Waterfire Saga (4 Book Series)

by Jennifer Donnelly

  IELE river witches

  ILLUMINATA a songspell to create light

  ILLUSIO a songspell to create a disguise

  INFANTA Maria Theresa of Spain, whose ship was brought down by a pirate seeking her blue diamond. She gave a fake diamond to the pirate and the real one to Serafina.

  IRON repels magic

  ISABELLA Serafina’s mother; the regina of Miromara before she was assassinated by her brother, Vallerio

  JEAN LAFITTE a pirate; one of three ghosts who keep Manon Laveau company

  KARGJORD a hilly, desolate barrens at the northernmost reaches of the Meerteufel’s realm; the Black Fins’ headquarters and military training ground

  KEEPER OF JUSTICE represents the law in Miromara

  KHARIS priestess of the death goddess Morsa

  KOBOLD North Sea goblin tribes

  KOLEGIO mer equivalent of college

  KOLFINN Astrid and Ragnar’s father and the former admiral of Ondalina; now deceased

  KOLISSEO a huge open-water stone theater in Miromara that dates back to Merrow’s time

  KORA the mermaid ruler of the Matalin region of Kandina; leader of the Askari

  LAVA GLOBE a light source, lit by magma mined and refined into white lava by the Feuerkumpel

  LENA a freshwater mermaid—and owner of several catfish—who hid Serafina, Neela, and Ling from Traho

  LIBER MAGUS one of the Miromaran magi, the keeper of knowledge

  LING a teenage mermaid from the realm of Qin; one of the six summoned by the Iele to destroy Abbadon; descendant of the mage Sycorax; 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

  MAELSTROM a powerful whirlpool in the sea

  MAHDI ruler of Matali; Promised to Serafina; cousin to Neela and Yazeed

  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

  MANON LAVEAU a swamp queen mermaid who lives under the Mississippi River near New Orleans

  MARCO a terragogg who, together with his sister, Elisabetta, helped Becca after she was attacked by the Williwaw; he is the latest duca di Venezia, whose duty is to protect the mer

  MARKUS TRAHO, CAPTAIN leader of the death riders

  MATALI the mer realm in the Indian Ocean; Neela’s home

  MATALIN from Matali

  MEERTEUFEL one of four goblin tribes

  MERL Mermish equivalent of girl

  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.

  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

  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.

  NÄKKI murderous shapeshifters in the northern Atlantic; they are outlaws and arms dealers

  NASHOBA a cruel Choctaw warrior in life; in death, leader of the Okwa Naholo

  NAVI one of the six mages who ruled Atlantis; Neela’s ancestor

  NEELA a teenage mermaid from the realm of Matali; one of the six summoned by the Iele to destroy Abbadon; Serafina’s best friend; Yazeed’s sister; Mahdi’s cousin; a descendant of the mage Navi. She is a bioluminescent.

  NERIA the sea goddess

  NYX one of the six mages who ruled Atlantis; Ava’s ancestor

  OCCULA a songspell used to see over a far distance

  OKWA NAHOLO white people of the water, in Choctaw; spirits of murderous warriors who were cursed by the sun god to live in the swamps of the Mississippi forever; their black hearts contain memories of the crimes they committed and kill anyone who looks upon them

  OLT the river in Romania where the Iele are located

  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

  OODA Neela’s pet blowfish

  OPIE Marco’s pet octopus

  ORFEO the most powerful of the six mages who ruled Atlantis; a healer; his talisman was a green emerald; he was devastated by the death of his wife, Alma, and vowed to take on the gods to get her back; Morsa gave him a black pearl to cheat death, and he created Abbadon, a monster powerful enough to attack the underworld; Astrid’s ancestor

  OSTROKON the mer version of a library

  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 the Wave Warriors on land

  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.

  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 mages of Atlantis, a brilliant strategist; Becca’s ancestor

  QANIKKAAQ a giant maelstrom in the Greenland Sea where Orfeo’s talisman was found

  QIN the mer realm in the Pacific Ocean; Ling’s home

  RAGNAR the admiral of Ondalina; Astrid’s older brother

  RÄKÄ a goblin drink made from fermented snail slime

  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

  RORRIM DROL lord of Vadus, the mirror realm

  ROTTER an animated human corpse, devoid of a soul

  RUBY RING Nyx’s talisman; a large stone, with many facets, in a gold setting

  RURSUS the language of Vadus, the mirror realm

  RYLKA Kolfinn’s commodora

  SALLY WILKES a runaway slave; one of three ghosts who keep Manon Laveau company

  SCAGHAUFEN capital of the Meerteufel sea goblin tribe

  SCUOLA SUPERIORE mer equivalent of high school

  SEEING STONE a garnet stone that, when cast with an occula spell, allows the viewer to see something/someone over a far distance

  SERAFINA rightful regina of Miromara and leader of the Black Fin Resistance; one of six mermaids summoned by the Iele to destroy Abbadon; descendant of the mage Merrow

  SHADOW MANSE Orfeo’s palace

  SICARIO Lucia’s scorpion

  SIREN a mermaid who sings for currensea

  SIX WHO RULED the mages of Atlantis, each of whom possessed a magical talisman that enhanced their powers

  SKAVVENERS sea elves that pillage battlefields and disaster sites and stalk the feeble, sick, and injured

  SKØRE TÅBER Meerteufel goblin for crazy fools

  SNASK pickled squid eyes, a goblin snack

  SOMNIO a songspell to induce sleep

  SOPHIA one of the best Black Fin fighters and a trusted confidante; she saved Serafina’s life during
the raid on Miromara’s treasury

  SPIDERLAIR a swamp named for the arachnids that hunt on its banks

  STICKSTOFF head of Meerteufel’s military

  STILO a songspell that makes spikes sprout out of a water ball

  SUMMA CUM LAUDE Latin for with highest honors

  SYCORAX one of the six mages of Atlantis; Ling’s ancestor

  SYLVESTRE Serafina’s pet octopus

  SYZYGY when the sun, moon, and earth are aligned—tides are at their highest and magic is at its strongest; royal mer weddings can only take place during a syzygy

  TALISMAN a magical object, given by the gods, that enhances one’s powers

  TAROT a set of seventy-eight cards with pictures and symbols that is used to see what will happen in the future

  TERRAGOGGS (GOGGS) humans

  THALASSA the canta magus, or keeper of magic, of Miromara; addressed as Magistra

  TOTSCHLÄGER a trusted goblin commander

  TRANSPARENSEA PEARL a pearl that contains a songspell of invisibility; transparensea pebbles are not as strong as transparensea pearls

  VADUS the mirror realm

  VALLERIO, PRINCIPE DEL SANGUE Miromara’s high commander; Serafina’s uncle, who orchestrated the invasion of Cerulea, during which Sera’s mother, the regina, was assassinated; father to Lucia Volnero

  VELO a songspell to increase one’s speed

  VERITA the goddess of justice

  VITRINA souls of beautiful, vain humans who spent so much time admiring themselves in mirrors that they are now trapped inside

  VORTEX a songspell used to create a whirl

  WATERFIRE magical fire used to enclose or contain

  WAVE WARRIORS humans who fight for the sea and its creatures

  WILLIWAW a wind spirit at Cape Horn; possessor of Pyrrha’s talisman

  YAZEED a merman from Mitali; a Black Fin second-in-command to Serafina; Neela’s brother and Mahdi’s cousin

  JENNIFER DONNELLY is an award-winning author of both adult and young adult books, including the historical thriller These Shallow Graves, and three other books in the WaterFire Saga: Deep Blue, Rogue Wave, and Dark Tide. For adults she has written a trilogy of best-selling books that includes The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and The Wild Rose. Her first young adult novel, A Northern Light, received many accolades, among them the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Carnegie Medal in the UK, and a Michael L. Printz Honor. Her second young adult novel, Revolution, was named a Best Book of 2010 by Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal, and the audiobook received a 2011 American Library Association Odyssey Honor. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. For more information, visit www.jenniferdonnelly.com.