Free Magnus Fin and the Ocean Quest by Janis Mackay Page A

seemed to slip away in this dim watery world.
    Magnus Fin let this beautiful snowy-haired sea maiden guide him. She wore a necklace of cowrie shells, a skirt of seaweed fronds and around her waist a belt of amber. As she swam her thick white hair billowed around her like a bridal gown. Magnus gaped in amazement as his grandmother guided him down through the ocean, parting waving seaweed fronds to take them through a dark kelp forest. Then on they swam through coral valleys where shoals of small darting fish brushed against his feet.
    Magnus Fin shivered, especially when a pulsating pink jellyfish stretched out its long tentacles and tickled his face. “He’s just curious!” Miranda laughed, but never slowed down for rest. She pointed to the ocean floor, carpeted with writhing brittle stars. Magnus Fin couldn’t waitto tell Tarkin. But there was no time to stare. On and on they travelled, Miranda swimming and Magnus Fin being propelled through the water beside her, holding fast to her hand and kicking away for all he was worth. With his other hand he made round swimming gestures. Never had he swum so fast.
    They had left the sun-filtered water behind and as they swam deeper the water darkened. Now, for the first time in his life, the blue pupils in his eyes did what they were made to do. They were like tiny strong torches that sent out beams of light through the dark water. Magnus Fin could see into caverns of swaying coral. He could see ghostly wrecks of fishing boats and sunken warships, some upside down, some broken in two. Here were rusting navies and rotting anchors
    They swam over vast desert wastes of rippling sand. Magnus Fin stretched out his arm then recoiled quickly when he spotted a grotesque fish coming towards him. It was an anglerfish with its mouth gaping wide. Magnus tried to scream but only a bubbling noise sounded in the silent world. Miranda tugged him to safety and gently ruffled his wet black hair.
    They could have been travelling like this for a long time or a short time when Miranda slowed her pace and gathered Magnus Fin into her arms. Ahead of them was a dark archway, hung limply with yellow seaweed.
    “Through here,” she said, lifting her slender arm and indicating towards the archway, “is where your father was born.” Under the archway,like a barricade, was a rusty iron gate that looked as if it had been taken from a sunken ship. “We didn’t always have a gate,” she said sadly as she pushed the rusting bars aside. “Come, son of Ragnor, welcome to the Emerald Valley of the seal people, the home we call Sule Skerrie.” The gate clunked behind them.
    This floating dark world is where Dad is from? Magnus wondered, glancing around at the huge fronds of seaweed waving like dancers on either side of the cavern. The words of his father’s song – I’ll see no more my Sule Skerrie – haunted him. So he was here. In the place his father would see no more. His dear Sule Skerrie.
    The thought that on land had seemed so unbelievable now seemed to him a fairly ordinary thought. Many boys visited the site of their father’s birth. Magnus Fin was simply doing what many had done before him – the only difference was, this was under the sea.
    The entrance to the cavern was decorated with mixed pickings from the wrecks of ships. On rocky ledges Magnus noticed china ornaments, computers, cooking pans, a glass chandelier, a brass candlestick, a ship’s wheel, a wooden mermaid taken from the front of a boat and a dark green glass bottle. He stared at the bottle, a green glass bottle with a cork in it.
    “Yes,” said Miranda, noticing that Magnus Fin was staring at the odd collection of ornaments, especially the bottle. “We selkies love human things. And we love humans. Your father, after all, loves your mother.”
    Magnus Fin wanted to ask about the bottle. Was it his bottle? It looked like his bottle, but perhaps all dark green glass bottles look the same. But Miranda seemed to be in a hurry.