Chapter 3 3. The world of children

Laila woke up early. She had a terrible dream: someone had thrust into her a vacuum jar, the same jar her father, Lord Asriel, had shown the Masters and Fellows of Jordan College.That time Lyra was hiding in the closet and saw Lord Asriel open the jar to show the Academicians the severed head of the missing explorer Stanislaus Grumman.But this time Laila opened the jar herself in the dream, she didn't want to, in fact she was scared, but whether she wanted to or not, she had to do it, when she just lifted the lid and heard the air rushing Her hands were weak with fear as she entered the frozen jar.The lid came off, and she was choking with terror, but she knew she had to—she had to.There was nothing in it, the head was gone, there was nothing to be afraid of.

But she woke up, crying and sweating, lying in someone else's bed, clutching someone else's pillow, in the hot little room facing the bay, with the moonlight streaming in through the window, her ermine spirit Pantalaimon , nuzzled her, and made a sound that comforted her.Oh, how frightened she was!How strange that in real life she had longed to see the head of Stanislaus Grumman, had begged Lord Asriel to open the jar to let her have a look, but in her dream she had been so terrified. When morning came, she asked the alethiometer what the dream meant, but its answer was only: it was a dream of a head.

She also wanted to wake up the strange boy, but he was in a deep sleep, so she decided not to wake him up, but went downstairs to the kitchen, where she wanted to make fried eggs.Twenty minutes later, she was sitting at a table by the aisle, proudly eating the blackened, rough thing, while the sparrow-turned Pantalaimon pecked at the broken eggshells. She heard voices behind her.It's Will, his eyes sleepy. "I can make scrambled eggs," she said, "and I can make them for you if you want them." He looked at her plate and said, "No, I'd like some cereal, and I've got some fresh milk in the fridge, because the people who live here haven't been gone long."

She watched him pour the cornflakes into a bowl and then poured the milk—something she had never seen before. He came outside with the bowl and said, "If you are not from this world, where is your world? How did you get here?" "From a bridge. My father built the bridge, and... I came with him, but he went somewhere else, I don't know where, I don't care. But it was foggy when I came over , I think I'm lost. I wandered around in the fog for days, eating berries and other things I found.Then one day the fog lifted and we were up there on the cliff—" She points behind her.Will looked along the coast, past the lighthouse, and saw the coastline rising into a series of cliffs, disappearing into the hazy distance.

"We saw the town here and came down, but there was no one here, but at least there was something to eat and a bed to sleep in. We didn't know what to do next." "Are you sure this isn't another part of your rhyme world?" "Of course, this is not my world, I'm sure." Will thought of his own unquestionable fate, when he had seen that patch of grass through the window in the sky, and that was not his world either.He nodded. "That's at least three worlds connected together," he said. "There are countless worlds," said Lyra, "and another elf told me he was a witch's elf.

No one can count how many worlds there are, all in the same space, but no one had ever passed from one world to another before my father built that bridge. " "Then what happened to the window I found?" "I don't know. Maybe those worlds are starting to overlap now." "Then why are you looking for dust?" She glanced at him indifferently, "Maybe I'll tell you later." "Okay, but how do you find it?" "I'm going to find an academician who knows it." "What, a scholar?" "No, an experimental theologian," she said, "in our Oxford, they're the ones who know about it.

It should be the same for you at Oxford.I go to Jordan College first, because Jordan College has the best academicians. " "I've never heard of experimental theology," he said. "They know all the fundamental particles and fundamental forces," she explained, "and things like electromagnetism, atomic technology." "What...magnetism?" "Electromagnetism, like electrons. Those lights," she said, pointing to decorative street lamps, "they're electronic." "We call them lights." "Electric... sounds like amber ["anbar" in the original text is similar to "amber"]. It is a stone, a gemstone, extracted from resin. Sometimes it has And there will be little insects."

"You mean Amber," he said, and they both said at the same time, "Amber..." They both saw the look on the other's face, and Will remembered that moment long afterwards. "Well, electromagnetism," he continued, looking away, "your experimental theology sounds like what we call physics, and you need physicists, not theologians." "Oh," she said cautiously, "I'll find them." They sat in the open and clear morning, with the sun still shining on the port, both of them were full of doubts, so they might have continued to talk, but at this moment, from the far side of the port, towards the villa A voice came from the direction of the garden.

They both looked that way in surprise.It was a child's voice, but no one could be seen. Will asked Lila softly, "How long did you say you've been here?" "Three days, four days—I don't remember exactly. I haven't seen anyone. I've searched almost everywhere, and there's no one." But there they were, two children, a girl about Lyra's age and a boy who was younger, who appeared on a street leading to the port.They both had red hair and carried baskets, and they saw Will and Lyra at the diner table a hundred yards away. Pantalaimon changed from a titmouse to a mouse and ran from Lyra's arm into her shirt pocket.He saw that the strange children were just like Will: there were no elves around.

The two children came and sat at a nearby table. "Are you from Magpie City?" the girl asked. Will shook his head. "From St. Elia?" "No," said Lyra, "we come from somewhere else." The girl nodded, it was a reasonable answer. "What happened?" Will asked. "Where are the grown-ups?" The girl narrowed her eyes, "Didn't the monster go to your city?" she asked. "No," Will said, "we just got here, we don't know what monster, what's the name of this place?" "Magpie City." The girl was a little suspicious, "Magpie City, that's right."

"Magpie City." Laila repeated. "Magpie City. Why did the adults leave?" "Because there are monsters." The girl's tone was filled with impatience and ridicule, "What's your name?" "Laila, his name is Will. What about you?" "Angelica, my brother's name is Paul." "Where are you from?" "From the mountain. There was a heavy fog and a snowstorm here, and everyone was frightened, so they all ran up the mountain. Later, the fog cleared, and the adults saw through the binoculars that the city was full of monsters, so they could not come back.But our children are not afraid of monsters, there are more children coming down, they will come later, we are the first batch. " "We and Tullio." Little Paul said proudly. "Who is Tullio?" Angelica is angry: Paul shouldn't have mentioned him, but the secret has been told. "Our eldest brother," she said, "he's not with us. He's hiding until he can . . . He's hiding." "He's going to get—" Paul was about to say, but Angelica slapped him hard, and he immediately closed his mouth, pressing his trembling lips tightly. "What did you say about this city?" Will asked, "It's all monsters?" "That's right, Magpie City, Saint Elia, all the cities. Where there are people, goblins go. Where are you from?" "Winchester," Will said. "I've never heard the name. Are there no monsters there?" "No, I don't see monsters here either." "Of course I can't see it!" she said triumphantly. "You're not an adult! Only when we grow up can we see monsters." "I'm not afraid of monsters, huh," said the little boy, sticking out his dirty chin, "kill those bastards." "Then won't your lord come back?" Lyra asked. "Come back in a few days," Angelica said, "when the genie is somewhere else. We like it when the genie comes, because then we can run around town and do what we want, yes." "And what do your lords think the monster will do to them?" Will asked. "Oh, it's too bad that the monster catches the adults. The monster will eat their life. I don't want to grow up. They are scared when they first hear about such things and cry. They turn away and pretend No such thing, but it did happen. It was too late, no one wanted to go near them, they were helpless, they turned pale, and slowly became motionless. They were still alive, but they seemed to be It's been eaten inside. Look through their eyes and you'll see the back of their heads, and there's nothing in there." The girl turned to her brother and wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt. "Paul and I are going to find ice cream," she said, "do you want to find some too?" "No," Will said, "we have other things to do." "Good-bye then," she said, and Paul said, "Kill the monster!" "Goodbye," Lyra said. As soon as Angelica and the little boy disappeared, Pantalaimon emerged from Lyra's pocket, his wrinkled mouse head with shining eyes. He said to Will, "They don't know about that window you found." It was the first time Will had heard him speak, and nothing had surprised him more than this, and Lyra was laughing at Will's surprise. "He—he can talk! Can all elves talk?" Will asked. "Of course!" said Lyra. "Do you think he's a pet?" Will strokes his hair, blinks, and shakes his head. "Yes," he said to Pantalaimon, "I think you're right, they don't know." "So we had better be careful when we go," said Pantalaimon. For a moment he thought it was weird talking to a mouse, then he thought it was almost like talking on the phone, because he was really talking to Lyra.But this mouse was on his own, and there was something of Lyra in his expression, and something else too.He couldn't figure it out for a moment, because there were so many strange things happening at the same time.Will struggled to concentrate. "Before you go to Oxford," he said to Lyra, "you'll have to find some other clothes." "Why?" she asked stubbornly. "Because you can't go into my world dressed like this and talk to people, they won't let you near. You have to look decent, you have to disguise. I know that, I've been doing it for years. You're most Listen to me or you'll get caught. If they know where you're from and that window and everything... the world's a good place to hide, you know? I... I gotta hide It's the best hideout I've ever dreamed of, and I don't want to be found. So I don't want you to look out of place or look like a local, that would give me away. I'll go Oxford has its own affairs to attend to, and if you betray me, I'll kill you." She swallowed.The alethiometer never lied: the boy was a murderer, and if he had killed someone, he could have killed her too.She nodded seriously, she was serious. "Okay," she said. Pantalaimon turned into a lemur, staring at him with large eyes, which made Will uneasy.So Will stared at him too, and the elf turned into a mouse again and hid in Lyra's pocket. "Okay," he said, "now, while we're here, we're going to pretend to those kids that we're from another part of their world. There's no grown-ups here, and that's fine, and we come and go unnoticed. But in the In my world, you gotta do what I tell you. You better take a shower first, you gotta look clean, or you're going to be different. We have to disguise ourselves everywhere we go, and we gotta watch Go up like a local so people don't notice us. You wash your hair first, there's shampoo in the bathroom, and then we'll go find some different clothes." "I don't know how to wash it," she said. "I've never washed my hair. At Jordan, the housekeeper did it for me, and I haven't washed it since." "Then you have to clean it yourself," he said. "Wash well. In my world, people are clean." "Yeah," Lyra said, going upstairs.A savage mouse face protruded from her shoulders and glared at him. Will looked at him indifferently. On this sunny and quiet morning, part of him wanted to explore the city, part of him was worried about his mother, and part of him was numb from the shock of the death he had caused, and above all of it. What is the task he must complete.It was a good thing to be busy, so while he waited for Lyra, he cleared the kitchen table, scrubbed the floor, and emptied the trash into the dumpster he found in the alley outside. Then he took the green leather pencil case out of the battered bag and stared longingly at it.Once he had shown Lyra the way from the window into Oxford in his world, he would come back here to see what was in the pencil case.But for now, he tucks it under the mattress he sleeps on first.It's safe in this world. When Lyra came downstairs, clean and wet, they began to find her clothes.They found a department store, which was as shabby as anywhere else, and the clothes in it looked a little outdated, in Will's opinion.But they found Lyra a plaid shirt and a green sleeveless waistcoat with a pocket so Pantalaimon could stay inside.She refuses to wear jeans, not even when Will tells her that a lot of girls wear them. "That's pants," she said, "I'm a girl, don't be silly." He shrugged, the plaid shirt looking unremarkable, which was the main thing.Before they left, Will threw some coins into the counter drawer. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Pay, you have to pay for things. Don't you have to pay for things?" "Here they don't pay! I bet the other kids don't either." "Maybe they don't pay, but I do." "If you behave like grown-ups, the monster will come after you," she said, but she still didn't know whether to joke with him or fear him. During the day, Will saw that the buildings in the city center were still very old, but some were almost in ruins. Holes in the roads were left unrepaired, windows were broken, and walls were peeling off.The place used to be beautiful and luxurious. Through the finely carved arches, they could see a large courtyard with lush vegetation, and many buildings that looked like palaces. The steps were broken, and there were cracks between the door frame and the wall. It looked like an old building. Pull it down and rebuild a new building, but the people of Magpie City still like to patch it up sometime in the future. They came to a tower standing in a small square.It was the oldest building they had ever seen: four stories high, with buttresses on top.In the bright sunlight, it stands still, exuding a certain allure. Both Will and Lyra sensed something about the half-open door on the wide steps, but neither of them said it, and they walked on, somewhat reluctantly. When they came to the palm-lined boulevard, he told her to look for a small restaurant around the corner, with green metal tables in the aisle outside.It took them a while to find it, and it seemed smaller and more shabby in the daylight, but it was the same place, with zinc on the counter and a coffee machine that made espresso, and the tray with only the Half of the risotto, already started to smell bad on a hot day. "Is it here?" she asked. "No, in the middle of the road, pay attention to see if there are children around." Just the two of them, no one else.Will led her to the center of the grass under the palm trees, looked around, and got her bearings. "I think that's where it is," he said. "When I came up, I could see the big hill up there behind the white house, and over here was the little restaurant, and..." "What does it look like? I can't see anything." "Don't get me wrong, it's not like anything you've ever seen." He looked up and down, did it disappear?Is it still closed?He couldn't see it from anywhere. Suddenly he found out.He moved back and forth, watching the edge, as he had seen it from Oxford last night, you could only see it from the side.If viewed from behind, it disappears.The sun shining on the grass over there is exactly the same as the sun shining on the grass here. "That's it." He felt sure. "Ah! I see it!" She was so excited, she looked as surprised as he had been when he heard Pantalaimon speak.Her genie couldn't stay in the pocket any longer, and he turned into a wasp, buzzing and flying back and forth in front of the window several times.She smoothed her wet hair into strands. "Stand aside," he told her. "If you stand in front, people will see the legs and they will be surprised. I don't want anyone to notice." "What's so loud?" "Cars. That's part of the Oxford Circus. There's always been a lot of traffic on that road. If you look at it from the side, it's not a good time to go here during the day. There are too many people there, but we must be hard to find in the middle of the night. Here. However, once we pass by, it is easy to blend into the crowd. You go first, get through quickly, and then make way." She had a little blue rucksack that she had been carrying since they left the diner. She took off the bag and held it in her arms, then knelt down and looked over there. "Gee!" she held her breath in surprise. "Is that your world? It doesn't look like anywhere in Oxford. Are you sure you used to be in Oxford?" "Of course. After you pass, you will see a road ahead. You go along the left side. After a while, you take the road to the right. That road leads to the city center. You must remember this Where's the window, you know? That's the only way back." "Got it," she said, "I won't forget." She tucked the backpack under her arm, slipped through the window in the sky, and disappeared.Will knelt down to see where she had gone. There she was, on the grass in his Oxford, with Pantalaimon still a wasp on her shoulder.As far as he knew, no one had noticed her presence until now.Cars and trucks zip by just a few feet away, and at this busy intersection, drivers won't have time to stare at a strange window on the edge of the sidewalk, and even if they could see, the on-and-off traffic blocks anything from a distance The eyes of those who look at it. Suddenly there was a screeching sound of brakes, a scream and a crash, and he hurriedly bent over to look. Lyra lay on the grass.One of the cars braked too hard and a van behind hit it and pushed it forward a bit, and Lyra lay there motionless—Will rushed past, no one noticed him coming, All eyes were on the car, the deformed bumper, the truck driver getting out of the car, and the little girl. "I can't help it! She rushed to the front," said the driver of the car, a middle-aged lady. "You're too close," she said, turning to the truck driver. "Leave it alone," he said, "how's the boy?" The van driver was asking Will, who was kneeling beside Lyra.Will looked up and looked around, but there was nothing around, and he was responsible.On the grass beside him, Lyra turned her head and blinked hard.Will saw the wasp, Pantalaimon, scrambling dazedly up a blade of grass beside her. "Are you okay?" Will asked, "Move your arms and legs." "Stupid!" said the woman in the car, "running forward without even looking. What am I going to do now?" "Hi, are you okay?" the truck driver asked. "Yes." Lyra murmured. "It's all right?" "Move your hands and feet." Will insisted. She did so without breaking her hands or feet. "She's fine," Will said, "I'll take care of her, she's fine." "Do you know her?" the truck driver said. "She's my sister," Will said. "It's okay, we live nearby, and I'll take her home." Now Lyra sat up, apparently unhurt, and the lady turned her attention to her car.Other vehicles sped past the two parked cars, and their drivers looked on curiously as they passed, as most people would.Will helped Lyra to her feet, and the sooner they left, the better.The woman and the truck driver, realizing that their insurance company should handle their dispute, exchanged addresses when the woman saw Will limping away with Lyra on his hands. "Wait!" she yelled. "You are witnesses. I need your names and phone numbers." "My name is Mark Ransome," Will said over his shoulder, "and my sister's name is Lisa. We live at 26 Bourne Road." "What about the zip code?" "I can't remember," he said. "Look, I'm taking her home." "Come to the cab," said the truck driver, "I'll take you there." "No, that's all right. It'll be quicker to walk back, really." Lyra's limp was not too bad.She followed Will away.They walked along the grass under the hornbeam and turned the first corner. They sat under a low fence. "Are you in pain?" Will asked. "It hit my leg and I hit my head when I fell," she said. But she cared more about what was in the backpack.She reached in and pulled out a small, heavy black velvet package and opened it.Will's eyes widened as he looked at the alethiometer, at the small symbols painted around the dial and the gold hands, its ornate appearance taking Will's breath away. "What's that?" he asked. "That's my alethiometer. It tells the truth. Hope it didn't break." Fortunately, it was not broken. Even in her trembling hands, the long pointer moved steadily.She put it aside and said, "I've never seen so many cars, I didn't expect them to go so fast." "Don't you have cars and trucks in your Oxford?" "Not so much, and not like these cars. I wasn't used to it just now, but it's fine now." "Well, be careful from now on. If you hit a car, or get lost or something, people will know you're not from this world, and they'll find their way..." He flew into a rage, and finally he said, "Well, you listen, if you're pretending to be my sister, you're covering for me, because the guy they're looking for doesn't have a sister. If I'm with you, I'll tell you how Cross the road without getting hit by a car." "Okay." She said humbly. "And money. I bet you don't have money—how do you have money? What are you going to do, and, by the way, how will you eat?" "I have money," she said, pouring some gold coins from her purse. Will looked at the gold coins in disbelief. "Is that gold? It's gold, isn't it? Oh, make no mistake, people will ask, and you ain't safe. I'll give you some money, and put those coins out of sight. Remember— You are my sister, and your name is Lisa Ransom." "Lizzie, I used to pretend to call myself Lizzie. I can remember that name." "Okay then, Lizzie, my name is Mark, don't forget." "Okay," she said quietly. Her leg was starting to hurt, a dark bruise was forming where the car had hit her, and with that bruise he left on her face last night, she looked as if she had been hit by someone. Abusive, and it worried him too—what if one of the cops got curious? He tried to get the thought out of his mind.They set off together, and at the traffic lights they glanced back at the window under the hornbeam, they couldn't see it at all, it was almost gone, the traffic was heavy again. After walking for 10 minutes along Banbury Road to Summertown, Will stopped in front of a bank. "What are you doing?" Lyra asked. "I'm going to withdraw some money. I'd better not withdraw too often, but they don't register until every night, I think so." He stuffed his mother's bank card into the ATM and pressed the PIN. Everything seemed to be going well. He wanted to withdraw a hundred pounds, but the ATM didn't delay at all and spit out the money immediately.Lyra watched with her mouth open, and he handed her a twenty pound note. "It'll be available later," he said, "for some shopping and some change. Let's find the bus into town." Lyra let him buy tickets, and she sat quietly, looking at the houses and gardens that belonged to her and did not belong to her.It was like being in someone else's dream.They got off in the city center, next to a stone church, which Laila knew, and opposite a big department store, which she didn't know. "It's all changed," she said, "like . She was trembling badly.Perhaps it was a delayed reaction to the accident, perhaps her shock at the presence of a very different building near the familiar Jordan College. "No," she said softly, as Will told her not to call out mistakes, "it's a different Oxford." "Yes, we know." He was caught off guard by Lyla's wide-eyed, helpless look, and he had no way of knowing how many times she had run up and down this similar street as a child, how proud she was to belong to Jordan College, whose academicians were the smartest It is also the richest and most dazzling.But now it wasn't there, and she wasn't Lyla from Jordan College anymore, but a lost little girl in another strange world. "Well," she said tremblingly, "if it's not here..." It was going to be harder and longer than she thought, and that was it.