Mermaid Magic (7 page)

“But I’ll tell them to expect you at the party!” he said, giving them his biggest dolphin grin as he backed out of the cave.

Rani couldn’t wait to tell her friend, Morva, about the party. Morva was known in Tingle Reef as the sea-witch because she was very old and wise and she could do magic. Morva’s magic was always good – but some of the other mermaids were afraid of her. She lived in a special floating cave in the Deep Blue, just outside Tingle Reef, and Rani often went to visit her there.

Rani and Morva weren’t like the other mermaids. Instead of having blonde hair and green tails like the others, they had red hair and orange tails. Morva’s hair was so long that it touched the tip of her tail. And even though she was very old – almost ancient – Morva still looked young and beautiful.

There was a special reason why Rani was such a frequent visitor to Morva’s cave – a reason that most of the other mermaids didn’t know about. Rani had recently discovered that she too had magic powers, and now Morva was teaching her how to make them stronger.

As Rani swam out through the Deep Blue towards Morva’s floating cave, all she could think about was the party and what she was going to wear. She had some special shell-combs which she could put in her hair and some glitter-sand to make her hair sparkly ...

Rani found the cave floating in its usual place, past the bushy sea-cactus with the blue flowers and straight up from the needle-shaped bush. She swam through the opening in the magic rock, grabbed hold of the seaweed rope and hauled herself up the narrow vertical tunnel that led inside.

“Wow!” she gasped, as she entered Morva’s cave. The water inside the floating cave was usually crystal clear, but today Morva had changed the colour to pink with one of her sea-spells.

Morva beckoned for Rani to come and join her. Although Morva’s face was young and beautiful, her eyes were old and wise. She was sitting on a rock with her long red hair billowing out around her as she listened to two lobsters playing a duet on some shell-horns. When they had finished, Rani joined in Morva’s clapping.

“I taught them that melody myself,” Morva said. “Now, Rani ...Let’s see what I can teach
you
today.”

Neither Morva or Rani had been born in Tingle Reef. Rani had been found as a baby and adopted by Miriam and Murdoch. They had found her inside a Giant Clam-Shell on the edge of the reef and nobody knew how she had got there. Morva had come to Tingle Reef long before Rani’s parents – or even her grandparents – had been born. She came from a community of magic mermaids who lived in a secret place far away and Morva had promised that one day she would take Rani there – but first Rani had to learn a lot more magic.

Before Rani had time to tell her about the party, Morva was swimming about the cave looking for something. “We need something to mend. Aah! This will do.” She lifted up a delicate shell-dish and banged it against the cave wall so that it broke into several pieces. “Right,” said Morva briskly. “What have I told you about starting up magic?”

“You have to
think
it up inside your head,” said Rani, as she desperately tried to stop thinking about glitter-sand and shell-combs.

“Exactly. Which means you have to concentrate very hard indeed, so close your eyes ...”

Rani closed her eyes and tried to focus on the mending spell but all she could think about was her grandmother’s party.

Morva peered at her more closely. “You’re very excited about something. What is it?”

And at last Rani was able to tell her about the dolphin’s visit that morning.

“Well, that
is
exciting,” replied Morva. “Now let me think ...” She looked thoughtful. “I know! I will give you a special sea-spell to take with you on your journey.”

“What sort of spell?” asked Rani eagerly. “What does it do?”

“Before I tell you that,” Morva said, “I need to be sure that you can concentrate hard enough to make the spell work.”

“Of course I can!” Rani burst out. To prove it, she closed her eyes and started to concentrate again on the mending spell, picturing the broken pieces of shell-dish coming back together again. She could feel a tingling sensation starting up in her belly button and spreading upwards. Soon her fingertips felt warm. She opened her eyes and saw that they were glowing. Slowly, she spread out her fingers above the broken pieces of shell.

“Well done!” Morva smiled.

The shell-dish was all in one piece again, surrounded by a golden glow.

Rani grinned. “I did it!”

Morva nodded, still smiling. “Now, let me tell you about my special sea-spell ...”

Chapter Two

O
n the morning they were due to set off for the shipwreck, Rani and her family got up very early indeed. The shipwreck was a long way away and it would take them most of the day to get there.

As they got ready, there was a knock at the door of their cave.

“That will be Morva,” their mother said. Morva had offered to look after Pearl while they were gone.

“Come in!” everyone shouted, and Morva swam inside the cave, her red hair streaming out behind her.

“Octavius is here too,” Morva said.

Octavius, the octopus, followed her into the cave. He had tied two of his long wriggly arms together to make a loop and hanging from the loop were lots of shell-containers and bulky seaweed bags.

“Pat told me about the party and I’m coming too. My sister, Flora, lives on the shipwreck,” Octavius explained. “I can’t think why she didn’t send me an invitation!”

“Why are you taking so much stuff ?” asked Kai.

“Ah, well ...That’s the trouble with having a huge brain like mine – one thinks of so many things to pack.” He sighed as he readjusted some of his bags.

“I didn’t know your sister lived on the wreck,” Rani said.

“Oh, yes. Flora works there as a hairdresser,” Octavius told her.

“Maybe we’ll ask her to do our hair for the party,” Rani’s mother said, as she swam over to make sure they were ready. “Now, have you girls got your seaweed belts tied nice and tightly?”

Rani and Kai nodded. They each had a packed lunch tied to their belts, and a little purse containing the jewellery and hair decorations they were going to wear at the party.

“We’d better get going,” said Murdoch.

“Bye-bye, Pearl,” the girls said, rushing to give their baby sister a final hug. “We wish you were coming with us.”

“Pearl will be just fine with me,” Morva reassured them, as Pearl beamed happily at everybody from Morva’s arms.

Just as they were leaving, Morva fastened a gold-coloured shell to Rani’s belt. “The sea-spell is inside,” Morva whispered. “And remember – it can only be used once, so don’t use it unless you really have to!”

Rani promised that she wouldn’t, as she gave Morva a goodbye hug.

They swam through the Deep Blue for a long time, with Murdoch leading the way. Rani and Kai swam behind him, with Octavius and Miriam swimming behind the girls. Every time Roscoe got tired he grabbed hold of one of the mermaids’ hair and caught a ride with them for a while until he felt like swimming again.

The water in the Deep Blue was darker and colder than the water in Tingle Reef. The further out they swam, the more strange the plants and rocks that surrounded them. Rani and Kai, who had never been this far out in the Deep Blue before, couldn’t stop pointing things out to each other.

“Look!” gasped Kai, as a shoal of enormous fish swam by. Murdoch explained that a lot of the fish in the Deep Blue were bigger than the ones they were used to seeing at home.

“Octavius, what have you
got
in those bags?” Kai asked the octopus, as they rested at the bottom of a large rock to eat their packed lunches. Murdoch was sitting on top of the rock acting as lookout.

“I have brought some of my famous stew for the party,” Octavius said grandly, “since I know how much everyone likes it.”

“Yes, but you don’t eat
stew
at a party,” Kai pointed out. “You eat mer-cakes and sea-trifle and—”

“What’s that noise?” her mother interrupted.

There was a definite banging noise that seemed to be coming from very close by.

“Murdoch!” Miriam called up to him, anxiously. “Can you come down here?”

“What’s wrong?” Murdoch asked, swimming down to join them. Then he heard the noise too.

“There’s a creature inside that rock. I can sense it,” Rani said, frowning. Rani’s magical powers often helped her to sense the presence of other creatures before they appeared.

Her family looked at her in disbelief. How could a creature be
inside
a rock? “I’m going to have a look,” Rani said, swimming away from the others before they could stop her.

As she swam round to the other side of the rock she noticed a bush growing out of it. The bush was swishing from side to side even though the water here was quite calm.

“Rani!” Her father appeared by her side just as a huge fish with sharp fins, a jagged tail, a huge mouth and very sharp teeth indeed, swam out from behind the bush.

“SHARK ! “
yelled Murdoch, pulling Rani behind him.

Rani started to fumble for the little golden shell that Morva had fastened to her belt – the shell with the sea-spell. But in her panic, the shell slipped from her fingers and floated away from her.