Lyra's POV
I woke from an uneasy sleep, the stranger’s words still circling in my mind,
“You awakened sooner than expected”
Sooner than what, I still didn't know and Astra had said nothing more about it since we’d returned.
“Are they enemies?” I finally asked, unable to. Hold the question in any longer.
“some may be” Astra said, “but not everyone searching for the White Wolf wishes her dead, that is the difficulty of it. You can't always tell which hand reaches for you in kindness and which to take”
It wasn't comforting but it was honest and I'd learned by now to take honesty over comfort whenever Astra offered it. I decided lying there in the gray early light that I would find the truth about my mother before anyone else could use it against me.
The pendant had warmed again ag
