. Coulter noticed that, presumably as a courtesy to Lord Roke, every pillar had ay bracket at human head height so that his hawk could perch there and allow the Gallivespian to be included in the discussion.
But they did not stay in the great hall for long. At the far side, an attendant hauled open a heavy double door to let them through, onto the platform of a railway. There waiting was a small closed carriage, drawn by an anbariotive.
The engineer bowed, and his brown monkey daemoreated behind his legs at the sight of the golden monkey with the ed hands. Lord Asriel spoke to the man briefly and showed the others into the carriage, which, like the hall, was lit by those glowing crystals, held on silver brackets against mirrored mahogany panels.
As soon as Lord Asriel had joihem, the train began to move, gliding smoothly away from the platform and into a tunnel, accelerating briskly. Only the sound of the wheels on the smooth track gave any idea of their speed.
"Where are we going?" Mrs. Coulter asked.
"To the armory," Lord Asriel said shortly, and turned away to talk quietly with the angel.
Mrs. Coulter said to Lord Roke, "My lord, are your spies always sent out in pairs?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Simple curiosity. My daemon and I found ourselves at a stalemate whe them retly in that cave, and I was intrigued to see how well they fought."
"Why intrigued? Did you not expect people of our size to be good fighters?"
She looked at him coolly, aware of the ferocity of his pride.
"No," she said. "I thought we would beat you easily, and you very nearly beat us. Im happy to admit my mistake. But do you always fight in pairs?"
"You are a pair, are you not, you and your daemon? Did you expect us to cede the advantage?" he said, and his haughty stare, brilliantly clear even in the soft light of the crystals, dared her to ask more.
She looked down modestly and said nothing.
Several minutes went past, and Mrs. Coulter felt the train taking them downward, even deeper into the mountai. She couldnt guess how far they went, but when at least fifteen minutes had gone by, the train began to sloresently they drew up to a platform where the anbaric lights seemed brilliant after the darkness of the tunnel.
Lord Asriel opehe doors, and they got out into an atmosphere so hot and sulphur-laden that Mrs. Coulter had to gasp. The air rang with the pounding of mighty hammers and the gorous screech of iron on stone.
An attendant hauled open the doors leading off the platform, and instantly the noise redoubled and the heat swept over them like a breaking wave. A blaze of scorg light made them shade their eyes; only Xaphania seemed ued by the onslaught of sound and light a. When her senses had adjusted, Mrs. Coulter looked around, alive with curiosity.
She had seen fes, ironworks, manufactories in her own world; the biggest seemed like a village smithy beside this. Hammers the size of houses were lifted in a moment to the distant ceiling and then hurled downward to flatten balks of iron the size of tree trunks, pounding them flat in a fra of a sed with a blow that made the very mountain tremble; from a vent in the rocky wall, a river of sulphurous molteal flowed until it was cut off by an adamant gate, and the brilliahing flood rushed through els and sluices and over weirs into row upon row of molds, to settle and cool in a cloud of evil smoke; gigantic slig maes and rollers cut and folded and pressed sheets of inch-thick iron as if it were tissue paper, and then those monstrous hammers pou flat again, layerial upoal with such force that the different layers became oougher one, over and ain.
If Iorek Byrnison could have seen this armory, he might have admitted that these people knew something about w with metal. Mrs. Coulter could only look and wonder. It was impossible to speak and be uood, and no oried. And now Lord Asriel was gesturing to the small group to follow him along a grated walkway suspended over an even larger vault below, where mioiled with picks and spades to hack the bright metals from the mother rock.
They passed over the walkway and down a long rocky corridor, where stalactites hung gleaming with strange colors and where the pounding and grinding and hammering gradually faded. Mrs. Coulter could feel a cool breeze on her heated face.
The crystals that gave them light were her mounted on sor enclosed in glowing pillars, but scattered loosely on the floor, and there were no flaring torches to add to the heat, so little by little the party began to feel cold again; and presently they came out, quite suddenly, into the night air.
They were at a place where part of the mountain had been hacked away, making a space as wide and open as a parade ground. Farther along they could see, dimly lit, great iron doors in the mountainside, some open and some shut; and from out of one of the mighty doorways, men were hauling something draped in a tarpaulin.
"What is that?" Mrs. Coulter said to the Afri king, and he replied:
"The iion craft."
Mrs. Coulter had no idea what that could mean, and watched with intense curiosity as they prepared to take off the tarpaulin.
She stood close to King Ogunwe, as if for shelter, and said, "How does it work? What does it do?"
"Were about to see," said the king.
It looked like some kind of plex drilling apparatus, or the cockpit of a gyropter, or the of a massive e. It had a glass opy over a seat with at least a dozen levers and handles banked in front of it. It stood on six legs, each jointed and sprung at a different ao the body, so that it seemed both eid ungainly; and the body itself was a mass of pipe work, ders, pistons, coiled cables, switchgear, valves, and gauges. It was hard to tell what was structure and what was not, because it was only lit from behind, and most of it was hidden in gloom.
Lord Roke on his hawk had glided up to it directly, cirg above, examining it from all sides. Lord Asriel and the angel were close in discussion with the engineers, and men were clambering down from the craft itself, one carrying a clipboard, another a length of cable.
Mrs. Coulters eyes gazed at the craft hungrily, memorizing every part of it, making sense of its plexity. And as she watched, Lord Asriel swung himself up into the seat, fastening a leather harness around his waist and shoulders, aing a helmet securely on his head. His daemon, the snow leopard, sprang up to follow him, auro adjust something beside her. The engineer called up, Lord Asriel replied, and the men withdrew to the doorway.
The iion craft moved, though Mrs. Coulter was not sure how. It was almost as if it had quivered, though there it was, quite still, poised with a strange energy on those six i legs. As she looked, it moved again, and then she saw what was happening: various parts of it were revolving, turning this way and that,
sing the dark sky overhead. Lord Asriel sat busily moving this lever, cheg that dial, adjusting that trol; and then suddenly the iion craft vanished.
Somehow, it had sprung into the air. It was h above them now, as high as a treetop, turning slowly to the left. There was no sound of an engine, no hint of how it was held against gravity. It simply hung in the air.
"Listen," said King Ogunwe. "To the south."
She turned her head and straio hear. There was a wind that moaned around the edge of the mountain, and there were the deep hammer blows from the presses, which she felt through the soles of her feet, and there was the sound of voices from the lit doorway, but at some signal the voices stopped and the lights were extinguished. And in the quiet Mrs. Coulter could hear, very faintly, the chop-chop-chop of gyrines on the gusts of wind.
"Who are they?" she said quietly.
"Decoys," said the king. "My pilots, flying a mission to tempt the eo follow. Watch."
She widened her eyes, trying to see anything against the heavy dark with its few stars. Above them, the iion craft hung as firmly as if it were anchored and bolted there; no gust of wind had the slightest effe it. No light came from the cockpit, so it was very difficult to see, and the figure of Lord Asriel was out of sight pletely.
Then she caught the first sight of a group of lights low in the sky, at the same moment as the engine sound became loud enough to hear steadily. Six gyropters, flying fast, one of them seemingly in trouble, for smoke trailed from it, and it flew lower thahers. They were making for the mountain, but on a course to take them past it and beyond.
And behind them, in close pursuit, came a motley colle of fliers. It was not easy to make out what they were, but Mrs. Coulter saw a heavy gyropter of a strange kind, twht-winged aircraft, one great bird that glided with effortless speed carrying two armed riders, and three or fels.
"A raiding party," said King Ogunwe.
They were closing on the gyropters. Then a line of light blazed from one of the straight-winged aircraft, followed a sed or two later by a sound, a deep crack. But the shell never reached its target, the crippled gyropter, because in the same instant as they saw the light, and before they heard the crack, the watchers on the mountain saw a flash from the iion craft, and a shell exploded in midair.
Mrs. Coulter had hardly time to uand that almost instantaneous sequence of light and sound before the battle was under way. Nor was it at all easy to follow, because the sky was so dark and the movement of every flier so quick; but a series of nearly silent flashes lit the mountainside, apanied by short hisses like the escape of steam. Each flash struehow at a different raider: the aircraft caught fire or exploded; the giant bird uttered a scream like the tearing of a mountain-high curtain and plummeted onto the rocks far below; and as for the angels, each of them simply vanished in a drift of glowing air, a myriad particles twinkling and glowing dimmer until they flickered out like a dying firework.
Then there was silehe wind carried away the sound of the decoy gyropters, which had now disappeared around the flank of the mountain, and no og spoke. Flames far below glared on the underside of the iion craft, still somehow h in the air and now turning slowly as if to look around. The destru of the raiding party was so plete that Mrs. Coulter, who had seen many things to be shocked by, was heless shocked by this. As she looked up at the iion craft, it seemed to shimmer or dislodge itself, and then there it was, solidly on the ground again.
King Ogunwe hurried forward, as did the other anders and the engineers, who had throwhe doors ahe light flood out over the proving ground. Mrs. Coulter stayed where she uzzling over the ws of the iion craft.
"Why is he showing it to us?" her daemon said quietly.
"Surely he t have read our mind," she replied in the same tone.
They were thinking of the moment in the adamant tower when that sparklike idea had flashed betweehey had thought of making Lord Asriel a proposition: of to go to the sistorial Court of Discipline and spying for him. She knew every lever of power; she could manipulate them all. It would be hard at first to vihem of her good faith, but she could do it. And now that the Gallivespian spies had left to go with Will and Lyra, surely Asriel could an offer like that.
But now, as they looked at that strange flying mae, another idea struck even more forcibly, and she hugged the golden monkey with glee.
"Asriel," she called ily, "may I see how the mae works?"
He looked down, his expression distracted and impatient, but full of excited satisfa, too. He was delighted with the iion craft; she knew he wouldnt be able to resist showing it off.
King Oguood aside, and Lord Asriel reached doulled her up into the cockpit. He helped her into the seat and watched as she looked around the trols.
"How does it work? owers it?" she said.
"Your iions," he said. "Hehe name. If you io go forward, it will go forward."
"Thats no answer. e on, tell me. What sort of engine is it? How does it fly? I couldnt see anything aerodynamic at all. But these trols.. .from is almost like a gyropter."
He was finding it hard not to tell her; and since she was in his power, he did. He held out a cable at the end of which was a leather grip, deeply marked by his daemoh.
"Your demean," he explained, "has to hold this handle, whether ih, or hands, it doesnt matter. And you have to wear that helmet. Theres a current flowiween them, and a capaplifies it, oh, its more plicated than that, but the things simple to fly. We put in trols like a gyropter for the sake of familiarity, but eventually we wont need trols at all. Of course, only a human with a daemon fly it."
"I see," she said.
And she pushed him hard, so that he fell out of the mae.
In the same moment she slipped the helmet on her head, and the golden monkey snatched up the leather handle. She reached for the trol that in a gyropter would tilt the air foil, and pushed the throttle forward, and at ohe iion craft leapt into the air.
But she didnt quite have the measure of it yet. The craft hung still for some moments, slightly tilted, before she found the trols to move it forward, and in those few seds, Lord Asriel did three things. He leapt to his feet; he put up his hand to stop King Ogunwe from the soldiers to fire oention craft; and he said, "Lord Roke, go with her, if you would be so kind."
The Gallivespian urged his blue hawk upward at once, and the bird flew straight to the still-open door. The " watchers below could see the womans head looking this way and that, and the golden monkey, likewise, and they could see that her of them noticed the little figure of Lord Roke leaping from his hawk into the behind them.
A moment later, the iion craft began to move, and the hawk wheeled away to skim down to Lord Asriels wrist. No more than two seds later, the aircraft was already vanishing from sight in the damp and starry air.
Lord Asriel watched with rueful admiration.
"Well, King, you were quite right," he said, "and I should have listeo you in the first place. She is Lyras mother; I might have expected something like that."
"Arent you going to pursue her?" said King Ogunwe.
"What, aroy a perfectly good aircraft? Certainly not."
"Where dyou think shell go? In search of the child?"
"Not at first. She doesnt know where to find her. I kly what shell do: shell go to the sistorial Court and give them the iion craft as an ear pledge of good faith, and then shell spy. Shell spy on them for us.
Shes tried every other kind of duplicity: that onell be a novel experience. And as soon as she finds out where the girl is, shell go there, and we shall follow."
"And when will Lord Roke let her know hes e with her?"
"Oh, I think hell keep that as a surprise, dont you?" They laughed, and moved bato the workshops, where a later, more advanced model of the iion craft was awaiting their iion.
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