Chapter 14 14. Birvangar's Lamp

The gypsies hadn't heard or seen anything about Mrs. Coulter, which made Fader Coram and John Faa very anxious, and they just didn't want Laila to know they were so worried.What they didn't know was that Lyra was actually disturbed too.Though Lord Asriel is now "Father," Mrs Coulter will never be "Mother" because Mrs Coulter's elf—the golden monkey—made Pantalaimon Very disgusted, and Lyra felt that he was prying into her own secrets, especially about the alethiometer. Plus, they must be chasing them—what a fool to think otherwise, at least, as evidenced by the spy bug.

However, when an enemy did strike, it wasn't Mrs. Coulter.The gypsies had intended to stop, to rest the dogs, to repair and repair a few sledges, to go over all their weapons, and prepare to attack Birvangar.John Faah hoped that Lee Scoresby would find ground gas, fill up his smaller balloon (he had two, apparently), and take to the sky to scout the area.The balloonist, however, was as much concerned about the weather as the sailor, and he said it was going to be foggy.Indeed, as soon as they stopped, a thick fog began to fall.Lee Scoresby knew he could see nothing from the sky in such weather, so he had to go over his gear carefully, though they were all in perfect order.At this moment, without any warning, a row of feathered arrows flew over from the dark.

The three gypsies were immediately shot down, and died without a sound, and no one heard a sound.It was only when they fell suddenly and lumbering over the trail of dogs running, or lay unexpectedly still, that those closest to them noticed what was happening.But by then it was too late, for another volley of feathered arrows was shot at them.Those who looked up were a little puzzled to see the short, irregular crashes of the arrows as they plunged into the row of logs or frozen canvas, and wondered what they were. The first to react was John Fa'a.He stood in the middle of the row of sledges and shouted orders.According to his order, people's cold hands and stiff limbs began to move.However, more arrows flew down densely - straight, deadly arrows.

Lyra was out in the open with arrows flying over her head.Pantalaimon heard the sound before her, and instantly transformed into a leopard, and knocked her down before she could be a target.Lyra wiped the snow from her eyes and rolled over to see what was going on, for in the half-light there was chaos and noise.Then she heard a deafening roar, and Iorek Bernison, in full armor, jumped several sledges and rushed into the mist, his armor clanging and scraping.Then there were screams, growls, clicks, and tears, with the crushing thuds, cries of terror, and angry growls of the armored bears as they destroyed them.

But who are they?Lyra hadn't seen the enemy yet.The gypsies swarmed to protect their sledges, but it made them a more obvious target (even Lyra could see it); and their gloved hands couldn't easily fire their rifles; Lyra heard only four or five shots.More people fell to the ground every minute. Oh, John Faah!She thought bitterly, You didn't foresee this, and I didn't help you either! But the thought was only fleeting, for Pantalaimon gave a sudden growl, and something—another elf—jumped at Pantalaimon, knocking him to the ground, Lyra I was almost out of breath with fright.Immediately afterwards, hands grabbed Laila, lifted her up, put smelly cotton gloves over her mouth to keep her from screaming, and threw her into another man's arms, and then Pressing her flat into the snow, Laila immediately felt dizzy, out of breath, and aching all over her body.Someone moved her arm back and there was a clicking sound in her shoulder.Someone tied her wrists together, and then they forced a hood over her head to silence her screams—for she was screaming as loud as she could:

"Iorek! Iorek Bernison! Help me!" But can he hear it?Laila didn't know.They tossed her around and dropped her onto a hard surface, which immediately began to shake and bump like a sled.The voices that reached her were frantic and chaotic, and she might have heard Iorek Bernison's growl, but it was far away.Then, she stumbled on the rough ground, her arms were tied behind her back, and her mouth was tightly gagged.She cried with anger and fear.Surrounded by strange voices talking. "Pan..." "I'm here. Shhh - I'll help you catch your breath. Don't move..."

Pantalaimon's rat paws tugged on the hood until it opened her mouth a bit, and Lyra sucked in the cold air in big gulps. "Who are they?" she asked quietly. "Like a Tartar. I think they hit John Faa." "No--" "I saw him go down. But he should have been on guard against this sneak attack, we know that." "But we should have helped him too! We should have looked at the alethiometer!" "Don't talk, just pretend to pass out." Then there was a crack of the whip, and the running dogs barked loudly.By how much she jolted, Lyra could tell how fast they were going.Though she pricked up her ears to hear the struggle, all she could make out was a desolate gunshot, faint because of the distance; afterward, all she could hear were creaks, There was the sound of running and paws slapping lightly on the snow.

"They're going to take us to Taotie," Lyra whispered. Suddenly the word cut came to their minds, and Lyra felt a wave of fear all over her body, Pantalaimon clung to her. "I fought them," said Pantalaimon. "Me too, I'm going to kill them." "When Iorek knows, he will too. He'll crush them." "How far are we from Birvangar?" Pantalaimon did not know, but he thought it was less than a day's journey. They walked for a long time, and Lyra's body was painfully bound.Later, when they slowed down a little, someone roughly tore her hood off.

She looked up, and in the flickering light she saw the broad face of an Asian man with a wolverine hat on his head.There was a gleam of satisfaction in his black eyes, especially when Pantalaimon emerged from Lyra's coat—Pantalaimon baring his sable teeth and hissing.The man's daemon, a huge wolverine, snarled back at him, but Pantalaimon didn't flinch. The man dragged Lyra and sat her up against the side of the sled.Laila kept falling on her side as her hands were still bound behind her back.So the man tied her feet together and let go of the ropes on her hands. Through the falling snow and the thick fog Lyra could see that the man was very strong, and so was the man driving the sled, and they were very well balanced on the sled.They have shown such mastery of the land that no gypsy can match.

The man spoke, but of course Lyra couldn't understand a word.He tried another language, with the same result.So, he tried English. "your name?" Pantalaimon bristled warningly, and she understood him immediately.Which means these people don't know who she is!They didn't kidnap her because she had a relationship with Mrs. Coulter, so maybe they weren't bought by Glutton after all. "Lizzie Brooks," she said. "Lissie Bruggs, this man's English is not good, so he misunderstood." The man read after her, "We will take you to a good place, to meet good people."

"Who are you?" "Samoyeds. Mongols living in northern Siberia. Hunting." "Where are you taking me?" "Great place, meet nice people. Do you have armored bears?" "To protect us." "It's useless! Hahaha... the bear is useless! We still caught you!" He laughed out loud.Laila resisted and said nothing. "Who are those other people?" the man asked, pointing back the way they had come. "merchant." "Businessmen... what business do they do?" "Furs, wine," she said, "tobacco." "They sell tobacco and buy furs?" "yes." He said a few words to his companion, and the man responded briefly.The whole time, the sled continued to move at full speed.Lyra scrambled to get more comfortable, to see which direction they were going, but the snow was falling heavily and the sky was dark.After a while she felt so cold that she could no longer look out, so she lay down.She and Pantalaimon could feel each other's thoughts, and tried to keep calm, but the thought of John Fa'a's death might be... What happened to Fadel Colum?Will Iorek try to kill the other Samoyeds?Would they manage to catch up to her along the way? For the first time Lyra felt sorry for herself. After a long time, the man shook her shoulders and handed her a piece of reindeer jerky to chew.The jerky was stinky and hard, but she was starving, and it was nourishment after all.After chewing, she felt a little better, and slowly put her hand inside the leather jacket, the alethiometer was still there.She carefully fished out the tin cup that held the spy fly, and quietly let it slide down into her leather boots.Pantalaimon, transformed into a mouse, climbed into the boot and pushed it down as hard as he could, tucking it under her reindeer-skin leggings. When this was done, she closed her eyes.Fear had exhausted her, and soon, in the midst of the panic, she fell asleep unconsciously. When she awoke, the sled stopped jolting and suddenly became smoother.She opened her eyes, and a blinding light glides over her head.The lights were so bright that she had to pull down her hat before looking out again.She was very stiff and icy to the bone, but she managed to sit upright and saw the sled speeding along among a row of tall poles, each of which had a blinding electric light on it.By the time she got her bearings, they had passed through an open metal gate at the end of the row of electric lights and into a large clearing.It looked like a market, or an arena for some kind of game or sport, very flat, smooth, and white, about a hundred yards square, surrounded by high metal railings. The sled came to a halt at the end of the arena.They stopped outside a low house, or rather a row of low houses, whose roofs were thickly covered with snow.It was hard to say with certainty, but Lyra had a vague feeling that some part of the houses were connected by tunnels—tunnels raised under the snow.A thick flagpole stood on one side of the house, and Lyra felt familiar, but she didn't know what it reminded her of. Before she could look down any further, the man on the sled grabbed the ropes that bound her ankles and dragged her roughly out of the sled.The man driving the sled yelled at the dogs to be quiet.A door in the house opened a few yards away, and a suspended electric lamp came on, swung like a searchlight, searching for them. The man who had taken Lyra's captor pushed her forward as though he were a trophy, but kept his hand and said something.The man standing under the dim kerosene lamp replied in the same language.Laila could see his face clearly: he was neither Samoyed nor Tatar, but rather a fellow of Jordan College.He watched her, especially Pantalaimon. The Samoyed said something more, and the man in Birvangar asked Laila, "Do you speak English?" "Yes," Lyra said. "Is your elf always like this?" What an unexpected question!Lyra was too stunned to speak.It was Pantalaimon who answered in his own way: he turned into a falcon, flew up from Lyra's shoulders, and swooped down on the man's daemon, a gigantic marmot.The marmot's body flashed swiftly, and it slapped Pantalaimon upwards.Pantalaimon flapped his wings quickly, skimming around the marmot. "I see," the man said with satisfaction.Then Pantalaimon flew back to Lyra's shoulder. With an expectant look on the Samoyed's face, the man from Birvangar nodded, took off one glove, reached into his pocket, pulled out a zipped wallet, and counted twelve A heavy coin was put into the hunter's hand. The two counted the money, took six pieces each, put them away carefully, and then got on the sled without looking back.The sled-drivers flicked their whips and yelled at the dogs, and they raced across the white arena into the lighted avenue, faster and faster, and disappeared into the distant darkness. Among them. The man from Balvangar opened the door again. "Come in," he said, "it's warm and cozy inside, and it's too cold to stand outside. What's your name?" He spoke perfect British English, and Laila couldn't detect any accent.He sounded like the people she'd met at Mrs. Coulter's: smart, educated, distinguished. "Lizzie Brooks," Lyra replied. "Come on in, Lizzie. We'll take care of you here, don't worry." Although Laila had been out much longer than him, he was colder than Laila and couldn't wait to get back inside the warm house.Laila made up her mind to be slow, silly, reluctant, and shuffle across the high threshold into the house. There are two doors in the house, and there is a large distance between the two doors, so that the heat inside will not escape a lot.Once through the inner door, Lyra felt so hot that it seemed unbearably hot inside, and she had to unbutton her leather jacket and push the hood back. They came to an open space about eight feet square, with corridors to the left and right, and in front of her was a reception desk, the kind you might find in a hospital.Everything was brightly lit, with sparkling white surfaces and stainless steel appliances gleaming.There was a smell of food in the air, familiar food, bacon and coffee, with a persistent, faint smell of hospital and potions.From the surrounding walls came a faint hum, barely audible, the kind you either had to get used to or drive you crazy. By this time Pantalaimon, already transformed into a goldfinch, whispered in her ear, "Be stupid and stupid, be stupid and stupid." Several adults were looking down at her: the man who had brought her in, a man in a white coat, and a woman in a nurse's uniform. "The Englishman," said the first, "is a businessman, obviously." "Or those hunters? Or what happened?" "As far as I know, it's the same tribe. Nurse Clara, could I trouble you a little bit to take her... um... look at her?" "Of course, doctor. Come with me, my dear," said the nurse.Laila followed obediently. They walked along a short corridor. There were several doors on the right side of the corridor, and a small restaurant on the left side. There were sounds of clashing knives and forks, voices, and a stronger smell of food.The nurse, Lyra guessed, was about Mrs. Coulter's age, brisk and deadpan, intelligent; she could sew a wound or change a bandage, but she would never tell a story.Her elf (and Lyra was oddly frightened for a moment when she noticed her elf) was a white puppy trotting along (after a while, Lyra couldn't understand why the elf will make you feel scared). "What's your name, dear?" asked the nurse, opening a heavy door. "Lizzie." "Just Lizzie?" "Lizzie Brooks." "How old are you?" "eleven." Lyra had been told that she was younger than her age—whatever that meant—but that never affected her arrogance.Now, however, she realized that she could take advantage of this fact at this moment, making Lizzie look timid, tense, and worthless; Laila thought she might ask herself where and how she came from, and she thought about the answer.Yet this nurse lacked not only imagination, but curiosity as well.Judging by all the interest Nurse Clara was expressing, it seemed as though Birvangar was just on the outskirts of London and children kept coming here.Her nimble, neat little elf, as light and numb as she was, trotted along at her feet. They entered a room containing an examining table, a table, two chairs, a filing cabinet, a glass case with medicines and bandages, and a sink.Once they were in the room, the nurse took off Lyra's overcoat and threw it on the shiny floor. "Take off everything else, dear," she said, "and we'll give you a quick quick check to make sure you're happy, healthy, and free from frostbite and cold, and then we'll find you some nice, Clean clothes. Plus, let you take a shower," she added.This was all the more obvious because Laila hadn't changed or showered in days, wrapped in the heat. Pantalaimon flapped his wings in protest, but Lyra frowned and silenced him.Lyra's clothes came off piece by piece as he stopped on the examining table, which made her angry and ashamed; . "And the money belt, Lizzie," said the nurse, undoing it herself with strong fingers.She walked over and was about to throw it on top of Laila's pile of clothes when she stopped and touched the edge of the alethiometer. "What's this?" she asked, unbuttoning the tarpaulin. "Just a toy," Lyra said. "Mine." "That's right, we won't take it from you, honey," Nurse Clara said, opening the black velvet cloth. "Pretty, isn't it? Like a compass. Go take a shower," she continued, setting down the alethiometer and quickly drawing the black coal silk curtains in the corner. Lyra reluctantly slipped out into the hot water to soap herself while Pantalaimon perched on the curtain rod.They both knew that he must not be too active, for the spirit of a dull man is also dull.After Laila was washed and dried, the nurse took her temperature, checked her eyes, ears, and throat, then measured her height, weighed her, and made a note on the clipboard.Then she got Lyra some nightgowns and a dressing gown.The clothes were clean and of good quality, much like Tony Markorios's hooded overcoat, but they still smelled of being worn, and Lyra found them uncomfortable. "These are not my clothes," she said. "Yes, dear, your clothes need a good wash." "Will my own be returned to me?" "I think it will, of course it will." "What is this place?" "This is called the Experimental Station." It really doesn't answer the question.Though Lyra could have poked it through and asked further, she didn't think Lizzie Brooks would do that; so she put on the dress and silently accepted her answer without saying anything. "I want my toys," she said stubbornly when she was dressed. "Here you are, honey," said the nurse, "but you don't want another cute woolly bear, or a pretty doll?" She opened a drawer, and a few soft toys lay lifeless inside.Lyra forced herself to stand there, pretending to think for a few seconds, then picked out a rag doll with large but lifeless eyes.She'd never had a doll before, but she knew what to do, and she held it absently to her chest. "Where's my belt with my money?" she asked. "I'm going to put my toys in it." "Let it go, honey," Nurse Clara said.She is filling out a pink form. Laila pulled up the unfamiliar skirt and tied the oilskin bag around her waist. "Where's my coat and boots?" she asked, "and my cotton gloves, and what else?" "We'll wash you up," said the nurse mechanically. Then the phone rang, and while the nurse was answering, Laila bent quickly and brought back the tin cup that contained the spyfly and put it in the pouch that held the alethiometer. "Come here, Lizzie," said the nurse, putting down the receiver. "We'll get you something to eat. I think you're hungry now." She followed Nurse Clara to the dining room.There were a dozen round white tables in the dining room, covered with crumbs and sticky circular marks from careless drinks glasses.A small steel cart was piled high with dirty plates and cutlery.There are no windows in the restaurant, so, to give a sense of light and space, a huge photo of a tropical beach with clear blue skies, white sand, and coconut trees was taped to one wall. The man who had brought Lyra in was collecting trays at the service window. "Eat them all," he said. There was no need for Lyra to starve herself, so she ate both the stew and mashed potatoes with gusto, followed by a bowl of tinned peaches and ice cream.While she ate, the man and the nurse talked quietly at another table.When she finished eating, the nurse brought her a cup of hot milk and took the tray away. The man came over and sat across from her.His marmot elves weren't as expressionless and uninterested as the nurse's dog elves, but they just sat politely on his shoulder and listened to them. "Well, Lizzie," he asked, "are you full?" "I'm full, thank you." "I want you to tell me where you're from, can you do that?" "London," Lyra replied. "What are you doing all this far north?" "With Daddy," she murmured, keeping her eyes down to avoid the marmot's gaze on her, and trying to look like tears were about to well up in her eyes. "With your father? That's what it is. What's he doing here?" "Business. We've got loads of New Danes and we're going to buy some furs." "Did your father come alone?" "No, and my uncles, and others," she said vaguely, because she didn't know what the Samoyed hunter had said to him. "Why did he take you so far, Lizzie?" "Because he took my brother two years ago, he said he would take me there next time, but he never brought him, so I kept pestering him, and then he brought me here." "How old are you?" "eleven." "Good, good. Well... Lizzie, you're lucky little girl. Those hunters found you and took you to the best place you could find." "They didn't find me," she said suspiciously. "There was a battle, and they had many people and arrows..." "Oh, I don't think so. I think you must have left your father and the others and got lost, and the hunters found you alone and brought you here straight away. That's how it happened, Lizzie." "I saw them fighting," she said, "and they shoot arrows, and... I want Daddy," she raised her voice and found herself crying. "Well...you're safe here, waiting for him to pick you up," the doctor said. "But I saw them shoot arrows!" "Ah, it's just that you think you see. It's a hallucination like that a lot in the cold, Lizzie. You fall asleep and have nightmares and you can't remember what's real and what's not. That's not War, don't worry. Your father is safe and well, he'll be looking for you now, and he'll find you here soon, because you know, this is the only place with people within a few hundred miles. Wait until he finds you and finds you safe Nothing, what a surprise! Now, Nurse Clara will take you to the dormitory, where you will meet other little girls and boys who, like you, were lost in the wilderness. Go , let's talk for a while tomorrow morning." Lyra stood up, clutching her doll tightly, and Pantalaimon jumped on her shoulders.The nurse opened the door and led them out. They walked down several more corridors, and by this time Laila was so exhausted that she yawned and could barely lift her feet in the wool slippers they had given her.Pantalaimon, too, lost his energy and had to turn into a mouse with the cat in her shirt pocket.Lyra vaguely saw a row of bunks, some children's faces, and a pillow, and she fell asleep. Someone is shaking her.The first thing she did was touch her waist—the two pieces of tinplate were still there, and they were all right.So she tried to open her eyes, but oh—it was not easy—she had never slept so soundly. "Wake up! Wake up!" Several voices were calling in low voices.With great effort, Laila finally forced herself to wake up, like pushing a boulder up a hill. In the dim light of a weak light bulb hanging above the doorway, Laila saw three little girls clustered around her.It was not easy to see clearly, because her eyes were still sluggish in focusing.They looked to be around her age and spoke English too. "She's awake." "They gave her sleeping pills, it must be..." "what's your name?" "Lizzie," Lyra said vaguely. "Is there another batch of new kids?" one of the girls asked. "I don't know, it's just me." "Where did they get you?" Lyra struggled to sit up.She didn't remember taking any sleeping pills, but maybe there was something in her drink.She felt that her mind was in a mess, and her eyes throbbed with slight pain. "Where is this?" "No, they don't tell us." "They usually bring more than one kid at a time..." "What do they do?" Laila asked with difficulty gathering her numb mind.Pantalaimon woke up with her. "We don't know," said one girl—she was the one who said most of the time.She was tall, red-haired, quick and nervous, and spoke a thick Cockney accent. "They measured us this and that, and did some experiments, and—" "They measure that dust," said another girl.It was a friendly-looking, chubby, brunette girl. "You just don't know," said the first girl. "They're measuring the dust," said the third girl.She looks very docile and is hugging her rabbit elf. "I heard them say it." "Then they took us away one by one, and that's all we knew. None of them came back," the red-haired girl said. "The boy, yes," said the fat girl, "he guessed—" "Don't tell her that!" said the red-haired girl, "not yet." "There are boys here?" Lyra asked. "Yes, there are a lot of us. I guess there are about thirty." "More than that," said the fat girl, "more like forty." "It's just that they always take people," said the red-haired girl, "and they usually bring a bunch of people here at first, so there are so many children here, and then they disappear one by one. gone." "They are Taotie," said the fat girl, "You must know Taotie, we were all afraid of them, and then they caught us..." By this time, Laila had gradually woken up.Except for the rabbit elf, the two girls' elves stayed at the door and listened, all in low voices when they spoke.Lyra asked what their names were.The red-haired girl was called Anne, the fat girl with black hair was called Bella, and the skinny girl was called Martha.They don't know what the names of the boys are because most of the time boys and girls are separated.They don't treat them badly. "It's okay here," Bella said, "nothing to do except they're going to check us up and exercise and take our size and temperature and stuff. It's just really annoying .” "It's different when Mrs. Coulter comes," said Anne. Lyra tried not to let herself cry out, and Pantalaimon's wings flapped violently a few times, even the girl noticed. "He's nervous," Lyra said, reassuring him. "They must have given us sleeping pills, as you said, because we're all so sleepy. Who's Mrs. Coulter?" "She was the one who tricked us here with the others—at least most of the people," said Martha. "They—just the other kids, talked about her. Whenever she comes, you know There are going to be children missing." "She likes to stare at the kids. When they take the kids away, she likes to see what they do to us. That boy Simon, he guesses they're going to kill us, Mrs. Coulter Watch from the side." "Are they going to kill us?" Lyra asked tremblingly. "It must be, because no one ever came back." "They're still doing this and that to the elves all the time," Bella said, "weighing 'em and measuring 'em and stuff..." "Did they hand your elves?" "No! God! They put the scales there, and your elf has to stand on it and transform, and then they take notes and take pictures. And they put you in the cabinet and measure the dust, and they always In this way, the matter of measuring dust has never stopped.” "What dust?" Lyra asked. "We don't know," said Annie. "It's just something from space, not really dust. If you don't have dust, you're all right. But everybody has dust in the end." "You know what I heard Simon say?" Bella said. "He said the Tartars drilled holes in their skulls and let the dust fall in." "Yes, of course he does," said Anne sarcastically. "I want to ask Mrs. Coulter when she comes." "You really dare?" Martha said admiringly. "dare." "When is she coming?" Lyra asked. "The day after tomorrow," said Anne. Laila was so frightened that there was a "whoosh" of cold air on her back, and Pantalaimon lay tightly on her body.She only has one day to find Roger, learn as much as possible about the situation here, and then either escape or be rescued; if all the gypsies are killed, who can help these children survive in the wilderness of ice and snow Woolen cloth? The girls continued talking, but Lyra and Pantalaimon huddled in bed, trying to get warm.They knew that for hundreds of miles around her crib there was nothing but fear.