「You know him?」
「I fought beside him iunguska campaign. Hell, Ive known lorek for years.
Bears are difficult critters no matter what, but hes a problem, and no mistake.
Say, are any of you gentlemen in the mood fame of hazard?」
A pack of cards had appeared from nowhere in his hand. He riffled them with a snapping noise.
「Now Ive heard of the card power of your people,」 Lee Scoresby was saying, cutting and folding the cards over and over with one hand and fishing a cigar out of his breast pocket with the other, 「and I thought you wouldnt object to giving a simple Texan traveler the ce to joust with your skill and daring on the field of pasteboard bat. What do you say, gentlemen?」
Gyptians prided themselves on their ability with cards, and several of the men looked ied and pulled their chairs up. While they were agreeing with Lee Scoresby what to play and for what stakes, his daemon flicked her ears at Pantalaimon, who uood and leaped to her side lightly as a squirrel.
She eaking for Lyras ears too, of course, and Lyra heard her say quietly, 「Ght to the bear and tell him direct. As soon as they know whats going on, theyll move his armor somewhere else.」
Lyra got up, taking her spice cake with her, and no oiced; Lee Scoresby was already dealing the cards, and every suspicious eye was on his hands.
In the dull light, fading through an endless afternoon, she found her way to the sledge depot. It was something she knew she had to do, but she felt uneasy about it, and afraid, too.
Outside the largest of the crete sheds the great bear was w, and Lyra stood by the open gate to watch. lorek Byrnison was dismantling a gas-eractor that had crashed; the metal c of the engine was twisted and buckled and one runner bent upward. The bear lifted the metal off as if it were cardboard, and tur this way and that in his great hands, seeming to test it for some quality or other, before setting a rear paw on one er and then bending the whole sheet in such a way that the dents sprang out and the shape was restored. Leaning it against the wall, he lifted the massive weight of the tractor with one paw and laid it on its side before bending to examihe crumpled runner.
As he did so, he caught sight of Lyra. She felt a bolt of cold fear strike at her, because he was so massive and so alien. She was gazing through the -link fence about forty yards from him, and she thought how he could clear the distan a bound or two and sweep the wire aside like a cobweb, and she almost turned and ran away; but Pantalaimon said, 「Stop! Let me go and talk to him.」
He was a tern, and before she could answer hed flown off the fend down to the icy ground beyond it. There en gate a little way along, and Lyra could have followed him, but she hung baeasily. Pantalaimon looked at her, and then became a badger.
She knew what he was doing. Daemons could move no more than a few yards from their humans, and if she stood by the fend he remained a bird, he would he bear; so he was going to pull.
She felt angry and miserable. His badger claws dug into the earth and he walked forward. It was such a straormenting feeling when your daemon ulling at the liween you; part physical pain deep in the chest, part intense sadness and love. And she k was the same for him. Everyoed it when they were growing up: seeing how far they could pull apart, ing back with intense relief.
He tugged a little harder.
「Dont,