Chapter Seventeen: The French Teacher

Lyra visits Horace Green at the Villa Victor Hugo in Baku, having found his name in Roderick Hassall’s clavicula. Green, a French teacher without a dæmon, receives her gravely and listens as Lyra recounts Hassall’s murder and her recent journey. He explains that a clavicula is a “little key to help,” a network of separated people, and recounts losing both his wife and his dæmon to a hawk in the Alps.

Lyra queries Green about the desert of Karamakan, the “men from the mountains,” Oakley Street, alkahest, and gryphons. He offers little on the first three but recalls hearing “Oakley Street” at an embassy party in a context suggesting intelligence work. Consulting an encyclopedia, he defines “alkahest” as the alchemists’ universal solvent, the “destroyer of bonds.” He also notes ferries east across the Caspian and recognizes Mustafa Bey’s importance.

Rejoining Ionides outside, Lyra learns they are being watched. They head to the main post office, where Lyra, posing as Queen Tatiana with Mustafa Bey’s laissez-passer, successfully claims a sealed parcel addressed to the queen. Inside the wrapping lies a second, hastily prepared package addressed to Lyra, forwarded by Mustafa Bey with a courteous note.

Spotted by two tails, Lyra, Asta, and Ionides shake them with a sudden reversal at a crosswalk and slip away through side streets. They board a bus—fortuitously bound for the Marine Passenger Terminal—where Lyra begins to open the inner package but stows it as they arrive. The chapter ends with them safely at the ferry terminal, the unopened parcel in Lyra’s rucksack, ready to head east.