tention craft ed by Mrs. Coulter. S.
tric altimeter tle use in torm, but situde rougc blazed ling rain, till flaring difficult, eitning t flickered around tain served as a brilliant beacon. But so avoid till fighe rising land below.
S use ts, because sed to get close and find some s became more violent, ts more sudden and brutal. A gyropter o tention craft sly ing he Peaceable Ocean.
Cautiously so climb, peering forruments and flying by siginct. from one side of ttle glass cabin to to t and rigo antly. tning, great ss and lances of brilliance, flared and cracked above and around t all stle aircraft, gaining little by little, and alohe cloud-hung palace.
And as Mrs. Coulter approactention dazzled and beure of tain itself.
It reminded ain abominable orial Court. ed t tial dimensions t on a very small scale, to seven or eig t to examine directly. ructed a model to s er before it aining and being contained: its inside side ed ing space itself to enfold and stretc into galleries and terraces, cc and vapor.
S a strange exultation ime o bring t safely up to terrace on ttle craft lurcrained in turbid air, but so land on terrace.
t sill noruck ts; but t . It came from tance of tain itself, wher-of-pearl radiance.
oman and daemon got do and looked around to see whey should go.
S otance of tain itself ion. S see tives of colonnade, staircase, terrace, and facade.
Before so go, ster.
As tention craft and stopped. tered, and some of t and fear.
Mrs. Coulter ter: an angel, s, and indescribably aged. easy to see, because tter al t glittered and t of tain, but serrifying decrepitude, of a face sunken in rembling h and rheumy eyes.
tured s tention craft, and cackled and muttered to ly at tered a Mrs. Coulter o cover her ears.
But evidently task to do, for terrace, ignoring tter. a o fly, carrying tter betil t to Mrs. Coulters sighe swirling vapors.
But t time to t t. S staircases, crossing bridges, al, t t sense of invisible activity all around til finally turned a corner into a -ed by an angel h a spear.
quot; is your business?quot; he said.
Mrs. Coulter looked at ers of men, so long ago.
quot;No, no,quot; sly, quot;please dont e time. take me to t at once. ing for me.quot;
Disconcert t, keep t knoives of ligil to an antecered, s kno ter a brief pause, somet of her opened like a door.
o t. , but soo dazzled to see. to hide her eyes.
Metatron said, quot;er?quot;
quot;Ive come to tell you, my Lord Regent,quot; she said.
quot;If s ;
quot;S, but ;
quot; be?quot;
quot;I satron, Regent, tle, my eyes are dazzled...quot;
of till pretended to be dazzled by ly like a man in early middle age, tall, poell because of t nothing else.
quot;Please, Metatron, come from Lord Asriel. to searc;
quot; does ;
quot;to keep il s knoo elling you trut me, great Regent, as I cant easily look at you. Look at me clearly, and tell me ;
t searcion Marisa Coulter er and deceit ripped aogety of Metatrons gaze.
And s ure h her whole life.
quot;Yes, I see,quot; said Metatron.
quot; do you see?quot;
quot;Corruption and envy and lust for poy and coldness. A vicious, probing curiosity. Pure, poisonous, toxic malice. You years s calculating urn to your advantage. You ortured and killed regret or ation; you rayed and intrigued and gloried in your treac of moral filt;
t voice, delivering t judgment, ser profoundly. S s, too, and no it a little gusriumph.
So him.
quot;So you see,quot; s;I can betray o ing into your ;
S t of vapor about ed ice.
quot;; ;I y, but none ;
quot;;
quot;y-five years, and ty took me to ;
quot;And you ;
quot;I loved tood it y. But t;
quot;And you kno;
quot;I of t;
quot;And is it not time you ?quot;
t s most exposed and in most danger. But srusted to o trange trut angels, pered it and longed for contact . And Metatron o gaze at texture of o touch scalding hands.
trange sound, like t w youre hearing is your house on fire.
quot;tell me w Lord Asriel is doing, and w; he said.
quot;I can take you to ; she said.
tter left tain and fleatrons orders o take ty to a place of safety atlefield, because ed alive for a rats, ttention, rusted to ty of torm, calculating t in tances, a small party han a large one.
And so it migain cliff-g, busy feasting on a looked up just as a random searc caugal litter.
Sometirred in ts memory. ion of a babbling Arctic fox came to his mind.
At once later t of troop followed.
Xaply all t and some of te crack in tainside to tress, and enlarged it, and noo a series of caverns and tunnels extending a long ress.
It totally dark, as . t source of illumination, like a stream of billions of tiny particles, faintly gloeadily dounnel like a river of light.
quot;Dust,quot; o his daemon.
t togetil quite suddenly tunnel opened out, and top of a vast cavern: a vault
immense enougo contain a dozen catiginously doo pit beloself, and into t streamed t fall, pouring ceaselessly dos billions of particles ars of every galaxy in ttle fragment of conscious t. It o see by.
o, to see t resolved itself: a procession of dim, pale figures picking t. Intent on keeping toget tir at t ts.
quot;Lyra came ; ly to the snow leopard.
quot;tread carefully,quot; was all she said in reply.
ill and Lyra umbling blindly to little gullies reams ran red t uttered a es, and s and limp in Lyras hand.
As tered in one riverbed least, and scooped up o ty mout tialys rouse himself and say:
quot;ill, I can must be t across tream and ;
quot;Come on,quot; said ill to Lyra, and ter and scrambled up t in time. ttered doo drink didnt look like cavalry: to be of tridents, nets, and scimitars.
ill and Lyra didnt stop to look; tumbled over t a croucent only on getting away unseen.
But to keep to see ing an ankle, or s until them.
tures lay glittering in tly taller ts side, a large cage, peral. t it s and rocks, shrieking and yelling.
And before ill and Lyra could stop and run tumbled rigo troop.