alking to took tin to lorek Byrnison and explained o al of the engine cover.
ened, and took t tin and deftly folded it into a small flat cylinder. S t bears, ill to e sense of trengty of metals o lift it once or t t, and in a circle to score it for folding.
il tood in a raised rim and to fit it. At Lyras bidding in, and anot big enougo contain tin itself and a quantity of s of moss and licigo smot er.
to lorek Byrnison as was frozen as hard as wood.
“lorek,” s you get lonely?”
“Lonely?” knoell me t kno freeze. So I dont knoo be solitary.”
“ about t ts w I heard.”
ripped t in ting log.
“Beg pardon, lorek,” s offended you. Its just t Im curious. See, Im extra curious about ther.”
“her?”
“Lord Asriel. And t ive on Svalbard, you see. I trayed o keep him in prison.”
“I dont kno a Svalbard bear.”
“I t you was....”
“No. I I am not no a out to live at t it, or brutal tasks and dros.”
“her bear?”
“Anger. turning a I of my orol. So I killed ly punished.”
“And you like my fats just ter I ook all kno Svalbard, except its in t Nort all covered in ice? Can you get the frozen sea?”
“Not from t. times frozen sout, sometimes not.
You .”
“Or a balloon, maybe.”
“Or a balloon, yes, but t wind.”
ion fleo Lyras mind as sc sky; but s t.
Instead s Svalbard, and listened eagerly as old -tusked e tusks above ter, of t grim iron-bound coast, t and more s percs and t migs of iron and riveted to armor...
“If took your armor a from?”
“I made it myself in Nova Zembla from sky metal. Until I did t, I e.”
“So bears can make t deal in to know. “ on. “Do bears have a king?”
“he is called lofur Raknison.”
t name stle bell in Lyras mind. S before, but where?
And not in a bears voice, eitians. t , very mucried it again in so : tiring Room. tening to Lord Asriel.
It lofur Raknison. kno lofur Raknison tered. t, but so muchen....
“If your fat escape. to make a boat. On treated fairly. to live in and a servant to on him, and food and fuel.”
“Could ted, lorek?”
“No.”
“Or tricked, maybe?”
opped gna ly. t t my weapons.”
and o look at. Eac least, and as s hem wonderingly.
“One bloe. If you stopped me in trollesund, I rickery. You cannot trick a bear. You to see proof? take a stick and fence h me.”
Eager to try, sick off a snos off, and so side like a rapier. lorek Byrnison sat back on ed, forepao stab at , feinting to rig, not intending to all, and move. S several times, and not once did he move so much as an inch.
Finally so t at ly, not just to toucick to omacantly ick aside.
Surprised, sried again, . ried to , ick like a fencers foil, and not once did it land on o kno tick aside ed, move at all.
Sed, and to a furious attack, jabbing and lasing and stabbing, and never once did s past those paws.
time to parry, precisely at t spot to block.
Finally sened, and stopped. Sing inside of breated, and till sat impassive. If s, e unharmed.
“I bet you could catcs,” sick away. “?”
“By not being s ricks and deceit as plain as arms and legs. e can see in a en. But you kno tand the symbol reader.”
“t ent t?” shan when she had seen his anger.
“It is ts cant read it, as I understand. As I am to ers, so you are to adults he symbol reader.”
“Yes, I suppose,” s mean Ill forget o do it when I grow up?”
“hem.
Per from oto all fours again and on gnariking in again and so do t ing episode.
Sed to consult ter t it oo cold, and besides, t ime to move on. Sook tin boxes t lorek Byrnison ty one back into Farder Corams kit bag, and put t togeter in t . Shey were moving again.
t opping place, te he air.
Naturally Lyra o fly urally it sered ions. “Mr.
Scoresby, o Svalbard?” “Youd need a dirigible dare. ? t barest most inable godforsaken dead end of nowhere.”
“I ed to go back...” “hed be killed.
loreks in exile. As soon as foot tear o pieces.”
“e your balloon, Mr. Scoresby?” “tc gives off and gradually fill t. to find a ground-gas vent near a fire mine. t of gas under to, and from coal as s not o make gas. But t o use ground gas. A good vent he balloon in an hour.”
“how many people can you carry?”
“Six, if I need to.”
“Could you carry lorek Byrnison in his armor?”
“I ime from tartars, arving —t unguska campaign; I fleook o calculate t of t old boy by guess-o bank on finding ground gas under t I could see o go do gas out of t get airborne again more. Any, armor and all.”
“Mr. Scoresby, you knoartars make holes in peoples heads?”
“O for tunguska campaign ured five tartars alive, and two.”
“t to eacher?”
“ts rig t part up a flap and expose t a little circle of bone out of t penetrate the scalp back over.”
“I t t to their enemies!”
“s a great privilege. t so talk to them.”
“Did you ever anislaus Grumman?”
“Grumman? Sure. I met one of eam artar tribes up t ter of fact, I t of an initiation ceremony, but told me didnt kno.”
“So...If artar, t have killed him?”
“Killed hen?”
“Yea. I sa o t Jordan College in Oxford. t, and all.”
“?”
“ell, tartars, ts ....But maybe it .”
“It mig he Scholars.”
“I suppose ,” said Lyra tfully. “hem for money.”
“And whe money?”
“Yeah.”
“Good trick to play. People are s; t like to look too close.”
“Especially Scholars,” said Lyra.
“ell, youd knoter t if t tartars artar by adoption.”
Lyra turned t over in s full of meaning flo around y, t, ty in ter, tctle tony Makarios; and the clockwork spy-fly; and lorek Byrnisons uncanny fencing...
So Bolvangar.