Mererid is on the run – she’s a water diviner, taken by one of the local princes when she was small for her magic. Why she’s on the run is one of the things that’ll be unraveled as the story goes along.
This is a heist story, and an enjoyable one – several other characters are introduced, and it moved along nicely.
This is also based on the Lowland Hundreds – a Welsh legend of a kingdom that was drowned beneath the waves. The prince of that land, Garanhir, is who has taken Mererid. My favorite literary version of this tale is in Susan Cooper’s Silver on the Tree, and these two stories could not be more different. In this story, Garanhir is a prince set on conquering his neighboring kingdoms. In Cooper’s book, he’s a bit of a mystic powerless to stop the destruction of his land. I enjoyed both – this is a great story set up that can go so many ways.