chapter FOUR
When night fell, the sun didn't sink toward the horizon; the shape of the Dark Wanderer moved across it, causing an eclipse.
Emilie had seen an eclipse of the moon before, but never the sun. While it was impossible to look directly at even the Hollow World's smaller sun without going blind, they could see the eclipse coming by the line of darkness sweeping slowly across the sea toward the ship.
Once the sun was completely obscured, it was as dark as the most cloud-covered moonless night, with only the ship's running lights to guide them across the water. The Sovereign dropped its speed by half, chugging cautiously along, with lookouts in the bow to spot obstacles. Kenar said the darkness should last about eight hours by the ship's clock.
Except for the crewmen on watch, and the group still working on the aetheric engine, most people were going to take the opportunity to sleep. Miss Marlende offered Emilie the extra bed in her cabin, possibly in order to keep an eye on her. At the moment Emilie didn't care; she hadn't done anything but briefly nap for nearly two days, and was tired enough that she was ready to lie down on the deck to sleep.
The cabin was on the second deck above the hull, an interior one with no portholes. It was nicely appointed with two beds, roomy cabinets, a tap and small ceramic hand basin, mirror, and a door leading to a small private water closet. Emilie was expecting to be given instructions to wash and change and attend to her hair, but Miss Marlende just sat down heavily on her bed to unlace her boots, and waved a vague hand toward the clothes cabinet and the basin. “There's water and things over there. Use whatever you need.” Then she lay down on the bed fully clothed and was asleep in moments.
Emilie stared, bemused. It underscored the fact that Miss Marlende was an adventuress; not the romantic kind who got into trouble, but the intrepid kind who explored unknown territories and made discoveries and visited all sorts of strange places. She thought of her friend Porcia, who had been training herself for adventures since Emilie could remember, and had already announced her intention of never marrying, and of traveling the world with several doughty female companions. One of the benefits that she and Porcia hadn't considered was that one could do what one liked and worry about comfort more than appearance. It made a nice change from Emilie's aunt, for whom appearance and what the neighbors thought was everything.
It was nice to be treated as an adult who could make her own decision about whether she should wash or not. Her aunt had never considered her capable of it, seeing her as the same tomboy who had always come in covered with dirt and muck from the garden. Well, that's what you assumed, anyway, she thought. Emilie looked at herself in the mirror, the memory of that last argument with her uncle making her cheeks heat with anger. It seemed obvious now that Aunt Helena had thought Emilie a great deal worse than just a tomboy. All because she had asked to go to cousin Karthea's school.
She realized that the saltwater swim in the harbor hadn't done her hair any favors, and that her clothes were itchy in the most uncomfortable places. She sighed. It would be stupid to forego washing just to spite her aunt, who, since Emilie had run away, was sure to be pretty well spited already. She ended up washing in the hand basin and rinsing out her underthings, taming her hair somewhat, and borrowing a thick cotton nightgown out of the cabinet to sleep in. Leaving one light on near the door, she tucked herself in and fell asleep almost as fast as Miss Marlende had.
She was jolted awake what felt like moments later by the ship's whistle. Miss Marlende sat bolt upright, gasping, “What the hell is that?”
“Ship's alarm!” Emilie realized the ship was slowing down even further, the low thrum of the engines changing in pitch. She struggled out of bed, squinting at the clock. They had been asleep about four hours; from what Kenar had said, the end of the eclipse was still some time away. She heard boots pounding out in the corridor and hurried to dress, scrambling into her still-damp underwear, bloomers, and one of Miss Marlende's shirts. Miss Marlende, older and slower to come to full consciousness, managed to struggle out of bed and get her boots back on. She reached the door only a moment ahead of Emilie.
Not bothering with her own boots, Emilie ran barefoot down the carpeted corridor after Miss Marlende. As they reached the hatch, Miss Marlende flung out an arm to stop her. “Careful,” she said, low-voiced. “If there's something out there-”
“Right,” Emilie said, making a mental note not to plunge headlong out of hatches at night while in strange worlds.
Miss Marlende peered through the glass window of the hatch, then twisted the handle and pushed it open. She stepped out, still cautious, and Emilie stood on tiptoes to see over her shoulder.
The night was lit only by the lamps along the deck, but someone up by the wheelhouse was shining the ship's spotlight down on the water ahead. “What is that?” Miss Marlende muttered.
“It looks like...seaweed?” Emilie followed her, trying to see in the uncertain light. The water was clotted with some sort of plant. The searchlight picked up vines growing thickly over the surface, with large lumps floating among them. It looked distressingly like a Sargasso Sea, which had featured in frightening detail in one of the Lord Rohiro novels.
Miss Marlende moved to the railing. “Emilie, you should go back to the cabin.”
“Why? What is it?” Emilie still couldn't see anything in the searchlight beam but thick weeds. On the main deck below, sailors were moving around with lights, but it was too dark to see what they were doing.
“I don't know what it is,” Miss Marlende replied with some annoyance. “That's why I think you should go back to the cabin.” She gave Emilie a stern look. “Now go.”
Fine, Emilie thought, annoyed herself. “I'm going,” she said, with dignity. Moving as slowly as possible away from the rail, she heard voices raised in agitation and caught a glimpse of Kenar standing on the deck below with a lamp. He was talking to someone; she thought it might be the first officer Oswin.
“Kenar!” Miss Marlende called softly. “Do we know what it is?”
Kenar and Oswin turned, looking up, and Oswin said, “It looks like-”
Something flipped up out of the water, a long narrow shape, as if one of the vines had suddenly stood straight up. Emilie pointed and gasped an incoherent warning. Old wood-cut pictures of sea monsters flashed through her head; she thought she was looking at a giant tentacle. It swung toward the ship, slamming into the rail a bare three steps away from Emilie and Miss Marlende. Then something leapt off it, landing on the deck.
Miss Marlende yelled in alarm and Emilie jerked backward. The thing had two arms, two legs, and a slender body - for an instant Emilie thought it was a person, albeit a naked person with green skin. Then she got a better look at its head. It was eyeless, noseless, earless, its face a blank except for a wide slit for the mouth.
Miss Marlende lifted her hands, palm out, saying quickly, “We mean you no harm. If we came near your...your territory, it was an accident, we're only passing by-”
It hissed, opening its mouth to show a shockingly large rictus of fanged teeth. Then it lunged forward and grabbed for Miss Marlende.
Miss Marlende swung at it, hit it in the face with her fist, but it caught her arm and dragged her toward the railing. Emilie shrieked for help at the top of her lungs, then grabbed for Miss Marlende and wrapped her arms around the other woman's waist.
It dragged them inexorably to the rail, far stronger than a human of that size would be. But as they hit the rail Miss Marlende dropped to the deck, throwing the creature off-balance, then used the moment of distraction to wrap her legs around the lower strut of the rail. Yes! Emilie thought, letting go of Miss Marlende with one arm and wrapping it around the post below the strut. The creature pried at them, hissing, and the metal ground painfully into Emilie's arm. She wrapped a leg around the post and held on with grim determination.
Then a crewman ran up the deck, yelling. He struck at the creature but it let go of Miss Marlende long enough to backhand him. The blow was hard enough to send him flying back across the deck and slam him into the wall. Miss Marlende fell away from the rail, and Emilie sat down hard. The creature reached down and slapped at Emilie, sending her rolling away.
Emilie landed hard on the deck, reeling from the blow, and looked up in time to see the creature drag a fighting Miss Marlende to her feet. Emilie looked desperately around, saw something lying near the fallen crewman - it was a fire ax. She shoved to her feet, snatched it up, and darted forward.
She swung it at the creature and the blade bounced off its head, painfully jolting Emilie's arm. Apparently unhurt, it dropped Miss Marlende and turned to Emilie. She lifted the ax again, for all the good it had done her, but she wasn't going to let it hit her again without a fight.
Then she saw Kenar behind it, climbing up over the railing from the deck blow. Emilie waved her ax, yelling, “Yah! Yah! Yah!” trying to keep the creature's attention on her. It jerked back uncertainly. Then Kenar swung over the railing, grabbed the creature by the throat, and tossed it off the deck.
Emilie lunged to the rail, looking down in time to see creature bounce off the lower deck and fall back into the weed-choked water. But more slim green forms climbed the hull to the lower deck, tendrils of vine waving angrily in the mass of weed. Gunshots rang out as crewmen along the middle deck fired at the creatures. The ship's stack belched as the boilers built up steam for an escape.
Miss Marlende stumbled to her feet, saying hoarsely, “What was that thing? A plant?”
“Yes, it looked like part of the weeds.” Kenar turned, reaching out to steady her.
Emilie couldn't tell if the gunfire was driving the creatures off or just startling them. “If they're plants, it can't do much good to shoot them,” she said. It might be just as useless as shooting a tree. “Oh, there's Dr. Barshion!”
Dr. Barshion had stepped out onto the deck just below. He was coatless, his normally sleek hair mussed. He held a small book in one hand, his other hand clenched in a fist. Emilie thought he was reading aloud, but she couldn't catch the words. On the lower deck, a plant-creature swung over the rail, grabbed a crewman, and tried to drag him over the side. But two other men drove it off with blows from their rifle butts. Emilie heard Lord Engal shouting orders. Kenar stepped up onto the rail, meaning to leap back down into the fray, but Miss Marlende caught his arm. “Wait!”
Below them, Dr. Barshion raised his voice, crying out something Emilie couldn't understand; then he made a throwing gesture with his free hand. Sparks of red light glittered along the hull; the plant-creatures climbing the rails keened in alarm and fell back away from the ship. A moment later the stacks belched again and the ship angled away from the weeds, and a gap of dark water opened between it and the dark mass.
“He manipulated the remnants of the aether bubble to repel physical objects,” Miss Marlende murmured. “Finally. I was beginning to wonder how much good he was as a sorcerer.” She swayed a little and Kenar asked, “Are you all right?”
She waved him away, turning back to the deck. “I'm fine. But this man was injured...”
The crewman who had tried to help them was stirring and trying to stand. Kenar went to haul the man to his feet, and in the lamplight Emilie saw it was Ricard, the young assistant engineer.
The young man gasped, “That was… What was…?”
“No one knows,” Kenar told him. “But some of that weed was caught on the hull; we can have a closer look at it.”
Miss Marlende told him, “Yes, but let's get Ricard inside first so I can check his head.” Tugging her jacket back into place and pushing her disordered hair out of her eyes, she turned to Emilie and said formally, “Thank you, Emilie, your assistance was effective and timely.”
“You're welcome,” Emilie said automatically. She realized she had clasped the ax to her chest. She decided to keep holding it for a while; it was reassuring.
Her heart was still thumping. This had been very different from hitting the robber with the fire bucket. The worst she had thought would happen then was that the man would hit her back, knock her down. She had realized later that that might have been naive; those men were deadly serious and he might have shot her. But even that wasn't as bad as that creature, dragging her and Miss Marlende off the ship to be... Drowned? Eaten? It was possibly better not to know for certain, but her imagination was doing a good job of filling in the details.
They went back inside, and once Ricard stepped into the brighter light of the corridor, they saw he had a bloody gash on his temple. “I thought you were helping Abendle and Dr. Barshion with the aetheric engine?” Miss Marlende said, helping Kenar guide Ricard down the first set of stairs.
“It was my turn to take a break, Miss,” he explained, wincing. “I was walking around the ship for a bit before I turned in.”
“Lucky for us,” Emilie put in, following behind them. “You distracted it.” And brought me the ax, she thought.
He glanced back, giving her a wan smile. “I think you did a better job of distracting it than me.”
Emilie didn't know what to say. She wasn't used to compliments about actual accomplishments, just stupid things, like needlework and decorating hats.
They reached the main lounge, and Miss Marlende caught a steward's assistant and sent him running off to get the ship's medical kit. Kenar left them then to head back out to the main deck, and after a moment of hesitation, Emilie followed him. She had decided that knowing what was out there was better than just imagining terrible things.
Out on the deck, Emilie was glad to see the men with rifles were still keeping watch. The searchlight, sweeping back and forth across the water, showed they were some distance from the vine mat already and moving steadily away. But a small section of it had caught on the ship's hull, and the crew had dropped the launch's platform to get a closer look at it. Lord Engal was down there with a few crewmen carrying lights. Kenar started to climb down, and Emilie realized she would have to relinquish her ax to follow him. Curiosity won out, and Emilie set the ax down on a handy fire equipment box and followed Kenar down the ladder to the launch platform.
The first thing that struck her was the smell; it was more like rotting meat than any kind of plant. The men were poking cautiously at the mass of weeds with boathooks. One of them drew a lump in close to the platform, and another hacked it free of the weeds. “It's a broken cask,” he reported. Looking up at Lord Engal, he added, “Could even be from the Scarlet Star, My Lord.”
“They seemed to try to take anything they could grab,” someone said, and Emilie recognized Oswin's voice. “They got two of our life preservers and a coil of rope.”
“It explains why the wreck was stripped of everything movable,” Kenar added, stepping around Oswin for a closer look.
“At least they didn't get any of us,” Lord Engal said. He glanced at Kenar. “Is Miss Marlende all right?”
“Yes. She's tending to the man who tried to help her.” Kenar crouched down to get a better view of the weeds. Emilie felt she could see well enough where she was, and stayed near the ladder.
“Perhaps she'll be more cautious next time,” Lord Engal said.
Emilie snorted quietly to herself. Typical and unfair, she thought. With some asperity, Kenar said, “She was cautious. She was two decks above the water. Sometimes caution doesn't help.”
Lord Engal didn't reply to that.
“Look at this,” another crewman said, holding up a clay sculpture in the shape of bird.
Kenar stood up to examine it. “That's a net weight,” he said. “The Lothlin hang them off the rails of their boats.”
Lord Engal turned to him. “These plant-creatures are called Lothlin?”
“No, no. The Lothlin are fisherfolk, peaceful. Nothing like those things.” Kenar sounded disturbed. “If one of their boats was driven this far from their home territory, trapped in the mat-”
The first crewman said, grimly, “It looks like they didn't make it out.”
Emilie stepped forward to look. Prodding at the mass of vines had released dozens of small objects that had been wound up in it. They bobbed free in the water: sticks, odd-shaped knobs, round things like smooth rocks. She tried to see them as wood, the debris of a wrecked ship, but the colors were bleached white, dull yellow, rotted brown... Then a round object floated closer, turned as the crewman poked it with the pole. It had a face, or what was left of one, with empty eye sockets, a hole for the nose, teeth, and the lower jaw broken away.
Emilie pressed back against the ladder, cold shock washing over her. They were bones, all bones, wound up in the vines. Long bones, knobs of bone, fragments, skulls. She swallowed hard as a whole ribcage bobbed up out of the weeds. The sausage from this morning tried to exit her stomach and she took a deep breath, willing it back into place. That's a lot of dead people, she thought. Pieces of dead people. Emilie had seen the dead laid out decorously in coffins, but never anything like this.
Lord Engal stepped back, his grimace of distaste visible in the lamplight. “I think we've seen everything we need to see. Cut this mess free of the ship and draw up the platform.”
Emilie realized she was in the way and turned to climb the ladder back up to the deck. She had to grip the ladder extra hard because her hands suddenly felt numb and chilled, as though it was freezing out here rather than only pleasantly cool. Eaten, we definitely would have been eaten, she thought. On reflection, it seemed obvious. Plant-creatures with sharp teeth didn't try to pull people off ships in the middle of the night for a good reason.
She stood near the rail to watch the lights bob as the men hacked and prodded away at the mass. Bits of it broke off and swirled away, caught in the ship's bow wave, then the whole thing finally gave way. Kenar came to stand beside her as the launch platform was hauled up and Lord Engal gave muttered orders to Oswin and the other crewmen.
Dr. Barshion came out on the deck a little distance from them, and she heard Lord Engal congratulate him on driving off the creatures. But Barshion said, “Unfortunately, it's not something I can repeat. The aether in the remnants of the protective bubble is completely depleted now. I can't use it to drive off an attack unless I recreate the spell, and I won't be able to do that until we get the motile working again. The two are meant to work together.”
That's not good, Emilie thought, hugging herself. It seemed a long time until the night-eclipse would be over; the ship was like a bubble of light traveling through impenetrable darkness. Emilie said, “Do you think we'll run into anything else tonight?” She realized it was a stupid question as soon as the words were out. Kenar had told them over and over again, he had no more idea of what was in these waters than they did.
But he just put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a one-armed hug, saying absently, “I hope not.”
Emilie would have thought there was no way she would be able to go back to sleep after everything that had happened. But the shock of seeing the bones had rather crushed the excitement right out of her, and she found herself so heavy with exhaustion that she could barely drag herself back to Miss Marlende's cabin. Without bothering to undress, she lay down on the bed. Her restive stomach found this position much more amenable, and she quickly slid into sleep.
She woke briefly when Miss Marlende came in, drifted off again, then roused herself to see what the clicking noise was. It was Miss Marlende, sitting on her bed, loading a revolver. Miss Marlende saw her watching, and said, “Obviously I should have taken this precaution earlier.”
It was a little odd to see a woman with a gun, especially a pistol. But after what had happened, it seemed an excellent idea. Emilie asked, “May I have a pistol too?”
Miss Marlende frowned. “Have you ever used a pistol before?”
“No.”
“Then you may not have one.”
“Hmm.” Emilie subsided, sinking back down onto the pillow to go back to sleep. She recalled accidentally stabbing herself with a penknife while trying to cut reeds for a fishing rod one summer, and decided Miss Marlende was probably right.
Emilie slept through the end of the night eclipse and three hours into daylight. She woke, blearily stared at the clock, and struggled out of bed. After a quick wash, she tied her hair back, laced her boots, and hurried out to see what was happening.
She stepped onto the deck into dim sunlight and a humid breeze. Dark gray clouds filled the sky, heavily bunched in the direction the ship was heading. It completely obscured the cloudy column of the Aerinterre aether current. They had left the remnants of the flooded city entirely behind, but the sea wasn't empty. The ship was steaming toward a series of small islands. Odd islands, Emilie thought, shading her eyes to see. They all stood high above the water, at least twenty or thirty feet, with trees and clumps of vegetation on top and sharp cliffs dropping down to the waves.
By going to the bow and looking over the rail, she found Miss Marlende and Kenar on the main deck. Miss Marlende was using a spyglass to study the islands. Emilie hurried down the nearest set of stairs to join them. “What's that?” she asked. “Are we nearly there?”
“Possibly,” Kenar admitted. “These islands are similar to the ones near where the airship went down. I just hope we can navigate through them.”
Miss Marlende lowered the spyglass. “The channels between them seem quite narrow in spots. We're going to have to go very slowly.” She tapped her fingers on the rail in frustration.
“And hope nothing tries to grab us,” Emilie added, thinking of the Sargasso creatures last night.
“There's that,” Miss Marlende added wryly.
There seemed to be nothing more to do at the moment than watch the islands draw closer, and Emilie's stomach was growling. She went back inside, and found her way back down to the crew's galley. Mrs. Verian wasn't there, but her young assistant was scrubbing the tables, and Emilie managed to get him to stop long enough to find her a sausage sandwich, an apple, and a mug of very sweet tea. She was so hungry she ate the sandwich standing up at the serving counter, then put the apple in her pocket and carried the mug of tea out, meaning to head back up to the main deck.
But just down the corridor, at the base of the stairwell, she heard Dr. Barshion's voice and stopped to listen. “…I'm sorry, Abendle, I just don't believe that's the right method. We should be adjusting the axis slowly, not trying to reorient it completely.”
Abendle. That was the older engineer who was working on the aetheric engine with Dr. Barshion and Ricard. Dr. Barshion sounds exhausted, Emilie thought. Sounding even worse, Abendle replied, “Yes, Doctor, you know more about it than I do, but I still think these figures don't show what they're supposed to. Maybe if Miss Marlende looked at them-”
“No, Abendle, she's not familiar with her father's work in that detail. I wish she was.” Dr. Barshion laughed a little wryly. “No, you and I will have to try to puzzle it out.”
Steps sounded on the metal stairs above and Emilie hurried away down the corridor, looking for the next stairwell. She made it before the two men reached the corridor, and escaped unseen up to the next deck. She wasn't sure why she had fled, except that Dr. Barshion already thought she was an eavesdropper and she didn't want to confirm that reputation by being caught at it again.
Emilie spent the morning out on the promenade deck, with Kenar and Miss Marlende. But Miss Marlende was too impatient to stay in one spot for long, and kept getting up to walk around the ship.
The scenery they were passing was endlessly fascinating. The islands were growing larger and closer together, so sometimes it was difficult to find a course through them. The ship kept having to stop and send out the launch to take soundings, which made Miss Marlende even more frustrated.
The trees were like the palm trees Emilie had seen drawings of, the ones that grew on the coast far to the south. But the fronds were much bigger, stretching out for ten or fifteen feet and then drooping at the ends. There were other trees like none she had ever seen before, squat with thick conical trunks, topped by sprays of feathery fern-like leaves. Beautifully colored birds - blue, yellow, green - flew away from the ship's passage, too quickly for Emilie to get a good look at them.
After the third time Miss Marlende excused herself to go up to the wheelhouse, Emilie said to Kenar, “You're not nervous.”
“I'm less nervous.” He smiled at her, a quick flash of pointed teeth. “My people are in an area that's foreign to them, but the ship was in good repair when I left, and they had plenty of supplies. And I know they can take care of themselves, and that they will watch over Dr. Marlende and his crew. Vale knows that too, but she's waited and worried a long time.”
Emilie noted that he had used Miss Marlende's first name, then realized it probably didn't mean the same thing to him. Kenar seemed to have only one name, himself. Though after their shared trouble, he and Miss Marlende did seem to be good friends. And she thought he had been through a lot too, what with the dangerous trip to a strange world, and Lord Engal's suspicion and distrust. “Why did you go with Jerom to get help?” she asked. She had asked him that before, but he hadn't given her a very good answer. “I mean, it was very difficult.”
He looked out at the channel again. “Dr. Marlende brought his ship and his people into danger to help us. We had anchored near a series of small islands and sandbars, and sent a small boat ashore to replenish our water supply. Rani, my partner, was aboard it.”
Just the way he said the name “Rani” caught Emilie's attention. She wondered if “partner” was the correct word or if Kenar was perhaps translating it wrong.
Kenar continued, “The island we chose turned out to be a trap. A giant creature, bigger than this ship, lived on the sea floor beneath it, feeding on the fish and birds that came within range. When Rani, Beinar, and Sanith beached their boat on the sandbar, the creature raised folds of skin out of the water, swallowing the sandbar entirely, trapping them. We couldn't reach them, and we knew if we didn't, they would be eaten alive. But Dr. Marlende had seen our ship and been heading toward us already, meaning to try to speak to us. He saw what had happened and took his airship down low over the island, and fired weapons at the creature. When that didn't work, some of his men let themselves down with ropes and hacked at it with axes and burned it with fire. Finally it opened, and he dropped a ladder, and Rani and the others were able to escape with only minor injuries.” He let out his breath, as if putting aside the frightening memory, and smiled down at Emilie. “We sailed together for a while, learning about each other, helping each other as we explored this territory. When his engine became damaged later, we felt it was our chance to repay the favor he had done us. And we're explorers. I couldn't let the opportunity to travel to the legendary outer world pass by.” He gave her a thoughtful look. “You didn't explain why you left your home.”
“Didn't I? Oh.” Emilie realized uneasily that she had been asking him a lot of questions, and that he had perhaps noticed that she had been avoiding his inquiries. “I left home because when my mother was only two years older than me, she left home.” Kenar frowned, not understanding. Emilie added, “She became an actress. She could have come to a bad end.” Kenar still didn't appear to understand. “It was very shocking,” she said. “Some people think actresses are, you know...” He probably didn't know, and she found herself extremely reluctant to tell him that some people thought actresses were whores. She was afraid he would ask her what a whore was. Kenar, after all, had learned Menaen from Dr. Marlende, and there were probably a lot of words that just hadn't ever come up in conversation. “That they're almost like criminals.”
“I'll take your word for it,” he assured her gravely. “I still don't see what this has to do with you.”
“Because I'm her daughter, my uncle and aunt always felt that I'd do the same. Only perhaps I wouldn't be lucky, and meet a man like my father, who would marry me anyway.” Emilie tried to sound matter-of-fact, though it wasn't easy, and she could hear the anger that made her throat tight creep into her voice. She had been told over and over again, for what seemed like years on end, that she was destined to come to a bad end, even before she had had any idea what a bad end was. But deep down, she hadn't really thought that they believed it. Especially when she knew she wasn't really the sort of person inclined to bad ends.
Emilie liked to read, liked to take off her shoes and stockings and wade in the creek, to explore the fields and copses around the village farms. She had only been interested in the local boys while they were all young enough to play at being pirates and highway robbers together; as she had gotten older, it was only the adventurous heroes in books who had caught her attention. She was certain she was the least likely girl in the village to come to a bad end.
But you still could have, she thought. You could have gotten yourself murdered in an alley, crossing through Meneport, no matter how careful you thought you were being. Uncle Yeric's prophecy might have become a self-fulfilling one on Emilie's part.
“Do you want to become an actress?” Kenar said, still puzzled by the whole situation.
“No. It sounds rather difficult, and I can't sing well, and I'm not a good dancer.” She tightened her hands on the railing. She had never had any specific ambition, except that she had wanted to travel, wanted to visit places that were just names in books in the lending library or on the maps in the village school's atlas. But that took money, and she had none of her own; she had known she needed a more realistic goal, if she didn't want to be stuck as her aunt's companion for the next twenty years. “I didn't really know what I wanted to do. But my friend Porcia Herinbogel was going off to school, to Shipands Academy.” It was a real school, that taught things like mathematics, history, languages, agriculture, and even mechanics, and it was admitting young ladies for the first time. Porcia had been mad to go; she hadn't inherited her father's magical talent, but she was terribly clever, and wanted to take the courses necessary to be considered for a medical academy in Meneport that allowed women students. Emilie was certain that her uncle would not agree to pay for anything like that, but it had given her an idea. “I asked my aunt and uncle if I could go to my cousin Karthea's school, in Silk Harbor. She's my father's sister's daughter, and that side of the family isn't as...as my mother's side. I thought I could help with the work, look after the younger girls, maybe, while she took the classes. It's a lot of work, running a school, Karthea talks about it in her letters. I know she needs help.” She and Porcia had talked it all over, and her father had offered to bring Emilie along when he took Porcia to Shipands. They would be going through Silk Harbor anyway and could drop Emilie off on their way. It had seemed a modest goal and a perfectly respectable occupation. It had not seemed like much to ask.
Kenar still looked as if he wasn't certain he understood. “You ran away because your uncle and aunt forbade you to go?”
“Yes, partly. It was the way they did it.” Porcia, Mr. Herinbogel, and two of her aunt's friends, Mrs. Rymple and Mrs. Fennan, had been invited for tea, and Emilie had chosen that moment to broach the subject. But Uncle Yeric had refused to listen and forbade her to even mention it again. Emilie had lost her temper and shouted. The argument had escalated to the point where her aunt had burst into angry tears and her uncle had accused her of using the school as a ruse to get out from under their watchful eye, where she could become a whore like her mother.
The memory of being shocked senseless with humiliation, sitting on the couch in the familiar parlor while the embarrassed visitors hastily took their leave, still made her cheeks burn. It had gotten worse once they were alone. That was when her uncle had added that he thought she meant to use the trip as a ruse to fix her interest with Mr. Herinbogel, a widower old enough to be Emilie's father.
Thinking about it still filled her with fury, made her pulse pound. She had known then that whatever she did, she would never see her aunt and uncle again, not if she had to run to the ends of the earth. And she really didn't want to tell any of this to Kenar. It was hard enough thinking about it, but she had to finish the story. “They thought I was lying about helping with the school. They thought I wanted to use it as an excuse to get away from home. They said if I persisted, they would send me away to a place to be locked up.” She wasn't certain if Uncle Yeric had meant an asylum, or a prison. She had known that if he told the magistrates that she was a disobedient girl who wanted to run off and become a whore, they would believe him and not her.
Kenar shook his head slowly. Emilie thought he was rather appalled, even at this mild version of the story. “Your mother is not here to...shield you from the rest of her family?”
“No. She and my father died, when I was very young. My oldest brother hasn't come home since he ran away to join the merchant navy, and my other two brothers like my uncle and agree to whatever he says.” They had agreed about her, too. She supposed she should have expected it, but it had been just one more shameful blow on top of all the others. She had been close to them once, but when they had been sent off to boarding school, and no longer saw her every day, it was as if the real her had been replaced in their minds by her uncle's version of her. And when their older brother had run away, it had perhaps been worse for them than Emilie. He had confided in Emilie more, so she had been more prepared when he left, though it had still hurt her. To them it had been a bigger shock, and maybe they had turned to her uncle for reassurance, and it made them more susceptible to being swayed by his opinions. It had occurred to her later that she might have been more helpful to them at the time, but she had been so upset and so resentful herself that she hadn't been thinking about anyone else's feelings.
Kenar said, “I see. You could not join your older brother?”
“No. He's on a ship, now.” She added, in case Kenar didn't realize, “They don't let women join the navy in Menea.”
“That seems an odd thing to forbid. You would make a good sailor.”
“Thank you.” Emilie felt a huge relief at leaving the subject. She took a deep breath, and felt the breeze cool her flushed face. “If I was a Cirathi, I could be a sailor?”
“Of course. My partner, Rani, is captain of our ship.”
Emilie lifted her brows, intrigued. “Really?” She wanted to ask more, but Oswin came to tell Kenar that Lord Engal wanted to speak to him, and he went up to the wheelhouse. She stood on the deck for a long time after that, though, thinking about being the captain of a ship, and mentally rewriting the Lord Rohiro novels with someone like Miss Marlende as the main character.
It was late in the day when the ship's alarm sounded and someone shouted, “There it is!”
Emilie ran out to the rail, where Miss Marlende, Kenar, Lord Engal, and some of the crew were gathered. They were approaching a sizable island, ringed by cliffs like the others. At the base, anchored next to a narrow stretch of beach, was a large wooden sailing ship. It had three masts, with faded purple sails furled around the lower spars. Cabins with round windows were built all along the main deck, and they were painted various bright colors, now faded by sun and weather. Flowering vines were painted below the railings on the hull. “It's such a lovely ship,” Emilie said, before she realized what was wrong, why everyone was so silent.
The sailing ship's deck was empty. There was no sign of life aboard, no one coming out to investigate the chugging sound that signaled the Sovereign's approach. Emilie looked at Kenar, stricken.
His expression was closed, opaque. But she felt it was hiding a good deal of fear.
Miss Marlende said, “Perhaps they had to retreat into the interior of the island for some reason.” Emilie looked at the cliffs above the beach, but there was no sign of life or movement there, either.
Miss Marlende lifted the spyglass, studying the trees. “Perhaps they're at the airship, with-”
“We should be able to see your father's airship from here,” Kenar interrupted, an edge to his voice. “It's gone.”
She turned to stare at him, startled. “Are you certain?”
At her expression, he shook his head, avoiding her eyes. “Maybe they had to move it.”
Lord Engal looked from one to the other, frowning. Emilie thought he might say something to make it worse, but instead he just said briskly, “Now then, you can't expect them all to be standing out here waiting for us. They've probably been quite busy in our absence.” He turned to Oswin. “Make ready to lower the launch. We'll soon get to the bottom of this.”
Kenar and Miss Marlende boarded the launch with Lord Engal, Oswin, and six armed crewmen. Emilie slid into a seat next to Miss Marlende, and no one objected.
Emilie had managed to add herself to the landing party simply by staying close to Miss Marlende and Kenar, who were too distracted to notice her. If they had noticed her, each probably assumed the other had asked her to come along. She was sure Lord Engal, Oswin, and the other sailors noticed her, but they must have assumed that Miss Marlende had given her permission. Emilie thought Lord Engal must be making sure to be more polite to Miss Marlende, after their earlier disagreements, and the fact that...
That they might find her father, his crew, and all of Kenar's crew dead on the island somewhere.
The launch puttered across to the island, its engine sounding very loud in the silence of calm wind and water. The strip of beach was narrow, the rocky bluff above it draped with flowering vines. Two crewmen climbed out to help push the boat up onto the beach, and they all clambered out, splashing in the shallow water. Leaving a crewman to watch the boat, they approached the Cirathi ship cautiously.
Kenar went first, the others following, Emilie bringing up the rear. The soft sand crumbled underfoot, the scent of green plants and sweet flowers was heavy in the air. It would have been a lovely place, except for the silent ship. Kenar headed for the bow, and the crewmen spread out to search along the bluff. The wooden hull was covered with tar, or whatever the Hollow World equivalent was, and from this angle only the decorative painting made it different from a Menaen ship.
They circled around to the port side, the side facing the island that they hadn't been able to see from the Sovereign. A rope ladder hung over the rail there, dangling down to the sand. “Was that here before?” Miss Marlende asked tensely.
“Yes.” Kenar started to climb.
“No sign of tracks on this sand, but wind or water may have worn them away,” Lord Engal said, mostly to himself.
One of the crewmen called out, “There's a way up the bluff, here, My Lord. Steps cut into the dirt.”
“We did that, to get up to the airship,” Kenar said, already vanishing over the rail.
Lord Engal turned to follow him, telling the crewmen, “Two of you climb up there, look for signs of the airship. Stay within shouting distance.”
Oswin picked out two more men to remain on guard on the beach, then followed Lord Engal up the ladder with the others. Emilie followed them. She looked back to see Miss Marlende hesitating, torn between the ship and joining the search for the airship atop the bluff. Then she turned to follow them up the ladder.
Emilie climbed awkwardly over the solid rail onto the deck. She had been afraid to see the place strewn with bodies, but there was no sign of that. Yet, she thought, a little sick.
Kenar did a quick circuit of the deck, which to Emilie's untutored eye seemed undisturbed. There was nothing broken, no loose lines in the rigging, the casks and barrels of supplies - as gaily painted with vines and flowers as the rest of the ship - were still lashed into place. Kenar opened the door into the long series of cabins along the deck, moving quickly through.
Emilie followed behind Lord Engal and Oswin. The windows were all shuttered, but the slats were tilted to allow in light and air but deflect rain. They moved quickly along, and she got only fast glimpses of bunks and seats built into the walls with brightly-colored cushions, blue and gold pottery jars, a cabinet stacked with scrolls of paper. One scroll had been left unrolled on a stool, and Emilie stopped to look at it. It wasn't a map, as she had thought at first - she remembered the map Kenar had carried had been drawn on a square of fabric - but a long list of notes hand-written in an oddly square script. She wondered if it was a chronicle of the voyage. Maybe someone left a log entry, a note about where they went, what happened to the airship, she thought. And why they didn't take their ship, even though it doesn't look like there's anything wrong with it. She suspected she was being optimistic again.
She hurried to catch up with the others, who were just going down the open hatch into the hold. It was warm down there, and crowded with supplies, mostly casks and more of the pottery containers, so Emilie stayed on deck with Miss Marlende. There was another separate cabin back here, and Emilie stepped inside to see it was a small galley. There was no place to eat inside, but there was a small squat metal stove with a flat cook top, and pots and jars were stored on shelves against the walls, with rope webbing to hold them in place against the ship's motion. The room smelled of herbs and wilted greens. There was a pot beside the stove, still half-full of stale water, a wooden spoon with a carved flower handle standing in it. Emilie took the spoon out, so it wouldn't be ruined by soaking too long in the water, and hung it on an empty wall hook.
Miss Marlende was shielding her eyes, looking toward the bluff. From here there was a better view of the top, and Emilie could see the two crewmen moving through tall grass, in a big clearing half-surrounded by the tall palm trees. They were scuffing at the ground with their boots, poking through the ferny bushes. It didn't look as if they were finding anything. Not anything terrible, anyway. Emilie said, “Maybe they fixed the airship's aetheric engine.” It was a stupid thing to say, but she was finding it hard to just stand here silently, as if they were at a funeral. She could hear wood creak as the men below searched through the holds, but she bet they weren't finding anything, either.
Miss Marlende bit her lip. “The Cirathi would leave someone behind to guard their ship. Unless something attacked them and they all had to escape.”
The ladder creaked as Lord Engal climbed back up, followed by Kenar, Oswin, and the other crewmen. Kenar moved away immediately to the railing, knotting his fists on it and looking across at the island. Lord Engal cleared his throat. He was sweating in the damp air, and had pulled his shirt collar open. He said, “There's no sign of violence, but there's no sign they took any of the supplies they would need to leave the ship for any length of time.” He frowned at the island, the men still searching the top of the bluff. “Hmm. A closer look at the airship's landing site may tell us more.” He focused on Miss Marlende and said, “We'll find them. Obviously they had a compelling reason to leave this spot, even if it isn't obvious to us.”
Miss Marlende nodded tightly. “We took too long to get here.”
Lord Engal's brows lowered, but he kept a hold on his temper. He said, “I apologize for the delay, but I assure you-”
“No, not you.” Her voice was thick with the effort to control her emotion. “I should have acted more quickly. As soon as Kenar arrived with the news of what had happened, I should have...had plans already in place, I should have...” She shook her head, and turned away.
Emilie unobtrusively pressed her sleeve to her eyes. It was obviously taking a great deal for Miss Marlende not to give way, and she didn't want to add to the burden by succumbing to sympathetic and completely useless tears herself. She wasn't sure if Miss Marlende wanted to be comforted, or how to go about it, or if the attempt would just make things worse. Kenar, still standing at the rail and lost in his own grim thoughts, clearly wanted to be left alone.
Lord Engal seemed to be facing a similar dilemma. He hesitated, then finally said gruffly, “Not much opportunity to plan for this sort of eventuality, when one had no idea what Dr. Marlende was going to discover, if anything. Seems to me we've all been simply doing our best with what little we know.” He cleared his throat. “Now let's have a better look at this landing site and see what it tells us.”
Miss Marlende pressed a hand to her temple for a moment, then said, in a steadier voice, “Yes, of course.”
They went up the dirt-cut steps to the top of the bluff. It was warmer up there than down by the water, and Emilie was glad she was wearing one of Miss Marlende's lighter cotton shirts. The large grassy clearing looked bare of clues at first, but as soon as Kenar and the others began to point things out, Emilie could see the signs that a great many people had been here.
There were footmarks in the dirt, tufts of grass that had been ripped up, divots in the ground and spots of flattened vegetation where large heavy things had rested. Back under the shade of the trees, they found a rock hearth where someone had made a campfire, places where food garbage had been buried, a dropped handkerchief stained with engine oil, a wrench that had been accidentally kicked into a bush. Oswin pointed out that there was only a little rust on it, which it couldn't have been there for more than a few days.
They could see the marks on the nearby palm trees where heavy ropes had been tied, that must have been the anchor lines for the airship. And there was a big square spot in the dirt where Kenar said the main cabin had rested, when Dr. Marlende had lowered the craft all the way down to try to repair the aetheric engine. “It looks as if they moved it, at least twice,” Oswin said, poking at a tuft with the toe of his boot. He looked at Kenar inquiringly.
Kenar spread a hand, shaking his head. “They may have. When Jerom and I left, Dr. Marlende still hadn't given up on the idea that he could fix the engine himself.”
“It was only the aetheric engine that was damaged, correct?” Oswin said. “Not the smaller oil-fueled engine that would allow the airship to maneuver.”
Kenar nodded, glancing at Miss Marlende. “But Dr. Marlende didn't want to move the airship too far without the aetheric engine. He was afraid he would run out of fuel for the other one. That's why we took the balloon to the aetheric air current on the Lathi.”
“And obviously the ship returned here safely,” Lord Engal muttered, walking past them. “We need to search the rest of the island.”
But they found nothing, just trees, flowers, and bird nests.