The Shell Princess (4 page)

“What’s it got?” Rani whispered, starting to swim closer.

Morva pulled her back. “Be careful. We don’t want it to see us.”

The white ball – whatever it was – was making sobbing noises. Suddenly a little black nose became visible, then two blue eyes and two little white ears.

“I don’t believe it,” Morva gasped. “It’s a bear cub!”

“ A
bear cub
!” Rani repeated. She had heard stories about the Great White Swimming Bears that lived on the other side of the Deep Blue but she had never seen one before.
“What’s it doing here?”

“That shark must have caught it,” Morva said.

At that moment three more sharks appeared – another adult one and two youngsters. “Dad, what’s for dinner?” one of the young ones demanded. “We’re
starving!”

“This,” the biggest shark replied, prodding the whimpering bear cub. “And we have to eat it straight away before its mother comes looking for it.”

“Morva – we’ve got to
do
something!” gasped Rani, as the little bear looked towards them helplessly.

“Do you remember that tasting spell I taught you?” Morva whispered. “The one that you tried on Kai, that made her think seaweed tasted delicious?”

Rani nodded. How could she ever forget the day Kai had asked for a second helping of greens? “But how will that help?”

“I’ll do it in reverse,” Morva said. “Watch.” And as Morva closed her eyes and concentrated, Rani saw little gold sparks beginning to appear around the mouth of the
biggest shark as he sank his teeth into the bear cub’s white fur.

The shark let out a snort of disgust and dropped the little bear before he had even taken a bite. “Yuck!” he said, spitting out a bit of fur. “That tastes horrible.”

The other sharks were frowning. Baby bear was normally delicious.

Just then an angry roar sounded from above.

“MUMMY!” shouted the little bear cub. “I’m down here!”

A furious mother bear came charging down through the water, her white fur standing on end as she growled in rage. She lashed out with her sharp claws at the sharks, who quickly panicked and swam
off.

Rani waved as she and Morva watched the mother bear and her cub paddle away. The little bear kept turning back to look at the two mermaids, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Where do swimming bears live?” Rani asked.

“Nobody knows for certain,” Morva said, leading the way back to where Jonah was waiting for them. “Except that to get there you have to keep swimming up until you can’t
swim any further. Mermaids get dizzy if they swim that high, which is why nobody’s ever been there.”

“Now, Rani,” Morva said, when they were safely back inside Jonah’s warm mouth. “I want you to try and get some rest now.”

Rani soon fell asleep and this time she dreamed she was swimming in sparkling water where big furry white bears swam along lazily beside her.

   Chapter Five   

“Wake up, Rani,” Morva said, poking her. “We’re here.”

“
Where
?” Rani asked dozily, and then she remembered. She was about to meet her brother. And not just in a dream!

As Jonah opened his mouth for them to swim out, she blinked because the sea outside was full of a bright light. “It looks like . . . It looks like . . .” she gasped, but she
couldn’t continue because she had never seen anything like this before.

They were right on the sea-bottom and in front of them there seemed to be an opening in the sea-bed, from which a gold surge of light rose upwards through the water. The water all around glowed
and Rani held up her arms to shield her eyes from the glare.

“Don’t cover your eyes, Rani,” Morva told her. “You must look into the brightness. It won’t hurt you.”

Slowly, Rani looked. Her eyes seemed to be getting used to the bright water and she started to feel a strong tingling sensation in her skin.

“You’ve been wonderful, Jonah!” Morva said, swimming up to kiss him on the nose. Rani felt too shy to give him a kiss so she thanked him and gave him a pat instead.

As Jonah swam upwards and disappeared, Morva took hold of Rani’s hand. “Your magic normally starts from inside you, Rani,” she explained. “That’s why you feel it in
your belly button first. But now the magic is all around you. How do you feel?”

“I feel . . . strange,” Rani said.

Morva smiled. “Now comes the strangest bit of all. We must swim down through that golden beam into that hole in the sea-bed.”

“B-but . . .” Rani stammered. “There is nothing under the sea-bed.” She had always been taught that the sea-bed was where everything ended.

“If you are a magic mermaid, it is different,” Morva said gently. “Come with me.”

And together they swam right into the beam of golden light. Rani felt warm inside and out. The tingling she usually felt in her fingers when she did magic felt as though it had taken over her
whole body. She tried to speak but found that no words came.

“
Think
your thoughts to me, Rani,” Rani could hear Morva saying inside her head. Thought-reading was part of her magic. “We will be able to speak to each other again
when we have passed through the magic light.”

The light was so strong that Rani could hardly see Morva as they swam downwards. As the brightness gradually lessened, Rani saw that she was swimming through a golden passageway under the
sea-bed. “Wow!” she gasped.

“I know,” said Morva, speaking out loud again. “I had forgotten how beautiful it was.”

“But where does it lead to?” Rani asked.

“Wait and see,” Morva smiled.

Eventually the passageway opened out into a huge cave. The cave was empty but the walls were decorated with pictures of mermaids swimming – all of them with red hair. They could hear
voices now.

“This way,” said Morva, and she swam over to an arched opening in the cave wall. “Through here,” she said, swimming through and disappearing.

For a moment Rani felt nervous. Then she too swam through the archway and found herself in the most beautiful garden she could ever have dreamed of.

She had never seen flowers like these before – as tall as mermaids, with huge petals of bright colours. Huge oyster shells lazed about, proudly displaying their pearls for everyone to see,
and beautiful golden fish swam between the feathery plants, playing hide and seek with each other. But what Rani couldn’t stop staring at were the mermaids themselves. They all had orange
tails – some tipped with gold – and every one of them had red hair like Rani’s.

A young mermaid swam over, looking at them curiously. “Who are you?” she asked.

“I am Morva,” Morva told her, looking as if she expected this to make some sort of impression, which it obviously did not.

“I’m Rani,” Rani added quickly. “We’re from Tingle Reef.”

“Where’s that?” asked the mermaid.

“A very long way away from here,” Morva said, staring round at the other mermaids to see if she recognized any of them. “Perhaps you can help us. I need to speak to an
old
person – a
very
old person, you understand.”

The young mermaid peered into Morva’s eyes as if she had only just noticed that Morva was a lot older than she had first thought. “I’ll take you to the Mer-King,” she
said. “He’s
ancient
!”

“That will do very nicely,” Morva said smiling.

Rani kept a sharp look-out for her brother as she followed closely behind her friend. They were led into another passageway and through into another cave and out again into a large
courtyard.

“The Mer-King’s palace is that way,” the mermaid said, pointing to a pathway of golden shells. “Just follow those.”

Rani and Morva thanked her and swam along until the shells came to an end a short distance away from the entrance to a very grand cave. Two rock pillars had been erected outside the arched
cave-opening and a merman with a smart seaweed belt stood guard outside.

“Come on,” whispered Morva. “Let’s see if the Mer-King knows your brother.”

And trembling a little, Rani waited as Morva swam forward and requested permission to be let inside.

   Chapter Six