Magnus Fin and the Moonlight Mission Read Online Free PDF Page A

his lip, “don’t try and swim after me. Please don’t do that. Do you promise?”
    Tarkin put his hand to his heart and solemnly promised. “Course not, buddy,” he said, winking. Then the two boys walked along the harbour road tothe bridge. Tarkin started chanting one of the Native American protection spells he had learned back home, and Magnus Fin hoped it really would protect him.
    “See ya soon,” Tarkin said when they parted at the bridge.
    Fin glanced at his watch then waved. The tide would be fully out in two and a half hours time. Walking back along the track to the cottage he felt dizzy with excitement. It had been dangerous the first time he had gone under the sea. He gulped remembering just how scary it had been. Fin felt the excitement tighten into fear. “You have to go,” he said to himself, “and it’ll be fine.” But he still felt anxious.
    So he thought of the three dead seals. He thought of the letters M F written on the rocks. He thought of his beautiful grandmother Miranda. He was being called, and he, Magnus Fin, would go.

Chapter 7
    At five o’clock Magnus Fin pulled on his wetsuit. Unusually the cottage down by the sea was empty. His mother worked in the jewellers in town. Perhaps, thought Magnus, she’d missed the bus. His father was still up at the farm bringing the cows in for the winter and the last of the hay inside. Aquella, whose music teacher had discovered she had a good singing voice and could play the clarsach, was at her band practice. In any case, Fin had decided it would be easier not to tell Aquella exactly when he was going. It was hard enough for her being a selkie with no seal skin, learning to be a land girl, sleeping in a bed and walking on pavements. She didn’t need more to worry about.
    So Fin was alone, and feeling more nervous by the minute. Dressed in his wetsuit he sat at the kitchen table and ate one of those pasta dinners you heat up and eat all by yourself. He wasn’t hungry, but it might be a long time before he would eat again, and the pasta would give him warmth and energy.
    He had tied his moon-stone to a new leather lace and it now hung around his neck. He glanced out of the window. In twenty minutes it would be low tide, and already it was dark. As he played with his food he spoke to himself, trying to pump himself up withcourage. “You’ll be fine, Magnus Fin. You’re half selkie, half human. You’re half child, half man. Sliochan Nan Ronnie or something like that – that’s you – special! Something’s up under the sea and you’re being called.”
    Suddenly from outside he heard three short whoops. That could only be Tarkin. Fin looked around the room, wishing he could find a sudden surge of excitement. The fire was out. The clock ticked loudly. Seconds dragged. Time, Fin knew, moved differently under the sea. A minute on land could feel like a day under the sea. How long, he wondered, would he be gone this time? Slowly Fin got up and with a sense of dread left the cottage and went out into the night.
    All the excitement was in Tarkin. “Wow! Cool wetsuit man. You look like a real diver.”
    Fin scowled. “I am.”
    “Well, let’s go, diver! We’ve got eleven minutes.” Tarkin was hopping from foot to foot.
    “We?”
    “OK, OK, you.”
    Tarkin had brought a torch, a blanket, a flask of hot chocolate, a thick towel, plus his pockets were stuffed with toffees. His enthusiasm was contagious and soon Magnus Fin’s gloomy mood lifted and he was jogging along beside Tarkin.
    “You think of everything, Tark,” Fin said, running in the path of light from Tarkin’s torch.
    “Yeah, I know. Oh, man, I am just so excited.”
    Magnus Fin was beginning to feel the same, but even so, as they clambered over the rocks Fin wished that he was the one holding the torch and Tarkin the one wearing the wetsuit. Why couldn’t it be him sitting onthe rock chanting protection spells and stuffing himself with toffee while Tarkin went under the