The Drowned Bell

An Imperial harbor-bell that fell into the shallows when its tower went; at dead-low slack its lip breaks the surface and the swell rings it, slow and cold — the drowned faithful answer it.

The tower that held it went first and the bell followed, and the sea closed over both on the same morning. Now only the slack-tide shows the lip above the chop, and when the swell breathes right the bell voices itself with no hand on the rope. The drowned faithful in the nearby sink hear it and turn toward the sound. Sailors say that when the bell counts nine strokes the flood has already begun and you are already too late.