lorek Byrnison gave swift orders. It was clear that the bears were practiced at witch fighting, for they had moved at oo a defensive formation, and the witches moved just as smoothly into attack. They could only shoot accurately from cle, and in order not to waste arrows they would swoop down, fire at the lowest part of their dive, and turn upward at once. But when they reached the lowest point, and their hands were busy with bow and arrow, they were vulnerable, and the bears would explode upward with raking paws t them down. More than one fell, and was quickly dispatched.
Lyra crouched low beside a rock, watg for a witch dive. A few shot at her, but the arrows fell wide; and then Lyra, looking up at the sky, saw the greater part of the witch flight peel off and turn back.
If she was relieved by that, her relief didnt last more than a few moments.
Because from the dire in which theyd flown, she saw many others ing to join them; and in midair with them there was a group of gleaming lights; and across the broad expanse of the Svalbard plain, uhe radiance of the Aurora, she heard a sound she dreaded. It was the harsh throb of a gas engine.
The zeppelin, with Mrs. Coulter aroops on board, was catg up.
lrowled an order and the bears moved at oo another formation. In the lurid flicker from the sky Lyra watched as they swiftly unloaded their fire hurler. The advance guard of the witch flight had seeoo, and began to swoop downward and rain arrows on them, but for the most part the bears trusted to their armor and worked swiftly to erect the apparatus: a long arm extending upward at an angle, a cup or bowl a yard across, and a great iron tank wreathed in smoke and steam.
As she watched, a bright flame gushed out, and a team of bears swung into practiced a. Two of them hauled the long arm of the fire thrower down, another scooped shovelfuls of fire into the bowl, and at an order they released it, to hurl the flaming sulfur high into the dark sky.
The witches were swooping so thickly above them that three fell in flames at the first shot alone, but it was soohat the real target was the zeppelin.
The pilot either had never seen a fire hurler before, or was uimating its power, for he flew straight on toward the bears without climbing or turning a fra to either side.
Then it became clear that they had a powerful on in the zeppelin too: a mae rifle mounted on the nose of the gondola. Lyra saw sparks flying up from some of the bears armor, and saw them huddle over beh its prote, before she heard the rattle of the bullets. She cried out in fear.
「Theyre safe,」 said lorek Byrnison. 「t pierce armor with little bullets.」
The fire thrower worked again: this time a mass of blazing sulfur hurtled directly upward to strike the gondola and burst in a cascade of flaming fragments on all sides. The zeppelin bao the left, and roared away in a wide arc before making again for the group of bears w swiftly beside the apparatus. As it he arm of the fire thrower creaked downward; the mae rifle coughed and spat, and two bears fell, to a low growl from lorek Byrnison; and when the aircraft was nearly overhead, a bear shouted an order, and the spring-loaded arm shot upward again.
This time the sulfur hurtled against the envelope of the zeppelins gas bag. The rigid frame held a skin of oiled silk in place to tain the hydrogen, and although this was tough enough to withstand minor scratches, a hundr