Fig of mucual. For a bear to kill anot , or raigill.
But occasionally tances in e , a whole ceremonial was prescribed.
As soon as lofur announced t lorek Byrnison ake place, t ground and smooto c ested, and tes as muctention o e six-inco a deadly point. Lyra c of omac be tention; y-four rest or food;
one point, after lofur Raknison ested ts skin open like paper, and t o lofur and go ah fear.
Even Pantalaimon, o say t er: told trust o read) s it wice.
By time, ground stle about t time to asking questions. Instead sayed close to lofur Raknison and ciers around tside, and tried to guess tokens to -ranking, stle manikins like lofurs rag-doll daemon, trying to curry favor, perating to notice t o do of favor now? hey behave?
{ Because t , so see.
t sure like lorek Byrnison, pure and certain and absolute; tant pall of uncertainty cched lofur.
And tcy. Sly close to lofur and said not her.
ted by time, and t, ting of darkness toime Lyra t lorek o arrive. As sood stle rise of dense-packed sno t ground, so lig to see a flig black so bear o see ty, ; or to see Ma Costas broad arms, to smell t enfolded you in her presence....
Sears t froze almost as soon as to brusened. Bears, understand comfort firmly around tle mouse-form, and her fingers.
Beside ments to lofur Raknisons armor. metal toes inlaid enclosed t of ening carapace of silver-gray, s; and tected by a close-fitting sark of c srayed lorek Byrnison, for lorek . ected only lofur Raknison, so sleek and po a deep sickness in and fear combined.
Sy, if you remember o you before...”
turned y racted from target t for o slas claws.
“Yes? Yes?”
“Remember, I said Id better go and speak to lorek Byrnison first, and pretend—”
But before sence, tc it meant and took it up riump excitement. they had seen lorek.
“Please?” Lyra said urgently. “Ill fool him, youll see.”
“Yes. Yes. Go now. Go and encourage him!”
lofur Raknison ement.
Lyra left ground, bare and clear as it le footprints in ted to let bodies lumbered aside, t. tc ill he snow.
al, and in a flurry of snoood beside her.
“Oerrible to o fig ready— youre tired and hungry, and your armors—”
“ terrible thing?”
“I told on te to be like a person and desperate. So I tricked o t I o desert you and be ead, but o figo make it you figo just burn you up before you got close—”
“You tricked lofur Raknison?”
“Yes. I made you instead of just killing you straigcast, and to do t, because—”
“Belacqua? No. You are Lyra Silvertongue,” o fig.
Come, little daemon.”
S lorek Byrnison in tered armor, lean and ferocious, and felt as if h pride.
togeto ground lay flat and open at t of tered at ttlements, ood like a dense y we as of eyes and noses.
t ones moved aside, making them.
lorek ed across t ground from lofur Raknison. trodden snowo bears faced eac.
Lyra o lorek t srembling in dynamo, generating migouc t and said, “Fig. hing.”
tood back.
“Bears!” lorek Byrnison roared. An ecartled birds out of ts. on: “terms of t are te. If I kill lofur Raknison, I s order to you all o tear do palace, t perfumed insel, and o tal. Gold is not.
lofur Raknison ed Svalbard. I o cleanse it. lofur Raknison, I challenge you.”
tep or two, as if he could hardly hold himself back.
“Bears!” urn. “lorek Byrnison my invitation.
I dreo make terms of t, and torn apart and scattered to ts. erated. It sal crime to speak his name....”
inued, and t ual fait tterly different: lofur so glossy and po y and dented. But and it fitted content ed anotless will.
And s all too. But lorek and lofur tures, tinies. lofur o take tion, and lorek ake t, one future o unfold.
As tual combat moved too prolessly on t a flicker of movement from tators: but all eyes follohem.
Finally till and silent, co face across t ground.
t t. Like t masses of rock balanced on adjoining peaks and sainsides gatrees into splinters, until to eac boto po oget resounded in till air and ec t destroyed, as rock o rise ed up in a lit easily raise once for t e fur, and t and wrenc forward.
Sensing t ters edge, sending ss of er flying o the air.
And lorek fell aing metal lofur stood up tall, straigeel of es by srengtill trying to rise.
Lyra felt of crashing fall.
Certainly t? ruggling to t , and lofur eet.
Drops of blood o it like a token of love.
to t came a to scramble upright again.
For a moment tood apart, getting t cection it once into a ill fastened at ttom, and trailed around ing heavily.
But lofur before tangle t of lofurs neck, . lofur t eacains of sno sprayed in all directions and sometimes made it o see wage.
Lyra co breatogetig . S searing at a t couldnt be rig later, after anotanding uprigy cla lofurs face, ting back just as savagely.
Lyra trembled at t of t were swinging a sledge eel spikes...
Iron clanged on iron, teeteet trodden doo a crimson mud.
lofurs armor iful state by time, tes torn and distorted, torn out or smeared t gone altogetter condition, for all its ugliness:
dented, but intact, standing up far better to t sledgeurning aside tal six-inch claws.
But against t, lofur ronger t more blood. to w could she do?
And it it . to strike oo, almost little pats compared y cruss es before.