「The Aurora,」 said Farder . 「Is that right, Lyra?」
「Yeah, thats it. And in the lights of the Roarer there was like a city. All towers and churches and domes and that. It was a bit like Oxford, thats what I thought, anyway. And Uncle Asriel, he was more ied in that, I think, but the Master and the other Scholars were more ied in Dust, like Mrs.
Coulter and Lord Boreal and them.」
「I see,」 said Farder . 「Thats very iing.」
「Now, Lyra,」 said John Faa, 「Im a going to tell you something. Farder here, hes a wise man. Hes a seer. Hes been a f all whats been going on with Dust and the Gobblers and Lord Asriel and everything else, and hes been a f you. Every time the Costas went to Oxford, or half a dozen other families, e to that, they brought back a bit of news. About you, child. Did you know that?」
Lyra shook her head. She was beginning to be frightened. Pantalaimon was growling too deep for ao hear, but she could feel it in her fiips down inside his fur.
「Oh, yes,」 said John Faa, 「all your doings, they all get back to Farder here.」
Lyra couldnt hold it in.
「We didnt damage it! Ho! It was only a bit of mud! And we never got very far—」
「What are you talking about, child?」 said John Faa.
Farder laughed. When he did that, his shaking stopped and his face became bright and young.
But Lyra wasnt laughing. With trembling lips she said, 「And even if we had found the bung, wed neverve took it out! It was just a joke. We wouldntve sunk it, never!」
Then John Faa began to laugh too. He slapped a broad hand oable so hard the glasses rang, and his massive shoulders shook, and he had to wipe away the tears from his eyes. Lyra had never seen such a sight, never heard such a bellow; it was like a mountain laughing.
「Oh, yes,」 he said when he could speak again, 「we heard about that too, little girl! I dont suppose the Costas have set foot anywhere sihen without being reminded of it. You better leave a guard on your boat, Tony, people say. Fierce little girls round here! Oh, that story went all over the fens, child. But we ent going to punish you for it. No, no! Ease your mind.」
He looked at Farder , and the two old men laughed again, but mently.
And Lyra felt tented, and safe.
Finally John Faa shook his head and became serious again.
「I were saying, Lyra, as we knew about you from a child. From a baby. You oughter know what we know. I t guess what they told you at Jordan College about where you came from, but they dont know the whole truth of it. Did they ever tell you who your parents were?」
Now Lyra was pletely dazed.
「Yes,」 she said. 「They said I was—they said they—they said Lord Asriel put me there because my mother and father died in an airship act. Thats what they told me.」
「Ah, did they. Well now, child, Im a going to tell you a story, a true story. I know its true, because a gyptian woman told me, and they all tell the truth to John Faa and Farder . So this is the truth about yourself, Lyra. Your father never perished in no airship act, because your father is Lord Asriel.」
Lyra could only sit in wonder.
「Heres how it came about,」 John Faa went on. 「When he was a young man, Lord Asriel went expl all over the North, and came back with a great fortune.
And he was a high-spirited man, quick to anger, a passionate man.
「And your mother, she assiooo. Not so well born as him, but a clever woman. A Scholar, even,