Rani’s Sea Spell (4 page)

“I never knew you could sing like that,” whispered Kai afterwards.

“Neither did I,” gasped Rani, touching the pendant in awe. She was about to say more about it to Kai when their grandmother announced that it was time to have supper.

Rani and Kai swam to the table to choose what they wanted from the delicious spread of mer-cakes and sea-trifles and ocean-fruits. The grown-up mermaids were drinking lots of mer-wine and
getting very merry indeed.

“This is yummy. Not a bit of seaweed in sight!” laughed Kai, who was always being told off for not eating her greens.

“And no stew either!” laughed Rani. Suddenly she spotted Flora across the other side of the room. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she told her sister.

“Wait, Rani! Where’s your necklace?” asked Kai, seeing that it was gone from Rani’s neck.

Rani looked down. “Oh, no! It must have fallen off.”

At that moment, Rani was surrounded by a group of mermaids who demanded that she sing for them again. Rani protested that she had to find her necklace first, but the others were very excited and
wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Don’t be a spoilsport, Rani!” her grandmother called out from the other side of the room.

Rani didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t tell her grandmother that she had lost the necklace, but how else could she explain that she didn’t want to sing without it?

“I’ll look for it,” offered Kai. “Give them one song and then come and help me. Don’t worry. It’s got to be here
somewhere
. It must be.”

Reluctantly, Rani agreed but as she took her place on the stage again, she had a horrible thought. What if it was the pendant that had given her the ability to sing before? What if now –
without it – she was just as hopeless as ever? Rani’s throat felt tight. Her stomach started to churn. She was sure that her voice would come out totally shaky and everyone would laugh
at her. She quickly mumbled something about a sore throat and left the stage.

“I
can’t
sing without my pendant,” she told Kai.

“Maybe it fell off when you went to get your food,” Kai said.

They swam back over the top of the long table and looked in between all the dishes but they couldn’t see the necklace.

Rani felt like crying.

“Don’t worry. You can share
my
necklace,” Kai said, putting her arm round her sister. “Or maybe Grandma has another one you can have.”

But Rani knew that the amber pendant was far too special to be replaced.

“I’ve
got
to find it,” she told Kai.

And together, the two sisters started to search again.

   Chapter Five   

It was getting late and Rani was starting to feel sleepy. She still hadn’t found her pendant although she and Kai had searched the whole room. She kept checking to make
sure that the little shell containing the sea-spell was still fastened to her belt.

Flora seemed to have disappeared from the party. Rani was just giving up all hope of speaking to her again when she heard an unmistakable jangling sound right behind her.

“Flora,” Rani gasped. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

“I’ve been avoiding Octavius,” Flora confided. “He’s just so
bossy
. It’s just as well I don’t live in Tingle Reef or he’d drive me
mad!”

“He drives us mad too sometimes,” Rani grinned. “But we know he always
means
well!”

The party had livened up even more since Octavius had suggested they dance a few reels. The mermaids were swishing their tails as fast as they could in time to the music as they held hands and
swung each other round. Octavius was dancing with eight mermaids at once and looking very pleased with himself.

“It’s getting very noisy,” Flora said. “I hope we don’t upset our neighbours.”

“What neighbours?” asked Rani.

Suddenly, as if in answer to her question, an incredible bellow sounded.

“Oh dear,” Flora said, looking out into the Deep Blue with a worried frown on her face.

“What is it?” asked Rani anxiously.

Flora pointed out into the dark water which had suddenly become very choppy, and Rani saw an enormous black-and-white whale charging towards them.

“Whales have got very sensitive hearing,” Flora whispered. “She’s probably come to complain about the noise.”

The furious whale banged against the side of the wreck and everyone stopped dancing.

The other mermaids made way for Rani’s grandmother as she swam to the edge of the room so that she was looking out at the whale through a gap in the side of the wreck. “We’re
terribly
sorry for disturbing you,” she began, politely. “Can we make up for it by offering you some refreshments?” She looked across to the table where Octavius was
helping himself to the last of the trifle. “We have lots of mer-wine and sea-fruits and—”

“I only eat plankton!” barked the whale rudely. “And I’ve had a belly-full of that on the way here!” She belched loudly.

“Of course, we’ll stop the music—” Rani’s grandmother tried again, but the whale interrupted her.

“You shouldn’t have started it in the first place! I’m sick of you mermaids and your silly parties! You never think about anyone else but yourselves!” And she rammed her
whole body against the side of the wreck again, in protest.

“The ceiling!” somebody yelled, as a loud ripping noise came from above their heads and splinters of driftwood and barnacles started to fall from above.

The mermaids looked up and screamed. The huge wooden beams that made up the ceiling were splitting down the middle.

“What are we going to do?” gasped Flora, as everyone tried to swim away at once. “The roof garden will cave in on us.”

Rani knew that there was no time to lose. She had to use the sea-spell. She took the golden shell from her belt and clasped it tightly in her hand, concentrating as hard as she could on starting
up the magic. Gold dust began to trickle out from inside the shell – the spell was being released! Rani closed her eyes to help her focus better. When she opened them again, the water in the
room was sparkling.

“What’s happening?” someone cried out.

The whole room and its contents – except for the mermaids themselves – seemed to have frozen. A huge piece of ceiling had stopped in mid-water as it fell. A heavy rock from the roof
garden, which had been about to fall on top of the band, was suspended in the water, not moving.

“Quick!” shouted Rani. “Everyone must swim out. Now!”

It took several minutes to clear the whole room so that only Rani was left. A layer of sparkling water surrounded her as she closed her eyes again. Now, all she had to do was fix the ceiling and
the roof garden would be saved. She remembered everything Morva had taught her and concentrated very hard on the spell.

Everyone cheered as the ceiling slipped back into place and the roof garden was restored.

Rani’s grandmother leaned closer to Miriam as they waited for Rani to join them outside. She spoke very quietly so that no one else could hear. “I understand now what you mean about
Rani,” she whispered. “She is very special.”

Miriam nodded. “I know.”

“She may want to go and find her true home one day,” the old mermaid added gently. “You realize that, don’t you, my dear?”

Rani’s mother didn’t reply.

When she was sure that the spell had
really
worked, Rani swam outside to join the others. She knew that her mother and grandmother had been watching her very carefully, and now Miriam
seemed quiet. “Mother, is something wrong?” she asked, swimming up to her. “You look sad.”

“I’m fine, Rani,” Miriam replied. “We all are . . . Thanks to you.” And she pulled Rani close and gave her a very tight hug.

Suddenly, there was a big shout behind them. It was Octavius, still clutching his bowl of trifle. “You mermaids really aren’t very good at cooking,” he muttered, fishing
something hard and shiny out of it. And Rani saw that what Octavius was holding up – half covered in gooey trifle – was her amber pendant!

   Chapter Six   

“Octopuses are very emotional, aren’t they?” Kai said the following morning, as they waited for Octavius to finish saying goodbye to Flora. Having argued for
most of the visit, the brother and sister were now embracing each other and getting horribly tangled up.

Rani had finally got the chance to speak to Flora on her own but she hadn’t really discovered anything more about the mysterious red-haired mermaid. Flora was certain that her amber
pendant had been the same kind as Rani’s, though, and she had added that the young mermaid had been very sweet-natured. But apart from that Flora couldn’t tell her anything else. She
didn’t know what had happened to the mermaid after she had left her – or to her baby.

Murdoch gently reminded everybody that they needed to set off.

“I can’t wait to see Pearl again!” Kai said, as she waved goodbye to her grandmother.

“Me too,” said Rani. “And Morva!” Rani was longing to tell Morva everything that had happened.

But the journey home seemed to take for ever. Roscoe was so tired that he kept falling asleep holding on to Miriam’s hair.

“We’re probably tired out from all that dancing,” Murdoch said. “That’s why it seems like it’s taking longer. We’ll stop and rest soon.”