The Aeronaut's Daughter

The Daemon Cages

(Y/N Point of View) 

Roger and I sneaked quietly along the passageways under the falling snow but we kept our backs pressed against the walls. 

"Is there anywhere here where students are not allowed to go into?"

"Yes. Just around this corner," 

I let Roger lead me to a pair of metal gates. A shadow emerged from around another corner. Quickly I pulled Roger away out of sight. We pressed our backs against the wall and watched a nurse push out a trolley. Quick as a whip, we sped through the closing gates and around the corner through a door, we came across a giant room with giant metal boxes. 

We slowed our walking. As we did we heard quiet but hearable thuds from inside them. 

We bent down in front of one and looked through a glass window. I gasped, pressing my fingers over my lips. Inside was a dog-daemon with no human. Although alive, he seemed to be completely still...as if he were a ghost. 

"These are daemons cut from their humans," I gasped. 

Roger looked at the label. "David," he moved onto the next one. "Shay. Bridget," Through the third one he saw a poor brown rabbit daemon cut from his human. 

"These belong to the humans who were taken away," Roger opened another. It was empty. It was closed. It belonged to Billy. 

"Billy...his daemon's gone," Roger turned pale. "That means..." his voice broke. 

I placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry Roger," 

He stared at me. "You knew?"

"I was there," I confessed. "Lyra and I found him...in a fishing settlement yesterday. He was all frozen and cold. He somehow managed to get out of this dreadful place. At least he got to see his mum and brother one last time," 

Roger could not hold back the tears leaking from his eyes. 

I pulled him into a hug as he cried. "I'm so sorry Roger," I said letting him cry into my chest. As he pulled back, I gently wiped his tears away. 

"Thank you...for being there for Lyra when I couldn't,"

"We will not let this happen to any other child. I promise. We have to find the other children,"

Roger managed to pull himself together. "There is another corridor just past this forbidden room. We should check there,"

Going through a different door at the end of this horrifying room, we found ourselves in another dreadful corridor leading up to a locked door. We peered through the window. I struggled to catch my breath. 

Instead were over ten children, their heads were shaven and they looked emotionless. It was horrifying. 

"Did Billy look like this?" he asked.

"Yes," I confessed regretablly. 

"We can't end up in there," 

"We won't. Help is coming soon,"

"But how long?" Roger was desperate to see Lyra again. 

"Hopefully at least a day or two. In the meantime we have to plan a break out,"

Before our conversation to could continue further, the alarm stopped ringing. 

"We've got to head back," Roger abruptly grabbed my hand and he pulled me back down the corridor, out of the forbidden room and into the hallways we had sneaked around. 

We were just almost back to where we had ditched the ground when Roger suddenly stopped. "What was that?" he asked, freaking out. 

"What was what?" I asked.