The Golden Compass: Chapter Sixteen Summary & Analysis

Lyra focuses her attention on hiding her furs. Fortunately, getting the kids into the building is chaotic, so she's able to slip out of her furs and hide them in the ceiling of her dormitory. She hides the alethiometer with them. She and Pan decide to say that they were kidnapped, and Lyra realizes that she's afraid of Mrs. Coulter more than anything else. She focuses on the fact that the gyptians and Iorek are coming to save her. In the cafeteria, Lyra discovers that the other children are just as afraid of Mrs. Coulter as she is. Quietly, Lyra tells the children to be ready when the fire alarm goes off next.

Mrs. Coulter passes by the door of the cafeteria and as she does, the children fearfully stop talking. A girl named Annie tells Lyra that Mrs. Coulter usually goes to the conference room. Later in the evening, Lyra realizes that the adults are acting like there's an emergency, and she figures that they discovered the escaped dæmons. In the dormitory before bed, Lyra tells her roommates that she's going into the ceiling to listen in on the conversation in the conference room. Annie insists on going too, but Pan overpowers her dæmon. The girls stuff clothes into Lyra's bed in case someone checks on them. Lyra and Pan make their way slowly around ducts and pipes, listening as they go. Finally, they reach the conference room.

Lyra listens to Mrs. Coulter interrogate three men about the dæmons' escape. A man explains that the alarm on the exterior building was linked to the fire alarm, so they missed it. They discuss that the dæmons escaped during the fire drill, which means that any adult or child could've done it. A doctor assures Mrs. Coulter that this is impossible. The conversation then turns to "the new separator." A doctor says that it's a real advancement and means that patients are less likely to die of shock. The “Maystadt anbaric scalpel” and Lord Asriel's discovery of an alloy that insulates the body from a dæmon make the procedure much better. Pan and Lyra tremble in fear.

The doctor asks about Lord Asriel, and Mrs. Coulter says that since he continued his "heretical" work in Svalbard, he's too dangerous and has been sentenced to death. She asks again about the new scalpel. The doctor says that it's a guillotine of sorts, and they place a child and their dæmon in two compartments and sever the connection with the guillotine. Mrs. Coulter, pleased, excuses herself. The doctors talk quietly about Lord Asriel, what he's doing with his experiments on Dust, and Mrs. Coulter's cruel interest in seeing children and dæmons being ripped apart. Lyra involuntarily cries out and twitches, kicking a pipe. Before she can crawl away, a man pushes up the ceiling tile and wrestles her down. She struggles until she suddenly loses strength and sees that a man is holding Pan. Pan shakes in horror.

The doctors deliberate and then decide to secretly perform intercision on Lyra and Pan to keep Lyra from talking. They carry her and Pan to a brightly lit room. Lyra screams and Pan escapes. He changes rapidly, fights the men and their dæmons, and leaps toward Lyra. The three men grab them and toss Lyra in one mesh cage and Pan in the other. The guillotine hangs between and above them. As it rises, Lyra hears Mrs. Coulter enter. When Mrs. Coulter sees Lyra, the golden monkey frees Pan from the cage. Pan clings to Lyra and Mrs. Coulter takes them to a bedroom.