Demon Song

Adriana let out a sigh. “It was both. We had no choice but to save the world. We’d nearly ended it. Or,” she added with another frown, “more precisely, certain contingents of the sirens had.”

“Like Stefania, you mean?”

Adriana nodded at the corner of my vision. I changed lanes to get into the flow of traffic on the interstate. “Queen Eris had bred badly and her daughters didn’t hold the world’s children—the humans—in very high regard. Princesses Kraystal and Evana were of the opinion that the land would be better off without the human race. But sirens were at that time loathe to step too far inland, giving them no way to exterminate humanity. So they sought … help.”

“The demons.” I was starting to get sick to my stomach. “And now it’s started again, and I’m betting Stefania and Eirene had something to do with this new rift.” Adriana’s nod was answer enough. We drove for a moment in silence while I sorted out what I wanted to say. “So why change the history books? Why not just tell the world the sirens had a traitor, but you fixed it?”

Adriana shrugged. “Ego? Pride? I don’t have an answer. But I do know that even now my mother is going to be furious I’m telling you this.”

Oh! “So that’s why she was so angry when I asked about the Millennium Horns. Because it’s a reminder of the folly of the whole race.”

Now a deep sigh issued from Adriana. “No. Her embarrassment is from the second folly of the sirens—we’re not prepared for today’s crisis because the queens refused to believe the past could repeat.” I waited, and so did Dawna, until Adriana was ready to dish the details. After a long moment, she took a deep breath and continued, “When Queen Eris realized what her daughters had done, she sought the help of the greatest minds of the world. Human minds. To make the point to her daughters that sirens had to learn to coexist, she worked with members of what they considered a lesser race to come up with a plan to close the rift. It was a Greek philosopher and inventor, I believe, who first suggested the use of sound waves.”

I knew there had been some great minds in the past—after all, we still use techniques developed by the Romans and Egyptians. “I didn’t realize they’d experimented with that.”

Adriana nodded. “Of course. The island nations have long used conch shells as horns to signal over long distances. Humans were curious creatures. Where the sirens would choose any shell at hand to signal a boat or a friend across the island, the humans always tried to makes the tool better. This shape or that, the blowing hole larger or smaller to change the pitch. Queen Eris found people who showed promise and put them in the same room to offer ideas about what size and shape would work best. She then sent her best warriors out to find as many conch shells as she could and forced her daughters, as punishment, to find the one that would heal the wound in space.”

Dawna’s comment echoed my thought: “I’ll bet she didn’t give bathroom breaks, either.”

Adriana’s jaw set with either displeasure or concern for her own fate. “The warriors ensured they continued their task while the island was slowly eaten by the rift and the people were tormented by demons. The elder daughter, Kraystal, died of exhaustion after four days. It was Evana who found one that made the darkness waver and sparkle, after half of the island was gone. But it wasn’t enough by itself to seal the breach.”

Dear God. That must have been terrifying. For everyone. “So what happened? How did they seal the breach?”

Adriana raised her hands and frustration edged her voice: “I don’t honestly know and I’ve scoured our libraries. We know there were two horns and that the rift was sealed. We know Atlantis was swallowed into the rift in an implosion of immense proportions. There’s been no trace found because it doesn’t exist in this dimension anymore. I found notes from one scribe that said the method was written down and hidden —as were the horns. After so many sirens were found to be involved in the scandal, the queens decided it was best if the memory was forgotten, so no future generations would ever be tempted.”

My mouth opened and I spoke before I probably should have: “That is the stupidest damn thing I’ve ever heard in my life! Are they idiots?”

“Celia—” Adriana was tense, nearing anger. “You’re talking about my mother. For better or worse, she was—they were—trying to protect humanity.”

I let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, but if she was on the throne back then, what she and the others did was beyond foolish. Information is the only thing that keeps people safe. Diseases are cured by people sharing the clues from the dead; inventions are created from the ruins of failed experiments. Can we at least ask her what she knows?”

Adriana shook her head. “She doesn’t know anything. I did ask. I wasn’t joking when I said the memory was forgotten. They wiped their own memories of the event and left it to the scribes to keep the knowledge safe for the future. But either the scribes didn’t do as ordered or the records disappeared. It seems that there are pages missing from some books. But they’re very old texts. It could be that the sheets fell out and were thrown away by accident.”

I pressed my foot down harder on the gas in pure frustration and the speedometer needle shot past 70. “So, we have no horns, no instructions, and a bunch of mages who are going to exhaust themselves soon to contain a rift that will never stop growing?”

Adriana nodded and Dawna let out a groan of near despair. “Close. Very close. But only two of those are completely accurate.” My cousin pulled the black canvas tote onto her lap and extracted … a massive triton conch shell. “We have one of the horns. Our troops found it in Stefania’s palace after she died. There’s an engraving inside in old Atlantean cuneiform—Eris, who mastered the dark. It’s likely that she was the one to blow the horn. She had the most formidable power.”

I noticed the fuel gauge was getting dangerously low. “Let’s stop for gas. I want to look at that horn closer.”

In a few minutes the digital numbers on the pump were spinning upward and Dawna and I were admiring a shell that had survived for over a thousand years. I collect shells, so I can be a little jaded about them. But this was truly magnificent. “Look at the colors. I’ve never seen a triton conch shell that looked like this.” Unlike king and queen conch shells, which are a creamy apricot and have jagged points and spikes, a triton conch is long and smooth, with dark spots. This one had not only dark dots and spots but also what looked like patterns of gold flakes and burgundy sand. I ran a slow finger along the etched figures that Adriana said were writing. They seemed familiar, but I couldn’t remember why. “It sort of makes sense one of the horns is a triton. They have an amazing sound.”

Dawna was likewise running almost reverent fingers along the curves. “There are all sorts of carvings and paintings of the sea god, whether you call him Triton or Poseidon, using one of these to call his people to battle. And this particular puppy can seal the rift, huh?”

I couldn’t resist. I pulled it gently from Adriana’s grip and put it to my lips. She shrugged. “I already tried that. No noise comes out. Even though they don’t feel magical, there must be some sort of spell to make it work.”

I took a slight breath and blew. A low, mournful sound erupted from the opening. I’ve always loved the sound a conch makes. But Dawna covered her ears like she was in pain and Adriana dropped her head into her hands. God, it wasn’t that bad. But apparently I was wrong, because the car’s windows started to vibrate. There was a loud pop and a crack appeared across the lower half of the windshield.

Oops.

Adriana pulled the horn away from me and stared alternately at me and it with mingled fear and amazement. Dawna was trying to recover her hearing by shaking each earlobe and opening her mouth wide.

“Um…”

The horn went to Adriana’s lips. I saw her cheeks puff out, and then … nothing. No sound. And I mean no sound. “I have to admit that’s a little odd.”

“Let me try.” Dawna held her hand over the seat confidently and Adriana passed the shell to her. I turned in my seat to watch, ready to throw my hands over my ears. But again, no sound issued from the horn. Dawna handed it back to me with an odd look on her face. “What are you, the chosen one or something?”

“God, I hope not. I can think of a thousand things I’d rather do than ever stand in front of that rift again.” Adriana gestured, Do it again. Once more I blew, just a tiny bit—and the horn sounded. The volume didn’t seem to be tied to the amount of air. That spoke of powerful magic. The windows shook again,