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The cla They’re about to break open the doors

"I won’t be able to control theet inside," Maire says "There will be too o Slip out the door as they come in, and I will make sure they don’t see you But take this" She presses another shell into ed in black and white, h to the touch "This one holds my voice This is hoill teach you about what you can do, since it will be difficult for us to be together in person very often All you have to do is ask a question into that shell and then listen for the answer to come back to you"

"How can that work?" I ask "Hoill you hear me?" If this is real, and not some kind of trick, then Maire’s is a terrific, terrible power, and she can do things I’ve never heard of or iht my mother was the most powerful woman in Atlantia, but now I aic," Maire says "Your mother and I discovered it by accident We used to do that child’s trick of holding a shell to your ear to listen for the wind in the trees, and one day I whispered so into the shell for Oceana, and when she held it to her ear, she could hear ain When Bay decided to leave, I saved some of her voice in the other shell so that you could have it later"

Does this mean that if I whispered questions into the other shell, Bay would answer the withoutit "With other voices, I can just capture their sound Mine is the only one that can coe The rest are echoes of as already said"

My heart sinks with disappointment "Can any other sirens do this?" I ask

"None that I know of," Maire says "And this isn’t perfect I can answer a few questions at a ti my voice so far And it will only hen you ask I can’t say anything unless it is an answer to your spoken question I ordered it this way to help you feel that you can trust me, so that you will have a measure of control over our conversations"

Then her voice becomes brisk, and she sounds almost like one of er and urgency to Maire’s voice "Being a siren ishow to control it, how and when to save it, when to let your voice soar And all of that is scarcely the half of it"

She sounds sad again Are the e me? It’s not the sorrow in her voice that pulls on me--it’s the sorrow in my own heart, that I can never fully speak I’ve alondered if I could, Above

I’ And weak Maire knows it

What other hope do I have? Maire could help s you told my mother were not true," I say to Maire "My father did love her She wanted to be Minister for reasons that were pure" Mypeople

"I know," Maire said "But I could ift to her I wanted to help her becoht or tears that I see in Maire’s eyes "I hoped she would love me for it I think she did And of course she hated me for it, too Even she couldn’t help that"

I s "How do I know you’re not lying to et to the Above? How do I know that you won’t lie to me in the shell?"

"You don’t," Maire says