by A. L. Knorr
Emun put a hand over his lips and his eyes drifted shut. “How difficult it must have been for you to have given birth to twin boys at your next Dyás.”
“It was difficult, but it has come to result in the greatest gifts I could ever desire.” I looked from Emun to Targa and back again. “The two of you.”
“But why did you continue to torture yourself if you didn’t have to? You said that under Apollyona’s rule, every siren was only required to go on one cycle, but now this is four cycles you’ve been through.”
“The second and third I undertook because I felt like a failure. Those sirens who returned to Okeanos with daughters had something wonderful I knew nothing about. They also had a lighter burden to bear, knowing that they’d contributed something to Okeanos.” I took a deep inhale, preparing to relive the next part of my history. “The fourth I undertook because of an overinflated sense of justice, and perhaps ego had something to do with it. Let me explain…”
Five
A bright summer sun sent its powerful rays down on Mount Califas where the sirens of Okeanos had gathered. The mountain was so steep, it was more like a collection of huge natural pillars reaching from the teal sea to the azure sky, encrusted with lush green plant life clinging to every surface. Cascades poured from low open mouths in the rock, filling the air at the base of the mountain with moisture. Rainbows arched over every waterfall while birds fluttered and swooped around the pools filled with flashing fish.
Looking down from the very top of Califas was a dizzying experience, and a little unsettling. Being high on a mountaintop was the very antithesis of a mermaid’s natural habitat, but it was there that sirens who had returned home from their Dyás were presented with the gems which would protect them from the siren’s curse. The location allowed the returning siren to see her home stretched out before her like a gift, and to bathe in the sun’s life-giving rays.
Apollyona, resplendent in a yellow robe, stood before a returning siren named Lia. Apollyona’s aquamarine crown and necklace flashed in the sun—just as they had when she first gave me my gem. The gem ceremony was held only once, when a siren returned from her first Dyás. After that, if a siren chose to take on a second, she could leave her gem with the Sovereign and have it returned to her privately afterward. Smiles were on every face because Lia had returned with a daughter, an eight-year-old siren. Lia had completed a successful first mating cycle, which would bolster our ranks.
Nike stood at my shoulder, commentating on the simple ceremony. Sirens were not extravagant with these events, and Apollyona herself was the most ceremonious feature.
Lia stood before our Sovereign with her daughter. The child held her mother’s hand and looked around in awe the same way I had when I had first arrived in Okeanos.
We stood on a rock at the back of the crowd where we had a good view of the proceedings and where Nike’s whispered words wouldn’t disturb anyone.
“When Odenyalis ruled, the ceremony was different. It was longer, and additional Dyás were greatly encouraged,” Nike whispered in my ear as we watched. “Odenyalis used to give a long speech about how the cycles made for a larger and wiser population, that they were needed to secure the future of Okeanos.”
My eyes darted to where the former Sovereign stood near the back row directly opposite us, watching the proceedings.
“Apollyona doesn’t say anything about the Dyás, encouraging or not,” Nike pointed out.
“Why do you think that is?” I whispered back.
“Well it’s a cruel thing for a mermaid, is it not?” Nike rested her chin on my shoulder. “Mating cycles are hard on us, even successful ones. Perhaps Apollyona is just being kind.”
Though she was whispering, I thought I detected a note of irony in Nike’s words. The sorceress did not really believe that Apollyona would do anything purely for kindness, and neither did I.
My eyes fell on a mousy-haired siren standing just behind Apollyona and holding a small wooden box with brass hinges. She never took her eyes from the proceedings and seemed emotionally wrapped up in the presentation of the gem. The announcement of the returning siren’s name and her daughter’s name was the only welcome from Apollyona. She turned to the mousy-haired siren, who presented the box to the Sovereign––with its top flipped open––so that Apollyona could pluck an aquamarine from it and present it to Lia.
“That’s Trina,” Nike answered my unasked question, “Apollyona’s newest handmaiden.”
I watched as Trina wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and gazed adoringly at Apollyona as the Sovereign lay the aquamarine in the palm of Lia’s hand. Then Apollyona lifted her own chin so Lia could touch her fingers to the Sovereign’s throat.
“She’s very invested,” I whispered. “Trina, I mean.”
I felt Nike nod. “Why do you think Apollyona chose her? She’s obedient, and won’t question Apollyona’s decisions.”
A stab of jealousy in my heart surprised me and I wondered why Apollyona hadn’t offered me a position at her side. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised, for Apollyona did not treat me any differently than any other siren under her rule. But sometimes, often unexpectedly, the rejection still hurt.
With the gem given, and Lia and her daughter welcomed, the siren ceremony came to an end. Some sirens disappeared through an archway leading into the mountain, where steps led down into the interior. Others navigated a set of treacherous curved steps leading to the pools below, and still others lingered at the mountaintop, talking and enjoying the view.
Nike and I made to descend the outer steps when one of the Foniádes appeared at the archway and approached Apollyona.
The taller siren touched the Sovereign’s throat with a bowed head and said, “We’ve taken four more Atlanteans found well inside our borders. We’ve brought them to you, as requested.”
Nike and I shared a look. Nothing had been heard about Atlanteans for years, not since Apollyona had laid down her decree when she’d first taken the throne.
Apollyona thanked the Foniádes and disappeared into the mountain. Trina kept a close step behind the Sovereign.
Curious, Nike and I followed.
Apollyona made her way down to the throne room but did not stop there. She descended further into the belly of Califas. Nike and I kept our distance. We appeared to be the only sirens who’d overheard the exchange above—or at least we were the only ones curious about the Atlanteans. Sirens bathing in the freshwater pools inside the art-lined caves watched us pass without comment.
Apollyona entered a huge, arched cavern lit with slanting reflections of sunlight and littered with many pools of dark water. Some of the pools were small and shallow, warm and sparkling with minerals, while others were deep and led to underground rivers, some so long and winding they exited into the Atlantic beyond the borders of Okeanos.
Nike and I came up short at the scene that met us inside the cave. Three more Foniádes flanked four kneeling Atlanteans. Pitiful creatures they were, thin and unkempt with haunted eyes and patches of hair missing because of the sea lice that had invaded their scalps.
Apollyona stopped before them, then suddenly turned to look directly at Nike and me.
“Leave us,” she commanded, her voice loud and ringing.
Nike and I looked at one another in surprise. It had not been in the nature of Apollyona, or the rule of any Sovereign before her, to do things in secret. Her command only served to deepen my desire to stay and witness how she was going to deal with these Atlanteans.
I opened my mouth to protest, but Trina stepped closer, the expression on her face fierce with righteous anger.
“Did you not hear your Sovereign?” she snapped, pointing to the stairway we’d just descended. “Out. Now!”
Rebellion surged through me like a hot rushing river and I made to argue when I felt Nike’s hand hook my elbow.
“Come on,” she said quietly. “We’d better go.”
For a moment I locked eyes with my mother and glared a
t her, but what I saw there unnerved me––it was like she didn’t recognize who I was. She looked at me as though I was a stranger. That look was like a physical blow to my gut.
I stepped into the dark pool nearest us, one I knew to be deep and to lead into open water far from Califas. Exiting this way when Trina was pointing to the stairwell was more a way to be rebellious than anything else, to show her that I would not bend entirely. Trina was just a siren, with no Salt-given power over any other.
Nike followed me into the pool.
Trina spat, “Doesn’t matter which way you leave, just go. And don’t ever hesitate at the command of your Sovereign again.”
We slipped under the water’s surface and our legs melded into tails. As Nike and I made our winding, convoluted way through the bowels of Califas, anger seethed. I was more determined than ever to find out what Apollyona had planned for those sad Atlanteans.
Nike let me fume in silence until, by the time we were ejected from a crack in the rocky coral beyond Califas, I was feeling a little less irate.
“What do you think she’s going to do about them?” I asked as we swam on, not really noticing or caring where we were headed.
“Inform them sternly of our laws?” Nike ventured, but with more humor than seriousness in her tone.
I grunted and became lost in my own wonderings again until Nike interrupted me.
“Look,” she said, tugging on my elbow.
Following her gaze, I saw the Foniádes escorting the four Atlanteans away from Califas.
“You see, nothing to worry about. They’ll be taken to the borders of Okeanos with a warning and sent away.”
“If that’s the case,” I chewed my lip, still feeling that something wasn’t right, “then why did Apollyona not let us witness it?”
“I’m sure she had her reasons.” But even Nike sounded doubtful.
The next day, Nike and I were exploring a wreck when I saw one of the Foniádes in the distance. Without a second thought, I took off toward her.
“Where are you…” Nike began, but saw the siren in the distance and followed.
Asking her to wait, I caught up to her. “What happened with the Atlanteans yesterday?”
“Executed,” she replied simply, almost as though I was stupid for thinking anything else would have happened to them. “Except for one.”
Shock stole my voice and my jaw dropped in horror.
“Except for one?” Nike asked as she approached.
The Foniádes gave a nod. “She was to watch and then was sent to warn her kind what would happen to them if they ever ventured inside Okeanos territory.”
A chill ran up my spine as I stared at the siren. Apollyona had had her Foniádes slay those poor creatures and forced one of them to watch the executions. My gaze fell to the spear in her hand.
“That’s wrong,” I choked out. “Can’t you see that?”
The Foniádes regarded me coolly. “It’s the Sovereign who decides what is right or wrong. She has been deemed worthy by the Salt to do so. You know this.”
Clearly not wanting to discuss the matter further, she swam away.
I stared at Nike, horrified. “She can’t do this. It’s not right, it’s not how the laws of the ocean work. That’s a human law she’s enforcing. We are not humans.”
“The Salt made her our Sovereign, Bel,” replied Nike. “The Salt is the only law we know, and she’s the Salt’s representative. There are greater forces at work here than we understand.”
I shook my head, putting a hand on my stomach and swallowing down the rising bile at the thought of what my mother had done. “It’s murder. The Salt has made a mistake.”
“I don’t think the Salt can make mistakes,” she said, gently. “If we thought that, our whole way of being would simply fall apart, descend into chaos. We need some kind of transcendent—”
“How does the Salt decide who is to rule us?” I interrupted.
A slow smile crossed Nike’s face, and the smile surprised and unnerved me. “Now you’re asking the right question, Bel.”
“What do you mean?” All my focus was on the siren sorceress in front of me now. “What do you know?”
“We sirens leave it to the Salt to decide who our ruler is to be, thinking it to be a kind of magic that cannot be influenced. But it can.”
My heart began to pound. “How?”
“Think about what you have seen already in your lifetime. You saw Odenyalis step down from Sovereignty and hand it willingly over to Apollyona. You also know now that Odenyalis encouraged sirens to take on more mating cycles, but that Apollyona does not. Apollyona focuses our Foniádes on keeping Okeanos safe from outsiders offensively.”
“While Odenyalis’ strategy was to bolster our numbers by encouraging us to go through more mating cycles and bring home more than one daughter.”
Nike nodded. “Odenyalis did not relish the power of the Sovereignty, though the Salt deemed her worthy.”
My mother’s eagerness to return to Okeanos rose in my memory. It was as if she had known the throne was waiting for her. But how could she have known the Salt was going to choose her, unless she had done something to make it happen?
Nike was watching me intently. My mind raced, and I felt as though I was on the edge of some paradigm shift. My gaze met Nike’s, and realization lit my thoughts up like fireworks.
“It’s the cycles,” I said, breathlessly. “Isn’t it?”
My mother had never told me about the results of any of her past cycles, let alone that she’d ever had more than one.
I continued, “More cycles trigger the Salt to pass the Sovereignty on?”
Nike didn’t nod, but her expression told me she thought I was right and was pleased I’d figured it out.
“If you disagree with how Apollyona is treating the Atlanteans, you are not helpless to change it,” Nike said quietly.
I kept my voice low in case there were sirens nearby, though I thought all sirens should know this was how Sovereignty was achieved. “Why is it a secret?”
“Why do you think?”
We began to swim toward the sunny pools at the base of Mount Califas, our favorite place to eat.
“Apollyona doesn’t want anyone to know, at least, not the wrong sirens,” I ventured, wrestling with my anger boiling just under the surface at this discovery. “How did you find out?”
“I just looked around and figured it out. I’ve been here a long time, Bel. I know how many daughters Apollyona has.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
She didn’t answer, but her eyes implored me to figure it out on my own.
“Apollyona made you vow not to tell?” Again, from the look on her face, I knew I was right. “Or what?”
“What do I hate more than anything?”
“Life on land.” I had understood this about Nike immediately, and she was the only one of the sirens who did not have to go on a mating cycle. There was something different about Nike, not just in how she looked, her abilities, and her coloring, but something in her nature as well.
“When I hit puberty, I did not feel the urge to find a mate the way the rest of the sirens do,” she said. “I waited and waited, but it never came. The Sovereign of my youth was Xantiaset, known before her reign as Tia. Tia began to watch me. All sirens are connected to their Sovereign, and the Sovereign is connected to her sirens. She could feel something was different about me, though no other sirens made comments about it or seemed to care.”
We reached the surface. Our tails split and transformed into human skin, bone, and muscle as we left the ocean. My first breath of oxygen worked to clear my thinking, like wiping condensation away from a window inside a greenhouse.
We climbed to one of the lowest pools, a sparkling warm pond fed by a stream of water trickling over mossy rocks. Orange, yellow and blue fish caught the bugs skating along the surface.
Nike slipped into the pool and her tail returned, but I kept my human form and let my feet da
ngle in the water while we resumed our conversation.
“Tia pulled me aside one day to ask me how I was feeling. I had been dreading the day,” Nike explained as she lay back against a stone and trailed a finger along the backs of the fish swimming near her. “I thought for sure she would send me away, force me to go on a mating cycle my body clearly didn’t want.”
“Did she?”
Nike smiled at me, and her light gray eyes shone with unshed tears. She shook her head. “Remarkable Sovereign, Xantiaset. She didn’t send me away, but she did suggest that I leave for a while and come back in a few months––if not years––just to make it appear as though I’d gone on a mating cycle. She wanted to avoid the questions that would arise if it didn’t at least look like I’d gone on a cycle.”
“But the other sirens weren’t interested, you said. They didn’t care that you hadn’t appeared to reach puberty yet.”
“They didn’t, but someone might have eventually. Tia just wanted to avoid anyone bringing attention to me. I think she wanted to avoid sending me away officially.” Nike shrugged. “Anyway, I left Okeanos for a while, but I didn’t go on land. I went to the Pacific. I learned a lot and it was like a wonderful holiday. When I returned to Okeanos, Xantiaset welcomed me back and gave me this.” Nike’s slender tapered fingers fluttered to her throat where her gemstone sat.
“So you’ve never been on a mating cycle?”
“No, and I’ve been wearing the gem for so long I don’t know what would happen if I gave it up.”
“And no one has ever asked you about it?”
“Not until Apollyona.” Nike frowned. “She knows.”
“You know about how Sovereignty is achieved,” I mused, “and she’s threatening to send you on a mating cycle if you give away the secret.”
Nike gazed at me, her lips upturned in a mild smile that told me I was right in my assumption. But my sorceress friend took it a step further. In a whisper, she said, “She’s afraid of you, Bel.”