Mermaid Magic

by Gwyneth Rees

  “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

  Roscoe 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.”

  He told Kai to swim one hundred of her tail-lengths straight out from the entrance to the sea-snake burrow, then turn right at a big bush of sea-kelp, then swim to the rock straight ahead that had a purple bush to one side.

  “Come on,” said the twins excitedly. “Let’s go now.”

  Rani suddenly spotted Kai’s shell-comb. “Here!” she cried out triumphantly, scooping it up just as Roscoe appeared with the message that Octavius was ready now.

  “Ready for what?” Kai asked, carefully replacing her hair-comb.

  Rani knew she couldn’t tell. Not yet anyway.

  Kai looked hurt when Rani told her that it was a secret.

  “Don’t be upset,” Rani pleaded. “I’ll tell you as soon as I can.”

  “You don’t have to,” Kai replied huffily. “I’m going with the twins to find this oyster.” And she swam off after the twins, in the direction of the Deep Blue.

  “Kai, don’t leave the reef!” Rani called after her anxiously. “If Mother and Father find out, you’ll get into trouble! And besides, it might be dangerous!”

  But Kai didn’t stop.

  “I wouldn’t worry about her,” Roscoe said, gruffly. “Where you’re going is far more dangerous!” And he gave her a nudge with his bony head in the direction of Octavius’s cave.

  Chapter Five

  “I can give you directions from here,” Octavius said, stopping as they reached the edge of the reef.

  “You want me to go into the Deep Blue alone?” Rani said, shocked. Octavius had already insisted that Roscoe stay behind and they had left him at the octopus’s cave.

  “I feel it is my duty not to put myself at undue risk,” Octavius explained gravely. “After all, my great brain is a very valuable asset to the whole community.”

  Rani was sure that it was, but at the same time she was petrified by the idea of swimming off into the Deep Blue by herself. She had only been in the Deep Blue a few times before with her father who had made her stay very close by his side the whole time. Murdoch made many expeditions into the Deep Blue with the other mermen to collect medicine plants and food and other essential things and he had told them stories about the creatures that lived there. Rani knew that many were friendly like the dolphins and the whales but that others were dangerous, like the sharks and the giant sea-spiders who would catch you and eat you, and the Yellow-back jellyfish who would kill you with one sting.

  “Don’t worry,” Octavius said
. “I’ve sent a starfish to tell Morva you’re coming. She’ll be looking out for you. Now, listen carefully. I’m going to tell you how to get to the Secret Cave ...”

  Octavius explained the secret route twice and made her repeat it after him. She was to look out for three landmarks: a craggy rock that was completely covered in limpets; a huge flowering sea-cactus; and a tall bush that pointed upwards in the shape of a needle.

  “What if I can’t find them?” Rani asked.

  “You will,” Octavius said. “And when you get there, I want you to give Morva this from me.” He handed her a little shell-container. “Hurry now.”

  Rani looked out anxiously into the dark water of the Deep Blue. Plucking up all her courage, she thrashed her tail and propelled herself over the edge of the reef.

  It was much darker in the deep water, and colder too. Rani shivered as she swam down deeper and deeper to reach the seabed. She saw the rock covered in limpets that Octavius had told her to look for and turned left straight after it just like Octavius had said. Then she started to look for a bushy sea-cactus with blue flowers. As she swam past it a shoal of rainbow fish scuttled out from underneath, making her jump.

  “There’s a shark about,” they told her. “Watch out.”

  Rani shivered, but it was too late to turn back. She thanked them for the warning and continued on her way.

  After what seemed like a long time she saw the needle-shaped bush standing on its own in a sandy clearing on the seabed. She had to start swimming upwards now, Octavius had said. But how could a cave be situated above her? It had to be on the seabed or in a rock somewhere.

  But since the bush was definitely pointing upwards she decided she had better do what Octavius had said. Then, all of a sudden, the way up was blocked. She stopped dead and looked above her.

  In the water above her head was what looked like a huge flat rock stretching out in all directions as far as she could see. She started to swim downwards away from it, thinking that perhaps it wasn’t a rock but some huge sea-creature, when she heard a whispery voice calling, “Look above you, Rani! “

  She looked, and this time she spotted an opening in the rock. And from the opening, a rope of seaweed was dangling down.

  Up and up the rope she climbed, through the dark vertical tunnel, until it finally came to an end and all of a sudden she was inside a beautiful underwater cave.

  The water inside the cave was crystal clear and beautiful yellow and purple fish swam around playfully. In one corner, two bright orange lobsters were dozing, their large pincers draped lazily round each other. The walls of the cave were decorated with brightly coloured murals of different kinds of sea-creatures, including mermaids, swimming around amongst the pink and purple coral.

  Rani turned to look at the wall behind her and gasped.

  In the middle of the wall was a picture of a mermaid with red hair and an orange tail, swimming down into the centre of what looked like a burst of golden light!

  Rani held in her breath as she swam closer to study the picture. Just as she was almost touching it she heard a noise behind her.

  She turned to look. There, blocking the entrance to the cave, was the strangest mermaid she had ever seen.

  “Hello, Rani,” the mermaid said.

  “Are you? Are you Morva?” Rani stammered.

  The mermaid had dazzling orange scales and red hair so long that it reached the tip of her tail. Rani saw that her eyes looked old and wise. But how could this be Morva? Old mermaids had white hair and wrinkled faces! And Morva wasn’t just old – she was ancient!

  “Welcome to my floating cave,” Morva said, smiling.

  Chapter Six

  The shell-container Octavius had sent turned out to be a portion of his delicious stew. As Rani watched Morva heating up the stew on top of her hot-rock stove she tried not to think about a story her grandmother used to tell her, about a naughty little mermaid who ran off on her own into the Deep Blue and ended up becoming the tenderest ingredient in a sea-witch’s supper.

  “I thought you’d look much older,” Rani said shyly. “Like my grandmother. She’s got white hair.”

  “I expect I’m twice as old as your grandmother,” Morva said. “But one of the advantages of being able to use magic is that you don’t have to look older!”

  Rani swallowed. “They said— They said you used bad magic.”

  Morva stopped stirring her stew, which seemed to be bubbling up to ten times the quantity as she chanted over it.

  “Let me tell you what really happened,” she said.

  And Morva told her that she came from a different group of mermaids a long way away from here and that, when she was young, she had met a merman from Tingle Reef when she was out exploring in the Deep Blue. The merman had swum farther than usual because he was searching for a rare type of plant with healing powers. The plant was needed urgently because the baby of one of the community leaders was very sick. Morva had helped him to find the plant and they had returned to Tingle Reef together. Morva and the merman, who was called Murdoch, fell in love.

  “That’s the same name as my father!” Rani interrupted her.

  Morva just nodded and carried on.

  Morva and Murdoch were very happy apart from one thing. There was another mermaid who was in love with Murdoch and she was very jealous of Morva. When the community leader’s baby started to get sick again, Morva offered to make a magic healing potion but the jealous mermaid secretly substituted salt for the potion and the baby died. The jealous mermaid spread the rumour that Morva had used bad magic and Morva was banished. Murdoch tried to go with her but Morva knew he would be unhappy away from Tingle Reef so she wouldn’t let him.

  But instead of returning home Morva used her magic to create a special floating cave on the edge of the reef. That way she could stay and watch over Murdoch, who eventually did fall in love again with someone else and had a family. Morva made it her business to watch over them, staying in her secret cave for many years, until Murdoch finally died. Then, just as she was thinking about returning to her own people, she heard that a baby mermaid with an orange tail and red hair had arrived in Tingle Reef inside a shell.

  “Me! “Rani gasped.

  “Yes, and the grandson of my Murdoch found you and adopted you.” She smiled.” And I decided to stay a while longer until you grew old enough for me to teach you how to use your magic.”

  “What magic?” Rani exclaimed.

  “What do you think that tingling feeling is in your body? And how do you think you can hear other creatures’ thoughts, if not by magic? It’s very weak at the moment, only just beginning to show itself. But in a little while it will be as powerful as mine, so it’s very important that you learn how to use it properly.”

  “But how ...” Rani trailed off. She had so many questions to ask that she didn’t know where to start.

  “I don’t know how or why you came to Tingle Reef as a baby, Rani,” Morva continued. “But what I do know is that you must have come from the same place as me. And we are different from the mermaids of Tingle Reef, not just because of how we look. We’re different because we have magic powers that they don’t have.”

  Rani felt dazed. “If this is true,” she stammered. “Then . . . then you must know where I come from.”

  Morva pointed at the picture of the red-haired mermaid swimming through the burst of golden light. “That,” she said, proudly, “is where you come from.”

  Rani stared at the picture. “But where is it? How do we get there?”

  “One day, when your magic is strong enough, I will take you there,” Morva said. “Until then you must be patient.”

  Morva started to tuck into her stew. “Now you must go. You mustn’t tell anyone that you have met me. Or about what I have told you. Do you understand?”

  Rani nodded. “But when will I see you again?”

  “Soon. And remember ...Tell no one! Not even your family.”

  Rani took one last look at the picture, a
nd as she left Morva’s cave she tried to imagine herself swimming down through the centre of that golden light to reach her true home.

  Chapter Seven

  By the time Rani got back to Tingle Reef she felt exhausted. All she wanted to do was to go home and tell her parents and Kai all about it, but she knew she couldn’t. Rani really wanted to tell Kai. Surely it wouldn’t matter if she made Kai promise not to tell anyone else?

  As the entrance to her cave came into view, Rani saw that there were lots of other mermaids outside.

  “What’s happened?” she asked anxiously, as the crowd parted to let her through. Everyone was looking really worried.

  As she swam inside, her mother looked up. She was hugging Pearl tightly and her turquoise eyes were full of tears. At first Rani thought there was something wrong with her baby sister and then she spotted her father. Murdoch was lying on a seaweed mat, completely still.

  “What’s wrong with Father?” she cried.

  “He’s been stung by a Yellow-back jellyfish,” her mother replied, her voice trembling.

  Rani looked down at Murdoch. The jellyfish poison was already in his bloodstream and his upper body was red and swollen. His eyes were closed and he was so weak he couldn’t move his tail.

  “Rani, isn’t Kai with you?” her mother asked.

  Rani shook her head. “She went somewhere with the twins.”

  “Where?”

  Rani knew that if she told her mother that Kai had gone off into the Deep Blue then her mother would be even more worried. So she lied. “She’s not far away. Shall I go and fetch her?”

  “Yes,” her mother said hoarsely. She touched Murdoch’s forehead. “But hurry!”

  Rani swallowed, fighting back the tears. Her mother expected that her father would die. That was why she wanted Kai to come back so quickly.

  “Mother—” she began, but Miriam interrupted her.

  “There’s no cure for this type of poison, Rani. Now go and fetch your sister.”