Chapter 6

I woke on the stone ledge.

The tide had receded enough to leave me coughing on cold rock. My wrists were bound. My dive knife was gone. Maud stood over me with her bell hammer in one hand and Lottie's rag doll in the other.

"You were supposed to prepare the Bell," she said. "Not converse with it."

"You trapped me."

"I ensured you would not run." She dropped the doll onto my chest. "Your sister is in the cathedral. On the altar. You will ring the Bell tonight, or she will be the sacrifice."

I sat up. The cathedral was transformed. Soldiers lined the nave. Tide-priests stood in gray robes, holding green-glass lanterns. A stone altar had been raised at the Bell's mouth, and Lottie was tied to it. She was crying without sound. Her wrists were red. Her shoes were gone again.

"Lottie," I said.

She turned her head. "Wren?"

"I'm here."

Maud's captain pulled me to my feet. I saw Pell then. He stood near the tide-priests, his face bruised, his robe torn. He would not meet my eyes.

"You told her," I said.

"I had to." His voice was barely there. "My mother was going to die in the debt prison. Maud said she would release her if I told her what we found."

"So you traded my sister."

"I didn't know she would take Lottie." He looked at me then, and I saw the guilt eating him alive. "I thought she only wanted the translation."

"She wants a replacement lock," I said. "She wants me to take the vow."

Pell's eyes widened. "No. The vow requires-"

"Silence," Maud said. She raised the bell hammer. "The tide turns in an hour. Wren, you will ring the Bell. You will speak the binding words. The Grief will bow. Bellwether will survive. Your sister will live."

"And my mother?"

Maud's face softened, just for a breath. "Your mother made her choice six years ago. She chose the city over herself. You will do the same."

I looked at Lottie on the altar. I looked at the Bell, silent and waiting. I looked at Pell, who had betrayed me for love of his mother, and at Maud, who would sacrifice anyone for love of her city. We were all tangled in the same net. The only difference was who we were willing to cut.

"Untie her," I said. "I'll ring your Bell."

Maud nodded. The captain cut Lottie's ropes, but did not let her go. She was moved to the ledge, held by two soldiers. Maud gestured to the Bell. The tide-priests began to chant.

I walked into the water. It was cold. It was always cold. The Bell loomed ahead, barnacled and black, the gold crack shining like a wound. My locket was back around my neck. They had returned it, perhaps as a cruelty. It warmed against my chest as I approached.

I put my hand on the bronze.

The Bell hummed.

"Little minnow," my mother's voice said. "Do not speak their words."

I closed my eyes. I had no other plan. I had no other weapon. I had only the truth, and the truth was a cage.

I rang the Bell.