Операция имелась закончена. Встретили меня дружелюбни. Остальной рассказ принадлежит к 1919 г. Комогорцев. Четвертый. Подеревянский и я. Наступление отечественных войск первоначалось десятая февраля 1922 года. Проводилась труда так что в войсках врага. Но развлечение оставался временно впереди. Волочаевку сызнова нужно было прихватило. Стартовал поединок. Сражение продлилось оба рабочего дня. Билые упорно противились. Блюхер ничего не ответил да и подтолкнулся к другому костру. Наступление длилось. В конце концов прибыли. Она состояла из 3х райкомов. Хотя терять их нам не хотелось. Чего же вы от меня желаете?
Возник поединок. Битва продолжалось 2 дня. Белые упорно сопротивлялись. Блюхер ничего не ответил так что наставился к противоположному костру. Наступление длилось. Напоследок приспели. Она состояла из трех райкомов. Хотя терять их для нас не хотелось. Чего же вы от меня желайте? И насколько вы себе это практически презентоваете? Капитан молчал, но сейчас не улыбался. Данное для меня подходит. Появления на свет. Мать сохранилась вдовой с 4 сыновьями. Скарлатиной, например, одновременно болело нас шесть братьев. Четверо умерли. Я родился в 1900 г. Это непомерно волновало моего основателя, у какового росли сыновья. Мне бывало 5 лет, когда умер отец.
Мы обитали в однушке с кухней. Както раз запоздало вечерком к нам в жилплощадь постучали. Маму открыла двери. На пороге стояли жандармы. Жандармы оказались перебирать багаж, а именно бланки да и книги. Расклеивали брошюры мы много раз, хотя никогда не попались. Окончив высочайшее исходное училище, он отдавал уроки. В 1909 г. Однако в раннем возрасте такое случалось уникально. Зачастую я оставался в жилплощади 1ин. Трудна кушала вдовья жизнь мамы с маленькими детьми. Тогдато мать решила выходить замуж. Мы переехали в четырехкомнатную квартиру. Отчим да и маму существовали малограмотны. Чтото эдакое, на едва модернизированной принципе, задумал в 1952 г. Возвращаюсь к своей биографии. В 1912 г. Мать сидела у окошка за швейной машинкой и, как традиционно, нечто шила. Мы все выбежали за ней.
I never snivel over trifles like that. The woman saw me look at it, and picked out a long lock for me to keep. March folded the wavy chestnut lock, and laid it away with a short gray one in her desk. March, as the hymn ended, for no one cared to try another. They kissed her quietly, and went to bed as silently as if the dear invalid lay in the next room. Jo lay motionless, and her sister fancied that she was asleep, till a stifled sob made her exclaim, as she touched a wet cheek. Are you crying about father? How came you to be awake? The clocks were striking midnight and the rooms were very still as a figure glided quietly from bed to bed, smoothing a coverlet here, settling a pillow there, and pausing to look long and tenderly at each unconscious face, to kiss each with lips that mutely blessed, and to pray the fervent prayers which only mothers utter. There is always light behind the clouds. For now the shadow of a real trouble had come, the little books were full of help and comfort, and as they dressed, they agreed to say goodbye cheerfully and hopefully, and send their mother on her anxious journey unsaddened by tears or complaints from them. Everything seemed very strange when they went down, so dim and still outside, so full of light and bustle within. March said to the girls, who were all busied about her, one folding her shawl, another smoothing out the strings of her bonnet, a third putting on her overshoes, and a fourth fastening up her travelling bag. Hannah is faithfulness itself, and our good neighbor will guard you as if you were his own. Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace. Hope and keep busy, and whatever happens, remember that you never can be fatherless. That was the hard minute, but the girls stood it well. They kissed their mother quietly, clung about her tenderly, and tried to wave their hands cheerfully when she drove away. God bless and keep us all!
[показать]How still the room was as they listened breathlessly, how strangely the day darkened outside, and how suddenly the whole world seemed to change, as the girls gathered about their mother, feeling as if all the happiness and support of their lives was about to be taken from them. Oh, children, children, help me to bear it! Be calm, girls, and let me think. Oh, let me do something! The next train goes early in the morning. The horses are ready. Jo, give me that pen and paper. There is no need of that. On the way get these things. Hospital stores are not always good. Laurence for a couple of bottles of old wine. He shall have the best of everything. Everyone scattered like leaves before a gust of wind, and the quiet, happy household was broken up as suddenly as if the paper had been an evil spell. But the last was impossible. Brooke would have felt repaid for a much greater sacrifice than the trifling one of time and comfort which he was about to take. Thank you very, very much! The short afternoon wore away. It will do my brains good to have that mop taken off. The work put into it made it dear, and so on.
Then she tied it up with a smart red ribbon, and sat a minute looking at it with a sober, wistful expression, which plainly showed how earnest her work had been. She put on her hat and jacket as noiselessly as possible, and going to the back entry window, got out upon the roof of a low porch, swung herself down to the grassy bank, and took a roundabout way to the road. Once there, she composed herself, hailed a passing omnibus, and rolled away to town, looking very merry and mysterious. If anyone had been watching her, he would have thought her movements decidedly peculiar, for on alighting, she went off at a great pace till she reached a certain number in a certain busy street. Having found the place with some difficulty, she went into the doorway, looked up the dirty stairs, and after standing stock still a minute, suddenly dived into the street and walked away as rapidly as she came. This maneuver she repeated several times, to the great amusement of a blackeyed young gentleman lounging in the window of a building opposite. When she saw the young gentleman she looked anything but pleased, and passed him with a nod. How many did you have out? What were you doing, sir, up in that billiard saloon? Or there will be an end of all our good times. All about people you know, and such fun! You get everything you want out of people. When will you stop such romping ways? Just think how delightful that must be! The girls listened with interest, for the tale was romantic, and somewhat pathetic, as most of the characters died in the end. Dear me, how delighted they all were, to be sure! March was when she knew it. It was good practice, he said, and when the beginners improved, anyone would pay. We might as well be in a treadmill.
[показать]It was a rather pretty little picture, for the sisters sat together in the shady nook, with sun and shadow flickering over them, the aromatic wind lifting their hair and cooling their hot cheeks, and all the little wood people going on with their affairs as if these were no strangers but old friends. Meg sat upon her cushion, sewing daintily with her white hands, and looking as fresh and sweet as a rose in her pink dress among the green. Beth was sorting the cones that lay thick under the hemlock near by, for she made pretty things with them. Bring on your bears. The story was not a long one, and when it was finished, he ventured to ask a few questions as a reward of merit. I wanted to amuse him one night when you were all away, and he was rather dismal. Never mind, it saves trouble now. Well, we have tried not to waste our holiday, but each has had a task and worked at it with a will. For the fun of it we bring our things in these bags, wear the old hats, use poles to climb the hill, and play pilgrims, as we used to do years ago. The sun was low, and the heavens glowed with the splendor of an autumn sunset. I want to fly away at once, as those swallows fly, and go in at that splendid gate. I only wish we may all keep well and be together, nothing else. Brooke had worn when he told the story of the knight. What a venerable party! Brooke has, by being respected and loved. And how he provides now for an old woman who nursed his mother, and never tells anyone, but is just as generous and patient and good as he can be. He thought she was just perfect, and talked about it for days and days, and went on about you all in flaming style. If you have been good, he looks satisfied and walks briskly. You are so kind to us, we feel as if you were our brother and say just what we think.
[показать]Brooke, breaking an awkward pause. Brooke laid his book on her lap with an inviting smile. Meg obediently following the long grassblade which her new tutor used to point with, read slowly and timidly, unconsciously making poetry of the hard words by the soft intonation of her musical voice. If she had seen the brown eyes then, she would have stopped short, but she never looked up, and the lesson was not spoiled for her. Brooke, as she paused, quite ignoring her many mistakes, and looking as if he did indeed love to teach. Brooke, busily punching holes in the turf. Brooke rather bitterly as he absently put the dead rose in the hole he had made and covered it up, like a little grave. Is it a donkey? Frank, sitting just behind the little girls, heard what they were saying, and pushed his crutch away from him with an impatient gesture as he watched the active lads going through all sorts of comical gymnastics. An impromptu circus, fox and geese, and an amicable game of croquet finished the afternoon. At sunset the tent was struck, hampers packed, wickets pulled up, boats loaded, and the whole party floated down the river, singing at the tops of their voices. Ned, getting sentimental, warbled a serenade with the pensive refrain. Woe, alone, and at the lines. He was in one of his moods, for the day had been both unprofitable and unsatisfactory, and he was wishing he could live it over again. Staring up into the green gloom of the horsechestnut trees above him, he dreamed dreams of all sorts, and was just imagining himself tossing on the ocean in a voyage round the world, when the sound of voices brought him ashore in a flash. Each wore a large, flapping hat, a brown linen pouch slung over one shoulder, and carried a long staff. All walked quietly through the garden, out at the little back gate, and began to climb the hill that lay between the house and river. Perhaps they forgot it. Taking the shortest way to the boathouse, he waited for them to appear, but no one came, and he went up the hill to take an observation.
Soon it would be nourishing a dozen different kinds of life. My study is cold, and our hospitality is plain, but come in, come in. Save your energy for the walking. And both little people knew it. Atal turned and wheeled back. By that big rock. She was clutching his arm. He stopped and looked around, and she was right. Everything was just as clear as in full daylight, but there was less light to see it by, as if all the strength were draining out of a dying sun. Are there many windows to close? They must both be closed, and they will. But there are many smaller openings, too, some deep under the earth, some high in the air, which came about in other ways. And there she was, his dearest friend, asleep. So small she looked! His wound had bled a lot. She cut open some wrinkled brownish fruit and pressed the cloudy juice into two small beakers. Sleet drummed slantwise at the great rigid envelope of the craft, making a noise that almost drowned the clatter and howl of the straining engines, and obscuring the view of the ground. Iorek would avenge him. He was going inside it. Mary waited for an endless minute, and then he appeared again. So you could visit my world? He found his own voice strained, too, so tight it hardly seemed his. But thanks to what those children are doing, our exile as ghosts will not be permanent. I have been proud to help them. Once again he crossed himself, and then he and his companions turned away in horror and loathing. This is the last rebellion. Never before have humans and angels, and beings from all the worlds, made a common cause. This is the greatest force ever assembled. But it may still not be enough. No one ever knew that was going to happen. He seemed to be so young, a cub, a puppy, something helpless and beaten, a creature so sunk in misery that it was more misery than creature. There were so many vivid currents of feeling between them that the very air felt electric to him. And thank you very much for being so kind and listening, and for giving us this meal, it was really nice. Will was thinking through another possibility. She polished the reverse as highly as the top, until both were as flat and smooth as the finest mirror. The boy has a knife of extraordinary power. They would be worth pursuing for that alone. Ahead of them all the way, the harpy scrambled heavily, her wings dragging, her claws scratching, silent and grim. The risk was unavoidable. It was a battered wooden postern under a slab of stone. They are not much smaller than you. But they have less sraf. When will that come to them? Make the bear agree! Our task is to help them. Now he is angelic.
[показать]It was shallow and warmer than the spring, as she discovered when she took off her shoes and waded into it. She stood for a long time with the sun on her head and her body, relishing the cool mud under her feet and the cold flow of springwater around her calves. She and the golden monkey moved on quickly, climbing great staircases, crossing bridges, always moving upward. The higher they went, the more they felt that sense of invisible activity all around them, until finally they turned a corner into a wide space like a misthung piazza, and found themselves confronted by an angel with a spear. She was profoundly exhausted, but she focused on him at once and sat up, rubbing her eyes. He was following the little darting movements here and there. Then before they knew how it happened, they were clinging together, blindly pressing their faces toward each other. Will sprang forward and slashed the knife at the nearest of them. The creature howled and thrashed as she fell into the mud, and the nearest one looked stupidly at the stump of his arm, and then in horror at his own ankle, which his slicedoff hand had seized as it fell. A second later the knife was in his breast. Will felt the handle jump three or four times with the dying heartbeats, and pulled it out before the cliffghast could twist it away in falling. They were so still, so pale, that they might have been dead. Hunger had drawn the skin over their faces, pain had left lines around their eyes, and they were covered in dust and mud and not a little blood. And from the absolute passivity of their limbs, they seemed in the last stages of exhaustion. Behind her and above, over the lip of the ravine and in the full force of the wind, stood the generating station. Have it ready for transportation as soon as you can. The weather changes quickly in the mountains, and there is a storm on the way. But without the trees it would just vanish again. With the wheels and the oil, it stays among us. You are making a mistake, though you give us no choice. We shall help you find this child. It sounded familiar, like an intrusion from his own world, and then he recognized the clatter of a helicopter. Then there was another and another, and more lights swept across the evermoving trees outside, in a brilliant green scatter of radiance. Then it became suddenly quieter, though it had been very quiet already. The two of them were still gazing in the same direction, and shortly afterward they saw the movement start up again. And a few moments later came the sound. The two nuns bowed their heads and left. He laughed and uncorked the bottle, filling each glass to the rim. What should he do? How could he refuse to drink without discourtesy? Then he blinked and shook his head. Her wound had opened again, and fresh blood was trickling down her cheek, but she wiped it aside. What happens there, no one knows. And we can see now, at least. So just keep going, just keep on moving. The engineers from the generating station had brought their cable right down to it, and the technicians were busy securing the clamps and making ready the terminals. Brings goo d fortun e. He was still trying to understand what had happened. She was sobbing quietly. It was a vast black emptiness, like a shaft into the deepest darkness. The golden light flowed into it and died. To their right, a slope of rough stones, loose and precariously balanced, rose high into the dusty gloom. He closed that one, too, and came back to himself. He felt a little dizzy. For the first time he understood some of the true power of the knife, and laid it very carefully on the rock in front of him. The shadow particles knew what was happening and were sorrowful. An idea came, and he ran out onto the quayside, right into the empty space between the gunners and the bear. Their daemons slipped through the bars and flowed ahead of them into the garden.
[показать]He knew at once what she meant. He leapt to her breast, and they embraced. Then she found her furlined coat, and they very quietly left the chamber and made their way down the dark stairs. Will was still asleep under the shelter tree, the lazy thing. Lyra thought of waking him up, but if she was on her own, she could swim in the river. It is capable of killing the most high angels, and what is higher than them. There is nothing this knife cannot destroy. The bear himself, who had been gathering his strength to charge the gunners, stayed where he was, but every line of his body trembled with ferocity. His great claws dug into the ground, and his black eyes glowed with rage under the iron helmet. People are too complicated to have simple labels. Heavy and soft with love, they walked back to the gate. So her sleep was broken and shallow, on the floor of the shack with all the other sleepers, and her death sat watchfully beside her. Controlling it would involve enormous forces, but just as an atomic explosion is detonated by conventional explosives, this could be done by focusing a powerful anbaric current. Say whatever you like. If it all depends on her, could they risk letting her live? You should realize that, and listen to us. Will felt his head swim. I mean, these ghosts who come here, do they stay in this town forever? He helped her into the seat and watched as she looked around the controls. I want to get off and walk. He came back shaking his head, looking uneasy. She heard the trickling of the spring, and the night wind in the grass. She heard the quiet sound of the wheels crunching over the hardpacked earth, and she heard the mulefa ahead of her murmuring to one another, and then they stopped. Will looked back once. Just asleep, and dreaming. Let me show you where they are. He waited until a cloud of stinking smoke billowed off the yellow surface, and darted upward into the thick of it. It became a game. There is no disgrace in being weary. Had she been sweeping the floor? Her sleeves were rolled, and her hair was bound up with a scarf. Will could never have imagined her looking so domestic. God help me, they cut my throat. Coulter settled back comfortably and began to tell him, not everything, but he never thought for a moment that she would. She told him about the fortress, about the allies, about the angels, about the mines and the foundries. Father, you were wrong. Could that really be a way out? And all around there was gunfire. She cried a great wail of anguish, and shook and shook the cage, trying to loosen the hair with the little strength she had left. She tore at the mesh, helpless, and then hurled her whole weight against the machine as he brought two wires together with a spark. In utter silence the brilliant silver blade shot down.
[показать]How in the world could she ever manage to reach the sleeping girl? The oily, scummy water lay still in front of them, an occasional ripple breaking languidly on the pebbles. And on they walked, trudging in silence under a sky that had finally darkened to a dull iron gray and remained there without getting any darker. The living ones found themselves looking to their left and right, above and below, for anything that was bright or lively or joyful, and they were always disappointed until a little spark appeared ahead and raced toward them through the air. Near the sheer stone front of the generating station, a zeppelin slowed to a hover in the buffeting wind. The searchlights below the craft made it look as if it were standing on several legs of light and gradually lowering itself to lie down. Glad to have something to do, they set about gathering materials at once, braiding and tying and lashing spars and ropes and lines under her guidance, and assembling everything she needed for a treetop observation platform. Holding the spyglass to her eye, she watched the myriad tiny sparkles drift through the leaves, past the open mouths of the blossoms, through the massive boughs, moving against the wind, in a slow, deliberate current that looked all but conscious. He put his eye to it quickly to keep the moonlight out and looked through. The nearest animal looked up incuriously and then turned back to the grass. I want to live with you forever. Iorek looked at them briefly, and she knew that if his face could register any emotion, it would be surprise. It said to follow the knife, just that. Mary looked up uneasily. She knew without having to check through the spyglass that the shadow particles were streaming away faster than ever. I have your daemon in my hand. Look after the wounded people and start repairing the buildings. Then let the boat tie up and refuel. You understand, each individual is unique, and the arrangement of genetic particles quite distinct. That locates the origin of the material, the hair, wherever she may be. You are only children! Who gave you the authority? The boatman bent to listen and then shook his head. He looked hungry and old and sad. She crossed her legs, pulling the skirt over them to make a lap. Will lay on one elbow and watched. They met a similar response from all the other figures they spoke to, and all the time their apprehension grew. She awoke with the early sun full in her face. The air was cool, and the dew had settled in tiny beads on her hair and on the sleeping bag. She lay for a few minutes lapped in freshness, feeling as if she were the first human being who had ever lived. Once again the angel had to stop and recover. Please have the transcription on my desk by the end of the day. He felt inside with his good hand and found the heavy velvetwrapped alethiometer. It glittered in the lantern light, and he held it out to the two shapes that stood beside him, the shapes who called themselves angels. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories. Bring as much of that as you can. It was shorter, and much less elegant, and there was a dull silver surface over each of the joins. Then she had a shock.
[показать]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
The habit of concealment is hard to break, and my companion, the Chevalier Tialys, And I, the Lady Salmakia, have been among our enemies for so long that out of pure habit we neglected to pay you the proper courtesy. We're accompanying this boy and girl to make sure they arrive safely in the care of Lord Asriel. We have no other aim, and certainly no harmful intention toward you, King Iorek Byrnison." "But are you an angel?" What do you know about it! Where does it come from? He let go of an oar and reached his crooked hand up to the iron ring set in the post at the corner of the jetty. With the other hand he moved the oar to bring the boat right up against the planks. "When we leave, will we come back this way?" "Maybe. But I won't tell you what it is. I can give you the medicine, not tell you the secret." Most of the bears had never seen mountains, apart from the cliffs on their own island of Svalbard, and fell silent as they looked up at the giant ramparts, still so far off. "Please!" they were whispering. "You've just come from the world! Tell us, tell us! Tell us about the world!" THIRTEEN - TIALYS AND SALMAKIA "He must stay here if you are to come," the boatman said again. "I don't know." "All that happening, and I was asleep," she marveled. "D'you know, I think she was kind to me, Will, I think she was, I don't think she ever wanted to hurt me...She did such bad things, but..." But Mary, she said, the tualapi destroyed a village further up the coast, and then another and another. They've never done that before. They usually attack one and then go back to sea. And another tree fell today ... She sat up, yawned, stretched, shivered, and washed in the chilly spring before eating a couple of dried figs and taking stock of the place. The shanty was crowded: as well as the man and the woman and the two young children, there was a baby in a crib, an older man, and in one corner, in a heap of blankets, a very old woman, who was lying and watching everything with glittering eyes, her face as wrinkled as the blankets. As Lyra looked at her, she had a shock: the blankets stirred, and a very thin arm emerged, in a black sleeve, and then another face, a man's, so ancient it was almost a skeleton. In fact, he looked more like the skeleton in the picture than like a living human being; and then Will, too, noticed, and all the travelers together realized that he was one of those shadowy, polite figures like the ones outside. And all of them felt as nonplussed as the man had been when he'd first seen them. One by one the harpies, their faces eager and hungry and suffused with the lust for misery, turned and flew back to the tree, and the ghosts drifted back as well. The Chevalier left his dragonfly in the care of Salmakia, and his little tense figure, green-clad and dark-haired, leapt to a rock where they could all see him. "He won't go anywhere without her." She gave each of them a cloth bag, and they worked as they listened to the next part of the story. Steadily they filled their bags, and Mary led them unobtrusively back to the edge of the marsh, for the tide was turning. He closed it up and felt with the knife tip for a snag with a different quality. He found one that was elastic and resistant, and let the knife feel its way through. It was that which made the villagers afraid. Was this other being Mrs. Coulter's master, or her servant? Did she mean harm? Why was she there in the first place? Were they going to stay long? Ama conveyed these questions with a thousand misgivings.
The path turned to the left, and a little way along, more like a thickening of the mist than a solid object, a wooden jetty stood crazily out over the water. The piles were decayed and the planks were green with slime, and there was nothing else; nothing beyond it; the path ended where the jetty began, and where the jetty ended, the mist began. Lyra's death, having guided them there, bowed to her and stepped into the fog, vanishing before she could ask him what to do next. "I was going to keep her safe until the danger had passed." Lord Roke could see well enough in the dim glow through the thin curtains, but the intruder was having to wait for his eyes to adjust. Finally the door opened farther, very slowly, and the young priest Brother Louis stepped in. "Lyra!" he said, and knelt quickly beside her. Ama was helping her sit up. But they were over the edge of the abyss. They were rising. And if they flew higher, Lord Asriel would fall, and Metatron would escape. Salmakia flew down low, but couldn't land: the press was too great, and none of their hands or shoulders would support her, even if they dared to try. She saw a young ghost boy with an honest, unhappy face, dazed and puzzled by what he was being told, and she called out: Between them they helped the ancient of days out of his crystal cell; it wasn't hard, for he was as light as paper, and he would have followed them anywhere, having no will of his own, and responding to simple kindness like a flower to the sun. But in the open air there was nothing to stop the wind from damaging him, and to their dismay his form began to loosen and dissolve. Only a few moments later he had vanished completely, and their last impression was of those eyes, blinking in wonder, and a sigh of the most profound and exhausted relief. The woman was holding the beaker in one steely-firm hand while her other was trying to lift Lyra's head. "I been thinking," she said, "how you saved me, and how you promised to guide all the other ghosts that'll come through the world of the dead to that land we slept in last night. And I thought, if you en't got a name, that can't be fight, not for the future. So I thought I'd give you a name, like King Iorek Byrnison gave me my name Silvertongue. I'm going to call you Gracious Wings. So that's your name now, and that's what you'll be for evermore: Gracious Wings." "But in another way it was easy, because it made sense. For the first time ever I felt I was doing something with all of my nature and not only a part of it. So it was lonely for a while, but then I got used to it." "Not far now," she called down, hovering above them. "You could see him if you climbed that rock." "Will, you must," said Baruch urgently. Salmakia was fitting her dragonfly with the harness she carried everywhere: spider-silk reins, stirrups of titanium, a saddle of hummingbird skin. It was almost weightless. Tialys did the same with his, easing the straps around the insect's body, tightening, adjusting. It would wear the harness till it died. "But he has the knife. He is the one who can use it." They stood in silence for what felt like a long time, especially to Will, who had little protection from the bitter cold. But Iorek hadn't finished yet, and Will was still weak and dizzy from the blow, and didn't quite trust his feet, so they stayed where they were. "No," he said, and shook his ancient head. "It's not a rule you can break. It's a law like this one..." He leaned over the side and cupped a handful of water, and then tilted his hand so it ran out again. "The law that makes the water fall back into the lake, it's a law like that. I can't tilt my hand and make the water fly upward. No more can I take her daemon to the land of the dead. Whether or not she comes, he must stay." "Near the island," said the boatman. "Another five minutes, we'll be at the landing stage." "Is Lyra safe? Has she found her daemon?" she whispered. "What are you? What do you want?" he roared in English, since Will had spoken in that language. Once they were seated, Father MacPhail said: They ate a last meal together, watching the darkness fall. Will said goodbye to the captain and his officers, and to John Faa and Farder Coram. He had hardly seemed to be aware of them, and they saw him more clearly than he saw them: they saw someone young, but very strong, and deeply stricken. "There is trouble in the town," he said. "Lydia Alexandrovna has a sister who came here and told her there is a boat carrying bears up the river. Armored bears. They come from the Arctic. You did not see armored bears when you were in the north?" So Lyra persuaded her own death to guide her and the others into the land where Roger had gone, and Will's father, and Tony Makarios, and so many others; and her
Their eyes shining and their cheeks warm, as if they were borrowing life from the travelers. There Serafina Pekkala settled on the highest comfortable branch, among the open flowers drinking in the Dust, and the two birds perched nearby. "How do you know? Do you read his mind?" "Yes. They're fierce, but I think they're honest." "What is the name of this town?" said Will. Lyra was shaking with anger and grief, striding up and down with clenched fists and turning her tear-streaming face this way and that as if looking for an answer. Will jumped up and seized her shoulders, and felt her tense and trembling. Lord Roke climbed to the top of the desk so that he could see. In the naphtha lamplight there was a gleam of dark gold: it was a lock of hair, and the President was twisting it between his fingers, turning it this way and that. "Whatever you have," she said. "And thank you. Oh, by the way," she went on as the man turned to go: "Lord Asriel's alethiometrist, Mr. ..." I could see that there is a current of sraf high in the treetops, she went on, and it moves against the wind. The air is moving inland off the sea, but the sraf is moving slowly against it. Can you see that from the ground? Because I could not. "Then it is as much of a mystery to me, I assure you," said the angel. Between them, the daemons managed to tell them everything Serafina had told them, beginning with the revelation about the children's own natures: about how, without intending it, they had become like witches in their power to separate and yet still be one being. No, but I can see other things, Mary said, and tried to show her. He was sweating and trembling, and his frog daemon fell from the edge of the witness stand to the floor in her agitation. Fra Pavel gasped in pain and scooped her up swiftly, letting her sip at the water in the glass in front of him. And he knew she'd never admit that to anyone else. "You're Will," she said in that low, intoxicating voice.
The effect on the harpy was immediate. Another scream shattered the silence, much louder than before, and she beat her dark wings so hard that Will and Lyra both felt the wind and staggered. But she clung to the stone with her claws, and her face was suffused with dark red anger, and her hair stood out from her head like a crest of serpents. "The ghost of the boy's father is protecting both of them." The thought of one of those things falling on her was enough to make her take her rucksack and run out of the grove altogether. What were they? Seedpods? "Is it easy, hunting up in these mountains, Iorek?" she said. But among them all there were some he felt more easily than others, and, already knowing the answer, he cut one through to be sure: his own world again. "Where are you?" he said to the angel. The sun was warm now, and she was soon dry. She dressed in ,c Mary's loose shirt again and, seeing some flat stones by the bank, went to fetch her own clothes to wash them. But she found that someone had already done that: hers and Will's, too, were laid over the springy twigs of a fragrant bush, nearly dry. "If you're trying to stop us," he said, "then you'd better be ready to fight as well as scream. Because we're going through that door." It was his custom to sit on the table, and his manner to repel anything but the greatest courtesy with a haughty and malevolent tongue. He and his kind, the Gallivespians, had few of the qualities of good spies except, of course, their exceptional smallness: they were so proud and touchy that they would never have remained inconspicuous if they had been of Lord Asriel's size. If Mrs. Coulter saw his reaction, she didn't show it. She went on: "Look, Will, I don't know how you came to meet my daughter, and I don't know what you know already, and I certainly don't know if I can trust you; but equally, I'm tired of having to lie. So here it is: the truth. "You mean that man?" Matter loved Dust. It didn't want to see it go. That was the meaning of this night, and it was Mary's meaning, too. The spy captain was called Lord Roke. He was striking to look at: he was no taller than Lord Asriel's hand span, and as slender as a dragonfly, but the rest of Lord Asriel's captains treated him with profound respect, for he was armed with a Poisonous sting in the spurs on his heels. Lord Asriel climbed in beside her, and the snow leopard leapt in, too, the half-stunned monkey in her mouth. Lord Asriel took the controls and the craft sprang at once into the air. Through pain-dazed eyes Mrs. Coulter looked down at the mountain slope. Men were running here and there like ants; some lay dead, while others crawled brokenly over the rocks; the great cable from the generating station snaked down through the chaos, the only purposeful thing in sight, making its way to the glittering bomb, where the President's body lay crumpled inside the cage. But you knew they were coming, said Atal. "Quick work," said the Chevalier. "A hundred to one he doesn't tell them about his assassin, though." And then she heard a low thunder-like rumble, which was hard to locate until she saw a cloud of dust moving along one of the roads, toward the stand of trees, and toward her. It was about a mile away, but it wasn't moving slowly, and all of a sudden she felt afraid. Well, this was what it was going to be like. It wasn't going to get any easier. So Will let his mind relax and become disengaged, and just sat there with the knife held loosely until he was ready again. Brother Louis made for the tower, and when the President opened his door, Lord Roke darted through and made for the priedieu in the corner of the room. There he found a shadowy ledge where he crouched and listened. —
[показать]A strange thing happened to her mind then. The thought of falling induced a kind of vertigo in Lyra, and she swayed. Will was ahead of her, just too far to reach, or she might have taken his hand; but at that moment she was more conscious of Roger, and a little flicker of vanity blazed up for a moment in her heart. There'd been an occasion once on Jordan College roof when just to frighten him, she'd defied her vertigo and walked along the edge of the stone gutter. The people ate up this nonsense with placid credulity, and even the deaths crowded close to listen, perching on the bench or lying on the floor close by, gazing at her with their mild and courteous faces as she spun out the tale of her life with Will in the forest. He guessed correctly. As the boy and the girl and the two daemons watched her approach, Xaphania spread her wings wider and glided down to the sand. Will, for all the time he'd spent in the company of Balthamos, wasn't prepared for the strangeness of this encounter. He and Lyra held each other's hands tightly as the angel came toward them, with the light of another world shining on her. She was unclothed, but that meant nothing. What clothes could an angel wear anyway? Lyra thought. It was impossible to tell if she was old or young, but her expression was austere and compassionate, and both Will and Lyra felt as if she knew them to their hearts. As for Lyra, she hadn't moved a muscle since that strange thing had happened, and she held the memory of the sensation inside her. She didn't know what it was, or what it meant, or where it had come from; so she sat hugging her knees, and tried to stop herself from trembling. Soon, she thought, soon I'll know. The Dust pouring down from the stars had found a living home again, and these children-no-longer-children, saturated with love, were the cause of it all. "Got to," Lyra whispered back. "Now...” he said, trying to sound matter-of-fact, but having to turn away from Mary all the same, "I've got to break the knife." Under the shadow of her arm, she opened her eyes and came properly awake. She didn't move for some time, because her arms and legs were so sore, and every part of her body felt limp with weariness; but still she was awake, and she felt the little breeze and the sun's warmth, and she heard the little insect scrapings and the bell song of that bird high above. It was all good. She had forgotten how good the world was. The angel didn't reply: it was too hard to concentrate. He had to split his attention three ways: behind him to avoid the man, ahead to see where he was going, and on the furious daemon tormenting his hands. "The Chevalier has gone to see what's ahead," she said. "We think the landscape is fading because these people are forgetting it. The farther they go away from their homes, the darker it will get." He said, "Lyra, gal, it won't be long now. When you see that old bear, you tell him Lee went out fighting. And when the battle's over, there'll be all the time in the world to drift along the wind and find the atoms that used to be Hester, and my mother in the sagelands, and my sweethearts, all my sweethearts... Lyra, child, you rest when this is done, you hear? Life is good, and death is over..." As the hawk spread its wings and lifted away from one hand, Lyra felt the little weight of Salmakia fall into the other, and knew in a moment that only the Lady's strength of mind had kept her alive this long. She cradled her body close, and ran with Will under the cloud of dragonflies, stumbling and falling more than once, but holding the Lady gently against her heart all the time. "And where is it now?" "My companion is with him now. We wanted to bring him directly to you, but he refused, because... This is the third thing I must tell you: he and your daughter are friends. And he will not agree to come to you until he has found her. She is...” "Who is this boy?" He felt his heart grimace. He walked away from the bear and stood on a rock from which he could see across the whole valley. In the clear, cold air he could hear the distant tok-tok of someone chopping wood, he could hear a dull iron bell around the neck of a sheep, he could hear the rustling of the treetops far below. The tiniest crevices in the mountains at the horizon were clear and sharp to his eyes, as were the vultures wheeling over some near-dead creature many miles away. "Come closer so I can see you," he said. "Sounds easy," he said. "But I bet it isn't. D'you know what Iorek told me?" Not far away, under the wind-tossed pines on the forest path, Will and Ama were making their way toward the cave. Will had tried to explain to Ama what he was going to do, but her daemon could make no sense of it, and when he cut a window and showed her, she was so terrified that she nearly fainted. He had to move calmly and
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