Sea Magic (3 page)

‘Thank you, oh, thank you!' Thomas cried. Meg was dripping wet and trembling with exhaustion, and her brother put his arm around her and helped support her.

Two sleek, black heads bobbed up and down in the water, staring up at them with silvery eyes. Ben could see their long tails moving beneath them, waving back and forth through the green water.

‘Please don't go,' Meg said. ‘I want to thank you.'

The mer-children looked at each other and gave little shrugs. Then the boy spoke, in a strange, liquid language. ‘Shushalooshashushlaloosh,' he said.

‘Shush-a-what?' Ben said.

The mermaid laughed, a high, silvery sound, but the mer-boy scowled. She said something to him, and he frowned and replied angrily. She only laughed again. At last he shrugged, and they flipped
themselves onto the rocks, landing in a gush of water at the cousins' feet. Meg and the three boys could only stare, open-mouthed, amazed to see the long tails, gleaming silver in the sun, and the soft fins that flapped along their spines and arms. Scales covered their entire bodies, small and pale on their faces and throats and wrists, larger and more richly coloured on their backs and tails.

The boy wore a small bag woven of seaweed hanging from a seaweed belt about his waist. He felt inside with a long, thin hand, webbed like a frog's, and withdrew a spray of something that looked a little like unripe grapes, but much more seaweedy. He and the mermaid each ate one, screwing up their faces as if they tasted horrible, then the mer-boy said, in a fierce, angry voice, ‘What are you? Friend or foe?'

‘Friends,' Ben said at once. The four children squatted down beside the two mer-children, unable to help staring in amazement, and told them their names.

‘Such odd names,' the boy said. ‘I am Sechiel and this is my sister Samandriel.'

‘Why were you spying on us?' Tim asked.

‘We like to come and play at these rocks too,' Samandriel said. ‘We are not supposed to, at the moment – it is too dangerous – but we grew bored having to stay at the castle all day . . .'

‘Castle? You live in a castle? Under the water?' the children cried.

‘Yes. Of course. Do you not live in a castle too?'

The children shook their heads. ‘Oh, I wish we
could come and see your underwater castle,' Meg said wistfully. ‘Is it far away?'

‘It is deep, deep, under the sea,' Sechiel said, twisting about to point down into the ocean.

‘It is beautiful,' Samandriel said. ‘You could come and see, if you like.'

‘We can't swim that far,' Ben said. ‘We don't have tails like you.'

‘No,' Sechiel said pityingly. ‘It is very sad for you.'

‘It's not so bad having legs,' Thomas said. ‘We get to run and jump and climb trees and kick balls around.'

‘We get to swim with the dolphins every day. We catch waves with them, or dive down through the coral gardens and swim with the fish and the giant turtles. And sometimes we get to ride on a whale's back.'

‘Oh, I've never even seen a whale!' Meg cried.

‘At least we used to be able to do all those things,' Samandriel said. ‘But ever since the Viperfish has come, capturing all the sea creatures, we do not get to do anything merry any more.'

‘Why not?' Thomas asked.

‘Everyone is very afraid,' Sechiel said grimly. ‘The Viperfish is evil.'

‘The Viperfish has a giant black clam that swims through the sea like a whale,' Samandriel said. ‘He lives inside it, but can swim some distance away from it, when he goes out to hunt the sea creatures.' She gave a little shudder that made her scales flash in the sunlight.

‘The Viperfish has great nets that he drags through the sea, scooping up everything in their path,' Sechiel said. ‘Soon there will be no fish left, or seals, or dolphins, or jellyfish, or coral, or anemones, or anything.'

‘And worst of all, no sea-grapes!' Samandriel cried. ‘Then we shall die.'

Sechiel showed them the seaweedy grapes he carried in the bag at his waist. ‘We must eat them every day. They give us the gift of languages so that we may speak to the dolphins and the sea birds and the whales, and also to you today. The sea-grapes also help us breathe underwater for as long as any
seal. If the Viperfish destroys all our crops, we shall die too. We won't be able to talk to the sea creatures, or breathe underwater. We'll all have to rip off our scaly skins and walk on land like you poor folk.'

‘A fish is doing all this?' Ben was puzzled.

‘He is not a fish,' Sechiel said. ‘We call him the Viperfish, for he is as dangerous as any viperfish from the abyss. But we do not know what kind of creature he really is. He has arms and legs, like you, but his skin is black and thick, and he has only one eye, very large and square, and huge flippers like a seal . . .'

‘A scuba diver!' Tim suddenly exclaimed. ‘That's what they mean, I bet!'

‘Of course!' Ben cried. ‘That makes sense.'

‘And maybe he has some kind of submarine. That's what she means by the clam that he lives in,' Tim continued.

‘That would explain why there are no turtles nesting this year,' Thomas said.

‘And why we haven't seen any dolphins or dugongs,' Meg said.

‘Yes, the Viperfish has been capturing the turtles and all the other sea creatures. We do not know why. The king and queen are very worried. That is why we were all told not to leave the castle, in case he should capture us too. But it is boring spending all day swimming round and round the castle. We wanted to swim in the surf and play in the rock pools. Except you were all here. We're not meant to let any tail-less ones see us.'

‘We won't tell anyone,' Meg promised.

Just then, they heard Mum calling them. ‘Kids? Where are you?'

‘We'd better go,' Ben said. ‘We'd love to come and see your underwater castle, though! Do you think those sea-grapes of yours would let us breathe underwater?'

‘Perhaps,' Sechiel said.

‘Let's try it!' Ben cried in excitement. ‘We'll meet you back here tomorrow, really early, OK? We'll tell Mum we're going fishing.'

‘Till tomorrow then,' the mer-children said. ‘At first light.'

That night, a tropical storm blew in. Battalions of black-clad storm clouds marched across the sky, wielding swords of lightning. The children lay in bed and listened to the drumming of the rain on the tin roof, the groaning of the trees and the distant thunder of the surf, worrying about the mer-children in their castle deep beneath the sea.

The rain had blown over by morning, although it was still cold and blustery. The children begged their mums to let them go down to the lagoon. Ben wanted to try out his new fishing line, while everyone was keen to play with Thomas's new remote-controlled boat.

‘There'll be waves today that we can try to jump,' Thomas said. ‘It'll be so cool.'

Mum was snuggled up in bed with Ella, looking tousled and sleepy. ‘Well, all right, as long as you're careful. Don't go in the surf! Or climb the headland.'

‘OK, Mum,' Ben said, grinning.