Chapter 1: Mermaids, Prince Arthur, and Emily in 1841

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     Mermaids, their homes and their habitats are explained and described, including how mermaids and dolphins sense the approach of a hurricane and fend for themselves.  Mermaids praise their King Wayan II for doing little or nothing as a ruler, which perfectly suits them.  Mermaid doctors are rewarded for keeping their patience well, and mermaids pay them nothing when they fall ill.
     Mermaid Queen Iridescence is killed by a tiger shark, which causes her eldest daughter to fear going to the surface by herself. The three major settings of the novel are the mermaid kingdom Marbella, the royal palace of Beauteous Kingdom, and Emily McAllister’s farm home on Sawyer Island. Mermaid and dolphin relationships are described.
     Prince Arthur, heir to the throne of Beauteous Kingdom, is an impractical dreamer who’d rather spend time communing with nature and woodland fairies than learn the ways of ruling a kingdom. With his big nose, protruding ears, a pronounced overbite, and a receding chin—all due to inbreeding that’s common among royalty—he looks every inch the regal “twit” that royals are expected to look.
     Arthur’s father, King Zaniddiate, constantly keeps his finger on the public pulse, viewing the citizens of Beauteous Kingdom as if they were his children.  He believes the kingdom would fall apart if he were not continually devoted to making decisions on their behalf.
     Emily McAllister is a nine-year-old farm girl living on Sawyer Island, about ten miles across the bay from Royalton.  Her father Richard is a subsistence farmer who earns extra money keeping machinery at Garner’s Millpond in working order. Though Emily seems a typical 1841 farm girl, rumors suggest that her grandfather—somewhere in hiding under an assumed name—is secretly the lost dauphin and heir to the throne of France.

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