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At once the hawk screa In response there darted from the sky first one, then two and three and onflies, all ski so fast it seemed they were bound to crash into one another; but the reflexes of the insects and the skills of their riders were so acute that instead, they seeht color over and around the children

"Lyra," said the lady on the hawk, "and Will: follow us now, and we shall take you to your daes and lifted away froht of Salmakia fall into the other, and knew in a th ofShe cradled her body close, and ran with Will under the cloud of dragonflies, stuently against her heart all the time

"Left! Left!" cried the voice fro-riven ht Will saw a body of ray wolf daeonflies uns were no use, and the Gallivespians were a fro a hand, an ar back to the insect as it wheeled and skiain They were so quick it was almost impossible to follow The soldiers turned and fled in panic, their discipline shattered

But then came hoofbeats in a sudden thunder from behind, and the children turned in disallop, and already one or two had nets in their hands, whirling theonflies, to snap the nets like whips and fling the broken insects aside

"This way!" caet do!"

They did, and felt the earth shake under them Could that be hoofbeats? Lyra raised her head and wiped the wet hair fro quite different fro in her chest "Oh, Iorek!"

Will pulled her down again at once, for not only Iorek Byrnison but a regi directly for them Just in time Lyra tucked her head down, and then Iorek bounded over theht, and crush the enehed nospun to face Will and Lyra, ere struggling upright

"Iorek - behind you - they’ve got nets!" Will cried, because the riders were almost on them

Before the bear could h the air, and instantly Iorek was enveloped in steel-strong cobweb He roared, rearing high, slashing with huge paws at the rider But the net was strong, and although the horse whinnied and reared back in fear, Iorek couldn’t fight free of the coils

"Iorek!" Will shouted "Keep still! Don’t h the puddles and over the tussocks as the rider tried to control the horse, and reached Iorek just at the moh the air

But Will kept his head: instead of slashing wildly and getting in le, he watched the flow of the net and cut it through in a round, and then Will leapt at Iorek, feeling with his left hand, cutting with his right The great bear stood motionless as the boy darted here and there over his vast body, cutting, freeing, clearing the way

"Now go!" Will yelled, leaping clear, and Iorek seemed to explode upward full into the chest of the nearest horse

The rider had raised his scimitar to sweep down at the bear’s neck, but Iorek Byrnison in his are could withstand him Horse and rider, both of theathered his balance, looked around to see how the land lay, and roared to the children:

"On my back! Now!"

Lyra leapt up, and Will followed Pressing the cold iron between their legs, they felt the an to aging with the strange cavalry, helped by the Gallivespians, whose stings enraged the horses The lady on the blue hawk ski the trees in the valley!"

Iorek reached the top of a little rise in the ground and paused Ahead of therove about a quarter of a uns was firing shell after shell, howling high overhead, and so flares, too, that burst just under the clouds and drifted doard the trees, et for the guns

And fighting for control of the grove itself were a score or hosts As soon as they saw that little group of trees, Lyra and Will both knew that their daemons were in there, and that if they didn’t reach the there every ht Will and Lyra could see them very clearly now

An explosion just over the ridge shook the ground and flung stones and clods of earth high into the air Lyra cried out, and Will had to clutch his chest

"Hold on," Iorek growled, and began to charge

A flare burst high above, and another and another, drifting slowly doith a lare Another shell burst, closer this time, and they felt the shock of the air and a second or two later the sting of earth and stones on their faces Iorek didn’t falter, but they found it hard to hold on They couldn’t dig their fingers into his fur - they had to grip the armor between their knees, and his back was so broad that both of the up as another shell burst nearby

A dozen witches werethick-leaved, bushy branches, and with the theain, hiding it frorove was only a few yards away Will and Lyra both felt theirselves close by - an excitement, a wild hope chilled with fear, because the Specters were thick a the weakness at the heart

"They’re afraid of the knife," said a voice beside the stopped so suddenly that Will and Lyra tumbled off his back

"Lee!" said Iorek "Lee, my comrade, I have never seen this before You are dead - what a to?"

"Iorek, old feller, you don’t know the half of it We’ll take over now - the Specters aren’t afraid of bears Lyra, Will - come this way, and hold up that knife - "

The blue haooped once ray-haired lady said, "Don’t waste a second - go in and find your dae"

"Thank you, Lady! Thank you all!" said Lyra, and the hawk took wing

Will could see Lee Scoresby’s ghost dirove, but they had to say farewell to Iorek Byrnison

"Iorek, my dear, there en’t words - bless you, bless you!"

"Thank you, King Iorek," said Will

"No time Go Go!"

He pushed theed after Lee Scoresby’s ghost into the undergrowth, slashing to right and left with the knife The light here was broken and

"Keep close," he called to Lyra, and then cried out as a bramble sliced across his cheek

All around thele The shadows ht have been ghosts: both children felt the little dashes of cold they kneell Then they heard voices all around:

"This way!"

"Over here!"

"Keep going - we’re holding them off!"

"Not far now!"

And then came a cry in a voice that Lyra knew and loved better than any other:

"Oh, co - I’m here - "

She hurled herself into the dark, sobbing and shaking, and Will tore down branches and ivy and slashed at brahost-voices rose in a cla

But the Specters had found their target, too, and they pressed in through the snagging tangle of bush and briar and root and branch,no more resistance than snities seerove, where John Parry’s ghost ht the and ith fear, exhaustion, nausea, and pain, but giving up was inconceivable Lyra tore at the brambles with her bare hands, Will slashed and hacked to left and right, as around thee

"There!" cried Lee "See ’e rock - "

A wildcat, tildcats, spitting and hissing and slashing Both were daemons, and Will felt that if there were time he’d easily be able to tell which was Pantalaimon; but there wasn’t time, because a Specter eased horribly out of the nearest patch of shadow and glided toward the daemons

Will leapt over the last obstacle, a fallen tree trunk, and plunged the knife into the unresisting shio nuers around the hilt, and the pale forain

Almost there; and the daemons were mad with fear, because h the trees, and only the valiant ghosts were holding theh?" said John Parry’s ghost

Will held up the knife, and had to stop as a racking bout of nausea shook hi left in his stomach, and the spasm hurt dreadfully Lyra beside hi why, leapt for the daeh the rock froasping

In went the knife, along, down, back Lee Scoresby’s ghost looked through and saide, quiet prairie under a brilliant ht he’d been blessed

Will leapt across the clearing and seized the nearest daemon while Lyra scooped up the other

And even in that horrible urgency, even at that moment of utmost peril, each of them felt the sa Will’s dae Pantalailance away from each other’s eyes

"Good-bye, Mr Scoresby!" Lyra cried, looking around for hiood-bye!"

"Good-bye, o well!"

Lyra scrah, but Will stood still and looked into the eyes of his father’s ghost, brilliant in the shadows Before he left hi he had to say

Will said to his father’s ghost, "You said I was a warrior You told ue with it Father, you rong I fought because I had to I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do And I will choose, because now I’m free"

His father’s smile was full of pride and tenderness "Well done, my boy Well done indeed," he said

Will couldn’t see hih after Lyra

And now that their purpose was achieved, now the children had found their daemons and escaped, the dead warriors allowed their ato last

Out of the little grove, away frohty form of his old companion the armor-clad bear, the last little scrap of the consciousness that had been the aeronaut Lee Scoresby floated upward, just as his great balloon had done soshells, deaf to the explosions and the shouts and cries of anger and warning and pain, conscious only of his h the heavy clouds and came out under the brilliant stars, where the ato for him