(Y/N Point of View)

Lyra was still fast asleep in my arms. I pulled a blanket over her to keep her warm and I stroked her locks. It felt like cradling a baby sister. 

Aster was making sure that Pan was comfortable too. He was fast asleep on a pillow and he looked like he was he was having a sweet dream. 

I heard the crunching of snow and the tent doors were pulled back. Dad entered. His eyes were wet and so were Hester's. Something bad had happened. I felt I knew who it was. 

"Is he..." I drifted off. 

He sighed. "I'm afraid so," 

A tear leaked from my eye. He reached forward and wiped it away. 

"Do we have to tell her?" 

He sighed. "Yes. It's best we do it now than later. Do you want me to do it?"

I snuffled and nodded. "Lyra..." I whispered, shaking her shoulders a little. "Lyra..."

Lyra twisted her head and looked up at me. She quivered seeing my sad eyes. 

"I'm sorry Lyra,"  Lee said. 

"He's died?" her voice turned broken. 

"I'm afraid so," he said sadly. "He must have wondering alone in the cold for days,"

"Can I see him?" 

"Of course," 

Lyra lifted her head of my lap and I helped her up. We walked out of tent towards a makeshift pyre at the far end of the camp. Billy's body laid underneath a blanket of blue. Maggie allowed Lyra to take one last look at Billy's lifeless face. It broke my heart seeing the two of them along with Tony so heartbroken. 

I couldn't bear to imagine my father like this if he lost me. As Maggie and Lyra embraced one another and Maggie swore that she would avenge her boy, I walked over to the weeping Tony, placing my hand on his quivering shoulder. He turned to me and I said 'sorry' to him for his loss. He sniffled and I offered him a a little hug, which he accepted. I then let him go so he could to his ma. 

Lyra let go of Maggie and she walked over to me and my dad. I embraced her tightly, apologising a number of times for saying that everything would be alright before. Lee embraced us both and I promised Lyra that we were here for her no matter what. 

We let go of one another and I clutched onto Lyra's hand tightly. Maggie used flint and steel to light the pyre up and Billy's body under the blanket was engulfed in flames. 

A wave of humming engulfed the atmosphere. John Faa began to enchant some melodic words. 

Dear son 

Your soul never leaves you 

Everyone started joining in. 

Dear son 

God does never leave you 

Dear son 

You are God's son 

Your soul never leaves you 

My son

Their voices echoed into the night. We stood there for several hours until Billy's body was no nothing more than a pile of ash. Maggie and Tony's faces were wet with tears. No more words were said after that. 

Lyra was still crying once the funeral was over. I invited her once again into our tent and to spend the night with us. She accepted again, too broken to even hesitate. I let her sleep next to me and shared my sleeping bag, hoping that my closeness would help her recover from her loss. 

The night was silent as we fell asleep. Lee snored for a long while on my other side until Hester snapped at him to shut up. His snoring was a constant habit which I had to tolerate for a long while since we started traveling together. 

Lyra fell asleep before I did, her tears still raining down her cheeks. I clutched on tight to her hand to keep her knowing that she wasn't alone. I was almost completely asleep when I heard a sudden rustle from outside. I lifted my head up. I waited to a quiet feeling to return but I heard another rustle. Something wasn't right. I carefully stood up, making sure to not wake up my dad or Lyra. I stepped out of the tent to see what it was. 

"(Y/N)?" Aster, in the form of a mouse, hissed in my ear. "Your dad told us not to leave the tent,"

""Your father told you not to leave the tent,"

"I just want to see what that noise is, for all we know it could be trouble,"

"Don't you remember him saying never go out without him knowing?"

"Well he's not awake. And I don't always have to do everything he says. It'll be fine,"

We had a little peer around. It seemed everything was alright. 

"False alarm Aster. Must have been the wind,"

"Uhh...(Y/N).." my daemon whispered. 

"What?" 

He pointed a furry paw in one direction towards a body. I gasped. I wanted to scream. I suddenly felt slow crunchy steps behind me. 

When I turned around...Bang! 

Darkness took over my vision. When I came too, I felt my hands tied behind my back and my feet were bound together too. Aster inside my coat pocket. I was covered by black blankets that seemed to be bound too close to my body. I felt the surface I was tied up rumbling beneath me. I heard barking. I was on a sledge. I was being taken somewhere. 

"Help!" I screamed. "Dad! Lyra!"

"Shut it!" a voice shouted from outside with a thunderous boom. 

I stopped myself from screaming out, fearing I would be killed. I had to stay calm. 

For a long while everything was quiet again except the barking of the sledge dogs. Then the sledge stopped. The blankets were pulled off and I saw a few me surrounding me and lights shining down from above. The men wore army uniforms and they had wolf daemons. Suddenly I was heaved up and taken into a large room. I was placed on the ground. In front of me was a lady in a green winter outfit with glasses and a short hair. 

She kneeled down. "What's your name?" 

"I'm...Milly Surrey," I lied. 

"Is that your daemon?" she reached forward to touch Aster but quickly he turned into a moth and fluttered up. 

"Ahh...still haven't settled yet I see. Cut her bonds,"

The soldiers gave one last sneer at me and cut my hands and legs free. 

"Sister Clara...see this girl gets attended too," she ordered. 

A  woman in a blue dress with a white sort of nurse hat approached me. "Come on,"

Reluctantly I followed. As I did, I noticed she had no daemon. I gulped.

We came to a bigger room with a large cupboards and storage cabinets. "In the room next door is a changing room," she said. "We're goanna give you some nice warm clothes and you're going to get changed into them. Just wait for a second," while I get them. I stared at her as she circled over to the giant cupboard pulling it open, revealing some green suits. It looked exactly like the one that poor Billy was wearing. 

"Those clothes...those were the ones poor Billy was wearing," Aster, still in the form of a moth, whispered. 

I gasped. "Oh no. This is it Aster. This is Bolvanger,"

A cold feeling slithered up my spine as my heart began to hammer rapidly inside my chest. I struggled to breathe as I was busy gulping my fear in. 

We were escorted to some changing rooms. Aster turned into a moth and fluttered above my head as I got changed. Reluctantly I pulled off my leather coat and cotton winter wear and pulled on some green shorts with a matching shirt and black slipper shoes. I pulled back my hair back and tucked my precious necklace under my shirt. 

I would never ever take that off. I left the changing rooms, reluctantly I handed over my clothes to another nurse and I followed Sister Clara down a stone corridor. I thought of my dad and Lyra and everyone else. I hoped that they would get here soon. I couldn't bear to end up like poor Billy. 

(Lyra P.O.V)

I hadn't slept too well that night. When I came too, it had only just passed first light. I didn't feel like sleeping again. My face was still wet with tears from losing Billy. How was I going to tell Roger what happened to him? I only opened that I wouldn't be too later to save him as well. I woke up early and rubbed my eyes. 

Pan stretched his paws yawed. 

"You slept alright Pan?" I asked. 

"Yeah," he turned around. "Where's (Y/N)?"

I twisted my head. To my shock, (Y/N) wasn't in our shared sleeping back. I twisted my head around to see if she was sitting at a corner but she wasn't. 

She couldn't have gone out. It was still a little early. I crawled over to lee. 

"Lee...wake up..." I whispered, shaking his shoulders. "Wake up,"

"What?" he muffled as he woke up. 

"(Y/N)'s gone," I whispered.

"What?" he jolted up. He twisted his head and saw that she wasn't there in her sleeping bag. "(Y/N)?" he called. "(Y/N)?!" Quickly he dashed out the tent with Hester. I followed after him. We started to look for her. I had just turned a corner when I suddenly screamed. 

"What is it Lyra?" Lee rushed to my side. 

I pointed. He twisted his head and he gasped. There were three dead Gyptians with three slit throats. There were no deamons. 

Clamouring was heard behind us and we turned and saw John Faa, Coram, Maggie and Tony. 

"What's wrong Lyra?" Maggie rushed over to me. 

"The camp was infiltrated," Lee said. 

"What?" Coram asked. 

"Look," I pointed behind me. 

Coram and John caught a glimpse of what we had found and they gasped. More gasp emitted into our ears when we heard numbers of Gyptians clamouring out of their tents. 

"Hey, have any of you  seen (Y/N) anywhere?" Lee asked.

"I haven't," Maggie said. 

"She wasn't in her sleeping bag," I said. "When we went outside to look for her, we found these bodies,"

"Check the camp," 

The six of us and our daemons looked. 

About six more Gyptians were found dead. Their throats had been cut slit. The raid had been done quick and swift without even a single noise. (Y/N) was nowhere to be seen still. 

"If these Gyptians are dead and (Y/N) isn't here..." John started to say. 

"Don't say that," Lee threatened. "She's around here somewhere. We just haven't looked harder," 

"Lee...your daughter isn't anywhere to be found here. The attackers must have took her,"

Suddenly a loud roar thundered my eardrums. I turned and saw Iorek back from the night away. I rushed to him. 

"Lyra, what has happened?"

"The camp was infiltrated last night. A number of Gyptians were killed and (Y/N)'s nowhere to be found. Is she with you?"

"I haven't seen here since yesterday,"

"She has to be around here somewhere," Lee looked like he was going to explode in fright. 

"I'll check the alethiometer," Quickly I pulled out the alethiometer and started turning the needles to the different symbols. Once my question was framed, the main one began to turn round. The answer began to flood into my head. The final symbol the needle pointed to was the tree for shelter. As it clicked, I felt my heart jump. 

"Oh no," I breathed. 

"What?" Lee asked, frantic with fear. "What is it? What does it say?"

"It says..." I looked at him. "She's at Bolvanger," 

Lee's face was engulfed in white. "No. No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no!" he looked like he was about to scream. 

"Calm down Lee," Maggie soothed his shoulders. "We'll get her back,"

"But what if we don't?!" he cried out. "What she gets her..."

"She won't Lee!" I ran to him taking his hand. "We will not fail her!" I vowed with all my heart that my mother would not hurt anyone else.  I could not bear to lose another friend. We had to get there fast. 

"We head off now!" John declared. "We will not let another child suffer from the cruelty of the Magisterium!" 

Oh my (Y/N) has been taken away. Will they save her in time? Will they try to cut her daemon away? We'll have to wait and see and find out. What do you all think so far? Thank you to those who have been supportive.