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There’s no note with any of it--not tucked a the coin, not hidden in the shell

Is this really fro to trick me?

I pack away most of the coin but put some of it into a small pouch to take with aveto come in handy

Then I hold the shell up to my ear to listen for the sound of wind in the trees Above They say that when people Above find shells on the shore, they try to hear the sounds of the sea

And I swear I hear her breathing inside the shell My sister Breathing for ht on the bed This was the sound I fell asleep to every night--her breathing, and , at last, back into dreams where it is safe for me to speak

CHAPTER 6

When ht up in a group with the rest of the workers, all walking together to the nearby plaza When I try to slip away on my own, Bien notices

"I’ve been promoted to the ocean roo pool for me?"

"Of course," I say I don’t want to waste a coin on soracious not to participate Apparently this is so the workers, and I want to fit in

"Do you think coins can really bring people luck?" Bien asks as she watches old into the dark pool There’s a hard glint in her eyes, like she’s waiting or wanting for so to happen

I’m not sure what she expects me to say, but I tell her, "You’re talented and you work hard, and those things are even better than luck"

"That sounds like so my arm

"So we’re allowed to talk about Rio’snote in her voice

"I don’t see why not," Bien says "If Rio doesn’tI have been bullied before, especially in the years before I moved to the tehed openly at ht I’ve learned that so Someti with someone so famous," Bien says, and now I hear a definite tone of malice in her voice

"Bien, stop," Elinor says "This is not kind"

"We didn’t live with her after she becah Bien already knows all of this Everyone does "The Minister has to have his or her own quarters in the temple"

"Did that make you feel bad?" Bien asks "That your mother chose her work over you?"

I’m not sure why Bien doesn’t like me, unless it’s the usual reason, the one that made those children tease me: I’m different

"We never saw it like that," I say

"Of course you didn’t," Elinor says, finally getting a word in edgewise She see questions about yourabout her is how she died Do you knoho killed her?"