by Martha Wells
Miss Marlende said, “It looks safe at the moment, but take care where you step. Don’t touch anything.” She pulled the outer door closed, then moved down the corridor, and they all followed her.
The arrows continued down the corridor, and there were no other doors or cross corridors. Emilie thought the little circular chamber ahead must be some sort of optical illusion, like when straight lines looked wavy, or when you frightened yourself by mistaking the shadows at the bottom of curtain folds for feet.
But as they reached it, it was still a round chamber, the ceiling open to a shaft that stretched up into the ship. The second to last arrow pointed toward it, and the last pointed up into the shaft.
Miss Marlende stepped into the chamber, her brow furrowed in thought. Emilie leaned in and looked up. The walls of the shaft were a bronze color, lit with alternating bands of golden light, the wavy texture on them making the light bend as it reflected. She could see another chalk arrow about fifteen feet up. The arrows are a trick? she thought, and felt a cold chill settle in her stomach. Maybe someone… something… had captured the others and taken their chalk to trap–
Then Miss Marlende reached out to touch the wall. She snatched her hand back, startled. The professor asked, “What is it?”
“I think…” Miss Marlende lifted her leg and placed her foot on the wall. And then she was walking up it.
Emilie blinked, floored. Or maybe they actually did go this way. She hadn’t quite seen how the transition was accomplished. Still walking, Miss Marlende said, “Come on, this way!”
Emilie stepped forward and put her boot on the wall. It was suddenly like walking down a steep slope as her momentum pulled her forward, and the next thing she knew, the wall was the floor, and she put one foot in front of the other and kept going. Behind her, she heard Professor Abindon say, “How odd.” And Efrain laughed with delight.
Emilie kept her eyes on Miss Marlende’s back, a little worried that if she looked around too much, it would break the spell and she would fall down the shaft. They passed two more chalk arrows, then Miss Marlende stopped, confronted by an arrow that curved into a loop. Emilie carefully turned her head, craning her neck to follow the direction it seemed to be indicating. There was an open circular doorway in the wall directly behind them. “That way?”
“It must be. Let’s see if this works…” Miss Marlende slid one foot to the side, moving cautiously, then took a full step. She turned and walked around the circular shaft toward the doorway. Watching her made Emilie dizzy. She managed to make herself turn and follow.
Miss Marlende reached the doorway and stepped down into it, and suddenly stood at a right angle to Emilie. Emilie lunged forward and stepped before she could change her mind, felt the pull of that strange momentum, then suddenly she bumped into Miss Marlende. Miss Marlende steadied her and drew her back a few steps to allow the professor and Efrain to follow.
They walked into a large open chamber that appeared to encompass two levels of the ship. A bronze metal gallery ran around the second level, with no railings. There were a large arched door directly across the room in the far wall and other doors opening off the second level. Emilie noticed the door in the left-hand-side gallery midway along looked as if it led to a much brighter room. Maybe they’re in there, maybe those are their lamps, she thought.
More arrows were marked on the lower level, leading them along to a half-circle shaft in the wall. Miss Marlende stepped into it and was immediately propelled upward onto the gallery. Emilie saw her stumble a bit as she exited, then Miss Marlende called, “Yes, it’s this way!”
They followed, all managing to reach the gallery without falling off. The next arrow was chalked on the wall, pointing to the lit doorway.
The light in the chamber was brighter because it had several of the curved windows in the far wall. There were tables on one side of the room, set with a lot of disks that looked somewhat like the instrument dials in the airship, only there were no glass covers and they didn’t show words and numbers, but tiny little folds of what might be paper. Looking into them was fascinating; they only got more elaborate the longer Emilie stared. She had to tear her gaze away.
Beside them were switches and levers and knobs, though they too were made of something that looked like paper, all twisted into elaborate folds. Emilie was afraid to touch any of them to make sure, for fear of breaking them or accidentally turning something on. There were chairs, or at least round contoured benches, and the dark material upholstering them was very soft. There was a doorway in the far wall, leading into another, similar room.
Emilie moved toward one of the windows and looked out, but they were high in the hull here and she could only see the far curve of the airship’s balloon. She turned back to look around the rest of the room again.
Professor Abindon picked up a piece of thin metal that was covered with more of the tiny elaborate paper folds, twisting around each other into patterns. Stepping up beside her to look, Emilie thought it must be art. But the professor said, “This could be writing.” The professor held it flat on one hand and touched it very gently. “Hmm. It’s tougher than it looks.”
Emilie touched it too, gently brushing her pinky finger across it. It did feel more like metal than paper, deceptively strong, so it could be touched and maybe even crushed, and still hold its shape. She said, “That’s why there’s more of this on the panels. Maybe it’s instructions for the switches and levers?”
“And this could be a control room,” Miss Marlende said, “But it’s odd that it’s not more toward the prow of the ship. Do not touch that, Efrain,” she added, and Efrain jerked his hand back from one of the levers. “We don’t know how it operates. If it’s like that lifting wall, it may only require a touch to do something quite dramatic.”
Efrain looked suitably sobered and took a step backward from the table for good measure.
Emilie swallowed her irritation and started to look for the next arrow. She found it by the door, pointing to the next chamber. “Here, Miss Marlende.”
Miss Marlende shook her head slightly, as if more than a little dazed at all these strange sights, and strode forward again. The next chamber was nearly identical to the first, except that it had big cabinets textured the same way the walls were. These seemed promising, but after a brief search they proved to contain nothing but sheets of the metal-paper writing. The next room, however, had something astonishing in it.
It was a big sphere, nearly three feet tall and about as wide. Apparently made all out of one long twist of the metal-paper, the folds extended deep into the sphere so it was almost like looking into the insides of a plant or a strange sea creature. It looked like art, but after the professor had speculated that the metal-paper folds were writing, Emilie wondered if this had some other purpose. Though if it is writing, I don’t see how they read the bottom without lying on the floor.
Then Miss Marlende said, “I wonder if they can’t see.” She stretched her hands out towards the globe but didn’t touch it. “If they don’t read this by looking at it but by touching it.”
“What about the windows?” the professor said. Her tone was deeply thoughtful, not argumentative. “If they are blind, they wouldn’t need them.”
Miss Marlende nodded. “True. Perhaps they need light, or can see light, but they need their hands to interpret things that are this detailed.”
Emilie thought of the textured handles and the metal-paper patches on the control boards. Were they instructions? Or were they dials like the ones on the airship, that showed what fuel was left and the air temperature and the compass directions? “Maybe this moves,” she said. “Like compass needles or gauges.”
“A possibility,” the professor acknowledged. “If true, then this object is…”
“A map,” Miss Marlende finished. “But a map of what?”
Efrain had gone to prowl around the other doorway, and now he said, “Miss? I can’t find any more arrows.”
“What?” Miss Marlende turne
d, frowning.
Emilie went to the doorway. “They probably just didn’t bother to leave any because this just leads to the next room–”
“It doesn’t.” Efrain stepped forward, making a gesture. Emilie reached him and saw he was right; this junction had a doorway into the next chamber and an opening into another corridor. “They could have gone either way, so there should be an arrow.”
Miss Marlende moved toward them. “Look carefully.” The professor came to search, too. The next chamber and the one after it were mostly empty, with chairs arranged for seating and some tables but no control panels or giant globes. They went some way down the corridor, far enough to find another walking shaft that must give access to the rest of the ship. But no arrows.
They came back to the room with the globe and stood and looked grimly at each other. “They were here and then they weren’t,” Professor Abindon said.
“It doesn’t look as if there was a fight. There’s no blood,” Emilie pointed out, trying to be encouraging. “And if someone had knocked into the globe, surely the ends of the metal-paper would be bent.” Efrain winced and the professor gave her an odd look, and Emilie realized that perhaps that hadn’t exactly been tactful. Emilie felt her cheeks flush, and she looked at Miss Marlende. “Sorry.”
Miss Marlende just said, “No, Emilie, don’t apologize. I appreciate your candor. And you’re right, there’s simply no sign of a struggle here. Not that we’ve seen any sign so far of anyone that they might have struggled with.”
“Yes, though it’s a large vessel, and we’ve seen little of it so far.” Professor Abindon tapped her chin thoughtfully. “If we’re being blunt, one or more crewmembers could have gone mad and killed the others, and still be hiding onboard.”
Emilie nodded. “Yes, that’s happened before, on the Thalandia, out of Isenland, twenty years ago.” There had been a chapter based on the incident in one of the Lord Rohiro novels, and Emilie had looked it up in a natural history book to see what had actually happened. She misread Efrain’s expression as baffled and explained. “They were caught in a surface aether current and couldn’t get out, and they think it did some odd things to the crew.”
Efrain said, “Why do you know these things?”
Emilie felt her cheeks heat again, this time from rage, but Miss Marlende said, “Young man, disparaging others’ perfectly reasonable contributions to the discussion is a waste of everyone’s time.” It sounded mild, but knowing Miss Marlende better, Emilie thought she was trying very hard to control her anger. She’s upset, she thought. She really expected to find them all wrapped up in searching or trying to figure out some strange device, so that they just forgot to check in.
“I wasn’t…” Efrain started to object, caught Miss Marlende’s expression, and subsided. “Sorry.”
The professor frowned at him and continued. “But the point that there is no sign of a struggle is still valid. There may be something in this room that they touched which drew them into another part of the ship. Like the walking shaft, but perhaps more abrupt. They may be lost or trapped somewhere aboard or otherwise unable to get back here. I suggest we search this room thoroughly, with a great deal of care.”
Miss Marlende directed them to each take a section, and Emilie ended up with the wall that held the windows. She thought it was an unlikely place for a device of any kind, but searched thoroughly anyway. She didn’t touch it, but stood as close as she could and made her eyes trace the textures of the wall, looking for hidden switches.
At the point where the patterns in the textures were making her dizzy, Emilie stepped away to let her eyes adjust. Miss Marlende and the professor were carefully searching the control boards on the far side of the room, and Efrain was doing the opposite wall, studying it with the frowning concentration of someone who had no idea what they were looking for. Emilie repressed the urge to sneer, knowing that none of them really knew what they were looking for. Not that Efrain would have resisted the urge to sneer at her–
The deck shivered underfoot. Just a brief, violent quiver, hard enough to make Emilie’s teeth rattle. She stepped away from the wall, though she hadn’t been near anything. The others turned, staring in alarm. “Did anyone touch anything?” Miss Marlende said.
Efrain shook his head and Professor Abindon held up empty hands. She said, “That wasn’t the ship, it was the aether current again. There’s been some disturbance…”
And then the globe moved. The whole surface of the metal-paper twitched, then shifted seamlessly into motion. The twists and folds flowed like fluid, then settled into new patterns.
After it was still, they slowly stepped toward it. Emilie leaned down to look closely. Some of the individual folds of metal-paper were still waving gently, as if moved by a soft breeze. In the next moment, they had all stopped. Miss Marlende said, “I think you’re right, Mother. It is a map.”
The professor nodded slowly. “But not of a surface world. I believe… It’s a map of aether currents. It moved when the current shifted.” She lifted her brows. “I just wish we could read it.”
Emilie didn’t think either one had noticed that Miss Marlende had called the professor Mother; both were too intent on solving the mystery. Emilie certainly didn’t intend to point it out.
“I wish we knew why the current shifted.” Miss Marlende said. “It happened before Father and the others went missing, and we think they were in this room.”
“Could it have done something to them?” Emilie eyed the globe warily. “It didn’t do anything to us.”
“We weren’t close to it, though,” Efrain pointed out. “We were all back around the walls. And we didn’t touch it.”
Miss Marlende’s mouth twisted ruefully. “True. I find it hard to believe Lord Engal or my father resisted the urge to touch this device.”
Emilie hated to admit that made sense. The professor’s thoughtful frown was hard to read. She started to speak, then a loud bang sounded from down the corridor. Everyone flinched and Emilie’s heart thumped. “Maybe we just didn’t search enough,” she blurted.
“Maybe.” Miss Marlende strode to the doorway and the junction with the corridor. Emilie followed with Efrain and Professor Abindon, feeling her nerves jump. The soft gold light in the corridor seemed dimmer than it had before, with more shadows and less illumination. She wanted to speculate but just managed to keep her mouth shut; they needed to hear anything that might be moving in this corridor. Maybe the first, more violent shift in the aether current had trapped Dr Marlende and the others somewhere in the ship, and the second had released them. Or maybe the ship’s crew was aboard, and just… Sleeping? she asked herself. In the water closet? Otherwise indisposed? The airship has been here for hours.
They came to the shaft without seeing anything that could have caused the noise. The shaft only led down, and Miss Marlende hesitated for just a moment before stepping into it. Emilie followed her, too occupied this time to notice the odd sensation of suddenly walking down a wall.
Miss Marlende headed toward the open doorway into what should be the next deck. As she neared it, she circled around the shaft so she could see out of it. Emilie followed her example, edging cautiously forward when Miss Marlende stopped at the opening to peer out.
Emilie leaned around her to look past her shoulder. She thought the person breathing right behind her ear was Professor Abindon.
Ahead was an open two-level chamber much like the one near the control room compartments. The shaft led into the second-level gallery, with nothing like a hand rail or balustrade, which looked down on a lower deck about twenty feet below. A few doorways and what must be another walking shaft were set into the walls. Emilie couldn’t see what was on the deck below. This was more proof that while the crew might read the metal-paper with their hands, they could certainly see to some extent. The galleries with no railings would be terribly dangerous for a person who was completely blind.
“Hmm,” Miss Marlende muttered under her breath. She started to step
down to where the shaft would place her upright on the platform floor. Emilie leaned forward to follow when Miss Marlende froze.
A moment later, Emilie saw it too. Something, a dark shape, moved across the lower deck, just visible below the platform. The movement was halting, uncertain, as if they were watching the head and shoulders of someone who was feeling his way in the dark. Except Emilie rather thought the shape had too many shoulders.
Miss Marlende leaned forward to see better, and Emilie shifted for a better angle. The next instant, Emilie felt her feet jerked out from under her, and she suddenly slammed into Miss Marlende. They fell out of the shaft, landed with a thump, and stumbled on the platform.
The shape below vanished. Miss Marlende caught her balance and lunged forward to the edge of the platform. Emilie landed on her hands and knees and scrambled to look. The space below was empty, and Emilie could see a doorway in each wall. She hung out over the edge, trying to see under the platform, where the lower level stretched out a long distance back through the ship. She caught a glimpse of a moving shape, a strange outline against a gold-lit wall, and then heard the loud clang again. This time she could tell it was a metal door swinging shut.
The professor and Efrain landed behind them and Efrain flung himself down next to Emilie. He demanded, “What did you see?”
“It was something, someone.” Emilie looked at Miss Marlende and saw her own bafflement and consternation reflected in her expression. A member of the crew? But why only one? And why did he run? “What do we do?”
Miss Marlende’s expression hardened and she shoved to her feet. “Follow it.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Emilie looked wildly around. There were no stairs, no ladder, no immediate way down. “Oh, there!” The corner of the platform was supported by a pillar twisted into a spiral.
Miss Marlende ran for it, swung off the platform and climbed down the pillar. Emilie hurried after her. She made the scramble onto the pillar far less gracefully than Miss Marlende had, but once she had managed to grab it, the texture and the twists of the spiral provided hand- and footholds like a ladder. She dropped the last few feet and looked up to see a wide-eyed Efrain climbing down after her. The professor, still standing on the platform, waved her on. “Go, don’t wait for me!”
