Chapter 8

Maud's soldiers reached Pell before he could run.

One of them drove a sword through his side. Pell crumpled. His mother's debt chit fell from his robe and floated on the water. He did not scream. He only looked at me and mouthed, "Read it."

I read.

The vow was not long. It was a contract written in salt and blood. The Warden gives the sea a name. The sea gives the Warden a cage. The lock remembers the hand that turns it. The door opens inward.

To transfer the mantle, the old Warden must release the Grief willingly. The new Warden must speak the vow with no coercion. The Bell must ring a third time.

Maud's ritual was almost the same, but she had twisted it. She meant to bind Elin to her bloodline, not free her. She meant to use Lottie's fear as the sacrifice. Pell's scroll showed the true words.

"Read it aloud," I said.

Maud lunged. I was faster. I had spent my whole life in the water, and the water was on my side. I kicked away from the Bell, grabbed Lottie, and shoved her behind me. Maud's hammer struck stone. The soldiers hesitated. They had seen the Grief rise. They had heard my mother's voice. They were beginning to understand.

"Pell," I said. "Can you hear me?"

He nodded, blood at his lips.

"The release," I said. "What do I say?"

He whispered the words. I repeated them. The Bell hummed. The water rose. My mother's eye closed, and when it opened again, there were tears in it.

"You would take my place," she said.

"I would free you."

"You will not be human."

"I know."

"You will not grow old. You will not marry. You will not hold your sister."

"I know."

"Wren," Lottie sobbed. "Don't."

I turned to her. She was eight years old. She had lost her mother, her home, her shoes. She had lost me the moment Maud's enforcers took her. I could not give her back her childhood. But I could give her a city. I could give her our mother.

"Keep the Bell dry," I said. "That's all you have to do. Keep it dry, and I'll be here."

I walked back into the water. The Bell waited. The Grief waited. The Black Tide was coming. I could feel it in the east, a wall of black water taller than the palace.

I put both hands on the bronze.

"I take the vow," I said.

The Bell rang.