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    fire spilled out of o t once.

    tartar officer, faced tack, didnt ate. A long self into to keep off tc to overcome troops ly brave. to one knee in groups of four and fired tice range, not budging an incy bulk led to later they were dead.

    lorek struck again, ting to one side, slass fle  all. Lyra urged t into ts. t get aartars s of Bolvangar.

    So so get ts be moving out toic nigo love it as Pantalaimon was doing, a ing in his own propulsion.

    “here we going?” someone said.

    “t  snow!”

    “ty coming,” Lyra told ty gyptians or more. I bet tions of yours, too. All tian families t lost a kid, t someone.”

    “I ent a gyptian,” a boy said.

    “Dont matter. take you anyway.”

    “here?” someone said querulously.

    “s ians o take you  got to go on a bit furt be far off.”

    “Dyou see t bear!” one boy  out, just like t!”

    “I never knew daemons could be killed,” someone else said.

    talking noement and relief ongue. As long as t moving, it didnt matter if talked.

    “Is t true,” said a girl, “about here?”

    “Yea Id ever see anyone  their daemon.

    But on t any daemon.  asking for ony Makarios.”

    “I know ook  a week back....”

    “ell, t   them.

    “And a little bit after  there.”

    “Its true,” said Roger. “And Lyra let em out during the fire drill.”

    “Yeaa. “I didnt kno first, but I seen em fly a goose.”

    “But s torture! ?”

    “Dust,” suggested someone doubtfully.

    But t!”  no suc made t up! I dont believe in it.”

    “s o the zeppelin!”

    ts, ill continuing, t lengt floating freely at t any longer; t was rising a globe of—

    “Lee Scoresbys balloon!” Lyra cried, and clapped -tened .

    t   far. It o fill  of to escape by t crippled t! “Come on, keep moving, else youll freeze,” soo in alaimon found tating, and as a wolverine  one girls squirrel daemon w lying across ly.

    “Get in ! Make yourself big and  inside  once.

    trouble  coal silk  as ter

    tories and laboratories far a couldnt really cope. Lyras furs looked ragged and tank, but t th in.

    “If  find tians soon, t going to last,” so Pantalaimon.

    “Keep em moving theyre finished.

    You know w Farder Coram said....”

    Farder Coram old ales of er—al rue. But te clear about one point,  keep going.

    “ta go?” said a little boy.

    “S making us  o kill us,” said a girl.

    “Rat here,” someone said.

    “I ! Its ation. t drinks and everything.”

    “But its all on fire!”

    “ o do out  arve to death....”

    Lyras mind ions t flec and untouc beyond and at all.

    But it gave rengt of a sno, and s a boy racks! ians, so tracksll lead us to w keep walking!”

    Big flakes of snoo fall. Soon it oget t of sigs of Bolvangar, and t glo came from t radiance of ts; but by peering closely, t trail lorek Byrnison he snow.

    Lyra encouraged, bullied, , , pused tenderly, alaimon (by tate of eacold  was needed in each case.

    Ill get t saying to o get em and Ill bloody get em.

    Roger . Soon t to cling on to one anoto keep from getting lost, and Lyra t, per...Dig he snow...

    S t somet. It drifted in and out of hearing.

    And  too ant and o be sure of, blanketed by millions of sno by little puffing gusts of  migians sledge dogs, or it migs of tundra, or even t children.

    S any lig be gs as umbling back into Bolvangar.

    But ttle yelloern beams, not te glare of anbaric ligain ed ians ing co sledges, covering t to cony Costa ly only to hug him again and shake him for joy. And Roger...

    “Rogers coming o Farder Coram. “It o get in t place. ell go back to Jordan in ts t noise—”

    It  snarl again, t engine, like a crazed spy-fly ten times the size.

    Suddenly t sent alaimon couldnt defend he golden monkey—

    Mrs. Coulter—

    tling, biting, scratc Pantalaimon, inging, lasearing. Mrs. Coulter, meanense feeling, o torized sledge, and Lyra struggled as  to be isolated in a little blizzard of ts of thick swirling flakes a few inches ahead.

    “o tians hing. “help me! Farder Coram! Lord Faa! Oh, God, help!”

    Mrs. Coulter sartars.

    ter struggling, and picked up Lyra o tunned and dazed.

    A rifle banged, and tians realized w was happening.

    But firing at targets you cant see is dangerous artars, in a tigo blaze at o t tians dared not s back for fear of ting Lyra.

    Oterness s! tiredness! Still dazed, o find Pantalaimon desperately figill, ened tig grimly ?

    Not Roger?

    Yes, Roger, battering at Mrs. Coulter s and feet, ling  o be struck doartar  green flutter across —

    A great sed curtains of snoo t later and t ja, rig, eet fur—

    too, tearing  of ter and clinging tigtering in amazement as a greater fluttering s all around tc ragged black s close enougo toucced o pull tring and to t of a mailed and loartar  away—

    And t at t the ground.

    Up! Into midair Lyra and Roger o a cloud-pine branccting tense o t and somethe ground.

    tumbled into t of Lee Scoresbys balloon.

    “Skip inside,” called texan, “and bring your friend, by all means.  bear?”

    Lyra sa tc buoyancy of to th.

    “Get in!” so Roger, and scrambled over t to fall in a snoer Roger fell on top of y noise he very ground shake.

    “Cmon, lorek! On board, old feller!” yelled Lee Scoresby, and over the bear in a hideous creak of wicker and bending wood.

    At once t lohe rope.

    ted immediately and surged upo t a rate Lyra could scarcely believe. After a moment t, and up t, faster and faster, so t s no rocket could  tly. So Roger on t, pressed doion.

    Lee Scoresby ering exan yells of deligening  clao all t before packing te pieces in a pile. Somecs told t tco the upper airs.

    Little by little Lyra recovered beat. S up and looked around.

    t ruments, and ttled air, and a variety of otoo small or confusing to make out in t this a cloud?” she said.

    “Sure is. rap your friend in some furs before urns into an icicle. Its cold  its gonna get colder.” “how did you find us?”

    “itccs to talk to you.  clear of t our bearings and t and have a yarn.”

    “lorek,” said Lyra, “ted, and settled doo lick t meant t t ilted to one side, but t didnt matter. Roger  lorek Byrnison took no more notice of ented o t, just under anding, and peering o the swirling cloud.

    Only a feer t of togetill rising rapidly, soared on into the heavens.

    a sigly above t in a   of it. Great srembled and parted like angels ing; cascades of luminescent glory tumbled doo lie in serfalls.

    So Lyra gasped at t, and t almost more wondrous.

    As far as to tions, a tumbled sea of ended  a break. Soft peaks and vaporous c mostly it looked like a solid mass of ice.

    And rising t in ones and twos and larger groups as well came small black scheir branches of cloud-pine.

    tly,  any effort, up and too one side or anoto steer. And one of the archer whod saved Lyra from Mrs.

    Coulter, flely alongside t, and Lyra saime.

    Ser; and fair,  green eyes; and clad like all tcrips of black silk, but ens. So feel no cold at all. Around tle red floeed, and seemed to rein it in a yard from Lyras wondering gaze.

    “Lyra?”

    “Yes! And are you Serafina Pekkala?”

    “I am.”

    Lyra could see  before. ions.

    “ tcself t Lyra could  sound of it.

    “Yes. I got it in my pocket, safe.”

    Great s told of anoto glide in a  continued to rise.

    “tians e to Bolvangar,” said Serafina Pekkala. “ty-taff, and t ligo every part of t still stood. to destroy it completely.”

    “ about Mrs. Coulter?”

    “No sign of her.”

    “And t all the kids safely?”

    “Every one. they are all safe.”

    Serafina Pekkala cried out in a cohe balloon.

    “Mr. Scoresby,” she rope, if you please.”

    “Maam, Im very grateful. ere still rising. I guess ake to pull us north?”

    “e are strong” was all she said.

    Lee Scoresby tacout rope to t gat itself  once six ced to, caugo pull, urging toar.

    As to move in t direction, Pan-talaimon came to perc as a tern. Rogers daemon came out to look, but crept back again soon, for Roger  asleep, as s.

    “So, Lyra,” said Serafina Pekkala. “Do you know wo Lord Asriel?”

    Lyra oniso take er, of course!” she said.

    Sion; it  motive, from so long ago t s forgotten it.

    “Or... to s it. ere going to  away.”

    But as s, it sounded absurd. Escape from Svalbard? Impossible! “try, anyly. “hy?”

    “I to tell you,” said Serafina Pekkala.

    “About Dust?”

    It  ted to know.

    “Yes, among ot you are tired no .

    ell talk when you wake up.”

    Lyra ya ing ya lasted almost a minute, or felt like it, and for all t Lyra struggled, s resist t and touco talaimon fluttered doo his sleeping place by her neck.

    tctled o a steady speed beside t as toward Svalbard.