Not Quite a Mermaid: Mermaid Fire Read online

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Not Quite a Mermaid

  MERMAID FIRE

  Linda Chapman lives in Leicestershire with her family and two Bernese mountain dogs. When she is not writing she spends her time looking after her two young daughters, horse riding and teaching drama.

  Books by Linda Chapman

  MY SECRET UNICORN series

  NOT QUITE A MERMAID series

  STARDUST series

  BRIGHT LIGHTS

  CENTRE STAGE

  Not Quite a Mermaid

  MERMAID FIRE

  LINDA CHAPMAN

  Illustrated by Dawn Apperley

  PUFFIN

  To Charlotte and Beatrix Ambery and Lucy Proudman for playing mermaids one Easter holiday and giving me the idea about Electra in the first place

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  www.penguin.com

  First published 2005

  8

  Text copyright © Linda Chapman, 2005

  Illustrations copyright © Dawn Apperley, 2005

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978-0-14-192743-5

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter One

  ‘I want to do something exciting,’ Electra the mermaid declared. She looked at the nearby rock that jutted out of the bright blue sea. ‘I know! I’m going to dive off Turtle Rock and see if I can swim all the way down to the seabed.’

  Sam and Sasha, the mer-twins, stared at her. They lived in the next-door cave to Electra and the three of them often played together.

  ‘You mustn’t!’ Sasha exclaimed, swishing her long silver tail. ‘The sea’s really deep round Turtle Rock.’

  ‘I’ll be OK,’ Electra replied.

  ‘But you don’t know what will be

  down there,’ Sam protested. ‘There might be all sorts of dangerous sea creatures. No one ever dives down that far, Electra.’

  ‘That’s why it will be exciting.’ Electra grinned.

  She saw the confusion on the twins’ faces and sighed. Sam and Sasha just didn’t understand. Like all the other merchildren who lived in the sea round Mermaid Island, the twins never wanted to do anything daring. They were quite happy just swimming in the shallows and playing on the coral reef that encircled the island. Even the adult merpeople liked staying safe and keeping out of trouble. But Electra was different. She longed for adventure.

  She looked over to where a young dolphin was bobbing up and down in the sea. ‘Are you coming with me, Splash?’ she called.

  Splash dived under the water and surfaced beside her. ‘Of course I am!’

  Splash’s parents had died and now he lived with Electra and her mum, Maris. He was Electra’s best friend and he loved having adventures just as much as she did.

  ‘Come on then,’ she said to him. And ignoring the twins’ worried faces, she swam over to Turtle Rock. As she pulled herself out of the water, her feet slipped slightly on the damp stone. While all the other merpeople who lived on the coral reef had long silvery tails, Electra had two legs. It was because she hadn’t been born a mermaid; she had been born a human.

  One night, eight years ago, there

  had been a terrible storm. After it had finally passed, the merpeople saw a battered boat floating out in the deep sea. Everyone thought that the boat was empty, but then Maris heard a strange noise and swam over to investigate. She found Electra inside the boat. At the time, Electra had been just a tiny baby. The merpeople had rescued her and brought her up as a mermaid, giving her magic sea powder so she could breathe underwater. Maris had adopted her and become her mum. Now, Electra couldn’t imagine being anything but a mermaid. She couldn’t swim as fast as the other mermaids, but otherwise she did everything they did. Well, apart from being good and doing as she was told, of course. But then, being sensible was just so boring!

  Taking a deep breath, Electra dived into the turquoise water.

  Down she went, the water blurring around her in a stream of green and blue. Feeling herself slow down, she kicked with her feet. She wasn’t going to stop until she reached the very bottom. Glancing to one side, she saw Splash beside her.

  They reached the seabed. Shoals of orange and blue fish swam past them. Brightly coloured sea cucumbers clung to rocks and clusters of rose coral grew in the sand. Even though this was one of the deepest points in the sea round Mermaid Island, the water was still shallow enough for sunlight to filter through. Swimming in the warm water, Electra felt disappointed. Everything looked

  pretty much the same as it did on the coral reef. The most exciting thing was a giant clam wedged between two rocks, its blue mouth snapping shut as they swam past.

  She turned to Splash. ‘There’s nothing very scary down here.’

  ‘I guess it’s just not deep enough,’ Splash replied. ‘It would be different if we were swimming outside the reef.’

  ‘Maybe tomorrow we’ll get a chance to dive really deep,’ Electra said hopefully. A shiver of excitement ran through her. The very next day at school, her class was going to have their first lesson in collecting mermaid fire – a magic underwater fire that came from the coral reef and the seabed. The merpeople used it for cooking and heating things up. Electra couldn’t wait to learn how to

  collect it, particularly because this meant going out into the deep sea beyond the safety of the coral reef.

  ‘Yes, tomorrow we’ll be able to swim out and dive really far down,’ Splash said eagerly.

  Electra nodded, her eyes shining at the thought. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing to see here. Let’s go back to the others.’

  ‘Electra! Splash!’ Sam exclaimed anxiously as they swam up to the surface. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Of course,’ Electra replied, pushing her long red hair back from her face.

  ‘Did you see anything exciting down there?’ Sasha asked, her eyes wide.

  Electra sighed. ‘No. There was just the usual sort of thing: fish, seaweed and coral. But tomorrow’s going to be different
. I’m going to dive really deep then.’

  Sasha shivered. ‘You’re mad. I’m going to stay as close to the reef as possible. What if some sharks come again?’

  The last time Electra had been out into the deep sea, Sam and Sasha had gone too, and sharks had almost eaten all of them.

  ‘The teachers are going to watch out for any sharks,’ Electra said. ‘We’ll be fine. Collecting mermaid fire is going to be so exciting.’

  ‘I bet you’ll be really good at it, Electra,’ Sam said. ‘Mum told me that the deeper you dive, the more you get.’

  Electra nodded excitedly. She had heard that too and she was already determined that she was going to be the one to collect the most fire the next day.

  Just then, there was a shout. ‘Sam! Sasha!’ It was the twins’ dad, Ronan, calling to them from near the coral reef. ‘Supper time!’

  ‘Coming, Dad!’ the twins called back.

  Electra glanced at the sun. It was starting to sink towards the sea, turning the sky purple and pink. ‘We’d better get going too,’ she said to Splash. ‘Mum will be cross if we’re late.’ She turned to the others. ‘See you tomorrow at school.’

  ‘Yeah, see you,’ they called.

  Electra and Splash set off through the water. ‘I think tomorrow’s going to be fun,’ Splash said to Electra.

  She grinned at him. ‘I bet it is!’ she replied.

  Chapter Two

  ‘Now, promise me you’ll be good,’ Maris said the following morning as Electra picked up her school bag and swam to the cave entrance with Splash.

  Electra grinned. ‘I’m always good!’

  Maris raised her eyebrows. ‘Hmmm.’

  ‘I’ll be careful, Mum,’ Electra said. ‘Don’t worry!’ She and Splash swam out of the cave.

  Electra’s school was halfway up the reef. Stony coral formed benches and tables where the mergirls and merboys sat for their lessons.

  ‘I’ll stay over here till you go out to find some mermaid fire,’ Splash said to Electra as they neared the school. Solon, Electra’s teacher, didn’t like pets coming to school. None of Electra’s friends had a dolphin as a pet but plenty had sea horses and sea slugs, and Solon got very cross when they brought them to class. ‘I’ll jump out over the coral reef to join you when you swim into the deep sea,’ Splash said.

  Electra nodded. ‘OK. I’ll see you later.’ She gave him a hug and then swam over to join her friends.

  The morning seemed to drag by. Electra just couldn’t concentrate on adding up cowrie shells and braiding seaweed into necklaces. All she could think about was getting out into the deep sea and learning how to collect

  mermaid fire.

  When Solon eventually led them out through the white gate in the coral reef, Electra couldn’t wait to get started. She plunged eagerly through the gate and out into the deep sea.

  ‘It feels really weird to be out here,’ Sam said, looking around.

  Sasha shivered. ‘I don’t like it. It’s too big.’

  ‘How can you not like it? Electra exclaimed. ‘It’s amazing!’ Excitement raced through her. Everything seemed so vast and huge outside the reef.

  Just then, a grey shape came leaping over the reef.

  ‘Splash!’ Electra said in delight. She swam over to where Splash had dived into the water.

  ‘Hi,’ he said, bobbing up beside her.

  Nearby, four older mermaids were

  conducting a survey on jellyfish. They looked about ten years old. They glanced at Electra and her friends.

  ‘Ah, look, it’s the Year Fours,’ one of the mermaids said. She had long blonde hair tied back in a thick plait. ‘I bet it’s their first time out in the deep sea.’ She grinned at her friends. ‘They’re so little. Don’t they look sweet?’

  One of the other mermaids laughed. She had long brown hair tied back in an almost identical plait. ‘And scared. I bet they’re dreading diving into the sea.’

  Electra frowned. She didn’t like being called little and sweet and she certainly wasn’t scared.

  Sam swam over and pulled her arm. ‘Come on, Electra,’ he said, looking around. ‘Solon’s calling everyone together.’

  He and Sasha started to swim over to where the class was gathering. But Electra stayed where she was. She glared at the older mermaids. ‘I’m not scared!’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ The first mermaid laughed.

  ‘I’m not!’ Electra said hotly. ‘I like diving. In fact, I bet I can dive as deep as any of you!’

  ‘As if,’ said the mermaid with brown hair. ‘We’re the best divers in our year. We’ve dived almost all the way to the seabed. And it’s really scary down there.’

  ‘Well, I could dive that far too!’ Electra said indignantly.

  ‘Electra!’

  Hearing her teacher’s sharp voice, Electra swung round.

  Solon was swimming towards her, his face angry. ‘I’ve called you three times. Now, will you please come over and join the others!’

  Electra glanced towards where the rest of her class were gathered in obedient rows and felt her face going pink. She’d been so busy arguing with the older mermaids that she hadn’t even heard Solon calling her.

  ‘Honestly, Electra!’ Solon said crossly as they swam to join the others. ‘We haven’t even started collecting fire and already you’re not paying attention. I’ve a good mind to send you back to the reef.’

  Electra looked at him in alarm. ‘I’ll be good. I promise!’ She couldn’t bear the thought of being sent back.

  ‘All right,’ Solon said. ‘But you must concentrate.’

  Electra quickly swam over to join Sam and Sasha.

  ‘Where’s Splash?’ Sam whispered.

  Electra looked around. ‘I don’t know,’ she replied in a low voice. ‘Keeping out of Solon’s way, I hope.’

  ‘OK, Class Four, listen carefully,’ Solon began. ‘As you know, today you’re going to learn how to collect mermaid fire. It can only be collected by touching your hands to either coral or rocks on the seabed, and saying these magic words.’ He held out his hands. ‘From the deep of the sea,’ he said, his voice rising commandingly, ‘mermaid fire come to me!’

  Just then, a grey head popped out of the water beside him. Solon spluttered in surprise. The class giggled.

  ‘Splash!’ Electra exclaimed.

  Splash clicked his tongue and looked at her happily.

  Solon looked furious. ‘Electra!’ he bellowed. ‘Get that dolphin out of here!’

  Electra called Splash over. Realizing he had got her into trouble, Splash looked upset. ‘I’m sorry, Electra,’ he said as they swam over to the gate. ‘I didn’t realize I was going to come up right beside Solon.’

  ‘It’s OK.’ Electra sighed. ‘But you’d better go home. Solon’s really mad.’

  ‘I don’t want to go home,’ Splash protested.

  ‘I know,’ Electra said, feeling mean. ‘But you can’t stay around here. Solon will send me home if he sees you again.’

  ‘OK,’ Splash agreed. ‘I’ll see you later then.’ Electra nodded and swam back to the others. They had all started to practise the magic spell. She quickly joined in. The words were very easy to remember.

  ‘Very good, everyone,’ Solon said, after they had been practising for a while. ‘I think you’re ready to have a go at collecting fire. Just dive down, put your hands on the reef and say the magic words.’

  Electra dived eagerly into the sea and swam to a piece of the reef. She put her hand on the hard stony coral. This was it. Her first chance to collect mermaid fire! She took a deep breath.

  ‘From the deep of the sea, mermaid fire come to me!’ she exclaimed.

  She gasped. Her hands suddenly felt warm and tingling. The feeling spread up her arms and then a spark of green fire flowed out of the rock. She caught it in the palms of her hands and it formed into a glowing ball about the size of her thumbnail.

  She swam to the surface. ‘I’ve got some! I’ve got some!’

 
; All around her, other people in her class were surfacing too, their hands outstretched, all holding tiny green balls. Electra felt a flash of disappointment. She’d thought that she was going to be the only person to have collected some, but everyone had managed it and some people had got even more than her.

  ‘Well done, everyone. Bring the fire over here,’ Solon instructed, holding out an empty conch shell for the fire to be put into. ‘And then try again, and

  see if you can get a bit more. Remember the deeper you go, the more fire you will collect.’

  Electra swam over with the others and put her fire in the conch shell. Her friends all headed back to the reef but she hesitated. She didn’t want to get just a tiny bit again. She wanted to get

  a great big ball of fire. She glanced away from the reef, an idea coming into her mind.

  If she swam right out, she could dive down and collect fire there. She would be bound to get loads more than anyone else if she went all the way down to the seabed. She imagined herself coming up with a huge ball of fire. She could almost see the amazement on Solon’s face and hear his words of praise.

  She made up her mind. I’ll do it! she thought.

  She plunged under the water and began swimming away from the others. She didn’t stop until she was sure she was far out. She surfaced and looked back. The reef, Solon and the others seemed a long way away.

  Here goes, Electra decided, with a shiver of excitement. She dived down. At first the sea was clear and warm, but as she went deeper and deeper, the water got darker and colder.

  Where’s the bottom? Electra thought, straining her eyes through the gloom. She swallowed, feeling a sudden shiver of something very like fear. She’d never been so deep before. She wondered if she were in the twilight zone. Maris had told her about the twilight zone. It was where the water was so deep that the sunlight couldn’t reach down through it. Maris had said that most merpeople avoided the twilight zone. Stories about the strange creatures that were supposed

  to lurk on the seabed there flashed into Electra’s mind – gulper eels with huge mouths, viperfish with long sharp teeth, giant squid with trailing poisonous tentacles. She peered downwards. Beneath her, things were moving - large shadowy shapes…