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I close ht If I say yes to Maire, maybe I could taste real air I could walk across a sandy beach to a toith real trees and talk to e while breathing in pollution for the rest of our lives, ould be together and Above, a circuet Above on your own," Maire says "The transports they use to oods between the Above and the Below aren’t pressurized for hu people to the surface are guarded too closely by the Council Even if you used your voice to get past those who guard them, the Council would know thethe transport back You’d be dead in minutes I’ve seen it happen"

I open ether the h thebay," Maire says, "you’ll be blown to bits by the mines before you exhale the last of the air you breathed in Atlantia This is the best way I’ outside The guards are at the door It won’t hold for long

"You think you don’t knowyou some of your first lullabies"

And I don’t know if it’s her voice or the truth or both, but I think I do reo

Under star-dark seas and skies of gold

Live those Above, and those Below

They sing and weep, both high and deep

While over and under the ocean rolls

"You see," Maire says, her voice sad "You remember"

"I’m not sure that I do"

"Your mother cut me off from you when you were very sht I knehy When I heard you speak in the temple the day Bay left, I knew for certain"

"She wanted to protect ht," Maire says "She knew I’d want to talk to you, to teach you about your gift I wouldn’t have been able to resist But I would never have hurt you intentionally" She looks up at the floodgates "I wonder if that hat she was co to tell me, the day she died I wonder if sheelse entirely"

My o to her sister’s house What was she trying to do? Was she trying to tell Maire so? Ask her a question? And did she die before her iven, as Maire asserts? Or was she able to deliver it and then struck down? By whose hand? My aunt’s?

My mother and my sister trusted Maire, but I’m not certain she repaid their trust