Chapter 41 TWENTY-ONE - LORD ASRIEL'S WELCOME-1

Lyra rode a strong young bear, and Roger rode another, while lorek paced tirelessly ahead and a squad armed with a fire hurler followed guarding the rear. The way was long and hard. The interior of Svalbard was mountainous, with jumbled peaks and sharp ridges deeply cut by ravines and steep-sided valleys, and the cold was intense. Lyra thought back to the smooth-running sledges of the gyp-tians on the way to Bolvangar; how swift and comfortable that progress now seemed to have been! The air here was more penetratingly chill than any she had experienced before; or it might have been that the bear she was riding wasn't as lightfooted as lorek; it might have been that she was tired to her very soul.

At all events, it was desperately hard going. She knew little of where they were bound, or how far it was. All she knew was what the older bear S0ren Eisarson had told her while they were preparing the fire hurler. He had been involved in negotiating with Lord Asriel about the terms of his Imprisonment, and he remembered it well. At first, hed said, the Svalbard bears regarded Lord Asriel as being no different from any of the other politicians, kings, or troublemakers who had been exiled to their bleak island. The prisoners were important, or they would have been killed outright by their own people; they might be valuable to the bears one day, if their political fortunes changed and they returned to rule in their own countries; so it might pay the bears not to treat them with cruelty or disrespect.

So Lord Asriel had found conditions on Svalbard no better and no worse than hundreds of other exiles had done. But certain things had made his jailers more wary of him than of other prisoners they had had. There was the air of mystery and spiritual peril surrounding anything that had to do with Dust; there was the clear panic on the part of those who brought him there; and there were Mrs. Coulters private communications with lofur Raknison. Besides, the bears had never met anything quite like Lord Asriels own haughty and imperial nature. He dominated even lofur Raknison, arguing forcefully and eloquently, and persuaded the bear-king to let him choose his own dwelling place.

The first one he was allotted was too low down, he said. He needed a high spot, above the smoke and stir of the fire mines and the smithies. He gave the bears a design of the accommodation he wanted, and told them where it should be; and he bribed them with gold, and he flattered and bullied lofur Raknison, and with a bemused willingness the bears set to work. Before long a house had arisen on a headland facing north: a wide and solid place with fireplaces that burned great blocks of coal mined and hauled by bears, and with large windows of real glass. There he dwelled, a prisoner acting like a king.

And then he set about assembling the materials for a laboratory. With furious concentration he sent for books, instruments, chemicals, all manner of tools and equipment. And somehow it had come, from this source or that; some openly, some smuggled in by the visitors he insisted he was entitled to have. , sea, and air, Lord Asriel assembled his materials, and within six months of his committal, he had all the equipment he wanted. And so he worked, thinking and planning and calculating, waiting for the one thing he needed to complete the task that so terrified the Oblation Board. It was drawing closer every minute.

Lyras first glimpse of her fathers prison came when lorek Byrnison stopped at the foot of a ridge for the children to move and stretch themselves, because they had been getting dangerously cold and stiff. "Look up there," he said. A wide broken slope of tumbled rocks and ice, where a track had been laboriously cleared, led up to a crag outlined against the sky. There was no Aurora, but the stars were brilliant. The crag stood black and gaunt, but at its summit was a spacious building from which light spilled lavishly in all directions: not the smoky inconstant gleam of blubber lamps, nor the harsh white of anbaric spotlights, but the warm creamy glow of naphtha.

The windows from which the light emerged also showed Lord Asriels formidable power. Glass was expensive, and large sheets of it were prodigal of heat in these fierce latitudes; . Lyra and Roger mounted their bears for the last time, and lorek led the way up the slope toward the house. There was a courtyard that lay deep under snow, surrounded by a low wall, and as lorek pushed open the gate they heard a bell ring somewhere in the building. Lyra got down. She could hardly stand. She helped Roger down too, and, supporting each other, the children stumbled through the thigh-deep snow toward the steps up to the door.

Oh, the warmth there would be inside that house! Oh, the peaceful rest! She reached for the handle of the bell, but before she could reach it, the door opened. There was a small dimly lit vestibule to keep the warm air in , and standing under the lamp was a figure she recognized: Lord Asriels manservant Thorold, with his pinscher daemon Anfang. Lyra wearily pushed back her hood. "Who..." Thorold began, and then saw who it was, and went on: "Not Lyra? Little Lyra? Am I dreaming?" He reached behind him to open the inner door. A hall, with a coal fire blazing in a stone grate; warm naphtha light glowing on carpets, leather chairs, polished wood... It was like nothing Lyra had seen since leaving Jordan College, and it brought a choking gasp to her throat.

Lord Asriels snow-leopard daemon grew. Lyras father stood there, his powerful dark-eyed face at first fierce, triumphant, and eager; and then the color faded from it; his eyes widened, in horror, as he recognized his daughter. "No! No!" He staggered back and clutched at the mantelpiece. Lyra couldn't move. "Get out!" Lord Asriel cried. "Turn around, get out, go! I did not send for you!" She couldn't speak. She opened her mouth twice, three times, and then managed to say: "No, no, I came because—" He seemed appalled; he kept shaking his head, he held up his hands as if to ward her off; she couldn't believe his distress.

She moved a step closer to reassure him, and Roger came to stand with her, anxious. Their daemons fluttered out into the warmth, and after a moment Lord Asriel passed a hand across his brow and recovered slightly. cheeks as he looked down at the two. "Lyra," he said. "That is Lyra?" "Yes, Uncle Asriel," she said, thinking that this wasn't the time to go into their true relationship. "I came to bring you the alethiometer from the Master of Jordan." "Yes, of course you did," he said. "Who is this?" “Its Roger Parslow,” she said. “Hes the kitchen boy from Jordan College. But—”

"How did you get here?" “I was just going to say, theres lorek Byrnison outside, hes brought us here. He came with me all the way from Trollesund, and we tricked lofur—” "Who's lorek Byrnison?" “An armored bear. He brought us here.” “Thorold,” he called, “run a hot bath for these children, and prepare them some food. Then they will need to sleep. Their clothes are filthy; find them something to wear. Do it now, while I talk to this bear .” Lyra felt her head swim. Perhaps it was the heat, or perhaps it was relief. She watched the servant bow and left the hall, and Lord Asriel go into the vestibule and close the door behind, and then she half-fell into the nearest chair. Only a moment later, it seemed, Thorold was speaking to her. “Follow me, miss,” he was saying, and she hauled herself up and went with Roger to a warm bathroom, where soft towels hung on a heated rail, and where a tub of water steamed in the naphtha light. “You go first,” said Lyra. “Ill sit outside and talk well.” So Roger, wincing and gasping at the heat, got in and washed. They had swum naked together often enough, frolicking in the Isis or the Cherwell with other children, but this was different. “I'm afraid of your uncle,” said Roger through the open door. “I mean your father.” “Better keep calling him my uncle. Im afraid of him too, sometimes.” “When we first come in, he never saw me at all. He only saw you. And he was horrified, till he saw me. Then he calmed down all at once.” "He was just shocked," said Lyra. "Anyone would be, to see someone they didn't expect. He last saw me after that time in the Retiring Room. Its bound to be a shock." “No,” said Roger, “its more than that. He was looking at me like a wolf, or summing.” "You're imagining it." “I ent. Im more scared of him than I was of Mrs. Coulter, and thats the truth.” He splashed himself. Lyra took out the alethiometer. “Dyou want me to ask the symbol reader about it?” Lyra said. “Well, I dunno. Theres things Id rather not know. Seems to me everything I heard of since the Gobblers come to Oxford, everything has been bad. There ent been nothing good more than about five minutes ahead. Like I can see now, this baths nice, and theres a nice warm towel there, about five minutes away. And once Im dry, maybe Ill think of summing nice to eat, but no further ahead than that. And when Ive eaten, maybe Ill look forward to a kip in a comfortable bed. But after that, I dunno, Lyra. Theres been terrible things we saw, ent there? And more a coming, more likely. So I think Id rather not know whats in the future. Ill stick to the present.” “Yeah,” said Lyra wearily. “Theres times I feel like that too.” So although she held the alethiometer in her hands for a little longer, it was only for comfort; she didnt turn the wheels, and the swinging of the needle passed her by. Pantalaimon watched it in silence. After theyd both washed, and eaten some bread and cheese and drunk some wine and hot water, the servant Thorold said, “The boy is to go to bed. Ill show him where to go. His Lordship asks if youd join him in the library , Miss Lyra." Lyra found Lord Asriel in a room whose wide windows overlooked the frozen sea far below. There was a coal fire under a wide chimneypiece, and a naphtha lamp turned down low, so there was little in the way of distracting reflections between the occupants of the room and the bleak starlit panorama outside. Lord Asriel, reclining in a large armchair on one side of the fire, beckoned her to come and sit in the other chair facing him. “Your friend lorek Byrnison is resting outside,” he said. “He prefers the cold.” “Did he tell you about his fight with lofur Raknison?” "Not in detail. But I understand that he is now the king of Svalbard. Is that true?" “Of course its true. lorek never lies.” “He seems to have appointed himself your guardian.” “No. John Faa told him to look after me, and hes doing it because of that. Hes following John Faas orders.” “How does John Faa come into this?” "I'll tell you if you tell me something," she said. "Youre my father, ent you?" "Yes. So what?" “So you should have told me before, thats what. You shouldnt hide things like that from people, because they feel stupid when they find out, and thats cruel. What difference would it make if I knew I was your daughter? You could have said it years ago. You could have told me and asked me to keep it secret, and I would, no matter how young I was, Id have done that if you asked me. I have been so proud nothing would have torn it out of me, if you asked me to keep it secret. But you never. You let other people know, but you never told me.” "Who did tell you?" "John Faa." "Did he tell you about your mother?" "Yes." “Then theres not much left for me to tell. I dont think I want to be interrogated and condemned by an insolent child. I want to hear what youve seen and done on the way here.” "I brought you the bloody alethiometer, didn't I?" Lyra burst out. She was very near to tears. "I looked after it all the way from Jordan, I hid it and I treasured it, all through whats happened to us, and I learned about using it, and I carried it all this bloody way when I couldve just given up and been safe, and you ent even said thank you, nor showed any sign that youre glad to see me. I dont know why I ever done it. But I did, and I kept on going, even in lofur Raknisons stinking palace with all them bears around me I kept on going, all on me own, and I tricked him into fighting with lorek sos I could come on here for your sake....And when you did see me, you like to fainted, as if I was some horrible thing you never wanted to see again. You ent human, Lord Asriel. You ent my father. My father wouldn't treat me like that. Fathers are supposed to love their daughters, ent them? You dont love me, and I dont love you, and thats a fact. I love Farder Coram, and I love lorek Byrnison ;I love an armored bear moren I love my father. And I bet lorek Byrnison loves me moren you do.” “You told me yourself hes only following John Faas orders. If you're going to be sentimental, I shant waste time talking to you." “Take your bloody alethiometer, then, and Im going back with lorek.” "Where?" “Back to the palace. He can fight with Mrs. Coulter and the Oblation Board, when they turn up. If he loses, then Ill die too, I dont care. If he wins, well send for Lee Scoresby and Ill sail away in his balloon and—” "Who's Lee Scoresby?" “An aeronaut. He brought us here and then we crashed. Here you are, heres the alethiometer. Its all in good order.” He made no move to take it, and she laid it on the brass fender around the hearth. “And I suppose I ought to tell you that Mrs. Coulters on her way to Svalbard, and as soon as she hears whats happened to lofur Raknison, shell be on her way here. In a zeppelin, with a whole lot of soldiers, and They're going to kill us all, by order of the Magisterium." "They'll never reach us," he said calmly. He was so quiet and relaxed that some of her ferocity dwindled. "You don't know," she said uncertainly. "Yes I do." “Have you got another alethiometer, then?”