TWENTY-EIGHT - MIDNIGHT
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Lord Asriel said, "Marisa, wake up. Were about to land."A blustery dawn was breaking over the basalt fortress as the iion craft flew in from the south. Mrs. Coulter, sore asick, opened her eyes; she had not been asleep. She could see the angel Xaphania gliding above the landing ground, and then rising and wheeling up to the tower as the craft made for the ramparts.
As soon as the craft had landed, Lord Asriel leapt out and ran to join King Ogunwe on the western watchtn Mrs. Coulter entirely. The teis who came at oo attend to the flying mae took no notice of her, either; no one questioned her about the loss of the aircraft shed stolen; it was as if shed bee invisible. She made her way sadly up to the room in the adamant tower, where the orderly offered t her some food and coffee.
"Whatever you have," she said. "And thank you. Oh, by the way," she went on as the man tur<cite></cite>o go: "Lord Asriels alethiometrist, Mr. ..."
"Mr. Basilides?"
"Yes. Is he free to e here for a moment?"
"Hes w with his books at the moment, maam. Ill ask him to step up here when he ."
She washed and ged into the one shirt she had left. The cold wind that shook the windows and the gray m light made her shiver. She put some more coals on the iron stove, hoping it would stop her trembling, but the cold was in her bones, not just her flesh.
Ten minutes later there was a kno the door. The pale, dark-eyed alethiometrist, with his nightingale daemon on his shoulder, came in and bowed slightly. A moment later the orderly arrived with a tray of bread, cheese, and coffee, and Mrs. Coulter said:
"Thank you for ing, Mr. Basilides. May I offer you some refreshment?"
"I will take some coffee, thank you."
"Please tell me," she said as soon as shed poured the drink, "because Im sure youve been following whats happened: is my daughter alive?"
He hesitated. The golden monkey clutched her arm,
"She is alive," said Basilides carefully, "but also..."
"Yes? Oh, please, what do you mean?"
"She is in the world of the dead. For some time I could not inter<u>.</u>pret what the instrument was telli seemed impossible. But there is no doubt. She and the boy have goo the world of the dead, and they have opened a way for the ghosts to e out. As soon as the dead reach the open, they dissolve as their daemons did, and it seems that this is the most sweet and desirable end for them. And the alethiometer tells me that the girl did this because she overheard a prophecy that there would e ao death, and she thought that this was a task for her to aplish. As a result, there is now a way out of the world of the dead."
Mrs. Coulter couldnt speak. She had to turn away and go to the window to ceal the emotion on her face. Finally she said:
"And will she e out alive?, But no, I know you t predict. Is she, how is she, has she..."
"She is suffering, she is in pain, she is afraid. But she has the panionship of the boy, and of the two Gallivespian spies, and they are still all together."
"And the bomb?"
"The bomb did not hurt her."
Mrs. Coulter felt suddenly exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep for months, for years. Outside, the flag rope snapped and clattered in the wind, and the rooks cawed as they wheeled around the ramparts.
"Thank you, sir," she said, turning back t<bdi>藏书网</bdi>o the reader. "Im very grateful. Please would you let me know if you discover anything more about her, or where she is, or what shes doing?"
The man bowed a. Mrs. Coulter went to lie down on the camp bed, but try as she would, she couldnt keep her eyes closed.
"What do you make of that, King?" said Lord Asriel.
He was looking through the watchtower telescope at something in the western sky. It had the appearance of a mountain hanging in the sky a hands breadth above the horizon, and covered in cloud. It was a very long way off, so far, in fact, that it was no bigger than a thumbnail held out at arms length. But it had not been there for long, and it hung there absolutely still.
The telescope brought it closer, but there was no more detail: cloud still looks like cloud however much its magnified.
"The Clouded Mountain," said Ogunwe. "Or, what do they call it? The Chariot?"
"With the Regent at the reins. Hes cealed himself well, this Metatron. They speak of him in the apocryphal scriptures: he was a man once, a man called Enoch, the son of Jared, six geions away from Adam. And now he rules the Kingdom. And hes intending to do more than that, if that ahey found by the sulphur lake was correct, the one who ehe Clouded Mountain to spy. If he wins this battle, he intends to intervene directly in human life. Imagihat, Ogunerma Inquisition, worse than anything the sistorial Court of Discipline could dream up, staffed by spies and traitors in every world and directed personally by the intelligehats keeping that mountain aloft...The old Authority at least had the grace to withdraw; the dirty work of burniid hanging witches was left to his priests. This new one will be far, far worse."
"Well, hes begun by invading the Republic," said Ogunwe. "Look, is that smoke?"
A drift of gray was leaving the Clouded Mountain, a slowly spreading smudge against the blue sky. But it couldnt have been smoke: it was drifting against the wind that tore at the clouds.
The king put his field glasses to his eyes and saw what it was. "Angels," he said.
Lord Asriel came away from the telescope and stood up, hand shading his eyes. In hundreds, and then thousands, and tens of thousands, until half that part of the sky was darkehe minute figures flew and flew a on ing. Lord Asriel had seen the billion-strong flocks of blue starlings that wheeled at su around the palace of the Emperor Kang-Po, but he had never seen so vast a multitude in all his life. The flying beings gathered themselves and then streamed away slowly, slowly, to the north and the south.
"Ah! And whats that?" said Lord Asriel, pointing. "Thats not the wind."
The cloud was swirling on the southern flank of the mountain, and long tattered banners of vapor streamed out in the powerful winds. But Lord Asriel was right: the movement was ing from within, not from the air outside.<q></q> The cloud roiled and tumbled, and then it parted for a sed.
There was more than a mountain there, but they only saw it for a moment; and then the cloud swirled back, as if drawn across by an unseen hand, to ceal it again.
King Ogu down his field glasses.
"Thats not a mountain," he said. "I saw gun emplats ..."
"So did I. A whole plexity of things. he see out through the cloud, I wonder? In some worlds, they have maes to do that. But as for his army, if those angels are all theyve got...”
The king gave a brief exclamation, half of astonishment, half of despair. Lord Asriel turned and gripped his arm with fihat all but bruised him to the bone.
"They havent got this!" he said, and shook Ogunwes arm violently. "They havent got Zesh!"
He laid his hand against his friends rough cheek.
"Few as we are," he went on, "and short-lived as we are, and weak-sighted as we are, in parison with them, were still strohey envy us, Oguhats what fuels their hatred, Im sure of it. They long to have our precious bodies, so solid and powerful, so well-adapted to the good earth! And if we drive at them with ford determination, we sweep aside those infinite numbers as you sweep your hand through mist. They have no more power than that!"
"Asriel, they have allies from a thousand worlds, living beings like us."
"We shall win."
"And suppose hes sent those ao look for your daughter?"
"My daughter!" cried Lord Asriel, exulting. "Isnt it something t a child like that into the world? Youd think it was enough to go aloo the king of the armored bears and trick his kingdom out of his paws, but to go down into the world of the dead and calmly let them all out! And that boy; I want to meet that boy; I want to shake his hand. Did we know what we were taking on whearted this rebellion? No. But did they know, the Authority and his Regent, this Metatron, did they know what they were taking on when my daughter got involved?"
"Lord Asriel," said the king, "do you uand her importance for the future?"
"Frankly, no. Thats why I want to see Basilides. Where did he go?"
"To the Lady Coulter. But the man is worn out; he do no more until hes rested."
"He should have rested before. Send for him, would you? Oh, one more thing: please ask Madame Oxeo e to the tower as soon as its ve. I must give her my dolences."
Madame Oxentiel had been the Gallivespians sed-in-and. Now she would have to take over Lord Rokes responsibilities. King Ogunwe bowed a his ander sing the gray horizon.
All through that day the army assembled. Angels of Lord Asriels force flew high over the Clouded Mountain, looking for an opening, but without success. Nothing ged; no more angels flew out or inward; the high winds tore at the clouds, and the clouds endlessly rehemselves, not parting even for a sed. The sun crossed the cold blue sky and then moved down to the southwest, gilding the clouds and tinting the vapor around the mountain every shade of cream and scarlet, of apricot and e. When the sun sank, the clouds glowed faintly from within.
Warriors were now in place from every world where Lord Asriels rebellion had supporters; meid artificers were fueling aircraft, loading ons, and calibrating sights and measures. As the darkness came, some wele reinforts arrived. Padding silently over the cold ground from the north, separately, singly, came a number of armored hears, a large number, and among them was their king. Not long afterward, there arrived the first of several witch s, the sound of the air through their pine branches whispering in the dark sky for a long time.
Along the plain to the south of the fortress glimmered thousands of lights, marking the camps of those who had arrived from far off. Farther away, in all four ers of the pass, flights of spy-angels cruised tirelessly, keeping watch.
At midnight in the adamant tower, Lord Asriel sat in discussion with King Oguhe angel Xaphania, Madame Oxehe Gallivespian, and Teukros Basilides. The alethiometrist had just finished speaking, and Lord Asriel stood up, crossed to the window, and looked out at the distant glow of the Clouded Mountain hanging in the western sky. The others were silent; they had just heard something that had made Lord Asriel turn pale and tremble, and none of them quite knew how to respond.
Finally Lord Asriel spoke.
"Mr. Basilides," he said, "you must be very fatigued. I am grateful for all your efforts. Please take some wih us."
"Thank you, my lord," said the reader.
His hands were shaking. King Ogunwe poured the golden Tokay and handed him the glass.
"What will this mean, Lord Asriel?" said the clear voiadame Oxentiel.
Lord Asriel came back to the table.
"Well," he said, "it will mean that when we join battle, we shall have a new objective. My daughter and this boy have bee separated from their daemons, somehow, and mao survive; and their daemons are somewhere in this world, correct me if Im summarizing wrongly, Mr. Basilides, their daemons are in this world, aron is i on capturing them. If he captures their daemons, the children will have to
follow; and if he trol those two children, the future is his, forever. Our task is clear: we have to find the daemons before he does, ahem safe till the girl and the boy rejoin them."
The Gallivespian leader said, "What form do they have, these two lost daemons?"
"They are not yet fixed, madame," said Teukros Basilides. "They might be any shape."
"So," said Lord Asriel, "to sum it up: all of us, our Republic, the future of every scious being, we all depend on my daughters remaining alive, and on keeping her daemon and the boys out of the hands of Metatron?"
"That is so."
Lord Asriel sighed, almost with satisfa; it was as if hed e to the end of a long and plex calculation, and reached an ahat made quite ued sense.
"Very well," he said, spreading his hands wide oable. "Then this is what we shall do whetle begins. King Ogunwe, you will assume and of all the armies defending the fortress. Madame Oxentiel, you are to send your people out at oo sear every dire for the girl and the boy, and the two daemons. When you find them, guard them with your lives until they e together again. At that point, I uand, the boy will be able to help them escape to another world, and safety."
The lady nodded. Her stiff gray hair caught the lamplight, glinting like stainless steel, and the blue hawk she had ied from Lord Roke spread his wings briefly on the bracket by the door.
"Nohania," said Lord Asriel. "What do you know of this Metatron? He was once a man: does he still have the physical strength of a human being?"
"He came to prominence long after I was exiled," the angel said. "I have never seen him up close. But he would not have been able to domihe Kingdom unless he was very strong indeed, strong in every way. Most angels would avoid fighting hand-to-hand. Metatron would relish the bat, and win."
Ogunwe could tell that Lord Asriel had been struck by an idea. His attention suddenly withdrew, his eyes lost focus for an instant, and then snapped back to the moment with ara charge of iy.
"I see," he said. "Finally, Xaphania, Mr. Basilides tells us that their bomb not only opened an abyss below the worlds, but also fractured the structure of things so profoundly that there are fissures and cracks everywhere. Somewhere nearby there must be a way down to the edge of that abyss. I want you to look for it."
"What are you going to do?" said King Ogunwe harshly.
"Im going to destroy Metatron. But my part is nearly over. Its my daughter who has to live, and its our task to keep all the forces of the Kingdom away from her so that she has a ce to find her way to a safer world, she and that boy, and their daemons."
"And what about Mrs. Coulter?" said the king.
Lord Asriel passed a hand over his forehead.
"I would not have her troubled," he said. "Leave her alone and protect her if you . Although... Well, maybe Im doing her an injustice. Whatever else shes done, shes never failed to surprise me. But we all know what we must do, and why we must do it: we have to protect Lyra until she has found her daemon and escaped. Our Republic might have e into being for the sole purpose of helping her do that. Let us do it as well as we ."
Mrs. Coulter lay in Lord Asriels bed door. Hearing voices iher room, she stirred, for she wasnt deeply asleep. She came out of her troubled slumber uneasy and heavy with longing.
Her daemon sat up beside her, but she didnt want to move closer to the door; it was simply the sound of Lord Asriels voice she wao hear rather than any particular words. She thought they were both doomed. She thought they were all doomed.
Finally she heard the door closing iher room and roused herself to stand up.
"Asriel," she said, going through into the warm naphtha light.
His daemon growled softly; the golden monkey dropped his head low to propitiate her. Lord Asriel was rolling up a large map and did not turn.
"Asriel, what will happen to us all?" she said, taking a chair.
He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. His face was ravaged with fatigue. He sat down aed an elbow oable. Their daemons were very still, the monkey croug on the chair back, the snow leopard sitting upright and alert at Lord Asriels side, watg Mrs. Coulter unblinkingly.
"You didnt hear?" he said.
"I heard a little. I couldnt sleep, but I wasnt listening. Where is Lyra now, does anyone know?"
"No."
He still hadnt answered her first question, and he wasnt going to, and she k.
"We should have married," she said, "and brought her up ourselves."
It was su ued remark that he blinked. His daemon uttered the softest possible growl at the back of her throat, aled down with her paws outstretched in the manner of the Sphinx. He said nothing.
"I t hear the thought of oblivion, Asriel," she tinued. "Sooner anything than that. I used to think pain would he worse, to be tortured forever, I thought that must he worse... But as long as you were scious, it would be better, wouldnt it? Better than feeling nothing, just going into the dark, everything going out forever and ever?"
His part was simply to listen. His eyes were locked on hers, and he aying profound attention; there was o respond. She said:
"The other day, when you spoke about her so bitterly, and about me... I thought you hated her. I could uand your hating me. Ive never hated you, but I could uand... I could see why you might hate me. But I couldnt see why you hated Lyra."
He turned his head away slowly, and then looked back.
"I remember you said something strange, on Svalbard, on the mountaintop, just before you left our world," she went on. "You said: e with me, and well destroy Dust forever. You remember saying that? But you didnt mean it. You meant the very opposite, didnt you? I see now. Why didnt you tell me what you were really doing? Why didnt you tell me you were really trying to preserve Dust? You could have told me the truth."
"I wanted you to e and join me," he said, his voice hoarse and quiet, "and I thought you would <mark>?</mark>prefer a lie."
"Yes," she whispered, "thats what I thought."
She couldnt sit still, but she didnt really have the strength to stand up. For a moment she felt faint, her head swam, sounds receded, the room darkened, but almost at once her senses came back even more pitilessly than before, and nothing iuation had ged.
"Asriel..." she murmured.
The golden monkey put a tentative hand out to touch the paw of the snow leopard. The man watched without a word, and Stelmaria didnt move; her eyes were fixed on Mrs. Coulter.
"Oh, Asriel, what will happen to us?" Mrs. Coulter said again. "Is this the end of everything?"
He said nothing.
Moving like someone in a dream, she got to her feet, picked up the rucksack that lay in the er of the room, and reached i for her pistol; and what she would have do, no one knew, because at that moment there came the sound of footsteps running up the stairs.
Both man and woman, and both daemons, turo look at the orderly who came in and said
breathlessly:
"Excuse me, my lord, the two daemons, theyve been seen, not far from the eastern gate, in the form of cats, the sentry tried to talk to them, bring them inside, but they wouldnt e near. It was only a minute or so ago..."
Lord Asriel sat up, transfigured. All the fatigue had been wiped off his fa a moment. He sprang to his feet and seized his greatcoat.
Ign Mrs. Coulter, he flung the coat around his shoulders and said to the orderly:
"Tell Madame Oxe once. Put this order out: the daemons are not to be threatened, htened, or coerced in any way. Anyone seeing them should first..."
Mrs. Coulter heard no more of what he was saying, because he was already halfway dowairs. When his running footsteps had faded, too, the only sounds were the gentle hiss of the naphtha lamp and the moan of the wild wind outside.
Her eyes found the eyes of her daemon. The golden monkeys expression was as subtle and plex as it had ever been in all their thirty-five years of life.
"Very well," she said. "I t see any other way. I think... I think well..."
He k once what she meant. He leapt to her breast, and they embraced. Then she found her fur-lined coat, and they very quietly left the chamber and made their way down the dark stairs.
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