by Gwyneth Rees
“It’s OK, Roscoe. You’re safe now,” Rani cried, hugging the trembling seahorse.
The others were amazed. They knew that Rani was learning to do magic but none of them had ever seen her use it on her own before.
“You’re just like Morva!” Kai stammered, looking at her sister in awe.
“Not quite,” Rani laughed, pulling sticky bits of web out of her hair. “But I hope I will be, one day.”
Just then, a large sea-snake slithered over Rani’s tail, followed by several babies. “Don’t worry,” the mother snake hissed. “We’re not poisonous. But she is!” She flicked out her tongue to point at the huge, hairy, eight-legged creature crawling along the sea-bed towards them. “I’d get out of here if I was you!”
“SWIM!” commanded Murdoch, grabbing Kai and Rani and using his large, powerful tail to propel them at top speed through the water.
“Come back,” shouted the sea-spider. “I won’t eat you! I only put that web up because it looks pretty!”
“Do you think that’s true?” Rani gasped, as they kept swimming.
“Somehow,” Murdoch said, slowing down as they reached a safe distance away, “I didn’t feel like taking her word for it.”
“I have always thought that there is something quite unnatural about a creature with hairy legs,” Octavius shuddered, waving his arms about in disgust.
“Come on,” laughed Murdoch. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter Seven
Morva was trying to sing Pearl to sleep when they got home. She had tied some shells to some seaweed ribbons and made a beautiful shell-mobile which was dangling from the ceiling above Pearl’s cradle. Pearl shrieked with excitement when she saw her parents and sisters again, and stretched out her chubby arms to be picked up by Miriam.
After everyone had hugged each other, Rani took Morva to one side.
“Morva, I’ve got so much to tell you!” Rani began excitedly, but she stopped when she saw the look on her friend’s face.
“Where did you get that?” Morva was staring at the amber pendant around Rani’s neck as if she had just seen a ghost.
“My grandmother gave it to me. It was in her treasure chest. She gave a necklace to Kai too. Look.” She pointed to her sister who was swinging Pearl round and round, making her giggle. But Morva kept her eyes fixed on Rani.
“Rani, that is no ordinary stone—” Morva started to explain but, at that moment, Rani’s mother called over to them.
“Morva, thank you so much for looking after Pearl. Would you like to stay and have supper with us?”
Morva shook her head, still looking dazed. “I must be getting back to my lobsters and my starfish. The poor things will be wondering where I am.”
“But, Morva . . .” Rani began. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“There’s nothing wrong, Rani,” Morva said, as she swam towards the door. “You’ve just given me a bit of a shock, that’s all. Come and see me tomorrow. I’ll explain everything then!”
As soon as she woke up the following morning, Rani set off for Morva’s cave. Her mother made her have some breakfast first, but she was too nervous to eat more than a few mouthfuls.
Why had Morva looked so shocked yesterday when she saw the pendant? And what did she mean about it being no ordinary stone?
When she arrived at the floating cave, Morva was cooking breakfast on her hot-rock stove. “So, Rani . . .” Morva turned and smiled at her. “You have found your message-stone. Or it has found you! It gave me quite a start yesterday, to see you with it.” She swam over and touched Rani’s amber pendant.
“Message-stone?” Rani frowned. She had never heard of such a thing.
Morva motioned for Rani to take off the necklace. As she took it from her, she said, “Look how it stops glowing when it leaves your skin. It is yours for certain!”
“Morva, what is a message-stone?” Rani demanded, getting impatient.
“A message-stone . . .” Morva explained slowly, “is a special stone that magic mermaids wear when they are separated from their families. That way they can always be sure that their loved ones are safe.”
“I don’t understand,” Rani said. “How can a stone tell you that? And anyway, my family is safe. I’ve only just left them.”
“I’m not talking about your family here,” said Morva. “I mean your true family – the family you were separated from as a baby. If this is your message-stone . . . if you open it . . . you will see your true family inside.”
“But how—” Rani gasped.
“A message-stone will always open for its true owner,” Morva said, as she dropped it back into Rani’s hand. “You must blow on it.”
Rani lifted the amber stone up so that it was level with her face. She filled out her cheeks with air and blew.
“That’s it,” Morva said.
As they watched, the stone seemed to be glowing even brighter in Rani’s hand. Gradually, its surface changed. Instead of being hard, it was becoming soft, like jelly.
“Look inside now,” Morva urged her gently. “Go on. Don’t be frightened.”
Slowly, Rani lifted the stone up again and looked inside. It was like looking in through a window. Inside, she could see a merman, a mermaid and two babies. They all had red hair. The mermaid was young and beautiful and looked a bit like Rani. The merman was broad-shouldered and handsome.
“Is this . . . Are they . . .?” Rani stammered, unable to say any more.
“This must be your family at the time you were separated from them,” Morva whispered.
“But . . . but there are two babies!” Rani said hoarsely.
“I know. Watch carefully and see what happens next.”
As she watched, Rani saw the two babies slowly changing before her eyes. “That’s me,” Rani gasped, as one of the babies grew into a little girl. At the same time, the other baby changed into a little boy with short red hair and twinkling goldy-brown eyes like Rani’s.
“You must have a twin brother,” Morva said.
Only the man and the woman didn’t change. As Rani watched, they slowly faded away until they had completely disappeared.
“Where have they gone? What does it mean?” Rani cried out.
“It means,” explained Morva gently, “that your real parents must have died when you were a baby. I’m sorry, Rani.”
Rani swallowed. She had known for a long time that her true parents might be dead. But somehow actually seeing them and then watching them disappear like that made the fact that they were gone for ever seem a lot more real. She would never meet them now. She felt a tear roll down her cheek.
“Did you know them?” she asked Morva.
“I didn’t recognize them, no,” Morva said. “But remember how old I am, Rani. I left my home a long, long time before you were born . . . probably before your parents were born too.”
Rani was silent.
“Your brother is still alive though,” Morva added, trying to cheer her up. “Imagine that! A twin brother!”
“He probably doesn’t even know he has a sister,” said Rani sadly.
Morva smiled. “I wouldn’t be so sure. How do you know that he hasn’t got his own message-stone, with you inside it?”
“Do you really think so?” That thought made Rani feel better. She looked up at Morva. “I want you to take me to the place you come from – the magic place – so that I can find him.”
“I will take you,” Morva said. “But you must be patient, Rani. Your magic is not yet strong enough for you to make the journey.”
“When will it be strong enough?” Rani demanded impatiently.
“Soon,” Morva replied, smiling. “Very soon – I promise! And until then you can watch your brother growing up inside your pendant. Now, come on. It’s time we practised another spell. How about I teach you how to turn my breakfast into enough to eat for two?”
Rani laughed. She had to admit that she was starting to feel a bit hungry.
Chapter Eight
The next day Octavius invited them all round for supper.
“What do you think of our new necklaces?” Kai asked Morva, who was looking especially colourful in a red and orange seaweed shawl.
“Very pretty indeed,” Morva replied. Both Morva and Rani had thought it best if no one else knew about the message-stone yet, so they had agreed to keep it as a secret between the two of them.
Octavius had cooked his best stew and everyone complimented him on how delicious it was as they tucked in and listened to him telling Morva the story of the huge whale. “Of course, I warned everyone about that ceiling before the party started,” he reminded them, not for the first time. “I don’t like to say ‘I told you so’ but really . . . If you mermaids would only listen to me instead of—”
Morva interrupted him. “I hear your stew saved the day as well, Octavius,” she said, giving Rani a wink. “Tell us about that!”
“My stew? Ah, yes, my stew . . . It’s a good job I had the idea of throwing that shark my stew,” Octavius said. “Otherwise I don’t know what would have become of us all.”
“But it was Rani who told you to throw the stew,” Kai pointed out.
“Rani? Ah, yes – Rani had the same idea as me,” Octavius blustered. “I remember we both had the idea at the same time. Well done, Rani!”
“I’m just glad you brought that stew with you, Octavius,” Rani said quickly. “Or I don’t know what we’d have done.” She turned to Morva. “I dropped the sea-spell, you see, so we couldn’t use that.”
“Well, it sounds as if you put my sea-spell to very good use in the end, Rani,” Morva replied. “And then used some magic of your own on the journey home, I hear!”
“She saved my life!” Roscoe butted in. “If it wasn’t for Rani—”
“. . . you’d be digested by now!” Octavius finished for him.
The little sea-horse shuddered.
“Let’s make a toast,” said Murdoch, holding up his glass of mer-wine. “To Rani – our very own magic mermaid!”
“And the best sister anyone could have!” added Kai, grinning.
“So are you!” replied Rani, swimming over to give her sister a hug. “And you, Pearl!” she added, quickly kissing her baby sister who was sitting on Kai’s lap.
“Rani also has the most beautiful singing voice,” Octavius told Morva. “I was hoping that she would sing for us tonight.”
“I don’t really have a beautiful voice,” Rani murmured, touching her pendant.
“What do you mean?” Morva asked.
“Rani reckons she can’t sing unless she’s wearing her amber pendant,” Kai said. “That’s what you said at the party, isn’t it, Rani?”
“Well, that’s just silly,” Rani’s parents exclaimed at once. “Whatever gave you that idea, Rani?”
“Well . . .” Rani began, wondering if she ought to explain after all about the pendant being magic, but Morva interrupted her.
“You know, I’ve seen you become a lot more confident lately, Rani,” she said, thoughtfully. “Perhaps that’s what’s made the difference.”
“Do you really think so?” asked Rani doubtfully.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Morva replied. “Give me the pendant.”
Rani handed it to her.
“Now,” Morva said, “I’ll hold the pendant while you sing.”
Rani stared at her in horror. “No way!”
“Come on, Rani,” Morva said. “You couldn’t have been that bad at singing before!”
“I sounded all croaky like a sea-frog,” Rani replied.
Everyone laughed.
When the laughter had died down, Octavius cleared his throat loudly. “Of course, I could always sing if Rani doesn’t want to. I’m told I have rather a splendid voice myself.”
The others looked at each other in alarm.
“Why don’t we all sing?” suggested Morva quickly.
So that’s what they did. And as they sang, Rani heard her own voice, rising confident and clear above the others, and that was when she noticed that Morva was still holding her pendant.
Morva swam over to her. “Magic isn’t the answer to everything, Rani,” she whispered. “Don’t ever forget that!”
And Rani promised that she wouldn’t as Morva dropped the message-stone, with her brother inside, back around her neck.
Rani’s Sea Spell
Just as she was 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.
Books by Gwyneth Rees
Mermaid Magic (3 books in 1)
Fairy Dust
Fairy Treasure
Fairy Dreams
Cosmo and the Magic Sneeze
For older readers
The Mum Hunt
The Mum Detective
My Mum’s from Planet Pluto
Look out for
Fairy Gold
The Mum Surprise (World Book Day 2006)
The Making of May
First published 2001 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-447-21140-2
EPUB Copyright © Gwyneth Rees 2001
Illustration copyright © Annabel Hudson 2001
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