by Martha Wells
In the hold, one of the women students was there, checking off the supplies on a sheaf of notepaper. Emilie took it away from her and sent her out rather precipitously, starting on it herself. She finished the list, found three items that were missing, and sent another student to collect them and to get her bag of belongings from the workroom. Then Cobbier came in to ask her how much she weighed so they could adjust the airship’s ballast. This necessitated some changes in the list, and she rechecked the final version again just to be sure. As she was marking off the last item, Seth poked his head in and said, “Are we all finished back here?”
Then he looked at her more closely. “Are you all right?” He was the youngest of the Marlendes’ three crew members, tall and slim, with very dark skin and short curly hair. He was a year behind Daniel at the university, though he was studying engineering and not aetheric sorcery.
“Yes, I’m fine; I’m just making certain we’ve got everything.” Emilie didn’t know what disaster might fall if they had missed some key item, but she really didn’t think they had. She followed Seth forward toward the main cabin. The air compartment smelled even more fragrant, and the big turbines that powered the airship’s engine hummed quietly.
Miss Marlende was in the main cabin and the door was open into the control cabin. It was almost as big as the main cabin, with the triangular glass port in front, and an array of controls with leather seats placed in front of them. Dr Marlende was at the controls, with Lord Engal and Professor Abindon standing beside him. Daniel was seated at the wireless station. Or at least, it looked much like the wireless station from the other, smaller airship.
Excitement washed away the lingering sour anger the confrontations had left behind, and Emilie tried not to bounce. They were really going! At some more quiet moment, Emilie was going to have to ask Miss Marlende what all the control stations did. If someone shouted at her to do something in an emergency, she wanted to have some idea of what to do and where to do it.
Emilie remembered Professor Abindon and Miss Marlende’s relationship, and wondered how awkward things might be between them on the trip. She had been so occupied with her own problems, she hadn’t even thought about their situation. She couldn’t tell if the atmosphere was tense and strained, but it seemed like it should be.
Seth told Miss Marlende, “We’re ready to lift off.”
“Very good.” She checked the watch pinned to her vest. “Right on time. Everyone get to their station and we’ll go.” She stepped through the doorway into the control cabin.
Emilie went to the nearest port. The students and some of the ground-crew men had formed a human barrier in front of the ship, holding back several people who might be journalists and a number of others who seemed as if they had just come to watch the airship take off. Then she spotted Uncle Yeric, standing with a uniformed constable. Uncle Yeric was gesturing angrily, and the constable just looked confused. She didn’t see Efrain, but there were enough people milling around that he might just be hidden in the crowd.
She felt the deck underfoot shudder and saw one of the anchor ropes swing loose. The other ground crew must be releasing the anchors. Mikel and Cobbier appeared on the gallery, hastily reeling in the loose lines, and the airship shivered again. The deck pushed on Emilie’s feet and she felt that wavery sensation in the pit of her stomach that meant they were moving upward. She took hold of the railing, but the airship’s movement was so smooth, she didn’t really need to steady herself.
The airship lifted high enough that she could see over the city to the port, the ships at dock, the ones steaming out to sea, sunlight sparkling on the water. The view had been her favorite part of riding on the other airship, and this was the first time she had been in one flying over a city. Looking down on the streets and the slate and wood rooftops from above was fascinating. She could see people looking up as the airship rose, pointing it out to others. I wonder if they know why we’re going yet, she thought. Probably not. It wouldn’t be in the papers until tomorrow. She hoped there wouldn’t be a panic before they got back with more information about exactly what the strange craft was. She also hoped there wouldn’t be a panic after they got back.
The buildings grew smaller and the airship began to move out over the sea. Watching the ships cut through the water, spotting tiny islands and rocks, kept her so occupied, Emilie almost didn’t hear the sudden commotion from the control cabin.
Cobbier and Mikel came inside, letting in a rush of cool air tainted with woodsmoke. As they shot the bolts in the cabin door, Seth hurried past and scrambled up the spiral stair to the second level. Miss Marlende stepped into the main cabin and her expression was highly irritated. “What’s wrong?” Emilie asked.
“We heard footsteps up on the second level,” Miss Marlende said, her voice grim. “It must be one of those damned journalists.”
Daniel stepped in from the control cabin. He was pointing up and started to speak, then stopped as he saw everyone already staring at the ceiling.
Emilie realized she could hear creaking metal as feet crossed the level above. She just hadn’t noticed it, assuming any noise was natural to the airship. With all the confusion, and the students and ground crew going back and forth, it must have been just possible to slip aboard the airship. She asked, “Will he write about us? I know the newspapers were probably going to anyway, but–” Her voice strangled in her throat when a young man clattered down the steps, prodded by Seth.
It was Efrain.
CHAPTER FOUR
Emilie stared. “You…” she began, and couldn’t seem to get any further.
Miss Marlende clapped a hand over her eyes. “Oh, for the…”
Seth stepped off the stairs, watching Efrain warily. “Emilie, you know this kid?”
Apparently seeing that Emilie’s jaw was locked with rage, Daniel answered, “He’s her brother.” He added grimly, “He came to the airyard with another relative who was trying to force her to leave.”
Cobbier eyed Efrain without favor. He was an older man, short and stocky, with sparse hair and dark brown skin and a normally good-humored expression. He had been with Dr Marlende the longest. “This isn’t a joke, son. This is an important job we’re doing, and we don’t have time for shenanigans.”
Efrain lifted his chin stubbornly. “You have my sister onboard. I’m couldn’t leave her here unchaperoned.”
The rage obstruction in Emilie’s throat finally gave way at that. She said, in a particularly acid tone she hadn’t known she possessed, “Unchaperoned? Miss Marlende is right here, with her mother, Professor Abindon. I am better chaperoned than I ever was at home.”
From Efrain’s expression, she might have punched him in the stomach. He said, “Oh. Uncle Yeric didn’t mention that.”
“Of course he didn’t, because he’s a horse’s ass. And these are all respectable men, not the sort of people you and Uncle Yeric evidently keep company with.”
Efrain glared. “That’s ridiculous! And it’s not what I–”
Miss Marlende began, “Emilie! And young man, you–”
“How is the fuel mix working?” Lord Engal strode in. “Are you taking notes? Who is checking the gauges?” He looked around at them all. “Well? What’s the…” He noticed Efrain and frowned. “He’s new. Are you new? Who are you? Is Dr Marlende raiding the primary schools for students now?”
Efrain opened his mouth but couldn’t seem to answer. Seth said, “He’s Emilie’s brother, my lord. He stowed away without her knowledge.”
Lord Engal stared for a moment, then shook his head in exasperation. He turned to Emilie. “So it runs in the family, does it?”
“Apparently,” she admitted grudgingly. “I won’t do it again now that I know what it’s like from the other end.”
Lord Engal didn’t appear to know how to respond to that. He finally said, “Well, see that you don’t.” He turned and walked back out of the cabin.
Efrain watched him go, bewildered. “So… he’s not going to do an
ything about me?”
“He’s not in charge of this expedition. My father, Dr Marlende is,” Miss Marlende explained. She sighed. “And it’s not as if there’s anything we can do with you.”
“We could toss him off the ship,” Emilie said darkly. “That’s what Lord Engal wanted to do to me aboard the Sovereign.”
Lord Engal strode back in. “I never said that, you ungrateful child. We are a civilized society; we do not throw people out of moving vehicles of any sort.” He eyed Efrain without favor. “You’ll just have to find something useful to do while you’re here.” He turned and went out again.
Efrain lifted his chin, apparently emboldened by the fact that no one was shouting at him. “You could take me and Emilie back to the ground.”
That was the last straw on an already badly strained donkey’s back, as far as Emilie was concerned. She took what she was fairly certain was a menacing step forward. “I wasn’t joking about throwing him off the ship. He’s endangering the whole expedition.”
Efrain glared at her. “You wouldn’t.”
Miss Marlende caught the collar of Emilie’s jacket and pulled her back. “She might if suitably provoked, but I’m afraid I’ll have to forbid it. And we can’t take you back. We have to enter the aether current at the correct time or we won’t end up anywhere near where we want to go. We have no leisure to wait another day for the right moment again.” She added, “I’d better go inform my father about our new passenger. Considering that he thought a journalist had managed to sneak aboard, he’ll probably be relieved, but the trim will still have to be adjusted. Please endeavor to be civil to each other,” she added, with a stern look at Emilie.
Miss Marlende went into the control cabin and closed the door. Emilie swore, not entirely under her breath. On her first real day on the job, she was not making a good impression, and it was all her stupid family’s fault.
Daniel cleared his throat, sounding uncomfortable. “Well, we’d better get back to work.”
The others seemed to remember at the same moment that this wasn’t a spectator event. They all headed toward different parts of the ship, Cobbier and Mikel going up to the second level, while Seth and Daniel went through the passage to the engine compartments.
Since they were giving her the opportunity for a private conversation, Emilie took advantage of it. “You’re getting me into trouble with my employers,” she hissed. “Why couldn’t you stay at home and feel self-satisfied there? Why did you have to come here and try to ruin my new life?”
“We didn’t know you had a new life!” Efrain glared back at her. “We thought you were in trouble…” He waved his hands hastily. “And I don’t mean that kind of trouble! We thought you’d be lost in the city, with no money.”
“You thought I was a fool.” Emilie had no intention of mentioning it was her money problem that had led to her meeting Miss Marlende and Lord Engal. “I was going to cousin Karthea’s; I was going to help her with her school. Then I decided to do this, instead.” She folded her arms. “And don’t pretend Uncle Yeric was concerned for me. He thinks I ran off to the big city to become a prostitute.”
“He does not! Stop saying that!” Efrain looked around to make sure no one had heard, but the rest of the crew was staying as far away as possible from them without actually leaving the airship. “You’re crazy. Why would he think that–”
“Because our mother is an actress, and he thinks all actresses are secretly prostitutes, no matter how many plays they’re in.” It struck her as horribly unfair, that while her uncle had never gotten along perfectly with their older brother Erin, he had clearly not had the same problems with her younger brothers and had certainly never seemed to see them as just marking time until they could embark on careers in some criminal enterprise. Deliberately provoking, she added, “They do have boy prostitutes, you know, so I’m surprised he didn’t accuse you of wanting to be one, too.”
Efrain hesitated, mutinous and obviously confused as to what he wanted to argue about first. She expected him to attempt to deny the existence of boy prostitutes but instead he said flatly, “That’s crazy. Uncle Yeric didn’t accuse you of that.”
Being called a liar didn’t improve Emilie’s temper any. “He did. At tea, in front of Aunt Helena, Porcia, Mr Herinbogel, Mrs Rymple, and Mrs Fennan. It was humiliating.” It had been more than humiliating; it had been a terrible shock. Emilie had thought she had lived with people who knew her, even if they didn’t always seem to like her much. To be so completely misunderstood had been like suddenly discovering that she had been living with strangers.
And the more time she had to think about her feelings, the more Uncle Yeric’s opinion of her seemed to put her off men entirely. Human men, at least. She wouldn’t mind meeting a nice Cirathi man, like a younger version of Kenar, but that wasn’t likely to happen.
Maybe the detail, or her tone, was convincing. Efrain’s expression was less disbelieving. “But…”
“All I wanted was to go off to Karthea’s school, to help her with it and maybe take lessons. She had written to me about it before. It wouldn’t even have cost him anything, just the passage on a steamer, and it’s not very expensive.” She folded her arms. “If you don’t believe me, you can write to Karthea and ask her yourself. I had my things sent to her from home, and I stayed in Silk Harbor at her house the night before last. Daniel was with me. He stayed in the housekeepers’ cottage. I was going to visit her there for a few days, then we found out about this” – she waved an arm around, taking in the airship and the aetheric disturbance they were heading toward – “and we had to come back to Meneport with Professor Abindon.”
“Oh.” Efrain seemed taken aback, possibly at all the witnesses to her actions and behavior that Emilie could bring to bear if necessary. “I thought… I thought you were trying to find Erin, that you might think he was in Meneport.”
Emilie felt her lip curl. Anyone with any sense knew that naval ships spent months at sea, traveling around protecting merchant and passenger ships and ports from pirates and raiders. The only address Emilie had for Erin was the general one for the naval shipyard, but it took ages for letters to the ships to be forwarded from there. “You thought I’d just come to the docks and perhaps run up and down them crying, shocked that his ship wasn’t here? Besides, he doesn’t care about us. He left us all behind, and if we all died tomorrow he wouldn’t shed a tear.” She stopped, a little shocked. She hadn’t meant to say the last part; it had come out all on its own, a fear that had been buried in the back of her mind since Erin had left.
Efrain stepped back and pressed his lips together. He said, “You left just like he did. You don’t care about us, either.” He turned away, going back toward the rear compartments.
“You stopped caring about me first,” Emilie retorted to his retreating back. It was a cruel parting shot, and she knew she had gone too far.
Emilie went into the control cabin and shut the door behind her. She was still angry, and in that unsettled way when you knew the argument was more your fault than anyone else’s. Miss Marlende was at the controls, and Dr Marlende and Lord Engal were occupied with the aether navigation. It was mounted on a pedestal between the two control stations, and looked very like the one Emilie had seen used on the Sovereign. It had a flat silver plate etched around with the symbols and degrees of the compass directions. Two silver rings could be rotated around it, to help determine longitude and latitude. On a shallow dish on the plate itself, there was a liquid silvery substance that looked like mercury but was actually drops of clarified, stable aether. It rolled around when the plate was turned and rotated, and pointed the way toward aether currents in the air and water.
Lord Engal and Dr Marlende were making minute adjustments to it, probably trying to pinpoint the best location to enter this aether current. Dr Marlende was saying, “I wish Deverrin had spoken directly to me. I feel I owe him an apology. If I had known then what I know now, I would have gone up after them.”
; Lord Engal said, “But any aetheric traces of the Deverrin airship’s passage would have been scattered by the lightning of the storm.” He adjusted the plate again. “Even if they did enter another aetheric plane, we wouldn’t have been able to track them. And if they haven’t managed to make their own way back by now, they must be dead.”
Dr Marlende adjusted the plate back where it had been before, and made a hmph noise.
The professor was seated at the other control station, taking notes or writing down her own observations. She said, dryly, “Even you can’t work miracles, Marlende.”
Emilie let her breath out, not sure whether she felt relieved or even more awkward that no one wanted to shout at her about Efrain. They’re busy with things that are far more important than your stupid family, she reminded herself. She just hoped Efrain didn’t cause any more trouble.
Finally, Dr Marlende checked another instrument on the control board and said, “Yes, that’s it! Just there.”
Lord Engal stepped back, rubbing his hands together briskly. “Good. Interesting that the current hasn’t been disturbed by the object… or craft, or whatever it is.”
“It hasn’t disrupted it yet.” Dr Marlende picked up a speaking tube. “Seth, please confirm that our recycling apparatus is producing air.”
Seth’s voice came over the tube, tinny and small. “Yes, Doctor, it’s working well.”
“Very good. Prepare for entry into the aetheric current.”
Emilie’s first inkling that taking an airship into an aetheric current might be somewhat different from taking a steamship into one was when Miss Marlende turned to her and said, “Strap into a seat, Emilie. It can get a little rough.”
Emilie took one of the padded chairs at the back of the compartment that weren’t near any of the equipment the others might need. The worn leather seat had been designed for a bigger person, and she fumbled to get the straps adjusted. As she did, Miss Marlende spoke over the speaking tube, asking the others in the back to confirm that they were all strapped in. Daniel answered for himself and Efrain. Emilie, who had just been recovering from the whole argument, felt her face heat with embarrassment again. It was good of Daniel to take charge of her brother, but she just hoped Efrain wasn’t saying anything horrible about her. All these people knew her – had known her – as Emilie the Adventurous Stowaway; she wasn’t happy that Efrain might paint a different, considerably more pathetic picture of her. You shouldn’t have told him what Uncle Yeric said to you, she thought. Idiot. She already knew she had talked far too much and said things she regretted. She was beginning to think opening her mouth at all had been a bad mistake.
