h, or interpret the warnings in the crocus
pollen; but these were children of nature, and they told her natural truths.
For knowledge about Lord Asriel, she had to go elsewhere. In the port of Trollesund, their consul
Dr. Lanselius maintained his contact with the world of men and women, and Serafina Pekkala sped
there through the fog to see what he could tell her. Before she went to his house she circled over
the harbor, where wisps and tendrils of mist drifted ghostlike on the icy water, and watched as
the pilot guided in a large vessel with an African registration. There were several other ships
riding at anchor outside the harbor. She had never seen so many.
As the short day faded, she flew down and landed in the back garden of the consul's house. She
tapped on the window, and Dr. Lanselius himself opened the door, a finger to his lips.
"Serafina Pekkala, greetings," he said. "Come in quickly, and welcome. But you had better not stay
long." He offered her a chair at the fireside, having glanced through the curtains out of a window
that fronted the street. "You'll have some wine?'
She sipped the golden Tokay and told him of what she had seen and heard aboard the ship.
"Do you think they understood what she said about the child?" he asked.
"Not fully, I think. But they know she is important. As for that woman, I'm afraid of her, Dr.
Lanselius. I shall kill her, I think, but still I'm afraid of her."
"Yes,
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And Serafina listened as he told her of the rumors that had swept the town. Amid the fog of
rumor,
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'They say that the Magisterium is assembling the greatest army ever known, and this is an advance
party. And there are unpleasant rumors about some of the soldiers,
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about Bolvangar, and what they were doing there��cutting children's daemons away, the most evil
work I've ever heard of. Well, it seems there is a regiment of warriors who have been treated in
the same way. Do you know the word zomb