I honestly did not know what to think! Genre expectations had me thinking "well, of course they miraculously survived, they're far too powerful and too important to their world and the other characters to be bumped off so early, and in such an ignominous fashion". But between Abhorsen getting killed off at the end of Sabriel, and Lirael's subversion of those same sorts of genre expectations for what should usually happen when an unhappy orphan discovers their long-last family background and special magical heritage...I really couldn't tell which direction he was going to go for.