The Golden Compass

As Lyra wanders through London, Pan takes on the form of a wildcat. She enjoys being left to her own devices again but does not know London nearly as well as Oxford. She gets a coffee and sandwich from a man in a stall, and a man in a top hat with a lemur dæmon pays for it. The man tries to put a drop of whiskey in her coffee and asks her what she is doing alone. Lyra lies about her name, where she is going, and where she is from. She pretends her dad is a murderer, and he is walking toward them looking angry.

She walks until they find a canal basin with a little wooden hut. She peers inside at a man reading with his spaniel dæmon when Pan starts changing forms and becoming distressed because two men are running toward her with throwing nets. Their dæmons attack Pan while she is captured in the net. Tony Costa attacks the attackers with the help of some gyptian friends and frees Lyra. She carries Pan, who watches as the attackers’ dæmons vanish into the air. Tony urges her onto a boat with Ma Costa. Tony tells of the Gobblers who tried to snatch Lyra. Ma Costa gives Lyra her missing son Billy’s bed to sleep in.

When Lyra gets up the next day, they are on the Grand Junction Canal, and Ma Costa warns Lyra to stay below deck because there is trouble. Men bang around on the deck and yell, but eventually, the boat continues moving. Tony wants to know why Lyra ran away because whoever is after her is more than Gobblers. Lyra explains about Mrs. Coulter and the cocktail party. Tony interrupts to add that he knows what the Gobblers are doing; he claims they are eating kids, but Lyra disagrees.

Tony continues his version with a story about the Nalkainens, which are headless ghosts of half-dead children that wander the forests. Tony calls them the Breathless Ones and says the Tartars rip out their lungs, but they stay alive. He also mentions the panserbjørn, the armored bears; Lyra eagerly adds what she knows about them, and that they have imprisoned Lord Asriel. Tony says they managed to catch a Gobbler and got them to talk: They learned the children are being taken up north, and John Faa, the king of the gyptians, wants to rescue them. Lyra wants to come to rescue Roger and Lord Asriel.

Ma Costa puts Lyra to work on the boat, and Lyra feels useful now that she is working toward a purpose. Lyra hides below deck in a secret compartment whenever their boat is searched because the gyptians know that Lyra is important. Lyra enjoys listening to the Fen-Dutch tales of the gyptians, but Ma Costa points out Lyra is not a water person like them even though she fits in to some extent and knows their language; Lyra is a fire person. Lyra is offended by this at first, but Ma Costa tells her it is a good thing. Lyra attends the Roping with John Faa, where they intend to settle their course of action over the missing children. John Faa addresses rumors of a child being sought for money by the police and acknowledges this is true, that they are after Lyra and have offered money. He warns everyone against turning her over, as her place is with them. John Faa urges them to move to action by preparing a band of fighters and heading north. A man, Raymond von Gerrit, raises his hand to ask if they are going to free all the children, including the landloper kids, or just the gyptians. John Faa dismisses the question as ridiculous, that they will of course save all the kids. He calls a vote, and they all rally. He dismisses them, and Lyra asks Ma Costa about the people at the Roping.

Lyra approaches John Faa, addressing him respectfully as Lord Faa the way Tony tells her to, and thanks him. Lyra sits at a table with John Faa and Farder Coram, the head of another gyptian household, and has drinks. She tells them her story about the Oblation Board, the pictures of the Dust, Roger, and Mrs. Coulter. When John Faa asks if she ever heard the Dust called anything else, Lyra stumbles over the word, and Farder Coram realizes she means the Aurora. She tells them about the city in the sky. Lyra is worried that she is in trouble for her earlier mischief. Lord Faa tells her what they know about her: Her father is Lord Asriel, and Mrs. Coulter is her mother.

Lyra shows John Faa the alethiometer, and Farder Coram explains to John Faa what it does. Lyra confides that she thinks Mrs. Coulter knows about the alethiometer. John Faa reveals that their eyes on the inside protecting Lyra—the pastry cook, Bernie Johansen, the Master, and the scholars at Jordan College—had always looked after her out of love. He suggests that maybe Lyra was meant to bring the alethiometer back to Lord Asriel to make up for the fact that the Master had tried to poison him. Lyra also learns that when she was a baby, Ma Costa was the one who nursed her. After their talk, Lyra goes to bed, and Ma Costa gives her a hug and kisses her.

Lyra struggles to adjust to the idea that Mrs. Coulter is her mother, but she distracts herself by telling stories and playing games with the gyptian children. In her alone time, she tries to read the alethiometer, asking it questions. Lyra sits with Costas at the next Roping, where they discuss their preparations for their trip to save the children in the north from the Gobblers. One man tells the group that the police are turning houses upside down looking for Lyra and that their passage may be blocked. John Faa reminds them of their duty to Lyra, especially because of her father, Lord Asriel, who did so much good for their people. They do not intend to bring Lyra, and Lyra complains to Tony that she also wants to go north. She takes it on herself to go to John Faa’s room and ask to go north, but John Faa refuses to let her come because he does not want to put her in danger. He tells her she can help by keeping Ma Costa safe. She says she is learning to read alethiometer and wants to help, but John Faa is firmer this time: She cannot come with them. When they close the door behind her, Lyra swears to Pan they will go.

Lyra talks to Farder Coram about the books used to decode the alethiometer and shares her progress in reading it. One of the boys, Jacob, is back and is injured, and he tells them one of them is dead and another is captured. They were trying to break into the Ministry of Theology. John Faa decides to let Lyra come since she is learning to read the alethiometer, and Jacob dies. He warns her it will be very dangerous. For the next two weeks, they prepare for their trip, and she hides when she needs to. She practices reading the alethiometer with Farder Coram. They have been on their journey for a long time, and Lyra wants to get some fresh air. Farder Coram lets her above deck for a few minutes, but soon after she emerges, droning flying beetles attack Pan. Pan catches one of them and holds it down. Lyra carries the beetle carefully in the tillerman’s mug. Lyra learns it is a clockwork bug with a spell in its heart sent by Mrs. Coulter to spy on them. John Faa delivers the sad news of Jack Verhoeven’s death and his boys’ kidnapping. He learns of the clockwork beetle and reminds them all to stay vigilant. Because Lyra is the only female on board, she gets her own room. Pan feels ill on the boat, and Lyra lies down to comfort him as they begin their journey north.