It wasnt Lyras way to brood; she was a sanguine and practical child, and besides, she wasnt imaginative. No oh much imagination would have thought seriously that it ossible to e all this way and rescue her friend Roger; or, having thought it, an imaginative child would immediately have e up with several ways in which it was impossible. Being a practiced liar doesnt mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; its that which gives their lies such wide-eyed vi.
So now that she was in the hands of the Oblation Board, Lyra didnt fret herself into terror about what had happeo the gyptians. They were all good fighters, and even though Pantalaimon said hed seen John Faa shot, he might have been mistaken; or if he wasnt mistaken, John Faa might not have been seriously hurt. It had been bad luck that shed fallen into the hands of the Samoyeds, but the gyptians would be along soon to rescue her, and if they couldnt ma, nothing would stop lorek Byrnisetting her out; and then theyd fly to Svalbard in Lee Scoresbys balloon and rescue Lord Asriel.
In her mind, it was as easy as that.
So m, when she awoke in the dormitory, she was curious and ready to deal with whatever the day would bring. And eager to see Roger—in particular, eager to see him before he saw her.
She didnt have long to wait. The children in their different dormitories were woken at half-past seven by the nurses who looked after them. They washed and dressed a with the others to the teen for breakfast.
And there was Roger.
He was sitting with five other boys at a table just ihe door. The line for the hatch went right past them, and she was able to pretend to drop a handkerchief and crouch to pick it up, bending low o his chair, so that Pantalaimon could speak ters daemon Salcilia.
She was a chaffinch, and she fluttered so wildly that Pantalaimon had to be a cat and leap at her, pinning her down to whisper. Such brisk fights or scuffles between childrens daemons were on, luckily, and no oook muotice, but Roger went pale at once. Lyra had never seen anyone so white. He looked up at the blank haughty stare she gave him, and the color flooded bato his cheeks as he brimmed over with hope, excitement, and joy; and only Pantalaimon, shaking Salcilia firmly, was able to keep Roger from shouting out and leaping up to greet his best friend, his rade in arms, his Lyra.
But he saw how she looked away disdainfully, and he followed her example faithfully, as hed done in a hundred Oxford battles and campaigns. No one must know, of course, because they were both in deadly danger. She rolled her eyes at her new friends, and they collected their trays of flakes and toast and sat together, an instant gang, excluding everyone else in order to gossip about them.
You t keep a large group of children in one place for long without giving them plenty to do, and in some ways Bolvangar was run like a school, with timetabled activities such as gymnastid 「art.」 Boys and girls were kept separate except for breaks aimes, so it wasnt until midm, after an hour and a half of sewing directed by one of the hat Lyra had the ce to talk ter. But it had to look natural; that was the difficulty.
All the children there were more or less at the same age, and it was the age when most boys talk to boys and girls to girls, each making a spicuous point of ign the opposite sex.
She found her the teen again, when the children