"Just wait 'til I tell Roger how I rode an elk!" said Lyra, exuberant. "He en't going to believe a word of it."

She had taken to saying that a lot; not about riding elks, which was a new and, to Iorek's mind, not particularly good turn. He could have done without that little adventure. Lee trusted him with Lyra, completely and utterly, and Iorek had come far too close to failing that trust for his own comfort. Rather, Lyra had taken to talking all about what she was going to tell Roger when she saw him next. Lee, Iorek and Hester had talked it over, when the child was distracted in lighthearted play with her daemon, in their sight but distant enough to not be able to listen in.

"It's homesickness, sure enough," Lee had said. "Her first time away from home, but no family to speak of, of course it's her friend she thinks of. Closest thing she has to family."

"But she has parents, Lee," Hester pointed out, cautious as ever of Lee's heart, knowing how attached he had become and feeling she needed to be the voice of reason.

"On paper," Lee agreed with a shrug, giving Hester an easy grin as though to say 'what are you worried for, I know what's what'. Hester was not convinced of this in the slightest. They were hired in the first place to bring Lyra to her father. Her real father, the one who gave her half her looks and her surname and who was waiting to receive her at his laboratory in Nova Zembla. At first, Lyra had chattered endlessly about how wonderful her father was and all he knew and all he did and all he was but precious little about anything he had ever done with her or for her. And then there was the little side trip to free Iorek (okay, big side trip, further north than they were ever meant to go. In fact, Lee fully intended on taking Lyra to her father first and returning for Iorek, only the girl had sensed something was wrong and wrangled the story out of Hester, and the next thing they knew she had half a plan formed for freeing him, and after all the city where Iorek was rumored to be was not so far off track.). And then there was a storm and instead of going east they were blown north. And then there were the cliff ghasts. And Lee lost Lyra, and Iorek and near lost himself.

So they were rather late getting Lyra to her father, but as near as Iorek could tell both Lyra and Lee were perfectly happy to wander the wilderness together. It did not help that the winds kept being out of favor, and now they were in Lapland and it looked like they would be there for a while yet. Iorek accompanied them in part from feeling indebted to Lyra and wanting to see her safely to her journey's end, in part through pure friendship to all of them, and in part because home had become a stranger's stronghold and still felt it even now that he was its lord. And over time, Lyra had stopped talking about her father and started talking about Roger and seeing Roger and how Mr. Scoresby and Hester and Iorek would love meeting Roger and Salcilia when they took her and Pan home after her visit with Lord Asriel.

None of the men, nor even Hester, had the heart to point out there was no guarantee her father would send her back anytime soon, let alone with the very people who had gotten her so hopelessly lost in the wilderness long past when she was due to meet him. If it were up to Lee, Iorek rather thought they would never part. If they were all bears, things would be much simpler. Lee could just ask Lyra if she wanted him for a dad, and if she said yes, that would be that; wouldn't matter who her old father or mother were. But humans had all these rules about that sort of thing, and they would most certainly side with her rich and influential parents and not with a near penniless aeronaut. So now they were all enjoying the trip and avoiding thinking about its conclusion. And they needed to eat, which meant they needed to hunt. Normally, Iorek would go alone, but Lyra was interested in everything and had begged to be allowed to come. She now felt the hunt had been a great success, small mishaps and all.

"Only," Lyra babbled on, still happy with their little adventure with the elk, "Maybe it's best we don't tell Mr. Scoresby about it."

"He'd never let us go hunting with Iorek again," Pan agreed, sharing Lyra's exuberance in the form of a robin, flitting from Lyra's shoulder, to the haunch of the elk now laid over Iorek's back, then to Iorek's head. Pan never seemed to mind touching Iorek any more than he would mind touching Hester, and Lyra had seen many times Hester nuzzle up to the bear too. She supposed bears were closer to daemon than to human, being an animal, so the taboo did not apply.

They were returning more slowly than they had set out; not so much because of the burden Iorek now carried, the prize of their successful hunt which was of little consequence to a bear of his strength despite the elk's great size, but because Lyra, both naturally reluctant to ride with a dead animal and buoyant from the success so as to make her want to skip about, was now walking and forced their procession to slow to her gait.

They were still about a twenty minute walk from where they left Lee at their camp at Lyra's pace, when Iorek paused. Whatever he had been about to say concerning Lyra's elk riding and whether Lee needed to know of it or not (not, he was inclined to think), was silenced.

"What is it?" Lyra asked, sensing the change of mood. Pan alit on her shoulder, transforming seamlessly into a ferret.

"Something is wrong," said Iorek. "I smell men, strange men and…and blood…"

"From our camp?" Lyra asked, grasping at Pan and holding him to her heart.

Iorek growled, low and deep. "You will wait here," he said. "Climb up into this tree and do not come down until I return to get you."

"What? No! I want to help!" Lyra argued. Iorek, however, did not give her the chance. He had already started to run, elk and all, and there was no chance for Lyra to ever catch up to that, not if she ran until her heart burst. She ran anyway, until Pan flew at her face in the form of a bird, distracting her into stopping.

"Lyra!" said Pan, a badger now, heavy and unbudging, "You heard what he said. We should climb a tree and wait."

"We can't just…just wait!" Lyra said, aghast. "That's…that's Mr. Scoresby back in the camp and Iorek said there was blood and…and we can't just…we can't…"

"It's Mr. Scoresby," Pan said, saying through tone alone that there was no need to worry for him; "If there's blood it's probably those bad men who are doing the bleeding. Anyway, Iorek will go and see and he will come back for us and if we run off maybe he won't find us for an age and we'll make things worse."

"But Pan," Lyra said, full of tears and passion and fear, "It's Mr. Scoresby!"

"We're close to camp now," Pan said. "Let's climb a tree and perhaps we'll be high enough to see what is happening."

Lyra accepted that more readily than simply abandoning Mr. Scoresby and Iorek, and she looked about to find the tallest tree in the forest. Getting into it was rather more difficult; the branches started high and Lyra was a child, and small for her age besides. Pan helped though, becoming the biggest, most solid warthog he could manage and giving her a boost up, then flitting up as a bird and finally joining her as a monkey once she was to the first branch. After that, the climb was no difficulty at all for such seasoned climbers, though they were more used to the unyielding stone of buildings than the swaying of branches.

She went as high as she dared, and then Pan flew higher still, as high as they could bear, and looked out with hawk eyes. Lyra looked out too, but to her dismay she found that she still could not see much because the other trees were in the way, though she looked and looked in the direction she thought their camp must be for any sign or battle.

"I see something, Lyra!" Pan said, having managed, barely, to crest the top of the tree before the strain had become too great to go further. It was a risk, because a sudden change in the air could send a bird reeling, up and away, or down, and neither could afford a great stretch or a fall, but both felt it worth it, for Mr. Scoresby and Hester.

"Be careful, Pan," Lyra said, and then, "What do you see?"

"I wish I could go higher," Pan said, staring hard, going sideways to try and get a better view. "I see Iorek. He's at the camp. He's…he's looking at something."

"And Mr. Scoresby?" Lyra asked, "And Hester?"

"I don't…I don't see them," Pan answered.

And then there was a gust of wind.

Pan felt it pull on him even as his bond to Lyra pulled the other way, and Lyra cried out, almost falling as she reached for him. But she did not fall, and Pan dropped, not to the ground, but to the upper branch of the tree and held on until the gust was finished. Then Pan changed into a monkey again and clambered down to Lyra's side.

"That was close," he said. "I did not like that, Lyra." And she held him to her heart with one hand, the other still clinging to the tree, feeling his heartbeat against hers.

"You didn't see them at all?" Lyra asked, once they had calmed again. "Not…not a body or…anything?" There was no need to clarify who 'them' was.

"No bodies," Pan answered. "They en't in the camp."

In the camp, Iorek was coming to much the same conclusion. Lee Scoresby and Hester had been there, and there had been a battle, one Iorek could read as plain as if someone had written it out in words for him to know. Lee and Hester had been surprised by five men with wolf daemons, and they had fought and felled one…maybe two, but that one got up again and the other did not…but they had fallen in the end and there was blood. And maybe some of it was the strange men's but some was around where Lee had sat. The camp was wrecked too, in part from the battle but in part, Iorek suspected, just from meanness. They hadn't spent a lot of time at it, though; Lee's instruments for instance were still tucked away unharmed, or no more harmed than they had been from the crash. There was a reason they were making their way on paw and foot, at least until they reached the next town where repairs or replacements could be found. Chairs had been smashed though, and their supplies flung about and slashed through.

Iorek took the time to study this, because the more he knew of his enemy the better prepared he would be, and he began to think there was some method to the destruction. This wasn't destruction for the meanness of it, or not just to be mean; the destroyer was looking for something. Or someone.

They had nothing of value for bandits to steal, not if they didn't want Lee's instruments which were worth something. Not if they hadn't wanted the thing of immense value Iorek had left tucked away in the safety of the camp. It was still there, Iorek's armor, left behind because he had been on a hunt, not to battle. Iorek was relieved to find it complete, though it was not untouched. Whatever valuables the man was looking for (and it was a single man, the others had gone a different direction, with Lee), he hadn't cared enough to take the armor. An attempt had been made to harm it; The sealskin used to hold it when he was not wearing it had been sliced through, but the armor itself was untouched. It was likely too heavy for a single man to drag away, and too tough for his weapons to harm, and whoever it was seemed to know they hadn't the time to do anything else.

Now Iorek was torn on what to do next. His heart said to follow after Lee and free him from his captors and avenge him his pain (his death, if necessary). But he had left Lyra in a tree, and those men had been searching for something, maybe for someone, and the child had a warrior's heart and he could not see her staying put all the while he took to track his friend. Even if he did trust her to stay in the tree all that time, and he did not, he did not trust her to remain unfound while unguarded. You cannot trick a bear, and this entire setup had the feel of a trap, traps within traps. Someone meant for him to track Lee. They wanted him without his armor, or perhaps to take the time to fix it, time he did not have. Time was their advantage, every delay more time to set their trap. They wanted him angry. They wanted him to go after his friend. And if he did so, he would be playing their game.

He was going to go after Lee anyway. Those men had hurt his armor (or the sealskin anyway; they clearly wanted to hurt his armor) and deserved vengeance for that. They had hurt his friend. Those men were dead.

But he wasn't going to run stupidly into their trap like the unthinking beast they seemed to consider him. And he wasn't going to leave Lyra alone up a tree with just Pan. Besides, the child had a warrior's heart and a silver tongue. Bears did not see youth as a barrier to doing great things. They protected their young but they did not shelter them.

So Iorek made sure he understood what to make of the destruction in their camp, and then put on his helmet, and the rest of his armor, then turned and ran back towards the child.

He found her easily, and sooner than he should have. She had obeyed in climbing a tree but not the tree he had told her to climb.

"Iorek!" she said, already almost down; she had seen him coming. "Iorek, Pan said Mr. Scoresby isn't in the camp and it's all in ruins."

"On my back, child," said Iorek, and he stood up taller so she could climb on directly from the branch she was sitting on. She did without question, familiar enough with his armor to find her seat, and almost before she was settled they were moving.

"What has become of Mr. Scoresby and Hester?" Lyra asked as they ran.

Iorek told her all he had found in the camp, leaving nothing out, not even the blood. They returned to the camp and started after the footprints at once.

"They have him walking," Iorek said, looking closely, "Though I cannot think why he did not refuse."

"Oh, they must have Hester, of course, and are using her to make him go," said Lyra, who saw quicker being more used to daemons than Iorek.

"Yes, I see now, there are no hare prints at all," Iorek agreed. Four times in their new hunt, Iorek paused, but did not explain why and he did not stop long enough to make Lyra ask.

They were fast, much faster than the men had been, but the men had also timed their attack very well, waiting for exactly when Iorek and Lyra had left the camp just far enough for a bear to not notice the battle but soon enough that the two were likely to be gone a good long while. Even so, the men never knew how close they cut it, for they were only just closing the gate when the bear and the girl spied the stronghold.

They did not go close, just near enough to be certain that was where Lee was taken.

"What do we do, Iorek?" Lyra whispered. "Shall we jump that fence and you can crush their skulls and eat their hearts and me and Pan will find Mr. Scoresby and Hester and protect them." She did not say what she would protect them with, and Iorek felt a sense of pride that was strange considering she was a human and not his own (except she was his, in ways too difficult for a bear to explain, bears dealt in practicalities not…not whatever this was). Even so, though he admired her determination and instinctive sense of right, he could not admire her battle tactics.

"This is a trap and one meant for the two of us," Iorek said. "They are expecting such a move. Remember, you cannot trick a bear, but they are trying."

"Well then, what will we do?" Lyra asked. "We cannot just…just let them keep Mr. Scoresby in there."

"Of course not," Iorek agreed. "But we will find a different way in, one unexpected."

They circled the stronghold, inspecting its strengths and weaknesses. Not too close; they could see a sentry with his falcon daemon sitting at the top of a sort of platform in a corner. But close enough. They were close enough to hear when Lee Scoresby screamed.

It was a near thing. Every muscle in Iorek tensed, wound and ready to turn into a burst of savage motion, propelling him forward half a step. For that moment, Iorek was ready to ignore all bear sense, all common sense, and run straight into the trap, trusting in his strength to push him through to his friend.

Lyra felt the muscles move beneath her, felt the deep growl, too deep to be heard with the ears but felt like a rumble of thunder beneath her hand. If Iorek had sprung, she would have ridden without protest.

But Iorek did not spring. He was too true a bear to be tricked, and he controlled his instincts and his emotions.

"They are dead," he growled, his voice impossibly deep and low, so the words barely registered as words, but Lyra understood anyway. "Every last one of them, they are dead and their stronghold is forfeit."

"I didn't think Mr. Scoresby could ever sound like that," Lyra whispered, trembling with something other than fear but that brought tears to her eyes. Pan bristled into a wolverine, teeth bared. The scream had gone on and on, too, tugging at them, until Lyra had wanted to beg for Iorek to change his mind and charge in. But she knew better, so she listened, and they waited, until it was silent once again.

Then Iorek circled the stronghold again, moving towards the side where the screams had come from.

Inside the stronghold, a man and his wolf left the building where Lee Scoresby was kept. The man Lee had dubbed 'Captain' looked around, eying the preparations, then wandered over to the raised platform where the sentry kept watch. He climbed, not high enough to see over the wall or be seen, but high enough to speak without having to shout. His wolf sat at the foot of the platform, unable to climb after, another reason to not go too high. He looked up at the sentry, who did not look back, keeping his eyes looking outward.

"Any sign of the bear or the girl?" asked the Captain.

"Yes sir" answered the sentry, keeping his gaze outward, "Almost missed them, but when the Texan screamed, Miara saw movement between the trees."

"It's the bear," said the hawk, also keeping her eyes outward rather than towards the one she spoke to, "I could not quite see, but I think the girl was with him. I saw an animal with the bear; it must have been her daemon."

"He brought her with him?" asked the Captain, raising an eyebrow. "No luck in separating them, then. Oh well, it was always a long shot." Then he gave the sentry a pointed look, a look the sentry missed as his eyes never left off their watch. "And why?" asked the Captain, "Did you not raise the alarm the moment the bear was spotted?"

"Because you ordered me not to, sir," answered the sentry, unconcerned. "We made out like we had seen nothing."

"Very well done," said the Captain, pleased. Then he considered his next move.

Everyone says you cannot trick a bear. But bears can be trapped. And he knew the story of this bear. This bear was prey to his anger. Get him angry enough, and he will lose all reason. This bear had been tricked before, right out of a throne. Right out of his armor.

Finding out that an armored bear was one of the guardians of their current prey had been daunting, let alone the king of the armored bears, but he was not a man to be stopped by a beast.

"Sir?" said the sentry's voice, just when the Captain had been on the verge of leaving.

"Yes?"

"What did you do to get the Texan to scream?"

There was a pause while the Captain looked up at the sentry, eyebrow raised at the sentry's curiosity.

"Why do you ask?"

"Miara says Johnson ran out and was sick after. We wanted to know what could affect a soldier like Johnson like that."

The Captain shrugged, then answered truthfully. "I touched the man's daemon. Dragged her away from him. Let him feel the stretch."

The sentry did not look shocked, though the falcon betrayed a hint of unease by ruffling her feathers in a sort of shudder.

"That would do it, I suppose," said the sentry, not sounding near as horrified as most would be in his place. He had seen worse. Then, "Keep an eye on Johnson. Wouldn't want him to grow squeamish and ruin the plan."

"I have my eyes on everyone," answered the Captain, and then he climbed down and left and saw to the rest of the preparations. Everyone said you couldn't trick a bear. He was ready to do the impossible.