About the book: year / The priests of the Blessed Finist teach that mermaids are evil river spirits, ghosts of drowned women who lure honest villagers into the water and drown. And there were no mermaids left in the Crown-Earth, they were all killed during the reign of Andriy Bogonravny, who built churches and destroyed the undead... Only Gorislava, a girl with snake blood in her veins and a heroic strength, prefers to believe her own eyes, rather than the stories of the priests: she was saved from the river by herself a real mermaid named Kupava. Wanting to repay the debt, Gorislava undertakes to take the girl to Lake Beloyar, to the ancient mermaid sanctuary - but neither of them even suspects where the winding forest roads will lead them.