Without thinking twice, I made my choice.
I grabbed Lyra's hand. Her skin was as cold as ice, but her fingers tightened around your wrist with such force, as if she was holding on to the last anchor before a storm.
"Where to?" Her voice was hoarse, as if she'd screamed before. She screamed for a long time.
I didn't answer. He simply jerked to the side, to where the walls of the temple converged into a narrow passage covered with a web of black threads. They were moving.
The masks lifted. Their silver faces were now melting like wax, exposing what was hidden beneath the metal—emptiness. Black, bottomless.
"They're not human,— the old man whispered, but you weren't listening anymore.
I was running.
The passage turned out to be not a passage, but a trap — it narrowed until it turned into a gap that could barely squeeze through. Lyra went through first, and you followed, feeling the cobwebs cling to your skin, leaving red marks on it, like burns.
There was a sound behind him—not a scream, not a screech, but something sticky.
I turned around.
One of the silver masks stretched out like pitch, his body flowing, adjusting to the narrow passage.
"They won't stop,— Lyra said.
You pushed her forward.
The crack opened into a circular room with no doors.
The walls here were covered... mirrors.
Dozens, hundreds.
And in each one there is a reflection.
But not yours.
"These are the exits,— Lyra whispered.
—Or traps,— I added.
There was a rustle behind him.
The silver mask is already here.
In front of me, there were three exits.
One led into the desert, where there was nothing but sand.
The second exit led into the jungle, where dangerous animals and monsters are introduced.
And the third exit led into a snow-covered biome, where there was nothing but snow.
— What are we going to do? I said.
"I do not know, but we must think faster, or we will be caught," Said Lyra, who was trembling with fear, as if there was an earthquake.
I took Lyra by the hand and we entered the second exit, with a sense of hope for salvation.
The silver mask was running towards us, but the exit was closed, and he stayed there.
"What's that?" Lyra shouted in a trembling voice.
— Are we sure we're going to survive here? I said in a trembling voice.
— Use the book! Lyra shouted.