He also based the undersea dragon kingdom of Sambar XII on the "real ocean", inspired by the undergraduate courses in marine biology and oceanography he had taken at UC Santa Cruz.

When they are left alone, Indigo, a servant girl working in the dungeons, helps them escape by suggesting that Shimmer try changing the tumblers on the locks to their chains and cell door.

Shimmer, Indigo and Thorn are taken to an underwater mountain fort and welcomed by hundreds of Inland Sea dragons from the oldest to the youngest, all battle-scarred, ready to fight, and bearing signs of the treatment they have had to put up with from Sambar.

At the fort Shimmer discovers that a single stalk of a flower known as Ebony's tears, which used to grow abundantly around the shores of the Inland Sea, still exists and was magically preserved, having become a symbol to the entire clan.

Shimmer is able to convince Lady Francolin to relinquish Ebony's tears, and she, Thorn and Indigo manage to sneak back into the palace in disguise with the flower.

Monkey reverses the spell that transformed his hair into a chain that Civet had swallowed, and Shimmer strikes a bargain with her for help in restoring the Inland Sea in return for letting her settle in the Green Darkness.

Indigo's homecoming proves to be bittersweet as she finds that much of the forest has been chopped down to construct warships and the young people of her village conscripted as labor.

[6] The Voice of Youth Advocates described it as "a fable which is readable, especially for middle and junior high students, on two levels: first, as enjoyable reading and, second, as an allegory of perseverance and loyalty".