Page 55 (1/2)

"I need to go back," I say

"They’ll kill you, too," True says "We have to trust Maire and do what she said"

"I don’t know if I can"

"You have to," True says "It’s what she wanted If you go back, you betray her You need to let Maire save you" Hehis position, and then he says, his voice alates if Maire told you she could take you up a different way? You could have died"

"So when Maire is telling the truth"

"But you could have trusted me," True says "You could have told me what you planned to do"

"You would have tried to talk ht have even turned me in to the Council to try to save ain It is all I can do to keep h I have to save it Maire told me so

Did she use her voice on me to convince me to leave her with the other sirens? Could it be that she’s done all of this just to get ave me a shell, one that holdsthat I desperately need to know?

I want to hear my mother speak It has been more than a year without her, and I aht in my hand the whole time am, and suddenly I worry that ti left but the sound of water and wind

"I have to listen to this," I tell True "I can only hear it once"

He looks at me like he did back at the lanes in the deepmarket, as if he doesn’t understand but is with me anyway, and nods

I put the shell to one ear

And then I hear her voice and my hands start to shake True puts his hand over mine to help me hold the shell steady, but he turns his face away to letI have learned about the sirens and the Divide and our gods

It’s her It’s really her She must have told this to Maire, and Maire saved it How did Maire know she would need it?

The Divide did not happen exactly the ere taught, my mother says Her voice is not the one she used over the pulpit It is low, urgent, intimate, the voice she used with someone she loved Someone she trusted Some of it happened the e’ve been told: People were chosen for the Above and the Below Everyone Above had someone Beloho they cared about so they would keep the Below alive

But the rest of it, the religion, caods, all of it, was a facade, a conceit It was a way tothe old cultures of the Above No one believed in the gods as gods They thought they were gargoyles Decorations

But then the an to happen

First the sirens, and then the bats