As she floated just above the churning, white-capped sea, Adagio’s smile was radiant. She’d lost track of the cliffs some time ago, but she could hear the waves crashing against the rocks somewhere off to her left. Her father was there, and their next talk was going to be very different from their last.
I have underestimated you, it seems. The creature’s massive eye flared off in the mists. Its scales caught what dull light was available, glistening and gleaming in confusing patterns. Legions of your forbearers have knelt before me, but you hold power they did not possess. I wonder what you will do with it?
Adagio blinked, wavering in the air for a moment. “Huh?” It was so hard to take her eyes from the way the beast shimmered.
The hippocampus chuckled. All of that rage within you, yet no desires? Was that your sire I saw clinging to you on the cliffs? Our races have warred for untold generations, and through that conflict, I have come to know your people. If you have no desires of your own, then he surely does. I am surprised that one with your strength is content to do as she is bid. I had taken you for a fighter.
“I am!” Adagio said, her fist tightening. Somewhere inside her, a bloom of anger flared, but weariness quenched it almost immediately. “I-I mean, just when I have to, but I don’t want to fight. That’s what he wants.”
Eyebrow arched, the creature slowly circled. Adagio was forced to twist in the air to keep her eyes on it. As ever, the sires and dams of your race sacrifice their foals in a bid to remain safe for just one more day. We have exterminated thousands of your kind, did you know that?
“Of course,” Adagio said through gritted teeth. “It’s all my father ever talks about!”
But I am curious to know if he told you how.
Adagio jerked away when the creature’s scaly tail brushed up against her. Somehow, she’d lost track of it for a moment. Her head was spinning. “Stop.” Her voice was low, but it thrummed with power.
As you wish… Master, it said with a hint of mirth. Floating on the cold ocean breeze beside her, its fins rippled gently.
Pursing her lips, Adagio drifted back to what she felt was a safe distance from the smirking thing. She shook her head briskly to clear it, then inhaled a few times. Her lungs felt good. Powerful. “Are you going to fight me again? Because I can—”
The hippocampus rolled its eyes. I will never understand how your race has survived for so long when most of you are stumbling through the dark. I cannot rise against you. We are Joined until one of us expires. You are the hand. I am but the sword. The question isn’t if I will fight you. It’s who will we fight together?
Adagio’s brow furrowed. “I don’t want to fight anything. I want everyone to stop fighting.”
The hippocampus stared at her for a long moment, the corner of one side of its mouth turning up in a crooked smirk that revealed a hint of razor-sharp teeth. There is nothing worth fighting for, then? Is the world so perfect in your eyes?
“Of course not.” Adagio rose to the creature’s eye level and leaned over its snout. “But all we ever do is fight, and it’s not working! It’s a big waste of time! All day long, I have tutors telling about this battle and that battle, on and on. I don’t want to go off to some war and get killed!”
Yet you are fine with others going in your stead?
“No!”
The word erupted from her, slamming into the hippocampus and blowing it back several yards. For just a moment, Adagio caught a flash of pure hatred from its eye while it tumbled through the air, but it was gone once the creature regained control of its flight.
Come now, foal. Control yourself—
“Quit twisting things around!” Adagio darted toward the beast, then mirrored its circling. “You think you’re really smart, don’t you? Trying to make me do what you want me to do. I’ve spent my whole life with people pushing me around. You’re nothing compared to what I’ve been through!”
Is that so, foal?
“This foal just took you on and won. I'm not a foal anyway! I'm a girl. Don’t ever call me that again!”
The hippocampus’s eyes slid to the left to track Adagio. Then do not act as one. I am bound to you, but my mind is still my own. I will speak as I desire. Only a foal in a tantrum throws her toys. It held up a hoof, and Adagio paused. Think back on your words and of your situation. Your sire. He is the great manipulator, is he not?
Adagio crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes, but said nothing.
The hippocampus let out a theatrical sigh. Adagio, I can see the truth of things in your mind. We have no secrets from each other.
The siren closed her eyes and concentrated. “What are you talking about?” she said after a moment. “I don’t see anything!”
It will come in time. Your lives are brief, land-thing. I have had centuries of practice.
Adagio hovered silently for a moment, then put her hands on her hips. “Tell me what your name is.”
The hippocampus tapped its chin with a hoof. Hmmm. What a difficult request… He smirked at Adagio when she glared at him. Oh, no. It is not defiance that you see, land-thing. My race has no need for names. We know each other from the shapes of our minds. That is all that is necessary.
“What should I call you, then?” Adagio said.
What indeed? I suppose you will have to think of something. I wonder what that will say about you?
“How about Minor Scale?” Adagio said, aping his grin.
The muscles at the hippocampus’s jaw jumped and bunched. Adagio winced as the jagged teeth ground against one another. Somewhat clever, but juvenile. I thought that you desired to be seen as an adult.
Adagio crossed her arms and looked away.
This will become tiresome very quickly. When the hippocampus drifted back into her view, its scales once again caught the light. We can be the best of friends or the greatest of enemies. It all depends—
Adagio threw a hand up between them, shielding her eyes. The confusing pattern of the creature’s shimmering scales was making it hard to concentrate. “Dazzle,” she said after shaking her head forcefully. It was so hard to look away. “I’ll call you Dazzle.”
Dazzle. The creature’s jaw worked as though rolling the word around in his mouth. Yes, that will do, but I wonder if you have considered the nature that it suggests? Will you harmonize still?
“What?” Adagio said, her face screwing up.
Dazzle pointed the end of his tail at himself, then at her. You and I can operate as extensions of one another, or we can be limiting factors that reduce our collective output to nothing. Within you, I see a soloist. You see this as your greatest strength, yet even the most powerful soloist will be drowned out by the chorus should they collectively wish it to be so. Can you join another in song and purpose, Adagio? It is evident that you have strength, but are you truly strong? Can you master yourself as you have mastered me?
Adagio pursed her lips. Dazzle’s probing words were rolling over her like the relentless tide. They left her feeling dizzy and unsure. “I’m tired. W-we need to go back now.”
Back? To your sire? The voice was winding black silk: Soft and smooth, but with the ever-present threat of suffocation. It seemed to constrict, then release her just as she noticed. Back home where you’ll be shipped off to join your brother in your kind’s hopeless struggle against mine? Back to where you can slaughter your kin by the score?
“Slaughter my kin?” The discordant thought sliced through her consciousness, and Adagio shook her head. It felt thick, like it was full of cobwebs. “What are you talking about?”
She clutched her head as Dazzle’s laughter boomed through it. O blind and crawling creature of land, you are amusing! Your kind and their secrets! Let me show you that which you do not know. I will help you step into my mind, and you will finally see the truth of things.
~~~
The breath caught in Adagio’s throat for just a moment before she yelled out a warning, but the squad ran right by her. She reached out for them, but in that instant, concentric rings of sound, so potent that they glowed, washed over the ground and blew them backward. A fiery-haired girl not much older than Adagio crashed into the cracked earth by her feet. She did not move again.
Ahead, a snarling black hippocampus moved into the area it had just swept the siren squad from, only to be trapped when several heads popped up over the surrounding ridge. The sirens’ voices joined together in a cascading harmony. Each note hammered at the hippocampus, sapping its strength and pinning it to the ground. A spear flashed, and the hippocampus screamed.
Rising from behind a nearby copse of trees, three more hippocampi snarled, then dove for the group.
“No.” Adagio whipped her head around, but each place she looked was worse than the last. She screwed her eyes closed. “No! Stop!”
Hovering overhead, Dazzle sniggered. Stop? Oh, no. This will never cease. At least, not as things are now. Open your eyes and look again, creature of dirt. It is time you learned that which your leaders hide. Or do you lack the courage?
Adagio glared at the creature for a moment before looking back over the battlefield. “You’re wrong. They always told us the battles were bad. I… I just didn’t realize that it… that it was so...” Adagio forced down a lump in her throat with a loud swallow. “That it looked like this.”
Look past the stories of your elders. There is something wrong here. Dazzle wound his tail around her body, slowly turning the siren. Forget the histories and lessons that they have forced onto you. What is the truth here?
Biting back an argumentative response, Adagio took a deep breath and stared out into the carnage. Ruined bodies lay draped over broken trees and shattered rocks. A lucky few still moved. Lines of her people, armored in enchanted coral breastplates and greaves, lined a beach so battered by the colossal forces that large swaths of it had turned to glass. Behind them, several bodies floated in the water. Still others struggled weakly to climb the dunes just ahead. Adagio’s eyes widened, and she gasped. “Why are they going the wrong way?” She took an involuntary step toward the beach. “Why are they coming out of the water?”
Adagio shivered when the low growl rumbled through her mind. Why, indeed? His lip pulled back into a slight snarl, Dazzle pointed to a far-away patch of ocean, then to a tree-covered hill nearby. Watch. I think that this will interest you.
Hippocampi burst from the patch of ocean. Their sinuous bodies twined around one another for a moment before they broke apart and snapped into a rigid formation. Oriented on the battlefield, they roared, and the jewels at their breast flared to life. Each shot out a pulsing beam, and from it, a siren formed and dropped onto the beach just beyond the crashing waves.
On the other side, several scarred sirens rose from the hill and joined hands. Blinding magicks erupted from them and coalesced into wild-eyed and fang-baring hippocampi that dove for the beach. The squad of sirens grinned and began to sing.
Adagio squinted at the hilltop, then gasped. “No!”
Yes.
Marcato rose from his place in the center of the group. Hovering above, he threw a hand out and pointed toward the spellbound sirens that were slogging through the sand at the water’s edge. The hippocampi circling overhead leapt into action. Mouths wide, the creatures fell on the sirens, who responded with keening wails that sliced like knives. Both sides tore into each other, and soon the waves lapping up against the beach ran pink with foaming blood.
“No!” Adagio sprinted out onto the beach. “Marcato, no!” She stumbled, then fell face-first into the sand when laughter boomed in her mind. Fighting back to a kneeling position, she held her aching head in her hands.
Do you see the truth now, crawling thing?
Adagio’s hands were balled into tight fists at her sides as she whipped her head around to stare at the mocking hippocampus. “You have to do what I say, so go get Marcato and bring him here!”
Dazzle rolled his eyes. How quickly they forget. Perhaps this is why so few of you are entrusted with the secrets of your kind.
“What are you talking about?” Eyes narrowed, Adagio took a step toward Dazzle. Her hair billowed out behind her as the whipping coastal winds tore at it. “Go get Marcato like I told you and then tell me everything!”
No. The voice shook with barely contained mirth.
“Go!” Adagio took a deep breath, then focused her magic into it. “Now!” The word rolled out like thunder, but broke apart against the sneering creature before her.
I’ve already told you. I can’t, Dazzle said, smirking. Remember where we are.
Adagio froze, her pointing finger wavering for a moment. “Where we…”
Ah, the rusty gears at last begin to turn.
Her hands dropped to her sides, and she dropped her eyes to the ground at her feet. On it, a piece of shattered white coral gleamed. She nudged it with her toe, and it rolled over. The underside was cracked and dull. “Your memory. We’re in the past.”
Yes. I am there. Dazzle pointed a hoof toward the forest, and Adagio caught a flash of gold between the trees. Your mind is going to need to be much more nimble than that, Adagio. Much, much more nimble if we are to succeed.
“Succeed at what?” She tried to force some anger into her voice, but numbness was creeping into her bones. She’d lost sight of the warring sirens and hippocampi, but just over the hills, explosions sent debris flying into the air. Her brother was somewhere in all of that, fighting. At least, she hoped he was.
Freedom. For once, the mocking tone of the creature’s voice was missing. He swept his hoof across the beach. Freedom from all of this. Freedom from lies and secrets and shackles. Look at it, Adagio. This is the truth of the Joining, but not the whole truth. It is merely the tip of things.
Adagio’s eyes twitched over the battlefield. “So that’s what we do, then? Two of us battle for control on that cliff, and whichever one of us wins then uses the loser to kill our own kind? The ones that lost?”
Yes. My kin control thousands of enslaved sirens that we unleash on your people, who then fight back with my ensorcelled brethren. With each battle, we are both defeated. It is a cycle without end. Each side is too invested in the system and too frightened to walk away. But we can change all of it, Adagio.
Adagio shuddered. The voice in her head was both hypnotic and unctuous. “Why should I believe you? Y-you could be making all of this up.”
Dazzle smirked at her with his infuriating, lop-sided smile. And what would be the point of that?
“You said it already! You lost, but you’re still you, and you can still say whatever you want.” Adagio felt her anger flare up suddenly. Hot and bright against the war-torn gloom, she welcomed it. “I’m strong! You could be using me to get to my father, or… or to get me to do something to the city once I go home.”
Oh, of that you can be certain. The creature drifted just beside her, never quite touching. But I’m not going to need any secret plans like the ones your people do love so.
Adagio put her hands on her hips. “Oh, yeah?”
Yeah, the hippocampus said, his nose butting up against hers. I have a more persuasive tool. Come and see. He flew to the top of the nearest dune, then beckoned. Join me.
Adagio crossed her arms and worked her tongue around her mouth for a moment. None of this felt right. She was supposed to be the one in charge, but the creature seemed to always have her off balance. She pursed her lips for a moment. “Carry me.”
The hippocampus arched an eyebrow. What?
“Carry me over there.”
Are we really going to play—
“Do it!”
Dazzle snarled for a moment, then flew back to her. Growling softly, he landed in the soft sand a few yards away and flattened himself. How very like your sire. Climb on and we will get this bout of foalishness out of the way.
Adagio glared at Dazzle, waiting for a long moment before settling onto his back. “Don’t compare me with him.”
I could just do this, you know. I could just fly over here and pretend that your power compelled me. You would never know the difference.
“Yes I would,” Adagio said, staring down her nose at him. “You’re not as clever as you think you are. My father’s forced me to make people do what he wanted all of my life. Do you really think I can’t see what you’re up to?”
Dazzle’s eye twinkled for a moment. Of course you can. Why would I bother showing something to you if you could not see it?
Adagio’s brow furrowed before she caught herself. “Huh?”
Your sire has left you with the impression that power and persuasion are evil things. The truth of it is that they are neither good nor bad. They are tools. In his hands, they seem as evil because he stands in opposition of two great truths.
“Enlighten me,” Adagio said, rolling her eyes.
Dazzle rose into the air. Firstly, it is not that he is making a case that chafes at you. It is the case that he makes. He refuses to believe that others can see the greed behind everything he does. In doing so, he denies a truth: His talent does not match his ambition. This he will not face, so he lies to the world by pressing those of greater talent into his service.
Adagio found herself nodding.
Secondly, his pattern is wrong.
Though the words rang out clearly in her mind, Adagio found herself leaning forward to hear. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
It means that he is part of a fundamentally flawed society. His thoughts. His beliefs. His values. All wrong because the system he is part of is wrong. He walks a path that leads to nowhere. Dazzle motioned to the ground below. He believes in this…
Adagio gasped, and her knuckles whitened as she gripped the spines on the Dazzle’s back. Below them, the valley was filled with the torn and battered bodies of the siren and hippocampus armies. Nothing moved, and Adagio realized that the sounds of their battle had all died away some time ago.
“Marcato!” Adagio swung her legs over Dazzle’s back and dropped several feet to the ground. “Marcato!”
It is useless. Dazzle flew in a tight circle just over Adagio’s head, pointing down with a hoof. On the ground below, Marcato lay in the jaws of a dead hippocampus. His arms had fallen away, but Adagio could see the bloody handprints he’d left on the thing’s snout as he’d fought to free himself. Now, with his head lying in a tufty patch of coastal grass, he stared up at the sky, mouth gaping.
Your sire thinks that this is just and good, and he is far from alone. He believes in the society that made this happen, and that is why you hate that which he makes you do. The falseness tolls discordant against the soul, but you must be listening to hear it. Both of our races long ago stopped trying to hear. Dazzle landed and gently ran a hoof over his kin’s ruined face. I once knew her. We were friends, but we have been apart for many, many years. She lost her Joining, and from that time on, she has killed many of our kind. Once joined, we are free again only when the other dies. Her master lies somewhere in all of this. There must have been just a moment of freedom, and in that moment, we all lost. Your brother was just another victim. Dazzle lifted his chin to the carnage. They all are. All victims of two societies gone mad.
Adagio knelt down by her brother. She tried to close his eyes, but the lids wouldn’t stay down. “My father didn’t do this. He was proud of Marcato. He didn’t want him dead. Marcato being in the army helped my father’s reputation.”
Dazzle lifted his head, and their eyes met. Of that you can be certain. None of us ever mean for terrible things to happen. We just want a little more, and to get it, we have to push a little harder. We convince everyone else to go a little further for us. Our leaders apply a little pressure, and their seconds apply their own. On and on, it goes. By the time it reaches the bottom, this is what it looks like. He pointed to the bodies with his hoof. This is greed, Adagio. This is what happens when power is used for personal gain, and that is why you hate.
Adagio sat silently for a moment before her eyes narrowed. “Prove it.”
The hippocampus’s eyebrows shot up. He swept his hoof around the pockmarked beach. What further proof is necessary? The truth is evident for those—
“No it’s not.” Adagio stood and dusted off her knees, then winced. Several tiny rocks and grains of sand fell from them and onto her brother’s face. One blood-red pebble bounced off his unblinking right eye, then tumbled out onto his face and slid back down to the ground. Swallowing, Adagio looked away. “It’s just a battle. Prove that you’re not some kind of spy or something. You’re saying they’re all mad with greed, but you want my power just like everyone else does. You keep talking about how important the truth is. Well, show me the truth. Show me your truth.”
Eyes wary, the creature floated back a few feet. What are you talking about? We have no—
“Our minds are linked right? That’s what you said. Show me or I’ll find it myself.” Adagio squeezed her eyes closed and pushed hard against the presence in her mind. Feeling it give way, she focused her will into razors and tore into the alien consciousness. “Show me!”
The hippocampus screamed and thrashed, his tail whipping sand and bits of rotting kelp into the sky. H-How dare you?!
Gritting her teeth, Adagio lashed out again, and the beach writhed and flowed, running like melting candle wax.
And in the spaces it left, teeth flashed.