'Put those guns on the floor and slide them towards me,' Danvers told Lee and Asriel. 'No funny business, now. This gun has sufficient range to hurt you badly, and I have absolutely no compunctions about shooting two noted enemies of the Magisterium.'

Lee, not liking the feverish sheen in Danvers's eyes, complied, crouching down slowly and shoving his revolver halfway across the floor towards Danvers. He unslung his Winchester from his shoulder and lowered it to the boards. Asriel hesitated, and Danvers scowled.

'You too, my good man,' he instructed. 'Even if you aren't afraid of me, there are soldiers of the Magisterium making their way through this house, and they'll come running as soon as they hear a gunshot – or even a scream.'

Asriel grumbled something but complied. Mrs Coulter, hoping for a reprieve, began struggling to her feet, bracing herself against the wall. Danvers saw her movement out of the corner of his eye, his daemon chittering in anger.

'Stay on the ground, Marisa,' Danvers said coolly. 'You're in a great deal of trouble as it is. Don't make it worse for yourself.'

'What do you mean?' Mrs Coulter asked. The crazy woman actually managed to sound lost and little-girlish, Lee thought with perverse admiration.

'Oh, don't play innocent,' said Danvers with weary exasperation. 'I've been monitoring your accounts for quite some time, Marisa. You've funnelled a lot of money into this place, and none of it was sanctioned by MacPhail… or any other Magisterium official, for that matter. I knew you were up to no good.'

Mrs Coulter's expression of pleasant surprise never altered, but Lee's sharp eyes saw her swift glance towards the doorway, guessed she was calculating how best to escape, to talk her way out of trouble.

'And the infamous Lee Scoresby,' Danvers almost purred. 'Oh, I'm going to enjoy seeing you clapped in irons and subject to Magisterium justice. You should have taken me up on my offer in the forest. You escaped me then, but the wheel of justice always turns in the end.'

Danvers jerked the shotgun at the floor. Lee winced at the violent motion, but thankfully the gun didn't go off.

'On your knees, Scoresby,' Danvers hissed. Slowly, Lee complied. Asriel remained standing, and Danvers turned his jittery glare upon the other man. 'And your accomplice too! Get down on the floor!'

'Accomplice?' Asriel grimaced, outraged. Lee couldn't supress a smirk. Scowling wrathfully, Asriel slowly sank to his knees, glaring at Danvers. Lee turned his attention to the Alderman and his grip on the shotgun – hmm, looks like he'd had some practice, worse luck. Even if one of them lunged for the gun or tried to flee, chances were, they'd wind up with a belly full of lead shot.

'Now, we're all going to wait quietly until my back-up arrives,' Danvers said, satisfaction saturating his voice. 'Stop squirming, Marisa,' he added, as Mrs Coulter began a slow shuffle towards the door. 'Even if you make it out of this room – and don't think I won't fire this – my men will be here in moments. I've told them you're to be arrested and shot if you resist.'

The glare Mrs Coulter gave him could have etched glass, but she stopped moving nonetheless and sat motionless.

Lee, from his vantage point on the floor, tried to assess the situation. Danvers was just one man, true, but he had the advantage. He was blocking the doorway, had the drop on them all, and was too far away to for himself or Asriel to make a grab for his weapon or knock him stupid. And Lee had no reason to doubt his story about back-up being on the way.

He glanced down at Hester, but she shook her head at him. Damn, nothing for it then but to hang on and wait for a chance of escape.

It was then that the beastly thing in the cell began muttering again.

'Alderrrr…alderrrr….'

'Who's that?' Danvers demanded.

'We ain't sure,' Lee answered honestly. Danvers scowled at him.

'Whoever is in there, come out now!' Danvers yelled. Lee, who could see the creature out of the corner of his eye, saw it move forward obediently, only to be halted as the chain snapped tight. Danvers heard the clink of the metal links and raised an eyebrow.

'Do you have someone chained up in there?' he enquired of Mrs Coulter. She said nothing.

'Ain't sure it's a "someone" anymore, Mr Danvers,' said Lee. Danvers shot him a look of complete exasperation, much as a parent would direct at a recalcitrant toddler. He began to sidle into the room, towards the cell door, keeping the gun trained towards Lee and Asriel. Mrs Coulter shifted slightly, and Danvers's lemming-daemon yelped angrily at her. The golden monkey scowled in return but didn't retaliate. Mrs Coulter went still again. A smile was playing about the corners of her mouth as Danvers resumed his journey.

Danvers reached the cell door. Lee held his breath.

'Alderrrr…man,' the thing managed to croak out as it spied the small man in black. For an endless moment, all was still. Danvers looked down at the creature looking up. Mrs Coulter sat, back propped against the wall, head lolling, insouciance radiating from her. Lee and Asriel remained on their knees, their daemons crouched beside them, waiting for their chance.

Lee expected exclamations of horror, hysterics, even a fainting fit on the part of Danvers. But the self-righteous Alderman was made of stern stuff. For a few moments he stood still, absorbing the manmade atrocity confined in the tiny room, and then turned to face the room, shotgun muzzle never wavering from its targets.

'Who is he, Marisa?' Danvers asked, voice soft and almost conversational.

'A priest. A volunteer,' Mrs Coulter answered readily enough. 'Someone willing to make sacrifices in the name of the Magisterium.'

'Oh?' said Danvers, with an air of being only faintly interested.

'Yes,' Mrs Coulter continued, warming to her theme. 'My work here has been focused on the potential benefit to the Magisterium. I sought to understand the nature of the wolves in Badbury Forest, to seek out what made them so dangerous, so diabolical. To understand these godless creatures, so that their power could be made to serve the Magisterium.'

'And what is their…nature?' Danvers asked, tilting his head as he considered the creature in the cell. It growled at him, not liking his stabbing gaze.

'Part human, part animal,' Mrs Coulter continued. Lee could see the monkey-daemon creeping forward, watching Danvers, watching himself and Asriel, waiting for…something. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Asriel tensing, knew the man was getting ready to strike.

'These wolves are not wolves at all,' Mrs Coulter continued. 'Hence their cunning, their ability to evade all your hunters and traps. They are men in the shape of wolves, demonic entities, a perversion of the Authority's image.'

Silence. It was a painful quiet, charged with uncertainty.

'So, I see,' Danvers replied at last. 'And you've done the same – perverted the holy form, created in the image of the Authority – because…? You'll have to explain it to me, Marisa, given I am not so clever as you. I cannot perceive the slightest benefit to the Magisterium in the misshapen wretch before me.'

The creature growled. Outside, more pyrotechnics lit up the night for a brief, brilliant moment. Lee regarded Danvers dubiously. The man wasn't as clueless as he made out. The Alderman had divined that Mrs Coulter sought power for her own advantage and was trying to reel her in, to see if she'd say enough to condemn herself. The problem was, Lee was quite certain that Mrs Coulter was arrogant enough to think she could sway Danvers.

Lee was right. Mrs Coulter, somehow managing to move gracefully despite the hole in her arm, pasted a gracious smile on her face and clambered to her feet, bracing herself against the wall. Danvers watched her carefully, but Lee could see him flicking glances towards himself and Asriel.

'Not yet, Lee,' Hester whispered, voice so soft only a wolfwalker could have heard it. Lee nodded, the tiniest of motions.

'We cannot combat what we cannot understand,' Mrs Coulters carried on, voice as smooth as butter on glass. 'My success here is key to understanding the nature of these… wolfwalkers, and how their evil magic corrupts and deforms. If we can understand it, we can resist it –'

'Or utilise it to the Magisterium's benefit,' Danvers interrupted, voice matter of fact. 'The wolves of the devil turned to the hounds of heaven, destined to hunt down and pursue sinners and all who would oppose us.'

'Precisely,' Mrs Coulter confirmed, her smile warming just a fraction. 'You express it so beautifully, Alderman. This experiment is our first success, but there will be more to come. Imagine it – soldiers of the Magisterium, soldiers with supernatural strength and hunting ability, soldiers who can heal quicker than any man, with power over wolves, over Nature itself…'

She let her voice trail off, giving her grandiose visions a chance to take root and flourish in Danvers's mind. Lee held his breath. That the man abhorred the creature in front of him, that he was ragingly suspicious of Mrs Coulter's secret experiments and her work at Farleigh Hall, that he was desperate to justify his extravagant crusade against the wolves was all evident.

But he was ambitious, crazily so, Lord Faa had told Lee. Danvers's egotism and hubris might just be great enough for him to accept Mrs Coulter's loathsome research, agree to keep the secret and ally himself with her aims. Lee didn't believe for an instant that Mrs Coulter had the advancement of the Magisterium in mind, but Danvers, fanatic that he was, might just be convinced. And if he were, what would that mean for Asriel? For the wolves? For Lyra?

For a moment, everything was redolent with ambiguity. Lee once again felt as if he were standing on a frozen river, the ice snapping and cracking beneath his weight. Would it hold? Break?

Then Danvers chuckled, a hollow sound, much like someone knocking on wood. Lee winced inwardly.

'Evil shall with evil be expelled? That's the best you can come up with Marisa?' Danvers scythed, the venom in his voice italicising all his words. 'What you've done here is an atrocity. A sin of the first water. And by the Authority's Grace, it's going to end here, tonight. I'll be presenting all I've found here to the Consistorial Court of Discipline, together with my evidence regarding your misuse of Magisterium funds and see what they think. Which I don't think will be anything very gratifying.'

A smile spread over the Alderman's face like an oil slick.

'You're finished, Marisa,' he said, almost lovingly. 'At the very least, you'll be expelled from MacPhail's inner circle. And forget being entrusted with a project of this magnitude anytime sooner. No, it'll be back to hosting cocktail parties and shopping sprees and being a good little girl if you're lucky. If you're unlucky…'

Danvers's satisfied smirk finished the sentence for him. The smile left Mrs Coulter's face as if it had been cut off. She took one step towards him and snarled, actually snarled at him, upper lip curling back like an animal.

The golden monkey struck.

It leapt onto a table, bounded off and swiped Danvers's daemon from his shoulder with one flick of his paw. Danvers shrieked and fell to the floor. Lee and Asriel both flinched, but mercifully the shotgun – still in the Alderman's grip – didn't go off. Lee sprang to his feet, grabbing at his revolver. Beside him, Asriel did the same. The creature writhed and growled, unsettled by the commotion.

'Get the shotgun off him!' shouted Mrs Coulter. But even as she yelled, Danvers managed to raise the gun and strike her daemon, hard, with the butt. The golden monkey screeched and let go of the lemming-daemon. Mrs Coulter collapsed with a gasp of pain, the strike to her daemon and the bullet-wound in her arm overpowering even her iron will. Danvers was already surging to his feet, but Lee was ready for him.

'Hold still, Mr Danvers,' he said, drawing the hammer back on his revolver with an ominous click.

Danvers froze halfway to his feet, one knee still resting on the floor. He still held the shotgun, but he was no longer aiming at Lee and Asriel.

'Shotgun on the floor,' Asriel demanded, aiming his own revolver at the Alderman. Danvers shot Asriel a look of pure, unadulterated loathing but complied.

'You're wasting your time, my good man,' Danvers sneered. 'My men are swarming this building even as we speak –'

'Oh, shut up,' Asriel groused. 'If you had that many men at your disposal, they'd have been here long –'

The lights winked out, plunging the room back into dimness. Danvers sniggered, and Lee guessed that Danvers's men had sabotaged the power to take the hall's occupants unawares. He blinked a couple of times, and his vision adjusted. Then: footsteps in the corridor, muffled by the carpet but palpable to the acute hearing of the wolfwalkers in the room.

'You were saying, sir?' Lee remarked drily to Asriel, not expecting an answer. He darted over to shut the door, grabbing a spindly chair as he went, and wedging it under the handle. 'Mr Danvers, you keep quiet or we'll shoot you and have done. Keep an eye on him, sir, while I look for another way out.'

Asriel, for once, didn't argue, keeping his revolver trained on the Alderman. Lee went over to the windows, to check if they could climb out, but Mrs Coulter spoke before he had time to do more than glance at them.

'We can't escape through the windows, they're all locked and barred,' she said urgently. 'And there are no other doors. We have to fend off whoever's coming.'

'Didn't plan this one too well, did you, ma'am?' Lee sniped. She glared at him for a brief moment but then went to a cabinet set against the wall and began rummaging in a drawer. She extracted something and ran to the cell. The creature began growling at her as she approached. Mrs Coulter slowed her pace, but showed no fear, holding up a fist as she advanced. Her face might have been carved out of marble for all the emotion it betrayed. Her eyes were cold unyielding stones. She looked almost inhuman to Lee.

The creature gazed up at her and fell silent. It hunkered down on the floor of the cell, pressing itself against the filthy straw, looking very much like a dog anticipating a blow. The golden monkey, prowling along at Mrs Coulter's side, surveyed it for a moment, and then, quick as thought, darted into the cell. It emerged with the beetle daemon in its paw, its grip not ungentle. The creature stirred but didn't growl or struggle.

Mrs Coulter waited a moment, and then bent over the creature, grabbing roughly at its collar. Something glinted in her hand, and Lee realised with alarm that it was a key.

'You're not seriously setting that thing free?' he asked, incredulous. Asriel looked up sharply.

'This thing, as you term it, has the strength of ten men,' Mrs Coulter informed him. 'It can easily overpower any number of Magisterium forces, and it is currently our only means of escape.'

'Are you nuts?' Lee demanded. 'What makes you think it won't turn on us?'

'I can control it,' Mrs Coulter proclaimed, with a smug little smile that made Lee want to shoot her again.

'Yeah, sure, while it's chained by its neck to the wall!' Lee exclaimed. Hester pressed herself against his leg, sharing his apprehension. Lee, keeping a close eye on the creature, bent to scoop her up and tuck her into his jacket in the old familiar fashion, keeping her close. Keeping her safe.

'You underestimate me, Scoresby,' Mrs Coulter said, turning to stare at him, her voice as cold as snow. 'Everyone does. The Magisterium. Danvers. Even dear Asriel over there.'

'Asriel?' Danvers choked out. Asriel scowled and whacked him over the head. Danvers subsided with a yelp of indignation.

'And yet here I am,' Mrs Coulter continued. 'The only one who stands a chance against what's coming for us, the only one with the means to control this being. Who created this being, this hybrid. Asriel sought to deny me this power, but I possess it nonetheless.'

'You're a kid playing with a lit stick of dynamite, Coulter,' Lee fired back.

'For once, he's right, Marisa,' Asriel snapped. 'I've told you till I'm blue in the face, the power of the wolfwalkers isn't to be meddled with.'

Danvers's bowed head shot up at those words, like a baby bird grabbing for food. But Mrs Coulter only smirked.

'What are you really afraid of, Asriel?' she asked, voice soft and almost coy. 'Power in the wrong hands? Or power in my hands? Are you afraid that if I master it, I'll be too much for you?'

Asriel made no response.

Footsteps outside the door. Someone rattled the doorhandle. Danvers perked up, eyes slithering towards the door, but Asriel clamped a hand down on the back of his neck, and the Alderman remained silent.

Mrs Coulter turned away, and a moment later Lee heard the creature's collar unlock with a whine of abused metal. For a moment he considered shooting it, killing it. It would be a kindness to the poor thing, and safer for everyone else. But even as he contemplated it, the creature slunk out of its tiny room on all fours, timid, uncertain, and Lee hesitated.

There was a scuffling sound at the door, an impatient exclamation. Then, a thud as someone pressed their shoulder against the wood and shoved. Lee checked how many bullets he had left, reloaded and then aimed his revolver at the door. Asriel kept his own gun pointed at Danvers.

Another shove against the door. The obstructing chair juddered, and then slid out of position as the door was pushed open.

Two Magisterium soldiers stood in the doorway, rifles at the ready. The first had a chameleon daemon perched on his shoulder, an anbaric torch glowing in his hand. They had just enough time to take in the whole outlandish scene – the Alderman on his knees, Asriel pointing a gun at him, Lee aiming his revolver, Mrs Coulter still bleeding from her right arm, the hideous man-wolf crouched beside her, the golden monkey clutching the beetle daemon close – when Mrs Coulter laid her uninjured hand on the creature's unlovely shoulder.

'Kill them,' she snarled.

The creature sprang forward. One ungainly leap carried it clear across the room and to the doorway. It landed awkwardly, human feet skidding on the slippery floor, but it managed to swipe at the lead soldier with one long, clawed hand. It opened up long, jagged rents in the man's tunic, and in the flesh beneath. The blood began flowing immediately, crimson trickles snaking over the fabric to drip on the floor, and the chameleon daemon croaked aloud in horror. The poor man hadn't had time to do more than raise his weapon, let alone aim and fire.

The guard screamed, a cry so filled with confused pain that Lee and even Asriel flinched. Then the injured man pitched forward, toppling towards the creature, which shoved him aside impatiently.

The second guard, stunned by what he was witnessing, didn't react fast enough. The creature lunged for him and snatched at his right arm, the one holding his weapon, in its misshapen teeth. With one jerk of its ugly head, the creature pulled him into the room and shook him like a terrier would a rat. The guard screamed and tried desperately to beat the creature off with his free hand, his nightjar daemon fluttering madly around the creature's head, but his blows might as well have been love-pats for all the notice the creature took. It continued to maul him with teeth and claws until Mrs Coulter stepped forward and struck it a fierce blow on its sensitive ears. It yelped and let go of the poor man, who fell to the floor and lay still, bleeding from a multitude of wounds.

'What's going on in there?' came a shout from down the corridor. Lee listened, hard, as Lyra had taught him – at least three more men, damnit.

'Keep that thing under control!' he snarled at Mrs Coulter, running past to take up a position beside the door.

'I don't take orders from you,' she snapped back. But Asriel spoke up.

'Do as he says, Marisa,' growled Asriel. 'That – thing, is too volatile to be trusted. Hold it back!'

Mrs Coulter was about to offer some riposte when a figure loomed in the doorway, rifle at the ready. Lee grabbed the barrel, pulled the man bodily into the room, and struck the hapless guard on the head with the handle of his revolver. The man dropped like a felled tree, blocking the doorway, his spider daemon scuttling away into the shadows.

Undeterred, the other men behind him began firing. Lee ducked behind the wall, Asriel dove for the floor, dragging Danvers with him, and Mrs Coulter whirled away from the line of fire, deeper into the room. The creature stood, frozen with sudden terror, then yelped as the golden monkey, still carrying its daemon, leapt for cover over a table and then up onto a tall cupboard.

'Lee, that monkey's getting too far away from the monster,' Hester whispered to him, words laced with fear. 'That beast's gonna go crazy if it starts hurting.'

Lee knew she was right. But before he could do anything, another volley of bullets sent the monkey bolting from the cupboard towards a dark corner. The creature bellowed in anguish, claws ripping the floorboards into splinters.

'Coulter!' Lee shouted, not caring who was outside listening. 'Give that thing back it's daemon! It's gonna go berserk if you don't!'

Mrs Coulter must have realised the danger, for she quelled the golden monkey's frightened antics with a single well-aimed glower. It subsided and crept to within a few yards of the creature, the beetle daemon chittering in its grip. The monster subsided, but Lee saw its sides heaving with agitation, and flecks of foam dotting its jaws.

Then another Magisterium soldier loomed into view, standing atop his fallen comrade for a better look. He carried a revolver in one hand, an old-fashioned oil lantern in the other.

The creature snarled at him.

The soldier reacted on pure instinct. Forgetting all about his gun, he flung the lantern at the creature as hard as he could. It struck the creature hard on its right shoulder with enough force to shatter the glass. Oil splattered over the monster and the floor, and flames leapt up and burned with abandon, searing through wood, fabric and flesh.

The creature howled, a single discordant pain-racked wail with none of the music or beauty of the wolfpack's voices. And then, its shirt and fur blazing bright, it sprang for the hapless man in the doorway.

'No!' cried Lee and fired his weapon. The bullet struck the creature mid-leap with sufficient force to knock the beast from the air. It spun sideways and landed in a burning heap on the floor, extinguishing a few of the flames licking at its right arm.

'You fool!' cried Mrs Coulter. Lee ignored her and aimed again, but there was no need to. The remaining guards, upon seeing their fallen comrades, the fire burning the floorboards and spreading to the furniture and the beastly thing attacking them, had bolted back down the hall to comparative safety.

'Right,' shouted Asriel, hauling Danvers to his feet. 'Let's get out of here, while we can!'

Lee turned to the creature, intending to finish it off for good, but Mrs Coulter stepped in front of him, bending over the beast and smacking at the fire still burning on its back with her jacket. She managed to extinguish most of them, but before she could do anything else the creature rose to its feet with a moan of pain. It turned to seek out the monkey daemon, spotted it, and lunged and smacked at it with one powerful paw.

The monkey screeched, and Mrs Coulter staggered under the blow, her face turning icy-white with agony. The monkey lost its grip on the beetle daemon, which fluttered back to the creature. It gathered its daemon almost tenderly in its massive claws, and then bolted out of the door and down the passageway.

'Ah, hell,' said Lee.

'Come on!' Asriel shouted, grabbing Danvers and hauling him to his feet. 'We need to get out of here, now!'

'But what about –' Lee started, gesturing at the by-now quite vigorous fire. But even as he spoke, he realised it was a lost cause. The fire had got a firm hold, burning a chair and table to cinders, scorching the floor and spreading rapidly. Already the air was harsh and acrid with smoke, and Lee began sneezing as the harsh scent made itself known. He bent to pick up his Winchester and turned to face his comrade.

'Let's get back to the roof!' he yelled to Asriel. 'I can pilot us out of here, and it means fewer soldiers to fight off!'

'Agreed,' said Asriel making for the door, hauling Danvers with him, the lemming-daemon scuttling across the floor from where it had taken shelter and clinging to the Alderman's trouser leg. Danvers balked as the flames began licking at the doorframe, and Asriel shoved him bodily through.

'Now you, Marisa,' he said, gesturing with his revolver. Mrs Coulter didn't hesitate, darting through the door like an eel. Asriel went next and Lee brought up the rear. The fire was spreading so quickly that he was forced to leap over the blaze that had sprung up in front of the exit.

Lee ran down the corridor after Asriel, Coulter and Danvers. Just as they had reached the main hall there was a colossal bang that seemed to come from all around them, shaking the very walls and dislodging dust from every surface.

'What the hell?' Lee cried to no-one in particular.

'It must have been the formaldehyde,' gasped Mrs Coulter. 'We had plenty in storage for preserving flesh samples.'

Lee muttered a curse under his breath as Asriel began shepherding Danvers towards the stairs. Mrs Coulter followed them, apparently preferring to take her chances with Lee and Asriel than the Magisterium. There was no sign of the creature, and Lee was just scanning the large hall for it when he smelled gas.

It was faint, but growing stronger rapidly and he swore again, much more colourfully than last time. The explosion must have ruptured a gas main somewhere in the building. And with the fire growing larger with every passing moment, it was only a matter of time before the gas ignited and blew all of Farleigh Hall to smithereens.

'Asriel!' Lee called.

'I smell it,' Asriel shouted back. 'Come on, everyone, and be quick!'

Asriel had just set foot on the stairs when the front door burst open. More Magisterium guards – four more, all armed – came bursting in.

Shoddy entrance, thought Lee. Fancy busting through a door like that without checking to see what's on the other side…

Lee, loath to risk firing his gun and igniting the gas spreading through the mansion, cast about for a distraction and found it in the shape of a handsome armoire positioned to the right of the door. He ducked behind it, set his shoulder to it and pushed. It toppled easily, careering towards the guards and sending them scattering like startled pigeons.

Lee and Asriel took advantage and bolted up the stairs, the latter dragging Danvers with him. This was no easy task, as the Alderman was stumbling, dragging his feet and Asriel almost had to carry him at one point.

They reached the first landing just as the guards recovered themselves and began firing.

'Hell!' Lee muttered, whisking himself and Hester across the landing and pressing himself against the wall, out of range of the bullets. Mrs Coulter had made it too, though her face was deathly pale. Her mouth, painted blood-red with lipstick, made a garish slash across her features. Asriel was still grappling with Danvers, until with grunt of sheer frustration, he grabbed the Alderman by his shoulders and chucked him bodily back down the stairs.

Lee winced as the Alderman went thumping downstairs, shrieking as he went and stymying the guards who had begun to make their way up. Asriel turned away, and began making his way up the second flight, back towards the roof.

Lee and Mrs Coulter followed him. Shouts of anger and confusion pursued them as they ran up to the second floor and continued towards the stairs leading to the roof, but no-one came pounding upstairs after them. They encountered no-one else and Asriel led the way to the roof, flinging open the door and charging up the stairs as other men would charge into battle, Stelmaria at his side.

Lee hung back so Mrs Coulter would be forced to go next, which she did after shooting Lee a sidelong glance. The golden monkey hissed at him but then ran after Mrs Coulter. Lee took a moment to place a reassuring hand against Hester, tucked safe and watchful in his jacket, and then ran.

He emerged into the night, the air so clear and fresh after the oppressive atmosphere of the hall that Lee felt as if he was resurfacing after a long dive into deep water. Another of Loveday's rockets went screeching into the air and exploded just as he stepped outside, illuminating the roof and his trusty balloon, anchored right where they'd left it. Lee heaved a sigh of relief.

It was premature. Just as he began to run towards his balloon, he felt the roof tremble under his feet, as if an earthquake were taking place. The sound of the explosion reached his ears a half-second later: a whoosh of displaced air mingled with a rumble not unlike thunder, underscored by the harsh jingle of shattering glass and dull thuds of masonry hitting soft earth.

'Ah, damn,' he muttered, realising that the gas from the ruptured main had ignited somehow.

'Lee, get us out of here before this entire place falls down!' cried Hester. Lee did as he was instructed. He cast round for Asriel and Mrs Coulter and spied them a little way ahead, clinging to one another for balance, shaken by the eruption.

Lee took charge at once.

'Everyone into the basket,' he ordered, before quickly holstering his revolver, untying the mooring ropes and jumping in himself. Asriel and Mrs Coulter and their daemons wisely shuffled out of the way as Lee released more gas into the envelope and lit the burner. Slowly, agonisingly slowly, the balloon began to rise off the roof. Lee pulled hard on the burner, and at last felt the balloon leap up into the air, gathering strength as it ascended. He never tired of that first rush of speed, the ground receding beneath them, the endless sky above.

'Watch out!' shouted Asriel.

Lee spied it a moment later. It was the creature, running across the rooftop in a senseless panic, unable to comprehend what was happening, desperate to escape. It saw the balloon, gaining height, and made a beeline for it.

'Can't this thing go any faster?' demanded Mrs Coulter as she saw the pending threat. Lee didn't deign to answer, instead unslinging his Winchester and taking aim at the fleeing creature. It would be a difficult shot, aiming at a moving target in the dark, but he was confident he could at least injure it again –

'No!' cried Mrs Coulter. She grabbed the barrel of the Winchester with her good hand and jerked it upwards. Lee's shot missed by a mile.

'Get off you crazy bitch!' Lee shouted, wrestling the rifle away from her. Asriel hanging over the edge of the basket, took aim with his revolver, but it was too late. The creature reached the edge of the roof and leapt, throwing itself out into thin air as if it were a bird trying to take flight. Its inhuman strength propelled it forward, and almost before Lee had time to comprehend what was happened, its claws clutched at the rim of the basket and the creature was riding the balloon with them.

The balloon lurched sickeningly, thrown off balance by the creature's weight. Lee and Mrs Coulter landed in a heap in one corner, arms and legs tangled uncomfortably. Asriel was thrown heavily to one side, and though he managed to catch himself on a stanchion he lost his grip on his revolver. It disappeared somewhere in the basket.

The creature succeeded in hauling itself upwards, poking its snout and head above the basket, snarling rabidly at Asriel and the golden monkey, which clung to a rope and screeched at the monster. Stelmaria sprang to the defence, leaping towards the creature and roaring ferociously.

The creature, despite its impressive size and strength, balked at Stelmaria's rage. It continued its mad scramble upwards, tucking its feet underneath itself and clawing for purchase above its head.

Lee realised what was about to happen a split second before it did. He shoved Mrs Coulter none-too-gently off himself and groped for his rifle, but he couldn't take aim swiftly enough. The creature's savage claws caught hold of the balloon's envelope and slashed it open, as quickly and easily as a cat would rip the head off a mouse.

The escaping gas left the envelope with a whistle of rushing vapour, and the balloon plummeted as though a great hand had seized it and was dragging it downwards. Lee's heart dropped into his stomach.

'Scoresby!' shouted Asriel, face as white as salt. 'Can you –'

'Ain't nothing any of us can do! We're going down!' Lee shouted back. 'Everyone grab a-hold of something and hang on!'

The balloon careered towards the earth, gathering speed as it did so. Asriel crouched and hung onto the side of the basket. Mrs Coulter flung herself flat and covered her head with her arms. Lee reached for a post and clung on tight with one arm. With the other, he reached up to embrace Hester. He felt her nestled against his heart, felt her warmth and her faithfulness, and was strangely comforted.

They were clear of Farleigh Hall and its grounds at least. Lee could see trees, hedgerows, neatly portioned fields racing towards them, increasing in size as if someone were turning the magnifying dial on a microscope. He took one last deep breath and braced for –

The balloon hit the ground at high speed and bounced like a rubber ball. Lee was flung about like a leaf in a storm. Now he was up, now down, now he wasn't so sure. The sounds of snapping twigs and the creak of the abused basket and shrieks from the balloon's other passengers and their daemons and the crunch of earth and stones assailed his ears. He was being pummelled on his back, his shoulders, his legs, by heavens knows what.

Then the basket struck something hard. Lee was flung up in the air. The post slipped from his fingers. He crashed back down an instant later. Something smacked against his head, and all the lights in the world went out. It occurred to Lee he must have been knocked on the skull and was about to lose consciousness.

A moment later, he did just that.

Author's Notes:

Sorry about yet another cliffhanger! (He he, I'm not really!) Well, the wolfwalkers have escaped Farleigh Hall but something tells me Alderman Danvers isn't going to let them go so easily... assuming they've all come through the crash unscathed. Have they? You'll have to wait and see...

Till next time, dear readers...