Authors: Gwyneth Rees
Rani’s Sea Spell
For Rani and Sunil
Contents 
Chapter One
Rani and her family were having breakfast. The water in their cave was lovely and warm because the hot-rock stove was on and Roscoe, Rani’s pet sea-horse, was floating
lazily next to it.
They all jumped as a huge fishy nose pushed itself through the seaweed-flap that covered the cave entrance.
“It’s Pat!” Rani and her sister, Kai, left their breakfast and swam over to greet the big grey dolphin who was now half in and half out of the cave. Pat brought them messages
from outside Tingle Reef.
“Is everything all right?” asked their mother, who was sitting on the seaweed mat feeding their baby sister, Pearl, with a tiny shell-spoon.
“Everything is fine,” Pat reassured her. “I’ve brought you an invitation. Your mother wants you all to visit them next week. They’re throwing a grand
party!”
Rani’s grandmother didn’t live in Tingle Reef. She lived inside a shipwreck in the Deep Blue. Rani’s mother had lived there when she was a child and had told them lots of
exciting stories about it.
“A party!” shouted Kai. “Oh, please can we go, Mother?”
Rani and Kai had never been to their grandmother’s home before. You had to swim far into the Deep Blue to get there and, until now, their parents had always said that they were too young
to make the trip.
“Well . . .” Miriam looked at her husband, clearly excited by the idea of the party as well. “What do you think, Murdoch?”
Their father looked thoughtful. “I think Kai and Rani probably
are
old enough to go this time, but we should get someone to look after Pearl.”
“
YES
!” shouted Rani and Kai together, clasping hands and swishing their tails in unison as they propelled themselves excitedly round the cave.
“Come in and have some breakfast with us, Pat,” Murdoch said, but the dolphin replied that he had several more messages to deliver.
“But I’ll tell them to expect you at the party!” he said, giving them his biggest dolphin grin as he backed out of the cave.
Rani couldn’t wait to tell her friend, Morva, about the party. Morva was known in Tingle Reef as the sea-witch because she was very old and wise and she could do magic.
Morva’s magic was always good – but some of the other mermaids were afraid of her. She lived in a special floating cave in the Deep Blue, just outside Tingle Reef, and Rani often went
to visit her there.
Rani and Morva weren’t like the other mermaids. Instead of having blonde hair and green tails like the others, they had red hair and orange tails. Morva’s hair was so long that it
touched the tip of her tail. And even though she was very old – almost ancient – Morva still looked young and beautiful.
There was a special reason why Rani was such a frequent visitor to Morva’s cave – a reason that most of the other mermaids didn’t know about. Rani had recently discovered that
she too had magic powers, and now Morva was teaching her how to make them stronger.
As Rani swam out through the Deep Blue towards Morva’s floating cave, all she could think about was the party and what she was going to wear. She had some special shell-combs which she
could put in her hair and some glitter-sand to make her hair sparkly . . .
Rani found the cave floating in its usual place, past the bushy sea-cactus with the blue flowers and straight up from the needle-shaped bush. She swam through the opening in the magic rock,
grabbed hold of the seaweed rope and hauled herself up the narrow vertical tunnel that led inside.
“Wow!” she gasped, as she entered Morva’s cave. The water inside the floating cave was usually crystal clear, but today Morva had changed the colour to pink with one of her
sea-spells.
Morva beckoned for Rani to come and join her. Although Morva’s face was young and beautiful, her eyes were old and wise. She was sitting on a rock with her long red hair billowing out
around her as she listened to two lobsters playing a duet on some shell-horns. When they had finished, Rani joined in Morva’s clapping.
“I taught them that melody myself,” Morva said. “Now, Rani . . . Let’s see what I can teach
you
today.”
Neither Morva or Rani had been born in Tingle Reef. Rani had been found as a baby and adopted by Miriam and Murdoch. They had found her inside a Giant Clam-Shell on the edge of the reef and
nobody knew how she had got there. Morva had come to Tingle Reef long before Rani’s parents – or even her grandparents – had been born. She came from a community of magic mermaids
who lived in a secret place far away and Morva had promised that one day she would take Rani there – but first Rani had to learn a lot more magic.
Before Rani had time to tell her about the party, Morva was swimming about the cave looking for something. “We need something to mend. Aah! This will do.” She lifted up a delicate
shell-dish and banged it against the cave wall so that it broke into several pieces. “Right,” said Morva briskly. “What have I told you about starting up magic?”
“You have to
think
it up inside your head,” said Rani, as she desperately tried to stop thinking about glitter-sand and shell-combs.
“Exactly. Which means you have to concentrate very hard indeed, so close your eyes . . .”
Rani closed her eyes and tried to focus on the mending spell but all she could think about was her grandmother’s party.
Morva peered at her more closely. “You’re very excited about something. What is it?”
And at last Rani was able to tell her about the dolphin’s visit that morning.
“Well, that
is
exciting,” replied Morva. “Now let me think . . .” She looked thoughtful. “I know! I will give you a special sea-spell to take with you on
your journey.”
“What sort of spell?” asked Rani eagerly. “What does it do?”
“Before I tell you that,” Morva said, “I need to be sure that you can concentrate hard enough to make the spell work.”
“Of course I can!” Rani burst out. To prove it, she closed her eyes and started to concentrate again on the mending spell, picturing the broken pieces of shell-dish coming back
together again. She could feel a tingling sensation starting up in her belly button and spreading upwards. Soon her fingertips felt warm. She opened her eyes and saw that they were glowing. Slowly,
she spread out her fingers above the broken pieces of shell.