took Lyra up a gully in ts and ter as tly ts, and alto trained   have been dead.

    t said noto il topped. From to op of t run away in case she edge.

    “Look up,” said t of breeze moved aside tain of the fog.

    ttle daylig Lyra did look, and found anding in front of a vast building of stone. It all at least as t part of Jordan College, but mucations of ars cs of ts and tributes to the bears, lofur Raknison.

    At least, t  told o take , because every projection and ledge on ted facade s and skuas, ly around overed every part of ty we.

    t to see t ter of tyard, and eps, and gate every point bears in armor cs. Lyra couldnt o age; -colored, bloodstained, dented , not elegant, enameled, and decorative like most of w she saw around her now.

    As t furtemperature rose, and so did somet, dung, blood, refuse of every sort. Lyra puso be cooler, but s  read s every fe alo see her.

    Finally topped outside a , and t suddenly swung  Lyra, knocking ed behind her.

    It  Pantalaimon became a firefly, and siny gloone bencure. In t corner took for bedding, and t was all she could see.

    Lyra sat doalaimon on  in er.

    “Its certainly  of banging about, Pan,” s still works.”

    Pantalaimon fleo , and sat t of  remarkable t s errible danger and yet sink into to read ter; and yet it  complicated questions sorted t into tituent symbols as naturally as o t them.

    Surned t tion: “here is lorek?”

    t once: “A days journey aer your cras his way.”

    “And Roger?”

    “ith lorek.”

    “ will lorek do?”

    “ends to break into ties.”

    S ter ahan before.

    “t let o Pantalaimon. “too many of em. I wiscake messages and all, and we could make a proper plan....”

    t of her life.

    A mans voice spoke in t away, and said, “ho are you?”

    Salaimon became a bat at once, s the wall.

    “E? Speak up! Speak up!”

    “Be a firefly again, Pan,” s dont go too close.”

    ttle  of ligtered around t  been a er all; it tered in Pantalaimons luminance, and tered , lay in  ongue occasionally as Pantalaimon flew near.

    “s your name?” she said.

    “Jotelia,”  ty of Gloucester. ho are you?”

    “Lyra Belacqua.  hey locked you up for?”

    “Malice and jealousy...here do you come from? Eh?”

    “From Jordan College,” she said.

    “? Oxford?”

    “Yes.”

    “Is t scoundrel trelaill there? Eh?”

    “the Palmerian Professor? Yes,” she said.

    “Is ion long ago.

    Duplicitous plagiarist! Coxcomb!”

    Lyra made a neutral sound.

    “ons yet?” ting oward Lyras.

    She moved back.

    “I dont kno of pure , “no,” s on. “I remember noo check some figures.

    And...o e about Dust as s it.”

    “Scoundrel! ted tly t Lyra  his shanks.

    Drops of saliva fle of h.

    “Yea .”

    If it tle girl to turn up in  notice.   ion t Lyra could use.

    S carefully near  near enougo touc near enougalaimons tiny ligo show him clearly.

    “One trelao boast about,” she bears—”

    “Boast! Es!  a popinjay! And a pirate! Not a scrap of original researco ter men!”

    “Yeas rigly. “And  wrong.”

    “Yes! Yes! Absolutely! No talent, no imagination, a fraud from top to bottom!”

    “I mean, for example,” said Lyra, “I bet you kno tart.”

    “Bears,” said te a treatise on ts w me away, you know.”

    “?”

    “I knooo muc t kill me. t do it, muco. I know, you see. I have friends. Yes! Powerful friends.”

    “Yea youd be a eac on. “Being as you got so much knowledge and experience.”

    Even in ttle common sense still flickered, and   as if ed  sion t hed.

    “teaceaceac pupil, and I  a fire in his mind!”

    “Because your knoo just vanis ougo be passed on so people remember you.”

    “Yes,” s very perceptive of you, c is your name?”

    “Lyra,” sold eac the bears?”

    “tfully.

    “Id really like to kno cosmology and Dust and all, but Im not clever enoug. You need really clever students for t. But I could learn about teac t. And  of practice on t and o Dust, maybe.”

    he nodded again.

    “Yes,” . tars are alive, c?

    Everyt tentions, you knoo remind me of t. Good, good—in my despair I ten. Good! Excellent, my child!”

    “So, he king? lofur Raknison?”

    “Yes. O ation, you knoo set up a university. o make me Vice-C ic Institute, e scoundrel trelawney! ha!”

    “ happened?”

    “I rayed by lesser men. trela my qualifications. Calumny! Slander!  discovered tokes elia, ts  take it. Lied teet one day, youll see.

    Ill be Vice-C trelao me t tions Committee of tic Institute spurn my contributions t lorek Byrnison will believe you, when he comes back,” Lyra said.

    “lorek Byrnison? No good ing for t. hell never come back.”

    “hes on his way now.”

    “t a bear, you see. cast. Like me.

    Degraded, you see. Not entitled to any of the privileges of a bear.”

    “Supposing lorek Byrnison did come back, to a fight...”

    “O allo,” said to ackno a rig as  a bear. Or worse:

    tartar or Skraeling. t fig near. Not a hope. No mercy.”

    “O. “And  them?”

    “Other prisoners?”

    “Like.-.Lord Asriel.”

    Suddenly toget the wall, and shook his head warningly.

    “S! theyll hear you!” he whispered.

    “nt ion Lord Asriel?”

    “Forbidden! Very dangerous! lofur Raknison  alloioned!”

    “ to alarm him.

    “Keeping Lord Asriel prisoner is a special cion Board,” ter o see lofur and offered o keep Lord Asriel out of t it, you see, because at time I  Mrs.

    Coulter! Yes. ion ted h her.

    Couldnt stop talking about s Lord Asriel kept a s w will hing for Mrs.

    Coulter, anyto name al city after ?”

    “So  let anyone go and see Lord Asriel?”

    “No! Never! But oo, you kno game. But  t.  Lord Asriel isolated, to please Mrs. Coulter; and  Lord Asriel  s, to please  last, table.

    Pleasing botion of tuation is going to collapse quite soon. I  on good auty.”

    “Really?” said Lyra,  w  said.

    “Yes. My daemons tongue can taste probability, you know.”

    “Yeaoo. hey feed us, Professor?”

    “Feed us?”

    “t put some food in sometime, else arve. And t t they?”

    “Seal...I dont kno might be.”

    Lyra got up and felt o turally, and no key fitted so closely at top and bottom t no ligo it, but tering to tle as urned over ly o snore.

    S o talaimon, tired of putting out lig, ly w and chewed a fingernail.

    Quite suddenly,  all, s it  siring Room all t time ago.

    Somet  mentioned lofurs name, and no came back: ed more trelawney had said, was a daemon.

    Of course, s understood  kno bears, and s lofur Raknison  a man. And a man would   made sense.

    But no  ty lofur Raknison ed noto be a h a daemon of his own.

    And as s t, a plan came to  oring lorek Byrnison to ful tting to t Lord Asriel, and taking er.

    tely, like a soap bubble, and s even look at it directly in case it burst. But s it s something else.