Lyra knew the rhythms of Oxford like her own heartbeat, and it was no difficult thing to sneak through the streets without being seen. She kept to the darkness of the alleyways, and Pan sat quiet in her pocket as a mouse.
They made it down to the riverbank undetected. Lyra was almost a little disappointed that no one had tried to catch her-it would have made the trip that much more exciting. But now, they really had to find a white stone.
Pan had turned into a cat to see in the dark. "I don't see any," he said, pawing at the sand. Lyra was a few feet away, looking at the water's edge. The moonlight was strong, scattering diamonds on the water and making everything look dipped in silver. A white rock ought to shine in this light, Lyra thought, frustrated. Stepping away, she pushed aside some reeds to look there.
"Here, Pan!" Her daemon came padding over, rubbing against her legs. She held up the stone she'd found, glimmering in the moonlight. It was about half the size of her palm. "Think this'll do it?"
"Ought to," said Pan, fluttering up into a sparrow to land on her shoulder. "Looks white enough."
"Right," Lyra said. Excitement rose in her, and she walked onto the dock and out to the edge. Taking a deep breath, she threw the stone. It hit the water with a small splash, ripples spreading out to catch the moonlight.
For a moment nothing happened. Lyra sat down on the edge of the dock, her feet dangling a mere foot from the water.
She almost screamed when the webbed hand reached up to touch her ankle. The mer-woman was there, her unearthly face even paler in the silvery light.
"Do not fear," the mer-woman said, letting her hand fall. "I mean you no harm."
"H-hullo," Lyra ventured, looking her over. The mer-woman's hair flowed dark and wet down her back to float in the water. Her strange eyes looked sad.
"I am wondering how you knew to call me," the mer-woman said. "Very few know that, now."
"Oh," Lyra said, wondering how she would tell this creature about sneaking into the College library. "I read it in a book. What's your name?"
The mer-woman answered, "In the language of my people it is different, but you may call me Nera."
"Nera," Lyra said slowly. Strange name. "I'm Lyra. What is it you need help with?"
Nera looked sad. She turned her head away for a moment, and Lyra saw that her ear was shaped like a fin, and pierced with ornaments of shell and bone. "E'nt that something," she whispered to Pan. Wide-eyed, he nodded agreement.
"I lost something precious to my people," Nera said. She turned to look at Lyra again. "A talisman of great value. It is meant to be worn by our princess-"
"You're led by a princess? Really?" Lyra interrupted. "That's something, e'ent it-d'you have a Church?"
The mer-woman looked puzzled. "No. We worship our gods at temples, and we have what you would call priestesses and priests but have no Church."
"I could get in awful trouble 'cause of you," Lyra said, reaching up to pet Pan. "I'm not s'posed to help hera..heretics. But I don't care about the stuffy old Church anyway." She sounded braver than she felt.
Nera smiled for the first time. "Thank you." Then she became serious again. "Lyra, the talisman is on a-what's the word? A gyptian boat. A fisherman brought it up in his net when I-when I became careless. Do you think you can get it from there?"
Lyra smiled. That was something she could do."Yeah, easy! Which boat?"