Chapter 15 15. Blood moss

Go on, the alethiometer shows, farther and higher. So they moved on.The Witch took to the air to scout out the best route, for the mountainous country soon presented steep slopes and rocks underfoot, and towards noon the travelers found themselves in a tangled terrain, It is full of dry valleys, cliffs, and canyons full of huge rocks. There is no grass, and the only sound is the chirping of insects. They went on, stopping only to drink from their sheepskin waterskins, and they spoke little, and for a while Pantalaimon flew over Lyra's head for a while, then when he got tired, he became a stride again. A steady goat, when Laila trudged tirelessly along the path, he proudly tilted his horns and hopped back and forth between the rocks.Will marched grimly, squinting at the light, blind to the worsening wound on his hand, and eventually he got into a state where constant movement was good, and stillness was bad.Therefore he suffers more when resting than when traveling.Besides, since the witch's spell hadn't stopped the bleeding from his wound, he thought they had a kind of fear of him too, as if he was a sign of a curse more powerful than theirs.

At length they came to a little lake, a deep blue expanse of water not more than thirty yards wide among red rocks.They stopped to drink water, refilled their waterskins, and dipped their aching feet in the freezing water.They rested for a while, then moved on again.Soon, when the scorching sun is coming, it is also the hottest time, Serafina.Pekkala swooped down to talk to them, she was very excited. "I've got to leave you guys for a while," she said. "Lee Scoresby needs me. I don't know what it is, but he wouldn't call me if he didn't need my help. Go ahead, I will find you."

"Mr. Scoresby?" Lyra asked, excited and anxious. "But where—" Before Laila finished asking, Serafina had already disappeared.Lyra mechanically went to get the alethiometer, wanted to ask it what had happened to Scoresby, but she let go because she had sworn she would not use the alethiometer except to guide Will. to do something else. She looked over to Will, who was sitting nearby, his hand in his lap, slowly dripping blood, his face pale from the sun. "Will," she said, "do you know why you wanted to find your father?" "I've always known that, my mother said I was going to follow in my father's footsteps. That's all I knew."

"Inheriting his mantle? What does that mean? What is the mantle?" "I think it's a mission. Whatever he's doing, I've got to keep doing it. That's more important than anything else." He wiped the sweat from around his eyes with his right hand, and what he couldn't say was that he longed to see his father like a lost child longs to go home.For him, the analogy wasn't accurate, because home was just a place for his mother to be safe, not a place for him to feel safe.But it's been five years since that Saturday morning game of pretend dodging enemies in the supermarket became a reality.It was a long time in his life, and his heart longed to hear the words: "Well done, well done, my boy, there is no one on this earth who did better than you, I Proud of you. Come on, take a break..."

Will is so eager that he hardly realizes it himself, it's in the way he feels about everything.So now he couldn't express it to Laila, although she could see it in his eyes, and it was rare for her to feel so keenly before.In fact, she had a new sense of anything about Will, as if he was more clearly defined than anyone she had ever known before, and everything about him was clear, intimate, and direct. She was going to tell Will, but at that moment, a witch flew down. "I saw people behind us," she said, "and they were a long way off, but they were going fast. Shall I take a closer look? "

"Okay, go," Lyra said, "but fly low and hide so they don't see you." Will and Lila stood up in pain and walked on. "I've been freezing so many times before," Lyra said, trying not to think about the pursuers behind her, "but I've never been this hot. Is your world this hot?" "Where I live it's not usually this hot, but the climate is changing and summers are hotter than ever. It's been said that people are putting chemicals in the atmosphere and it's affecting the atmosphere and the climate is getting out of control."

"Yes, that's what they do," Lyra said. "That's the way it is, and we're in the middle of it." He was too hot and thirsty to answer, so they climbed panting in the heat.Pantalaimon was a cricket now, sitting on Lyra's shoulder, too tired to jump or fly.From time to time, the witch would see a spring on a high mountain. The spring was too high for them to climb up, so the witch flew up and filled the water bags for the two children.Without water, they would soon die of thirst, and where they were, the springs exposed to the air would soon be swallowed up again by stones.

So they went on into the night. The witch who flew back to investigate the situation was named Lena Felt.She flew low along the cliff.The sun was about to set, and shed a blood-red glow on the rocks, when she flew to a blue lake and found a company of soldiers camped. As soon as she took the first look, she knew a lot more than she wanted to know: these soldiers had no elves, and they were neither from Will's world nor from Magpie City, where the people's elves were hidden. In the body, they still look alive.These people were from her own world, and looking at them without elves gave her a sickening terror.

That's when Lena Felt got an explanation from outside her tent by the lake.She saw a woman, a short-lived mortal, in a khaki safari suit, as dynamic as the golden monkey leaping along the lakeshore beside her. Lena Felt, hiding in the rock above, watched Mrs. Coulter speak to the officer, whose men were setting up tents, lighting fires, and boiling water. The witch, who joined Serafina Pekkala's unit in rescuing the children at Birvangar, had been trying to shoot Mrs. Coulter with one arrow, but the woman was lucky because she was standing out of range of the bow, The witch couldn't get any closer without making herself invisible, so she began to cast the spell, which took ten minutes of intense concentration.

Lena Felt finally descended the rocky slope and walked confidently toward the lake. As she passed the tent, one or two soldiers with empty eyes raised their heads and glanced hurriedly, but they didn't agree. There was little memory of what they saw, so they looked away again.The witch stood outside the tent into which Mrs. Coulter had just entered, setting an arrow on the string. She listened to muffled voices coming from inside the tent, and then she made her way carefully to the tent curtain, where she could look down across the lake. In the tent, Mrs. Coulter was talking to a man Lena Felt had never seen: an old man with gray hair and a dignified demeanor, with a snake spirit wrapped around his wrist.He was sitting in a canvas chair next to hers.She leaned towards him and spoke softly to him.

"Of course, Carlo," she said, "I'll tell you anything you want to know. What do you want to know?" "How do you control the monsters?" he asked. "I don't think that's possible, but you can make them follow you like dogs... Are they afraid of your bodyguards? What's the matter?" "It's simple," she said, "and they know that if I keep me alive instead of eating me, I can give them more food. I can lead them to the victim their ghostly hearts have been longing for. You Having described them to me, I knew at once that I could control them, and I did. The whole world trembled at the power of their sick beasts! But, Carlo," she whispered, "you know, I can, too. Satisfy you. Do you want me to satisfy you even more?" "Marisa," he murmured, "it makes me happy to be near you..." "No, no, Carlo, you know not, you know I can make you happier." Her elf gently scratched the snake elf with its small black pointed claws, and gradually the snake relaxed its body and began to swim from the man's arm to the monkey.Both held a glass of wine in their hands, and she sipped her glass of wine before moving closer to him. "Ah," he sighed softly as the elf slowly left his arms and slid his whole body into the golden monkey's hands.The monkey slowly held her close to his face, gently rubbing his cheek against her emerald green body.She spat a gloomy message to the left and right, and the man sighed again. "Carol, tell me why you're after this boy," whispered Mrs. Coulter, her voice as gentle as the monkey's caress. "Why are you looking for him?" "He's got what I want. Oh, Marisa—" "What's that, Carlo? What has he got?" He shook his head, but he found it hard to resist, his pixie wrapped softly around the monkey's chest, her head brushing against his long, glossy fur over and over as his hands stroked her Slippery body. Lena Felt watched them, standing invisible, two steps away from where they sat.Her bowstring is tense, and her arrow is on the string, ready to go at any time.She could draw a bow and shoot an arrow in a second, and Mrs. Coulter would die before she could catch her breath.But the Witch was very curious, and stood quite still with her eyes wide open and silent. But as she watched Mrs. Coulter's every move, she did not notice the small, blue lake behind her, and on the other side, in the dark, a ghostly grove of trees, As if planted there by itself, the woods trembled from time to time, as if consciously.They were certainly not trees, though, and when the curiosity of Lena Felt and her elf was captivated by Mrs. Coulter, a pale shadow left its companions and floated along the icy lake. , without stirring the water, at last it stopped, only a foot from the rock upon which Lena Felt's elf rested. "Just tell me, Carlo," murmured Mrs. Coulter. "You can whisper it. You can pretend to be talking in your sleep, and who will blame you for it? Just tell me, What's that boy got and why you got it. I'll get it for you... don't you want me to? Tell me, Carol. I don't want that, I just want that girl. That What is it? Tell me quickly, and you will have it." His body shuddered slightly, and he closed his eyes.Then he said, "That's a knife, the magic knife of Magpie City, haven't you heard of it, Marisa? Some people call it "The Last Knife", the knife of knives, and others call it Isaha special." "What is it for, Carlo? Why is it special?" "Ah, that's a knife that cuts through anything, even its maker doesn't know what it's for. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing is indestructible.Marisa, it's mine, you understand? " "Of course, Carlo, I promise. Let me fill you up..." The golden monkey stroked the emerald green viper slowly over and over again, gently squeezing and caressing, while Sir Charles sighed with satisfaction.At this time, Lena Felt saw what happened: because the man closed his eyes, Mrs. Coulter secretly poured a few drops of water from a small water bag into the glass before pouring the wine. . "Come on, honey," she whispered, "let's drink to each other..." Already intoxicated, he took the cup and drank greedily, one sip, one sip, and another sip. Then, without warning, Mrs. Coulter stood up, turned, and looked directly into Lena Felt's face. "Now, witch," she said, "do you think I don't know how you make yourself invisible?" Lena Felt was too surprised to move. Behind her, the man was struggling to breathe, his chest heaving, his face flushed, his daemon crooked and passed out in the hands of the monkey, who threw her off contemptuously. Lena Felt tried to raise her bow, but a terrible numbness in her shoulder prevented her from moving.This had never happened before, and she let out a soft cry. "Oh, it's too late," said Mrs. Coulter. "Look at the lake, witch." Lena Felt turned around and saw her elf Snowjaven, flapping his wings and screaming, as if locked in a glass room that was being sucked out of the air, he kept flapping his wings and flying , and kept falling, he opened his mouth wide, panting in horror, the monsters had surrounded him. "No!" She yelled and tried to get closer to him, but was driven back by a wave of nausea.Even in her nausea and pain, Lena Felt could see that Mrs. Coulter had more spiritual power than anyone she had ever met, and seeing the genie under Mrs. Coulter's control, she was not Surprised, no one can resist this power.Lena Felt turned in pain to face the woman. "Let him go! Please let him go!" she yelled. "We'll see. Is that kid with you? That girl, Lila?" "yes!" "Is there another boy? The boy with the knife?" "Yes—I beg you—" "How many witches do you have in total?" "Twenty! Let him go, let him go!" "Is it all in the sky? Or do some of you stay with the two children on the ground?" "Mostly in the sky, there's always three or four on the ground - it's such a pain - let him go or kill me now!" "Where are they on the hill? Are they going on, or are they stopping to rest?" Lina Felt told her all, and would have endured any torture had it not been for the tortures that were inflicted on her elves.Mrs. Coulter knew all she wanted to know about where the witches were and how they protected Lyra and Will when she said, "Now tell me you witches know something about that baby Lyra .I almost got it from one of your witches, but she died before I could finish the torture. Well, there's no one to save you now, tell me about my daughter." Lena Felt gasped, "She'll be a mother—she'll be life—mother—she'll defy—she'll—" "Say her name! You have said so much, but the most important thing has not been said! Say her name!" "Eve! Mother of all! Say it again, Eve! Mother Eve!" Lina Felt stammered, sobbing. "Ah," said Mrs. Coulter. She took a long breath, as if she finally understood the purpose of life. The witch was vaguely aware of what she had just done, and a wave of panic surrounded her. She tried to shout loudly: "What are you going to do to her? What do you want to do?" "What's the matter? I've got to destroy her," said Mrs. Coulter, "to stop another fall of man... How did I not see it before? It's too big a thing to see..." She clapped her hands lightly, her eyes wide open like a child's, and Lena Felt whimpered as she continued, "Of course Asriel will wage war on God and then... of course , of course. Like before, all over again. Lila is Eve. She won't fall this time, I promise." Mrs. Coulter stood up and snapped her fingers at the monster that was devouring the witch spirit.The monster moved to the witch herself, and the little snow raven lay twitching on the stone, and this time Lena.Felt had to endure several times the torture he experienced just now.She felt a sickness in her soul, a terrible loss, a melancholy fatigue so deep she almost died of it.Her last consciousness was a distaste for life, her feelings had lied to her.This world is not made of vitality and joy, but of evil, betrayal and weariness.Living is hateful, and death is even less good. This is the only truth in the entire universe. So she stood there indifferently, bow in hand, her life was over. Lena.Felt neither saw nor cared about Mrs. Coulter's next move.The gray-haired man lay unconscious in a canvas chair, his dusky daemon coiled in the dust.Mrs. Coulter, ignoring him, summoned the captains of the soldiers and ordered them to get ready for the night march up the hill. Then she came to the lake and called to the monster. They came at command, floating across the water like pillars of mist.She raised her arms to make them forget that they were anchored to the ground, and one by one they rose into the sky, floating free like wicked thistle-seed crests, into the dark night sky, riding the breeze. Drifting towards Will, Lila, and the other witches, Lena Felt couldn't see anything. The temperature dropped quickly after dark, and when Will and Lyra ate the last of their dry bread, they lay down under a suspended rock to keep them warm, and they tried to sleep.At least Lyra didn't have to try, she fell asleep within a minute, curled up against Pantalaimon.Will couldn't sleep, no matter how long he lay there, partly because of his hand, which was swollen and throbbing, up his arm, and partly because of the hard ground. , cold, exhausted, and his longing for his mother. Of course he was worried about her, and he knew she would be safer if he could take care of her himself; he also wanted her to take care of him, as she had done when he was a child.He wanted her to bandage his wounds, put him to bed, sing to him, take away all his troubles, surround him with the motherly love and tenderness he so desperately wanted, but that would never happen.Part of him was still a little boy, so he cried, but he lay still, not wanting to wake Laila. He still wasn't asleep, he was more awake than usual.At last he stretched his stiff limbs and rose gently, trembling.With the knife at his side, he began to climb higher up the mountain, trying to calm his restless emotions. Behind him stood the sentry witch elf, a robin with its neck curled up. The sentry witch turned around and saw Will climbing up the rock. She took her pine branch and quietly rose into the sky. She didn't want to disturb him, just to ensure that he would not be in danger. He didn't notice, he just felt a need to keep going, so strong that he could barely feel the pain in his hand.He felt he would go on all day, all night, forever, because nothing else could calm the fire in his chest.As if to sympathize with him, a gust of wind blew over.In this wilderness, no leaves shake, but the wind beats his body, blows his hair from his cheeks, his hair flutters in the wind, and he is a wilderness inside and out. He climbed higher and higher, hardly thinking about how he would find his way back down to Lyra, until he came to a small flat that seemed to be the top of the world, and all around him, on all horizons, the mountains Doesn't look that tall.Under the clear light of the moon, the only colors are pitch black and pale, and everything is clearly defined. It must have been the wind that had brought the clouds overhead, because in an instant the moon was covered, and darkness covered the whole land—and the heavy clouds, because not a ray of moonlight could shine through the clouds.In less than a minute, Will found himself in complete darkness. Just then, he felt someone grab his right arm. He cried out in surprise, and immediately broke free, but the man held on tightly.Now Will was ferocious.He felt he was desperate, and if this was the end of his life, he was going to keep fighting until he fell. So he twisted and kicked, but the hand still didn't let go, his right hand was caught, and he couldn't reach the knife.He tried to use his left hand, but he was held so tight that it was sore and swollen that he couldn't reach it.He had to wrestle with a grown man with his injured hand. His teeth were on the hand that was holding his arm, but the result was that the man punched him in the back of the head, leaving him dizzy.So Will kept kicking, sometimes he kicked, sometimes he didn't, and he kept tugging and pulling and pushing and pushing, but the hand still held him tight. He seemed to hear his own panting, and the man's grunts and pants.Then his legs happened to be behind the man, and he slammed his body into the man's chest, and the man fell heavily, and Will fell on top of him, but the hand still held the man firmly. he. But Will had no strength left, and he was crying, kicking and headbutting him as he sobbed sadly, knowing his muscles would lose their strength soon.At this time, he noticed that the man was lying there motionless, although his hands were still holding him tightly.The man lay there, letting Will bump his head and knees against him, and when Will saw this, the last of his strength ran out, and he fell helplessly beside his opponent, every ounce in his body. Every nerve is throbbing and buzzing. Will stood up in pain. In the darkness, he saw a white mass on the ground beside the man. It was the white breast and head of a large bird, an osprey, an elf, lying motionless. with. Will tried to pull it aside, and his feeble tug made the man react a little, but his hand still held on. But he was moving, and he was carefully touching Will's right hand with his free hand.Will felt the creeps. Then the man said, "Give me your other hand." "Be careful," Will said. The man's free hand ran down Will's left arm, his fingers gently caressing his wrist, stroking his swollen palm, and touching where Will's two broken fingers were. At that time, he was more cautious. His other hand immediately released, and he sat up. "You have the knife," he said, "and you are the bearer." His voice was loud and stern, but he was out of breath.Will could feel how badly he was hurt.Was he the one who wounded this dark opponent? Will was still lying on the rock, exhausted.He could only see the figure of the man squatting in front of him, but he couldn't see his face. The man reached out to the side to take something, and then spread a kind of ointment on his hand. After a while, he felt a pleasant cooling sensation From the severed finger to the whole hand. "What are you doing?" Will asked. "Cure your wounds, don't move." "Who are you?" "I'm the only one who knows what this knife is for. Put your hands up like that and don't move." The wind was blowing harder than ever, and a drop or two of rain hit Will in the face.Shaking violently, he held his left with his right hand as the man applied more ointment to his severed finger and wrapped a piece of linen tightly around his hand. The man fell aside just after applying the medicine, and he lay down.Still marveling at the blissful numbing, chilly feeling in his hands, Will tried to sit up and look at him, but it was even darker than before.He groped forward with his right hand and found that he had touched the man's chest, and the heart was beating wildly like a bird in a cage. "Yes," the man said hoarsely, "try to see if it can be cured, continue." "Are you sick?" "I'll be all right soon. You have the knife, don't you?" "yes." "Do you know how to use it?" "Yes, yes, are you from this world? How do you know it?" "Listen," the man said, struggling to sit up, "don't interrupt me. If you're the one with the knife, you've got a bigger mission ahead of you than you can imagine. A child...how can they Let this happen? Oh, then there must be... a war is coming, lad, it's the biggest war ever, and things like it have happened before, and this time, the right side has to win.For tens of thousands of years of human history, we have had nothing but lies, propaganda, cruelty and deceit.It's time for us to start over, but this time we have to do it right..." He stopped and took a few deep breaths. "The knife," he went on after a moment, those old philosophers will never know what they're making.They invented an instrument that slices through the tiniest particles of matter, but they used it to steal candy.Little did they know that they had created a weapon capable of defeating the tyrant, God, in all universes.The reason why the rebel angels fell is because they didn't get something similar to this knife, but now..." "I didn't want it in the first place!Now I don't want either! cried Will. "If you want it, you can have it now!"I hate it, I hate what it does—” "It's too late. You have no choice: you are the one who bears the knife. It picked you. And, what's more, they know you have it, and if you don't use it against them, they'll go from Take it from your hands and use it against us forever." "But why should I fight them? I've fought enough, I can't fight anymore. I think—" "Did you win your battle?" Will fell silent.Then he said, "I think so." "Did you fight for the knife?" "Yes, but—" "Then you're a fighter, that's who you are. You can argue about anything else, but not about who you are." Will knew the man was telling the truth, but it wasn't a friendly truth, it was heavy and painful.The man seemed to know this, for he waited until Will had lowered his head before speaking again. "There are now two great powers," said the man, "and they have been fighting since the beginning of time. Every advance in human life, every attainment of knowledge, wisdom, and decency is fought from the other. Come. Every advance in human freedom has been born out of an uphill struggle between two forces, one wishing us to know more, to be wiser and stronger, and the other wishing us to bow our heads. Ear, obedience. "Now these two forces are preparing for a battle. They both need your knife more than anything else. You have to choose, lad. We were both led here, both of us— —you own the knife, and I'm here to tell you all about it." "No! You're wrong!" Will cried. "That's not what I was looking for! That's not what I was looking for at all!" "You don't have to think so, but this is what you found." said the man in the dark. "But what must I do?" At this moment, Stanislaus Grumman, Jopari, and John Perry hesitated. He thought painfully of the vow he had made to Lee Scoresby, and he hesitated before breaking it, but he broke it anyway. "You must go to Lord Asriel," he said, "and tell him you were sent by Stanislaus Grumman, and that you have such weapons as he needs most. Whether you like it or not, boy, you have to do. Forget about anything else, no matter how important it may seem, just do it.Someone will appear to guide you, and the night is full of angels.Your wound will heal—wait a minute, I want to take a good look at you before you go. " He reached for the backpack he was carrying and took out something. He first opened layers of tarpaulins, then struck a match, and lit a small tin lantern. Heavy rain and strong wind, the two looked at each other. Will saw a haggard face, a pair of hale-eyed blue eyes, a beard that had not been shaved for several days on the stubborn chin, and gray hair. A sick lean body. The shaman saw a boy younger than he had imagined, his gaunt body shivering in a ragged linen shirt, and the expression on his face was exhausted, feral, and alert, but also full of frenzy Under those straight black eyebrows, his eyes were wide open, so much like his mother... For the first time, they both felt something flash in their hearts like lightning. But just then, as the lantern light illuminated John Perry's face, something shot down from the misty mid-air, and before he could utter a word he fell dead, an arrow stuck in the In his exhausted heart, the osprey elf also disappeared in an instant. Will sat there, stunned. At the edge of his vision, something moved, and he reached out with his right hand, grabbing a red-breasted panicked robin elf. "No! No!" cried the witch Juta Kamenan, clutching her chest with her hands, and fell behind him, falling clumsily on the stone-strewn ground, struggling to get up. But before she could stand up, Will was close to her, with the magic knife pressed against her throat. "Why did you do that?" he yelled. "Why did you kill him?" "Because I loved him once and he ignored me! I am a witch! I will not forgive him!" Usually, since she was a witch, she needn't be afraid of a boy.But she was afraid of Will.She was terrified of this wounded young man who possessed more power and danger than any human she had ever met.She fell backwards, and he followed, grabbing her hair with his left hand, and he felt no pain, only a great, shattering despair. "You don't know who he is," he cried, "he is my father!" She shook her head and said softly, "No, no! That's not true. Impossible!" "Do you think things have to be possible? Things have to be true! He is my father, and we didn't know until the moment you killed him! Witch, I've grown up waiting, through a thousand years It took a lot of hard work to finally find him, but you killed him..." He shook her head like a rag, pushing her to the ground, and she nearly passed out. Although she was afraid of him, she was more surprised than she was afraid of him.She struggled to her feet, dazed, and clutched at his shirt pleadingly, and he opened her hand immediately. "What on earth has he done that you want to kill him?" he cried. "If you can tell, tell me!" She looked at the dead man, looked back at Will, and shook her head sadly. "No, I can't explain it," she said. "You're too young to understand. I loved him, that's all, and that's enough." Before Will could stop her, she drew the knife from her waist and stabbed it into her chest.She fell gently aside, still holding the handle of the knife in her hand. Will felt no fear, only sadness and bewilderment. He stood up slowly, looking down at the dead witch, at her thick black hair, her flushed cheeks, her smooth white limbs wet by the rain, and her lover's open arms. lips. "I don't understand," he said aloud, "it's so strange." Will turned to face the dead man, his father. His throat was blocked by a thousand things, and only the pouring rain cooled the fire in his eyes.The little lantern was still flickering, and the wind licked the flames through the crooked window, and Will knelt in the light, put his hands on him, stroked his face, his shoulders, his chest, Will Closing his eyes, brushing the wet gray hair back from the front of his forehead, he pressed his hands on the rough cheeks, closed his father's mouth, and squeezed his hands tightly. "Father," he said, "Dad, Daddy...Father...I don't understand why she would do this, it's so weird to me. But whatever you ask me to do, I promise, I swear I'll go Do. I will be a fighter, I will. This knife, I will bring it to Lord Asriel, wherever he is, and I will help him fight the enemy, I will do it. Now you can rest, rest assured, now you can rest in peace." 死者身旁有一个鹿皮包裹，里面是油布、灯笼，还有那个装着血苔藓药膏的牛角盒子。威尔一一捡起，他发现他父亲镶着羽毛的大衣拖在他身后的地上，又沉又湿，但很暖和。他的父亲已不再需要它了，而威尔冻得发抖，他解开死者脖子上的铜扣子，把帆布包背在他的肩膀上，然后把大衣裹在自己身上。 他吹熄了灯笼，回过头来看了看父亲和女巫朦胧的身影，又看了一眼他的父亲，然后就下山了。 暴风雨的空气中充满了电流，仿佛在窃窃私语，威尔在狂风中听到了其他的声音：呼喊声和吟唱声夹杂在一起的乱哄哄的回声，金属之间的碰撞声，还有扇动翅膀的声音，这声音有时显得那么近，仿佛就在他的脑袋里，有时又是那么遥远，仿佛在另外一个星球上。脚下的岩石很滑，而且松动了，下山比刚才上山时艰难多了，但他的脚步仍然很稳。 他走在最后一条溪谷，紧接着就是他把莱拉一个人留在那里睡觉的地方了。 这时，他突然停住了，他看见两个身影站在那里，在黑暗中等待着。威尔把手放在了刀上。 这时其中一个身影开口说话了。 “你就是那个拿着刀的男孩吗？”他问道，他的嗓音里有一种奇怪的特质，就好像翅膀的扑闪声。不管他是谁，他不是人类。 “你们是谁？”威尔说道，“你们是人，还是——” “不，我们不是人。我们是守望者，是神子，用你们的语言来说，就是天使。” 威尔沉默不语。天使继续说道：“其他天使有别的任务和法力，我们的任务很简单：我们需要你。我们寸步不离地跟着这个萨满巫师，希望他能带着我们找到你，他的确做到了。现在该轮到我们领着你去见阿斯里尔勋爵了。” “你们一直和我父亲在一起吗？” “每时每刻。” “他知道吗？” “他一点也不知道。” “那你们为什么不阻止那个女巫？你们为什么让她杀死他？” “如果再早一点，我们会的。但他一旦带着我们找到你之后，他的使命就结束了。” 威尔什么也没说。他的头在嗡嗡作响，这和其余事情一样让他难以理解。 “好吧，”最后他说道，“我会跟你们走的，但我必须先叫醒莱拉。” 他们站到一旁让他过去，当他走近他们的时候，他感觉到空气中传来丁当一声，但他未加注意，而是集中精力走下斜坡，来到莱拉睡觉的石窟。 有什么事情让他停下了脚步。 在朦胧的光线中，他只看见保卫莱拉的女巫们一动不动地坐着或是站着。她们看上去就像雕塑一样，只是她们还在呼吸，可她们几乎没有了生命。地上还躺着几个裹着黑色丝绸的尸体，威尔惊恐地一个个看过去，他知道了发生的事：她们在半空中遭到妖怪的袭击，掉了下来，漠然地死去了。 但是——“莱拉在哪儿？”他大声叫道。 石窟里空无一人，莱拉不见了。 在她躺过的地方有个什么东西，那是莱拉的小帆布背包，他不用看，从包的重量就知道真理仪还在里面。 威尔摇着头，这不可能是真的，可这一切又千真万确：莱拉不见了，莱拉被抓走了，莱拉失踪了。 那两个神子黑暗的身影没有移动，但他们开口说话了：“现在你必须跟我们走，阿斯里尔勋爵现在就需要你，敌人的力量每分钟都在积聚增长。萨满巫师已经把你的使命告诉了你，跟我们走，帮助我们取得胜利。这边走，来吧。” 威尔看了看他们，看了看莱拉的背包，又回头看了看他们。他们说了些什么，他一个字也没有听见。