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As darkness fell, this was how things stood

In his adamant tower, Lord Asriel paced up and down His attention was fixed on the little figure beside the lodestone resonator, and every other report had been diverted, every part of his mind was directed to the news that caht

King Ogunwe sat in the cabin of his gyropter, swiftly working out a plan to counter the intentions of the Consistorial Court, which he’d just learned about froator was scribbling soures on a scrap of paper, which he handed to the pilot The essential thing was speed: getting their troops on the ground first would yropters were faster than zeppelins, but they were still some way behind

In the zeppelins of the Consistorial Court, the Swiss Guard were attending to their kit Their crossboere deadly over five hundred yards, and an archer could load and fire fifteen bolts a ave the bolt a spin and made the weapon as accurate as a rifle It was also, of course, silent, which e

Mrs Coulter lay awake in the entrance to the cave The golden monkey was restless, and frustrated: the bats had left the cave with the co to tor, scratching with a little horny finger at the occasional glowflies that settled in the cave and s their luminescence over the rock

Lyra lay hot and almost as restless, but deep, deep asleep, locked into oblivion by the draught her mother had forced down her only an hour before There was a drea time, and now it had returned, and little whie and Lyratic resolution shook her breast and her throat, rind his polecat teeth in sympathy

Not far away, under the wind-tossed pines on the forest path, Will and A their way toward the cave Will had tried to explain to A to do, but her daemon could make no sense of it, and when he cut aand showed her, she was so terrified that she nearly fainted He had to move calmly and speak quietly in order to keep her nearby, because she refused to let him take the powder from her, or even to tell him hoas to be used In the end he had to say simply, "Keep very quiet and follow me," and hope that she would

Iorek, in his ar to hold off the soldiers froh time to work What neither of the in: the wind froht a far-distant clatter to Iorek’s ears, but whereas he knehat zeppelin engines sounded like, he had never heard a gyropter, and he could ht have been able to tell them, but Will was troubled about hiun to withdraw back into his grief: he was silent, distracted, and sullen And that, in turn, made it harder to talk to Ama

As they paused on the path, Will said to the air, "Balthael tunelessly

"Balthaer I need you"

"I haven’t abandoned you yet," said the angel

That was the best Will could get out of hito see down to the cave The dragonflies would do exactly as they were told, but their bodies couldn’t easily cope with cold, and besides, they were tossed about dangerously in the ind Their riders guided the the shelter of the trees, and then flew fro dark

Will and Aht to the closest point they could reach that was still out of sight of the cave mouth It happened to be behind a heavy-leaved bush just off the path, and there he cut ain the air

The only world he could find with the saround was a bare, rocky place, where the lared down froround where little insects crawled and uttered their scraping, chittering sounds over a wide silence

A furiously to protect her frohastly place; and her dae at once, became a lizard and scampered over the rocks with quick feet

Will saw a probleht on the bone-colored rocks would shine like a lantern once he opened thein Mrs Coulter’s cave He’d have to open it quickly, pull Lyra through, and close it again at once They could wake her up in this world, where it was safer

He stopped on the dazzling slope and said to Ama: "We must be very quick and completely silent No noise, not even a whisper"

She understood, though she was frightened The little packet of poas in her breast pocket: she’d checked it a dozen times, and she and her daemon had rehearsed the task so often that she was sure they could do it in total darkness

They cli the distance carefully until he estimated that they would be well inside the cave

Then he took the knife and cut the ser than the circle he could er

He put his eye to it quickly to keep the h There it all was: he’d calculated well He could see the cave ht sky; he could see the shape of Mrs Coulter, asleep, with her golden daemon beside her; he could even see the

Changing his angle and looking closer, he saw the rock behind which Lyra was lying He couldn’t see her, though Was he too close? He shut that , ain

She wasn’t there

"Listen," he said to Ama and her daemon, "the wooing to have to go through and look around the cave to find her, and cut through as soon as I’ve done that So stand back - keep out of the way so I don’t accidentally cut you when I coo back and wait by the other here we cah," Ama said, "because I knoake her, and you don’t, and I know the cave better than you do, too"

Her face was stubborn, her lips pressed together, her fists clenched Her lizard daemon acquired a ruff and raised it slowly around his neck

Will said, "Oh, very well But we go through quickly and in complete silence, and you do exactly what I say, at once, you understand?"

She nodded and patted her pocket yet again to check the , lon, looked through, and enlarged it swiftly, getting through in a ether the as open for less than ten seconds

They crouched on the cave floor behind a large rock, with the bird-for some moments to adjust from the moon-drenched brilliance of the other world Inside the cave it was much darker, and much more full of sound: mostly the wind in the trees, but below that was another sound, too It was the roar of a zeppelin’s engine, and it wasn’t far away

With the knife in his right hand, Will balanced hi the sa this way and that; but Lyra was not at this end of the cave There was no doubt about it

Will raised his head over the rock and took a long, steady look doard the entrance, where Mrs Coulter and her daemon lay deep in sleep

And then his heart sank There lay Lyra, stretched out in the depths of her sleep, right next to Mrs Coulter Their outlines had ed in the darkness; no wonder he hadn’t seen her

Will touched Anna’s hand and pointed

"We’ll just have to do it very carefully," he whispered

So outside The roar of the zeppelins was nowabout, too, shining down through the branches froot Lyra out, the better, and thatdown there now before Mrs Coulter woke up, cutting through, pulling her to safety, and closing again

He whispered that to Ama She nodded

Then, as he was about to move, Mrs Coulter woke up

She stirred and said so to his feet Will could see his silhouette in the cave , attentive, and then Mrs Coulter herself sat up, shading her eyes against the light outside

Will’s left hand was tight around Aot up, fully dressed, lithe, alert, not at all as if she’d just been asleep Perhaps she’d been awake all the ti inside the cave ht fro froines roared, and shouts,orders, made it clear that they should move fast, very fast