Her first impulse was to turn and run, or to be sick. A human being with no daemon was like someohout a face, or with their ribs laid open and their heart torn out: something unnatural and uny that beloo the world of night-ghasts, not the waking world of sense.
So Lyra g to Pantalaimon and her head swam and her ge rose, and cold as the night was, a sickly sweat moistened her flesh with something colder still.
「Ratter,」 said the boy. 「You got my Ratter?」
Lyra was in no doubt what he meant.
「No,」 she said in a voice as frail and frightened as she felt. Then, 「Whats your name?」
「Tony Makarios,」 he said. 「Wheres Ratter?」
「I dont know...」 she began, and swallowed hard to govern her nausea. 「The Gobblers...」 But she couldnt finish. She had to go out of the shed and sit down by herself in the snow, except that of course she wasnt by herself, she was never by herself, because Pantalaimon was always there. Oh, to be cut from him as this little boy had been parted from his Ratter! The worst thing in the world! She found herself sobbing, and Pantalaimon was whimpering too, and in both of them there assioy and sorrow for the half-boy.
The to her feet again.
「e on,」 she called in a trembling voice. 「Tony, e out. Were going to take you somewhere safe.」
There was a stir of movement in the fish house, and he appeared at the door, still clutg his dried fish. He was dressed in warm enough garments, a thickly padded and quilted coal-silk anorak and fur boots, but they had a sedhand look and didnt fit well. In the wider light outside that came from the faint trails of the Aurora and the snow-cround he looked more lost and piteous even than he had at first, croug in the lantern light by the fish racks.
The villager whht the lantern had retreated a few yards, and called down to them.
lorek Byrnison interpreted: 「He says you must pay for that fish.」
Lyra felt like telling the bear to kill him, but she said, 「Were taking the child away for them. They afford to give one fish to pay for that.」
The bear spoke. The man muttered, but didnt argue. Lyra set his lantern down in the snow and took the half-boys hand to guide him to the bear. He came helplessly, showing no surprise and no fear at the great white beast standing so close, and when Lyra helped him to sit on loreks back, all he said was:
「I dunno where my Ratter is.」
「No, nor do we, Tony,」 she said. 「But well...well punish the Gobblers. Well do that, I promise. lorek, is it all right if I sit up there too?」
「My armor weighs far more than children,」 he said.
So she scrambled up behind Tony and made him g to the long stiff fur, and Pantalaimon sat inside her hood, warm and close and full of pity. Lyra khat Pantalaimons impulse was to reach out and cuddle the little half-child, to lick him ale him and warm him as his own daemon would have done; but the great taboo prevehat, of course.
They rose through the village and up toward the ridge, and the villagers faces were open with horror and a kind of fearful relief at seeing that hideously mutilated creature taken away by a girl and a great white bear.
In Lyras heart, revulsion struggled with passion, and passion won. She put her arms around the skinny little form to hold him safe. The journey back to the main party was colder, and harder, and darker, but it seemed to pass more quickly for all that. lorek Byrnison was tireless, and Lyras riding be