Rani’s Sea Spell Read Free Page B

delicious spread of mer-cakes and sea-trifles and ocean-fruits. The grown-up mermaids were drinking lots of mer-wine and
getting very merry indeed.
    “This is yummy. Not a bit of seaweed in sight!” laughed Kai, who was always being told off for not eating her greens.
    “And no stew either!” laughed Rani. Suddenly she spotted Flora across the other side of the room. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she told her sister.
    “Wait, Rani! Where’s your necklace?” asked Kai, seeing that it was gone from Rani’s neck.
    Rani looked down. “Oh, no! It must have fallen off.”
    At that moment, Rani was surrounded by a group of mermaids who demanded that she sing for them again. Rani protested that she had to find her necklace first, but the others were very excited and
wouldn’t take no for an answer.
    “Don’t be a spoilsport, Rani!” her grandmother called out from the other side of the room.
    Rani didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t tell her grandmother that she had lost the necklace, but how else could she explain that she didn’t want to sing without it?
    “I’ll look for it,” offered Kai. “Give them one song and then come and help me. Don’t worry. It’s got to be here somewhere . It must be.”
    Reluctantly, Rani agreed but as she took her place on the stage again, she had a horrible thought. What if it was the pendant that had given her the ability to sing before? What if now –
without it – she was just as hopeless as ever? Rani’s throat felt tight. Her stomach started to churn. She was sure that her voice would come out totally shaky and everyone would laugh
at her. She quickly mumbled something about a sore throat and left the stage.
    “I can’t sing without my pendant,” she told Kai.
    “Maybe it fell off when you went to get your food,” Kai said.
    They swam back over the top of the long table and looked in between all the dishes but they couldn’t see the necklace.
    Rani felt like crying.
    “Don’t worry. You can share my necklace,” Kai said, putting her arm round her sister. “Or maybe Grandma has another one you can have.”
    But Rani knew that the amber pendant was far too special to be replaced.
    “I’ve got to find it,” she told Kai.
    And together, the two sisters started to search again.

   Chapter Five   
    It was getting late and Rani was starting to feel sleepy. She still hadn’t found her pendant although she and Kai had searched the whole room. She kept checking to make
sure that the little shell containing the sea-spell was still fastened to her belt.
    Flora seemed to have disappeared from the party. Rani was just giving up all hope of speaking to her again when she heard an unmistakable jangling sound right behind her.
    “Flora,” Rani gasped. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
    “I’ve been avoiding Octavius,” Flora confided. “He’s just so bossy . It’s just as well I don’t live in Tingle Reef or he’d drive me
mad!”
    “He drives us mad too sometimes,” Rani grinned. “But we know he always means well!”
    The party had livened up even more since Octavius had suggested they dance a few reels. The mermaids were swishing their tails as fast as they could in time to the music as they held hands and
swung each other round. Octavius was dancing with eight mermaids at once and looking very pleased with himself.

    “It’s getting very noisy,” Flora said. “I hope we don’t upset our neighbours.”
    “What neighbours?” asked Rani.
    Suddenly, as if in answer to her question, an incredible bellow sounded.
    “Oh dear,” Flora said, looking out into the Deep Blue with a worried frown on her face.
    “What is it?” asked Rani anxiously.
    Flora pointed out into the dark water which had suddenly become very choppy, and Rani saw an enormous black-and-white whale charging towards them.
    “Whales have got very sensitive hearing,” Flora whispered. “She’s probably come to complain about the noise.”
    The furious