The Amber Spyglass Read Online Free PDF Page B

with unmistakable malevolence.
    “Will, you must,” said Baruch urgently.
    Will stood up, meaning to say “Hold him tight,” but even as the words came to his mind, the angel sagged against the ground, dissolving and spreading out like mist, and then he was gone. Will looked around, feeling foolish and sick.
    “Did I kill him?” he said shakily.
    “You had to,” said Baruch. “But now—”
    “I hate this,” said Will passionately, “truly, truly, I hate this killing! When will it stop?”
    “We must go,” said Balthamos faintly. “Quickly, Will—quickly—please—”
    They were both mortally afraid.
    Will felt in the air with the tip of the knife: any world, out of this one. He cut swiftly, and looked up: that other angel from the sky was only seconds away, and his expression was terrifying. Even from that distance, and even in that urgent second or so, Will felt himself searched and scoured from one end of his being to the other by some vast, brutal, and merciless intellect.
    And what was more, he had a spear—he was raising it to hurl—
    And in the moment it took the angel to check his flight and turn upright and pull back his arm to fling the weapon, Will followed Baruch and Balthamos through and closed the window behind him. As his fingers pressed the last inch together, he felt a shock of air—but it was gone, he was safe: it was the spear that would have passed through him in that other world.
    They were on a sandy beach under a brilliant moon. Giant fernlike trees grew some way inland; low dunes extended for miles along the shore. It was hot and humid.
    “Who was that?” said Will, trembling, facing the two angels.
    “That was Metatron,” said Balthamos. “You should have—”
    “Metatron? Who’s he? Why did he attack? And don’t lie to me.”
    “We must tell him,” said Baruch to his companion. “You should have done so already.”
    “Yes, I should have,” Balthamos agreed, “but I was cross with him, and anxious for you.”
    “Tell me now, then,” said Will. “And remember, it’s no good telling me what I should do—none of it matters to me, none. Only Lyra matters, and my mother. And that,” he added to Balthamos, “is the point of all this metaphysical speculation, as you called it.”
    Baruch said, “I think we should tell you our information. Will, this is why we two have been seeking you, and why we must take you to Lord Asriel. We discovered a secret of the Kingdom—of the Authority’s world—and we must share it with him. Are we safe here?” he added, looking around. “There is no way through?”
    “This is a different world. A different universe.”
    The sand they stood on was soft, and the slope of the dune nearby was inviting. They could see for miles in the moonlight; they were utterly alone.
    “Tell me, then,” said Will. “Tell me about Metatron, and what this secret is. Why did that angel call him
Regent
? And what is the Authority? Is he God?”
    He sat down, and the two angels, their forms clearer in the moonlight than he had ever seen them before, sat with him.
    Balthamos said quietly, “The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty—those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves—the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. It seeks to know more about itself, and Dust is formed. The first angels condensed out of Dust, and the Authority was the first of all. He told those who came after him that he had created them, but it was a lie. One of those who came later was wiser than he was, and she found out the truth, so he banished her. We serve her still. And the Authority still reigns in the Kingdom, and Metatron is his Regent.
    “But as for what we discovered in the Clouded Mountain, we can’t tell you the heart