Mermaid Magic (3 page)

“
R
oscoe, you’ve got to help me!” Rani pleaded, as she found the little sea horse sitting in the middle of the roundabout in the shell-garden. The roundabout was made out of one half of a huge cone shell with a flat surface of tight weeds netted over the top. It was balanced so that it spun on the ground on its point. Normally the mermaids would cling to the edge and be spun round together, but this afternoon the shell-garden was empty apart from the two of them.

“Push me round really fast and I’ll think about it,” Roscoe said.

“Roscoe, I think something strange is happening to me,” Rani said, as she gave the roundabout a push. “Look at this.” And she held out her healed hand for him to see.

As Roscoe passed he had a look. He spun round a couple more times and then jumped off. “Hmm. Very mysterious.”

“And that’s not all!” She told him about the whispery voices and the strange tingling sensation in her hands.

“Even more mysterious,” Roscoe said. “Come on. You’d better come with me to see Octavius. He’ll know what to do.”

Octavius the octopus lived next door to the school cave – in fact it had been his idea to set up a school for the mermaid children in the first place. Octavius was always saying that just because mermaids had tiny brains that didn’t mean they shouldn’t fill them with as much knowledge as possible.

Octavius often complained about his huge brain and how it tired him out thinking so many clever thoughts each day. For that reason he liked to take a nap every afternoon after lunch in order to keep his brain cells refreshed. None of the mermaid children were allowed to interrupt his naps and if they ever made too much noise outside his cave and woke him up then he was always very cross indeed.

Rani hung back. “But you know how grumpy Octavius gets when you ask him things.”

“He only gets grumpy if you ask him things he doesn’t know,” Roscoe said. “Hurry up! We need to catch him before he goes to sleep for the afternoon.”

“What if he doesn’t know about
this
?” Rani asked. “And what if he’s already asleep?”

But Roscoe had already bobbed off in the direction of Octavius’s cave.

The entrance to Octavius’s cave was covered by a beautiful yellow and red seaweed-flap with sea anemones growing round the edges of the door.

Rani paused outside the cave. She knew she had to call out and say she was there, but she was too nervous to speak. Just as she was about to change her mind and go back, Roscoe knocked his bony tail loudly against the cave wall.

“Who’s that?” a deep voice grumbled, and the seaweed-flap was pushed aside by two long wriggly arms. Octavius glared at them and Rani saw that another arm held a shell-plate full of delicious-looking food. He was washing his cooking pots with another two arms and with the remaining three he was stuffing food into his mouth.

“As you can see, I’m very busy,” Octavius snapped.

“This is Rani,” Roscoe said, quickly. “You know ...
Rani.
The mermaid they found in that shell.”

“Ah ...
Rani
. . .” Octavius said, and he immediately stopped eating. He pushed Roscoe out of the way with the tip of one arm and put another arm round Rani’s shoulder.” Come in. Come in,” he said, pulling her towards him. “I’ve been wondering when you’d come to see me.”

Rani had never been inside Octavius’s cave before. It was full of unusual things. There was a table in the middle of the floor made out of all different kinds of shells, and the stone floor was covered with a purple carpet of moss. Colourful plants were growing out of cracks in the cave walls and on one wall was a ridge cut into the stone on which were perched several books. To one side of the hot-rock stove lay a large flat cookery book, the pages of which were fluttering lightly with the movement of the water. Octavius had more books than anyone else Rani knew. Books in Tingle Reef were very precious – they were made out of the leaves of the book-plant which was quite rare and could only be found in the Deep Blue.

Octavius was clasping four of his arms together in front of him, looking thoughtful. “Well,” he said, “so you’re ready, are you?”

“Ready? “
Rani felt even more confused. What was Octavius talking about? She hadn’t even told him yet why she was here! She started to tell him what had been happening but he cut her short.

“I know all about that,” he said. “It’s to be expected. After all, you’re not a Tingle Reef mermaid, are you? Now, the only person who can explain things to you properly is Morva.”

“Morva, the
sea-witch
?” Rani gasped, open-mouthed.

“Don’t tell me you believe all that mermaid nonsense! Morva is no more a sea-witch than ...” He chuckled again. “Than
you
are!” He scratched his head and thought for a moment. “Now, you’ll have to wait until I’ve finished my lunch. Come back in half an hour.” And he started to wave Rani out of his cave.

Rani bravely stayed put. “Excuse me, Octavius, but what do you mean? Wait for
what
?”

“Why, for me to show you the way to Morva’s cave of course,” Octavius replied impatiently. “She’s been expecting you for years!”

Chapter Four

R
oscoe was waiting for her outside. “So?” he questioned her. “What did Mister Grumpy say, then?”

“Shush! He’ll hear you,” Rani hissed. “Roscoe, did you know that Octavius knows Morva?”

Roscoe looked surprised. “Does he?”

“Yes, and he
says
that she’s the only one who can explain things to me.”

Roscoe did a little dance. “I knew it!
You
must be a sea-witch too!”

“Don’t be silly,” Rani snapped. But all the same, she could feel her heart beating faster.

Rani swam back to the shell-garden. She could hear Kai and the twins playing noisily on the seaweed swings. Kai always liked to prove that she could swing the highest and now her long blonde hair streamed out as she used her tail to push herself higher and higher.

Suddenly Kai swung so high that she was completely upside down and her shell-haircomb flew off. It landed in a huge bush of sea-kelp near Rani.

Rani swam over and started to rummage amongst the big fluttery leaves.

“There it is,” she gasped, reaching down to grab at a shiny shell.

“Do you mind?” the shell said crossly, and Rani let go of it with a gasp. It wasn’t Kai’s hair-comb but a live shell with a sea creature living inside it.

“Wow!” Kai said, joining her. “It’s an oyster!”

“An oyster!” the twins exclaimed, hurrying over to look. “Has it got a pearl inside?”

“Have you got a pearl inside?” Kai asked it, excitedly.

“Don’t be so nosy,” the oyster snorted. “You mermaids have no manners!”

“I’m sorry,” Kai said. “It’s just ...I’ve never seen an oyster with a pearl and – if it’s not too much trouble – we’d love to see one.”

“It
is
too much trouble,” the oyster snapped, opening slightly and rudely releasing an air bubble.

The twins went silent. At least, it seemed like they were being silent until Rani heard Marina’s voice, faint and whispery, saying, “Let’s wait until Rani and Kai have gone and then come back for it.”

“You can’t do that!” Rani said to them, sharply.

Kai gave her a strange look and so did the twins.

“We didn’t say anything,” Marina said cautiously. She looked at her twin to make sure that she hadn’t accidentally spoken the words. “Did we, Marissa?”

Marissa shook her head, still staring at Rani. “We didn’t
say
anything, no.”

Kai was trying to win the oyster round by complimenting it on the shininess of its shell.

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” the oyster said. “I know what you mermaids are like. If I show you my pearl you’ll run off with it!”

“No, we won’t,” said Kai. “We promise we won’t!”

“Hmm,” said the oyster, shifting himself to a more comfortable position in the sand. “I’ll tell you what ...I’ll
describe
it to you.”

And he went on to describe the biggest, smoothest, most beautiful pearl any mermaid could imagine.

“Oh,
please
can we see it?” begged Kai.

“I’m afraid not,” said the oyster slyly. “But I have a cousin who lives under a rock just a short distance into the Deep Blue and
he
has a pearl that he loves to show to people. I can give you directions.”