The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh Read Free Book Online Page B

can get her into Lotus House. Th at’s where Kirin and Namgi will be heading. We’ll just tell whoever’s in charge that she’s looking for a job.” He pats my head gently. “You’re so quiet. Th ey’d be sure to hire you.”
    â€œUnless they find out you’re a human and not a spirit.” Mask laughs. “ Th en they’d want to eat you!”
    I blanch. She must be jesting.
    Mask holds out her hand, and I take it. She pulls me to my feet, turning me so that she can brush the dirt off the back of my dress. We are of the same height, she and I.
    With her profile to me, I study her freely. Th e mask she wears ties around the back of her head with thick strings. Her warm brown hair is styled in a long braid, signifying her status as an unmarried maiden. Th at and the youthful curve of her neck suggest she’s around my age.
    â€œLet’s go!” Dai says, Miki giggling from her place on his back. Mask straightens to join him. I hesitate. I am not usually a mistrustful person, but my run-in with Shin and the others has made me wary. Still, I feel a strange affinity to these spirits, so friendly and filled with life—even if they are dead.
    My eldest brother, Sung, says trust is earned, that to give someone your trust is to give them the knife to wound you. But Joon would counter that trust is faith, that to trust someone is to believe in the goodness of people and in the world that shapes them.
    I’m too raw to believe in anyone right now, but I do believe in myself, in my heart that tells me they are good, in my mindthat tells me they are the help I need to find the magpie and take back my soul.
    â€œAre you coming?” Dai shouts from over his shoulder. I hurry to catch up, following Mask, Dai, and Miki out of the alley and into the heart of the Sea God’s city.

 
6
    We emerge from the alley onto a wide boulevard. Immediately I’m overwhelmed. I’ve never been outside my small village, where at most twenty or thirty villagers will gather on market days—perhaps as many as fifty during a festival. Here in the Sea God’s city there are hundreds, thousands of people dressed in vibrant jewel-tone colors, as if the city were a great reef and the people its coral.
    Magnificent buildings with tiered roofs line the streets, stacked up almost on top of one another, as far as the eye can see. Shining lanterns hang from the buildings’ many eaves, illuminating the shadows of figures moving behind papered windows. Gigantic, ghostly carp drift serenely over the rooftops, while luminous golden fish dart in and around the lanterns.
    A door slides open up the street, spilling light and laughter. A young woman expertly balancing a tea tray above her head disappears into the crowd.
    Th ere’s a whistle and crack of sound. I look up. A fireworkexplodes, illuminating the night and scattering a school of minnows.
    â€œWatch where you’re going!”
    Mask pulls me back in time to avoid being trampled by a young boy pushing a cart of anemone.
    â€œYou watch where you’re going!” Dai shouts back, raising a fist. “She’s a Sea God’s bride, you know.”
    â€œSure she is,” the boy throws over his shoulder. “And I’m the Sea God!”
    Th is earns a smattering of snickers from those within hearing distance.
    Th e cobblestoned streets are paved in mosaics of sea creatures. We follow a chain of blue and gray dolphins down one street to an avenue of red crabs, and finally to a great central square depicting a large jade turtle.
    Th e square is filled with people. Groups of girls crouch in circles tossing and catching stones. Old men sit at low tables arguing loudly over board games.
    Th ey all must be spirits, yet they appear as Miki and Dai do—healthy, alive .
    Mask turns from the square, leading us down a cramped side street lined with food carts.
    We pass carts stacked high with rice cakes and others