A wolf daemon leaped at him: he slashed at her in midair, and bright fire spilled out of her as she fell to the snow, where she hissed and howled before vanishing. Her huma once.
The Tartar officer, faced with this double attack, didate. A long high scream of orders, and the force divided itself into two: oo keep off the witches, the bigger part to overe the bear. His troops were magnifitly brave. They dropped to one knee in groups of four and fired their rifles as if they were on the practice range, not budging an inch as loreks mighty bulk hurtled toward them. A moment later they were dead.
lorek struck again, twisting to one side, slashing, snarling, crushing, while bullets flew about him like s or flies, doing no harm at all. Lyra urged the children on and out into the darkness beyond the lights. They must get away, because dangerous as the Tartars were, far more dangerous were the adults of Bolvangar.
So she called and beed and pushed to get the children moving. As the lights behind them threw long shadows on the snow, Lyra found her heart moving out toward the deep dark of the arctiight and the ess, leaping forward to love it as Pantalaimon was doing, a hare now delighting in his own propulsion.
「Where we going?」 someone said.
「Theres nothing out here but snow!」
「Theres a rescue party ing,」 Lyra told them. 「Theres fifty gyptians or more. I bet theres some relations of yours, too. All the gyptian families that lost a kid, they all sent someone.」
「I ent a gyptian,」 a boy said.
「Dont matter. Theyll take you anyway.」
「Where?」 someone said querulously.
「Home,」 said Lyra. 「Thats what I e here for, to rescue you, and I brung the gyptiao take you home again. We just got to go on a bit further and then well fihe bear was with em, so they t be far off.」
「Dyou see that bear!」 one boy was saying. 「When he slashed open that daemon—the man died as if someone whipped his heart out, just like that!」
「I never knew daemons could be killed,」 someone else said.
They were all talking now; the excitement and relief had loosened everyoongue. As long as they kept moving, it didnt matter if they talked.
「Is that true,」 said a girl, 「about what they do back there?」
「Yeah,」 Lyra said. 「I hought Id ever see ahout their daemon.
But on the way here, we found this boy on his own without any daemon. He kept asking for her, where she was, would she ever find him. He was called Tony Makarios.」
「I know him!」 said someone, and others joined in: 「Yeah, they took him away about a week back....」
「Well, they cut his daemon away,」 said Lyra, knowing how it would affect them.
「And a little bit after we found him, he died. And all the daemons they cut away, they kept them in cages in a square building back there.」
「Its true,」 said Roger. 「And Lyra let em out during the fire drill.」
「Yeah, I seen 「em!」 said Billy Costa. 「I didnt know what they was at first, but I seen em fly away with that goose.」
「But why do they do it?」 demanded one boy. 「Why do they cut peoples daemons away? Thats torture! Why do they do it?」
「Dust,」 suggested someone doubtfully.
But the boy laughed in s. 「Dust!」 he said. 「There ent no such thing! They just made that up! I dont believe in it.」
「Here,」 said someone else, 「look whats happening to the zeppelin!」
They all looked back. Beyond the dazzle of lights, where the fight was still tinuing, th