Chapter 7

The note hit the water like a hammer.

The cathedral shook. The altar cracked. The tide-priests fell silent. Maud raised her bell hammer, but the Bell was already ringing, again and again, though no hand touched it but mine. The clapper was still fused. The sound came from somewhere deeper than bronze.

The water rose in a ring around me. The Grief surfaced.

She was vast. Her body filled the nave, scales like wet slate, eyes like twin suns. The golden eye I had seen was only one of many. Her mouth could have swallowed the altar whole. But her voice was my mother's voice, tired and warm, the voice that had sung me the lullaby when I was small.

"Daughter," she said. "You rang the Bell."

"You made me."

"I made you a key, not a lock. I tried to keep you out."

Maud stepped forward. "Enough. The binding is mine. The Grief will bow to the Warden's blood."

Elin's great eye turned to Maud. "You were never Warden. You stole the title. You cut my clapper. You told my daughters I drowned."

"I saved this city."

"You caged me. You used me. You would use my child." Elin's voice deepened, and the water trembled. "The Bell is a cage. The Warden is the lock. There is only one way to bind the Grief: a Warden must take the vow."

Maud's face went pale. "Then take it back. Bow to me."

"I cannot bow. I am the Grief. The vow holds me." Elin's eye fixed on me. "But it can be transferred. One Warden to another. A blood sacrifice freely given."

Lottie screamed, "Wren, don't!"

Maud grabbed her. "Do it. Take the vow. Save the city."

I looked at my mother, trapped in salt and scale. I looked at my sister, trapped in Maud's grip. I looked at Pell, who was crying silently. The Bell hummed under my hand, patient as a heartbeat.

If I took the vow, my mother would be free. Lottie would live. The city would survive. But I would become the monster under the waves. I would lose my body, my life, my future. I would lose Lottie.

If I refused, the Black Tide would come. The lower district would drown. Lottie would die first.

"There is another way," Pell said.

Everyone turned. He was holding a scroll from his satchel, the one he had hidden in his sleeve. His hands were shaking. "The full vow text. I stole it from the archive. It says the transfer can be temporary. A vow can be broken if the original Warden willingly releases the Grief and the new Warden speaks the release."

"Lies," Maud said.

Pell did not look at her. He looked at me. "I don't know if it will work. But it is real. I swear it."

Maud raised her hammer. "Seize him."

The soldiers moved. Pell threw the scroll. It landed at my feet in the water. I grabbed it before the water could ruin it. The tide-script swam before my eyes. I could not read it all. I did not need to. I saw the words for transfer. I saw the words for release.

"Wren," Elin said. "Choose."

I chose.