‘I could dress up in my mermaid outfit and sit and comb my hair on the rocks and sing,’ Meg said, looking very pleased at this idea.
‘It sounds too dangerous,’ Thomas said. ‘I don’t want him catching Meg too!’
‘We’ll have to have some kind of decoy,’ Tim said. ‘I wish we had another mer-boy’s tail.’ He could not help being envious of Ben.
‘I’ll call Delphina,’ Sechiel said. ‘I can swim out holding on to her fin.’
‘You’re still too badly hurt,’ Meg said. ‘You’ll never be able to hold on.’
‘What about me?’ Tim said hopefully. ‘Couldn’t I swim out with her? If you explained I was a friend?’
Sechiel nodded his head reluctantly. ‘I suppose that’d be all right.’
‘Fantastic!’ Tim did a dance of joy.
‘That shark’s awfully fast, Tim,’ Ben said. ‘We don’t want him catching you. I think we need two decoys, moving back and forth, so the shark gets confused and doesn’t know which way to go.’
‘I guess that’d better be me!’ Thomas cried.
‘We need you here on the shore to help Meg throw the net over the Viperfish,’ Ben said. ‘It’s heavy – it’ll take at least two of you to lift it.’
‘Yes, we need someone big and strong and hairy!’ Thomas flexed his muscles.
‘But what about the second decoy?’ Meg asked.
‘I’ve got an idea for that,’ Ben grinned. ‘Give me your mermaid doll!’
‘What for?’ she demanded.
Ben chuckled. ‘You don’t really want to know.’
A few minutes later, Meg hobbled out from behind a boulder wearing her mermaid dress. The boys hoisted her up onto Lookout Rock, where she sat with her glittery green tail spread over the stone, combing her short blonde hair and humming out of tune. The others hid and watched.
The submarine’s black watchtower slowly emerged from the sea, water cascading away. Slowly, slowly, it rose, then a trapdoor opened and a man dressed in a black wetsuit clambered out. He stood staring at Lookout Rock, binoculars held to his eyes. Meg tossed her blonde hair and sang a little louder.
‘Right, he’s taken the bait.’ Ben slid down into the witch’s cauldron. The tide was rising and so it felt rather like being thrust into a washing machine. Frothy water churned all round him and he bobbed up and down, trying not to get knocked against the rock walls. ‘Wish me luck!’
‘Be careful!’ Tim cried as Ben dived down into the deep, black, churning water of the witch’s cauldron and disappeared.
‘I’ll call Delphina now.’ Sechiel drew a small triton shell out of his seaweed pouch and put it to his lips. He blew and a high, mournful, eerie noise rang out. Again and again he blew. Cramming a handful of sea-grapes into his mouth, Tim scanned the waves, being careful to keep out of sight of the Viperfish, who was busy strapping on some kind of heavy backpack. After a few minutes, Tim cried out in delight. A beautiful, sleek, grey dolphin was leaping and cavorting in the waves.
The dolphin made a series of high-pitched squeaks and whistles and slapped her tail joyously on the water, sending up a white spray of foam. To Tim’s joy, he could understand every word. She was saying: ‘So you want a ride, landlubber?’
‘Yes, please!’ Tim slid into the sea and tentatively gripped Delphina’s dorsal fin.
‘Better hold on tight!’ the dolphin cried.
Tim gasped as Delphina raced through the waves. White foam gushed against his face. The dolphin swerved and leapt, and Tim laughed out loud.
CHAPTER TEN
Ben swam very slowly up to the dark belly of the submarine. Despite all his care, the robot shark sensed his motion and turned and swam ponderously towards him, its eyes glowing electric blue. Ben’s heart slammed hard against his ribs, but he forced himself to float motionless in the water, hidden in the shadow of the submarine. The robot shark paused, confused. It was so close Ben could have reached out and put his hand between its gleaming rows of teeth, but of course he didn’t. He tried to pretend he was just some sea wrack, floating in the water.
Suddenly the Viperfish jumped backwards into the water, only metres away from where Ben was floating. The contraption he wore on his back shot out long bursts of flame, and the scuba diver shot forward at incredible speed. Ben was so startled he could not help jerking away. At once the shark surged towards him. Ben did a quick feint, left, right, left, then ducked under the submarine’s fin. He heard the clang as the shark’s head crashed into the submarine’s hull and grinned to himself, rather shakily. Once again he forced himself to stay still, though it was very hard not to thrash about in panic with the enormous robot shark swimming back and forth, back and forth, right underneath him.
Just when Ben thought he could not bear the suspense any longer, the dolphin came plunging through the waves, Tim clinging to her back. At once the shark turned and roared towards them at high speed. Delphina swerved and raced away, the shark right on her tail. Ben swam quickly to the surface and dragged himself out onto the deck of the submarine. He wriggled out of the mer-boy’s tail, then looked anxiously after Tim. He could see Delphina racing through the water, leaping and diving, with Tim crouched low on her back. The shark was right behind them, opening its steel jaws to seize the dolphin’s tail. The Viperfish, meanwhile, was shooting towards the shore at immense speed, propelled by what looked like rocket boosters strapped to his back. Ben anxiously waved at Thomas, crouched behind Lookout Rock.
Thomas waved back, then switched on his remote control. A tiny speedboat raced across the water, bouncing on top of the waves. Strapped onto it was Meg’s mermaid doll. With the sparkly green tail waving up and down, and the red hair streaming out behind, the doll did look remarkably like a fast and frenzied mermaid. Every time the boat hit a wave, it jerked the belt about the dolly’s waist so that she said, ‘Mummy, Mummy,’ over and over in a high, squeaky voice.
The shark turned at once and raced towards the remote-controlled mermaid, much to Tim’s relief. He brought Delphina around in a big swerve, and cut across the shark’s path just as it opened its jaws to swallow the little boat. Immediately the shark veered after Tim and the dolphin. Just as it seemed the shark would seize Delphina, the little mermaid-boat again scooted in front of its steel snout, bringing the robot shark around with a snap.
Thomas wrenched at the controls. The remote-controlled mermaid veered this way, then that way, put on an extra burst of speed, bounced off the crest of a wave and went flying into the mouth of the rock pools to beach safely on the sand. The shark, racing blindly after it, smashed headlong into the rocks. There was a loud bang, and the shark exploded into a ball of fire. A pair of shining steel jaws somersaulted one way, a triangular steel fin soared another way, and the rest just slid under the waves and disappeared.
Ben, meanwhile, had opened the hatch and climbed down into the submarine. It was dark and smelly down there, and giant tanks glowed greenly. Inside the tanks were hundreds of different types of animals – huge old turtles, writhing sea snakes, sea snails and seaslugs, splashing seals, thrashing dolphins and doe-eyed dugongs. In one tank sat a small, black-haired mermaid, crying sadly into her hands. Ben tapped on the glass and called softly, ‘Sami? I’ve come to rescue you.’
She looked up joyfully and pressed her face back against the glass. ‘Pull those levers over there. They open the tanks.’ Her words came oddly through the water.
‘OK.’ Ben hurried over and pushed the levers back, one by one. The bottom of all the tanks began flying open, and the sea creatures fell down into the ocean beneath. At once they shot away from the submarine, heading into deep water. The snakes undulated like stripy ribbons, the turtles stretched out their long leathery necks and beat their great flippers, and the seals and dolphins arrowed away in silver bursts of bubbles. Samandriel fell down with a splash, waved her hand at Ben in pure delight and swam swiftly away, hair floating out behind her like a mass of dark seaweed.
Ben pushed quite a few more buttons and lev
ers. An alarm began to ring and a warning siren rang out. Ben grinned as water began gushing in from all sides. He dragged on his scaly skin and dived into one of the tanks. With a quick flick of his tail, he was gone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
While Ben had been sinking the submarine, Tim was racing for his life.
The explosion of the robot shark had brought the black-clad scuba diver to an abrupt halt. He stared blankly at the billows of black smoke, then spun round, looking for the culprit. As soon as he saw Tim, crouched on the dolphin’s sleek back, he dragged out a spear gun and set off in grim pursuit, flames shooting out behind him.
Delphina dived, swerved, plunged and leapt, swift as any bird. Tim was almost thrown off a thousand times. He hung on desperately, head down against the lashing spray. Whenever he risked a look over his shoulder the Viperfish was just behind him, flying through the waves, his face covered by the menacing black mask.
Tim was beginning to feel tired. He did not know how much longer he could hang on. Delphina was slowing down too. Her dives were less dramatic, her leaps more lethargic. The Viperfish, though, kept powering along smoothly on his rocket boosters.
Tim remembered the witch’s cauldron. He whistled to Delphina, who veered round and leapt right over the head of the surprised and chagrined Viperfish, who lost precious seconds wheeling round and re-starting his rocket boosters.
The headland came closer, glowing golden in a sudden ray of sun. Tim risked a look behind. The Viperfish was so close Tim could see his bristly chin and his sneer of triumph. He shot his spear gun at Tim, but Delphina dived deep between the waves. Rocks loomed up out of the dark, swirling water. Tim slipped off Delphina’s back and groped forward till he found the mouth of the tunnel that led up to the witch’s cauldron. Delphina nudged him with her nose, whistled farewell, then swam rapidly away.
Tim wriggled his way up, glad of the mer-magic that allowed him to breathe underwater for so long. It was hard work. The water sucked in and out of the tunnel at a great pace, dragging him back, then forcing him up. He banged his head and scraped his shoulders and knees countless times. At last, though, he crept out of the witch’s cauldron and clung, trembling with exhaustion, on its stone lip.
‘Yoo-hoo! Yoo-hoo!’ Meg was calling. ‘Up here!’
The Viperfish had been searching for Tim in the water. At the sound of Meg’s voice, he spun round and looked up. He saw Tim scrambling up the crag and Meg waving her hand. At once, the Viperfish zoomed forward, leaving a white V-shaped wake streaming behind him. He reached the rocks and clambered out, dumping his rocket boosters so he could climb more quickly. Soon he was climbing up the rock face like a rubbery black spider. Tim dug his fingers and bare toes into tiny crevices and cracks, hauling himself up, panting with the effort. He reached the top of the crag and crouched beside Meg, his ribs hurting with every breath. The scuba diver’s sinister black head appeared over the rock’s edge. He clambered over, dragging off his mask and breathing apparatus, showing a rough, grey-bristled face and narrow, sneering eyes.
‘What’s this? A couple of kids? You must be joking!’ He started towards them furiously, only to lurch forward and fall heavily to the ground. He had been tripped by a piece of fishing line that Meg had tied to a protruding chunk of rock, holding the other end in her hand so she could jerk it up just as he came close.
Thomas leapt out from his hiding place, flinging the fishing net over the Viperfish, its edges weighted down with rocks. Jessie leapt around, barking at the top of her voice, then pounced on the man, snarling and pretending to bite him through the net. Meg, Thomas, Sechiel and Tim jumped on him too, holding him down. It was rather like being on an exciting ride at a funfair, for as the Viperfish struggled to rise he tipped the children up and down and from side to side.
‘What do we do now?’ Tim puffed.
‘Meg!’ Thomas panted. ‘Run home, quick! Call the police! I bet you anything you like he’s a wanted man!’
CHAPTER TWELVE
The police were very glad indeed to catch the Viperfish, who had been trapping sea creatures up and down the coast for weeks, preparing to smuggle them out to amusement parks and private collectors for huge sums of money.
The children were praised lavishly by the police, much to the bemusement of their mothers, who had thought the children had gone out for a spot of quiet fishing.
‘I didn’t expect you to catch a clown fish, let alone a hardened criminal,’ Mum said, shaking her head. ‘That’s the last time I let you lot out of my sight!’
‘Oh, but Mum, we have to go back to the lagoon this afternoon!’ Ben protested. ‘The mer-people are throwing us a party.’
‘To thank us for saving them,’ Tim added.
‘Oh, well, I guess we really can’t ground the heroes of the day, can we?’ Mum said, and in an undertone to Aunty Vic, ‘Don’t you just love children’s imaginations?’
Once again Meg delayed them all trying to decide what to wear. ‘Why, oh why didn’t I bring my fairy princess ballgown?’ she lamented.
‘I guess you thought the beach was not really the place for a ballgown,’ Thomas said in exasperation.
‘You don’t need any clothes,’ Ben said. ‘Sechiel said he would borrow some tails from his friends, so we can swim just as well as he and Sami.’
Meg’s face lit up. ‘A real mermaid tail? Really?’
Ben nodded. ‘But only if we get there on time. If we don’t get a move along, they might give up and go to the underwater castle without us.’
For the first time in her life, Meg was the first one out the door.
Sechiel and Samandriel were waiting for them at Mermaid Rocks, with two mer-boys and two mermaids happy to give up their tails for a couple of hours. Even Jessie got to go to the party, for Sechiel fed her some magical sea-grapes wrapped in fish so she could breathe underwater too. She did not like it much at first, as she kept trying to bark underwater and could not understand why the only sound she could make was ‘glub, glub, glub’. It was better than being left tied up on the shore, however, and she was soon very happy chasing fish around.
Swift and supple as seals, the six children swam along the undulating white sands, chasing each other through deep, shadowy-blue grottos and in and out of coral gardens, where the fish darted like tiny, jewel-coloured birds and the swaying flowers groped soft fingers in search of food. Deeper and deeper they swam, the shining, rippling sky fading above them till the water around them was the colour of amethysts.
Perched on the edge of a fathomless abyss was a gleaming palace of coral, raising arches and towers and pinnacles in magnificent shades of cream and rose and crimson and amber. Mer-people swam everywhere, their frilled tails glinting, their dark hair writhing about their smooth, scaly shoulders. At the sight of the four cousins, they blew horns and beat small drums of sharkskin, so that clouds of fish burst upwards like living fireworks. The children were enchanted.
The mer-king and mer-queen had organised a huge feast, though much to the children’s dismay the only food on offer was raw fish, seaweed soup, fish eggs and oysters. They had to work hard not to spit it out and say: ‘Disgusting!’
They enjoyed the rest of the party much more. There were dolphin rides, dancing, performances by mer-acrobats and mer-singers, and a fantastic game of hide-and-seek all through the towers, halls and caves of the coral palace. Brightly coloured fish flitted everywhere like amazing butterflies, and red and purple starfish decorated the walls and floors. Everywhere the coral lifted fragile arms like winter-bare trees, or bloomed like crimson and gold flowers.
At last, though, it was time to go home. They went to say farewell to the mer-king and mer-queen, who gave each of them a beautifully coiled triton shell on a red seaweed rope. ‘If you should ever need help in the kingdom of the sea, just call on the shell-horns and one of our people shall come,’ the king said.
They thanked him and took the shells in delight, then swam with Sechiel and Samandriel back to the rock pools. Although it w
as sad to take off the scaly mer-tails and give them back, it was also great to feel solid land beneath their feet and fresh air in their lungs.
‘Thank you so much,’ Sechiel said. ‘I could never have defeated the Viperfish without your help.’
‘Maybe we’ll see you again,’ Samandriel said.
‘We’ll come and wave at you next time you’re swimming in the rock pools,’ Sechiel said. ‘If there’s no-one around to see, we could even let you borrow our tails again.’
‘That’d be great,’ Ben said. ‘I do think you’re lucky!’
They watched the two mer-children dive under the waves and disappear, and then began to hurry home along the beach. ‘Still, I’m glad we’re not mer-boys,’ Thomas said. ‘I mean, it was great fun, but if we lived in the sea we couldn’t play computer games or watch TV.’
‘No chocolate,’ Ben said. ‘No books.’
‘No riding scooters, no skateboards . . .’ Tim said.
‘And that poor mermaid only had one thing to wear!’ Meg said, then looked round in surprise as the boys all roared with laughter.
MORE BESTSELLING FICTION
AVAILABLE FROM PAN MACMILLAN
Kate Forsyth
Illustrated by Mitch Vane
DRAGON GOLD
‘With these magic words, I begin my spell,
Hear me, first star, hear me well.
Send me dragon’s gold, from the days of old.
The spell has been cast, let the magic last.’
Ben wants to get a dog. Badly. But his mum says they’ll have to move to a bigger house first, and they can’t afford it. So Ben and his brother Tim, and their friend James, decide to find some dragon’s gold. They have to meddle with magic to do it, though, and that is always dangerous.