Is Lord Asriel actively searching for the girl and the boy?" "Thank you, no, no, that's all I need, no more, honestly, thank you," said Dr. Mary Malone to the old couple in the olive grove as they tried to give her more food than she could carry. Wide golden light, and an endless prairie or savanna, like nothing she had ever seen in her own world. To begin with, although most of it was covered in short grass in an infinite variety of buff-brown-green-ocher-yellow-golden shades, and undulating very gently in a way that the long evening light showed up clearly, the prairie seemed to be laced through and through with what looked like rivers of rock with a light gray surface. They told the witch more of what they'd seen, and they were trying to distract her, and she knew it; but she let them talk, because of the love each one had for the other's voice. The little ghost nodded. And so, in a shocked silence, the column of the dead began their journey along the edge of the abyss. How long it took, neither Lyra nor Will could guess; how fearful and dangerous it was, they were never able to forget. The darkness below was so profound that it seemed to pull the eyesight down into it, and a ghastly dizziness swam over their minds when they looked. Whenever they could, they looked ahead of them fixedly, on this rock, that foothold, this projection, that loose slope of gravel, and kept their eyes from the gulf; but it pulled, it tempted, and they couldn't help glancing into it, only to feel their balance tilting and their eyesight swimming and a dreadful nausea gripping their throats. Almost at the same time, the tempter whom Father Gomez was setting out to follow was being tempted herself. She took out the golden instrument. The answer came at once. She put it away and stood up. NINE - UPRIVER TWENTY-SIX - THE ABYSS The angel came at his command, helpless. Shivering inside his cloak, in the hitter cold gloom of the tundra, the boy said to him, "You must try to keep quiet now. You know there are things out there that'll attack if they hear a noise. I can protect you with the knife if you're nearby, but if they attack you up there, I won't be able to help. And if you die, too, that'll be the end for me. Balthamos, I need you to help guide me to Lyra. Please don't forget that. Baruch was strong, be strong, too. Be like him for me." Mrs. Coulter heard no more of what he was saying, because he was already halfway down the stairs. When his running footsteps had faded, too, the only sounds were the gentle hiss of the naphtha lamp and the moan of the wild wind outside. I don't know, Mary said. I suppose sometime soon. I don't know when it happens to us. Pantalaimon was a hawk as he said that, and his eyes were keener than hers. The darkness of the sky was turning minute by minute into the palest ethereal blue, and as she looked across the sand, the first edge of the sun just cleared the rim of the sea, dazzling her. Because she was on the slope of the dune, the light reached her a few seconds before it touched the beach, and she watched it flow around her and along toward Will; and then she saw the hand-high figure of the Chevalier Tialys, standing by Will's head, clear and wide awake and watching them. Not yet, said the harpy. "Farther to go yet. This is a bad place to open. Better place higher up." However, she clenched her teeth and tried to hold her chin high. We got here, she thought, that's part of it anyway. "Well, we're not coming to Lord Asriel anyway," said Will. "We've got something else to do first.Death? said Will. "We're not bringing any death." Mary managed to avoid asking any questions. These two had passed through an experience that had marked them deeply; they didn't want to talk about it yet. "Shall I fly ahead now and see where we are? The witch herself was still just alive, and her mouth moved shudderingly, saying, "Something coming, something else… coming&hellip So that was how I stopped being a nun," she said. "You don't know," she cried, "you just don't know what I got in my head or my heart, do you? I don't know if you people ever have children, maybe you lay eggs or something, I wouldn't be surprised, because you're not kind, you're not generous, you're not considerate, you're not cruel, even, that would be better, if you were cruel, because it'd mean you took us serious, you didn't just go along with us when it suited you. Oh, I can't trust you at all now! You said you'd help and we'd do it together, and now you want to stop us, you're the dishonest one, Tialys!" "Must I have these handcuffs on?" she said. "Bear! You must agree. If you give way to me, the fighting has to stop, and you can buy fuel and go peacefully up the river." "I'll stay with you. I'll have to hide under your coat." Because the creatures were getting louder and flying closer, and there were more and more of them all the time, as if the gloom were gathering itself into little clots of malice and giving them wings. The ghosts kept looking up fearfully. "No. That is the point. Anywhere will do.