Chapter 5 5. Strong Tower

with ambitious goals Dictatorship against the throne and God Wage wars and proud battles in heaven. — John Milton A searing sulfur lake stretches through a vast canyon.Suddenly, bursts of poisonous steam emanated from the lake, stopping in front of the lonely winged figure by the lake. If he goes by air, the enemy scouts he has escaped will find him again in no time, but if he goes by land, it will take too much time to round this poisonous lake, and his letter will be delivered too late . He could only take greater risks.When a foul-smelling cloud of smoke rose from the yellow lake, he jumped into it.

Four pairs of eyes saw that fleeting movement from different parts of the sky at the same time, and four pairs of wings immediately beat the smoky air vigorously, bringing the four scouts into the clouds. Then a hunting began in which the hunter and the prey did not know each other's trace.Whoever is the first to rush out of the smoke cloud and reach the far side of the lake will have an advantage, which means survival or successful hunting. Unfortunately, the lone flyer was a few seconds behind one of the hunters, and the smoke came out, and they immediately flung themselves into a cloud, with wisps of steam floating around them, and both of them died from the disgusting smoke. feel sleepy.At first the prey had the upper hand, but then another hunter flew out of the cloud of smoke, and the three of them huddled together quickly and violently, twisting together in the air like pieces of sparks, flying up, down, up again, and finally finally It fell and landed in the rock pile on the other side of the lake.The other two hunters never emerged from the smoke.

It was a jagged line of mountains, and at the west end of it, on a peak overlooking the vast plains below and the valleys behind the mountains, a basalt fortress stood as if it had been washed out by a volcano a million years ago. In the large caverns beneath the back wall, all sorts of labeled supplies are stored; Furnaces in which yellow phosphorus and titanium are dissolved and compounded into alloys that have never been heard or used. On the most exposed side of the keep, deep in the shadow of the great buttresses jutting out of the ancient lava, was a small door.It was a back door, guarded day and night, and anyone who tried to enter would be questioned.

On the other side of the defensive wall above, it was almost time for the changing of the guard, and the guard would stamp his feet once or twice and pat his upper arm with his gloved hand to keep warm, because it was the coldest part of the night, and the little man beside him The naphtha fire had no heat at all.In ten minutes he would be relieved, and he was looking forward to the cup of chocolate, the tobacco, and especially the bed. The last thing he wanted was to hear a knock at the little door. Alert, however, he flung open the peephole, unplugging it at the same time, letting a gleam of naphtha shine over the pilot light on the outer buttress.Just by the light, he saw three hooded figures, and they were carrying one, but they couldn't see clearly, they seemed to be sick or injured.

The man in front pushed back his hood. The guard recognized his face, but he gave his password anyway, and said, "We found him in Salt Lake. He said his name was Baruch. Urgent information to Lord Asriel." The guard unlatched the door, and the three men struggled through the narrow entrance with a stretcher.At this time the guard—his dog elf was trembling all over, barked softly involuntarily, and then stopped immediately—saw a wounded angel being carried: this angel was very low-level, and its power was very small, but why? Still an angel. "Put him in the guardhouse," he ordered them.Then, while they were busy, he would crank the bell of the telephone and report the situation to the officer on duty.

On the defensive earthen wall at the highest point of the fort there is a strong tower: only a staircase leads to the houses above, and the windows of the houses are facing all four directions.The largest room contains a table, chairs, and a map cabinet; another room contains a camp bed; the other is just a small bathroom. Lord Asriel sat in the sturdy tower, looking at the spy captain opposite him through a pile of messy documents.A naphtha lamp hung above the table, and a brazier filled with smoldering coals warded off the biting chill of the night.Inside the door, a blue eaglet perches on a bracket.

The captain of the spy is Lord Locke, and he has a strange appearance: his body is less than the length of Lord Asriel's tusk, and the thickness is about the same as a dragonfly, but the other captains of Lord Asriel respect him because of the There are poisonous needles in the spikes. He was used to sitting at a table, and was good at putting on an air of faux gallantry full of haughty and vicious language.He and his kind, the Galliferspins, had very little of the makings of a good spy, except their size: they were proud and irritable, and if they were of Lord Asriel's size, Then they will never be content with obscurity.

"Yes," he said.His voice was clear and piercing, and his eyes gleamed like drops of ink. "Honorable Lord Asriel, I have heard of your child. Evidently I know more than you do." Lord Asriel looked directly at him, and the little man immediately understood that he was abusing the preferential treatment given to him by his superiors: he felt a force in Lord Asriel's eyes that flicked him like a finger, so he Losing his balance, he had to reach out a hand to steady himself on Lord Asriel's glass.After a while, Lord Asriel's expression became kind and generous again, just like his daughter's, and Lord Locke has been more cautious since then.

"Undoubtedly, Lord Locke," said Lord Asriel, "but for some reason I don't understand, this child has been the focus of the Church's attention. I need to know why. They are saying something about her." what." "There's a lot of activity in the Church. This department is devoted to this, that is investigating that, each trying to keep its findings from the others, the most active being the Church Courts and the Holy Spirit Work Society," Lord Locke said, "I have eyes and ears in both departments." "So you've recruited a member of the Society?" said Lord Asriel. "Congratulations, they were once invulnerable."

"My eyes and ears at the Society are Madame Salmazia," said Lord Locke, "a very skilled spy. She once entered the dreams of a priest—who had a rat spirit—and persuaded him to hold a catastrophe. Forbidden rituals to call for the apparition of the God of Wisdom. Then at the critical moment, she appeared in front of him disguised as the God of Wisdom. Now, the priest thinks that he can communicate with the God of Wisdom whenever he wants; she Also Galliferston, living in his bookcase. Lord Asriel smiled and said, "What did she learn?" "The Association treats your daughter as the most important child ever. They believe that a great crisis will befall the near future, and that the fate of the world will depend on her behavior at that moment. As for the Church Court, it is at this time discussing An interrogation will be held between Vangar and other witnesses. My spy in the ecclesiastical court, Knight Thales, is in daily contact with me on a lodestone resonator, and he will tell me what they find.

In short, I think the Holy Spirit Work Association will find out where the child is soon, but they will not take any action. The church court will take a little longer, but once they find it, they will act decisively. " "Let me know as soon as you have any news." Lord Locke bowed and snapped his fingers, and the little blue hawk, perched on a bracket by the door, spread her wings and slid onto the table, with bridle, saddle, and stirrups.Lord Locke jumped on her back in a flash, and flew out of the window that Lord Asriel had opened wide for them. Despite the biting cold wind, he didn't close the window immediately, but leaned against the window seat, playing with the ears of his snow leopard elf. "She came to Svalbard looking for me, and I ignored her," he said. "You remember how shocked I was... I needed a victim, and it was my own daughter who came first... But when I was relieved when I realized there was another baby with her so she was safe. Was that a fatal mistake? I didn't think about her after that, not for a moment, but she Very important, Stir Maria!" "Let us think about it," replied his daemon, "what can she do?" "It won't work much, does she know something?" "She can read the alethiometer, she can gain knowledge." "That's nothing special. Other people can do it too. What kind of role can she play?" The door knocked behind him, and he turned around immediately. "My lord," said the officer who came in, "an angel has just arrived at the Simon—wounded—and he insists on speaking to you." A minute later, Baruch was lying on the camp bed.The bed has been moved to the main room.Paramedics were called, but it was clear the angel was beyond help: he was badly injured, with a torn wing and blurred vision. Lord Asriel sat near and threw a handful of herbs into the brazier.As Will discovered in his pyrotechnics, it does do Angel's wounds a favor, and he can see a little better. "Well, sir," said he, "what have you come here to tell me?" "Three things, please let me finish talking before you speak. My name is Baruch, and my friend Balthimos and I belong to the rebel party, so once your flag is raised, we have the intention to convert to you Yes. But we want to bring you something of value, because our power is small, and not long ago, we managed to infiltrate the heart of Yunshan, the castle of the Authority. There, we learned..." He had to stop for a while and take a few puffs of the herbal smoke, which seemed to calm him down.He continued: "We have learned the truth about the Authority. We have learned that he has retired to a crystal room deep in the Cloud Mountains, where he no longer attends to the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom, but ponders deeper secrets. He was replaced and ruled in his place by an angel named Metatron, whom I have reason to know well, though when I first knew him..." Baruch's voice became weaker and weaker, and Lord Asriel's eyes were burning, but he didn't make a sound, waiting for Baruch to continue. "Metatron is arrogant," Baruch continued after recovering a bit of strength, "his ambition has no limits. The Authorities chose him as his regent four thousand years ago, and together they made plans. They have A new plan that can be seen by me and my companions. "The Authority believes that all conscious species have acquired a dangerous independence, so Metatron is preparing to intervene more actively in human affairs. He wants to move the Authority secretly from Yunshan to some other place. An immortal castle, turning Yunshan into a war engine. He believes that the churches in each world are corrupt and cowardly, and they are too easy to compromise... He wants to establish a permanent religious court in each world, directly managed by the kingdom. His first act will be to destroy your republic..." They were both trembling, the angel and Lord Asriel, but one from weakness, the other from excitement. Gathering up his little strength, Baruch continued: "The second thing is this, there is a knife that can cut between worlds and anywhere in each world, it is powerful, but only when you know how to cut it." It works only in the hands of the person who uses it, and that person is a boy..." Angel had to stop again to recover his strength.He was scared; he could feel himself falling apart. Lord Asriel could see that he was trying to hold himself together; he sat clutching the arm of his chair nervously until Baruch had the strength to go on. "Now my companion is with the boy, and we would like to bring him directly to you, but he refuses, because... this is the third thing I must tell you: he is friends with your daughter , he won't agree to come to see you until he finds your daughter, who's—" "Who is this boy?" "He's the son of a shaman, the son of Stanislaus Grumman." Asriel was taken aback, and couldn't help standing up, causing billowing smoke to fill the angel's body. "Grumman has a son?" "Grumman wasn't born in your world, and his real name wasn't Grumman, and my companions and I were drawn to him because he wanted the knife. Knowing he'd take us to Knife and Its owner, we followed him and tried to bring the owner of the knife to you, but the boy refused..." Baruch had to stop again.Lord Asriel sat down again, cursing his impatience, and sprinkled some more herbs on the fire.His elf lay nearby, tail slowly sweeping the oak floor, golden eyes fixed on the angel's pained face.Baruch took a few breaths slowly, while Lord Asriel remained silent, the only sound being the whirring of the rope on the flagpole above his head. "Don't worry, sir," said Lord Asriel mildly. "Do you know where my daughter is?" "The Himalayas...in her own world." Baruch whispered, "The mountain, the cave near the valley full of rainbows..." "In two worlds, and far away from here, you fly very fast." "It's the only thing I have," said Baruch, "except the love of Balthamus. I shall never see him again." "If you found her so easily..." Then maybe the other angels could too. " Lord Asriel grabbed a large atlas from the map cabinet and opened it, looking for the pages of the Himalayas. "Can you be more precise?" he said. "Can you tell me the exact location?" "With that knife..." Baruch wanted to say, and Lord Asriel realized that his consciousness was starting to trance, "with that knife he could go in and out of any world at will... His name is Will. But they now There is danger, he and Balthamus...Metatron knows we have his secrets and they are after us...they caught me alone at the edge of your world...I am his Brother... that's why we found him on Cloud Mountain. Metatron used to be called Enoch, son of Jared, son of Mahalalel... Enoch had many wives, he A womanizer... my brother Enoch cast me out because I... oh, my dear Balthamos..." "Where's the girl?" "Yes, that's right, a cave...her mother...a valley full of wind and rainbows...a shrine with a tattered flag..." He sat up and looked at the atlas. Immediately afterwards, the Snow Leopard Elf quickly stood up and jumped towards the door, but it was too late: the orderly knocked on the door and walked in without waiting for a response.That's the way it is, and there's nothing wrong with anyone.But after Lord Asriel saw the orderer's expression, he quickly turned around to look at Baruch, only to see that Baruch was trembling and trying his best not to let his injured body fall apart. This kind of effort was too exhausting.A gust of wind sent a vortex through the open doorway across the bed, and the angel's strength died, and his body spread out, swirled upward, and disappeared. "Balthamos!" came a whisper in the air. Lord Asriel put his hand on the elf's neck, and she felt him tremble, and calmed him down. He turned to the orderly. "My lord, please forgive me—" "Not your fault. Give my regards to King Oakonway and hope he and the other commanders come here immediately. I also want Mr. Basilizi to come with the alethiometer and finally have the Rotary Wing Squadron 2 equipped. Replenish the fuel, order a Zeppelin air refueling airship to take off immediately, head southwest, and I will issue the next order in the air." The orderly saluted, glanced uneasily at the empty bed once more, walked out, and closed the door. Lord Asriel, beating the table with a brass pair of feet, crossed the room to the open south window.Far below, the undead fire threw light and smoke into the black and unfathomable night sky, and even at this height the clang of hammers could be heard in the biting wind. "Well, we've learned a lot, Stir Maria," he said calmly. "But it's not enough." There was another knock at the door, and the alethier came in.He was pale, thin, and just entering middle age. His name was Toclros Basiliz, and his spirit was a nightingale. "Good evening, Mr. Basilides," said Lord Asriel, "this is our trouble, and I hope you will put everything else aside while you deal with it..." He told Basilez what Baruch had said, and gave him the atlas. "Find out the exact location of that hole," he said. "Do your best to find out the coordinates. That is the most important task you have. Do it now, if you will." She stamped her foot so hard it hurt even in her dreams. "You don't believe I'll do that, Roger, so don't say it. I'll wake up, I won't forget, so be there." She looked around, but all she could see were wide-eyed eyes and hopeless faces, pale, gloomy, old, young, all the dead huddled together, crowded, silent, sad. Roger's face was different, only his expression contained hope. She said: "Why do you look that way? Why don't you feel sad like they do? Why don't you feel hopeless?"