Ama climbed the path to the cave, bread and milk in the bag on her back, a heavy puzzlement in her heart. How in the world could she ever mao reach the sleeping girl?
She came to the rock where the woman had told her to leave the food. She put it down, but she didnt ght home; she climbed a little farther, up past the cave and through the thick rhododendrons, and farther up still to where the trees thinned out and the rainbows began.
There she and her daemon played a game: they climbed up over the rock shelves and around the little green-white cataracts, past the whirlpools and through the spectrum tinted spray, until her hair and her eyelids and his squirrel fur were beaded all over with a million tiny pearls of moisture. The game was to get to the top without wiping your eyes, despite the temptation, and soon the sunlight sparkled and fractured into red, yellow, green, blue, and all the colors iween, but she mustnt brush her hand across to see better until she ght to the top, or the game would be lost.
Kulang, her daemon, sprang to a roear the top of the little waterfall, and she knew hed turn at oo make sure she didnt brush the moisture off her eyelashes, except that he didnt.
Instead, he g there, gazing forward.
Ama wiped her eyes, because the game was celed by the surprise her daemon was feeling. As she pulled herself up to look over the edge, she gasped and fell still, because looking down at her was the face of a creature she had never seen before: a bear, but immeerrifying, four times the size of the brown bears in the forest, and ivory white, with a blaose and black eyes and claws the length of daggers. He was only an arms length away. She could see every separate hair on his head.
"Whos that?" said the voice of a boy, and while Ama couldnt uand the words, she caught the sense easily enough.
After a moment the boy appeared o the bear: fierce-looking, with frowning eyes and a jutting jaw.
And was that a daemon beside him, bird-shaped? But such a strange bird: unlike any shed seen before. It flew to Kulang and spoke briefly: Friends. We shant hurt you.
The great white bear hadnt moved at all.
"e up," said the boy, and again her daemon made sense of it for her.
Watg the bear with superstitious awe, Ama scrambled up beside the little waterfall and stood shyly on the rocks. Kulang became a butterfly aled for a moment on her cheek, but left it to flutter around the other daemon, who sat still on the boys hand.
"Will," said the boy, pointing to himself.
She responded, "Ama." Now that she could see him properly, she was frightened of the boy almost more than the bear: he had a horrible wound: two of his fingers were missing. She felt dizzy when she saw it.
The bear turned away along the milky stream and lay down ier, as if to cool himself. The boys daemon took to the air and fluttered with Kulang among the rainbows, and slowly they began to uand each other.
And what should they turn out to be looking for but a cave, with a girl asleep?
The words tumbled out of her in response: "I know where it is! And shes bei asleep by a woman who says she is her mother, but no mother would be so cruel, would she? She makes her drink something to keep her asleep, but I have some herbs to make her wake up, if only I could get to her!"
Will could only shake his head and wait for Balthamos to translate. It took more than a minute.
"Iorek," he ca