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"It is fair It is as the gods decreed at the tiht survive Below"

"Then give thanks"

I don’t join ods All I ever wanted was to speak for ain And this time Maire joins her voice with the others

It is the h the frightening, layered unison of the other voices, there is Maire’s, apart though she speaks at the same time and with the same words Her voice is the sound of blue and brown, of trees with no leaves and flooded one and gods who never were, a begging, pleading, asking the people of the Above to let us live in our place Below She is not telling like the others, she is asking

But even Maire’s voice is not working I don’t kno I know; I just do I can’t see the faces of the people on the boats The boats move up and down on the waves, each moment closer to us The people watch the sirens They wait for so Their faces are terribly blank I have an i eyes I realize that they wear masks To protect them from the air? To hide their faces?

The sirens’ voices swell, like a wave of the sea They rise and fall, the co, the sweetness of some voices, the poison of others

The deep over the water and now she turns back to us to continue the litany

She opens her mouth and lifts her hands But she doesn’t speak She falls

I don’t understand at first Neither do the others One voice less, they keep speaking

"And have mercy on us

"And on those who live Above"

The fallen siren does not ht we had the upper hand over the people of the Above, that we had the power

But rong

Somehow, the sirens’ miraculous voices have lost their effect on the people of the Above

The sirens begin calling for the people of the Above to go back, go back Leave Leave

"Why aren’t our voices working?" one siren asks another in panic

Another siren starts to run Before she’s taken more than a few steps, the people in the boats shoot her down, too True cries out and goes to kneel beside her, to see if there is so She doesn’t even breathe, only bleeds

I stare in horror at her crumpled body, her robe pooled blue around her I think, Like the bat

The er have power to dictate what happens Above

I openfor True Perhaps I could tell the people in the boats that True’s not a siren, convince the into ent "Save your voice," she says "You will need it later" She sh power to distract theet there were two more people on the island today"

"But what about you?" I ask

Another siren falls, but we three are safe

Maire takes ile into it I don’t even have to look to know that she has given ," she says "You will believe it, if you hear it fro time She will speak just once Be sure you listen"

"Who?" I ask, hardly daring to hope