Chapter 149

Quill laid them side by side on the map table in the morning, as he laid everything: Malachai’s letters on the left, in Vivienne’s clear copy, Lyra’s statement on the right, and between them a clean sheet on which he had written nothing at all.

“I will read the lines that touch,” he said. “Only those.”

From the left: I will have the girl’s blood in my hand before the thaw. Not after. The door on the mountain answers only while the snow is going off its stones. And: If the wolves will not give her, take her. If they will not let you take her, make them want to.

From the right, signed last night: He’ll go to the gate when the passes open, with your blood or without. If without, he’ll come back for it. And: He’s come down with them. He’s in the march.

Quill put his pen down across the blank sheet.

“That is all the paper says,” he said. “The rest is yours.”

***

It was a smaller table than the allies’ council: the elde