The Shell Princess (5 page)

After the guard had sent a messenger inside the palace, Morva came back to wait with Rani.

“What if the Mer-King won’t see us?” Rani asked, trying not to flick up any of the golden shells accidentally with her tail.

“Oh, he’ll see us,” Morva said confidently.

And at that moment, an old merman appeared, staring at them from the palace entrance. His red hair was streaked with white and he had a gold seaweed crown on his head. “Someone said that
Morva was here!” he boomed out.

Morva swam forward, smiling. “She is.”

The Mer-King stared into her eyes in disbelief. “
Morva
!” he exclaimed. “After all these years!” And he grabbed her hand and squeezed it excitedly. “Nobody
knew what became of you! Come in! Come in! You must tell me everything!”

“Wait,” said Morva, motioning for Rani to come forward. “I have brought someone with me. This is my friend Rani.”

“You are very welcome, Rani,” the Mer-King beamed at her. “Now you must both come inside.” And he led the way back into the palace.

“You
know
him?” Rani hissed to Morva, under her breath, as they followed him past the two massive pillars.

“Oh yes,” smiled Morva. “We were great friends!”

“I was a very handsome Mer-Prince in those days, Rani,” the Mer-King said, turning round to wink at her. “Can you imagine that?”

“Well . . .” Rani said, blushing, and the king laughed.

The palace was made out of many interconnecting caves, none of which seemed all that grand, until the king led them through a small archway into his main chamber. A carpet of gold moss covered
the floor and the walls were a sparkly blue that reminded Rani of the water in Tingle Reef. Gold and silver fish of all sizes swam around inside the room and gold seaweed was strung from the
ceiling. In the centre of the room, a silver dish was piled high with the most delicious-looking sea-fruits imaginable.

There were several soft seaweed cushions scattered about the floor, and the Mer-King flopped down on one and stretched out his tail with a sigh. “Sit down, sit down!” he urged them.
“The Mer-Queen is out at the moment but she will be back soon. You must dine with us. You must be hungry after your long journey.”

He snapped his fingers and ordered some refreshments while they waited.

“Who did you marry?” Morva asked him. “No – let me guess!” And she reeled off a whole list of names that meant absolutely nothing to Rani. Morva began to ask about
each of her old friends in turn, until Rani grew quite bored. If only there was somebody here to play with! Rani’s ears pricked up as she heard Morva ask, “Do you have any
children?”

The Mer-King looked sad. “We had a son – but he died a long time ago in a sea-quake.” He quickly attempted to smile. “But this is a happy day! Let us not talk of sad
things.”

Rani was longing to ask the Mer-King if he knew her brother but Morva was asking so many questions that she couldn’t get a word in.

Morva started to tell the Mer-King about Tingle Reef and about Rani turning up as a baby inside a Giant Clam-Shell. “Nobody knew that she was a magic mermaid, except me,” said Morva.
“And I have always promised her that one day I would bring her here.” Morva leaned over and touched Rani’s amber pendant. “We didn’t know anything about her true
family at all – until we found this.”

“A message-stone,” the Mer-King said, looking at Rani more closely.

“Yes – and inside Rani found a picture of her parents and learned that they had died when she was a baby. But there was another baby inside the stone – a boy who we know is the
same age now as Rani. So I have explained to Rani that she must have a twin brother . . .” Morva paused. “And we were hoping that he might be here.”

The Mer-King was staring intently at Rani now. “May I see the picture of this boy?” he asked.

Rani removed the stone from her neck and gently blew on it. As they watched, the surface softened and her brother’s face appeared, looking out at her from inside.

The Mer-King looked over her shoulder at the face of the boy and gasped, “I don’t believe it!”

“Do you know him?” asked Morva.

“This is my grandson,” the Mer-King said, putting a hand on Rani’s shoulder and turning her to face him.

Rani felt her heart start to beat faster. If this was true . . . If her twin brother was really the Mer-King’s grandson, then that meant . . .

The Mer-King was looking at her with tears in his eyes now. “I-I can’t believe it,” he stammered, as he touched her with a trembling hand. “Rani – you must be the
lost Shell Princess!”

Rani and Morva listened as the Mer-King told them how his son and his son’s young wife had been on a trip in the Deep Blue when they had sent a message saying that they would have to delay
their return home because their baby was about to arrive.

“We went to find them,” the Mer-King said, “but by the time we got there, a terrible sea-quake had destroyed the whole of the sea-bed where they were. We thought they had all
been killed until we came across a Giant Clam-Shell. My grandson was inside. He was just a few days old. They must have put him inside the shell to protect him. He had a message-stone round his
neck – just like yours, Rani. We couldn’t look inside the stone until he was old enough to open it for us. When he told us he could see a little girl smiling at him, we thought he was
making it up. But then we looked and, sure enough, there was this little red-haired mer-girl smiling out at us, with a face exactly like her mother’s. We searched everywhere we could think
of. We searched for years. But in the end we were forced to stop looking . . .”

The Mer-King touched Rani’s hair. “I should have recognized you straight away,” he told her. “But I have not looked at your picture for a very long time. It upset me to
be reminded that my little granddaughter was out there somewhere all alone.”

“Oh, but I wasn’t alone—” Rani started to tell him, but she was interrupted by the palace messenger.

“The Mer-Queen and the Mer-Prince have returned,” he announced.

At that moment an excited voice shouted, “Grandfather!” and a boy of Rani’s age, with short red hair and sparkling eyes, came swimming into the room. “Guess
what—” He stopped short when he saw Rani and Morva.

“Let me introduce my grandson,” the Mer-King said. “Rani, this is Peri.”

“Hello,” the boy said, looking a bit dazed as he slowly took in Rani’s face, her hair and, finally, her amber pendant.

Rani swallowed. She found that she couldn’t speak properly. “I’m-I’m . . .” she stammered.

Peri flipped his tail in excitement. “I know who you are! You’re the girl in my pendant!” And he dived forward and grabbed Rani by the hands. “You’re my
sister
, aren’t you?”

Rani nodded as Peri started to spin her non-stop around the room.

“Peri, calm down!” his grandfather called out. “You’ll make Rani dizzy.”

“It’s OK!” Rani laughed, looking lovingly into her brother’s eyes. “I don’t mind!”

And Rani knew that she wouldn’t be able to stop feeling giddy today, even if she tried.

   Chapter Seven   

Rani and Peri spent the next few days getting to know each other. The longer they spent together, the more they liked each other, and soon they felt that they had never been
separated at all.

“It helped being able to see you inside my message-stone,” Peri told her. “I used to talk to you all the time so it was sort of like having you with me. But it’s much
better now because you can talk back!”

Rani laughed. “Ever since I first saw you inside
my
message-stone, I’ve been longing to meet you! I can’t believe I’m really here with you. I keep thinking I must
be dreaming and that I’ll wake up and find myself back in Tingle Reef.”

“Tingle Reef sounds a wonderful place,” Peri said. “And you’re so lucky having a mother and a father.”

Rani agreed that she
was
lucky. “But the Mer-King and Queen are so kind,” she said. “So
you’re
lucky too!”

That night, the Mer-King and his wife were throwing a royal banquet in honour of their granddaughter and everyone was invited.

“You’ll get to meet all my friends,” Peri said, as he began to list them.

Rani started to think about all her friends in Tingle Reef. How was Roscoe getting on without her? And Octavius? And when she thought about Kai she got a funny little ache right in her middle,
as if a part of her was missing.

That evening as everyone gathered in the palace, Morva was looking especially beautiful in a multi-coloured top with gold tassels. Her hair seemed even shinier than it had done in Tingle Reef.
Rani could see that she was very happy to be back home again.

“Don’t you miss your lobsters and your starfish?” she whispered, as she waited in line beside Morva, shaking hands with all the guests as they arrived.

“A little, but, oh . . . Rani . . . I can’t help wishing that I’d come back years ago!”

“But then I would never have discovered who I really was,” Rani reminded her. “And you wouldn’t have been able to teach me all that magic!”

“That’s true,” Morva smiled. “But I’ve been thinking, Rani – you don’t need me to teach you any more.”

“Yes, I do!” protested Rani.

“No, you don’t. You are strong enough to manage by yourself from now on. And that’s why . . . I’ve decided to stay here.”