Page 30 (2/2)

"Tell them I don’t speak before or after the performances," I whisper to True "Tell them it’s part of my routine It’s better that way You know You’ve heard et more eels I’ll be faster next tie look on his face; he seems almost sorrowful But he nods and turns to intercept the crohile I holdrooms Once I’m inside I stay quiet and listen to the crowd outside All of that noise is for me

"This won’t interest theone I keep thinking abouta spectacle "I need to do soet tired of me Build up to some kind of final event, take their money, and be done"

"Like what?" True asks

"I’ and oiling theood shape between swims We bundle them up like babies, and that et erous do you plan to make this?" he asks He turnsat a small, red burn on my palm It happened when one of the eels swam too close to ot that injury, though I can’t pinpoint the moments when I came by all the others

"I don’t know," I say

CHAPTER 12

I’ve been pro and tellsyou to the ocean rooratulations," Elinor says as I stop near our table to say good-bye She works quick and capable, and I wonder why they didn’t o

"I like it here," she says My face , or else it’s a question others have asked before "I’ve requested to stay The ocean rooh thethat separates us, I’ve watched the people in the other room and I’ve noticed a tension there that isn’t in the sky roo the workers You can see it in the way they work and interact I wonder if it’s the proxilih thein the portal door I think the ocean canthe world as it is, not as we made it to be

When I sit down at my neorkstation, I hear Atlantia breathe deep and even aroundBut when I try to listendown to that sound alone, it disappears

It’s your i what Maire thinks she can hear

Bien watches aze clear and unkind, and I droppasses quickly Josiah shows nose the more complicated drone injuries that we fix in the ocean rooraphics My hands are capable and I feel confident as I claet back to work

Everyone except Bien is friendly enough, which is to say they ignore e on the drones is fascinating--ashy scars of injury, torn wires jutting out of their metal bellies--and it turns my stomach when I think of what the mines could do to a person

That won’t happen to me, I tell myself I won’t let it

I wish I could show True the drones He’d love the pool and throws in their coins for me Elinor comes; Bien, too People are polite, but they don’t knoell and I never have much to say, and after Elinor leaves, I sit alone at the well looking down at all the glittering coin It’s a great deal of money, and I find myself touched that they’d do this on ht have used the wish for themselves, the way I did with Bien, but I don’t mind that

I count fifty-three coin, and the aather all of this up? It’s illegal, of course The lance around The plaza is almost e across