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Elinor reaches into her pocket and pulls out soht be a piece of stone--and then she brings it into the light and I see that it’s a ods, the kind of token they sell in the deep mouth and curved tiny claws as on the totems I’ve seen before, but in one of his paws he holds a trident, which is a syods of Above and Below are not supposed to ods with fur and claws, the Above has sharp-toothed sharks and bulbous-eyed fish We have scepters and swords; they have tridents and nets This little aam is another blasphemy

"I want you to have this," Elinor says

"Why?" I ask "I’m not my mother" I didn’t preach the sermons that Elinor loved I didn’t help her sick child

"Because you’re what’s left of her," she says

After I ride the gondola back up into the city proper, I walk right through the door of the te quarters I want to light a candle again tonight and sit for a while under the stone gods and stained glass I feel as though I need to show Nevio I’m not afraid to come back, that I am what is left of my mother and that she will always have a place here

With one hand, I pick up the candle, a circle of ivory wax that looks like the round cakes of soap we use to clean the gods Thatof the Above, I picked up a candle froods’ faces ax before I realized hed so hard she cried

The pain comes so soon after the memory that it hurts to breathe It hurts even to be But there is nothing else to do Not if I want to see her again I have to keep going

I keep ure of Efras of the trident poke into et to the Above: The Council transports Maire Through the ht now the last one appeals to me the most, in spite of what Josiah said Maybe it’s because I can picture how itaround the

Someone co and nondescript clothes, to keep the priests fro her immediately But I knoho she is I don’t even have to hear her speak

"Sirens are not supposed to be in the teh softly Her hands are steady as she lights a candle, and they are smooth and fine, the hands of someone who doesn’t have to do hard work "Oh," she says, "the way you can say that, with a co, Rio You really are"

"I’ll tell everyone you’re here," I say "I’llto stay long But I need to give you so Under the middle of the third pew back, on the side of the temple nearest the priests’ door, you’ll find what your sister left for you And if you ever decide you want to speak with o and sit under Efram’s tree in the temple plaza I will find you I am always here if you need me"

"I won’t need you," I say