A Deep Blue Mirror

Chapter Seven

Summary

April waking up beside Crow

April is lying on a piece of wreckage, adrift in the ocean. Crow lands beside her, and shouts at her until she wakes up. He tells her the crew are safe - they escaped in a magical lifeboat to the island of Tagate, but Captain Nebevay said something about 'letting the wench drown'...or something. April asks him to look for the nearest island. Crow teases her by saying "Don't go anywhere", because girls always disappear on him. After April points out she doesn't have anywhere to go, Crow flies away.

April settles down to wait. Then she notices a sleek head popping up out of the water. Intrigued, April reaches over to it, but she's suddenly yanked underwater and pulled all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. She comes to inside a large breathing house. Following the murals on the walls, she reluctantly sticks one of the large polyps in the wall down her throat, which allows her to breathe underwater. She leaves to explore the ocean bed, and realises the breathing house is outside a magnificent undersea city.

Meanwhile Crow returns to the floating wreckage to find April gone, and sighs: "Oh, bloody typical. I told her, she didn't believe me - girls always disappear on me. Always."

Back underwater, April enters one of the dwellings and meets a 'merperson', but she can't understand it. She follows the instructions on the rest of the murals and, after making and swallowing a magical golden pearl, she gains the ability to speak the language of the undersea people. When she returns to the dwelling, she talks to the merperson, who introduces herself as the Maerum Queen. She tells April that the Maerum 'rescue' shipwrecked sailors, bring them to their cities, let them follow the instructions inside the Landwalker's Bubble as April did, and put them to work as 'gatherers' of something called Tanyenn.

The city of the Maerum

The Queen tells April that Tanyenn, one of the ingredients used to make a golden pearl, is very important to the Maerum. Its glow attracts small fish, but keeps away large predators like the snapjaw. But recently Tanyenn has become more and more scarce, which is why gatherers are more important than ever. In addition, the Maerum have other concerns - they're at war with the Alatien, whom the Maerum call 'Wingdemons'. Remembering what she read in the Enclave Library, April asks about the god the Maerum worship, the 'god who fell from the sky' who sounds like one of the Draic Kin, but the Maerum Queen refuses to take April to see him.

April notices a harpoon leaning against the wall. The Queen tells her the harpoon belongs to the prophesied Waterstiller, a landwalker who will unite the people. The Waterstiller will accomplish four tasks - bring proof of her mission to the Balance, kill a snapjaw with her own spear, take something from the Maerum that they have guarded for centuries, and reunite the people. However, according to the Maerum Queen, the Maerum are at peace amongst themselves, so it cannot be the Waterstiller's time yet.

The Ancient Shrine

April goes exploring on the ocean bed and finds a crystal - just like one the Maerum Queen owns - near the hidden entrance to a cave. Inside, she finds an abandoned temple with a central altar and other crystals buried in the sand. When she aligns them on the altar, it lights up the cave and reveals a series of murals. They show the history of the Maerum - and the Alatien.

According to these murals, they are actually one race, brought to earth by the Draic Kin, which evolved along separate lines. April sees that there was some sort of disagreement between the Maerum and the Alatien, and they moved away from each other, which is when Tanyenn became scarce. The murals end with a prophecy. When the races live close to each other once more, Tanyenn will become plentiful and both races will prosper. Realising this is what was meant by 'reuniting the people', April shows the cave to the Maerum Queen. Initially shocked at this 'heresy' that their enemies are in fact their cousins, the Queen nevertheless gives April the chance to prove she is the Waterstiller. To fulfil the other conditions, April needs her Talisman, which is still in the wreck of the White Dragon, beyond the Landwalker's Bubble.

Taking the harpoon, April swims to the shipwreck, confronting a snapjaw on the way and taking a tooth as proof of her deed, and retrieves the Talisman. On her way back, she returns to the cave and sees a niche carved like the design on the Talisman. When she holds up the Talisman to it, the niche opens, revealing the Maerum Stone. This is the object the Waterstiller is to take from the Maerum...but it's only half of a piece. The Alatien must have the other piece. April explains everything to the Maerum Queen, who tells her she must go to Alais and speak to the Alatien to complete her mission as the Waterstiller. The Maerum will take her to the island.

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Themes & References

'A Deep Blue Mirror' refers to the location of this chapter as except for the opening, April spends it entirely underwater. This is the second chapter title that refers to mirrors and reflections - the other is 'Through the Looking Glass'. It hints at the relationship between the Maerum and Alatien races because when viewed from above, the ocean surface resembles a mirror.