Lyra And The Master

Script: Nicholas Wright, published by Nick Hern Books

The Master's Study. Lyra and the Master.

MASTER: One moment, Lyra. Were you by any chance concealed in the Retiring Room, the night Lord Asriel spoke to the Scholars?

LYRA: I might have been.

MASTER: So you have reason to mistrust me.

LYRA: Yeah, I do.

MASTER: You must understand, a man in my position has to commit some evil from time to time, to prevent some greater harm. But one can try to make up for it. There will be dangers where you are going. You will need protection. I am giving you this. He produces a small package wrapped in black velvet. Unwraps it, to reveal the alethiometer.

LYRA: What is it?

MASTER: It is an alethiometer. It was constructed in Prague three hundred years ago. Only six were ever made, and even fewer survive.

Lord Asriel presented this one to the college when he was young.

LYRA: What does it do?

MASTER: It tells the truth. But it does so in a way so deep and so mysterious that adults need a whole library of reference-books to understand it.

LYRA: What about children?

MASTER: Who can say? Innocence can be more acute than learning. If you could read it, Lyra, even if only a very little, it would be the greatest treasure you ever possessed. Respect it. Keep it safe. Tell no-one you have it.

LYRA: Not even Mrs. Coulter?

MASTER: Not even her. Now take it and go.

(c) Somerset West Limited 2003

HIS DARK MATERIALS is based on the novels by Philip Pullman adapted by Nicholas Wright.

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