Lyra. Chapter 3. What Came Up the Road

She had let herself think she could be happy here. The road answered. They came out of the smoke — a family, what was left of one, dragging bundles and wounds up the track toward anywhere-but-behind-them. Lyra's hand went to her mouth. Beside her Tristan had gone very still, and she saw on his face that he was not surprised. That he knew this. That he had, perhaps, once done this. Behind the refugees a column of black smoke stood where a village used to be. The summer was over. End of Chapter 3.