Astrid nodded and Sera thought she saw a shimmer of tears in her blue eyes.
“Tell the others good-bye for me,” Astrid said. “And tell Desiderio…tell him I…just tell him thank you.”
“I will,” Sera said.
Astrid turned and swam away. Sera watched her move through the camp as the first rays of sun struggled to penetrate the North Sea gloom. Past caves and tents she swam, getting smaller and smaller, until she reached the north gate, and was gone.
Sera waited for a while, not wanting to return to the cave just yet. If the others were up, they’d ask where Astrid was. They might try to follow her, to stop her. Sera knew that wasn’t what Astrid wanted.
From her perch on the rock, Sera watched the camp come to life. She saw the guards change their shifts and Antonio make his way to the mess hall. She wondered how they would find enough food to feed everyone in the coming days. She wondered where she would find medicine to make Ling and Mulmig better. She wondered if Ava would make it through the day. She wondered where she’d find the strength she needed to get up off the rock and lead the resistance.
Then she looked at the fresh scar on her hand, and smiled. She had her answer.
As the waters brightened, Sera rose.
“Good luck, Astrid Kolfinnsdottir,” she whispered.
Then she swam back to the cave to rejoin the others.
HIGH ABOVE THE Black Fins’ camp, on a lonely, current-swept bluff, the maligno floated.
Tireless, dead-eyed, implacable, it coldly surveyed the ragtag group spread out far away in the distance.
The sea scorpion chittered from its perch on the maligno’s shoulder, its venomous tail lashing, its black eyes hateful and bright.
The maligno reached into its pocket, pulled out the small conch its mistress had given it, and wordlessly handed it to the scorpion.
The creature took the conch in its pincers and crawled down the maligno’s back. It scuttled off over the bluff, heading toward the camp.
The maligno watched it go.
Then it smiled and headed for the Darktide Shallows.
CAN A DRESS change your life?
If it was made by the late Alexander McQueen, then quite possibly yes.
I’ll explain.
Some time ago, I was casting about for a new idea for a novel. Ghosts from the past had inspired all my stories, but I needed to get away from them. Ghosts are beguiling creatures. They give you their stories but take pieces of your heart in return.
Looking for inspiration, I went to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. The museum was staging a retrospective of Alexander McQueen’s work. As you may know, McQueen was a clothing designer—and a brilliant and troubled man.
His collections were shown in dusky jewel-box rooms; walking through them felt like walking through a dark fairy tale. The dresses were so fierce. They were made of cloth and thread, but of other things, too. Of antlers and skulls. Thorns, flowers, feathers.
And emotion. Love, longing, desire, regret—these things were bound into every stitch. I could feel them. I could feel him. McQueen was there, moving through those rooms.
I came to the last rooms, to collections inspired by the sea, and they blew me away. One dress looked as if it was cut from white waves, another like it was fashioned from seaweed. And overhead, on a large screen, was an image of a young woman sinking slowly through water, her dress billowing around her.
Who was she? I didn’t know. All I knew is that I was spellbound by McQueen’s vision of the sea—a sea that was beautiful, but also treacherous and dark. I knew then that I had to write a story about it.
I thought I was done with ghosts, but it turns out they weren’t done with me. Because to this day, I believe that Alexander McQueen sent me a gift. Dark Tide is for him, wherever he may be, with gratitude for things rich and strange.
ABBADON an immense monster, created by Orfeo, then defeated and caged in the Antarctic waters
ACHILLES a brigantine, captained by Maffeio Aermore, that went down in 1793 near Cape Horn; now a shipwreck full of ghosts that protect the Williwaw’s lair
ALÍTHEIA a twelve-foot, venomous sea spider made out of bronze combined with drops of Merrow’s blood. Bellogrim, the blacksmith god, forged her, and the sea goddess, Neria, breathed life into her to protect the throne of Miromara from any pretenders.
ALMA the woman Orfeo loved; when she died, he went mad with grief
AMARREFE MEI FOO a pirate who attacked the Demeter, looking to steal the infanta’s blue diamond
ARMANDO CONTORINI the late duca di Venezia, leader of the Praedatori (aka Karkharias, the Shark)
ARTEMESIA Sera’s grandmother, a regina of Miromara who considered the Volnero family tainted and decreed that there would be no alliance with their bloodline
ASTRID KOLFINNSDOTTIR teenage daughter of Kolfinn, ruler of Ondalina
ATLANTICA the mer domain in the Atlantic Ocean; Becca’s home
ATLANTIS an ancient island paradise in the Mediterranean peopled with the ancestors of the mer. Six mages ruled the island wisely and well: Orfeo, Merrow, Sycorax, Navi, Pyrrha, and Nyx. When the island was destroyed, Merrow saved the Atlanteans by calling on Neria to give them fins and tails.
AVA teenage mermaid from the Amazon River; she is blind but able to sense things
BABA VRĂJA the elder leader—or obârsie—of the Iele, river witches
BABY Ava’s guide piranha
BACO GOGA an eel-like merman; spy for Vallerio and Portia Volnero
BASTIAAN, PRINCIPE CONSORTE Regina Isabella’s husband and Serafina’s father
BECCA QUICKFIN a teenage mermaid from Atlantica
BEDRIEËR one of three trawlers that Rafe Mfeme owns
BIANCA DI REMORA one of Lucia’s ladies-in-waiting
BLACK FINS members of a Cerulean resistance group
BLACK PEARL Orfeo’s talisman; given to him by Morsa
BLACKCLAW DRAGON one of the many types of dragons that breed in Matali and are the main source of the realm’s wealth; huge and powerful and used by the military
BLOODBIND a spell in which blood from different mages is combined to form an unbreakable bond and allow them to share abilities
BLOODSONG blood drawn from one’s heart that contains memories and allows them to become visible to others
BRITANNIA a luxury ocean liner that went down in a storm in the Adriatic Sea; now a ghost ship
CAMO a songspell used to change appearance
CANTA MALUS darksong, a poisonous gift to the mer from Morsa, in mockery of Neria’s gifts
CANTA PRAX a plainsong spell
CANTA SANGUA blood magic, an even more heinous violation than canta malus
CARCERON the prison on Atlantis. The lock could only be opened by all six talismans. It is now located somewhere in the Southern Sea.
CASSIO the sky god
CERULEA the royal city in Miromara, where Serafina lived before it was attacked
CIRRIAN the language spoken by barnacles
CITADEL a city carved out of an iceberg in which Ondalina’s admirals live with their families and top members of government
COMMODORA second-in-command to Ondalina’s admiral; spymaster and in charge of the realm’s military
COMMOVEO a songspell that can be used to push objects
CONCH a shell in which recorded information is stored
CONVOCA a songspell that can be used for summoning and communicating with people
CURRENSEA mer money; gold trocii (trocus, sing.), silver drupes, copper cowries; gold doubloons are black market currensea
DAÍMONAS TIS MORSA demon of Morsa
DARKSONG a powerful canta malus spell that causes harm, legal to use against enemies during wartime
DEATH RIDERS Traho’s soldiers, who ride on black hippokamps
DEMETER the ship that Maria Theresa, an infanta of Spain, was sailing on when it was lost in 1582 en route to France
DEPTH SICKNESS a dangerous and occasionally lethal cond
ition caused by diving too deep; symptoms include headache, nausea, disorientation, hallucinations, asphyxiation, and brain bleeding
DESIDERIO Serafina’s older brother
DOKIMÍ Greek for trial; a ceremony in which the heir to the Miromaran throne has to prove that she is a true descendant of Merrow by spilling blood for Alítheia, the sea spider. She must then songcast, make her betrothal vows, and swear to one day give the realm a daughter.
DUCHI DI VENEZIA created by Merrow to protect the seas and its creatures from terragoggs
EISGEISTS murderous spirits that dwell in cold water; created by Morsa, they are neither alive nor dead; they drag their victims behind them until the flesh rots away and then eat the bones
EKELSHMUTZ one of the four goblin tribes
ELISABETTA CONTORINI sister of Marco Contorini, the current duca di Venezia
ELSKAN an orca that Kolfinn bought for his wife Eyvör to ride
ELYSIA capital of Atlantis
EVEKSION the god of healing
EYVÖR wife of Admiral Kolfinn and mother to Ragnar and Astrid
FEIMOR FA EAEMOR a Viking chieftain who bought Orfeo’s black pearl from a fisherman
FEUERKUMPEL goblin miners, one of the Kobold tribes, who channel magma from deep seams under the North Sea in order to obtain lava for lighting and heating
FRAGOR LUX a songspell to cast a light bomb (frag, abbr.)
FRESHWATERS the mer domain that encompasses rivers, lakes, and ponds
FRYST a clan of giant ice trolls that protects Ondalina’s Citadel
GNDAC a bug that is planted near a person or thing that a songcaster wants to observe; it catches and holds the ochi spell
GHOST SHIP a shipwreck entwined with the life force of a human who died onboard; it does not rot or rust
GOLD COIN Pyrrha’s talisman, with an image of Neria on it
GREAT ABYSS a deep chasm in Qin where Sycorax’s talisman is believed to be located, and where Ling’s father disappeared while exploring
GULDEMAR the Meerteufel sea goblin tribe’s chieftain
HAFGUFA the kraken; according to legend, Meerteufel chieftains can call the creature forth in times of trouble
HAGARLA queen of the Razormouth dragons
HALL OF SIGHS a long corridor in Vadus, the mirror realm, whose walls are covered in mirrors; every mirror has a corresponding one in the terragogg world
HIPPOKAMPS creatures that are half horse, half serpent, with snakelike eyes
HÖLLEBLÄSER goblin glassblowers, one of the Kobold tribes
HOROK the great coelacanth, Keeper of Souls, who takes the dead to the underworld, holding each soul in a white pearl
IELE river witches
ILLUMINATA a songspell to create light
ILLUSIO a spell to create a disguise
INCANTARIUM the room where the incanta—river witches—keep Abbadon at bay through chanting and waterfire
IRON repels magic
ISABELLA, LA SERENISSIMA REGINA Miromara’s former ruler; Serafina’s mother
KARGJORD a hilly, desolate barrens at the northernmost reaches of the Meerteufel’s realm; the Black Fins’ military training ground
KHARIS priestess of the death goddess Morsa
KOBOLD North Sea goblin tribes
KOLFINN Admiral of the arctic region, Ondalina; Astrid’s father
KOLISSEO a huge open-water stone theater in Miromara that dates back to Merrow’s time
LAGOON the waters off the human city of Venice, forbidden to merfolk
LAVA GLOBE a light source, lit by magma mined and refined into white lava by the Feuerkumpel
LING a teenage mermaid from the realm of Qin; she is an omnivoxa
LUCIA VOLNERO once one of Serafina’s ladies-in-waiting, now a pretender to the Miromaran throne; a member of the Volnero, a noble family as old—and nearly as powerful—as the Merrovingia
LUDOVICO DI MERROVINGIA, PRINCIPE younger brother to both Vallerio and Isabella; a Miromaran exchanged with Kolfinn’s sister as part of the permutavi; breeder of hippokamps and trainer of orcas used by Ondalina’s military
MACAPÁ Ava’s home village in the Freshwaters realm
MAELSTROM a powerful whirlpool in the sea
MAFFEIO AERMORE captain of the Achilles, a brigantine that went down in 1793 near Cape Horn
MAHDI crown prince of Matali; Serafina’s betrothed; cousin of Yazeed and Neela
MALIGNO a creature made out of clay and animated by blood magic
MÅNENHONNØR Ondalina’s moon festival
MÅNENKAGER a cake, eaten during Månenhonnør, made of pressed krill and iced with ground mother-of-pearl, so it shines like the moon; baked with a silver drupe coin in it for good luck
MARCO CONTORINI the current duca di Venezia; brother of Elisabetta
MARIA THERESA an infanta of Spain who was sailing to France on the Demeter in 1582 when it was attacked by a pirate, Amarrefe Mei Foo
MARKUS TRAHO, CAPTAIN leader of the death riders
MARLIN a Wave Warrior boat fitted with a saltwater tank to transport sick and wounded sea creatures
MATALI the mer realm in the Indian Ocean; Neela’s home
MATALIN from Matali
MEDICA MAGUS mer equivalent of doctor
MEERTEUFEL one of four goblin tribes
MERL Mermish equivalent of girl
MERMAID’S TEAR another name for Neria’s Stone, the blue diamond, which Neria gave to Merrow
MERMISH the common language of the sea people
MERROVINGIA descendants of Merrow
MERROW a great mage, one of the six rulers of Atlantis, and Serafina’s ancestor. First ruler of the merpeople; songspell originated with her, and she decreed the Dokimí.
MERROW’S PROGRESS Ten years after the destruction of Atlantis, Merrow made a journey to all of the waters of the world, scouting out safe places for the merfolk to colonize.
MIROMARA the realm Serafina comes from; an empire that spans the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic, Aegean, Baltic, Black, Ionian, Ligurian, and Tyrrhenean Seas, the Seas of Azov and Marmara, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, and the Bosphorus
MOON JELLY a bioluminescent jellyfish
MOONSTONE Navi’s talisman; silvery blue and the size of an albatross’s egg, with an inner glow
MORSA an ancient scavenger goddess, whose job it was to take away the bodies of the dead. She angered Neria by practicing necromancy. Neria punished her by giving her the face of death and the body of a serpent and banishing her.
MOSES POTION a liquid from the Moses sole in the Red Sea that puts people to sleep
NAVI one of the six mages who ruled Atlantis; Neela’s ancestor
NEELA a Matalin princess; Serafina’s best friend; Yazeed’s sister; Mahdi’s cousin. She is a bioluminescent.
NEFÉLI a cloud nymph
NERIA the sea goddess
NERIA’S STONE a blue, tear-shaped diamond that Neria gave to Merrow for saving Kyr, her youngest son, from a shark attack
NYX one of the six mages who ruled Atlantis; Ava’s ancestor
OCHI a powerful spying spell in which the songcaster plants a gândac, or bug, near the person or thing being observed
OKWA NAHOLO water spirits in the swamps of the Mississippi that guard Nyx’s talisman
OMNIVOXA (OMNI) mer who have the natural ability to speak every dialect of Mermish and communicate with sea creatures
ONDALINA the mer realm in the arctic waters; Astrid’s home
ORFEO one of the six mages who ruled Atlantis; Astrid’s ancestor
OSTROKON the mer version of a library
PALAZZO Italian for palace
PERMUTAVI a pact between Miromara and Ondalina, enacted after the War of Reykjanes Ridge, that decreed the exchange of the rulers’ children
PORTIA VOLNERO mother of Lucia and a powerful duchessa of Miromara; wanted to marry Vallerio, Serafina’s uncle
PRAEDATORI soldiers who defend the sea and its creatures against terragoggs; known as Wave
Warriors on land
PRAESIDIO Duca Contorini’s home in Venice
PRAX practical magic that helps the mer survive, such as camouflage spells, echolocation spells, spells to improve speed or darken an ink cloud. Even those with little magical ability can cast them.
PRINCIPESSA Italian for princess
PROMISING an exchange of betrothal vows that, once spoken, cannot be broken until death
PUZZLE BALL Sycorax’s talisman; a small, ornately carved white ball containing spheres within spheres, with the image of a phoenix on the outside
PYRRHA one of the six rulers of Atlantis; Becca’s ancestor
QANIKKAAQ a giant maelstrom in the Greenland Sea; believed to be the location of Orfeo’s talisman
QIN the mer realm in the Pacific Ocean; Ling’s home
RAFE IAORO MFEME worst of the terragoggs; he runs a fleet of dredgers and super trawlers that threaten to pull every last fish out of the sea
RAGNAR Astrid’s older brother
RAYSAY the language spoken by manta rays
RAZORMOUTH DRAGON one of the many types of dragons that breed in Matali and are the main source of the realm’s wealth; they are feral and murderous and prevent invaders from getting past the Madagascar Basin
REGGIA Merrow’s ancient palace
REGINA Italian for queen
RIVER OLT the Freshwater region where the Iele’s cave is located
RORRIM DROL lord of Vadus, the mirror realm
RUBY RING Nyx’s talisman; a large stone, with many facets, in a gold setting
RYLKA Kolfinn’s commodora, the second most powerful mer in Ondalina
SCAGHAUFEN capital of the Meerteufel sea goblin tribe
SEA WASP the most deadly jellyfish in the world
SEJANUS ADARO Portia Volnero’s husband, who died a year after Lucia’s birth
SELECTION the death riders’ daily process of choosing which of their captives will dive into the Great Abyss to search for Sycorax’s talisman
SERAFINA regina di Miromara and leader of the Black Fin Resistance
SHAN LU CHI Ling’s father, an archeologist
SHAYÚ Amarrefe Mei Foo’s pirate ship
SHIPWRECK GHOSTS hungry for life, their touch—if prolonged—can be lethal
Waterfire Saga, Book Three: Dark Tide: A Deep Blue Novel Page 28
