The Subtle Knife

Lee Scoresby finally arrives in the village where Stanislaus Grumman lives with a Tartar tribe. The village leader has been expecting him, and says that Scoresby is there to take Grumman, who he refers to as Jopari, to another world. Jopari is a shaman and is highly respected among his adopted community, but he is very sick.

When Scoresby meets Grumman he is surprised to find that he is English, not German. Scoresby tells him about his alliance with the witches and saving the children from Svalbard, and their shared belief that Lyra will become a very important figure in some future battle. Grumman listens intently before telling Scoresby that he did not choose to come to the Arctic on his own; Grumman has summoned him using a Navajo turquoise ring that belonged to Scoresby’s mother, and that Grumman has somehow acquired.

Grumman says that his real name is John Parry, and that he first began on his shamanic journey 12 years earlier, when he was lost on an Arctic expedition. He accidentally wandered into the world of Cittàgazze and managed to evade the Specters until he found another window into Lee and Lyra’s world. There, he learned the ways of the Arctic. He began to realize many deep truths as he pieced together gaps in knowledge from his own world with things that had been discovered in his new home. Now, he says, he needs Scoresby’s help to find the new bearer of the subtle knife, who has recently been chosen in Cittàgazze.

Scoresby agrees on one condition; the knife must be used to protect Lyra. The two men travel back to where Scoresby has stored his balloon near the mouth of the Yenisei. They find that the town has been turned into a military camp and the balloon has been seized. Scoresby uses his stolen Church official ring to trick the soldiers and take the balloon, and the two make a narrow escape in a gust of wind that the shaman has summoned.

Back in Cittàgazze, Lyra and Will are beginning to realize the world is not as ideal as they first thought. The local children have become a violent mob, and think Lyra and Will are responsible for Tullio falling victim to the Specters. Will’s injured hand refuses to stop bleeding, and he is beginning to feel weaker and weaker. Despite Will’s condition, Lyra knows they have to leave the large house where they have been staying as soon as possible, as Angelica and Paolo have sworn to kill them to avenge their brother. Will begins to think about the way Tullio acted after being attacked by the Specters, and muses that the creatures may come from his own world. He asks Lyra to ask the alethiometer about his mother and is happy to hear that she is safe and well taken care of by his piano teacher.

Just as he begins to feel less anxious, he and Lyra become aware of a noise outside. The local children have arrived to attack them, and one of them has a gun. Since cutting into Will’s world with the knife would put them back near Charles’s house, their only option is to run. They make their way through the yard and, realizing that they cannot make it into the woods, dodge into a small temple tower. They run up the spiral staircase with the children close at their heels, while Will cuts pieces of wrought iron that crash down onto the mob. Despite their efforts and Pantalaimon's frightening leopard form, the tower slowly becomes swarmed with angry children.

Just as Will and Lyra begin to lose hope, Serafina’s daemon Kaisa swoops down from the sky. Lyra recognizes him at once and yells for the witch, who appears above with her companions. The children immediately scatter in fear. Serafina explains that they cannot land because there are Specters surrounding the temple, but then notices that the Specters are afraid of Will because of the knife.

Lyra, Will, and the witches make their way out of the city and set up camp for the night, where Serafina roasts rabbits for dinner, conjures a spell to help heal Will’s hand, and asks Lyra to tell her everything that has happened since they last met.

Dr. Malone’s colleague Oliver Payne has arrived back from a job interview in Geneva. Malone launches into the story about Lyra, desperate to get Payne to understand that she is not crazy, and that the child not only knew about dark matter but was able to communicate with and manipulate it. Payne listens sympathetically but says that he plans to take the job in Geneva; he sees Malone’s lab as hopelessly underfunded and believes the research is going nowhere.

Just then, Charles appears in the lab to inquire about their work and tells them that he can use his connections to help get the funding they lack. Malone is suspicious when Charles mentions defense funding and his desire to influence the direction of their research; she believes that he will use their discoveries to kill people. Payne, however, is instantly sold. He changes his mind about Geneva, and as Malone leaves in disgust, he is on the phone with Charles offering him whatever he needs in exchange for funding.

Malone returns later to collect some of her things. She finds that the lab already has a new security guard, who asks for her identification. She persuades him to let her inside, where she hooks herself up to the Cave and wills herself to communicate with the dark matter, which tells her to find Lyra. Explaining how to get to the window, the dark matter tells her that she will be protected from the Specters. Lastly, it compels her to destroy her equipment and experiments as much as possible to prevent Charles and his people from communicating with it.

After she smashes everything in the lab, Malone makes her way to the window which is already guarded by one of Charles’s accomplices. Using an altered ID card of Oliver Payne’s, she convinces him that she is there under Charles’s direction to analyze the area. She has no idea what to expect when she steps into the tent shielding the window, but soon finds herself, like Will before her, in the city of Cittàgazze.