"Now, Fra Pavel," said the Inquirer of the sistorial Court of Discipline, "I want you to recall exactly, if you , the words you heard the witch speak on the ship."
The twelve members of the Court looked through the dim afternoon light at the cleri the stand, their last witness. He was a scholarly-looking priest whose daemon had the form of a frog. The Court had been hearing eviden this case fht days already, in the a high-towered College of St. Jerome.
"I ot call the witchs words exactly to mind," said Fra Pavel wearily. "I had not seen torture before, as I said to the Court yesterday, and I found it made me feel faint and sick. So exactly what she said I ot tell you, but I remember the meaning of it. The witch said that the child Lyra had been reized by the s of the north as the subject of a prophecy they had long known. She was to have the power to make a fateful choice, on which the future of all the worlds depended. And furthermore, there was a hat would bring to mind a parallel case, and which would make the Church hate and fear her."
"And did the witch reveal that name?"
"No. Before she could utter it, another witch, who had bee under a spell of invisibility, mao kill her and escape."
"So on that occasion, the woman Coulter will not have heard the name?"
"That is so."
"And shortly afterwards Mrs. Coulter left?"
"Indeed."
"What did you discover after that?"
"I learhat the child had goo that other world opened by Lord Asriel, and that there she has acquired the help of a boy who owns, or has got the use of, a knife of extraordinary powers," said Fra Pavel. Then he cleared his throat nervously a on: "I may speak entirely freely in this court?"
"With perfect freedom, Fra Pavel," came the harsh, clear tones of the President. "You will not be punished for telling us what you in turn have been told. Please tinue."
Reassured, the clerit on:
"The knife in the possession of this boy is able to make openings between worlds. Furthermore, it has a preater than that, please, once again, I am afraid of what I am saying ... It is capable of killing the most high angels, and what is higher thahere is nothing this knife ot destroy."
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 did you ask further about the girl?" said the Inquirer. "Did you discover this he witch spoke of?"
"Yes, I did. Once again I crave the assurance of the court that...」
"You have it," she President. "Dont be afraid. You are not a heretic. Report what you have learned, and waste no more time."
"I beg your pardon, truly. The child, then, is in the position of Eve, the wife of Adam, the mother of us all, and the cause of all sin."
The stenographers taking down every word were nuns of the order of St. Philomel, sworn to silence; but at Fra Pavels words there came a smasp from one of them, and there was a flurry of hands as they crossed themselves. Fra Pavel twitched, a on:
"Please, remember, the alethiometer does not forecast; it says, If certain things e about, then the sequences will be..., and so on. And it says that if it es about that the child is tempted, as Eve was, then she is likely to fall. Oe will depend... everything. And if this temptatioake place, and if t