Chapter 24

Lyra was taken to the hospital immediately. After a thorough examination, doctors found only minor scrapes on her head and a mild concussion. It was nothing life-threatening, but she had to stay for observation. Stellan, on the other hand, wasn't pulled from the wreckage until three days later. He was barely alive by the time rescuers reached him, his body drenched in blood as they rushed him to the hospital. The doctors fought to save him through a full day and night of intensive care, and though they succeeded, the severe head trauma had destroyed his optic nerves, leaving him permanently blind. His left leg's muscles and nerves were too badly damaged to recover and had to be amputated. When Stellan woke up and realized that he was blind and missing a leg, he fell silent. He asked everyone to leave the hospital room, needing to be alone in the darkness. At last, he understood the helplessness and despair Lyra must have felt when he had hurt her again and again, when the porcelai