She had seldom sidered herself before, and found the experieeresting but unfortable, very like riding the bear, in fact. lorek Byrnison ag swiftly, moving both legs on one side of his body at the same time, and rog from side to side in a steady powerful rhythm. She found she couldnt just sit:
she had to ride actively.
They had been traveling for an hour or more, and Lyra was stiff and sore but deeply happy, when lorek Byrnison slowed down and stopped.
「Look up,」 he said.
Lyra raised her eyes and had to wipe them with the inside of her wrist, for she was so cold that tears were blurring them. When she could see clearly, she gasped at the sight of the sky. The Aurora had faded to a pallid trembling glimmer, but the stars were as bright as diamonds, and across the great dark diamond-scattered vault, hundreds upon hundreds of tiny black shapes were flying out of the east and south toward the north.
「Are they birds?」 she said.
「They are witches,」 said the bear.
「Witches! What are they doing?」
「Flying to war, maybe. I have never seen so many at oime.」
「Do you know any witches, lorek?」
「I have served some. And fought some, too. This is a sight thten Lord Faa.
If they are flying to the aid of your enemies, you should all be afraid.」
「Lord Faa wouldnt be frightened. You ent afraid, are you?」
「Not yet. When I am, I shall master the fear. But we had better tell Lord Faa about the witches, because the men might not have seen them.」
He moved on more slowly, and she kept watg the sky until her eyes splintered again with tears of cold, and she saw o the numberless witches flying north.
Finally lorek Byrnison stopped and said, 「There is the village.」
They were looking down a broken, rugged slope toward a cluster of wooden buildings beside a wide stretch of snow as flat as could be, which Lyra took to be the frozen lake. A woodey showed her she was right. They were no more than five minutes from the place.
「What do you want to do?」 the bear asked. Lyra slipped off his back, and found it hard to stand. Her face was stiff with cold and her legs were shaky, but she g to his fur and stamped until she felt stronger.
「Theres a child host or something down in that village,」 she said, 「or maybe near it, I dont know for certain. I want to go and find him and bring him back to Lord Faa and the others if I . I thought he was a ghost, but the symbol reader might be telling me something I t uand.」
「If he is outside,」 said the bear, 「he had better have some shelter.」
「I dont think hes dead,」 said Lyra, but she was far from sure. The alethiometer had indicated something uny and unnatural, which was alarming; but who was she? Lord Asriels daughter. And who was under her and? A mighty bear. How could she possibly show any fear? 「Lets just go and look,」 she said.
She clambered on his back again, a off down the broken slope, walking steadily and not pag any more. The dogs of the village smelled or heard or sehem ing, and began to howl frightfully; and the reindeer in their enclosure moved about nervously, their antlers clashing like dry sticks. Iill air every movement could be heard for a long way.
As they reached the first of the houses, Lyra looked to the right a, peering hard into the dimness, for the Aurora was fading and the moon still far from rising. Here and there a light flickered under a snow-thick roof, and Lyra thought she saw