Chapter 4 4. Amma and the Bat

she lay there like she was playing her life flies by want to come back again but not too soon — Emily Dickinson The shadow of the sleeping girl was reflected in the mind of the shepherd's daughter Ama: she couldn't stop thinking about her.She never for a moment doubted the truth of what Mrs. Coulter had told her.Wizards undoubtedly existed, and they probably cast spells of sleep, and Mother tended to her in that fierce and tender way.Amma developed an almost adoring admiration for the beautiful woman in the cave and her bewitched daughter. She tried to go to that little valley as often as possible, either to run errands for the woman or just to chat and listen, because the woman told a lot of stories.She wished again and again to see the man in her dream, but it was only once, and she decided that it was likely never to be possible again.

As she milked the goats, or sheared, or spun wool, or ground oats for bread, she kept thinking of the spell cast, and why.Mrs. Coulter never told her so Amma was free to imagine. One day she took some flatbread with honey and walked for three hours along a trail to Chorense, where there is a Taoist temple.She coaxed and lied tirelessly, and bribed the gatekeeper with some honeyed bread, and finally she was able to have an audience with the great physician Pagzan Turku.He is so smart that he stopped an outbreak of white fever last year. Amma went into the chamber of the great man, bowed deeply, and offered him the rest of the honeyed bread with the utmost humility.The Taoist bat-genie swooped down and danced around her, scaring her genie Kuran into her hair and hiding, but Amma kept her composure and said nothing until Pugzan Tur Ku spoke.

"Come on, boy! Come on, come on," he said, shaking his long gray beard with each word. In the dim light, all she could see were his beard and piercing eyes.His daemon perched on the beam above his head, and eventually hung there upside down motionless, and she said, "Please, Pugzan Turku, I want to gain wisdom, I want to know how to cast spells and Confused, can you teach me?" "No," he said. This was within her expectations. "So, can you tell me a way to get rid of it?" She said humbly. "Maybe. But I won't tell you how. I can give you medicine, but I won't tell you the secret."

"Well, thank you, that is already a great gift." She said, and bowed a few more times. "What disease is it? Who has this disease?" asked the old man. "It's a sleeping sickness," Amma explained, "and it's my father's cousin's son." She knew it would be extraordinarily smart to change the sex of the victim, just in case the doctor heard about the woman in the hole. "How old is this boy?" "Three years older than me, Pugzan Turku," she guessed, "so he is twelve years old, and he sleeps and sleeps, and can't wake up."

"Why didn't his parents come to me? Why did they send you?" "Because they live far away from our village, they are very poor, Pagzan. Turku. I just heard about my relative's illness yesterday, and I will come here immediately to hear your advice. " "I must look at the patient, examine him thoroughly, ask him where the planets were at the moment he fell asleep, and there is no rush in any of these things." "Don't you have any medicine for me to take back?" The bat spirit fell from the beam, floated gloomyly to the side, hit the floor, and then flew around the room again and again silently, so fast that Ama's eyes couldn't keep up with it, but the doctor's bright eyes Eyes see exactly where she flies to.When she hung upside down on the beam again, wrapping herself with black wings, the old man stood up, and walked from shelf to shelf, jar to jar, and box in the order the elves visited. Then to another box, knock out a spoonful of powder here, add a pinch of herb there.

He poured all the recipes into a mill and crushed them together, muttering a spell while grinding.Then he tapped the mallet on the edge of the mill, making a crisp sound; he poured out the last few grains of powder, took out a brush and ink, and wrote some words on a piece of paper.When the ink was dry, he poured all the powder over the prescription and quickly wrapped the paper into a small square packet. "As the sleeping boy inhales, have them brush the powder into his nostrils, a little at a time," he told her, "and he'll wake up. Do it very carefully, one brush at a time." Too much and he'll choke, use the softest brush possible."

"Thank you, Pagzan Turku." Ama said, picking up the medicine bag and putting it in the innermost shirt pocket. "I wish I had another loaf of honey for you." "One is enough," said the doctor. "Now, go away. Next time you come, tell me the whole truth, and not just parts of it." The girl was so ashamed that she bowed deeply to hide her fluster, hoping that she didn't reveal too much. The next night, as soon as she was free, she rushed to the valley with some sweet rice balls wrapped in heart-shaped fruit leaves. She was eager to tell the woman what she had done, give her the medicine, and get her praise and thanks , and more urgently want to see the spell casted sleeping man wake up and talk to her, and they may become friends.

But when she turned the bend in the path and looked up, she saw no golden monkey, nor the patient woman sitting at the mouth of the cave.The hole is empty.She ran the last few steps, fearing that they were gone forever—though the woman's chair was still there, and the cooking equipment and other things were still there. Ama looked into the dark depths of the cave, her heart beating fast.The person in the dream must not have woken up yet: Amma could distinguish the shape of the sleeping bag in the haze, the faint piece was the girl's hair, and the white arc of her sleeping elf. She tiptoed a little closer.No question—they left the enchanted girl alone.

A thought hits Amma's head like a musical note: What if she wakes the woman up before she comes back... But before she can feel the excitement of the thought, she hears a voice from the path outside, a burst of despair. Feeling guilty, she and the elf quickly hid behind a row of rocks at the edge of the cave, she shouldn't be here, she was spying, it wasn't right. Now the golden monkey squatted at the entrance of the cave, sniffed, and shook its head. Ama saw his sharp teeth, and she felt her elf get into her clothes, trembling all over like a mouse. "What's the matter?" the woman's voice said to the monkey, and as her body walked into the cave, the cave was darkened. "Has the girl been here? Yes . . . there's her food here. She's not supposed to come in, though. We've got to make a place for her food on the trail."

Without even glancing at the dreamer, the woman stooped to kindle the fire and sat down on a pan of water to boil, while her elf crouched nearby and watched the path.Every now and then he stood up and looked around the cave, and Amma felt more and more tight and uncomfortable in her narrow hiding place, wishing fervently that she hadn't entered the cave by waiting outside.How long will she be trapped? The woman poured some herbs and powders into the boiling water, and they wafted out with the steam, and Amma could smell the haemostatic.Then, there was a sound from the bottom of the hole: the girl was murmuring and turning, and Amma turned her head: she could see the enchanted dreamer move, she turned over and over, and stretched out an arm Cover your eyes.She is waking up!

The woman ignored it! She must have heard it, for she glanced up quickly, but then turned back to tend to her herbs and water.She poured the concoction into a large wine glass and set it there before turning her full attention to the waking girl. Amma didn't understand what the woman said at all, but she listened more and more surprised and suspicious. "Shut up, dear," said the woman. "Don't worry about yourself. You're safe." "Roger—" the girl whispered, half asleep, "Serafina! Where did Roger go . . . where is he?" "There's nobody here but us," said her mother, in a low, half-singing, half-singing voice. "Get up, let mother wash you... get up, my love..." Amma saw the girl wake up moaning and struggling, trying to push her mother away.The woman dipped a sponge into the bowl of water, wiped her daughter's face and body, and patted it dry. By this time the girl was almost awake and the woman had to hurry. "Where's Serafina? Will? Help me! Help me! I don't want to sleep—no, no! I don't want to sleep!don't want! " "Stay still, darling—keep still—don't talk—have tea—" But she waved her hand violently, nearly spilling the potion, and shouted louder: "Don't touch me! I'm leaving! Let me go!Will, Will, save me—oh, save me—” The woman gripped her hair tightly, forced her head back, and stuffed the wine glass into her mouth. "I don't! If you touch me, Iorek will tear your head off! Oh, Iorek, where are you? Iorek Bernison! Help me, Iorek! I Don't—I don't—" Then, the woman said something, and the golden monkey threw itself on Lyra's elf, gripping him tightly in hard black fingers, and the elf changed shape at a speed she had never seen before: the cat— A mouse-a fox-a bird-a wolf-a cheetah-a lizard-an arctic cat—but the monkey's hand clung on, and then Pantalaimon turned into a porcupine. The monkey let go with a scream, and three thorns tremblingly pierced into his paws.Mrs. Coulter roared and slapped Lyra hard with her free hand.The vicious backhand knocked Lyra down, and before she knew it, the goblet was in her mouth, and she had to swallow it or choke to death. Amma wished she could cover her ears: the sounds of swallowing, crying, coughing, sobbing, begging for mercy, and vomiting were almost unbearable.Gradually, the sound died away, and the girl let out only one or two trembling sobs, and slowly fell into sleep again—sleep under a spell?Toxic sleep?Drugged, deceptive sleep! Amma saw a line of white appear at the girl's throat, and her elf struggled into a long, soft-moving, white-furred animal with bright black eyes and a black tip of its tail.He wrapped himself around her neck. The woman softly sang a hypnotic lullaby, and as she sang, she brushed the girl's hair from her forehead and patted her hot face dry; but Amma could tell that her song had no lyrics, because she sang only Nonsensical syllables, la-la-la, ba-ba-boo-boo, meaningless words in her sweet voice. At last the singing stopped, and then the woman did a strange thing: she took out a pair of scissors, trimmed the girl's hair, and turned her sleeping head from side to side to see the best effect.She took a lock of dark golden curls and put it in the little gold box she wore around her neck, and Amma knew why: she was about to cast some spell with it, but the woman put it up to her lips first. Be... oh, that's really weird. The golden monkey pulled out the last porcupine quill and said something to the woman. The woman reached out and grabbed a bat perched on the top of the cave. The little black thing flapped its wings and screamed with a voice as thin as the tip of a needle. , It almost pierced Ama's ears.Then she saw the woman hand the bat to her daemon, who pulled and pulled one of the bat's black wings outward until it broke with a snap and hung from a white tendon. Meanwhile, the dying bat screamed and its companions fluttered about anxiously and confusedly.Crack-crack-tap-golden monkeys tore the little ones leg by leg, and the woman sat sullenly on her sleeping bag by the fire, slowly eating a bar of chocolate. Time passed, the sky grew dark, the moon rose, and the woman and her daemon fell asleep. Stiff and aching all over, Amma crawled out of her hiding place and tiptoed past the sleeping man without making a sound until she was halfway up the path. Fear gave her speed, and she sprinted down the narrow path, her daemon owling silently beside her.The clean, cold air, the swaying treetops, the moonlit clouds in the black sky, and the myriad of stars calmed her a little. She didn't stop until she saw the small patch of stone houses, her spirit resting on her clenched fist. "She lied!" said Amma. "She lied to us! What can we do, Courant? Can we tell Papa? What can we do?" "Don't tell him," said her daemon, "that's more trouble. We have medicine, we can wake her up, and we can go there next time the woman is away, wake up the girl, and take her away." The thought filled them both with dread, but it had been said, and the little paper packet was still safely in Amma's pocket, and they knew how to use it. Wake up, I can't see her--I think she's near--she hurt me--" "Oh, Lyra, don't be afraid! If you're afraid too, I'll go crazy—" They tried to hug each other tightly, but their arms missed.Lila wanted to speak her mind, and in the dark she leaned close to his pale little face and whispered, "I just want to wake up... I'm afraid to sleep forever and then die—I want to wake up first! Even if it's just to wake up I don't care if it comes for an hour, as long as I'm alive and awake--I don't even know if it's true--but I'll help you, Roger! I swear I will! " "But if you're dreaming, Laila, you probably won't believe it when you wake up. That's what I want to do, I'll just think it's just a dream."