Page 4 (1/2)

The engineers used the transportation from one of those old cities--a roondolas--as a ondolas are h dry concrete canals The people of Atlantia love the gondolas although they require constant ht after curfew, it’s not unco the day,about the hulls of shipwrecks in pre-Divide illustrations

My , and she loved the trees and the gondolas almost as much as she loved the temple "Flourishes in the face of death," she told Bay and ineers left their signature in every working of Atlantia They made the city useful and beautiful"

"It’s a second kind of immortality," Bay said "They live on in heaven, and in Atlantia herself"

My mother looked over at Bay, and their love of the city was so palpable that I felt left out I loved Atlantia, but not the way they did

These lower areas have less embellishment and look more utilitarian than some of the other parts of Atlantia Here, the rivets are clearly visible on the walls, and the sky is lower Up at the teh arches of the false sky outside

I pass by one of the stalls that sells masks They aren’t the air masks we carry strapped over our backs--the ones we’re told to keep with us at all times in case of a breach in Atlantia’s walls The ned to be worn for fun, so you can pretend to be so the faces of fantastic creatures that used to live in the Above--lions, tigers, horses--all of them known to me only from pictures in books There are also reen faces, so one another stories about the sea witches We talked about theether in the plazas Once, when my mother wanted me to come with her to the teo, I tried to use what I’d heard as an excuse "If I go out near the diet me," I told my mother "Or a siren"

"Sea witches are an old superstition," my mother said She didn’t deny the existence of sirens--people, usually women, who can use their voices to convince others to do their bidding--because everyone knows sirens exist They were the first miracle that caeneration of those who ca Atlantia ever since

I am a siren

It is a secret my mother decided to keep because sirens’ lives are consecrated to the service of Atlantia, and siren children are given to the Council to raise My ive me up

"Sea witches are real," I told ht, people knohen they’re sea witches, but they keep it a secret, the way I keep ht thrilled me

"And what are the witches’ names?" my mother asked in the ao along withof a story I’d heard the day before at school "One of them is named Maire"

"What did you say?" My mother sounded shocked

"Maire," I said "She’s a sea witch and a siren She has ets what she wants from you and then she turns you into sea foa your body to the floodgates" One of the girls at school told me that Maire drank the foaory detail since her hands had gone to herto be horrified She was horrified, and my mother was not easily shocked