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"Stop it!" Clehed "You’re shaking the whole boat!"

She winced as an oar fell in, splashing water into her face Her voice was shrill as she screa while she wiped her cheeks, "we have to get back to work"

"You work tooher as he shook the water fro for the animal; we’re behind"

"Oh, come on," Noah said "It’s just a class Besides, how hard could it be?"

Cle is hard," she said, and picked up an oar

Letting out a sigh, Noah’s eyes wandered across the river as she rowed backward I felt his gaze linger on , because her lips tightened Quickly, I averted ed away froh to hear the head to one of the boats ahead of us

"Stop," Anya said "I think it’s right below us"

I couldn’t feel anything and knew she rong But I hue of the boat and stared into the water, where I could see the headirls

I watched his lips move as he spoke "It’s customary to bury Monitors at sea--a place where their bodies can never be detected, even by fellow Monitors Very few Monitors ask to be buried in the ground The few that do are buried in the Monitors’ section of the Mont Royal Cemetery"

Mont Royal Cemetery I watched the reflection of the headmaster’s face in the water Suddenly I felt exhausted andbut had failed

Mont Royal Cemetery I felt dizzy I hated myself I hated that I had failed

My chest heaved, and I coughed Slowly, I feltforward There was a splash And then everything went cold

When I surfaced, I was dry and standing in a thicket of trees on the side of the ht Below hts, and beyond that, I could see the St Lawrence River, its waves glian to walk Just a few yards away, there was a joggers’ path illuminated by streetlamps, which wound up the mountain I stayed away froh the trees until I reached the other side of Mont Royal

Two teenagers were standing by a drinking fountain, holding hands Unable to help myself, I stopped for a h They seemed so carefree, as if tiirl’s hair, touching her neck, and I leaned against the trunk of a tree near theirl leaned in to give the boy a delicate kiss, I looked away

A tree branch behindthe silence with a loud crack The couple froze and looked into be discovered, I crouched down and closed my eyes I didn’t want to be re their intimacy Slowly, I receded into the trees behind ht, I ran down the other side of thethat no matter howfrom the woods, because I could never have what they had

When I descended on the opposite side of Mont Royal, I found ht of their iron tendrils made me relax As I slipped inside, the air seemed to settle into a quiet stillness, the sound of the cars on the street fading into nothing

I turned on ly vast, with rows of headstones as far as I could see Daunted, I walked toward a , as co the index, I found the section I was looking for and putthe path from where I stood to a tiny circle of land near the back of the grounds

I set off The sky was so wide that it felt like I was at sea I knew I’d found what I needed when I spotted a grassy area enclosed by a chain The headstones here were smaller than most of the others I had passed, and far less ornate-- over the chain, I shonethe inscriptions There weren’t more than two dozen of the the last two hundred years I didn’t recognize any of the na ian to panic It had to be here Just as I was about to turn around, rass I groaned, feeling the rocky soil against my palms I was about to hoist myself up when I noticed the headstone that had irown that I would have otherwisedown, I pushed the weeds aside and shone ht on its surface There was no na inscription:

here it is laid to rest

where to only the best

of our kind it shall be bequeathed