ANIMALS AND LOCATIONS
These books are set in real SEAS, and the CREATURES and LOCATIONS that the young mers see are real too.
This page presents some of the SPECIES, and some of the PLACES, which inspired this story.
There are no photos of MERPEOPLE in this section. Please send any if you have them.
Arrow crab
The cave was empty, save for one enormous violet anemone in the middle of the ceiling; arrow crabs scuttled around it on red-gold stick legs, their spiked noses lifted curiously.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Barracuda
Once, a barracuda drifted into sight, glinting like a knife; it stared at them with cold eyes, then flicked its tail and was gone.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 1
Caves
Twenty fathoms down, the slope tumbled over a shallow cliff with a black crack at its base. Riakka ducked into the crack and sent a pulse of sonar in; a few glassy-eyed sentry-fish scattered past her in a flash of silver and red.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 9
Cleaner Fish
She and Helmi hooked their fingers under a ledge and swung head down as first one cleaner wrasse hurried over, then a second. They were tiny things, no bigger than a finger, with bright green flanks, yellow stripes and a black eye-spot in the middle of their backs. They looked too vulnerable to survive; but they were the safest things in the ocean. Not even a shark would attack a cleaner-fish.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Comb-back
As they descended, a shape moved sluggishly: a fish as heavy as they were, thick-bodied and sullen-lipped, with a crest of spines along its back. It shook itself and flicked away as they approached: a giant comb-back, good to eat, but too hard to catch at this depth.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Corals
As they went deeper, red and yellow fans of coral appeared, their echoes humming like a harp string.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Cuttlefish
A cuttlefish came dawdling across the slope, saw them and shot away backwards in a spurt of sand. (Cuttlefish can change color, as these two photos of the same animal, taken one minute apart, show vividly.)
Atlantis Lost, chapter 7
Damsel Swarm
Below on the reef, a handred damselfish had come out to feed, darting this way and that, mouths opening and closing, every one a reflection of all the others.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Dolphins
The pod was gathering again, whistling and chattering: their hunt song had been magnificent, and they knew it.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 3
Eels
A grove of eels shrank back into their holes, making a sound like a gusting wind.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Jewel Fish
Three myriad miles they stretched, and corals bloomed on every inch, and the ruby-fish swarmed over them like a blizzard of golden sparks.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 6
Octopus
The scent of blood was thickening; as Pel looked back the way they had come, he saw a white spotted octopus come flowing over the stones, drawn by the scent of food.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 7
Seahorse
A movement by her arm made her start. She looked around sharply. It was a peace-fish, what humans call a sea-horse, clinging with his tail to a weed-grown bollard and swaying like a scrap of weed himself.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 7
Shrimp and Anemone
Mielikki had once seen a manta roll completely upside down in pleasure as a dozen red-striped shrimps scurried over its pure white belly picking off ticks; on that enormous surface they looked like ants running across a beach.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 5
Sting ray
A gray-backed stingray, its wings as big as a boat, pushed upwards in a cloud of sand and finned away, its frilled tail swinging from side to side.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 9
Wide-eyed flounder
Once there was a flurry beneath her as a wide-eyed flounder rocketed out of the sand; then she disappeared from sight.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 11
Green turtle
A green turtle sniffed at them, lifted up from its resting place on the reef, and rowed heavily away. Poseidon’s Deep, chapter 17
THE STARS
Like humans, the MERPEOPLE wrote their legends in the stars.
The night sky tells the story of the fall of Atlantis, Orion’s revenge, and many other tales.
This section describes the mers’ constellations and the stories behind them.
Cassiopeia, Cepheus and Perseus
In the netmen’s myths, Cassiopeia and Cepheus were the queen and king of Ethiopia. Cassiopeia boasted that she was more beautiful than the sea-nymphs, including Poseidon’s wife Amphitrite, so Poseidon sent a sea monster to terrorize the kingdom. The king and queen chained their daughter, Andromeda, to a rock in the sea as a sacrifice, but the hero Perseus, son of Zeus, rescued her in the nick of time.
For the mermen, Cepheus and Cassiopeia were king and queen of the mythical city of Athens, and Andromeda was their daughter. They swore friendship with the merpeople of Atlantis, who were ruled by Atlas, the son of Poseidon. Their shared civilization flourished the length and breadth of the Landlocked Sea – until Perseus intervened.
Look for these stars overhead soon after nightfall in the northern winter.
Perseus, Andromeda and the Seven Sisters
For the netmen of old, these constellations made up the ideal couple: a beautiful, helpless princess, and a brave demigod who rescued her and carried her away.
The mermen saw things differently. For them, Perseus, son of Zeus, was an usurper who stole the throne of Athens and killed Cepheus and Cassiopeia. To support his claim to the crown, he ordered Andromeda to marry him. When she refused, he chained her to a rock in the sea.
The Seven Sisters, who were the mermaid daughters of Atlas, rescued Andromeda and carried her away to Atlantis. But Perseus pursued them, and there followed the war of Andromeda’s Curse, that was to last three thousand years.
Look for these stars in the east soon after nightfall in the northern winter, or overhead before midnight
Orion (large scale image)
Netmen tell many differing stories about Orion. He is most often referred to as a hunter, sometimes a giant or a son of Poseidon, who tried to destroy all life on earth. In these stories, the spirit of the Earth sent a scorpion to kill him.
The merpeople’s legend is far simpler. To them, Orion was the son of Poseidon, but became estranged from his father and brother because of Zeus’ lies. For many years, he lived in hiding beneath a whirlpool in the Tangled Seas of Britain, but when Atlas was murdered, Orion came forth to avenge him, and led the greatest hunt the seas have ever seen…
Look for Orion in the south, at midnight.
Orion (Detail)
Orion is the best described of all the merpeople’s heroes. In his left hand, he holds the Black Trident of revenge, given to him by Poseidon to avenge Atlas’ death. His belt holds three trophies: the tusk of the White Death, the beak of the Red Death and the lance of the Black Death. He only has one eye, because he lost the other in his duel with the Black Death.
To the mermen, Orion was one of them. The constellation which netmen call the Hare makes up his tail. The bright star Sirius, which shines below and to the left of his tail, depicts the flare of phosphorescence that followed where he swam.
Rudder of the Sky and the Eye of Heaven
The merpeople tell many legends of ships, but none is more important than the Rudder of the Sky, the seven stars which steer the sky eternally towards the unmoving star above the Pole.
The seven stars represent the seven highest mountains of Atlantis. Some mers believe that Poseidon set them in the heavens as a memorial to his lost island. Others believe that Zeus put them there in mockery, to immortalize his greatest victory. All agree that Atlantis fell because of the blood feud between the gods.
How that blood feud ended is a story which has not yet been told.
Look for these stars in the north at any time of night
ORION
These books are set in real SEAS, and the CREATURES and LOCATIONS that the young mers see are real too.
This page presents some of the SPECIES, and some of the PLACES, which inspired this story.
There are no photos of MERPEOPLE in this section. Please send any if you have them.
Seal
A sudden movement made his head snap round. A young seal, pale in the moonlight, was scrambling for the water. She dived and sped away, looking back fearfully over her shoulder.
Orion’s Hunt, prologue
Seal 2
Seals sprawled on the beaches, but they were huge and pale and fat as giants.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 27
Seal 3
The seals fled, barking in panic, the moment they saw the mers.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 27
Stormdancers
In the middle of that hell of wild water, a little bird fluttered along the wave. It was barely bigger than her hand, black as soot save for the white patches on its wings and rump. It looked as vulnerable as a leaf in a gale. Yet it hung there with its long legs paddling the front of the monstrous wave, as calm and carefree as if the tempest was its home. It was a Stormdancer, what the netmen called a storm petrel.
Atlantis Lost, chapter 23.
Spybird 2
Far to the north, a sharp-winged figure beat against the wind. Its plumage was bedraggled, and its eyes were dull, but there was an unquenchable purpose in them. The Huntmaster was waiting.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 7
Spybird 1
High, high above, black-capped birds drifted in watchful spirals, but the school did not notice that…
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 23
Urchin
Giant urchins waved fragile tendrils, white against their lilac bodies.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 27
Scorpion-Fish on Leaf
Once, as Pel looked down on a bed of brazen kelp, a curled-up leaf unfolded in the swell, and there on its blade lay a tiny scorpion-fish, no longer than his hand.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 27
Bearded Cave Scorpion
She steered past the vast echoing space of the cave and ducked down, and they saw that she was heading for a narrow, raw-edged opening just beneath the surface. It was fringed with anemones, and bearded with limpets. Lakeweed ducked inside. They followed quickly … A tiny scorpion-fish, no bigger than a finger, blinked at them.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 29
Crab
A red-eyed crab looked up, munching on a blue jellyfish.
Orion’s Hunt , chapter 27
Comb-back
One night, they came across a comb-back longer than Pel, hanging under a lip of rock; they broke urchins under his nose to feed him, because Tarkka-Ilija said, “I have known him since we both were finlings. He is the oldest friend I have.” The comb-back accepted their gifts with unblinking eyes, and drifted backwards into his shelter like a king.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 21
Cave
The entrance was hauntingly similar to the home-cave. A jagged crevice led into a long tunnel, furred with anemones and scuttling crabs, where the light was no more than a blue glow.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 11
Blue
And then, somehow, without their really knowing how, it had ended, and light was streaming down from the distant surface: real daylight, dancing and jumping through the facets of the waves. There were colors again, the blue of the sky and the richer blue of the deep.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 1
Bearded Cave Scorpion
She steered past the vast echoing space of the cave and ducked down, and they saw that she was heading for a narrow, raw-edged opening just beneath the surface. It was fringed with anemones, and bearded with limpets. Lakeweed ducked inside. They followed quickly … A tiny scorpion-fish, no bigger than a finger, blinked at them.
Orion’s Hunt, chapter 29