PUFFIN BOOKS
Read the other Secret Beast Club adventures!
tHe unicorns of silver street
tHe draGons of eMerald yard
PUFFIN
With special thanks to Rachael Davis
PUFFIN BOOKS
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First published 2024 001
Text copyright © Storymix Limited, 2024 Illustrations copyright © Jobe Anderson, 2024
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
Set in Dante MT Pro Text design by Nigel Baines Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.
The authorized representative in the EEA is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–0–241–57352–5
All correspondence to:
Pu n Books, Penguin Random House Children’s One Embassy Gardens, 8 Viaduct Gardens, London SW11 7BW
Penguin Random House is committed to a sustainable future for our business, our readers and our planet. This book is made from Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper.
To Zak J. S., nature explorer and bug hunter from the wilds of North Hampshire, who seeks out and protects secret beasts everywhere, and who found the courage to speak with his original voice through the power of stories.
Stop! Before you read this book, you must take the Secret Beast Club Oath:
I solemnly swear to protect magical creatures at all costs.
Do you swear?
(I can see if you’ve crossed your fingers behind your back – I am a ghost.)
1 PrOLOGue
Let me introduce myself: I am Pablo Fanque, the founder of the Secret Beast Club. For centuries, my descendants and I have guarded magical creatures that live in secret Bewilder Bubbles.
Maybe there’s a Bewilder Bubble near you right now. Bewilder Bubbles are rare and can only be seen by those with magic sight, and for good reason.
Living within them are some of the most precious creatures in existence. That’s right – I’m talking about unicorns, dragons and even . . . mer-people!
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What are these Bewilder Bubbles? I hear you ask. Well, you’ll have to come along with my latest recruits to find out for yourself. In short, they were created in ancient times. Mystical creatures gifted certain humans with magic sight, and together they made the Bewilder Bubbles, intending to shield those within a bubble from people from the outside world who seek to harm them. They used the same rare magic to form living gargoyles too. You’ll soon meet one: my oldest and dearest friend, Guy Goyle. He is helping my brave great-greatgranddaughter Leila to continue my work. She needs all the help she can get now that time is against her. Magic sight fades with age and, between you and me, Leila isn’t getting any younger!
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Over time, fewer and fewer humans are born with this magic running through their veins. And there are still other humans who seek to hunt magical creatures. They belong to a dastardly organization called the Seekers of Unusual and Unique Creatures Society, or SUUCS for short.
But that’s enough for now. I sense a Bewilder Bubble disturbance in the maritime city of Liverpool . . .
1 aisha
Aisha heard Jayden thundering towards her bedroom, then the door swung open.
‘It’s a disaster!’ Jayden declared as he stormed inside and flopped down on a beanbag.
Aisha put down her tablet and gave Jayden her full attention.
‘What’s up?’ she asked.
‘I’ve just heard our mums in the living room talking about a massive fireworks display on Hackney Marshes for Bonfire Night.’ Jayden lowered his voice so he wouldn’t be overheard.
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‘It’s going to be virtually on top of the Bewilder Bubble.’
Aisha could hardly believe it. The magical Bewilder Bubble on the marshes protected a herd of unicorns from the human world – a fireworks display near it could be disastrous!
‘We should tell Leila,’ she said firmly. ‘She’ll know what to do.’
7
Luckily it was nearly time for their regular Secret Beast Club meeting. The Mums thought Aisha and Jayden were part of Leila’s ‘Nature Explorers’ Club’ and had no idea that it was actually a cover story for the Secret Beast Club – a special group that protected mythical creatures living in Bewilder Bubbles that were hidden by magic in towns and cities all over the world. Aisha and Jayden were Leila’s newest recruits and, since their first SBC adventure, their lives had never been the same.
Aisha’s tablet chimed, and her home screen lit up with a picture of her and Jayden in a grassy courtyard. To most people it would look pretty ordinary and boring, but anyone with magic sight would see a majestic dragon towering behind Aisha and Jayden! The photo had been taken on their last mission where they had saved a group of dragons in Birmingham from being 8
discovered by SUUCS (the Seekers of Unusual and Unique Creatures Society), a cruel organization that hunted magical creatures.
‘Come on,’ said Aisha, turning the alarm off on her tablet. ‘Let’s go.’
Together, they made their way through Aisha’s flat, stopping by the kitchen to pick up cookies –always handy for Secret Beast Club meetings. Aisha was just twisting the lid off the cookie jar when the unmistakable sound of the Mums’ laughter flooded the hallway.
‘Where does the Liverpool Echo find these reporters, I wonder?’ her mum was saying.
‘It’s not the same since newspapers went
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digital,’ said Jayden’s mum, who loved books almost as much as Jayden.
Her mum chuckled. ‘I know! This Liverpool mer-person report is so far-fetched – it belongs in a novel, not a newspaper!’
Aisha and Jayden casually stepped into the hallway so they could hear more.
‘What’s that about mer-people?’ Aisha asked innocently.
‘Listen to this,’ said her mum, reading from her phone. ‘“Ocean Jones, owner of a tourist company called Mer-mazing Speedboat Tours, was operating one of her speedboats from Salthouse Dock when she noticed something shimmering in the waves.” Honestly, some people will believe anything!’
‘So what was it?’ asked Jayden.
‘Apparently it was an unusual necklace, made from some unknown shiny rock. The article says:
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“Jones believes it belongs to a real mer-person because the necklace contains a rare crystal only found in deep-sea trenches.”’
‘Everyone knows there’s no such thing as mer-people. They’ll be saying unicorns are real next!’ said Aisha, laughing along with the Mums and throwing Jayden a meaningful look.
‘The reporter goes on to say that “Mermazing Speedboat Tours are now displaying the necklace along with other artefacts that Jones found in the Irish Sea”,’ her mum continued.
‘You can view them all in the company’s headquarters and book a speedboat trip while you’re there.’
‘Sounds like a hoax to me,’ said Jayden’s mum.
‘Well, we’d better be going,’ said Aisha as she and Jayden slipped their shoes on, desperate to get this news to Leila and Guy who would be waiting for them on Leila’s narrowboat.
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Jayden grabbed his rucksack and they hurtled out of the door.
‘Say hi to Leila for us,’ called Jayden’s mum after them.
Aisha and Jayden hurried along the canal path to the narrowboat moored outside Aisha’s flat. To most passers-by, the Narrow Escape looked like a regular narrowboat, painted with a peculiar mural of nature scenes and mythical creatures like unicorns and dragons – there were even merpeople too! Its golden lettering – ‘The Secret Beast Club: Guardians of Wild Magic’ – was glistening in the light, but even if the Mums were watching
