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- Herausgeber: Nosy Crow Ltd
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Serie: Mermaid Academy
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
Mermazing action-packed underwater adventures for young readers. Beautifully illustrated throughout and with a glittery cover! From the authors and illustrator of the bestselling Unicorn Academy series. Hidden deep beneath the waves is Mermaid Academy, a magical school where mermaids are paired with their very own dolphin and must discover their unique mermaid magic, with plenty of adventure along the way! Millie loves solving mysteries! So when the magical Sea Sphinx sets her a difficult riddle, Millie can't wait to get started. But when her puzzle solving leads her straight into a Mal Mer trap, she needs Storm and her friends to dive to the rescue! Mermaid Academy is the perfect series for 7+ readers who love magic and adventure. Look out for more titles! Isla and Bubble, Cora and Sparkle and Maya and Rainbow, Amber and Flash
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Millie’s tail tingled as it always did when she sensed a mystery. Straining her ears, she caught a snatch of Moon Pearl’s whispered conversation:
“Glowing green eyes … mind control … an icy cramp in my tail … the Mal Mer…”
Millie gasped.
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To the very swishy Fiona Scoble and Halimah Manan who love swimming with mermaids and dolphins as much as we do!
J.S. and L.C.
To Sidney and Stella, I hope you enjoy the magic! Sending you lots of love xx
L.T.
Chapter One
On the fin-ball pitch at Mermaid Academy, Millie and her dolphin, Storm, faced Nimesh and his dolphin, Swift.
“Normal rules?” asked Nimesh. “No magic to be used in the game.”
Merfolk used mer-magic to make bubble tunnels to travel places and to pull green mermaid fire from the seabed, but they each also had their own special magic that they usually discovered while they were at the academy.
Millie, who was always captain for Lilac Star dorm, nodded. Neither she nor Harper, Aurora 2and Lyla – the other first-year mermaids in her dorm – had discovered their special magic yet, although they were all very keen to find out! “Normal rules,” she agreed.
The game began and the ball was soon whizzing up and down the pitch. Millie passed it to Lyla but she dithered about who to send it to and Nimesh got it back. He shot it towards Seb, but Harper got it first.
“Here, Harper!” whistled Splash, her dolphin. Harper whacked the ball with her tail. It was a good shot. The ball whizzed straight to Splash and he flicked it into the goal with his nose.
“One-nil to Lilac Star!” cheered Harper. She flung the ball straight back into play but her throw was too reckless and Obasi intercepted it. He and his dolphin raced down the pitch, passing it between them. Millie saw Seb waiting and zoomed over. Storm raced ahead of her just as 3Nimesh shot the ball hard in Seb’s direction.
“No!” cried Millie. The ball was heading for Storm at top speed! She dived forward, knocking Seb out of the way, and bashed it with a fist.
Storm whistled in surprise.
“Penalty!” yelled all four boys.
4“Millie!” Harper shrieked. “What did you do that for?”
“The ball was going to hit Storm!” Millie exclaimed.
“So? We all get hit sometimes. That’s part of the game,” Harper said crossly.
“But it would have hurt,” Millie protested.
Harper put her hands on her hips. “Storm may be the smallest of the first-year dolphins but he’s not a baby!”
Millie frowned as Harper grabbed Splash’s fin and they swam off.
“Ignore her, Millie.” Storm nudged her hand. “I would have been OK but thanks for looking out for me.”
“You’re my dolphin. It’s my job to protect you,” Millie said, hugging him.
She and Storm had paired up the day after they’d arrived at Mermaid Academy a few months ago. 5Just like all the other dolphin and student partners, they were learning how to work together so that they could become guardians of their underwater world when they graduated from the academy.
Suddenly the boys cheered. Looking round, Millie realised that Nimesh had just scored.
“One-all!” Nimesh cried. Arlo grabbed the ball. “Back in play,” he called, throwing it to Obasi, who raced down the pitch and scored a second goal before the girls had realised what was happening.
“Two-one to us!” whooped Seb, as the boys and their dolphins high-finned.
Millie slapped her tail against the seabed in frustration. A small cloud of black ink puffed up. She stared at it in surprise. 6
Had she just done that? Curious, she hit the seabed with her tail again but nothing happened.
“Millie! What are you doing?” called Storm, who had raced back into the game. “Come on!”
“Coming!” Millie shouted, charging towards Obasi. She intercepted the ball and sent it to Aurora, who flicked it to Harper, who headed the ball into the net.
“Two-all!” Harper whooped, grabbing Millie’s hands and swinging her round, their argument forgotten.
The game continued until they heard a long note blown on a conch shell. It was the end of lunch break. “Six-all!” said Millie.
“Well played, everyone!” called Nimesh.
The two dorms high-fived each other.
“We’d better get a swish on! We don’t want to be late for afternoon lessons,” said Seb.
Millie glanced at Harper, who had shorter tail 7flukes than the rest of them and couldn’t swim as fast. “Why don’t we link up with our dolphins?” she suggested.
When a dolphin and their mer-partner linked their magic, it meant they could both swim extra fast. Everyone nodded, and as Millie’s fingers closed around Storm’s fin she felt a sparkling buzz of power.
“Let’s go!” Harper cried.
They zoomed through the grounds, whizzing through clouds of tiny rainbow fish, dodging turtles and swerving around sea fans until they reached the school’s main buildings. They swam through a pink arch into the main courtyard called The Singing Circle. Lots of other students were lazily swimming around or sitting on the stone benches together.
As Millie and her friends swam by the giant golden harp in the centre of the courtyard, Millie saw the Moon Pearl dorm mermaids – Isla, Cora, Amber and Maya – sitting on a bench, talking in low voices. 8Curiosity prickled through her. A few days ago there had been a camping trip to the fjords, and ever since then Moon Pearl had been whispering together a lot. Millie’s tail tingled as it always did when she sensed a mystery. Letting go of Storm and leaving her friends, she dropped to the seabed and pretended to look at a giant sea anemone. Straining her ears, she caught a snatch of Moon Pearl’s whispered conversation:
“Glowing green eyes … mind control … an icy cramp in my tail … the Mal Mer…”
Millie gasped. The Mal Mer were a secretive clan of merfolk who didn’t mix with the other clans or send their students to Mermaid Academy. Their ocean – the Malmari Ocean – was a wasteland because they had taken everything that was beautiful from it to decorate their grand mansions. Why were Moon Pearl talking about them?
“We need proof!” Isla said. “Here’s what I think we should do…” 9
Millie was so intent on listening that she didn’t see a cuttlefish camouflaged against the seabed in front of her. He exploded from the sand, shooting up past her nose in a flurry of bubbles. Millie shrieked and the four Moon Pearl mermaids swung round.
“Millie!” exclaimed Amber. “What are you doing there?”
“Um, nothing,” said Millie. “I… I just wanted to look at this anemone.”
10Moon Pearl exchanged looks. Millie blushed, sure they suspected she’d been listening in.
The conch sounded again.
“We should get to class,” said Isla. “Ms Samphire hates it when we’re late.” Her dorm-mates nodded and they all swam away.
Millie wished she’d been able to hear what Isla had been about to say. What was the plan she’d started to talk about? Slapping her tail down in exasperation, she squeaked in shock as a huge cloud of black ink burst from its end.
Storm, who had been playing with the other dolphins, came racing back. “What just happened, Millie?” he whistled.
Millie stared at the cloud of ink, excitement rushing from the tip of her tail to the ends of her hair. “I think I just found my magic!” she exclaimed.
