"I dunno, Lyra," Roger said, a little uncomfortably. He didn't like to contradict her, but what he'd seen hadn't looked like what a crocodile probably did. "Aren't crocodiles them big lizards, or somefing?"
"Yeah," said Lyra, glad to be talking about a subject on which she considered herself an authority. "They've got these big teeth, right, an' they eat kids, sometimes-"
"What eats kids?" asked Pinky, looking in the water nervously.
Sparrow had also left this gyptian kids, and swum over to stand waist-deep in the shallows with Lyra and Roger. Creeping up behind Pinky, he dove under water. Lyra and Roger laughed when Pinky squealed in fright when Sparrow grabbed his muddy foot and upended him into the water with a splash.
Sputtering, Pinky surfaced, having only barely been able to free himself from the stronger boy's grip. "Sparrers, that hurt, y'know! I thought you was one of them crocodillies…"
"Aw, you're just yellow-bellied, e'nt you," Sparrow teased. "Like them crocodiles would go after a skinny thing like you." Pinky stuck out his tongue in lieu of an answer, and the boys started to fight again. Roger was about to go join in the fun when the big bell of Jordan College boomed. It was four o'clock-strange how the time had passed. Lyra started suddenly, and her eyes grew big with fear. "Roger, we've must get back-My uncle's comin' to the College tonight-and I's supposed to get back by three!"
Roger started swimming back from the fight between Pinky and Sparrow that had since moved into the middle of the river. Lyra started wading in quickly as she could, but something caught her ankle. She thought it was a broken reed, or some such, but when she tugged it held firm. She looked down and saw a white hand holding on to her, with iridescent fins flowing from the wrist. The fingers were webbed, and a strange face looked up at Lyra from underwater. Dark hair floated around her, and looking back, Lyra thought she saw the shadow of a tail.
Lyra swallowed hard. This was no crocodile.
The whatever-it-was rose her head above water just enough to speak. Her voice was high and clear, and it seemed to echo.
"Help me," she said. And her hand loosed her grip on Lyra, and she was gone, back into the middle of the river. Lyra looked at Pan. He, too, was awestruck.
Roger splashed up next to his friend. "C'mon, Lyra, we'll surely be late coming back now. Why're you just standing there?" He waded to the bank and started climbing up.
Shaking her head to clear it of the strangeness, Lyra climbed up the bank. Her uncle Asriel was coming-she'd ask him what the creature was then. She thought she'd seen something like it once-in a drawing of what a young Scholar had called merfolk. As it was now, she had to get back before she was scolded too awfully by the maids.
Lyra and Roger hurried soaking wet through the streets, dodging through boys making late deliveries and fishwives crying the last of their wares. The late afternoon sun was making everything look golden when they arrived back at the College. Roger disappeared through a side door into the kitchens, where Lyra heard the cook bellowing. She winced. Hopefully, Roger wouldn't get in too much trouble.
Pan shifted into a black cat, the better to go unnoticed. Lyra didn't want any Scholars or servants making her stop to ask why she was wet and muddy. With him padding swiftly by her side, she darted into another side entrance and raced up three flights of stairs to her room.
After facing a very irate housekeeper and very cold bathwater, Lyra was forced into a blue dress, and her hair was brushed and plaited. She was left in the Visiting Room to wait for Lord Asriel.
Pan waved moth-wings nervously. "Are you sure he'll even know what we saw was?"
Lyra, lounging in a plush armchair that was supposed to be for visitors only, was surprised at such a silly question. "Of course he will, Pan. Uncle knows everything."
Lyra jumped to her feet and Pan fluttered to her shoulder when heard footsteps in the hall outside and the voice of the Steward.
"She is in here, Lord Asriel." The door handle turned and her uncle entered with Stelmaria, his snow leopard daemon, regal by his side.
"Hello, child," Asriel said, seating himself in the chair Lyra had so recently vacated. "Have you been obeying the Scholars?" His deep voice was nothing if not commanding.
"Yes," Lyra replied, a little sullenly. If only he wouldn't ask her the same dumb questions!
Amusement etched lines around Asriel's fierce eyes. "While I'm certain you are telling me the truth, I don't think playing on the rooftops, skipping meals, and never attending any lessons are at all what the Scholars mean for you to be doing."
Lyra's face reddened. "Yes, Uncle." Why did he have to choose the events of the last few weeks to pay attention to? She conveniently forgot that this the way she always behaved.
Asriel sighed, and for the first time Lyra noticed that he looked tired. "Be good, Lyra. The Scholars are very kind to put up with you this way." He reached into the pocket of his traveling coat and gave her eight gold coins and a bunch of silver ones, clinking into her hand like metallic rain. "Don't spend it all at once."
Lyra was delighted with the prospect of such wealth. "Yes, uncle." Asriel got up and made ready to leave, but Lyra remembered something.
"Uncle?" she said.
He paused at the door, turning to look at her. The girl rarely asked him anything. "What, Lyra?"
"D'you-Do you-know anything about merfolk? Are they real?" she asked, an odd curiosity present in her eyes.
"They are, and I do," replied her uncle. "Merpeople keep to themselves. Their songs are beautiful, even bewitching, and they have ways of knowing all that happens in water. But, since they worship their own gods, the Church views them as heretical."
"Heretics?" Lyra felt a cold touch of fear. Helping someone-something-that went against the Church?
"Precisely. It doesn't help that, physically speaking, they are half fish and half human. Some people even think that they are demons. But I have a train to catch to be in London by morning, so I suggest that if you want to know more, you look them up in the Library."
With this brusque farewell, he left. Stelmaria, who had been quiet throughout the entire conversation, nudged the door closed behind them. Lyra heard his authoritative footsteps disappear down the hallway, and then all was quiet.