At that moment the Gallivespians, too, were talking about the knife. Having made a suspicious peace with Iorek Byrnison, they climbed back to their ledge to be out of the way, and as the crackle of flames rose and the snapping and r of the fire filled the air, Tialys said, "We must never leave his side. As soon as the knife is mended, we must keep closer than a shadow."
"He is too alert. He watches everywhere for us," said Salmakia. "The girl is more trusting. I think we could win her around. Shes i, and she loves easily. We could work on her. I think we should do that, Tialys."
"But he has the knife. He is the one who use it."
"He wont go anywhere without her."
"But she has to follow him, if he has the knife. And I think that as soon as the knifes intact again, theyll use it to slip into another world, so as to get away from us. Did you see how he stopped her from speaking when she was going to say something more? They have some secret purpose, and its very different from what we want them to do."
"Well see. But youre right, Tialys, I think. We must stay close to the boy at all costs."
They both watched with some skepticism as Iorek Byrnison laid out the tools in his improvised workshop. The mighty workers in the ordnance factories under Lord Asriels fortress, with their blast furnaces and rolling mills, their anbaric fes and hydraulic presses, would have laughed at the open fire, the stone hammer, the anvil sisting of a piece of Ioreks armor. heless, the bear had taken the measure of the task, and in the certainty of his movements the little spies began to see some quality that muffled their s.
When Lyra and Will came in with the bushes, Iorek directed them in plag branches carefully on the fire. He looked at each branch, turning it from side to side, and then told Will or Lyra to place it at sud-su angle, or to break off part and place it separately at the edge. The result was a fire of extraordinary ferocity, with all its energy trated at one side.
By this time the heat in the cave was intense. Iorek tio build the fire, and made the children take two more trips dowh to ehat there was enough fuel for the whole operation.
Then the bear turned over a small stone on the floor and told Lyra to find some more stones of the same kind. He said that those stones, wheed, gave off a gas that would surround the blade ahe air from it, for if the hot metal came in tact with the air, it would absorb some and be weakened by it.
Lyra set about searg, and with owl-eyed Pantalaimons help soon had a dozen or more stoo hand. Iorek told her how to place them, and where, and showed her exactly the kind of draft she should get moving, with a leafy branch, to make sure the gas flowed evenly over the work piece.
Will laced in charge of the fire, and Iorek spent several minutes direg him and making sure he uood the principles he was to use. So much depended o plat, and Iorek could not stop and correct eae; Will had to uand, and then hed do it properly.
Furthermore, he mustnt expect the ko look exactly the same when it was mended. It would be shorter, because each se of the blade would have to overlap the by a little way so they could be fed together; and the surface would have oxidized a little, despite the stone-gas, so some of the play of color would be lost; and no doubt the handle would be charred. But the blade would be just as sharp, and it would work.
So Will watched as