With them everywhere went the two Gallivespians, warning them to look this way, to go that way, watching out for the Specters the children could still not fully see. But Lyra had to hold Salmakia in her hands, because the Lady had little strength left to cling to Lyra's shoulder. Tialys was scanning the skies all around, searching for his kindred and calling out whenever he saw a needle-bright darting movement through the air above. But his voice had lost much of its power, and in any case the other Gallivespians were looking for the clan colors of their two dragonflies, the electric blue and the red-and-yellow; and those colors had long since faded, and the bodies that had shone with them lay in the world of the dead. They moved down, silent, following Lord Asriel. The farther down they climbed, the more she felt a great weariness fall over her. "Yes," she said, "but it's a strange place, Will...So strange ... Could we really do that? Could we really go to the land of the dead? But, what part of us does that? Because daemons fade away when we die, I've seen them, and our bodies, well, they just stay in the grave and decay, don't they?" "Pinpoint that cave," he said. "Get me the coordinates as precisely as you can. This is the most important task you have ever undertaken. Begin at once, if you please," This normal-sounding request seemed to bring the man to his senses, and a shudder passed over him, as if he were waking from a dream. "They're coming back," he said quietly, "those harpies. More and more of them. Have your knife ready. The Lady and I will hold them off as long as we can, hut you might need to fight." "Indeed, sir," said Peter. Another hour, and most of the valley was in shadow, and Will was wondering whether they would find any shelter before night fell; but then Lyra gave a cry of relief and joy. "What does it matter?" No one spoke. Those who had seen how daemons dissolved were remembering it, and those who hadn't were imagining it, and no one spoke until a young woman came forward. She had died as a martyr centuries before. She looked around and said to the other ghosts: It seemed to stretch forever and ever. It was nowhere entirely flat; gentle undulations and little ridges and gullies varied the surface wherever she looked, and here and there she saw a stand of trees so tall they seemed to be constructed rather than grown. Their straight trunks and dark green canopy seemed to defy distance, being so clearly visible at what must have been many miles away. Wearily she hoisted her rucksack again and set her foot on the next flat stone, but before she even transferred her weight, she stopped. The light was catching something curious, and she shaded her eyes against the glare from the scree and tried to find it again. "There is something coming," said the witch in a tone that carried clearly to Mrs. Coulter's shelter. "I can see it in the north." "Balthamos," he whispered, and the angel daemon flew to his shoulder as a bright-eyed small bird with red wings. "Keep close to me, and watch that monkey." When the daemon suddenly vanished, Balthamos let go. The man was dead. As soon as he was sure, Balthamos hauled the body out of the stream and laid it carefully on the grass, folding the priest's hands over his breast and closing his eyes. "Will," said Lyra after some minutes, "can you hear that wind?" But the silence was profound, with the insect scrapings only scratching at the surface of it. The tents were still, the water was placid, with the ripples still drifting slowly out from where he'd been drinking. A flicker of green movement near his foot made him start briefly, but it was only a tiny lizard. And both of them felt the strangest sensation, as if little ghost hands were reaching inside and tugging at their ribs to make them follow. "Well," she said, "well, listen now, Will. We've hardly spoken, you and I...So we're still strangers, largely. But Serafina Pekkala and I made a promise to each other, and I made a promise to Lyra just now, and even if I hadn't made any other promises, I'd make a promise to you about the same thing, which is that if you'll let me, I'll be your friend for the rest of our lives. We're both on our own, and I reckon we could both do with that sort of... What I mean to say is, there isn't anyone else we can talk to about all this, except each other...And we've both got to get used to living with our daemons, too...And we're both in trouble, and if that doesn't give us something in common, I don't know what will." "I will guarantee Mrs. Coulter's behavior," he said. "She knows what will happen if she betrays us; though she will not have the chance. However, if any of you has a doubt, express it now, fearlessly." At that moment Salmakia came in through the back door, landing her dragonfly on the table in a shimmer of electric blue. "She?" said Father Gomez, shocked. Then he and Lyra, with the spies beside them on their darting dragonflies, tumbled through into the realm of the ghosts as the harpy's cry was doubled and redoubled by others on the foggy shore behind them. "Any damage to the other gyropters? Any wounded?" said Lord Asriel. Lyra's eyes were glazed, and she was ash-pale. "What? What?" whispered the shadow, feeling her emotions, and suspicious at once. "That's what I thought," he said, and cut another and another, reducing the massive thing to a pile of fragments in less than a minute. He stood up and held out a handful. He bowed and faced the wall until she had washed in the chipped basin, dried herself on the thin towel, and undressed and got into bed. Her daemon patrolled the room, checking the wardrobe, the picture rail, the curtains, the view of the dark cloisters out of the window. Lord Roke watched him every inch of the way. Finally the golden monkey joined Mrs. Coulter, and they fell asleep at once. "So that was how it was to happen!" said Serafina, marveling. "And now it's safe, or it will be when the angels fill the great chasm in the underworld." Iorek came down slowly to where Will was struggling up, and said, "Answer me truthfully." I didn't know it was beautiful, Mary said to Atal.