Three hours and several winning hands later, Lee and Hester bid farewell to several disgruntled locals who'd had their pockets emptied, and were just going in search of an inn for some food and a place to lay their heads when Lee heard his name being called – growled, really.
He turned to find Iorek lurking, or at least attempting to lurk, in an alleyway. Lee watched with amusement as several pedestrians veered off course as they spied the panserbjørn, turning around and scurrying away like ants.
'Afternoon, Iorek,' Lee said, sauntering over. 'Have you struck work for the day? Maybe we could trade stories over a campfire, the way we did back in Tungusk.'
'I heard you went to the town hall, to sign up as a hunter,' Iorek said, ignoring the invitation. 'Did you agree to hunt wolves for the Council?'
'No, I didn't,' Lee answered willingly enough. 'Something about the whole set-up just seemed… off. I decided it wasn't worth the risk.'
Iorek nodded.
'Good. I'm glad,' he said. 'The Council tried to recruit me when I first arrived in the city, but I too declined. You are right, Lee, something strange is happening in those woods and in this city, though I am not sure what it is.'
'Fancy getting some food and discussing it?' Lee suggested.
'I will gladly dine with you. I have an arrangement with a butcher for fresh meat. But we cannot camp as we did in the north. There is a curfew upon this town – no-one leaves the city precincts after ten of the clock until six o'clock the next morning, except by special permission of the city council,' Iorek told him, steely tones making it clear what he thought of that stricture.
'A curfew? You gotta be kidding me,' Lee exclaimed, dismayed. 'What the hell for?'
'To protect the citizens from the wolves, or so the Council claims,' Iorek said. 'The Council is already dispatching hunting parties each night, to try and kill the wolves. They have had no success so far, and people are growing restive.'
'Can't say as I blame them,' Lee muttered. 'Come on, Iorek, let's find some dinner and trade battle stories back at your forge. By the way, where's this Badbury Forest? It seems to be the focus of all the trouble.'
'A mile to the west of the city,' Iorek answered, manoeuvring his bulk with difficulty out of the alley and striding off through the city streets. Lee followed, Hester at his side, her muttered, 'damn it, Lee,' so quiet that only Lee heard it.
#
It was almost midnight when Lee and Hester made their way to the city limits, creeping soft-footed through the shadows.
'Whatever happened to "steering clear," Lee?' Hester grumbled as they snaked through a private garden and over a low wall.
'I just want to take a look at this forest, see what's got everyone here so riled up,' Lee whispered.
'Yeah, right,' Hester murmured back. 'You just want to break bounds. Never could keep you out of anything that had a no entry sign on it.'
This was inarguable, so Lee didn't argue.
'Come on, Hester,' he said, trying his damnedest to sound reasonable. 'You're telling me you're not the slightest bit curious about what's happening here? Even Iorek couldn't tell us anything – or wouldn't. It's not like him to be this secretive.'
'Sure, I'm curious,' Hester sniffed. 'Just don't see why it's always us that has to do the snooping round.'
'Well, it doesn't look like anyone else is going to,' Lee remarked.
Silence descended as they crouched low and darted across a narrow stone bridge, then into the dark country lanes that twisted round and snarled up the countryside surrounding Oxford. It was fortunate it was a clear night, with a half-moon illuminating the land with gentle white light, otherwise Lee would have been as good as blind. The anbaric streetlights ended at the city limits, and he didn't dare use a torch to light his way.
Despite the dark, it was a short journey to Badbury Forest. It loomed up before them suddenly, the boundary between the woods and the fields as sharp and unforgiving as a sword.
At first, it looked like an unyielding black hulk, the side of a ship perhaps, or an ancient castle. But then their eyes began to adjust, and the blackness resolved itself into the trunks of individual trees, their leaves whispering in the cool night breeze. A dirt path that started almost at their feet, lit by the moon, twined away through the woods. Inviting them.
Lee hesitated then, the impulse to investigate fading. Woodlands at night were no joke to navigate, even in the midst of the English countryside. Surprisingly, it was Hester who loped forward.
'Come on,' she whispered. 'We've come too far to stop now. Just make sure you've got your revolver handy.'
Lee undid his holster, and together they stepped onto the path.
They wandered through the woods for perhaps an hour and saw and heard nothing untoward. The twit-twoo of a couple of owls, the rustle of leaves underfoot, a flicker of movement at the limit of Lee's vision as some small creature fled his approach.
Lee was just thinking of retracing their steps and calling it a night when Hester halted so suddenly that he nearly tripped over her.
'There's something watching us. Dead ahead,' she murmured to him. 'Go slow, now.'
Lee followed her gaze. At first, he could see nothing but the outlines of trees and undergrowth, blurred by the night into splodges of grey and purple and deepest brown. Then his eyes, trained by years of flying miles above the earth and navigating by the stars, saw it.
A wolf. A small wolf by wolfish standards, its shoulder not much higher than Lee's knee. It was slender, in a way that hinted at youth rather than starvation. It was concealing itself against a patch of brambles, holding so still as to be almost invisible. If Hester hadn't been on the lookout, they would have walked right past it, none the wiser.
Lee frowned slightly. It was difficult to tell in the half-light cast by moon and stars, but the wolf's fur seemed to be an unusual shade. It looked light, the dull sheen of old gold, rather than the grey and white Lee was used to seeing on wild wolves in the north.
'It's a wolf,' he whispered to Hester.
'I can see that Lee. Why's it just standing there?'
'Probably because we're just standing here, too,' Lee muttered. He stared at the wolf, staring at them. 'What's got the Council so riled up about a wolf like that? I don't think it's minded to do us any harm.'
As his voice faded into the night, the wolf moved. In one graceful, sinuous movement, it flowed from the shelter of the bramble thicket to stand before them on the path, regarding them with great dark sceptical eyes.
There was a movement in the thicket, as if something had startled, but when Lee flicked a quick glance over there, he could discern nothing. So, he turned back the wolf. It didn't appear vicious… just curious. Yet, it was remarkably strange for a wolf to be so bold. It was a beautiful animal, and the more Lee gazed upon it, the more remarkable it appeared. Its fur, a thousand gleaming colours ranging from honey to gold to pale daffodil, those compelling eyes, so vivid and not a trace of fear in their depths…
He felt drawn to it. He longed, fiercely, to stroke to creature's head, to wrap his arms around it and shelter it, to murmur reassuring words in its pointed ears. There was no logical reason for the sensation – it was an unthinking, instinctive reaction to the wolf's presence. Almost without realising it, Lee crouched down, extending his left hand, beckoning the wolf closer.
The wolf came, padding forward slowly, eyes never leaving Lee's face. Even Hester was rapt, as the wolf sniffed at his outstretched fingers, and then butted its head against Lee's hand.
A gunshot whiplashed through the night.
Lee started and lost his balance. He fell forward.
His abrupt movement panicked the wolf, and it snapped at his arm, teeth sinking through the leather of his coat to rip into flesh, to draw blood.
Lee cried out, more in shock than pain, and the wolf ran.
A moment later, Lee and Hester might have been the only ones in the wood, for all was peaceful again, and the wolf had vanished.
Lee righted himself with his good arm, and peeled back his sleeve, hissing at the soreness, and tried to assess the damage – difficult in the dark. Hester came, pressed herself against his leg in reassurance and took a gander.
'It's not bad,' she whispered. 'A couple of nasty scratches, but I don't think you'll need more than a stitch or two. It wasn't aiming to hurt you, or else you'd be a missing a hand right now.'
'Hmph,' said Lee, who was well aware of how powerful a wolf's jaws were. He'd seen them sever a cow's tail with one bite. He dug in his pocket for a handkerchief, and for a wonder he had one. He bound the injury as best he could, using a few strips torn from his shirt hem to staunch the blood, and rose to his feet.
'We'd best get out of here,' he said to Hester.
'Best idea you've had all night,' she grumbled. 'Just go in the opposite direction from that gunshot. It didn't sound too close, the sound carried because it's so quiet at the minute.'
They hurried back the way they came, following the path, each keeping an eye out for further trouble.
But the trouble made itself known through sound, not sight. They had gone perhaps halfway, picking their way with care over tree roots and stones as the moon sank lower in the velvety sky, when they heard the scream.
It was high-pitched, shrill – and unmistakeably that of a child.
Lee froze, every nerve in his body thrilling and his stomach hollowed out from shock. But his terror lasted only for an instant. He recovered and turned in the direction the sound had emanated from.
Hester, who had likewise frozen from sudden fear, twitched her long ears.
'That was a kid,' she whispered. 'Not far from here, either. Go slow, now.'
Lee took one deep breath and stepped off the path.
He and Hester weaved their way between the trees, Hester taking the lead, picking her way through the undergrowth, finding a safe route for Lee in the darkness. It was only a minute or two before she halted.
'Stop, Lee!' she hissed. 'There's a huge hole right in front of us. Something's in it, I hear them struggling.'
She was right: Lee could make out a deep, impenetrable darkness, as impersonal as the space between stars, looming before him. And he could hear movement – something trapped, and scuffling.
'Hold still, Lyra!' someone was whispering, their tone frantic. 'Someone's coming!'
Lee dug in his pockets, deciding now was the time to risk an anbaric light. He found the torch and flicked it on, taking care to keep the beam pointed at the ground. It was what he wanted to examine anyway.
The beam found a large hole, six feet wide by at least eight feet deep, a real tiger-trap. But what it contained was no tiger. Instead, pressing herself against the far dirt wall, trying in vain to avoid the torch's beam, was a young girl and her daemon.
Lee stared down at her. She didn't look more than ten or eleven, and although like most children she was a scruffy article her clothes and oilskin coat were well-made and expensive. Despite her perilous situation, Lee couldn't see any her sporting any injuries. But there was a feral aspect to her – her hair stuck out from her head in a wild tangle, she was crouched like an animal ready to spring, and she was actually baring her teeth at him. Her daemon, in the form of a great Alsatian dog, was by her side, snarling like a devil.
'Well, hello, miss,' Lee said. 'How are you this pleasant evening?'
She quit grimacing at him, apparently from sheer surprise.
'Fine,' she answered shortly.
'You don't look fine,' Lee observed.
'I'll be all right. Good night,' she responded. Her daemon, listening to the strange exchange, ceased snarling and pressed closer to her.
'You plan on getting yourself out of that man-trap?' Lee queried. 'That'll be a sight worth seeing.'
'It's a wolf trap, not a man trap,' the girl said, with the air of a teacher speaking to a particularly slow child.
'My mistake. Want some assistance?' Lee asked. This was evidently the wrong thing to say, as the girl scowled at him. And growled. She growled. Her daemon growled too; his hackles raised.
'So you can lock me in a cage?' the girl demanded.
'Now why'd we want to do that?' asked Hester, loping to the rim of the pit and peering down. The Alsatian-daemon regarded her with interest, forgetting to snarl.
'You're a hunter. There are hunters all through this forest, digging these pits,' the girl answered, once again with the air of someone being forced to state the blindingly obvious. 'They want to catch wolves, or anything that they find.'
'Well, I'm no hunter, miss,' Lee informed her. 'Just a man out for a night-time stroll through the woods.'
The girl looked so supremely unimpressed by this statement that Lee couldn't help chuckling. Even Hester's ears twitched in amusement.
'He's lying!' the girl's daemon snapped, not sharing the joke.
'True. Actually, I was snooping around, trying to find out what's going on around here. Now, will you accept my help?' Lee asked, figuring the conversation had gone on long enough.
The girl hesitated, her expression solidifying into mutiny. But then voices pricked at their ears – loud, eager voices, accompanied by the muffled clop-clop of hooves on packed earth.
'The alarm's gone off, there must be something in there!'
'Yeah, probably a rabbit you daft nonce. You think a real wolf would just fall in a hole? You're imagining stuff that isn't there. Like earlier, shooting at shadows.'
'I thought I saw something, all right? Come on, let's check the trap. Whatever it is, it'll be worth a couple of dollars. More, if it's a wolf.'
The girl's bravado was wiped from her face, and she looked rather desperate. Lee didn't hesitate. He stripped his coat off, grimacing in pain as he tugged it over his injured arm, and dangled it into the hole. The girl lunged and grabbed it, hanging on like a monkey, and Lee hauled her up. Her daemon turned into an owl and flew up to land on the edge of the pit, watching anxiously as the girl scrambled to comparative safety.
It was comparative because just as the girl was on firm ground, reaching for her owl-daemon in reassurance, two torch beams scythed through the night air, searching out the wolf trap like a striking snake. Lee flicked his own torch off, grabbed the girl's shoulder and hustled her and her daemon behind the nearest tree. She made a noise of protest, but he hushed her, putting his finger over his lips, and she went quiet.
All of them, man, girl and daemons, listened with straining ears to the sounds of two men dismounting, their horses snorting and stamping in the dark, and thrashing their way over to the pit.
'Nothing,' sighed one of them in disappointment.
'No, look!' said a new voice, probably a daemon. 'The other side of the pit – those are shoe prints! Someone's been prowling around here. Get looking for them. A trespasser will be worth thirty dollars from the Council.'
The men and their daemons began stomping through the woods again. Lee risked a glance round their shielding tree, and realised with relief that rather than moving around the pit in a pincer movement that would lead them directly to himself and the girl, they were both traipsing around the same side. He tapped the wild girl on the shoulder and gestured in the opposite direction. She nodded, and together they began creeping away.
They both ducked down low, trying to move swiftly while conversely not making any sudden movements, which was just as difficult as it sounded. But they made it to the opposite side of the pit, where the hunters' horses were waiting patiently.
'Someone's definitely been here,' said one hunter.
'Two someones,' said the other. 'I don't like it. Better call for reinforcements.'
He blew three short blasts on a whistle, and Lee cursed inwardly. Soon this section of woodland would be crawling with hunters and it would go very hard with him and the wild girl. Alderman Danvers didn't strike Lee as the kind of man to go easy on a trespasser simply because she was a child.
He glanced at the horses, which were both brown, placid, stocky animals and made up his mind. He grabbed his fellow interloper by her coat and drew her to stand beside the nearest horse. He let go and formed his hands into a stirrup for her.
'Come on,' he whispered to the girl. 'We're riding out of here.'
The girl didn't hesitate. Her daemon turned into a moth and flitted to land on her hair, while she placed her foot trustingly into Lee's hands and let him lift her upwards until she could sling her leg over the horse's back. The horse shuffled but made no other motion to protest his new rider. Lee bent to scoop up Hester, and then swung himself into the saddle behind his passenger. He hadn't ridden in years – not since his last visit to Texas, in fact – but he remembered how to make the horse go, and stop, and how to hang on in-between.
He squeezed his heels into the horse's sides and tugged at the reins to turn it about – no easy task in the woods, hemmed in on all sides by trees. But the obliging animal managed to wriggle round, and Lee urged it into a trot, and then, as he spied a clear path, a canter. The other horse, alarmed by its companion's motion, followed after them, cantering along beside them for a few moments before it slowed, confused by its lack of rider.
Shouts of anger and alarm sounded behind them, but they were well away – Lee, the wild girl and their daemons, riding to safety in the darkness.
Author's Notes: Badbury Forest actually exists - well, sort of. It's Badbury Woods in our world, which is a stone's throw from Oxford and has a history dating back to the Iron Age. In Lyra's world, the woods are much wilder and more extensive, hence the wolves (and a few other things...)
My mental casting again:
Lyra - Dafne Keen
Also, that scene. THAT SCENE. People watching 'His Dark Materials' in the UK will know exactly what I mean. If you haven't seen episode 3 yet, then prepare to be emotionally WRECKED.
Till next time, dear readers...