EIGHT - FRUSTRATION-2
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Lyra looked up at John Faas massive frame. Her heart was thumping so much she could hardly hear the first words of his reply.“Now spell it out, Raymond, dont be shy,” he said. “You want us to give this child up to them shes a fleeing from, is that right?”
The man stood obstinately frowning, but said nothing.
“Well, perhaps you would, and perhaps you wouldnt,” John Faa tinued. “But if any man or woman needs a reason for doing good, ponder on this. That little girl is the daughter of Lord Asriel, no less. For them as has fotten, it were Lord Asriel who interceded with the Turk for the life of Sam Broekman. It were Lord Asriel who allowed gyptian boats free passage on the als through his property. It were Lord Asriel who defeated the Watercourse Bill in Parliament, treat and lasting be. And it were Lord Asriel who fought day and night in the floods of 53, and plunged headlong ier twice to pull out young Ruud and Nellie Koopman. You fotten that? Shame, shame on you, shame.
“And now that same Lord Asriel is held in the farthest coldest darkest regions of the wild, captive, in the fortress of Svalbard. Do I o tell you the kind of creatures a guarding him there? And this is his little daughter in our care, and Raymond va would hand her over to the authorities for a bit of pead quiet. Is that right, Raymond? Stand up and answer, man.”
But Raymond va had sunk to his seat, and nothing would make him stand. A low hiss of disapproval souhrough the great hall, and Lyra felt the shame he must be feeling, as well as a deep glow of pride in her brave father.
John Faa turned away, and looked at the other men on the platform.
“Nicholas Rokeby, Im a putting you in charge of finding a vessel, and anding her once we sail. Adam Stefanski, I want you to take charge of the arms and munitions, and and the fighting. Roger van Poppel, you look to all the other stores, from food to cold-weather clothing. Simon Hartmann, you be treasurer, and at to us all for a proper apportio of old.
Benjamin de Ruyter, I want you to take charge of spying. Theres a great deal we ought to find out, and Im a giving you the charge of that, and youll report to Farder . Michael zona, yoing to be responsible for coordinating the first four leaders wobbr>..</abbr>rk, and youll report to me, and if I die, youre my sed in and and youll take over.
“Now Ive made my dispositions acc to , and if any man or womao disagree, they may do so freely.”
After a moment a woman stood up.
“Lord Faa, ent you a taking any women on this expedition to look after them kids once you found em?”
“No, Nell. We shall have little space as it is. Any kids we free will be better off in our care thaheyve been.”
“But supposing you find out that you t rescue em without some women in disguise as guards or nurses or whatever?”
“Well, I hadnt thought of that,” John Faa admitted. “Well sider that most carefully wheire into the parley room, you have my promise.”
She sat down and a man stood up.
“Lord Faa, I heard you say that Lord Asriel is in captivity. Is it part of your plan to rescue him? Because if it is, and if hes in the power of them bears as I think you said, thats going to need more than a hundred ay men. And good friend as Lord Asriel is to us, I dont know as theres any call on us to go as far as that.”
“Adriaan Braks, youre n. What I had it in my mind to do was to keep our eyes and ears open and see what knowledge we glean while were in the North.
It may be that we do something to help him, and it may not, but you trust me not to use what youve provided, man and gold, for any purpose outside the stated one of finding our children and bringing em home.”
Another woman stood up.
“Lord Faa, we dont know what them Gobblers mightve been doing to our children.
We all heard rumors and stories of fearful things. We hear about children with no heads, or about children cut in half aogether, or about things too awful to mention. Im truly sorry to distress anyone, but we all heard this kind of thing, and I want to get it out in the open. Now in case you find anything of that awful kind, Lord Faa, I hope youre a going to take powerful revenge. I hope you ent going to let thoughts of merd gentleness hold your hand back from striking and striking hard, and delivering a mighty blow to the heart of that infernal wiess. And Im sure I speak for any mother as has lost a child to the Gobblers.”
There was a loud murmur of agreement as she s<big></big>at down. Heads were nodding all over the Zaal.
John Faa waited for silence, and said:
“Nothing will hold my hand, Margaret, save only judgment. If I stay my hand in the North, it will only be to strike the harder in the South. To strike a day too soon is as bad as striking a hundred miles off. To be sure, theres a assion behind what you say. But if you give in to that passion, friends, youre a doing what I always warned you agin: youre a plag the satisfa of your own feelings above the work you have to do. Our work here is first rescue, then punishment. It ent gratification for upset feelings. Our feelings dont matter.
If we rescue the kids but unish the Gobblers, weve dohe main task. But if we aim to punish the Gobblers first and by doing so lose the ce of resg the kids, weve failed.
“But be assured of this, Margaret. Wheime es to punish, we shall strike <var>９９lｉｂ?</var>such a blow asll make their hearts faint and fearful. We shall strike the strength out of em. We shall leave them ruined and wasted, broken and shattered, torn in a thousand pieces and scattered to the four winds. Dont you worry that John Faas heart is too soft to strike a blow wheime es.
And the time will e under judgment. Not under passion.
“Is there anyone else who wants to speak? Speak if you will.”
But no one did, and presently John Faa reached for the closing bell and rang it hard and loud, swinging it high and shaking the peals out of it so that they filled the hall and rang the rafters.
John Faa and the other mehe platform for the parley room. Lyra was a little disappointed. Didnt they wahere too? But Tony laughed.
“They got plans to make,” he said. “You done your part, Lyra. Now its for John Faa and the cil.”
“But I ent dohi!” Lyra protested, as she followed the others relutly out of the hall and down the cobbled road toward the jetty. “All I done was run away from Mrs. Coulter! Thats just a beginning. I want to go north!”
“Tell you what,” said Tony, “Ill bring you back a walrus tooth, thats what Ill do.”
Lyra scowled. For his part, Pantalaimon occupied himself by making monkey faces at Tonys daemon, who closed her tawny eyes in disdain. Lyra drifted to the jetty and hung about with her new panions, dangling lanterns on strings over the black water to attract the goggle-eyed fishes who swam s<df</dfn>lowly up to be lu with sharp sticks and missed.
But her mind was on John Faa and the parley room, and before long she slipped a the cobbles again to the Zaal. There was a light in the parley room window. It was too high to look through, but she could hear a low rumble of voices inside.
So she walked up to the door and knocked on it firmly five times. The voices stopped, a chair scraped across the floor, and the door opened, spilling warm naphtha light out on the damp step.
“Yes?” said the man whod ope.
Beyond him Lyra could see the other men around the table, with bags of gold stacked ly, and papers and pens, and glasses and a crock of jenniver.
“I want to e north,” Lyra said so they could all hear it. “I want to e and help rescue the kids. Thats what I set out to do when I run away from Mrs.
Coulter. And before that, even, I meant to rescue my friend Roger the kit boy from Jordan who was took. I want to e and help. I do navigation and I take anbaromagic readings off the Aurora, and I knoarts of a bear you eat, and all kind of useful things. Youd be sorry if you got up there and then found you needed me and found youd left me behind. And like that woman said, you might need women to play a part—well, you might need kids too. You dont know. So you oughter take me, Lord Faa, excuse me for interrupting your talk.”
She was ihe room now, and all the men and their daemons were watg her, some with amusement and some with irritation, but she had eyes only for John Faa. Pantalaimon sat up in her arms, his wildcat eyes blazing green.
John Faa said, “Lyra, there ent no question of taking you into danger, so dont delude yourself, child. Stay here and help Ma Costa and keep safe. Thats what you got to do.”
“But Im learning how to read the alethiometer, too. Its ing clearer every day! Youre bound to hat—bound to!”
He shook his head.
“No,” he said. “I know your heart was set on going north, but its my belief not even Mrs. Coulter was going to take you. If you want to see the North, youll have to wait till all this troubles over. Now off you go.”
Pantalaimon hissed quietly, but John Faas daemon took off from the back of his chair and flew a<bdo></bdo>t them with black wings, not threateningly, but like a reminder of good manners; and Lyra turned on her heel as the crow glided over her head and wheeled back to John Faa. The door shut behind her with a decisive click.
“We will go,” she said to Pantalaimon. “Let em try to stop us. We will!”
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