"Philip Pullman - Dark Materials 02 - The Subtle Knife" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pullman Philip)

"Where do you come from?"

"From my world. It's joined on. Where's your daemon?"

His eyes widened. Then he saw something extraordinary happen to the cat: it leaped into her arms, and
when it got there, it changed shape. Now it was a red-brown stoat with a cream throat and belly, and it
glared at him as ferociously as the girl herself. But then another shift in things took place, because he
realized that they, both girl and stoat, were profoundly afraid of him, as much as if he'd been a ghost.

"I haven't got a demon," he said. "I don't know what you mean." Then, "Oh! Is that your demon?"

She stood up slowly. The stoat curled himself around her neck, and his dark eyes never left Will's face.

"But you're alive," she said, half-disbelievingly. "You en't... You en't been .. ."

"My name's Will Parry," he said. "I don't know what you mean about demons. In my world demon
means ... it means devil, something evil."

"In your world? You mean this en't your world?"

"No. I just found... a way in. Like your world, I suppose. It must be joined on."

She relaxed a little, but she still watched him intently, and he stayed calm and quiet as if she were a
strange cat he was making friends with.

"Have you seen anyone else in this city?" he went on.

"No."

"How long have you been here?"

"Dunno. A few days. I can't remember."

"So why did you come here?"

"I'm looking for Dust," she said.

"Looking for dust? What, gold dust? What sort of dust?"

She narrowed her eyes and said nothing. He turned away to go downstairs.

"I'm hungry," he said. "Is there any food in the kitchen?"

"I dunno," she said, and followed, keeping her distance from him.

In the kitchen Will found the ingredients for a casserole of chicken and onions and peppers, but they
hadn't been cooked, and in the heat they were smelling bad. He swept them all into the dustbin.