Chapter 31 Thirty-one. The end of authority

because the empire is gone Now the lion and the wolf will stop. —William Blake Mrs. Coulter whispered to the shadow beside her: "Look how he hides, Metatron! He stalks like a rat in the dark..." They stood on a high rock in the big cave, watching Lord Asriel and the snow leopard walking cautiously far below. "I can attack him now," whispered Shadow. "Yes, of course you can," she whispered, leaning closer to him, "but I want to see his face, dear Metatron, and I want him to know that I betrayed him. Come on, let's catch up He..." The waterfall of dust fell steadily and endlessly into the deep valley, glowing like a huge pillar of pale light.

Mrs. Coulter didn't have the heart to notice it, because the shadow around her was trembling with longing to keep him by her side, under the control she could exert. They followed Lord Asriel and continued to go down quietly. The further she went down, the more she felt a huge sense of fatigue spreading all over her body. "What's the matter? What's the matter?" Sensing her emotions, Shadow immediately became suspicious and asked in a low voice. "I'm thinking," she said, with sweet malice, "how happy I am that the child will never grow up to love and be loved. When she was a baby I thought I loved her, but now— —" "I have regrets." Shadow said, "You regret not seeing her grow up."

"Oh, Metatron, how long it's been since you weren't human! Don't you really know what I regret? Not her manhood, but mine. How I regret being a girl myself How passionately I would have devoted myself to you without knowing you..." She leaned towards the shadow, as if she couldn't control the impulse of her body, and the shadow sniffed hungrily, as if to swallow the smell of her flesh. They trudged toward the foot of the slope over tumbled and broken rock, and the farther down they went, the more the dusty light became a halo of light that coated everything with a golden haze.Mrs. Coulter kept reaching out to shake where his hand might have been—if Shadow had been a human companion, and then seemed to rein in herself and whispered, "Follow me, Metatron— —Wait here—Asriel is very suspicious—Let me lure him first, and I will call you when he loses his guard, but you still have to come over like a shadow, just this small shape, like this He can't see you—or he'd send that kid's elf flying away."

The Regent is a man of great knowledge, whose knowledge has been deepened and strengthened through the millennia to a million universes, yet at that moment he is captivated by his two sweet dreams: the destruction of Lyra , possessing her mother.He nodded and stayed where he was while the woman and monkey walked on as quietly as possible. Lord Asriel waited behind a large granite rock out of sight of the Regent; as Mrs. Coulter rounded the corner, the Snow Leopard heard them approaching, and Lord Asriel rose to his feet.Everything, every surface, every cubic centimeter of air is permeated by falling dust, giving softness and clarity to every tiny detail.In the dusty light, Lord Asriel saw her face drenched with tears, and she gritted her teeth to keep herself from crying.

He hugged her into his arms, and the golden monkey hugged the snow leopard's neck, burying his black face into her fur. "Is Lyra safe? Has she found her daemon?" she whispered. "The ghost of the boy's father was protecting them both." "Dust is beautiful...I never knew it before." "What did you tell him?" "I made up one lie after another, Asriel... let's not wait too long, I can't bear it... we're not going to live, are we? We're not going to survive like ghosts?" "Not if we fall into the abyss, we are here to give Lyra time to find her genie, and then time to live and grow up. If we lead Metatron into ruin, Marisa, She'll have the time. Even if we go with him, it doesn't matter."

"Will Laila be safe?" "Yes, yes," he said softly. He kissed her, and she felt as soft and happy in his arms as she had been with Laila thirteen years ago. She was sobbing quietly.When she was able to speak, she whispered: "I told him I was going to betray you, betray Lyra. He believed me because I was corrupt, full of evil. He saw so deeply that I felt he must have seen The truth, but I lied too well, I lied with every nerve, every fiber and everything I ever did... I want him to find no goodness in me, he doesn't Find, without any kindness, but I love Lyra, where does this love come from? I don't know, it's like a thief who came to me in the night, and now I love her to the brim with love. All I can hope is let me so great is the evil that this love is only the size of a mustard seed in their shadow, I even wish I had committed a greater sin to hide it deeper... But the mustard seed took root and grew, and the little green Miao opened my heart wide, I was so afraid that he would understand..."

She had to pause to pull herself together, and he stroked her shiny hair, which was plated with gold dust, and waited. "He's going to lose his patience at any moment now," she whispered. "I told him to make himself smaller, but he's only an angel after all. Even though he was a man, we can fight him and bring him to the edge of the ravine. Let's go down with him..." He kissed her and said, "Well. Lyra will be safe, and the Kingdom will do nothing for her. Call him now, Marisa, my love." She took a deep breath, let out a trembling sigh, then pushed her skirt down to cover her thighs, and tucked her hair behind her ears.

"Metatron," she called softly, "it's time." The figure of Metatron's shadow appeared in the golden air, and immediately understood what was going on. The Lord immediately threw himself on him, hugged him around the waist, and tried to throw him to the ground, but the angel's arms were free, and he beat Lord Asriel with his fists, palms, elbows, knuckles, and upper arms. head and body: the massive continuum of punches forced his breath out of his lungs, bounced off his ribs, and the blows crackled across his skull, knocking him unconscious. However, his arms wrapped around the angel's wings, clamping them to his sides, and after a while Mrs. Coulter jumped between the strangled wings and grabbed Metatron's hair, and he The force was so great that it felt like grabbing the fur of a galloping horse.He shook his head violently, and she was thrown from side to side, feeling the force and heaving of the great folded wings as they strained and heaved in the arms of the man who held them tight.

The elves grabbed him too, Stir Maria's teeth were firmly on his leg, and the golden monkey was tearing at the edge of the nearest wing, snapping feathers and tearing wings, which only enraged the angel even more.With a sudden force he threw himself sideways, freed a wing, and threw Mrs. Coulter onto a rock. Mrs. Coulter was stupefied for a moment, her hand let go, and the angel straightened up again, flapping one of his free wings to throw off the golden monkey, but Lord Asriel's arms remained firmly in his arms. Holding him, in fact he's holding on tighter now because there's not much to hold.Lord Asriel fought hard to crush Metatron's breath out, crushing his ribs together, trying to ignore the brutal fists that fell on the skull and neck.

But those punches were starting to pay off, and Lord Asriel was dealt a fatal blow to the back of the head as he tried to gain his footing on the splintered rock.As he dodged to the side, Metatron grabbed a fist-sized rock and slammed it viciously into Lord Asriel's skull at the vital point.The man felt his skull crumpled and he knew that one more punch like this would kill him in no time.Dizzy with pain—the pain made worse by the pressure of his head against the side of the angel’s body—he still clung on, the fingers of his right hand gripping the bones of his left hand against the splintered rock. Staggering in the middle trying to get a foothold.

When Metatron lifted the bloody stone high, a golden-haired figure jumped up like a flame and jumped to the top of a tree. The golden monkey bit the angel's hand, and the stone loosened and crackled. It fell with a clatter to the edge of the abyss.Metatron swung his arms left and right to try to shake the monkey off, but the monkey held on tightly with teeth, claws and tail, and Mrs. Coulter hugged the flapping white wings of In his arms, restrain its movement. Metatron was pinned down, but he remained unhurt and did not come to the edge of the abyss. Up to now, Lord Asriel's physical strength is weakening. He is desperately maintaining his consciousness soaked in blood, but he loses a little with every movement. He can feel the edges of the bones grinding together in the skull. He can Hearing them, his senses were disorganized: all he knew was to hold on and pull down. Then Mrs. Coulter's hand found the angel's eyes, and she dug her fingers deep into his eyes. Metatron screamed: there was an echo from the far side of the abyss, his voice bounced from one cliff to another, strong and weak, attracting those distant ghosts in an endless procession Zhong stopped and looked up. The snow leopard elf Stir Maria's own consciousness also weakened along with Lord Asriel's, and she made a last effort to pounce on the angel's throat. Metatron fell to his knees, and Mrs Coulter saw Lord Asriel's bloodshot eyes staring at her as he fell with him.She climbed up and up, forcing the flapping wings down while Lord Asriel was tugging at him, pulling him back, feet faltering, rocks falling, and the golden monkey followed but Metat The dragon scrambled to its feet and spread its wings with a last effort—a huge white canopy slapped and slapped and slapped and slapped again and again, and then Mrs. Coulter fell aside, and Metatron stood Straightening up, flapping his wings more and more vigorously, he flew up—he was leaving the ground, Lord Asriel still clung to him, but was rapidly failing.The golden monkey's fingers were still entangled in the angel's hair, and he would never let go - Lord Asriel would fall, and Metatron would flee. "Marisa! Marisa!" The cry was torn from Lord Asriel's mouth, and with the snow leopard by her side, and the roar in her ears, Lyra's mother stood up, found a foothold, and with all her body and mind, she was about to leap to Angels and spirits of the earth, her dying lover, caught those flapping wings and dragged them all together down the abyss. The cliff ghosts heard Lyra's dismayed exclamation, and turned their flat heads with a snap. Will jumped forward and stabbed the knife at the nearest cliff ghost, he felt a light kick on the shoulder, Thales jumped off his shoulder and landed on the cheek of the largest cliff ghost, grabbing her by the hair , kicking her jaw hard before she could throw him off.The guy fell into the mud howling and the other guy looked at his severed arm in bewilderment and then in horror at his own ankle where his severed hand caught him as it fell .A second later, the knife was in his chest: Will felt the handle throb three or four times with his dying heart, and he pulled it out as the cliff ghost fell to keep from wringing it out up. He heard the other cliff ghosts yelling hatefully as they fled, and he knew Lyra was safe with him, but he threw himself in the mud with only one thing on his mind. "Tales! Thales!" he cried, avoiding the gnashing teeth, and dragging the head of the largest cliff spook aside.Thales was dead, his boots lodged deep in her neck.The guy was still kicking and biting, so he cut off her head and rolled it away before lifting the dead Galliferspin out of its leathery neck. "Will," Lyra said behind him, "Will, look at this..." She was staring at the inside of the crystal litter, which was unbroken, though the crystal was stained with mud and the mouths of the cliff ghosts. The blood, which lay crooked among the rocks, was in—"Oh, Will, he's still alive! But—poor thing..." Will saw her hands on the crystal, trying to reach over the angel to comfort him, because he was so old. He was terrified, cried like a baby, and hid in the bottom corner. "He must be so old--I've never seen anyone in such pain--oh, Will, can't we get him out?" Will sliced ​​through the crystal with a single blow and reached in to help the angel out.Old and powerless, the aged elder cries and mumbles in terror, pain and sorrow.He ducked back to dodge yet another possible threat. "It's nothing," Will said, "we can at least help you hide. Come on, we won't hurt you." A pair of trembling hands grasped his, weakly.The old man kept moaning, teeth chattering, tugging at himself involuntarily with his free hand, but when Lyra reached in to help him out too, he tried to smile and bow, sunken in wrinkles His dim old eyes blinked at her with innocent wonder. Together they lifted the old man out of his crystal cage, and it was not difficult, for he was as light as paper, and would go anywhere with them, for he had no will of his own, like a flower to the sun, Respond to simple kindness.But outside there was nothing stopping the wind from destroying him. To their dismay, his form began to loosen and melt, and after only a few moments, he was completely gone.The last impression left on them was the eyes, blinking in wonder, and the deepest and most weary sigh of relief. And then he was gone: a mystery lost in enigma, and it all happened in less than a minute, and Will turned back immediately to attend to Thales.He picked up the little corpse and held him in his palm, feeling his tears welling up. But Lyra was talking about an urgent matter. "Will—we've got to go—we've got to go—the lady heard the horses coming—" An indigo hawk swooped low from the indigo sky, and Lyra yelled to dodge but Sarmazia shouted with all her might, "No, Lyra! Don't! Stand tall and stick out your fist !" So Laila reached out and supported the outstretched arm with the other, and the blue eagle spun around and swooped down again to grab her knuckles with sharp claws. On the eagle's back sat a gray-haired lady with bright eyes, looking first at Lyra, then at Sarmazia who was clutching her by the collar. "Ma'am..." Salmachia said weakly, "We have already done..." "You've done all you need, and here we come," said Mrs. Oxenshel, shaking the reins. The eagle screamed three times at once, so loud that Lyra's head buzzed.In response, first one flew out of the air, then two, three, and more, then thousands of shiny warrior-laden dragonflies, all flying so fast that they seemed to collide with each other It seemed, but the reflexes of the insects and the skill of their riders were so precise that a tapestry of bright colors seemed to be woven swiftly and silently over and around the children. "Lyra," said the Lady on the Eagle, "and Will: come with us now, and we'll take you to your elves." When the eagle spread its wings and flew away from one of her hands, Laila felt the small weight of Sarmazia fall into the other, and she immediately understood that it was only the madam's power of thought that supported her. After living for such a long time, she held her body tightly and ran with Will under layers of dragonflies, stumbled and fell more than once, but she always pressed his wife tenderly to her chest. "Left! Left!" cried the voice on the blue eagle, and they turned in that direction in the lightning-torn darkness.To their right, Will saw a procession of men in light gray armor, helmets, and masks, their gray wolf elves close behind them, thumping low feet.Immediately a troop of dragonflies rushed upon them, and the men hesitated: their guns were of no use, and the Galliferspins were among them in a moment, each warrior leaping from the insect's back, looking for a A hand, an arm, a bare neck, sticking the spikes in, and jumping back as the insect circles and flies again.They moved so fast that it was almost impossible for the opponent to keep up.The soldiers turned around and fled in panic, becoming a mess. But at this time, there was a thunderous sound of horseshoes from behind, and the children turned around in panic: the riders were galloping towards them, and one or two were already holding nets and spinning overhead to catch dragonflies. Whipping the net like a whip, flinging the shattered insects aside. "This way!" came the lady's voice, and she went on, "now the cat waist—bend down!" As they did so, they felt the ground tremble under their feet. Was that the sound of hooves?Lyra looked up, brushed wet hair from her eyes, and saw something different than a horse. "Iorek!" she cried, joy throbbing in her heart, "Oh, Iorek!" Will immediately dragged her down again, because not only Iorek Bernison, but a whole pack of bears was heading straight for them.Lyra ducked her head just in time, and Iorek leaped over them, growling and ordering his bears to turn left and right, crushing the enemy among them. The Bear King moved lightly, as if his armor was only as heavy as his hair, and he turned to face Will and Lyra, who were struggling to their feet. "Iorek—behind you—they have nets!" Will yelled, as the riders were almost on top of them. Before the bear could move, the rider's net hissed through the air, and Iorek was immediately wrapped in a net as strong as steel.He snarled and reared up on his hind legs and slashed at the rider with his huge claws, but the nets were strong, and though the horse backed away with a wail of terror, Iorek could not break free from them. "Iorek!" Will yelled, "Stop! Hold still!" As the rider tried to control the horse, he scrambled forward, wading through puddles and tumbled grass.But a second rider came, and another net hissed in front of Iorek just in time. But Will kept a clear head: he didn't chop wildly and become more entangled, but observed the flow of the net, and cut through the net in just a moment, the second net fell uselessly to the ground, Then Will jumped at Iorek, feeling with his left hand and cutting with his right, and the bear stood motionless as the boy ran around his huge body, cutting, untying, and clearing the way. "Go now!" Will yelled, jumping aside, and Iorek seemed to explode completely, as if fully upward, into the chest of the nearest horse. The rider swung his scimitar down the bear's neck, but at nearly two tons of armored Iorek Bernison, nothing at that range could stop him.Both horse and rider were shattered and fell sideways harmlessly.Iorek stood on his feet, looked around to see what the terrain looked like, and yelled at the children, "Get on my back! Now!" Lyra jumped on it, and Will jumped on it.Pressing the cold iron between their feet, they felt the great surge of energy as Iorek began to move. Behind them other bears were engaged with the strange cavalry, aided by the Galliferspins, whose boots irritated the horses.The lady on the blue eagle flitted low and shouted: "Now go straight ahead! To the woods of the valley! " Iorek reached the top of a hillock and paused.Before them a shattered landscape slanted down towards a grove a quarter of a mile away, and somewhere beyond the grove a cannon battery fired shot after shot overhead. The highlands whizzed past, and someone was firing flares, and those flares exploded just under the clouds and fell on the trees, making them glow cold green and perfect targets for the guns. Twenty or thirty goblins were vying for the grove, and they were stopped by a group of blue-clothed ghosts. Lyra and Will knew their elves were there as soon as they saw the little grove, and knew they would die if they didn't get to them soon.Every minute more monsters were coming over the ridge to the right, and Will and Lyra could see them all too clearly now. The explosion just above the ridge shook the ground, throwing stones and clods of earth high into the air.Lyra screamed and Will had to hold his chest. "Sit still," growled Iorek, attacking. Another flare exploded high above, and then one after another, shining brightly, slowly falling down.Another shell exploded, closer this time, and they felt the shock of the air, and a second or two later they felt dirt and stones hitting their faces.Iorek didn't hesitate, but they found it difficult to sit still: it was impossible for them to dig their fingers into his hair—they had to clamp the armor with their knees, and his back was so wide that they both couldn't stop. slipped down. "Look!" Lyra yelled, pointing up as another bomb exploded nearby. A dozen wizards, carrying thick branches with thick leaves, rushed towards the flare.They brushed the blinding lights aside with their branches, sweeping them into the distant sky, and the darkness fell again on the grove, keeping it from the gunfire. Now the woods were only a few yards away, and both Will and Lyra felt their lost selves close at hand—a thrill, a wild hope mingled with fear: because the woods were thick with monsters, they had to go straight among them , just seeing them made Will and Lyra feel sick and weak. "They're afraid of the knife," said a voice beside them, and the Bear King stopped so suddenly Lyra and Will fell off his back. "Lee!" said Iorek. "Lee, my comrade, I've never seen anything like it before. You're dead—what am I talking to?" "Iorek, old chap, there's a lot you don't know. We'll take over now—ghosts ain't afraid of bears, Lyra, Will—come over here, hold up that knife—" The blue eagle swooped down on Lyra's fist again, and the gray-haired lady said, "Don't waste a second, go in and find your elves, and run away! More danger is coming." "Thank you, ma'am! Thank you all!" Lyra said, and the eagle took flight. Will could see Lee Scoresby's ghost dimly beside them, urging them into the woods, but they had to say goodbye to Iorek Bernison. "Iorek, darling, we can't put it into words—bless you, bless you!" "Thank you, Iorek Bear King," Will said. "No time, go, go!" He pushed them away with his armored head. Will followed Lee Scoresby's ghost into the undergrowth, slashing left and right with his knife.The light here is broken and soft, and the shadows are thick, tangled and confusing. "Hold on," he called to Lyra, and then yelled as a thornbush brushed his cheek. All around them were moving figures, voices, and struggles, shadows swaying to and fro like branches in a high wind.They might be ghosts, and both children felt the slight chill that was so familiar to them, and then they heard voices all around them saying, "This way!" "here!" "Keep going - we're stopping them!" "It's not far now!" Then came the cry of a voice Lyra knew and cherished most: "Oh, come on! Come on, Lyla!" "Pam, dear—I'm here—" Weeping and trembling, she rushed into the darkness while Will tore down branches and vines, hacked at brambles and nettles, and all around them the ghostly voices became encouragement and reminders. But the goblins found their object too, and they pressed on, almost as if they were nowhere, through the shrubs, heather, roots, and branches that stood in their way.A dozen, no, twenty or so pale, vicious creatures rushed towards the middle of the grove, and the ghost of John Perry commanded his companions to drive them back. Both Will and Lyla were shaking and weak with fear, fatigue, nausea and pain, but giving up was impossible.Lyra tore the brambles with her bare hands, and Will hacked right and left as the shadows fought more and more savagely around them. "There!" cried Lee. "See them? By that big rock—" A stray cat, two stray cats, were spitting, hissing, and hacking.Both were elves, and Will felt he could easily tell which was Pantalaimon if he had been asked sometime, but there was no time because a hobgoblin crept up from the nearest patch of shadows and stalked towards them. Will jumped over the last obstacle, a fallen tree trunk, and plunged the knife into the unresisting flicker in the air.He felt his arm go numb, but as his fingers gripped the handle of the knife, he clenched his teeth, and the pale figure melted back into the darkness as if it had evaporated. They were nearly there, and the elf was terrified, for more and more goblins were coming through the trees, and only the brave ghost held them back. "Can you cut it?" said John Perry's ghost. Will raised the knife, but had to stop as a painful nausea shook him from head to toe. There was nothing left in his stomach, and the spasms hurt him badly, as did Lyra beside him.Lee's ghost saw why, and sprang toward the elf, wrestling with the pale thing that was coming towards them through the rock behind them. "Will—come on—" Lyra gasped. The knife went in, turned sideways, went down, and came back.The ghost of Lee Scoresby looked over and saw a wide, peaceful prairie under a bright moon so like his own home that he considered himself lucky to be back home. Will leaped across the open, grabbing the nearest elf, while Lyra picked up the other. Even in this dire emergency, even in this most dangerous moment, they all felt the same thrill: for Lyra was holding Will's elf, the nameless wildcat, and Will was holding It was Pantalaimon. They separated their eyes looking at each other. "Goodbye, Mr. Scoresby!" cried Lyra, looking back for him. "I hope—oh, thank you, thank you—bye!" "Good-bye, my dear boy--good-bye, Will--go!" Lyra crawled across, but Will stood motionless, looking into his father's ghostly eyes, bright in the shadows, and he had something to say before he left. Will says to his father's ghost, "You said I was a fighter, you told me that's who I am, and I shouldn't argue. Father, you're wrong, I fight because I have to fight, I can't choose My nature, but I can choose what I do and I will continue to choose because now I am free." There was pride and tenderness in his father's smile. "Well done, my boy. Really well done." He said. Will could no longer see him, and he turned and crawled after Lyra. Now that their purpose had been accomplished, the children had found their daemons and fled, and the death warriors had at last allowed their atoms to relax and drift away. Stepping out of the grove, away from the trapped monster, out of the valley, over the burly body of his old partner the armored bear, the last sliver of consciousness of balloon pilot Lee Scoresby floated upward as his Big balloons have done that many times before.Undisturbed by flares and exploding bombs, deaf to explosions, cries of anger and warning and pain, aware only of the upward movement, Lee.The last part of Scoresby made his way through thick clouds and out into the bright starry sky where the atoms of his beloved elf Hester awaited him.