Tony led them down another gangplank and a little way down the bank before veering off down a dirt track leading away from the river. A few minutes' wall brought them to a copse of trees, mostly birch but with a vast, ancient oak tree at the centre. Ma Costa and Tony led them to the oak. Despite its verdant branches, the great trunk was hollow. The was a gash in the bark plenty big enough for a grown man to squeeze in through.

Tony reached in, and to the admiration of the fugitives, lifted up a wooden cover, disguised to look like the interior of the tree.

'It looks small, but it leads to a hideaway,' he explained briefly. 'Been using it for years. Get down, all of you, and wait till I come for you. Here's a torch. No-one will see it if you turn it on.'

Serafina went first with Kasia, both leaping down gracefully. Her long slender hand emerged from the entrance, and Lyra went forward trustingly, taking Serafina's hand and scrambling down. Lee went last, Hester tucked in his jacket, lowering himself legs first and then pushing off the edge of the hole.

It was a short drop, not more than four feet, onto packed earth. Lee crouched and glanced upwards just in time to see Tony replacing the wooden cover and plunging him into darkness so absolute that the sun and stars might have burned themselves out for all Lee knew.

'Torch, Lee,' said Hester.

He groped in his pocket for his anbaric torch, but was beaten to it by Lyra, who had turned on the light Tony provided. She shone it around, and Lee found they were in a cave of sorts. It was low-ceilinged, and even Lyra was being forced to crouch. But it was extensive, measuring probably thirty feet in diameter. It was hard to tell, because the roots of the oak plunged from the ceiling all the way into the floor in some instances, forming natural pillars.

'Not bad,' he murmured, impressed.

'What do we do now?' asked Lyra. Pantalaimon was a tawny owl, gazing round with wide eyes.

'Now we wait,' shrugged Lee. 'Not much else to do.'

He settled himself on the earthen floor and Hester hopped onto this lap. Lyra came and settled herself beside him, while Serafina sank gracefully to the floor and leaned against a tree root.

'Do you think Iorek will be all right?' murmured Lyra after a minute.

'He's difficult to hide, but I have faith in these Gyptians,' Lee answered. 'And besides, he's been through worse. The Tunguska Campaign, for instance.'

'Why don't you tell us about it?' suggested Serafina.

'You sure? 'Cause most of it is me trying to work out how much Iorek weighed by then – the Tartars had cut him off and been starving him out.'

'Yes, tell us,' urged Lyra, leaning against him.

'All right. Pretty ferocious campaign, the Tunguska. I was up in that region, making deliveries of ammunition and trying to keep clear of the fighting –'

'That didn't happen, of course.'

'Hush up, Hester. Well, I'd flown into the military base at Krasnoyarsk, made my delivery, and was just about to high-tail it out of there when one of the soldiers mentioned that the battalion of armoured bears were under siege…'

###

Lee had finished telling stories about the Tunguska Campaign, and Lyra was in the throes of a detailed account of how she and some 'townies' had won a legendary victory over some brickburners' kids through strategy, courage and copious slinging of clay when there was a knock on the cover concealing the cave. A moment later, daylight came pouring in through the entrance and everyone winced and shielded their eyes.

'All clear!' called Tony Costa. 'Come on up!'

One by one they emerged, blinking, into the Oxford afternoon, which despite the weak and watery sunlight now straggling through the clouds felt warm and humid after sheltering in the cave. Lee hoisted Lyra up first, with Tony's help, then Serafina leapt up with no apparent effort, and finally Lee hauled himself out. Once outside, he was relieved to see Iorek waiting for them, along with Lord Faa, Farder Coram and Ma Costa.

'Iorek, old fellow,' Lee greeted him. 'Good to see you.'

'Where did they hide you?' Lyra asked eagerly.

'In a culvert, just off the river,' Ma Costa answered before Iorek could say anything. 'He went in the water with only his nose poking out and we covered him up with pondweed and branches. Those pillocks from the Council walked right past him, didn't spot a thing.'

'Did they cause much distress?' asked Serafina.

'They created a mess, made a lot of noise,' growled Lord Faa. 'Threw their weight around. Nothing we haven't been through before, but I'd willingly throttle each and every one of those bullies given the chance. Our people are quite literally being harried out of Oxford. We have no peace from the Council under Danvers.'

'He was here, by the way,' Farder Coram informed the fugitives. 'Alderman Danvers, overseeing the search. He wanted every boat investigated, and his men were interrogating everyone they could lay hands on. They were tipping things overboard, too, until Lord Faa threatened to sue the Council for property damages.'

'Bastard,' Lee muttered, face turned aside to keep Lyra from hearing.

'Do you think he knew we were here?' asked Lyra. Lord Faa shook his head.

'No. I had a quick chat with Derrick Volantyne just now – the other Gyptian you rescued a couple of nights ago. He was in Oxford this morning, doing a bit of spying for us. He told me the Council has been raiding properties in the city all morning – warehouses, pub cellars, even some boarding houses for under-scholars. Danvers is obviously targeting anywhere he thinks you could be hiding.'

'Son of a bitch,' said Lee, not bothering to lower his voice this time. 'Does the Council have that sort of power? To carry out raids and so on?'

'Not legally, no,' answered Lord Faa, looking troubled. 'That's police jurisdiction, and the Oxford constabulary have usually let the Gyptians be, provided we don't cause trouble. But it seems Danvers has requested special permission from Parliament to enforce Council regulations by hiring private security – or Magisterium security. That's how he's managed to enforce the curfew.'

'It's causing a lot of friction between the Council and the police,' Ma Costa added. 'A few officers have even begun tipping us off when they get wind of Council raids and the like.'

'I'll have to check on my balloon if I get chance,' said Lee. 'But if you're all still willing, let's focus on getting Asriel out of Jordan College.'

'I'll go and round up some volunteers,' said Lord Faa at once. 'I'll need four more men. We'll bring you all back aboard the boats when we've straightened everything up, let you all get some rest before tonight. Wait here for now. Mr Scoresby, let us know where your balloon is stored, and I'll send someone to check on it.'

Lee did so. He watched as Lord Faa departed and turned back to Lyra and Serafina Pekkala. He stripped off his coat and spread it below a lovely old birch.

'Might as well get comfy while we wait,' he remarked.

'We'll bring you all something to eat,' said Ma Costa. 'Tony, you go and help Lord Faa with whatever he needs.'

'I prefer to walk by the river, if you don't mind,' said Serafina. 'I will not go far. Coram, will you join me?'

Farder Coram was taken aback by this suggestion, but he nodded agreement. Together, he and Serafina set off through the trees, their daemons walking alongside, having a private conversation of their own.

Tony and Ma Costa departed for the boats. Lee settled himself on his coat, Hester by his side. He lent against the tree and closed his eyes for a few moments, adrenaline fading and leaving him feeling wrung-out. He didn't hear Lyra move to sit down, or walking around, or chatting to Pantalaimon, and opened his eyes.

Lyra was standing stiffly, hands curled into fists, staring hard at the ground. Pantalaimon, as a stoat, stood beside her, looking up at her anxiously.

'Kid?' Lee asked, concerned. 'Care to tell me what the matter is?'

Lyra turned away. Lee frowned, then turned to Hester.

'Wait for a minute, Lee,' she whispered.

So, he did, keeping watch over Lyra. She continued to stand rigid, fist clenched, until Lee's silence defeated her. She turned back to him, and he was astonished and more than a little upset to see tears glimmering in her eyes. She brushed at them angrily.

'I hate them!' she burst out. 'I hate the Council! I was happy in the woods, and now it's all going to change, again, and now everyone's being hunted! The Gyptians, you…sometimes I wish that… that…'

Her voice faded away.

'That you weren't a wolfwalker?' Lee suggested gently. Lyra stopped rubbing at her eyes and scowled ferociously at him. Lee couldn't help smiling, relieved to see a resurgence of familiar temper rather than sadness.

'It's stupid,' she muttered sullenly. 'I love being a wolfwalker. But… but the Council hates us, it's brought all this trouble down on us, down on the Costas… and your daemon's right. Everyone's hunting you and wants to kill you –'

'So, what else is new?' Lee interrupted. 'It's a rare day when I don't have at least one man out for my blood, and that was before I became a wolfwalker. Besides, Lyra, you ain't responsible for what other people do. You heard Lord Faa. Danvers was persecuting the Gyptians before we came to his notice. The ones causing the trouble are the Council and that Mrs Coulter, and no-one else. We were all living our lives peacefully –'

'You've got a funny idea of peaceful,' interrupted Hester.

'– before they started throwing their weight around.'

'I still dragged you into it,' Lyra muttered. 'I didn't mean to, but –'

'Lyra, honey, I got myself into this,' Lee said firmly. 'If I hadn't broken curfew that first night, I never would've gotten bit, and we would've never met each other. But if the price of keeping clear of trouble is never meeting you, well then… it's too high a price to pay.'

Lyra dropped her gaze and fidgeted with the buttons on her coat. Pantalaimon crept over to Hester and pressed himself against her, while she nibbled his ears gently, as she sometimes did with Lee.

'You don't think I'm daft for wanting it all to go away? To just be human sometimes?' she asked.

'On the contrary, I think it's perfectly normal,' Lee answered. 'Not that I have much to go on, you understand. This is all new to me. But wishing that trouble hadn't found you, that you were still living your old life in Oxford… nah, that ain't stupid. Only stupid thing is if you get so caught up in wanting it back that it distracts you from living your life.'

'For once in his life he's right,' Hester chimed in. 'No point in trying to change what you are. I made that mistake and made us both miserable. You can fight everything except your nature.'

The half-quiet of the woods and riverbank reigned for a minute, as Lyra pondered Lee's words. The leaves rustled overheard. Some ducks quacked and scolded on the river. Shouts came from the riverside as the Gyptians worked at something or other.

'Is that what we're going to do, then?' Lyra asked Lee abruptly. 'Fight?'

'Yeah,' Lee acknowledged, though pain sank its jaws into him at the thought of Lyra caught up in the war between the wolves and the Council. 'We've no choice. These people are bullies and brutes, and they'll hurt anyone who gets in their way. Someone has to deal with them.'

'Us?'

'Well, it doesn't look like anyone else is going to.'

Lyra smiled a little at that. She walked over and settled herself beside Lee. He put an arm around her shoulders, and she settled against him trustingly.

'Why do the Council hate us so much?' she asked him. Lee wondered if she'd ever run out of questions. Or if one day she'd ask one and he wouldn't have an answer for her.

'Well, my guess is it's because we've got power,' Lee answered, giving her his best conjecture. 'We've got a power they don't understand, and which they'll never have. It frightens them, and so they either want to tame or destroy it. We can't be tamed, and that just leaves the one option.'

'But we've never hurt them,' Lyra protested, as if she'd only just realised that the Council were being unjust.

'Don't matter to them. If you have a special gift, power of any kind, hell, if you're a bit smarter than everyone around you, you're going to make enemies. Some people don't like it when someone has something they don't. If they can't take it for themselves, they'll try and make damn sure no-one else can have it.'

'But we aren't going to let them,' Lyra murmured.

'Not while I have breath in my body, kid,' said Lee.

Lyra reached up to grip his hand where it lay on her shoulder.

'I'm glad it was you I bit,' she said.

Lee smiled to himself, and turned his face skywards, watching the grey clouds drift across the firmament, casting restless shadows as the sun fought to break through, and he and Lyra waited for the evening, so their work could begin.

Author's Notes: The details about the Tunguska Campaign are derived from 'Northern Lights' and my own imagination.

A short chapter this time, but I'm cranking it up to eleven very soon! Get ready, Lord Asriel fans, we'll be seeing him (albeit in wolf form) before long.

Till next time, dear readers...