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Does she even knowthat she ht knohole heart and et Above," Maire says, her voice fading, haunting "But it has to be soon We are running out of ti?"

CHAPTER 3

I sit down in a pew in the temple and let the familiar scents of candle wax, stone and water, and old cloth settle overheart to slon It’s been pounding since h the nave, their robes brushing the ground andsounds I keep my head bowed in order to avoid eye contact I don’t want any

I should be safe from my aunt here Those known to be sirens are not allowed in the te the tight restricted s But it wasn’t always that way In fact, in the beginning,their voices to cry out warnings about pride and sin and to call people to sacrifice But then so their voices to hurt orthe siren children to raise so that they couldn’t use their voices for ill, only for the good of Atlantia

A wohts a candle People sit in al someone who left for the Above I’ht The temple never closes It is the one place you are always allowed to stay once the curfew call has sounded

Mythe prayers and pleas of those who cas of doubt, their whimpers and roars of sin She believed it was i the occasional late shift even after she became the Minister

She also believed that sirens should be allowed inside the teh priests to vote in favor of changing the rule She saw the teods and the people, the place where they could co that some were excluded from that opportunity "They say that the sirens are miracles, not people," she told Bay and me once, in a rare ine believing such a thing? People can be s above ods watching us

The gods are shown as different aniod Efra, is represented by a tiger carving There arefor, it is easy to tell theest eyes He sees the ,"my voice "They kno difficult this is And they are pleased with you, Rio"

Are they pleased withit? I wanted to ask But I never did

When I was small, I realized I couldBut I could never control my mother Even when I cried my hardest or pleaded fervently, she could resist ed or tried to manipulate her, she closed her eyes, and I knew she prayed for strength to overcon of their favor Ministers cannot be swayed by sirens They are chosen, in part, for their ability to resist

I remember the day ere five and I made Bay cry so hard she could barely breathe I did it on purpose I liked it when I was doing it--I felt hot and cruel and clever and powerful--but afterward, I broke down in re, too "You are a good girl, Rio," she said She sounded relieved

"I hurt Bay," I said "And I wanted to"

"But you were sorry after," ain"

I nodded She was right

"That is the difference,"to me "That is the difference"

She put her hands on either side of my face and looked at me with love "Rio," she said, "everyone wants to hurt someone else at so human But you were born with more power to do it than most That is why you have to keep your voice under control" And, of course, there was the other, equally important reason We didn’t want the Council to take me away

My an to babble as a baby She had to take leave from her work--she couldn’t allow anyone else to take care of Bay and ave the excuse that I was sickly

Some practice I tried to make my voice like hers, soft and quiet, but it never sounded quite the sa to be like Bay

In my dreams, I always speak into sleep After my mother died, I often found Bay next to me when I awoke, burrowed close for warmth, her hands cold and the smell of salt water on her I never knehen she clilad she came to me for conow, and I try to hide that fact I know the priests are concerned about how profoundly I mourn my sister At some point they will tell me to accept her choice and return to work full-tiular hours But for now, they extendthe varnished wood of the pew in front of me The pews are carved out of old trees, like the pulpit, and they are extremely valuable, since there are not many wooden seats in Atlantia But anyone and everyone can sit on the pews, can touch them When my mother was Minister, she let me touch the pulpit, too, feel the curls of the waves and the leaves of the trees with ion better in those moments than I have before or since I felt a reverence ht must be faith, must be the way Bay and my mother felt all of the time