“It sounds horrible,” Pearl said with a grimace.
“On the contrary, it is very beautiful. It is where my cousin Venus was conceived. It is a valley lined with giant shells that glow with eternal light, and the light itself creates the pearls that form around the thoughts of the Great Mother. As you float in the valley, you ride on a cushion of emotions and memories that flow and swirl all around and through you. There are endless thoughts and stories, and answers to questions you never even dreamed to ask.
“How do you talk to the pearls?”
“You simply form a question in your mind and then sing to them, which lulls them into a form of sleep. As they slow their thoughts, one pearl slowly joins its song with another. They begin to hum in unison and focus on the question you need answered until the choir of their voices rises up like a wave. The wisdom that can answer your question will sing back to you as you ride that wave out of the grotto. It holds back all evil and sends you soaring up and out of the trench into the light of the warm upper waters with all the wisdom you dreamed of.”
“It sounds wonderful!” Pearl gasped.
“It can be. But in the waters around it lurk the darkest demons of the deep—those who hate, and those who live on misery because they are drawn to the light by their desperate need to despise it. The skarzs and the sklugmires, who were banished from the world above, surround the valley, just so they can sully its waters.”
“Now that sounds really scary,” Pearl grumbled disappointedly.
“It is.” Helmi sighed. “Even though they cannot kill us, they can corrupt us, Adara. Evil is as eternal as good, and long before I was born, and long after I choose to depart, it will still be here. Every time I have chosen to go to the Pearls, I have risked that the journey itself might destroy who I am and leave a dark and horrible shell that can be used against everyone and everything I love. I will never risk going there again.” Then, suddenly, deep inside, Pearl knew she had the answer to her dreams. She now understood what her mother wanted her to do.
Future Sequels:
Book II, The Mermaid King of Krakatau
and
Book III, The Pearls of Wisdom
Coming soon, Oceanus Books’ new Mermaid Kingdom
adventure series:
Pearl, A Modern Day Mermaid:
Vol. 1: Attack of the Giant Vampire Lamprey
and
The Mermaid Adventures of Princess Miranda:
Vol. 1: Legends Take Flight
Cast of Characters
(in order of appearance):
Amphitrite (Titan)
Poseidon (aka King Aegir, Neptune, Manannan, Manawydau, Tangaroa)
Helmi (daughter of Amphitrite and Poseidon—Mermaid Queen—last born; last to leave—one of the merfolk— home on Little Ditma in the Faeroe Islands)
The selkies: females seals who can shed their skins to become human maidens, and the handmaidens to Helmi
Gaia, the Earth Goddess, mother of all, daughter of the Creator
Pearl (aka Adara)
Ivan and Lina Sorenson
Miranda (Helmi’s daughter) (also known as Duchess Brahe-Sinkel-Laurvig of Egeskov)
The corylians: the centaurs of the sea. The bottom half of their bodies were that of a large lobster, about half as long as a full-grown dolphin. Their upper body was like a mermaid’s, or human’s, with coral “hair”.
Ploto (Helmi’s sister)
Sea Hag: the granddaughter of Poseidon through a mortal princess. It was through Cronos that she was made immortal. (Medea; her child Medus, son of king Aietes of Athens)
Cronos: king of the overthrown Titans, father of the Olympians.
The skarz, the demons of the deep, the children of Medea (Sea Hag) and the cyclops.
Cyclops: grandson of Poseidon.
The sklugmires: the result of crossbreeding between the skarz and a variety of sentient deep-sea kelp pods.
Dr. Holger V. Thorson
Lisa Thorson (ex-wife of Dr. Holger Thorson).
Hal Thorson: Holger’s teenage son.
Halder Thorson: Holger’s brother.
Adara: daughter of Miranda and Halder, granddaughter of Helmi (aka Pearl).
Valdemar: Prince Valdemar of Denmark, Helmi’s consort king, and the Duke of Egeskov.
Periwinkle: one of Helmi’s favorite handmaidens, along with Anemone and Guppy.
The Turtle King
Leilani Komoto, of Channel 3 News
Sandy: a giant manta ray and the mother of kits Coral and Prickle.
Slammer and Jumper: bottlenose dolphins
Patches: turtle emissary from the Turtle King
Admiral George Greystone: commander of the US Navy fleet.
Lieutenant Wilson: Admiral Greystone’s aide.
Shifter: Miranda’s grouper friend.
Galena: (Helmi’s sister) also known as “Thetis” and the mother of Achilles.
Benvary: Helmi’s sister who left the sea to become a nun—also known as Liban or “the mermaid saint”
Speio: Helmi’s oldest sister, whose abandoned palace is in the China Sea.
Cleito: mortal (and first) wife of Poseidon
Hephaestus: son of Zeus, and god of the forge, fire, and volcanoes
Uranus: god of the sky and father of Cronos— Uranus was the ancient elemental whom the Creator brought together with Gaia, goddess of earth, to create the world. They were first male and female entities and gave birth to all of the Titans.
Ares: the god of war.
Triton: crown prince of Atlantis and Poseidon’s great, great, great, great-grandson.
Oceanus: the first god of the waters.
Randy and Amy Weiz: Holger’s best friends, and their two kids, Zach and Jessie.
Captain Marshal: was a twenty-five-year Navy veteran serving on the USS Olympia.
Seaman Tyler Miller: sonar operator on the USS Olympia.
Chief Petty Officer “Sharky” Jones: an underwater demolition specialist.
Lieutenant Shawn Moore: videographer for naval intelligence.
Dr. Steve Gittings: NOAA
Vasili Thermopolis: Greek orphan and the Hag’s henchman, he married the last and only female descendant of Medea, Konstantina.
Will Andon: a reporter from Showboat International Magazine.
Yoshi Naamen: the pilot of the Undersea Hunter, with Avi Klapner, the technician.
Canute Bruun: Frederick Bruun’s grandson and Miranda’s advocate.
Things/Places to Remember
(in alphabetical order):
American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)
Atargatis: the first true mermaid
Battle of Krakatau
Bruun & Gottorp: advocates and investment management firm (related to the Knights Templar)
Castle Egeskov on the Isle of Funen
Crown of Tethys: Queen Amphitrite’s Titan name,
Dolphin Quest: Waikoloa, Hawaii (on the island of Oahu)
Druids: ancient priest who mixed their blood with the selkies. Their descendants were Helmi’s loyal servants on land and sea.
Duchy of Egeskov: Valdemar’s set up the Duchy of Egeskov before he went to live with Helmi in the sea.
The Coral Palace: Eulilmene’s palace in the Caribbean Sea used as the nursery for Miranda and by the Corylians.
Fugloy Island: there are caverns beneath it where merpeople can enter from the sea.
Golden Lichen of Poseidon: has the power to turn humans into merpeople.
Grand Palace of Poseidon: off the coastline of his Sanctuary on the Isthmus of Corinth in the Aegean Sea.
House of Aegir: was specifically keyed to the bloodline of Queen Amphitrite and Poseidon.
International Foundation of the Gaia Principal for Global Warming (Gaia Principle Theory)
Isle of Lila Ditma: in the Faeroes, location of the Manor House and the whale nursery caverns are under the island.
Lavender Pearls of Amphitrite: the magic of the Lavender Pearls of Amphitrite
tune a mermaid’s mind and activate the Mirrors of Atargatis’ magic.
Mirrors of Atargatis: nine mirrors for the nine daughters of Poseidon, named after the very first immortal to assume the half fish, half human form. One of the most prized and sacred possessions of Miranda’s family, they form a magic portal, tethering each sea palace through time and space to the Sacred Grotto of Poseidon. Helmi’s mirror is in the palace in the Northern Sea. There is no mirror at the Manor House.
Moonraker: a the largest and fastest speedboat.
Naricorn: A spear with magical properties made from the horn of a narwhal.
Nereid: another term for a water deity.
Two-leggers: the name mermaids use for humans.
NOAA: (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Summer Camp
Oceanus: not a place on a map, but a place inside time and space that can only be reached through a magic whirlpool in the sacred grotto of Poseidon.
Orb of Nerus: a giant pearl created by the birth of Venus which can show whoever holds it what they desire to see.
Palace of Aegir: summer palace off the coast of Hlesey Island in Kattegat Bay off the east coast of Denmark.
Ring of Atlantis (Ring of Trident): A magical ring that allows whoever wears it the power to breath under water and extend their lives.
Ring of Trident: a relic of Atlantis, the ring worn by the High King of Atlantis, handed down from father to son.
Sacred Grotto of Poseidon: where the nine Mirrors of Atargatis stand in the bottom of the Aegean Sea.
Seamagine: A company that makes small, high-tech, personal deep-sea submarines.
Scepter of Atlantis
Tartarus: the very depths of Hell.
Trident: the symbol for the royal crest of Atlantis and the magical staff of Poseidon.
About the Author
Robert W. Cabell has spent three decades working in the New York entertainment industry with giants like Time Warner, HBO, Spelling International, Columbia Pictures, and the NY Post. He has written a book on humor with the legendary Joey Adams, and is the author of numerous musicals and plays that have been produced in New York and across the country, and have been translated for production in multiple languages. The NY Cast Albums of his musicals are available from the i-Tunes store. 2012 marks the publication debut of his Mermaid Kingdom series with Gazebo Books Publishing, featuring the novel All the Mermaids in the Sea, part one of The Mermaid King of Krakatau trilogy, and also the publication of his play, The Divine Trilogy of Sarah Bernhardt.
All The Mermaids In The Sea Page 38