Frank and the Northern Lights - Chapter 11 - Armour

Armour

Farder Coram and Lyra returned to their boats. And Farder Coram and John Faa had a discussion about the bear. However, it wasn’t easy to decide to believe the bear’s promise. While they were hesitating and busy on other things, Lyra discovered where the armour was. A few days passed by, then one day, she saw the Aurora. It was so beautiful as if a great curtain was hung on the sky. As she saw it, she felt she was in a dream. And she started dialling as if she was the Aurora’s marionette. Then she could see the city in that. When she awoke, as if waking up from sleep, the city had gone.

By the time she awoke fully, the great goose had arrived on the deck of the boat and asked her where Farder Coram was. She ran into his room and called him. Farder Coram and John Faa went out onto the deck and started talking with the goose. They talked about the gyptians’ plans, the Gobblers, the situation of witches at that moment, Lyra, why Lord Asreil was imprisoned, the armoured bear and so on. When they talked about the bear, Lyra claimed it was necessary to find the armour to obtain his help, but John Faa and Farder Coram were still not confident the bear would keep his promise.

A few days later, the gyptians loaded their stores onto sledges to carry on their journey. While they were all busy, she met the aeronaut she had heard about from Farder Coram. Amazingly he had known the bear for ages. And he wanted to find the armour like she did. So he started getting the gyptians’ attention by playing cards. At that moment she sneaked from their group and got to where Iorek Byrnison was. She told him where the armour was after he reaffirmed his promise. As soon as he heard the fact, he ran to the place and got his armour. The police attempted to block him but they couldn’t at all. He was furious and killed them without stopping. After Lyra told him to calm down, he stopped killing and walked to the coast. Lee Scoresby welcomed him as an old friend and joked they both were hired.

By the time the gyptians finished all of their preparation, Iorek Byrnison had cleaned his rusty armour. Finally they could get into the real journey.