It was night, an Oxford night. To Lee, who was used to Arctic nights – glittering, wheeling stars, the aurora shimmering like fish scales above, the space between constellations as black as tar, the blinding blue stained ice reaching out to the horizon, the silence as deep as the ocean – it felt creepily similar to daylight.
The streets were ablaze with anbaric lamps, the light pouring out of pubs and inns, the lanterns swinging from the trees lining the rivers and canals. The noise was resounding to Lee's newly acute hearing – people talking, laughing, arguing, shrieking, their footsteps smacking against dirt and paving, their daemons squawking and barking and yowling, music being played, vehicles rumbling along…
A tap to the shoulder roused him from the trance he'd sunk into. Lee glanced over at Lyra, sitting next to him in the boat, and mouthed thank you. He turned back to face where they were headed, far along the river, determined to focus on what they were doing. Which was rescuing Lyra's father, at long last.
Night had fallen hours ago, and the Gyptians had decided to wait until almost midnight before setting off for Jordan. They were in two boats: Lee, Lyra, Ma Costa, and two Gyptians in one, Lord Faa, Tony Costa, Serafina Pekkala, Iorek Byrnison and a fourth Gyptian man in another. Iorek was covered with tarpaulin and crouched motionless in the stern of the smallish but swift craft.
Once the men from the Council and Alderman Danvers had departed, fuming and empty-handed, preparations for the rescue had proceeded apace. Lord Faa, as promised, had dispatched trustworthy men to check on Lee's balloon, and if possible, retrieve his treasured Winchester rifle, stowed safely in the basket. They'd returned with the rifle and confirmation that the balloon was safe, a load off Lee's mind. He was reassured further by the confirmation the Gyptians would be able to obtain gas to fill it with, when it was time for them to leave.
The afternoon had been spent onboard a Gyptian vessel, talking strategy with Serafina, Iorek and the Gyptians and eating roast trout so fresh it must have been caught that morning. Rather to Lee's surprise, there had been no shortage of volunteers for the rescue mission. The man with the heron daemon, whose name was Bram Garrod, had been one of those chosen, as had Derrick, the quiet young man with the water vole daemon. He seemed possessed of a mute admiration for Lee and had sat all afternoon gazing at him and Hester and jumping in delighted terror every time Lee spoke to him. Derrick's vole daemon hid in his pocket and occasionally peeped out at Hester. Nonetheless, he was steering the boat they were in with skill and assurance.
The plan was simple: get to Jordan, get underneath the Sheldon building, have Iorek bust his way into the building and enter. Lee, Serafina, Lord Faa and one of the Gyptians would head to the lab and take out the guards, while Tony Costa and Bram Garrod sabotaged the anbaric power. They would release Asriel and head back to the boats where Lyra, Ma Costa, Derrick and the one remaining Gyptian would be waiting for them and flee for their lives.
It was straightforward. It was carefully planned, the Gyptians going over every detail: the exact location of the Sheldon building, where the lab might be situated, the number of guards, even the likely location of the building's fuse box. They had weapons, ammunition, skilled fighters, men used to sneaking about unseen, the assistance of an armoured bear and a witch, and the advantage of surprise. Serafina's daemon, Kasia, had left her side and was flying above the college as they travelled, spying out any potential threats. They had done everything they could to prepare and more.
Which meant things would probably go to hell in a handbasket in ten minutes or less. Lee sighed, wishing he could be more optimistic – for Lyra's sake, if nothing else – but too experienced for that.
Despite his foreboding, once the boats left behind the bustle of late-night Oxford, everything was progressing exactly as planned. The rescue party glided along between the high banks in almost complete darkness. The Gyptians didn't bother with torches or turning on any lights, which Lee found worrisome at first, but he soon realised the Gyptians didn't need light to navigate. Derrick and the other Gyptian steered the boats along without a moment of hesitation. So, Lee settled in to wait quietly for the battle that almost certainly lay ahead.
In less time than he'd anticipated, the walls of what must be Jordan College loomed over them, and moments later the mouth of the tunnel that led underneath the college gaped before them. It was low ceilinged, black as pitch inside and put Lee uncomfortably in mind of a toothless mouth of some great sea creature, swallowing them up. Fortunately, the Gyptians turned on the anbaric lights strung along the boats as soon as they'd drifted inside, illuminating a tunnel that must have been several hundred years old.
It was cold, the walls coated with slimy moss, the silence punctuated with the slap of water against stone, intermittent drips, and the murmur of the boat engines. Up ahead, Lee could just about make out Lord Faa and Bram counting how many yards they'd travelled into the tunnel.
When they'd counted off sufficient yards to position themselves directly under the Sheldon Building, the Gyptians trained their torches on the tunnel walls, searching for an entrance. Bram's light revealed a reassuringly wide archway and a set of stairs leading upwards.
The Gyptians steered both boats alongside the narrow stone dock that bordered the arch and tossed the mooring ropes round a granite pillar slippery with wet and mould. Lord Faa jumped out first, followed by Lee.
'Everyone else, wait here for a moment,' said Lord Faa, and led the way up the steps, a torch in one hand and a falchion in the other. Lee, who was swiftly forming a high regard for John Faa and his leadership and his willingness to do the dirty work with his men, followed after, revolver at the ready and his beloved Winchester rifle slung over his shoulder by its strap.
The stairs led upwards for twenty steps, and ended in another archway, a narrow one that had been bricked off. The mortar between the bricks was crumbling, but when Lee pushed against it the wall held firm.
'Get the bear up here,' whispered Lord Faa. Lee jumped down a couple of steps to call for Iorek.
'Iorek, we need you!' he said softly. Iorek heard him and shuffled out from under the tarpaulin, stepping carefully onto the slick stairs and making his way up to the sealed archway. Lee and Lord Faa stepped aside for him, as the bear inspected the brickwork and the mortar.
'Stand back, both of you,' Iorek said, and as soon as they'd retreated a few steps, put his mighty forepaws against the wall and pushed.
It took some effort on Iorek's part, for it was good workmanship, but the old mortar could not hold against the bear's tremendous strength. It gave way in a clatter of bricks, which echoed hideously around the tunnel.
Everyone held their breath, but after a minute of waiting no sound had emerged from the other side of the archway. Lee and Lord Faa assisted Iorek in clearing a path through the rubble, and then gestured to the rest of their cohort. Serafina, Bram, Tony Costa and another of the Gyptians, whose name was Liam, all jumped ashore, leaving Derrick, Ma Costa, Lyra and Reuben, the other steersman, waiting in the boats.
'Let's go,' whispered Lord Faa. 'Quiet as possible, everyone. If something goes wrong, don't try to rendezvous back here. Make your escape upstairs. Iorek Byrnison, if things go wrong, please help our friends to get away.'
'Consider it done,' growled Iorek, before backing carefully down the steps.
Lord Faa stepped through the archway and into the college. The Gyptians and Serafina followed him, while Lee brought up the rear.
They passed through a short, dusty corridor into a large cellar crammed with odds and ends. There was old furniture such as bookcases and chairs, broken lamps and wicker hampers, though there were some interesting looking objects such as a model of the solar system, a crystal chandelier, piles of tattered books.
They crept through the junk to a doorway in the opposite wall. It was locked when Lord Faa tried it, but Liam stepped forward, unwrapping a cloth packet that when unravelled revealed a truly impressive array of lock picks. Lee couldn't help snickering as Liam selected the necessary tools, and then went to work on the door. He had it open in less than two minutes.
The door creaked when opened and more than one person winced, but it swung aside and revealed a dimly lit, deserted corridor. Lord Faa went through, scanned for danger, and then turned back to his crew.
'No-one in sight,' he whispered. 'Tony, you and Bram deal with the anbaric power, then get back to the boats. The rest of us will go and find the lab holding Asriel. Mr Scoresby, do you know where it is?'
'Nah, but I have an idea,' Lee answered. 'Lead the way, Lord Faa. I'll tell you if it starts to look familiar.'
Lord Faa nodded, and without hesitation turned right and began moving silently down the corridor, his daemon perched silent upon his shoulder. Serafina went next, then the Gyptians and finally Lee and Hester, ears straining for the slightest sound.
They walked to the end of the corridor, where it branched off into two more passageways, one to the left and one to the right. Tony Costa and Bram slipped past everyone else and turned left, heading off to find the fuse box or whatever else would allow them to cut power.
'Should we follow?' whispered Liam.
'Give Mr Scoresby a moment,' said Serafina.
Lee was about to ask what she meant when something caught his attention – a scent, something out of place amidst the smell of dust and old paint and dampened wood and the reek of the river that came drifting along with them. It was the musk of a wild animal, fur and blood and ammonia and something earthy.
Lee sniffed, a little self-consciously, trying to make it out, make it stronger. But then he forgot about looking ridiculous as he realised, he could tell what direction the scent was emanating from.
'To the right,' he whispered. 'Follow me.'
The motley group crept along, Lee going ever more confidently as he used his nose, as Lyra had been teaching him. They went around another corner and halfway down one more corridor when Lee heard the murmur of voices up ahead.
He held up his hand to stall everyone, and then crept forward. He realised the voices were emanating from a recessed area, a space where the corridor opened out into a foyer before continuing on its way. Lee motioned to Hester, and his daemon knew exactly what to do. She hopped forward, paws making no noise on the hardwood floor, and peered round the crook of the wall.
A moment later, she shuffled backwards, and Lee sank into a crouch so he could hear what she had to say.
'Two guards, just like Van Buskirk said,' Hester murmured. 'They've got a revolver each, and batons.'
Lee stood and beckoned everyone closer, mouthing rather than speaking the information.
'Someone must provide a distraction and the others can take them out,' Lord Faa whispered. 'Whack them over the head if possible, keep it quiet. Liam, would you mind?'
Liam sheathed the knife he had in hand, and sauntered forth, his stone curlew daemon walking alongside him.
''Scuse me, gents,' they heard him say. 'I'm looking for the –'
'What are you doing down here?' said one of the guards. 'State your business!'
There came the ominous click of the hammer on a gun being drawn back, the growl of a dog-daemon. Everyone tensed. Lee drew his revolver, and Serafina notched an arrow onto her bow.
'Whoa, hang on mate, no need for that!' Liam said ingratiatingly. 'Look, I know I'm not meant to be down here, but there's a girl from the kitchen, you know how it is, and she said we wouldn't be disturbed down here –'
'Shut up,' the guard said, irritation roughening his voice. 'And show me some identification! You're not a scholar, this section is off-limits to everyone except these on the list. What's your name?'
'Er, mate, look, I wouldn't do that. Here's the thing, I got asked here by a woman from the Council. Coulter, her name is.'
There was a pause. Then, the blessed sound of the gun's safety being clicked back on.
'State your business,' said the guard.
'That's the problem, I'm not sure what it is. I'm a bargeman see, and she said she had some work for us. Pretty urgent, from the sounds of it. She told me to show up here tonight and not much else – except I was to keep me mouth shut.'
Lee grinned to himself at Liam's cleverness. He could sense the guard's growing uncertainty in the face of the expert bluff. The odds were, it was a ruse, but Liam had raised just enough doubt in the mind of the guard for him to lower his weapon.
'Everyone, on three,' Lee whispered. Serafina whisked bow and arrow into their carrier on her back and grabbed her knife. Lord Faa raised his falchion.
'One, two, three!'
He and Serafina and Lord Faa leapt out from the corridor, weapons at the ready. Serafina, who could move like the wind, spun behind the guard confronting Liam and held her knife to his throat. His daemon, a bullmastiff, snarled and crouched to spring. Serafina pressed the knife against the man's neck and a trickle of blood meandered down his pale skin. The daemon growled in balked fury but submitted and sat down.
Lee, meanwhile, had pointed his revolver at the head of the remaining guard, a tall stolid man with a lemur daemon, standing next to an unmarked door. The man, obviously not expecting a regular night shift to take such a dramatic turn, gawped at him and grasped for his gun.
'Don't you dare,' said Lee, and though his voice was soft there was a note in it that made the guard freeze rigid. 'Good man. Now, hold still while my associate gets your weapons.'
Lord Faa made short work of collecting the guards' guns and batons, and then set about tying both of them up with some cord he'd brought along. Liam gagged them, before everyone carried them to a nearby storage room and dumped them in there, their daemons being dragged along by their bonds.
'Not a sound from you daemons, or we'll come back and put several bullets in both of you,' Lord Faa informed them just before he shut the door. The lemur hunkered on top of her human and said nothing. The bullmastiff growled, but Serafina stepped forward, bow and arrowed aimed at the daemon. Whether it was the witch, standing solitary with no daemon, or the arrow pointed at the mastiff's heart, or something in Serafina's steady gaze, the sight cowed the daemon and she crept over to her human, whimpering.
Lee backed out of the room, Serafina following. He dug in his pocket for the key to the lab he'd had cut and went straight to the door of the lab. The smell of what he now realised was a wolfwalker was overpowering, and he inserted the key in the lock, praying it would turn.
'Everyone be ready, just in case this trips an alarm or something,' he said, and tried the key. It was stiff in the lock, but it turned. Lee stepped to the side of the door, just in case someone was waiting on the other side or it was booby-trapped and twisted the handle.
The door swung open easily, revealing a glimpse of gleaming white tiles and stainless-steel tables. Lee waited for a moment, but when nothing stirred inside the room, he ventured inside, revolver at the ready.
The lab was a decent sized one, low-ceilinged but long, stretching at least thirty yards down the side of the building. It was thronged with workstations, machinery of all kinds, shelves crammed with books and papers. It looked deserted, but there were too many potential hidey-holes for a quick-thinking person to conceal themselves in for Lee to relax. The far end was curtained off, a heavy green cover reminiscent of a hospital. The scent of the wolfwalker was strongest there, and Lee began to advance cautiously through the room. Serafina and Lord Faa followed close behind. Liam stationed himself at the door to act as lookout.
Lee reached the curtain and peered behind it.
His stomach swooped as it had once done when a cliff-ghast had ripped a hole in the envelope of his balloon and sent him and Hester plummeting earthwards.
The curtain was shielding three sizeable cages that took up the lab's entire back wall. All were occupied. One held a massive wolf with light brown fur, curled up in a corner, the central one a snow leopard daemon with bleary yellow eyes, and the last one a young man with terrified eyes, his nervous twitching hands holding his ptarmigan daemon close to his heart.
'Holy shit,' exclaimed Lee, recognising the young man from the park. He pulled the curtain aside, and Serafina and the Gyptians came forward, their faces twisted by horror. 'Hang on, kid, we're the rescue party. What's your name?'
'Wilf,' the boy stammered, staring at Lee as if he were a night-ghast. 'Wilfred, really. Wilfred Bachelot. My daemon is Kada.'
'Well, hello, Wilf,' said Lee. 'Remember me? From the park?'
Wilf gawped at him for a few moments, and then nodded, movements jerky and frantic.
A flurry of anbaric sparks made everyone jump. Lord Faa had grabbed a cloth from a worktable and flung it at the cage holding the daemon. Just as Van Buskirk had warned, the cages had anbaric power being channelled through the metal forming them. The leopard daemon snarled half-heartedly, while the wolf in the cage rose to its feet, growling a warning.
'Okay, Wilf, we're going to get you out of here,' Lee murmured. 'Just hang tight until our associates kill the power to your cages.'
Wilf, too stunned to argue or even answer, nodded again. Lee moved down the row of cages to where the wolf was standing. It was a big animal, though not as broad as Lee in his wolf form. Its legs were splayed wide, as if were having trouble keeping its balance, and its head hung low, though it looked up at Lee from dull eyes that were somehow both full of awareness and not quite all there.
'Lord Asriel?' Lee whispered. The wolf's ears twitched. Its daemon looked over at Lee, teeth bared. Hester sniffed audibly.
'Lord Asriel, you don't know me, but I'm a friend of your daughter's,' Lee continued, watching the wolf intently for some reaction, some sign that the man inside was listening, was understanding him. 'I'm a friend of Lyra's. She's sent us to get you out. Hold on, and you'll be free soon.'
The wolf stared at him, not a twitch of a lip or a flick of its tail betraying what it thought or felt. Its daemon snarled.
'Free?' she spat. 'No free. Liar.'
'Do I look like a damn theologian to you? Or someone from the Council?' Lee asked the daemon. 'I'm not here to experiment on you.'
The daemon regarded him through glassy eyes and made no response.
'They're doped up to the gills,' muttered Lord Faa, voice suffused with anger. 'This is going to be harder than we thought.'
'Wilf, do you know what they've been given?' Lee asked, turning back to the young man still cowering in the cage.
'I – I'm not certain,' the young man stammered. 'Only that it's a much higher dose than is safe. There's a researcher, one with a beetle daemon – he was saying that the dosage was too high, it would kill a man…'
'I might be able to purge it from his system,' said Serafina, reaching for a pouch slung upon her shoulder along with her arrow holster. But before she could extract anything, Liam called from the doorway.
'Someone's coming!' he hissed.
'Everyone hide!' said Lord Faa. The Gyptians and their daemons dived under worktables, Serafina disappeared, and Lee had just spied a convenient cupboard when he heard Wilf pleading with him.
'No, don't leave me here!' the young man was begging.
'We're not going far. Hang on, kid,' Lee whispered, and lunged for the cupboard, ducking inside with Hester and closing the door. Fortunately, it was empty of anything save a few cleaning implements and some lab coats hanging from a railing. Lee left the door open a sliver, so he could see and hear what was going on.
The clack-clack of high-heeled shoes rang out seconds later. Lee swore silently. He knew who that sound heralded.
There were other footsteps ringing out alongside Mrs Coulter's: at least two men, thudding along in heavy boots. Then: exclamations of annoyance, disconcertion, growing suspicion. The door to the lab opened.
'Where the hell are they?' growled someone, a man with a Scottish accent. 'They know the rules, no more than one man to take a break at any one time! And the door unlocked – we should sound the alarm. You, doctor, go and find some security personnel.'
Lee heard Mrs Coulter's footsteps snapping along the floor towards where he was hiding. He held his breath, but she passed his cupboard without pausing, to the cages. He heard the curtain rings rattle on their railing as she dragged it aside.
The leopard-daemon gave a feeble snarl. Lee heard Mrs Coulter's exhalation of relief, and risked peering through the gap left in the door. He couldn't see much but managed to spy Mrs Coulter wheeling round to confront whoever she had with her. Her daemon was by her side, peering round suspiciously, and Lee knew it was only a matter of time before he and everyone else was discovered.
'What the hell is this?' came another familiar voice, and Lee realised with mingled gladness and apprehension that it was their ally, Dr Van Buskirk. The man was enraged, if his voice was anything to go by. Lee could hear his daemon flapping her wings.
'There's a man in a cage, for crying out loud!' Van Buskirk snarled, and Lee heard him striding towards Mrs Coulter.
'The next step of the research, Doctor, and I assure you, it is fully necessary,' Mrs Coulter said coolly. Van Buskirk's footsteps halted, and Lee could hear him breathing, harsh inhalations and exhalations as he hung onto his temper by his fingernails.
'Necessary? No wonder you wouldn't let me in here yesterday! This is the end of the line, Coulter! I'm letting this poor man out of here right now and the only way to stop me is to shoot me!'
'One moment, please, doctor,' said the man with the Scottish accent. 'Perhaps Mrs Coulter has her reasons.'
'Stick it up your arse and make a jug handle of it, MacPhail!'
Lee smirked. It was wiped from his face a moment later as he heard a scream of rage. It was not a human shriek, but one from a monkey. Then Van Buskirk's daemon shrilled in pain, and Lee heard a cry of agony and a thud that must have been the scholar hitting the ground.
Lee risked peering through the crack in the door again and winced at the sight. Van Buskirk was prone on the floor, trying bravely to rise to all fours. But his barn owl daemon was in the clutches of Mrs Coulter's daemon. The monkey had sprung on her back and pinned her to a table just in front of the row of cages, and even now was twisting a delicate wing in its cunning paws.
'That's quite enough, doctor,' Mrs Coulter purred. 'Sometimes sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of knowledge, and this man is part of that pursuit.'
'Go to hell!' snarled Van Buskirk, then swore as the monkey daemon wrung his daemon's wing a tiny bit further.
'I have to admit, Mrs Coulter, I am wondering what precisely is going on here,' said the other man, presumably MacPhail, his footsteps ringing out as he made his way towards the cages. 'When the Consistorial Court agreed to fund the wolf hunt in Oxford, you failed to mention human experimentation. It is a disturbing development, given our aim is to wipe out the abominations living in Badbury Forest.'
Thrice damn it, Lee thought. The Consistorial Court of Discipline was one of the most feared and powerful bodies of the Magisterium. If the Council's crusade against the wolves had their backing, then the situation was worse than any of them had realised.
'To defeat our enemy, we must first understand it,' Mrs Coulter said, her voice as smooth as caramel. 'Dr Van Buskirk has been most… helpful in divining the nature of the creature and it's sacrilegious relations with its daemon. But I believe the threat is even greater than we surmised at first. You see, Father MacPhail, whilst the Magisterium's efforts at wiping out the wolfwalkers have been largely successful, I have discovered a new threat, one created by their dark sorcery.'
The words seemed to linger in the air, dimming the brightness of the lab's anbaric lights just a fraction. Lee couldn't see Father MacPhail or Mrs Coulter, but he spied Van Buskirk gripping a table leg and hauling himself up onto his knees. He was within arm's reach of Mrs Coulter's daemon.
Lee, with extreme caution, moved his right hand to his holster, and drew his revolver. Van Buskirk's righteous indignation had diverted Mrs Coulter's attention from the missing guards, but she was bound to recall the strangeness of it in a few moments. And then they'd have to fight their way out, if she managed to summon reinforcements.
So, all the more reason to strike now. He wished there was some way of sending a signal to Serafina and the Gyptians. He'd just have to trust to their fighting skills when he went leaping out of the cupboard. But just as he was preparing to spring, MacPhail spoke again.
Lee stayed his hand, leaning forward ever-so-slightly so he could bring Mrs Coulter into his line of sight again. She was standing in front of the cages, facing someone just out of Lee's vision.
'What is this… dark sorcery?' MacPhail enquired, his voice flat and unimpressed. 'And why are we only learning of it now?'
'Because until very recently, our theologians were unaware that such a possibility existed,' Mrs Coulter answered. 'Dr Van Burskirk's research has encountered the possibility several times, in various accounts of berserkers and wolfwalkers, but we had no evidence of such. Until a few days ago.'
Lee saw Mrs Coulter turn to face the cages again. Her daemon held still, watching her, still clutching Van Buskirk's daemon.
'I had an… enlightening conversation with this daemon,' Mrs Coulter said, her voice soft and almost dreamy. 'It confessed something alarming. It told me that human beings can be corrupted, can be transfigured into beasts with the power to change their shape.'
Lee heard MacPhail gasp in theatrical horror.
'Impossible!' MacPhail uttered with the air of a man offering some profound insight. 'To even suggest that the form of man, created in the Authority's image, could be perverted in such a manner, is an abominable heresy! Such a creature – if one could exist – would be an atrocity!'
Lee grimaced. He was getting damn tired of being called an atrocity, an abomination and what have you. He could sense Hester quivering with outrage.
'Nonetheless, we must assess the risk that such transfiguration can occur, even if countless saints and theologians believed otherwise,' continued Mrs Coulter. 'Only by knowing how it occurs can we hope to prevent it. Hence this man's presence. If he could be turned, if we can find the method… Hence my desire to remove these subjects from Jordan to the facility I have been preparing. That is why I requested you bring Magisterium personnel tonight. There is no time to waste.'
A likely story, thought Lee. He wondered what Mrs Coulter would do if she learned he had been transformed, not by any complicated scientific procedure, but by a simple bite. Then he decided he didn't want to find out.
'You are playing a dangerous game, Marisa,' said MacPhail, voice hoarse and intent. 'The risks of such knowledge… the thirst for such understanding damned all mankind in the Garden of Eden. It would be better to kill this foul thing here and now! Obliterate the wolfwalkers altogether and spare their future victims!'
'And what if we find ourselves confronted with more wolfwalkers in the future? Poor, unfortunate human spirits damned by the curse inflicted upon them? Father MacPhail, you not only have the chance to save lives with this research, but people's souls as well,' Mrs Coulter argued, voice rich with conviction. 'Surely in order to cure such a terrible evil, it is worth tolerating a lesser evil?'
There was another horrible pause. Lee eyed Van Buskirk. He'd managed to kneel and was taking slow, deep breaths. The man was working himself up to some action. Lee vowed to be ready to help him.
'What exactly are you proposing?' MacPhail enquired at last.
'To divine their method of creating new wolfwalkers, naturally,' Mrs Coulter answered. 'The daemon hasn't confided it to me, yet, but I'm sure she can be persuaded. We can confirm her veracity with this test subject, and then turn our attentions to finding a cure. And there is more… I believe that these creatures may hold the key to our research being conducted in New Holland.'
'Hmm,' said MacPhail. What he truly thought of Mrs Coulter's proposal Lee was destined never to learn, for it was at that moment that Van Buskirk struck.
He lunged from his position on the floor and, unthinkably, grasped for Mrs Coulter's daemon. He caught the monkey by the scruff of its neck and dragged off his daemon with force.
Mrs Coulter cried out. Lee heard a muttered exclamation from MacPhail and knew he could wait no longer. He swung open the cupboard door and leapt out, revolver at the ready.
'Evening, people,' he said laconically.
Lee took in the situation at a glance. Van Buskirk, teeth gritted and looking feral, was standing next to him, Mrs Coulter's daemon dangling in his grip. His eyes widened when he saw Lee, but he made no other sign of recognition. Mrs Coulter, whether by chance or design, had fallen into MacPhail's arms and he was holding her upright with some difficulty. Although she was not a large woman, she was deadweight in his grasp, Van Buskirk's hold on her daemon sapping all her strength.
'Who the devil are –' MacPhail began. Lee cut him off.
'That ain't important. What is important is what's going to happen now,' he said, watching with brief satisfaction as Lord Faa and Liam emerged from their hiding places. 'We're here for the wolfwalker and this young gentleman who's been imprisoned against his will. We'll be taking them and leaving you fine folks to your little contretemps, so let's have no undue fussing.'
MacPhail, a severe-looking man austerely garbed in black, his lizard daemon clinging to his shoulder, glared at Lee, and if looks could maim Lee suspected he'd be missing all four limbs right about now. Liam had a gun trained on him and Mrs Coulter. Lord Faa was eyeballing everyone, falchion at the ready. Lee didn't know where Serafina was but was willing to bet she was holding herself in readiness somewhere, in case of extra trouble. Van Buskirk was standing frozen, uncertain what to do next, and Lee saw the arm holding Mrs Coulter's daemon droop a little.
He stepped in front of Van Buskirk, making sure his face was tilted away from MacPhail and mouthed play along. He pointed his revolver at the good doctor, although he left the safety on.
'Keep a tight hold of that daemon, if you please,' he said to Van Buskirk, despite his revulsion at the action. 'I know it's not pleasant, but the lady over there doesn't strike me as the pleasant type.'
'I know your voice,' said Mrs Coulter, every word pushed out from between her lips by sheer force of will. Lee flicked a glance at her, and saw she'd managed to raise her head to glare at him. It was a shadow of a ghost of the malevolence that could play across her features, and it still made Lee's stomach convulse.
'You're… you're Scoresby. The hunter who made a fool out of Danvers last night,' Mrs Coulter rasped. 'You… you set a wolf free…'
'And I'm about to do the same now,' said Lee. 'Just hold on a minute.'
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Lord Faa and Liam trading tense looks. What the hell was taking Tony and Bram so long to cut the power? And where was Serafina Pekkala?
'What's your interest in these wolves?' demanded MacPhail, shoving Mrs Coulter away from him and holding her upright by her arms. She swayed but managed to remain on her feet.
'They owe me some money,' jibed Lee. MacPhail looked pained.
Lee looked back at Van Buskirk to check on him. He was alarmed to see the man mouthing words in his turn: hurry up!
'Lee, I hear footsteps,' whispered Hester. 'At least five men.'
Lee heard them a moment later. Yes, at least five men, all talking in low voices as they approached the lab.
'We've got company!' he informed Lord Faa – and hopefully, Serafina. Lord Faa went to stand by the door, while Liam kept his gun trained on MacPhail and Mrs Coulter. Lee stepped back a couple of paces, keeping his revolver pointed at Van Buskirk but ready to spin round and shoot if needed.
The door to the lab swung open.
Then the lights went out, and darkness spread itself over the scene. Or it tried to. Lee blinked a few times and realised his eyes had already adjusted to the diminished light. Another handy ability conferred by being a wolfwalker, he guessed.
'What in heaven's name?' sputtered MacPhail. Lee did not hesitate. He shouldered Van Buskirk aside and ran to the cages. He didn't allow himself to think, just shot the lock on the cage holding Wilf. The poor man yelped as the bullet struck its target with a loud clang. Lee grasped open the door of his cage and wrenched it open, before moving onto the cage with Asriel's daemon.
'Open fire!' cried someone and the next moment flashes of fire lit up the far end of the lab. A shot whizzed past Lee, so close he felt the air it displaced brushing his cheek. He dived for the floor. He saw Dr Van Buskirk standing, stupefied at the sudden turn of events, and lunged. He grabbed the scholar by the belt and pulled him down to the ground.
Van Buskirk landed heavily and lost his grip on Mrs Coulter's daemon. The monkey went sprinting away with a yowl out of outrage. The barrage of gunfire continued. Lee cast round, trying to find a target, but there were too many tables and bits of equipment in the way.
Then one man gurgled, hands rising to clutch at the arrow that had suddenly embedded itself in his throat. He fell to the floor and the other men all sank into crouches, scanning the room for the unseen threat. One man fired several bullets at random down the room, hoping to startle someone into revealing themselves.
'Hold your fire, you fools!' snarled Mrs Coulter's voice, ringing out from near the floor. The shots ceased at once.
Lee risked a glance around a table leg, trying to see who was shooting at them. Three men left, all in the garb of the Magisterium, and a fourth man lurking in the doorway, clad in the dark robes of a scholar.
Abruptly Serafina was at his side, bow and arrow in hand as she crouched low, shielding herself from potential gunfire.
'There will be more guards on the way,' she murmured to him. 'Let the Gyptians deal with these men. You and I must free Asriel and the boy. Asriel is drugged and the young man too frightened to move.'
'Got it,' Lee nodded.
'What the hell is going on?' cried the man in the doorway. 'Julian, are you in there?'
'I'm here!' cried Van Buskirk. 'Master, keep out!'
'We are being invaded!' shouted Mrs Coulter. 'There are men trying to sabotage our research here! Send someone to put the power back on!'
'Not bloody likely!' shouted Liam, who had also taken cover when the guards arrived. He popped up from his hiding place and shot one guard neatly in the chest. The man cried out and dropped like a dead bird to the floor. The other men raised their weapons, but before they could do anything Mrs Coulter, with the bound of a tiger, leapt on Liam and began clawing at his face.
'Shit!' cursed Lee. He was about to crawl to Liam's aid when he felt someone tugging at his coat. He turned to see Serafina Pekkala pointing a long finger at the cages holding the wolf and its daemon, both of them hunkered low as they watched the crazy scene transpiring in front of them.
Lee fired off two shots, one for each lock. He was rewarded by another volley of bullets from the two remaining Magisterium guards, but his aim was true, and the locks were shot off. Serafina did not hesitate but slid over the floor to wrench both doors open before turning to where poor Wilf, frozen in terror, was crouched.
Lee turned his attention back to the battle. Liam and Mrs Coulter were rolling around on the ground, hitting and kicking at one another, the monkey-daemon screeching fit to make peoples' ears bleed, when all of a sudden there was a thump and the monkey fell silent.
'Crazy bitch,' muttered Lord Faa, who had crawled over to the brawl and settled things by hitting Mrs Coulter on the back of the head with the handle of his blade. Liam shoved her bodily to the floor with a groan of relief. Lee cast about for MacPhail but didn't see him.
'Guys, help me take out the guards!' he shouted, and leaned round the bench and fired. He hadn't taken the time to aim, but luck was on his side. His shot struck one man in the leg and sent him sprawling on the floor. There was a shriek of surprise, and Lee realised that MacPhail was crawling along the length of the lab to the doorway. The one remaining guard broke and ran for safety, MacPhail at his heels.
'Help me hold the door!' cried Lord Faa, rising to his feet and drawing his own gun at last. Liam strode over to the guard Lee had shot, then bent over and punched him into unconsciousness. He rose and pointed his weapon at the door, in readiness. At the far end of the room Lee and Van Buskirk dragged themselves to their feet to assess the situation.
Serafina had just managed to persuade the shell-shocked Wilf out of his cage and was supporting him where he stood. Asriel and his daemon hadn't moved yet, but as Lee turned to speak to Asriel again, the snow leopard-daemon ventured forward, placing a tentative paw outside her prison.
'Free,' she murmured, hardly daring to believe it. 'Free!'
She hauled herself out of the cage, and a moment later with a triumphant growl, the wolf joined her, leaping out of confinement to land clumsily on the slippery floor. Then both of them bolted for the exit.
'Son of a bitch!' cursed Lee.
Shouts rang out from the corridor, and a gunshot exploded into the dark. Serafina Pekkala left Wilf's side (the poor kid would have fallen like a felled tree if Van Buskirk hadn't grabbed him) and ran to the doorway, notching an arrow onto her bow as she went. She lifted her weapon, aimed, fired. The strangely soft sound of a body hitting the floor reached Lee's ears, and he knew the last guard was dead.
'Come on, everyone!' Serafina commanded.
The Gyptians ran to join her at the door. Lee caught hold of Van Buskirk's shoulder.
'Doc, I'd be mighty grateful if you'd agree to be a hostage and help us get out of here,' he whispered. 'Besides, it might be in your best interests to come with us. Ain't no way Mrs Coulter will forgive you for what you did tonight.'
Van Buskirk gawped at him, visibly shocked by the suggestion, but his daemon leapt onto his shoulder and murmured something in his ear. He nodded, expression rearranging itself into one of resolve.
'I'll help you escape,' he agreed. 'After that – I'll see.'
'Fair enough,' shrugged Lee, and helped Van Buskirk to shepherd the bewildered Wilf over to the door. The Gyptians ushered all three of them through, and Lee aimed his revolver at Van Buskirk. He'd have to apologise to the poor man when all this was over. Never point your weapon at anything you didn't mean to shoot, that was the inalienable rule of handling a gun, and he was breaking it a dozen times over.
He pushed Van Buskirk and Wilf ahead of him and stepped through the door with his gun trained on them. The corridor was dimly lit by some sort of emergency illumination that lent everything a sickly greenish tint. Across the way, he saw MacPhail and a man who must be the Master of Jordan standing facing the wall, hands up in the air. Serafina was standing watch over them, an arrow notched on her bowstring. The guard was lying face down on the floor, his daemon vanished. There was no sign of Asriel or his daemon.
'Evening, gentlemen,' said Lee, taking in the situation at a glance. 'You two are going to remain there until we're free and clear of this place. I'm making sure of this by taking the good doctor here along as insurance. Any attempt to follow us, you call for any backup, and I'll shoot his gigantic brains out. That clear?'
Van Buskirk glanced back at Lee worriedly. Lee winked at him.
'No!' cried the Master, his raven-daemon cawing in distress. 'Leave him with us, I beg you. My word of honour we won't attempt to interfere with your escape.'
'I'd accept your word, sir, but I ain't too sure about your Magisterium friend next to you,' Lee said, trying to sound ruthless. 'No, the doc's coming with us.'
'I'll be fine, Dr Carne,' said Van Buskirk, rather tremulously. 'Don't worry about me. Or at least try not to.'
'Julian…' the Master murmured, only to break off with a grunt as MacPhail lashed out at him with his foot. Lee scowled and aimed a kick at MacPhail's backside, very much enjoying the pained yelp this generated.
'Go, all of you,' said Serafina, before any more horseplay could commence. 'I will join you in a moment.'
'Come on,' said Lord Faa, reaching for Wilf and lifting him in his arms as if Wilf were no more than a child. Lee took hold of Van Buskirk's arm in a gentle hold and together they jogged down the corridor after the Gyptians, Hester running alongside Lee and Lithiel flying on before them. As soon as they rounded the corner, Lee let go of Van Buskirk and lowered his revolver.
'Sorry about that, doc,' he murmured as they ran. 'Come on, the Gyptians will take us someplace safe. Where now, Lord Faa?'
'Back to the boats,' Lord Faa informed him. 'It's not what we planned, but the place above will be crawling with guards and security forces. At least this way it'll take them a while to find us.'
'What about Asriel?' Lee asked, dismay gripping him at the thought of facing Lyra and telling her that her father wasn't with them.
There was a rustle of silk and suddenly Serafina was amongst them.
'I will search for Asriel and his daemon,' she said. 'Get out, all of you. I will meet you outside, on the river.'
The authority in her voice was such that everyone nodded agreement, even Van Buskirk.
'Take care, ma'am,' answered Lee. Serafina nodded and melded with the shadows. Lee, the Gyptians and their new recruits ran on into the darkness of the cellars, towards the river and rescue.
Author's Notes:
A glut of mental casting for this chapter:
Bram Garrod - Stephen McGann
Derrick Volantyne - Will Lawther
Liam - Omari Douglas
Father Hugh MacPhail - Will Keen
Wilfred Bachelot - Jeremy Irvine
Dr Carne - Clarke Peters
Well, I hope this fulfils my promise to shift the action into high gear! There's more to come - especially since our heroes need to get Asriel out of Oxford before he runs into more danger...
Till next time, dear readers...