The intention craft was being piloted by Mrs. Coulter. She and her daemon were alone in the cockpit.
The barometric1 altimeter was little use in the storm, but she could judge her altitude roughly by watching the fires on the ground that blazed where angels fell; despite the hurtling rain, they were still flaring2 high. As for the course, that wasn't difficult, either: the lightning that flickered3 around the Mountain served as a brilliant beacon4. But she had to avoid the various flying beings who were still fighting in the air, and keep clear of the rising land below.
She didn't use the lights, because she wanted to get close and find somewhere to land before they saw her and shot her down. As she flew closer, the updrafts became more violent, the gusts5 more sudden and brutal6. A gyropter would have had no chance: the savage7 air would have slammed it to the ground like a fly. In the intention craft she could move lightly with the wind, adjusting her balance like a wave rider in the Peaceable Ocean.
Cautiously she began to climb, peering forward, ignoring the instruments and flying by sight and by instinct. Her daemon leapt from one side of the little glass cabin to the other, looking ahead, above, to the left and right, and calling to her constantly. The lightning, great sheets and lances of brilliance8, flared9 and cracked above and around the machine. Through it all she flew in the little aircraft, gaining height little by little, and always moving on toward the cloud-hung palace.
And as Mrs. Coulter approached, she found her attention dazzled and bewildered by the nature of the Mountain itself.
It reminded her of a certain abominable10 heresy11, whose author was now deservedly languishing12 in the dungeons14 of the Consistorial Court. He had suggested that there were more spatial15 dimensions than the three familiar ones, that on a very small scale, there were up to seven or eight other dimensions, but that they were impossible to examine directly. He had even constructed a model to show how they might work, and Mrs. Coulter had seen the object before it was exorcised and burned. Folds within folds, corners and edges both containing and being contained: its inside was everywhere and its outside was everywhere else. The Clouded Mountain affected16 her in a similar way: it was less like a rock than like a force field, manipulating space itself to enfold and stretch and layer it into galleries and terraces, chambers17 and colonnades18 and watchtowers of air and light and vapor20.
She felt a strange exultation21 welling slowly in her breast, and she saw at the same time how to bring the aircraft safely up to the clouded terrace on the southern flank. The little craft lurched and strained in the turbid22 air, but she held the course firm, and her daemon guided her down to land on the terrace.
The light she'd seen by till now had come from the lightning, the occasional gashes23 in the cloud where the sun struck through, the fires from the burning angels, the beams of an-baric searchlights; but the light here was different. It came from the substance of the Mountain itself, which glowed and faded in a slow breathlike rhythm, with a mother-of-pearl radiance.
Woman and daemon got down from the craft and looked around to see which way they should go.
She had the feeling that other beings were moving rapidly above and below, speeding through the substance of the Mountain itself with messages, orders, information. She couldn't see them; all she could see was confusing, infolded perspectives of colonnade19, staircase, terrace, and facade24.
Before she could make up her mind which way to go, she heard voices and withdrew behind a column. The voices were singing a psalm25 and coming closer, and then she saw a procession of angels carrying a litter.
As they neared the place where she was hiding, they saw the intention craft and stopped. The singing faltered26, and some of the bearers looked around in doubt and fear.
Mrs. Coulter was close enough to see the being in the litter: an angel, she thought, and indescribably aged27. He wasn't easy to see, because the litter was enclosed all around with crystal that glittered and threw back the enveloping28 light of the Mountain, but she had the impression of terrifying decrepitude29, of a face sunken in wrinkles, of trembling hands, and of a mumbling30 mouth and rheumy eyes.
The aged being gestured shakily at the intention craft, and cackled and muttered to himself, plucking incessantly31 at his beard, and then threw back his head and uttered a howl of such anguish13 that Mrs. Coulter had to cover her ears.
But evidently the bearers had a task to do, for they gathered themselves and moved farther along the terrace, ignoring the cries and mumbles32 from inside the litter. When they reached an open space, they spread their wings wide, and at a word from their leader they began to fly, carrying the litter between them, until they were lost to Mrs. Coulter's sight in the swirling33 vapors34.
But there wasn't time to think about that. She and the golden monkey moved on quickly, climbing great staircases, crossing bridges, always moving upward. The higher they went, the more they felt that sense of invisible activity all around them, until finally they turned a corner into a wide space like a mist-hung piazza35, and found themselves confronted by an angel with a spear.
"Who are you? What is your business?" he said.
Mrs. Coulter looked at him curiously36. These were the beings who had fallen in love with human women, with the daughters of men, so long ago.
"No, no," she said gently, "please don't waste time. Take me to the Regent at once. He's waiting for me."
Disconcert them, she thought, keep them off balance; and this angel did not know what he should do, so he did as she told him. She followed him for some minutes, through those confusing perspectives of light, until they came to an ' antechamber. How they had entered, she didn't know, but there they were, and after a brief pause, something in front of her opened like a door.
Her daemon's sharp nails were pressing into the flesh of her upper arms, and she gripped his fur for reassurance37. Facing them was a being made of light. He was man-shaped, man-sized, she thought, but she was too dazzled to see. The golden monkey hid his face in her shoulder, and she threw up an arm to hide her eyes.
Metatron said, "Where is she? Where is your daughter?"
"I've come to tell you, my Lord Regent," she said.
"If she was in your power, you would have brought her."
"She is not, but her daemon is."
"How can that be?"
"I swear, Metatron, her daemon is in my power. Please, great Regent, hide yourself a little, my eyes are dazzled..."
He drew a veil of cloud in front of himself. Now it was like looking at the sun through smoked glass, and her eyes could see him more clearly, though she still pretended to be dazzled by his face. He was exactly like a man in early middle age, tall, powerful, and commanding. Was he clothed? Did he have wings? She couldn't tell because of the force of his eyes. She could look at nothing else.
"Please, Metatron, hear me. I have just come from Lord Asriel. He has the child's daemon, and he knows that the child will soon come to search for him."
"What does he want with the child?"
"To keep her from you until she comes of age. He doesn't know where I've gone, and I must go back to him soon. I'm telling you the truth. Look at me, great Regent, as I can't easily look at you. Look at me clearly, and tell me what you see."
The prince of the angels looked at her. It was the most searching examination Marisa Coulter had ever undergone. Every scrap38 of shelter and deceit was stripped away, and she stood naked, body and ghost and daemon together, under the ferocity of Metatron's gaze.
And she knew that her nature would have to answer for her, and she was terrified that what he saw in her would be insufficient39. Lyra had lied to Iofur Raknison with her words; her mother was lying with her whole life.
"Yes, I see," said Metatron.
"What do you see?"
"Corruption40 and envy and lust41 for power. Cruelty and coldness. A vicious, probing curiosity. Pure, poisonous, toxic42 malice43. You have never from your earliest years shown a shred44 of compassion45 or sympathy or kindness without calculating how it would return to your advantage. You have tortured and killed without regret or hesitation46; you have betrayed and intrigued47 and gloried in your treachery. You are a cesspit of moral filth48."
That voice, delivering that judgment49, shook Mrs. Coulter profoundly. She knew it was coming, and she dreaded50 it; and yet she hoped for it, too, and now that it had been said, she felt a little gush51 of triumph.
She moved closer to him.
"So you see," she said, "I can betray him easily. I can lead you to where he's taking my daughter's daemon, and you can destroy Asriel, and the child will walk unsuspecting into your hands."
She felt the movement of vapor about her, and her senses became confused. His next words pierced her flesh like darts52 of scented53 ice.
"When I was a man," he said, "I had wives in plenty, but none was as lovely as you."
"When you were a man?"
"When I was a man, I was known as Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam. I lived on earth for sixty-five years, and then the Authority took me to his Kingdom."
"And you had many wives."
"I loved their flesh. And I understood it when the sons of Heaven fell in love with the daughters of earth, and I pleaded their cause with the Authority. But his heart was fixed54 against them, and he made me prophesy55 their doom56."
"And you have not known a wife for thousands of years..."
"I have been Regent of the Kingdom."
"And is it not time you had a consort57?"
That was the moment she felt most exposed and in most danger. But she trusted to her flesh, and to the strange truth she'd learned about angels, perhaps especially those angels who had once been human: lacking flesh, they coveted58 it and longed for contact with it. And Metatron was close now, close enough to smell the perfume of her hair and to gaze at the texture59 of her skin, close enough to touch her with scalding hands.
There was a strange sound, like the murmur60 and crackle you hear before you realize that what you're hearing is your house on fire.
"Tell me what Lord Asriel is doing, and where he is," he said.
"I can take you to him now," she said.
The angels carrying the litter left the Clouded Mountain and flew south. Metatron's orders had been to take the Authority to a place of safety away from the battlefield, because he wanted him kept alive for a while yet; but rather than give him a bodyguard61 of many regiments62, which would only attract the enemy's attention, he had trusted to the obscurity of the storm, calculating that in these circumstances, a small party would be safer than a large one.
And so it might have been, if a certain cliff-ghast, busy feasting on a half-dead warrior63, had not looked up just as a random64 searchlight caught the side of the crystal litter.
Something stirred in the cliff-ghast's memory. He paused, one hand on the warm liver, and as his brother knocked him aside, the recollection of a babbling65 Arctic fox came to his mind.
At once he spread his leathery wings and bounded upward, and a moment later the rest of the troop followed.
Xaphania and her angels had searched diligently66 all the night and some of the morning, and finally they had found a minute crack in the mountainside to the south of the fortress67, which had not been there the day before. They had explored it and enlarged it, and now Lord Asriel was climbing down into a series of caverns68 and tunnels extending a long way below the fortress.
It wasn't totally dark, as he'd thought. There was a faint source of illumination, like a stream of billions of tiny particles, faintly glowing. They flowed steadily70 down the tunnel like a river of light.
"Dust," he said to his daemon.
He had never seen it with the naked eye, but then he had never seen so much Dust together. He moved on, until quite suddenly the tunnel opened out, and he found himself at the top of a vast cavern69: a vault71 immense enough to contain a dozen cathedrals. There was no floor; the sides sloped vertiginously72 down toward the edge of a great pit hundreds of feet below, and darker than darkness itself, and into the pit streamed the endless Dust fall, pouring ceaselessly down. Its billions of particles were like the stars of every galaxy73 in the sky, and every one of them was a little fragment of conscious thought. It was a melancholy74 light to see by.
He climbed with his daemon down toward the abyss, and as they went, they gradually began to see what was happening along the far side of the gulf75, hundreds of yards away in the gloom. He had thought there was a movement there, and the farther down he climbed, the more clearly it resolved itself: a procession of dim, pale figures picking their way along the perilous76 slope, men, women, children, beings of every kind he had seen and many he had not. Intent on keeping their balance, they ignored him altogether, and Lord Asriel felt the hair stir at the back of his neck when he realized that they were ghosts.
"Lyra came here," he said quietly to the snow leopard77.
"Tread carefully," was all she said in reply.
Will and Lyra were soaked through, shivering, racked with pain, and stumbling blindly through mud and over rocks and into little gullies where storm-fed streams ran red with blood. Lyra was afraid that the Lady Salmakia was dying: she hadn't uttered a word for several minutes, and she lay faint and limp in Lyra's hand.
As they sheltered in one riverbed where the water was white, at least, and scooped78 up handfuls to their thirsty mouths, Will felt Tialys rouse himself and say:
"Will, I can hear horses coming, Lord Asriel has no cavalry79. It must be the enemy. Get across the stream and hide, I saw some bushes that way..."
"Come on," said Will to Lyra, and they splashed through the icy, bone-aching water and scrambled80 up the far side of the gully just in time. The riders who came over the slope and clattered81 down to drink didn't look like cavalry: they seemed to be of the same kind of close-haired flesh as their horses, and they had neither clothes nor harness. They carried weapons, though: tridents, nets, and scimitars.
Will and Lyra didn't stop to look; they stumbled over the rough ground at a crouch82, intent only on getting away unseen.
But they had to keep their heads low to see where they were treading and avoid twisting an ankle, or worse, and thunder exploded overhead as they ran, so they couldn't hear the screeching83 and snarling84 of the cliff-ghasts until they were upon them.
The creatures were surrounding something that lay glittering in the mud: something slightly taller than they were, which lay on its side, a large cage, perhaps, with walls of crystal. They were hammering at it with fists and rocks, shrieking85 and yelling.
And before Will and Lyra could stop and run the other way, they had stumbled right into the middle of the troop.
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1
barometric
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| 大气压力 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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Flared
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| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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dungeons
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| n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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spatial
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| adj.空间的，占据空间的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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colonnades
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| n.石柱廊( colonnade的名词复数 ) | |
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colonnade
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| n.柱廊 | |
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vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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turbid
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| adj.混浊的，泥水的，浓的 | |
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gashes
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| n.深长的切口（或伤口）( gash的名词复数 )v.划伤，割破( gash的第三人称单数 ) | |
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facade
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| n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表 | |
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psalm
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| n.赞美诗，圣诗 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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enveloping
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的现在分词 ) | |
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decrepitude
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| n.衰老；破旧 | |
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mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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mumbles
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| 含糊的话或声音，咕哝( mumble的名词复数 ) | |
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swirling
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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vapors
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| n.水汽，水蒸气，无实质之物( vapor的名词复数 )；自夸者；幻想 [药]吸入剂 [古]忧郁（症）v.自夸，（使）蒸发( vapor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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reassurance
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| n.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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toxic
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| adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的 | |
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malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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shred
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| v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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intrigued
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| adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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51
gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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52
darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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53
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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prophesy
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| v.预言；预示 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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60
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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bodyguard
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| n.护卫，保镖 | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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64
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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babbling
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| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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70
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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71
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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72
vertiginously
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| adj.头晕的，引起头晕的；多变化的 | |
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73
galaxy
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| n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
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74
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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75
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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77
leopard
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| n.豹 | |
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78
scooped
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| v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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79
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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80
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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81
clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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82
crouch
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| v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏 | |
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83
screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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84
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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85
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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