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And then there is singing over the speaker Siren singing They are coo hoo ho fro us what the Council wants us to hear

I hurry for the door, but once I’y

And we don’t have weather here

Elinor catches up with ht

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" I whisper

"Once," she says "When your ht be a god"

"I didn’t go out that night," I say I was inside, with Bay, proain that I wouldn’t leave "I didn’t see anything like this"

Elinor and I both start to run We pass the wishing pool and then we are caught up in , and I can’t see Elinor anymore

My feet carry me in the direction of the temple, because that is where I first saw True, and no one stops , the siren voices singing overhead, loosed at last

I pray silently, and it’s not to Efraods at all It’s not their faces I picture; it’s hers Myher na ca her

I’ve joined my blasphemy with those in the deep-market orshipped her Did they pray to my mother when the water came in or the air went out? Did she help the to the temple, and I need a miracle

Please let True be there

Please let True be there

Please let True be

CHAPTER 17

I have eyes for hi past people, looking around Looking for me He’s at the other end of the nave, too far ahead, and there are many bodies in between us and I don’t trust my voice to call out his name

But part of me wants to call it out, because if he hears me say it now, he will knoould like for him to know

And then, as if I’ve spoken after all, True stops and turns back toward the entrance Across all the people , he sees me

"Rio," he calls out He starts toward me so fast that he knocks someone off balance and reaches out to steady the way through the crowd, and I push, too, against people and the pews and anything else that gets in my way

I think he will stop when he reaches ht into his arms "You’re safe," he says, his lips in lass s and candles and people, because I’ to keep the tears fro, tears of relief that he is alive True is alive

There are tooevery o home, and, for many of the people, that means the temple, in a spiritual sense at least My mother always said that This is the home of their belief