Chapter 12 12. Breakthrough

while running away his eyes are still looking back It was as if his fear was still following him. — Edmund Spencer This is the status quo when night falls. Lord Asriel paced up and down in his impenetrable tower, his attention focused on the small figure next to the lodestone resonator, and every report being transmitted, all his body and mind were devoted to the small figure under the light. The message received on the square stone. King Oakonway sat in the cabin of his gyroplane and quickly made plans against the plans of the ecclesiastical courts, which he had learned about from the Galliferspins while he was in his plane.The navigator was scribbling some numbers on a piece of paper and handing it to the pilot.The fundamental issue is speed: get your troops on the ground ahead and everything will be different.Gyroplanes were faster than zeppelins, but they were still far behind.

In the zeppelin of the ecclesiastical court, the Swiss guards were arranging their full equipment.Their crossbows were deadly at a distance of five hundred yards, and a crossbowman could fire fifteen arrows in a minute, and the helical fins, made of ox horn, allowed the arrows to spin, making the weapon as accurate as a rifle.Of course, it's also silent, which is perhaps a huge plus. Mrs. Coulter lay awake at the mouth of the hole.The golden monkey was restless and disturbed: with the darkness coming, the bats had left the cave, and there was nothing left to destroy.He hovered around Mrs. Coulter's sleeping bag, and with his bony, calloused little fingers caught the occasional glowworm that settled in the hole and smashed their luminous bodies against the rocks.

Laila lay there, hot and almost equally restless, but fast asleep, oblivious to the potion her mother had forced her to drink an hour before.A dream that had occupied her for so long had returned, and now Pantalaimon gritted his polecat teeth sympathetically, with small sobs of pity and rage, and Lyra-esque determination shaking her chest and throat. Not far away, under the swaying pines of the forest path, Will and Amma were walking towards the cave, and Will tried to explain to Amma what he was going to do, but her elf couldn't figure it out at all.When he cut a window to show her what was going on, she nearly passed out.He had to act calmly and speak quietly to keep her around because she refused to let him take the medicine away or even tell him how to use it.In the end he had to simply say, "Follow me, don't talk," and hoped she would listen.

Iorek, in armor, was nearby, waiting to divert the soldiers off the Zeppelin so Will would have enough time to work.Neither of them knew that Lord Asriel's troops were also approaching: the wind carried distant noises now and then, and although he knew what a zeppelin would sound like, he had never heard a rotorcraft He couldn't hear any tricks in his voice. Balthamos might be able to tell them, but Will was worrying about him.Having found Lila, the angel began to withdraw into his grief again: he was silent, absent-minded, and sullen, which in turn made talking to Amma more difficult.

When they paused on the trail, Will said into the air, "Balthamos? Are you there?" "Yes." Angel said in a muffled voice. "Balthamos, please stay with me, come closer, and remind me of any danger, I need you." "I haven't abandoned you yet," said the angel. That was the best answer Will could get from him. In the windswept heights, Thales and Sarmacia soared over the valley, trying to look down on the cave.Dragonflies will absolutely obey orders, but their bodies cannot handle the cold, and they are dangerously tossed about in the wind.They guided them low, into the shelter of the trees, and flew from branch to branch in their direction through the gathering darkness.

Will and Amma crept in the breezy moonlight as close as they could get but could not see the opening of the hole, where he cut a window in the air just behind a leafy bush. The world he could find with the same ground structure was a bare rocky place, the moon shining from the starry sky on the white ground, and many small insects were crawling around, chirping and whining in the vast silence. Amma followed him, flailing her fingers and thumb wildly to protect herself from the ghosts that haunted this dreadful place.Her elf, adapting at once, transformed into a lizard and scrambled across the rocks.

Will saw a trouble, and that was that as soon as he opened the window in Mrs. Coulter's cave, the bright moonlight on the white rocks would come in like a lantern.He had to open the window quickly, drag Lyra over, and close it immediately.They could wake her up in this world, it was safer here. He stopped on the dizzying slope and said to Amma: "We must move very fast, and we must not speak, not make any noise, not even whispers." She understood, but she was afraid, the little packet of medicine was in her breast pocket: she had checked it a dozen times, she had rehearsed it with her elf so many times, she was sure she could do it in the dark.

They climbed up the white rock, and Will measured the distance carefully until he estimated they were right in the hole. Then he took out his knife and made a slit as small as he could see, no bigger than he could make with his thumb and forefinger. He quickly brought his eyes up to block the moonlight and looked in. It was exactly the place: he had calculated accurately.He could see the hole ahead, the dark rocks under the night sky, and he could see the sleeping figure of Mrs. Coulter with her elf beside her, and he could even see the monkey's tail, dangling carelessly on the sleeping bag.

He changed his angle, moved closer, and he saw the rock that stood in front of Lyra, but he couldn't see her, was he too close?He closed the window, stepped back a step or two, and opened another. she is not there. "Listen," Will said to Amma and her elf, "the woman has moved her and I can't see where she is. I'm going to go through and look for her in the hole, and when I find her Cut over. So stand back - get out of the way so I don't accidentally cut you when I come back. If I get stuck there for any reason, you go back and wait by the window we came in. "

"We should go in together," said Amma, "because I know how to wake her up and you don't, and I know the hole better than you do." She had a stubborn look on her face, her lips were pursed and her fists clenched.Her lizard sprite turned into a fringed snipe and slowly wrapped itself around her neck. Will said, "Oh, that's fine. But we're going to go quickly, absolutely silent, and you do what I say, understand?" She nodded and patted her pocket to check the package of medicine. Will made a small cut, lay down, looked in, then quickly cut the hole wide, and crawled over on hands and feet after a while, followed closely by Ama, with the window open for less than ten seconds.

They crouched behind a rock in the cave, with Balthamus in the form of a bird beside them; it took a while for their eyesight to adjust to the bright moonlight of another world.The hole was much darker and filled with more sounds: mostly the wind among the trees, but below that there was another sound, the engine of a Zeppelin, not far off. Will held the knife in his right hand, carefully balanced his body, and looked around. Amma was looking around too, her owl-eyed elf looking around, but Lyra was not at the bottom of the hole, there was no doubt about that.Will poked his head over the rock and looked steadily towards the opening of the hole where Mrs. Coulter and her elf lay. Then his heart sank.Lyra was sleeping next to Mrs. Coulter, their silhouettes merging in the darkness, no wonder he hadn't seen her. Will touched Amma's hand and showed her. "We've got to be very careful," he whispered. There is something happening out there.Now the roar of the zeppelin is louder than the wind in the trees, and the lights are flickering and shining from above through the branches, and the sooner you can get Lyra out, it means that Mrs. Coulter is waking up now. Dash down there, cut the opening, drag her to safety, and close the window. He whispered this to Amma, and she nodded. Then, just as he was about to move, Mrs. Coulter woke up. She moved and said something, and the golden monkey immediately jumped up.Will could see his silhouette reflected in the hole, lying there engrossed.Then Mrs. Coulter sat up herself, shading the light with her hands. Will's left hand held Ama's wrist tightly, and Mrs. Coulter stood up. She was fully dressed, agile and alert, and she didn't look like she had just woken up.Maybe she was awake all the time, she and the golden monkey were lying in the cave entrance, observing and listening, the light of the Zeppelin swept over the treetops, only the roar of the engine, shouting, warnings or commands were heard. Men's voices, it became very clear: they should move quickly, very quickly. Will squeezed Amma's wrist and rushed out, looking at the ground in case he fell, running fast and low. Then he came to Lyra, who was still asleep, with Pantalaimon wrapped around her neck.Then Will held up the knife and felt, a second later, that there would be a hole to drag Lyra to safety—but then he looked up and looked at Mrs. Coulter.She had turned quietly, and the strong light in the air reflected off the damp cave walls, illuminating her face, which for a moment was not her face at all, but his own mother's, reproachful. look, his heart faltered with grief.Then he dropped the knife, his mind off the point, and with a jerk, a snap, the knife fell to the floor and broke into pieces. It's broken. Now he couldn't cut a way out at all. He said to Amma: "Wake her up and do it now." Then he stood up, ready to fight.He'd strangle the monkey first, he'd waited tensely for him to pounce, and he'd found himself still holding the scabbard: at least he could fight with it. But neither the Monkey nor Mrs. Coulter attacked him, she just moved away a little so that the outside light could see the pistol in her hand.While doing so, she let some light shine on what Amma was doing: she was spreading a powder on Laila's upper lip and watching Laila suck it in, using her own elf's tail as a brush to help. Get the powder up her nostrils. Will heard a change in the sound outside: now besides the roar of the Zeppelin, there was another sound, and it sounded familiar, like something from his own world had stepped in, and then he recognized the helicopter. There was a clatter of planes, and one after another, and more lights swept across the swaying trees outside, a brilliant green glow. Mrs. Coulter turned quickly at the new sound, but she turned too quickly for Will to jump up and grab the gun.As for the monkey elf, he stared at Will without blinking, lying there ready to pounce at any moment. Lyra was moving, murmuring something.Will leaned over to squeeze her hand, and the other elf pushed Pantalaimon, lifted his heavy head, and whispered to him. There was a cry from outside, and a man fell from the sky and landed with a sickening bang on the ground not five yards from the opening of the cave.Mrs. Coulter didn't flinch, she looked at him calmly, then turned back to Will.A moment later there was a shot from above, followed by a storm of gunfire, filling the sky with explosions, crackling flames, and bursts of gunfire. Lyra was struggling to come to her senses, panting, sighing, moaning, pulling herself up, but then fell weakly, while Pantalaimon yawned, stretched, and bit Amma's elf, Clumsily slammed to the side because his muscles couldn't move. As for Will, he was searching the cave floor with the utmost care for the fragments of the broken knife.There was no time to think about how this had happened, or whether it could be fixed, but he was the owner of the knife and he had to pick it up safely.Each time he found a piece, he picked it up carefully, every nerve in his body reminding him of his missing fingers, and slipping it into the scabbard, he could see the pieces fairly easily because the metal The blades reflect light from the outside: there are seven pieces, the smallest being the tip. He picked up all the pieces and turned back to try to make sense of the fight outside. Somewhere above the woods, a zeppelin was circling, and someone was sliding down a rope, but the wind made it difficult for the pilot to control the airship.Meanwhile, the first gyroplanes had reached the top of the cliff, and the place was small enough to land only one at a time, and then the African gunmen had to climb down the rocky face, one of them happened to be taken from the rickety Zeppelin. The fired shot was picked off. By this time, some soldiers from both sides had landed.Some were killed while still in the air, and many more were wounded, lying on rocks or among the trees, but neither had yet reached the cave, where Mrs. Coulter had the upper hand. Will's voice over the others said, "What are you going to do?" "Catch you." "What, hostage? Why should they care? Anyway, they want to kill us all." "One side of course," she said, "but I can't tell about the other side. We should hope the Africans win." She sounded happy, and in the bright light outside, Will could see that her face was full of joy, life, and energy. "You broke that knife," he said. "No, I didn't break it. I hope it's intact so we can get away. You broke it." Lyra's voice came eagerly: "Will?" she murmured. "Is that Will?" "Laila!" he said, falling quickly to his knees beside her as Amma helped her sit up. "What happened?" Lyra said. "Where are we? Oh, Will, I had this dream..." "We're in a cave. Don't move too fast, you'll get dizzy, just be careful, get your strength back, you've been sleeping for many, many days." Her eyes were still heavy and she was still reeling from a deep yawn, but she was eager to wake up, and he lifted her up and put her arms on his shoulders to bear most of her weight, Ama shy Looking shyly, because now this strange girl is awake, Ama is afraid of her.Will sniffs Lyra's sleepy body, blissfully content: she's here, she's real. They sat on a rock, and Lyra took his hand and wiped his eyes. "What happened, Will?" she whispered. "This Amma got some powder that will wake you up," he said very quietly, and Laila turned to the girl, seeing her for the first time, and put her hand on her shoulder in thanks. "I rushed here as fast as I could." Will continued, "But some soldiers also rushed here. I don't know who they are. We need to get out as soon as possible." Outside, the sound and confusion reached a peak when a rotorcraft caught fire from a zeppelin's submachine guns as the gunmen leaped to the top of the cliff, killing not only everyone on board but also the Other rotorcraft cannot land. Meanwhile another zeppelin had found an open place farther down the valley, and the archers from the zeppelin were now running up the trail to reinforce those already fighting.Mrs. Coulter, watching everything she could from the hole, now raised her pistol with both hands, took careful aim, and fired.Will saw the flash of muzzle flash, but heard nothing, as the explosions and gunfire outside were deafening. If she does this again, he thought, I'll rush and push her down, he said, turning to Balthamos, but the angel wasn't around at all.Will was disappointed to see that he had returned to his angelic form, crouching against the cave wall, shaking and whimpering. "Balthamos!" Will said eagerly, "Come on, they can't hurt you! And you've got to help us! You can fight—you know that—you're not a coward—we need you— " But before the angel could answer, something else happened. Mrs. Coulter gave a yelp and reached for her ankles, while the golden monkey let out a joyful howl and grabbed something in mid-air. A voice--a woman's voice--but a little thin--came from the thing in the monkey's paw. "Thales! Thales!" It was a tiny woman, no bigger than Lyra's hand, and the monkey was already tearing at one of her arms, making her cry out in pain.Amma knew the monkey wouldn't stop until it was ripped off, but Will saw the pistol fall from Mrs. Coulter's hand and jumped on it. He grabbed the pistol - but then Mrs. Coulter fell silent suddenly, and Will became aware of a strange deadlock. Neither the Golden Monkey nor Mrs. Coulter moved.Her face was contorted with pain and anger, but she dared not move because on her shoulders stood a small figure, heels pressed against her neck, his hands entangled in her hair.The shocked Will saw a gleaming horn-like spike on that heel, and knew what made her scream just now, he must have stabbed her ankle. But the little man can't kill Mrs. Coulter any further, because his partner is also very dangerous in the hands of the monkey, and the monkey can't hurt her, lest the little man stick the stinger into Mrs. Coulter's jugular vein. None of them could move. Mrs. Coulter took a deep breath, swallowed hard, turned her tearful eyes to Will, and said calmly, "Well, Master Will, what do you think we should do now?"