Sea Magic (4 page)

‘And get rugged up! It's cold today.'

The boys pulled on their hoodies, but had to wait around for Meg to choose what outfit to wear. She wanted to wear her mermaid dress, but knew she would never be allowed to wear it to the beach. So in the end she put it in her beach bag, along with her favourite mermaid doll and her seashell comb, then dressed herself in her best swimmers with the matching kaftan and hat, and her high-heeled sparkly party shoes.

The boys raced ahead, Jessie bounding joyfully beside them and Meg teetering along behind. The beach was a different place from yesterday, with the sea so wild and grey and cold. The rock pools had all been swallowed up by foam, and water spurted up through the witch's cauldron like a whale's spout.

‘No sign of the mer-kids,' Tim said.

They climbed Lookout Rock and stood staring out to sea, watching the grey waves churning about in a welter of dirty-looking foam, like a giant's washing machine.

Ben's heart leapt, and he pointed. ‘Look! A dolphin!'

The four children watched the dolphin racing through the surf, then cried out in dismay as they saw that it was being chased by a huge grey shark with gaping jaws. The dolphin leapt right out of the water, and they saw a boy bent close to the smooth curve of the dolphin's neck.

‘That was Sechiel!' Ben cried. ‘He's in trouble!'

They scrambled down to the rocks, slick with spray, and shouted to Sechiel, who turned his desperate face towards them. The next moment, he dived away from the dolphin, speeding towards the shore. The shark raced after him, allowing the dolphin to dive deep under a wave and disappear. The children reached out their hands and grasped Sechiel, dragging him from the water just seconds before the shark's jaws snapped shut upon him.

‘That was close!' Thomas cried.

‘Too close,' Ben said.

The children scrambled back towards the beach, carrying Sechiel between them, his tail dragging behind. He was shivering with cold and shock, and blood trickled down his side.

‘What happened? Where's Sami?' Meg asked. She could not remember the mermaid's full name.

‘She's been taken by the Viperfish! It's all my fault! We should've stayed at the castle like we were told. What am I to do?' Sechiel was almost in tears.

‘Sami's been taken? How?'

‘The Viperfish was lurking just offshore. As we swam here to meet you, that shark-thing came racing after us. We couldn't get away! I called my dolphin Delphina to come and help, but the shark was too quick. It seized Samandriel and dragged her off to
the Viperfish's giant clam. Then it came after me. I have to rescue her!'

‘You can't go back in the water, that shark is lurking out there!' Tim cried.

‘It's not a real shark,' Sechiel said. ‘When it first attacked us, I tried to speak to it but it did not hear me or understand me. It's hard and cold, like iron rock, and its jaws glitter and its eyes glow blue like those of the deep-sea fangtooth. It belongs to the Viperfish! It will have gone back to him, I'm sure. Besides, I can't just let Samandriel be seized like that. She could be hurt!'

‘But what can you do? Look at you! You're hurt too,' Thomas said.

Sechiel put one hand to his head, and they saw a swollen cut on his temple, as if he had hit his head on a rock. The blood from his side was still oozing sluggishly. ‘What does that matter? I have to go and rescue my sister!'

‘You can't rescue her by yourself! Why don't you go and get help? There must be someone at your castle who could help save her,' Thomas suggested.

‘It'd take too long. That Viperfish could have gone by then, back into the abyss where we could never catch him. No, I have to go now, while he is still nearby.'

‘We could help,' Ben said. ‘We're pretty good swimmers.'

‘I'd like to rescue a mermaid!' Meg cried.

Sechiel snorted in contempt. ‘I saw you all yesterday. You looked like baby walruses flopping about and splashing and screeching. You can't call that swimming!'

The four cousins all went red.

‘I can swim faster than just about anyone else in my class!' Thomas said. ‘And dive deeper too!'

‘Can you dive deep down into the depths where the great squids live, and the bristlemouths, and the lanternfish with their glowing green whiskers? So deep down that sunlight can never reach?'

‘Well, no,' Thomas said.

‘Well, what use would you lot be?' Sechiel's expression was caught between anger and misery. Ben thought about how he would feel if his little sister Ella had been captured by a lurking submarine and tried not to be offended.

‘There must be something we can do. It's true we can't swim as well as you. You've got a tail and we don't. But we could do something . . .' Ben's voice trailed away.

‘I suppose I could lend you my tail,' Sechiel said.

They stared at him in amazement. ‘It comes off?' Tim said.

‘Of course. We take our tails off whenever we want to walk on the shore and gather seaweed, or collect oysters. We have to be really careful not to lose our skin if we do come out on the shore, though, because then we could never go back into the sea.'

‘So you could take off your tail now and give it to one of us, and we could swim just as well as you do?' Ben was so excited he could barely speak.

‘I wouldn't be giving it to you.' Sechiel stared at him suspiciously.

‘No, no, just lending,' Ben gabbled. ‘So we can help save your sister.'

‘You've got to promise to give it back.'

‘We will, I promise.'

‘Swear on Neptune's trident.'

‘We all swear on Neptune's trident that we will give you back your tail,' the four cousins repeated, trying not to giggle. It sounded so odd. Sechiel glared round, and they all tried to look solemn. At last he said grudgingly, ‘Very well then, I'll take it off. Don't look! It's not polite.'

So the children turned their backs and looked away. They heard a grunt, like someone struggling to get out of a wetsuit, a strange slithery sound, then a
plop!
like the sound you make popping your finger out of your mouth.

‘Ready,' the mer-boy said.

They looked round eagerly. Sechiel stood before them, his skin as white as an albino frog's. Dangling from his hand was a long, slinky,
silvery suit of closely overlapping scales that flared out at the bottom into a frilly tail.

‘I'm the best swimmer, I get to go first,' Thomas cried, grabbing at it.

‘No, I'm the oldest,' Ben argued.

‘Me, me!' Tim shouted.

‘I want to wear the mermaid's tail,' Meg wailed.

‘Me first!'

‘No, me!'

Thomas had one end of it and Ben the other, and for a moment it looked like they might rip the fine mesh of silvery scales apart. But Ben then let it go, reluctantly, feeling very cross. Thomas crowed in triumph and sat down, trying to pull it on over his swimmers. He yanked, he heaved, he wriggled, he writhed, he panted and puffed, he groaned and moaned, but he could not drag the mer-boy's
tail up any higher than his thighs.

‘You're too big,' Sechiel said. ‘It doesn't fit. Someone smaller try.' Rather thankfully Thomas dragged it off, feeling like a stepsister trying to squeeze into Cinderella's shoe. Meg at once grabbed it and wriggled into it, but it hung loosely on her and she had to hold it up to stop it from falling off. ‘You're too small,' Sechiel said. ‘It doesn't fit. Someone bigger try.'