Sea Magic (7 page)

‘Yoo-hoo! Yoo-hoo!' Meg was calling. ‘Up here!'

The Viperfish had been searching for Tim in the water. At the sound of Meg's voice, he spun round and looked up. He saw Tim scrambling up the crag and Meg waving her hand. At once, the Viperfish zoomed forward, leaving a white V-shaped wake streaming behind him. He reached the rocks and clambered out, dumping his rocket boosters so he could climb more quickly. Soon he was climbing up the rock face like a rubbery black spider. Tim dug his fingers and bare toes into tiny crevices and cracks, hauling himself up, panting with the effort. He reached the top of the crag and crouched beside Meg, his ribs hurting with every breath. The scuba diver's sinister black head appeared over the rock's edge. He clambered over, dragging off his mask and breathing apparatus, showing a rough, grey-bristled face and narrow, sneering eyes.

‘What's this? A couple of kids? You must be
joking!' He started towards them furiously, only to lurch forward and fall heavily to the ground. He had been tripped by a piece of fishing line that Meg had tied to a protruding chunk of rock, holding the other end in her hand so she could jerk it up just as he came close.

Thomas leapt out from his hiding place, flinging
the fishing net over the Viperfish, its edges weighted down with rocks. Jessie leapt around, barking at the top of her voice, then pounced on the man, snarling and
pretending to bite him through the net. Meg, Thomas, Sechiel and Tim jumped on him too, holding him down. It was rather like being on an exciting ride at a funfair, for as the Viperfish struggled to rise he tipped the children up and down and from side to side.

‘What do we do now?' Tim puffed.

‘Meg!' Thomas panted. ‘Run home, quick! Call the police! I bet you anything you like he's a wanted man!'

The police were very glad indeed to catch the Viperfish, who had been trapping sea creatures up and down the coast for weeks, preparing to smuggle them out to amusement parks and private collectors for huge sums of money.

The children were praised lavishly by the police, much to the bemusement of their mothers, who had thought the children had gone out for a spot of quiet fishing.

‘I didn't expect you to catch a clown fish, let alone a hardened criminal,' Mum said, shaking her head. ‘That's the last time I let you lot out of my sight!'

‘Oh, but Mum, we have to go back to the lagoon this afternoon!' Ben protested. ‘The mer-people are throwing us a party.'

‘To thank us for saving them,' Tim added.

‘Oh, well, I guess we really can't ground the heroes of the day, can we?' Mum said, and in an undertone to Aunty Vic, ‘Don't you just love children's imaginations?'

Once again Meg delayed them all trying to decide what to wear. ‘Why, oh why didn't I bring my fairy princess ballgown?' she lamented.

‘I guess you thought the beach was not really the place for a ballgown,' Thomas said in exasperation.

‘You don't need any clothes,' Ben said. ‘Sechiel said he would borrow some tails from his friends, so we can swim just as well as he and Sami.'

Meg's face lit up. ‘A real mermaid tail? Really?'

Ben nodded. ‘But only if we get there on time. If we don't get a move along, they might give up and go to the underwater castle without us.'

For the first time in her life, Meg was the first one out the door.

Sechiel and Samandriel were waiting for them at Mermaid Rocks, with two mer-boys and two mermaids happy to give up their tails for a couple of hours. Even Jessie got to go to the party, for Sechiel fed her some magical sea-grapes wrapped in fish so she could breathe underwater too. She did not like it much at first, as she kept trying to bark underwater
and could not understand why the only sound she could make was ‘glub, glub, glub'. It was better than being left tied up on the shore, however, and she was soon very happy chasing fish around.

Swift and supple as seals, the six children swam along the undulating white sands, chasing each other
through deep, shadowy-blue grottos and in and out of coral gardens, where the fish darted like tiny, jewel-coloured birds and the swaying flowers groped soft fingers in search of food. Deeper and deeper they swam, the shining, rippling sky fading above them till the water around them was the colour of amethysts.

Perched on the edge of a fathomless abyss was a gleaming palace of coral, raising arches and towers and pinnacles in magnificent shades of cream and rose and crimson and amber. Mer-people swam everywhere, their frilled tails glinting, their dark hair writhing about their smooth, scaly shoulders. At the sight of the four cousins, they blew horns and beat small drums of sharkskin, so that clouds of fish burst upwards like living fireworks. The children were enchanted.

The mer-king and mer-queen had organised a huge feast, though much to the children's dismay the only food on offer was raw fish, seaweed soup, fish eggs and oysters. They had to work hard not to spit it out and say: ‘Disgusting!'

They enjoyed the rest of the party much more. There were dolphin rides, dancing, performances by mer-acrobats and mer-singers, and a fantastic game of hide-and-seek all through the towers, halls and caves of the coral palace. Brightly coloured fish flitted everywhere like amazing butterflies, and red
and purple starfish decorated the walls and floors. Everywhere the coral lifted fragile arms like winter-bare trees, or bloomed like crimson and gold flowers.

At last, though, it was time to go home. They went to say farewell to the mer-king and mer-queen, who gave each of them a beautifully coiled triton shell on a red seaweed rope. ‘If you should ever need help in the kingdom of the sea, just call on the shell-horns and one of our people shall come,' the king said.

They thanked him and took the shells in delight, then swam with Sechiel and Samandriel back to the rock pools. Although it was sad to take off the scaly mer-tails and give them back, it was also
great to feel solid land beneath their feet and fresh air in their lungs.

‘Thank you so much,' Sechiel said. ‘I could never have defeated the Viperfish without your help.'

‘Maybe we'll see you again,' Samandriel said.

‘We'll come and wave at you next time you're swimming in the rock pools,' Sechiel said. ‘If there's no-one around to see, we could even let you borrow our tails again.'

‘That'd be great,' Ben said. ‘I do think you're lucky!'

They watched the two mer-children dive under the waves and disappear, and then began to hurry
home along the beach. ‘Still, I'm glad we're not mer-boys,' Thomas said. ‘I mean, it was great fun, but if we lived in the sea we couldn't play computer games or watch TV.'

‘No chocolate,' Ben said. ‘No books.'

‘No riding scooters, no skateboards . . .' Tim said.

‘And that poor mermaid only had one thing to wear!' Meg said, then looked round in surprise as the boys all roared with laughter.