Sea Magic (2 page)

‘My dad used to call them sea cows,' Aunty Vic said. ‘I guess Mermaid Rocks sounded better than Sea Cow Rocks.'

Everyone laughed. They were walking together along the edge of a sparkling lagoon, on crisp white sand that squeaked under their feet. At least, the two mothers were walking. The six cousins were chasing each other with handfuls of wet seaweed, turning lopsided cartwheels and splashing through the warm water, with Jessie bounding joyfully at their heels.

‘Normally we see dolphins playing here in the
lagoon,' Aunty Vic said. ‘What a shame there are none today.'

‘Last year we saw turtles too,' Thomas said. ‘Lots of them, digging in the sand.'

‘They were digging their nests,' Aunty Vic said. ‘At this time of year they lay their eggs, hundreds of them. It's rather odd that we haven't seen any. I think this is the first year since I was a little girl that I haven't seen a single turtle.'

Aunty Vic had been coming up to Mermaid Rocks
all her life, and so she knew all the best places to go fishing and swimming and snorkelling. This was the first time Ben and Tim had come to stay at their cousins' holiday house, and so they were eager to see all the things their cousins kept describing – like the witch's cauldron and the fairy pool and Lookout Rock.

They came at last to the end of the beach, where giant boulders separated the sea from the lagoon. Waves rushed in and over and round the rocks, swirling and twirling and whirling into a chain of rock pools. Some were deep and green, some were warm and shallow, another was all white and foamy like a bottle of lemonade ready to explode.

‘What a gorgeous spot!' Mum cried, up to her knees in frothy water.

‘It's beautiful, isn't it?' Aunty Vic said.

‘Just magic,' Mum said, holding Ella's hand as she jumped up and down in glee.

Ben felt a little shiver along his skin. Life had been ordinary for so long, he could not help longing for something marvellous to happen, like the time he had tried to make a magic spell for summoning dragon's gold, and had summoned a golden dragon instead.

Still, he was on holidays, he had his cousins to play with and the sun was shining. Anything could happen!

The witch's cauldron drilled deep into the rock, so deep you could not see the bottom, only a black, churning hole where the water was sucked down as the sea went out. Round and round the water spun, draining away to reveal a narrow shelf encrusted with barnacles and seaweed. Then, quite suddenly, up the water gushed again, pouring over the side like an over-boiling pot.

‘I dare you to jump in!' Thomas said. He was nicknamed Thomas the Tank because he was strong and square and always charged straight ahead. Although he was a year younger than Ben, he was just as tall and twice as wide. His sister Meg was called the Little Princess, while Gus, the youngest, was called Super-Gus because he liked to
dress up as a superhero – if he wore any clothes at all.

‘No way,' Ben said, looking down into the dark, fathomless hole.

‘Don't you dare!' Mum called. ‘Else we'll go straight home!'

‘OK, OK,' Thomas said, and rolled his eyes at Ben.

They clambered back down to the beach, where Meg and Tim were building a giant sandcastle. The
four cousins dug moats and channels, erected high walls and towers, excavated dungeons, and made drawbridges out of twigs and flags out of seaweed. It took much longer than it should have because Gus and Ella thought it was great fun to jump into the castle and smash it down. Eventually, Aunty Vic and Mum took Gus and Ella down to the lagoon to hunt for crabs so the cousins could build in peace.

Ben sat back on his heels to admire the castle, then looked round for Jessie. She was down at the water's edge, growling and trying to bite the little waves that came scampering in and out. The tide had crept in while they were busy, and the little pools where they had sat and splashed were now all swallowed up into one big pool where the waves raced round and round in circles like Jessie chasing her tail. Beyond the ring of barnacle-encrusted rocks, the sea roared and pounced and threw up great white spumes of spray.

And lying on the tall pinnacle of Lookout Rock, peering down at them, were two children.

All Ben could see were their faces, pale and wedge-shaped, and half covered by long, wet, bedraggled hair. Curious, Ben stood up, still staring at them, and at once the children slithered away out of sight.

‘We're being spied on!' Ben cried. ‘Come on!'

The four children raced across the sand and clambered up the steep rock. There was nobody there.

‘But where could they have gone?' Ben wondered. ‘They can't have dived into the witch's cauldron or jumped down into the sea, it's much too dangerous.'

‘You must've imagined them,' Thomas said.

‘No, I saw them, clear as anything,' Ben said. He stood on the very edge of Lookout Rock, staring down at the heaving ocean. A flash of silver caught the corner of his eye, like the flick of a tail through the waves. ‘Look, there!'

‘What is it?' asked Meg.

‘Some kind of big fish? I don't know.'

Someone giggled. All four children spun round. They looked high, they looked low, they looked far, they looked near, but they could see no-one. Then the giggle came again, quickly muffled as if by a hand.

‘Look, down there!' Tim called. ‘In the witch's cauldron. It's a girl!'

Staring up at them from the round, bubbling witch's cauldron was a young girl with long, sleek, dark hair and laughing eyes. As soon as she saw that the four children had spotted her, she flipped and dived under the water, disappearing into the foaming maelstrom of the blowhole. Just as Meg cried out in
dismay, a sinuous, frilled tail broke through the bubbles with a resounding SPLASH!

Then the girl with the tail like a fish was gone.

‘It's a mermaid! A real, live mermaid!' Meg cried.

‘Not “it”. She.' Ben's voice was low and overawed.

‘It must be some kind of trick,' Thomas said.

‘No way,' Tim said. ‘She was a mermaid, all right.'

All four scrambled to the cliff's edge, scanning the tumultuous sea below for any sign of the mermaid. They saw the girl's head break free of the foaming water. She turned and waved a cheeky hand at them. A boy's head bobbed up a short distance away from her, scowling and angry, dragging at her arm, obviously trying to haul her away.

Meg flung herself down at the edge of the rock, stretching out both arms imploringly. ‘Don't go, please!' she called. ‘Come and play with us! We've always wanted to meet a mermaid. Please!'

The mermaid looked back, smiling, but the merboy tugged at her insistently. The mermaid shrugged and prepared to dive. Meg leapt up and launched herself over the edge of the crag.

‘No!' the three boys shouted. They all rushed to the edge and looked over. Meg was plummeting down towards the heaving swell of the ocean, her
arms crossed over her tucked-up legs. Ben could hardly bear to watch as her small body plunged into the water and disappeared in a burst of bubbles.

A few seconds later her head bobbed up, and Meg struck out after the mer-children.

‘That was so stupid!' Tim said.

‘Lucky it's high tide,' Ben said, shivering at the thought of the sharp rocks that could lurk just under the waves.

‘She's a really good swimmer,' Thomas said. ‘But I think I'd better jump in after her . . .'

‘Wait! It's too dangerous. I'll run and get help . . .' Even as the words left his mouth, Ben knew it would take too long. Meg was already struggling to make headway against the turbulent waves, which were surging back and forth and up and down, smashing against the rocks. Her head went under the crest of one foamy wave, burst through, then went under again.

‘I'll run and get my boogie board and throw it down to her,' Tim cried.

‘It'll take too long. I'm going in!' Thomas looked down the stretch of rock, checking to see when the next big swell came swirling in.

‘Wait! Look!' Ben pointed.

The two mer-children had seen that Meg was struggling against the cross-currents. They raced
back to her, lithe bodies flashing silver, and seized her, supporting her above the churning waves. Swift and supple as fish, they flashed through the water towards the shore, carrying Meg with them. Ben, Tim and Thomas slipped and slithered down the cliff to the witch's cauldron, then jumped down onto the rocks. Clinging to the stone, they reached out eager hands and seized hold of Meg, dragging her out of the water.