Frank and the Northern Lights - Chapter 6 - The Throwing Nets

The Throwing-Nets

Lyra thought that she had better leave the river because it was well-lit around there. Walking in the darkness was the safest way for a while. If she had known London as well as Oxford, she would have had better alternatives. Her demon changed into a wild cat so that they walked in the darkness easily.

From time to time, she had to leave the darkness to cross the bright roads and her clothes became wet and dirty. When she passed a wide street, she saw a sandwich shop. She couldn’t endure her ravenous hunger so went there and ordered. Before she ordered, a gentleman was already there. He paid for both of them and questioned why she was in the street at night. She joked that she had to meet her father to give him new clothes because he had committed murder. She stopped talking and went on her way.

A few hours later, she was exhausted so she had to find a place where she could take a rest. She found a building but she was spotted by a guard. The guard threw throwing-nets over Lyra and the guard’s demon caught Pantalaimon. She was injured in many places by the keen nets and thought that her escape had failed.

However, she saw strange scenes when she woke up from unconsciousness into depression. The guard had been knocked down and blood was pouring from his head. In addition, she heard some familiar voice. Amazingly, her gyptian friend, called Tony Costa, was standing in front of her. He had saved her life. He took her to his house which was of course a boat. He lived with some other gyptians. There was Billy’s mother, whose son had been kidnapped by the Gobblers. She told Lyra to take a rest and sleep.

The next day, she talked with Billy’s mother, called Ma Costa, about her life in London and the Gobblers. She said Mrs. Coulter was one of the Gobblers and so on. However, she didn’t say about the Alethiometer. Ma Costa had already known a little about that but she didn’t know exactly what the Gobblers were doing to the children. She just guessed they used the children for some experiments.

The gyptians were on their way to visit John Faa, the king of the gyptians. They wanted to rescue their children and Lyra wanted to recue Rodger so they started travelling together. In addition, she thought she had to rescue her uncle too.