Chapter 22 22. Betrayal

When Laila awoke, a stranger was shaking her arm.Pantalaimon woke up too, jumped to his feet, and roared in a low voice.Lyra recognized Thorold.He was holding a naphtha lamp, his hands were shaking. "Miss--Miss--get up. I don't know what to do. He didn't tell me what to do. I think he's crazy, Miss." "What? What happened?" "It's Lord Asriel, miss. He's been in a frenzy since you went to bed. He loaded a lot of instruments and batteries into the sled, harnessed the dogs, and set off. But, miss, he took the boy bought!" "Roger? He took Roger away?"

"He told me to wake him up and dress him. I didn't ask why, I didn't even think about it--I always do--boys keep looking for you, miss--but Lord Asriel As long as he goes alone—Miss, do you remember when you first came in? He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw you. Do you remember he asked you to get out of here?" Tired and frightened, her mind was so confused that she almost stopped thinking, she just said, "Yeah, yeah, what's the matter?" "Miss, that's because he needs a child to complete his experiment! Lord Asriel has his own unique way to achieve his own purpose, he just needs to make a request, and then—"

Lyra roared in her head, as if forcing herself not to see this reality. She had already got out of bed, reached for her clothes, but suddenly collapsed on the ground.She cried out in despair.She vented her despair with crying, but this despair seemed to envelop her completely, making her feel as if she came from despair, because she remembered Lord Asriel's words: connect the human body The energies of the spirits and elves are enormous; in order to build a bridge between different worlds, a sudden release of energy is needed... Lyra realized what she had done. She had come here a long way and with great difficulty to bring one thing to Lord Asriel.Thought he knew what he wanted; but what he wanted wasn't an alethiometer at all, what he wanted was a child.

And she sent Roger to his door. That is why, when he saw her, he cried out "I did not send for you": he sent for a child, but fate brought his own daughter—or rather, he That's what she thought—until Lyra stepped aside and saw Roger behind him. Oh, what unbearable pain!She thought she was saving Roger, but in fact she was betraying him with all her heart... Lyra was shaking and sobbing in pain.This can't be true. Thorold wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know why she was in such extreme grief, so he could only pat her on the shoulder uneasily. "Iorek—" she cried, pushing the servant aside, "where's Iorek Bernison? Where's the bear? Is he still out there?"

"Help me!" cried Lyra, shaking with weakness and fear. "Help me get dressed, I have to go. Hurry! Hurry!" He puts down the lamp and dresses her as she bids.Although her face was wet with tears and her lips were trembling, she was bossy like her father.Pantalaimon paced the floor, wagging his tail, his fur almost standing on end.Thorold hastily brought her the stiff, smelly leather jacket and helped her into it.As soon as all the buttons were fastened and all the plackets were tucked in, Laila rushed to the door, feeling the cold air cut her throat like a knife, and the tears on her face were frozen to ice.

"Iorek!" she cried, "Iorek Bernison! Come on! I need you!" There was a shake on the snow, and there was a sound of metal impact. The armored bear was there, and he had been sleeping peacefully under the heavy snow.By the light Thorold held at the window, Lyra could see the long head hidden behind the helmet, the narrow slits for the eyes, the white hair that shimmered under the red metal. , she wanted to hug him, to take comfort in his iron helmet and frozen hair. "What's the matter?" Iorek asked. "We've got to get Lord Asriel, he's got Roger, he's going to—I dare not even think—oh, Iorek, please, come on, dear!"

"Come on then," he said.Lila immediately jumped on his back. No need to ask which direction to go - the trails of the sleds lead straight from the yard to the plain.Iorek rushed forward along these traces.The rhythm of his running was almost a part of Laila now, she could sit on it with complete spontaneity.Iorek moved faster than ever across the snow-covered, uneven ground.The metal plates of the armor swayed rhythmically under Lyra. Behind them, other armored bears ran at ease, dragging fireball launchers with them.The way was clear, for the moon was high in the sky, and the moonlight illuminated the snow-covered world as brightly as it had been seen from the balloon: a world of silver and blackness.Lord Asriel's sleigh track led straight to a jagged hill with grotesquely sharp peaks piercing the sky, black as the velvet cloth of an alethiometer.There was no sign of the sledge yet—perhaps running like a feather over the mountainside of the tallest peak?Lyra squinted and stared hard ahead; Pantalaimon flew to the top with all his strength, and watched carefully with sharp owl eyes.

"That's right," he said, after a moment, landing on Lyra's wrist, "it's Lord Asriel, and he's frantically chasing the dogs away, and there's a boy behind..." At this moment, Laila noticed a change in Iorek Bernison's speed.Something caught his attention.He slowed down, raised his head and swayed from side to side. "What's the matter?" Lyra asked. He didn't answer.He was listening carefully, but Lyra couldn't hear anything.Then she actually heard something: a mysterious, very distant rustling and crackling.It was a voice she had heard before: the voice of Aurora.A gleaming veil hangs down from nowhere and hangs in the northern sky, shining brightly.Those invisible billions of charged particles—dust, Lyra thought—were magically radiating high above.The aurora in front of her eyes was brighter and more magical than what Laila had ever seen, as if the aurora knew what was happening below, and it wanted to illuminate everything with breathtaking light.

But none of the bears looked up into the sky: all their attention was on the ground.Actually, it wasn't the aurora that caught Iorek's attention.He stood motionless now, and Lyra slid off his back, knowing that he needed to feel his surroundings untethered.Something unsettled him. Lyra looked around, then back, across the wide plain and Lord Asriel's house in the distance, to the rocky mountains they had just turned over, but saw nothing.At this time, the movement of the aurora became more intense.The first veil quivered and moved sideways, and the jagged curtains were rolled up and lowered above, growing larger and brighter; arcs and circles rolled from side to side on the horizon. On the other side, touch the sky with their rainbow-like arcs.Lyra could hear the hiss and whoosh of that great invisible force more clearly than before.

"It's a witch!" cried a bear.Lyra turned away happily, relieved. Suddenly, a huge mouth slammed her forward.Laila was so scared that she was almost out of breath, and could only gasp heavily and tremble, because a green feathered arrow had been stuck where she had just stood, and both the arrowhead and the shaft were stuck in the snow, only The feathers on the arrows were sticking out. This is impossible!Lyra thought, feeling powerless.But it was true, for another arrow fell from Iorek's armor with a clatter, and stuck in the ground in front of her eyes.They were not the witches of Serafina Pekkala, but another tribe of witches.There were about a dozen of them in total, they outflanked them from the air, swooped down and shot arrows, and then quickly flew high into the sky.Lyra cursed them with all the obscenities she knew.

Iorek Bernison quickly gave the order.Obviously, the armored bears are experienced in fighting witches, because they immediately stood in a defensive formation, and the witches also entered the attacking state smoothly. Their arrows can only be shot accurately at close range. In order not to waste arrows, they always swoop down suddenly, and release arrows when they dive to the lowest position, and then immediately rise.But when they reached the bottom, they were also vulnerable because they held bows and arrows in both hands, and the armored bear would jump up and tear them off with its rake-like claws.More than one witch was dragged down in this way, and killed immediately. Lyra crouched next to a rock, watching a witch swoop down.A few arrows were shot at her, but they were all scattered around.Lyra looked up to the sky and found that most of the witches had left the team and flew back. If this relieved her, it was only for a few seconds, for she saw more witches joining them in the direction they flew away; Lights; from the vast plains of Svalbard, beneath the flickering aurora, Lyra heard a sound that made her heart skip a beat.It was the harsh roar of a gasoline engine.The Zeppelin, carrying Mrs. Coulter and her soldiers, was coming this way. Iorek roared an order, and the armored bear immediately changed into another formation.In the bright light of the fire in the sky, Lyra saw them quickly unload the fireball launcher.The witches who attacked earlier also spotted them and began to swoop down, raining arrows on them.But the armored bear, relying on its armor, didn't care about this, and quickly set up the launcher: a long arm was inserted obliquely into the air, and a container that looked like a cup and bowl was hanging on it, which was a yard wide. Huge iron canisters, with smoke and steam rising from all around them. Lyra's eyes widened, and a ball of flames spurted out, and immediately, a group of armored bears started to move skillfully.Two of the bears yanked the long arms of the fireball launcher down, and the other shoveled the burning fireball into the bowl.With an order, they immediately let go of their long arms, and the burning sulfur was thrown high into the dark sky. The formation of witches diving down was too dense, so the first spray hit three of them, and they fell down on fire.But it soon becomes clear that the armored bear's real target is the Zeppelin.Maybe the pilot had never seen a fireball launcher before, maybe he underestimated its power, because he was driving the airship, neither climbing up nor dodging left and right, but flying straight at the armored bears. At this time, it was also seen that they also had a powerful weapon on the Zeppelin: a machine gun on the front of the gondola.Before the scream of the bullets was heard, Lyra saw sparks flying from the armor of some of the bears, and they huddled under the armor.She cried out in horror. "They're all right," said Iorek Bernison, "the little bullets won't go through their armor." The fireball launcher fired again.This time, a huge piece of burning sulfur roared into the air, hit the gondola, and exploded into flaming fragments that fell in all directions like a waterfall.The Zeppelin turned to the left, roared in a wide arc, ducked aside, then turned around and charged towards the team of armored bears moving quickly beside the launcher.The airship was getting closer, and the launcher's long arm creaked down.The machine gun on the airship roared loudly, the two bears fell to the ground, and Iorek Bernison let out a low growl.At this time, the airship was almost directly above their heads, and with a command from a armored bear, the long arms pressed on the springs jumped into the air again. This time, the brimstone roared straight for the Zeppelin's hydrogen package—a layer of oil-soaked silk wrapped around a rigid skeleton with hydrogen inside.While it was strong enough to withstand minor scratches, the hundred-pound flaming stone was far more than it could handle.A hole was torn open in the silk, and sulfur and hydrogen gas met quickly, creating a huge fireball. The silk immediately became transparent, and the whole skeleton of the Zeppelin was clearly visible, illuminated by hellish orange, red and yellow flames, and after staying in the air for an incredible long time, almost Fell reluctantly to the ground.With the help of the white snow and the light of the fire, small black figures could be seen stumbling out of the falling airship, and the witches also flew down, dragging them away from the flames. Less than a minute after the crash, the Zeppelin airship became a pile of twisted and deformed scrap iron, smoking, and a few flames dancing sporadically. But neither the soldiers on the airship nor the others (Laila knew Mrs. Coulter was there, though she couldn't see her at the distance) didn't delay for a moment.With the help of the witch, they dragged out the machine guns, set them up again, and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the battle on the ground. "Let's go," said Iorek, "they'll last a long time." He roared, and a group of armored bears rushed out of the ranks of bears, and charged the right flank of the Tartars.Lyra felt that Iorek wanted to be with them, to fight the Tartars, and she kept screaming desperately in her heart: Go!go!Her mind was full of images of Roger and Lord Asriel.Iorek Bernison understood her thoughts, so he left the battlefield and rushed up the mountain, letting his armored bears hold off the Tatars' attack. They continued to climb up the mountain.Lyra stared hard ahead, but not even Pantalaimon's owl eyes could see anything moving on the slope they were climbing.However, the traces of Lord Asriel's sleigh were still very clear, and along this trace, Iorek galloped across the snow in great strides, rolling up tall snowflakes behind him.Behind them, whatever happened was "behind" and Lyra was far from them.She felt like she was pulling away from the whole world, how far away she was, how impatient to get out of it, how high they were climbing, how strange the light was. "Iorek," she asked, "can you find Lee Scoresby?" "Whether he is dead or alive, I will find him." "If you see Serafina Pekkala..." "I'll tell her what you've done." "Thank you, Iorek," Lyra said. For the next period of time, they did not speak again.Lyra felt as if she had entered a trance, neither sleep nor waking: a lucid dream, perhaps, in which she dreamed that she was being carried by armored bears to a city among the stars. She was about to tell Iorek Bernison about it when Iorek suddenly slowed down and stopped. "There are still traces of the sledge," said Iorek Bernison, "but I can't go any further." Lyra jumped off his back and stood beside him watching.He is standing on the edge of a fault.It is difficult to say whether it is a crack in the ice or a crack in the rock, and there is no difference; the most important thing is that the bottom of this fault is dark and unfathomable. Lord Asriel's sleigh track went all the way to the edge of the fault... and crossed a bridge made of snow on the fault, and continued to the opposite side. It was evident that the bridge had been under the weight of the snow bridge, for a crack in the bridge had reached the edge opposite the fault, and the deck had dropped about a foot on their side.The bridge might still be able to withstand the weight of a child, but it will definitely not be able to withstand the weight of a armored bear. Lord Asriel's sleigh left a trail on the opposite side of the bridge, stretching towards the top of the opposite hill. If Lyra continued the pursuit, she would have to go alone. Lyra turned to Iorek Bernison. "I've got to go," she said, "thank you for everything. I don't know what's going to happen when I catch him—whether I catch him or not, maybe we'll die. But if I come back, I will come to see you and express my heartfelt thanks to you, King Iorek Bernison." She put one hand on his head.He let it sit there and nodded slightly. "Goodbye, Lyra? Eloquent," he said. Lyra's heart was throbbing with pain from love.She turned and put one foot on the bridge. The snow crunched under her feet, and Pantalaimon flew into the air, crossed the bridge, and stopped on the opposite side of the snow to encourage her to keep going.Lyra walked forward step by step, and each time she took a step, she wondered whether she should run or jump, or walk slowly as she was doing now, stepping as gently as possible.When we got to the middle of the bridge, the snow bridge creaked loudly again, and a snow block at the foot fell off, rolled and fell into the abyss, and the whole bridge sank a few inches at the crack. Lyra stood motionless.Pantalaimon turned into a leopard, crouching down, ready to leap to save her at any moment. The bridge did not collapse.Lyra took another step, and another.At this time, she felt that her feet were empty, so she jumped to the opposite side with all her strength, and fell face down on the snowy ground opposite, only to hear a soft "swipe" sound behind her, and the whole bridge fell into the fault. Pantalaimon's claws dug into her furs, holding her tightly. After a while, she opened her eyes and got up on the edge of the fault.There is no way out now.She stood up, raising her hand to the armored bear looking at her.Iorek Bernison stood on his hind legs, beckoned to her, then turned and dashed down the hill to aid his subjects in the fight against Mrs. Coulter and the soldiers in the Zeppelin. Lyra was left alone.