Chapter 15 15. Elven hood

Laila was not the worried type, but a cheerful, very realistic child, and besides, she lacked imagination.Running this far to save her friend Roger - no imaginative person would really think it could be done; or even if it did, imaginative kids would immediately think of several possible ways .Being a good liar doesn't mean you have a great imagination.Many good liars have little imagination, and it is this that makes their lies surprisingly credible. Now that it was in the hands of the Priest Council, Lyra did not allow herself to worry about the fate of the gypsies, for they were all brave men.Though Pantalaimon said he saw John Faa get shot, maybe he was mistaken; or even if he wasn't, John Faa was probably not seriously hurt.It was bad enough to fall into the hands of the Samoyeds, but the gypsies would soon come to her rescue; and then, in Lee Scoresby's balloon, they would fly to Svalbard to rescue Lord Asriel.

From her point of view, things are as simple as that. So the next morning, after waking up in the dormitory, Laila couldn't wait to prepare for whatever the day might bring.She was especially anxious to meet Roger--anxious to discover him before he found herself. She didn't have to wait long.At 7:30, the children in each dormitory were woken up by the nurses who took care of them.After they washed their faces and got dressed, they went to the restaurant for breakfast together. Roger is there. He was sitting with five other boys at a table just outside the door, as the queue for food at the window passed them.Lyra could pretend to drop the handkerchief, kneel down to pick it up, and stoop deeply beside Roger's chair, so that Pantalaimon could talk to Roger's elf Celcilia. .

Roger's daemon was a chaffinch, and she flapped her wings so violently that Pantalaimon, transformed into a cat, pounced on her and whispered to her.Such small fights are common among children's elves. Fortunately, no one paid much attention to them, but Roger's face turned pale all of a sudden. Lyra had never seen such a pale face. people.Roger raised his head to meet Lyra's haughty gaze on him, filled with hope, excitement and joy, and his face regained its original color.Pantalaimon shook Sercilia hard, and it was because of him that Roger didn't jump up screaming to greet his best friend, his comrade in arms, his Lyra.

But he found that Lyra looked elsewhere with disdain, and he, like he had done in hundreds of battles and battles in Oxford, did not look at her any more.The two of them were in extreme danger and it must not be seen by anyone.Lyra's eyes rolled, watching a few of her new friends, who each took their trays of cornflakes and toast, sat together and immediately formed a clique, without involving anyone else , so that they can chat by themselves. If you want to keep a large group of kids together in one place for an extended period of time, you have to get them to do a lot of things.In some ways, Birvangar operates like a school, with gymnastics and "art" on the schedule.Boys and girls were kept separate except at recess and at mealtimes, so it was only in the middle of the morning, after a nurse had given them an hour and a half of sewing, that Lyra had a chance to speak to Roger. Let's talk.But the difficulty is that they seem very natural when they meet.The children here are roughly the same age, most of them are at the age when boys are looking for boys, and girls are looking for girls, and they all deliberately ignore the opposite sex.

Lila found her chance at the restaurant anyway.At that time, the children went to the restaurant to find drinks and snacks.She sent Pantalaimon - now transformed into a fly - to talk to Celcilia who was perched on the wall by their table, while she and Roger kept silent among their respective groups of children. - It's hard to talk when your elf is focusing on something else.So Lyra sipped milk with the other girls, pretending to be sullen and rebellious.Half her mind was on the small drone of conversation between the two elves, but she wasn't really listening.But then she sat up straight when she heard another girl with bright blond hair mention a name.

The name was Tony Macorios.Lyra's sudden distraction forced Pantalaimon to slow down his whispers with Roger's daemon.The two children paid attention to what the girl was saying. "No, I know why they took him away," she said, and several people nearby turned their heads. "It's because his spirit hasn't changed. They think he's older than he looks. , that is to say, he's not actually a child. His sprite doesn't change very often, though, because Tony never gives much thought to anything himself. I've seen his sprite change, and her name is Lat..."

"Why are they so interested in elves?" Lyra asked. "Nobody knows," said the blond girl. "I know," said a boy who had been listening, "they kill your elf and see if you're alive." "Well...then why are they taking so many kids over and over again?" someone said, "They only have to do it once, don't they?" "I know what they're doing," said the first girl. Now, everyone's attention is drawn to her.But they didn't want the staff to know what they were talking about, so they had to look weird, nonchalant, nonchalant, and listen with great curiosity.

"How do you know?" someone asked. “Because I was with Tony when they came to get him, and we were in the linen room,” she said. She was flushed and hot with shame, as if she thought they were going to laugh and tease her, but they didn't.All the children were stunned, not even a smile. The girl continued, "We didn't make any noise until a nurse came in, the one with the soft voice. She said, Tony, come on, I know you're here, come on, we won't hurt you... Tony Ask, what are you going to do? The nurse said, we'll just put you to sleep and do a minor operation, and when you wake up, you'll be safe and healthy. But Tony didn't believe her, he said—"

"Hole in the head!" cried someone, "they'll drill a hole in someone else's head, like the Tartars! I'll bet!" "Shut up! What else did the nurse say?" another chimed in.By this time a dozen children had gathered round her table, and their daemons were as eager as they were to know what was the matter.They all stared wide-eyed, terribly nervous. The blond girl went on to say, "Look, Tony was trying to figure out what they were going to do to Lutter. The nurse replied, well...she's going to sleep just like you. Tony said you're going to kill her, aren't you?" I know you're trying to kill her; we all know that, that's what it is. The nurse said, no, of course not, it's just a minor operation, just a small cut, it doesn't even hurt, but we're going to Go to sleep and make sure you don't feel any pain."

At this time, the entire restaurant fell silent.The nurse supervising them had been out for a while, and the window leading to the kitchen was closed, so that no one could hear them inside. "What kind of cut is it?" asked a boy, his voice low and full of fear. "Did she say what kind of cut it was?" "The nurse just said it's just to make you grow up. She said that everyone has to come here all at once, and that's why the grown-ups don't change like ours. That is, they're cut and let They are permanently fixed in one look, that's how people grow up."

"But--" "Does that mean—" "That--" Suddenly, all voices stopped abruptly, as if they had been cut themselves, and all eyes were turned to the door.Nurse Clara stood there, looking flat, gentle, expressionless.Beside her stood a man in a white coat whom Laila had never seen before. "Bridget McGinn," the man called. The blond girl stood up trembling.Her squirrel spirit clutched her chest tightly. "What's the matter, sir?" she replied, in a barely audible voice. "Finish your water and come with Nurse Clara," he said. "Everyone else go now to class." The children obediently stacked the cups on the stainless steel trolley and left quietly.Nobody looked at Bridget McGinn except Lila.Lyra saw the terrified look on the blond girl's face. The rest of the morning was devoted to exercise.There is a small gym in the experimental station. Since it is the long polar night, it is difficult to exercise outdoors, so the children take turns playing in the gym in groups under the supervision of a nurse.They have to team up and throw the ball around.At first, Laila didn't know what to do because she had never played anything like it.But she was a quick learner, good at sports, and a born leader, so she soon found herself enjoying the sport.The shouts of the children, the screams and curses of the elves filled the gym, and quickly dispelled their fears - which, of course, is what this sport is about. At lunchtime, the children lined up again in the restaurant.At this moment, Laila suddenly felt that Pantalaimon chirped as if he had recognized someone. She looked back and found Billy Costa standing behind her. "Roger told me you were here," he murmured. "Your brother is here, and John Faa and a lot of gypsies," Lyra said, "and they're coming to take you home." Billy almost yelled with joy, but he suppressed a cough and kept silent. "You gotta call me Lizzie," Lyra said. "Don't call me Lila. By the way, you gotta tell me all you know." They sat down together, Roger sitting nearby.This was still easy to do at lunch, when the children had more time to walk between the table and the counter where the same bland meals were being served to them by dull-looking adults.Under the cover of the clanging of knives and forks, Billy and Roger told Lyra all they knew.Billy had heard from a nurse that most of the children who had surgery were taken to hotels far to the south, which might be why Tony Macorios was wandering around the wilderness.Roger, however, had something more interesting to tell her. "I found a place to hide," he said. "Really? Where?" "Look at that picture..." he pointed to the large photo of the tropical beach. "Look up to the right. See that slat on the ceiling?" The ceiling was made of large rectangular slats mounted on metal bars, the one above the photograph turned up slightly at one corner. "When I saw this slat, I thought there might be other slats like it," said Roger, "so I lifted them up, and they're all loose now. Just a push up Yes. I tried it with another boy in our dormitory one night and they took him away. There's room up there to climb in...” "How far can you climb in the ceiling?" "Don't know, we've only crawled in a little bit. We figured we could hide up there if it was our turn, but they might find us, too." It seemed to Lyra that it was not a hiding place but a road.It was the best news she had heard since she got here.But, before they could say anything more, one of the doctors smacked the table with his spoon and began to speak. "Listen, boys," he said, "listen. We have to have a fire drill sometimes. It's very important that we all get dressed and go outside and don't panic. So today We are going to have a fire drill in the afternoon. When the bell rings, whatever you are doing, you must stop and do what the adult closest to you tells you to do. Remember where they took you, because if there is a fire If so, you must go there. Oh, Lyra thought, an idea. During the first half of the afternoon, Leila and four other girls went to check for dust.The doctor didn't say it was the test, but it's not hard to guess.They were taken one by one into a laboratory, which, of course, terrified them all.Lyra thought how miserable it would be if she died without even a chance to hit them!But it doesn't look like they're going to do that surgery just yet. "We're going to take some measurements," the doctor explained.It was not easy to tell them apart: the men all looked alike in their white coats, clipboards and pencils, and the women all looked alike, with their uniforms, oddly bland and Their calm demeanor made them all like sisters. "I had it measured yesterday," Lyra said. "Oh, we're measuring differently today. Get on that metal plate—oh, take your shoes off first. You can hold your elf if you like. Look ahead, yes, look at that little Green light. So cute..." Something flickered.The doctor turned her face the other way, then to the left, then to the right, and each time something clicked and flashed again. "Okay. Come over to this machine and put your hand in the tube. It won't hurt you at all, I promise. Straighten your fingers, and that's it." "What are you measuring?" Lyra asked. "Is it dust?" "Who ever told you about dust?" "It's another girl, I don't know her name. She said we're all covered in dust. I don't have dust on me, at least I don't think so. I just took a shower yesterday." "Ah, here's another kind of dust, you can't see it with the normal eye, it's a special kind of dust. Make a fist—that's it, good. Now, run your hand in there , you'll find a handle -- did you find it? Hold it, good boy. Now put your other hand over here, on this brass ball, yes, fine. Now you You will feel a little pain, don't worry, it's just a very weak electric current..." Pantalaimon turned into a feral cat, which was what he looked like when he was at his most tense and alert.He walked slowly around the instrument, suspicious in his lightning eyes, returning to Laila from time to time, rubbing his body against her. By this time, Lyra was sure they weren't planning to perform the operation on her, and that her pretending to be Lizzie Brooks hadn't been caught yet.So she dared to ask a question. "Why do you cut the spirit of man from man?" "What? Who told you that?" "It's a girl, I don't know her name, she said that you cut off the human spirit." "Nonsense..." He got angry, but Lyra went on: "Because you took people away one by one, and those people never came back. So, some people guessed that you killed them, some people said no, this girl told me that you cut—" "That's not the case at all. We take the little ones away because they're due to move to another place, and they're about to grow up. I'm afraid your friend is scaring himself, that's not the case at all! Even Don't even think about it. Who's your friend?" "I just came yesterday, and I don't know anyone's name." "What does she look like?" "I forgot. I think she has brown hair... light brown... maybe... I don't know." The doctor went up to a nurse and whispered something to her.While the two of them were talking, Lyra looked at their daemon.The nurse's elf was a pretty bird, as neat and indifferent as Nurse Clara's dog elf, and the doctor's elf was a big, heavy moth.They were motionless, but not asleep, for the bird's eyes were bright and the moth's tentacles were moving slowly.But they lacked vitality, not as Lyra had imagined.Perhaps they simply have no desire, no curiosity. The doctor returned shortly after, and they continued their examinations, weighing her and Pantalaimon separately, watching her from behind a special screen, measuring her heartbeat, placing her in a hissing, emitting Below the little jets of fresh air smell. When a certain inspection was being carried out, the bell rang loudly, always non-stop. "It's the fire alarm," said the doctor with a sigh. "Very well. Lizzie, follow Nurse Betty." "But doctor, all the clothes they wear outdoors are placed in the dormitory building, and she can't go out in this state. Do you think we should go to the dormitory building first?" The doctor was annoyed that his experiment had been interrupted, and angrily slapped him. "The way I see it, the purpose of this maneuver is to embarrass people," he said. "It's a nuisance." "When I came in yesterday," Lyra said, as if to advise them, "Nurse Clara put all my other clothes in the first room where she examined me, in a cupboard next door. , I can wear those clothes." "Good idea!" said the nurse, "then go ahead." Secretly happy, Laila quickly followed the nurse into the room, found her leather jacket, leggings, and boots, and quickly pulled them on.The nurse herself was dressed in coal-silk clothes. Then they hurried outside.In the wide arena in front of the main building, there were more than a hundred adults and children running around: some were excited, some were angry, and many were at a loss. "See?" said an adult, "it's worth the drill to see how messed up we'd be if there was a real fire." Someone blew a whistle and waved his arm, but no one paid much attention.Lyra saw Roger and gestured to him.Roger took Billy Costa's arm, and soon the three of them were huddled among the chaotic running children. "We'll look around and no one will notice," Laila said. "It's going to be a long time before they get everyone. We're just following people, so to speak, and we get lost." .” They waited a little longer, and while most of the adults were looking away, Lyra grabbed a handful of snow, clenched it into a fluffy powdery ball, and tossed it carelessly into the crowd.Immediately, all the children were doing the same, snowballs were flying all over the air, and shrill laughter completely drowned out the shouts of the adults trying to regain control.Taking advantage of this opportunity, the three children turned to a corner and disappeared. The snow was so thick that it was hard for them to go fast, but that didn't seem to matter because no one was chasing them.Crawling over the curved top of a passage, they found themselves in a strange, lunar-like surface, with hills and depressions regularly distributed, all white against a dark sky.The light reflected from the lights around the arena illuminated the place. "What are we looking for?" Billy asked. "Don't know, just looking," Lyra said, leading them to a low, square building.There was a small distance between the house and the other buildings, and a dim electric light was burning in the corner. The uproar behind them was just as loud as before, but farther away, and the children were clearly making the most of their freedom.Lyra hoped they would last as long as possible.She walked along the side of the square building, looking for a window.The roof was only about seven feet above the ground, and unlike the other houses it had no covered walkway connecting it to the rest of the station. It also has no windows, but has a door.There is a sign on the door with red letters: No entry. Lyra put her hand on the door to try it.But before she could turn the handle, Roger cried out: "Look! It's a bird! Or—" The "maybe" he said was a cry of doubting his own judgment, for what swooped down from the black air was not a bird at all—Lyra had seen him before. "It's the witch's elf!" The goose flapped his huge wings and landed in a flurry of flying snowflakes. "Hello, Lyra," he said, "I've been following you here, but you haven't seen me. I've been waiting for you to come out and come out. What's the matter?" She quickly told him what had happened. "Where are the gypsies?" Laila asked. "Is John Faa all right? Did they beat the Samoyeds away?" "Most of them are all right. John Faa was wounded, but not seriously. The men who robbed you were hunters and robbers, and they used to rob caravans of travelers. They were better than Masses go much faster, and the gypsies are a day away." The two boys looked at the goose elf in horror, seeing that Lyra knew him so well, of course, because they had never seen an elf that left its master, and they didn't know much about witches. Lyra said to them, "Listen, you'd better go look out for the wind, yes. Billy, you go over there; Roger, you watch the road we took when we came here. We don't have much time .” They followed her instructions and ran to watch the wind.Then Lyra went back to the door. "Why do you want to go in?" asked the goose elf. "Because of what they do here, they cut off—" she said under her breath, "they cut off the spirits of people, the spirits of children. I think they might do it here, and I want to see, but The door is locked..." "I can open it," said the Goose Spirit, flapping its wings once or twice, and Lyra heard something turn in the lock as the flying snow tapped on the door. "Go in, and be careful," said the Goose Spirit. Laila opened the door, and the snow in front of the door was also pulled aside, and then she groped in quietly.The goose spirit came in with her.Pantalaimon looked restless and timid, but he didn't want the witch's spirit to see his fear, so he flew to Lyra's chest and hid under her furs. As soon as Lyra's eyes adjusted to the light inside, she knew what was going on. There are many glass containers on the shelves around the walls, in which are cut out children's elves: scary cats, birds, mice and other animals, all the elves appear flustered and frightened, like As weak as blue smoke. The witch's daemon gave a cry of rage, and Lyra held Pantalaimon tightly, and cried, "Don't look! Don't look!" "Where are the masters of these elves—the children?" asked the goose elf, trembling with rage. With lingering fear, Lyra recounted how she had met little Tony Marcorios, and at the same time glanced back at the poor elf who was locked up.They were all leaning forward, their pale faces against the glass, and Lyra could hear their cries of pain, misery, powerlessness.Under the faint electric light, she found a card with a name written on it in front of each container.True, there was one container with nothing in it, and it said Tony Macorios on the card, and there were four or five other empty containers, all with names on the cards. "I'm going to let these poor elves go!" she said viciously, "I'm going to break these glasses and let them out—" She looked around for something, but there was nothing around."Wait a minute," said the goose elf. He was the witch's elf, much older and stronger than Lyra. "We have to make those people think that someone forgot to lock the door and forget to close these containers," he explained. "If they find the glass is broken and they see footprints in the snow, how long do you think you can hide? You Be sure to hold on until the gypsies come. Now, do exactly as I tell you: get a handful of snow, listen to my word, and blow a little snow on each hood in turn." Laila ran out.Roger and Billy were still on the lookout, and there were still screams and laughter from the arena, because the clock had only passed a minute or so. She took a large handful of soft and fluffy snow, went back to the house, and got busy as the goose elf said.Every time a little snow was blown on the hood, there would be a "click" in the goose elf's throat, and the latch in front of the hood would automatically open. After all the latches were undone, Laila pulled up the small door in front of the first cover, and a pale sparrow flapped its wings and flew out, but before it could fly, it fell to the ground.The goose elf lowered her head lovingly, and gently lifted her up with her mouth.The sparrow turned into a mouse, wobbly and dazed.Pantalaimon jumped to the ground to comfort her. Laila worked quickly, and within a few minutes all the sprites had been released.Some elves wanted to talk, and they gathered around her feet, and even tried to tug on her leggings, but they didn't touch her because of the taboo of physical contact between humans and other people's elves.Lyra understood why, poor thing, they missed the heavy, solid, warm body of their master; Pantalaimon would do the same, they yearned to cling to a chest. "Now, hurry up," said the goose-spirit, "Lyra, you must run back, and run back among the children. Be brave, boy. The gypsies are coming as fast as they can. I must help these poor help them find their master..." He leaned closer and whispered, "But they will never be one again, they will be separated forever. This is the most evil thing I have ever seen ...Don't worry about your footprints, I'll cover them up. Now go..." "Oh, please, before you go, I have a question! Witches...they really can fly, can't they? I saw witches flying one night, wasn't it a dream?" "They can fly, boy. What's the matter?" "Can they pull the balloon up?" "Of course, but—" "Will Serafina Pekkala come too?" "There's no time to explain the politics of the Witch Nations. There are many forces involved in this matter, and Serafina Pekkala must protect the interests of the tribe. But what happened here may be part of what happened elsewhere. Lai La, these things require your participation. Run, run!" Laila ran away.Roger gaped as the pale elves staggered out of the house, and then, wading through the thick snow, he made his way toward Lyra. "They—like the Jordan College basement—they're elves!" "Yeah, don't talk. But don't tell Billy, and don't tell anyone. Go back." Behind them, the goose was flapping its wings vigorously, blowing the snow over the track they had left; around him, the lost spirits either clustered together or stepped aside drowsily , screamed desolately, with confusion and longing in his voice.After the footprints were covered, the goose elf turned around and gathered the weak elves together and talked to them.So, one by one, the elves changed their forms--with great effort you can imagine--and at last they all became birds.Like fledglings, they followed the witch's daemon, flapping and tumbling behind him, rushing through the snow.After a lot of effort, they finally flew up.They climbed up in a row in a messy row, so pale and ghostly in the dark night sky.Although some were very weak and could not find a fixed direction, and some lost their will and flew down, the huge gray goose circled around and pushed them back.Slowly, they flew high into the sky.He gently led them forward, and then disappeared in the dark night sky. Roger tugged at Laila's arm. "Quick," he said, "they're going to be assembled." They stumbled over to find Billy, who was waving at them from the corner of the main building.By this time the children were tired, but perhaps the adults had regained some authority, for there was a chaotic queue at the gate, and a lot of jostling.The three of Laila sneaked out from the corner and joined the team.But before that, Leila said: "Tell all the kids - be prepared to run away. They need to know where their outdoor clothes are, and when we give the signal, they need to be ready to get those clothes and run out. They have to Absolutely confidential, understand?" Billy nodded.Roger asked, "What's the signal?" "Fire alarm," Lyra said, "I'll pull the alarm when the time comes." Then, they waited to count the number of people.If anyone in this sacrificial committee knew a little about the school, they would definitely be better organized.Instead of dividing the children into fixed groups, there was only a general list, checking off all the children one by one, and, of course, the list was not in alphabetical order.So, although no one was running around anymore, it was still very chaotic. Laila saw it in her eyes and remembered it in her heart.They are not at all good at this.They were careless people in many ways, complaining about fire drills, not knowing where to keep outdoor clothes, and not getting kids to line up neatly.Their carelessness may have done her good. But, just as they were about to wrap up, another distraction happened.From Lyra's point of view, the whole thing was abysmal. She heard the sound, as did everyone else—heads turned, searching the dark sky for the Zeppelin, its gasoline engine throbbing distinctly in the still air. The only luck was that it came in the opposite direction from which the gray goose had flown--that was the only consolation.Soon, they could see the airship.People chattered excitedly.The plump, sleek, silver body of the airship floated above the streetlighted street, its lights shining brightly from the nose of the airship, with the cabin hanging below. The pilot slowed down and started the complicated job of adjusting the altitude.Lyra understood what the sturdy pole was for: for the airship cables, of course.The grown-ups lead the children into the house, but all of them stare back and point with their fingers.The staff on the ground climbed to the ladder on the pole and prepared to send the cable.The engine roared, rolling up the snow on the ground; the faces of the passengers on the airship appeared in the portholes of the cabin. Lyra watched intently—that's right.Pantalaimon held her tightly and turned into a wild cat, hissing viciously, for Mrs. Coulter's beautiful, black-haired head was peering curiously out of the porthole. , with her golden elf sitting on her lap.