by Martha Wells
Miss Deverrin stepped forward, her expression turning angry. “What is that? What are you hiding?”
Emilie skipped back, snatching it out of reach. “Don’t touch it. If you want it, you’ll have to have me shot in the head.”
Miss Deverrin stared, aghast, and Miss Marlende said, dryly, “Miss Deverrin, this is the real Emilie. I don’t believe you met earlier.”
Then Mikel, who had been watching the top of the canyon, said, “Is this our ride?”
The little aether ship floated up over the canyon wall, as light as a milkweed blossom, gleaming in the light. The Deverrins stared in shock, pointed, called out to each other. Miss Deverrin and Brendan and the other guard stared up at it too, but the two men were still holding their rifles. Emilie bit her lip, seeing the flaw in her plan. If the Deverrins shot at the ship, or shot at them while they were trying to get aboard, they could be in a lot of trouble.
But Miss Marlende flicked a look at Dr Marlende, and then stepped toward Brendan. “That’s the little ship Emilie saw, proof that she was telling the truth about everything. And proof that we’re telling you the truth about your father.”
Brendan shook his head, started to turn toward her. And Miss Marlende grabbed the barrel of his rifle. Surprised, he tried to wrench it away, but Dr Marlende surged forward and punched him across the jaw. Brendan let go of the gun and staggered back. Lord Engal grabbed Miss Deverrin by the arm. Cobbier and Mikel started toward the one remaining guard but he turned and leveled his rifle at them. Miss Marlende pointed Brendan’s rifle at Miss Deverrin and said, “Drop it. You’ve threatened us and held us prisoner, and I won’t hesitate to shoot.”
Miss Deverrin gasped, “No, don’t believe her. She wouldn’t…” But the man dropped his rifle. Cobbier hurried forward to grab it.
Miss Marlende said, “Get our things.” Mikel and Efrain hurried to get the packs that had been stacked against the rocks nearby.
The little ship hovered over the camp, and Emilie ran toward it. The dust swirling around her, she waved and motioned for it to land. It sank gently toward the ground.
“We seem to have a hostage,” Lord Engal said, pulling Miss Deverrin forward. In a lower voice, to Dr Marlende, he added, “I’ve never had a hostage before and I’m not certain what we do next.”
Brendan shoved to his feet and shouted, “Let her go! We won’t try to stop you.”
Miss Deverrin said stiffly, “If you mean us no harm as you claim, you should let me go.”
Dr Marlende hesitated, Brendan’s heartfelt appeal clearly having an effect on him. Emilie didn’t like it either, but now that they had Miss Deverrin, she was extremely reluctant to let her go. Miss Marlende said, “We should take her with us. Perhaps if she’s away from the creature’s influence long enough, she’ll come to her senses.”
“Odd, I was thinking the same thing about you!” Miss Deverrin snapped.
Professor Abindon said, “Vale, I believe you’re right. The girl is already a good deal more spirited. We should take her with us.”
The lifeboat touched the ground and bounced a little like it didn’t weigh anything. Emilie ran around to the hatch at the stern and pulled it open. “Hurry, everyone!”
Efrain climbed in first, then the professor and Lord Engal, pulling Miss Deverrin along with him. Cobbier and Dr Marlende hung back, pointing the rifles at the other Deverrins, as Miss Marlende and Mikel stepped in. Emilie followed them, backing in to give the others room to get aboard. Inside, everyone was crowded along the walls, staring at Hyacinth, who was crouched over the controls, its rear blossoms pointed toward them. Efrain had taken a position up next to it, looking out the front window.
Emilie said into the translator, “Everyone, this is Hyacinth. Its real name doesn’t translate to Menaen, and I don’t think our names translate to its language, so… it may be a bit confusing now there’s more than two of us.”
The translator formed the words, I will point at who I mean to speak to. Or perhaps we could assign you numbers.
“Now you’re teasing me,” she told it.
Dr Marlende called out to the Deverrins, “We will return for you all,as soon as we’re able!”
He and Mikel scrambled aboard, and Mikel handed the rifle off to Cobbier then pulled the door shut. Emilie told the translator. “That’s it! Please take off now.”
The ship’s deck swayed as it lifted up. Emilie glimpsed the top of the ridge, and felt the tightness in her chest unknot. We did it. Miss Deverrin folded her arms stubbornly, glaring at all of them. She said, “You’re common criminals.”
“Young lady, you were holding us prisoner,” Lord Engal said, exasperated. “You don’t get to call foul when we escape.”
Professor Abindon added, “And if you still believe our story is a lie, why is there an intelligent plant flying this craft?”
Miss Deverrin’s jaw set and she didn’t answer. Emilie could tell she was going to be a tough nut to crack. She could understand why: if Miss Deverrin admitted they were right about her father, she had to admit that she had been a fool who had been tricked by an alien creature. And she would also have to admit that her father might be dead. Or that he couldn’t be saved.
Then Efrain shouted, “He’s coming back! I see him!”
Emilie turned, squeezed in between Miss Marlende and the professor to look out the window. Dr Deverrin stood on the path up toward the camp entrance, just staring at the ship. His lack of reaction was chilling.
Everyone found a window, watching him. Sounding more curious than afraid, Cobbier said, “That’s just not normal. You think Deverrin is still in there at all?”
Dr Marlende shook his head. “I don’t know.” He looked toward Hyacinth. “Perhaps our new ally can help us find out.”
As the ship pulled away, Dr Deverrin disappeared behind the trees. Emilie felt the translator move in her hand. She looked down to see it read, Where should we go?
“Hyacinth wants to know where to land,” Emilie said. “We can’t take the ship out into the aether current yet. It needs to be repaired.”
Dr Marlende said, “Go back toward where we were first deposited in this world. It will be far enough away that Deverrin won’t easily find us, and perhaps the current will be easier to access from that point.”
Emilie consulted the translator and said, “It wants you to point out the direction, please.”
Dr Marlende did so, and they all swayed as the ship turned.
Hyacinth landed the lifeboat on a large flat spot on one of the hills near where they had first been deposited in the construction.
After a long talk with Hyacinth via the translation device, Dr Marlende, Professor Abindon, Lord Engal, Cobbier, and Mikel began to consult on a way to get the little ship to enter the aether current again.
Before they started to work, Lord Engal told Miss Marlende, “We’ll need to keep watch. Deverrin – or the creature, whatever it is – may try to come after us.”
Miss Marlende nodded. She was holding one of the rifles, looking over the hills and the purple-tinged forest. “He shouldn’t be able to tell what direction we fled in, but we don’t know what this creature’s abilities are.”
“Do you think he could tell when the aether current fluctuated and brought us here?” Emilie said. “Either that, or the creature aboard the aether-sailer called on the lifeboat’s wireless and told him.”
“Hmm,” Lord Engal said, “I suppose we won’t know until we can ask him,” and went back to join the others.
Once they helped Hyacinth repair the lifeboat, they would need to figure out what to do about the Deverrins and the other ghost pirate that they had speculated was still on the aether-sailer. Emilie was feeling a little overwhelmed.
She was so overwhelmed, she thought she was having a conversation with Miss Marlende, until she woke abruptly, lying in the grass, with her head pillowed on a pack. She sat up, looking around blearily.
Efrain lay nearby, curled around a pack and sound asleep, and Miss Marl
ende sat next to him, keeping watch with the rifle across her lap. Miss Deverrin sat a short distance away, her arms folded, grimly staring down the hill. Miss Marlende said, “You were exhausted, so I just let you sleep.”
The others were still gathered around the lifeboat. The hatch was open and she could see Lord Engal sitting with Hyacinth and talking on the translator, while Mikel and Cobbier had their packs open and strewn around, and were working on something that looked like a small portable wireless. Dr Marlende and the professor had their heads together, both writing in notebooks. They must be working out a spell. Emilie said, “Did he leave her because he was still in love with Dr Deverrin?” Then she realized she had said it out loud, and felt her cheeks flush.
Before the embarrassment set in too heavily, Miss Marlende sighed and said, “No, I think that was all over with long before they separated. I blamed my mother for it, for a long time. But watching them now… I think both of them just realized they didn’t want to be married. They were always very good colleagues; it had been so long since I’d seen them together, I’d forgotten about that. I suppose they thought that because they worked so well together, they should marry. But they fought so much.”
“Oh.” It must be odd, to watch that happen to your parents. Emilie’s parents had died so young; they were preserved as a perfect couple in her memory. She decided on the whole it was better to have imperfect but living parents, even if they were living in different towns.
She looked at Miss Deverrin’s stiff, angry back. What must it be like to see someone – something – else in your father’s body? “Hyacinth said the ghost pirate took over the body of his crewmate, but they made it leave. But Hyacinth also said it must be different for his people and us. Maybe we can still get it out of Dr Deverrin.”
Miss Deverrin didn’t react at all.
Miss Marlende said, “I hope so. I just wish we knew why the creature, or creatures, if you’re right about the second one aboard the aether-sailer, did this in the first place.”
Emilie agreed. So far, the ghost pirates had had the Deverrin airship, an aether-sailer, and an aether-sailer’s lifeboat, and done nothing with any of them. They had to be planning something. Emilie sighed in frustration, and looked toward Miss Deverrin. It might be helpful if Miss Deverrin could tell them about what Dr Deverrin had done since they had arrived here, when his behavior had changed, and if he had ever spoken of creatures living in the aether. “Do you think she’s listening to us?”
“Yes.” Miss Marlende frowned. “It’s a great deal to take in, in such a short time. But if she doesn’t listen to us, the rest of her party is doomed.”
Miss Deverrin flinched.
Dr Marlende called to them from over by the lifeboat. “My dears, we think we have it!”
Miss Marlende stood. “Emilie, wake Efrain, please. Miss Deverrin–”
The ground underfoot rippled. Emilie, caught as she was about to stand, thumped back to the ground. Efrain sat bolt upright. Miss Deverrin shoved to her feet and looked around wildly. “There!”
Emilie stepped back, wary that it might be a trick, then looked.
In the distance, a big dark shape dropped toward one of the rounded, oddly-formed mountains. It was like watching an airship land, but it was so far away, it had to be huge. It plummeted down toward the mountain and hit the slope. The ground shook, hard enough to rattle Emilie’s teeth.
Chunks of rock tumbled down the mountain, and an avalanche started as all the slopes below started to slide. The whole mountain shuddered and settled into a different shape.
Emilie’s throat was suddenly dry. “That’s right. They aren’t mountains. They’re piles of… pieces.” It was one thing to theorize about it, another to see it happen. She turned to look at Miss Marlende.
Dr Marlende stood next to her and Miss Deverrin. Efrain had run to the doorway of the lifeboat. He called out, “I think we should go inside!”
“Yes. Yes, we should,” Dr Marlende agreed. He stepped back to let Miss Deverrin and Miss Marlende go first, and motioned for Emilie to hurry.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Emilie stepped into the lifeboat. The panels at the front had been lifted off, and Hyacinth was crouched over the strange objects inside. Lord Engal, Cobbier, and Mikel had already carried all the packs and tools inside. Professor Abindon sat on the deck with her notebook in her lap. They all stared worriedly, including Hyacinth, who had all its blossoms extended. “What was that?” Lord Engal asked.
Dr Marlende said, “The current fluctuated and brought in another section of ground from somewhere. I suggest we make our departure as soon as possible.”
Miss Marlende said, “You’ve repaired the ship?”
Dr Marlende explained. “Hyacinth has been able to ascertain that the only function that is damaged is the mechanism that allows the lifeboat to enter the aether current. We can’t repair it with the tools and material available, but we can construct a spell to replace it. Fortunately, the aether-navigation device the ship uses is still functional. Once the lifeboat is in the current, we should be able to use its own navigation equipment to guide it back to the aether-sailer and our airship.”
Her voice cold, Miss Deverrin said, “And what will you do then?”
Professor Abindon turned to regard her. “Then we will find and confront the creature we believe is still aboard. Hopefully, at some point you will break free of this influence and help us try to rescue your father and the others in your expedition.”
Miss Deverrin grimaced and looked away for a long moment. She said finally, “Then… you don’t plan to kill my father?”
“Of course not.” Dr Marlende sighed, wearily frustrated. “My dear young lady, we are trying to help you.”
“How?”
Lord Engal gestured to Hyacinth. “Our friend here has described in detail the device one of its crew constructed to force the aether-creature from its first host. That device has undoubtedly been destroyed by the creature still aboard the ship, but we may have the materials aboard the airship to construct something similar.”
“Or at least,” the professor added, “use an aether-navigator to demonstrate that there is something very odd about your father.”
Miss Deverrin’s brow furrowed, and her expression was conflicted for a moment. Emilie seized on that. “Didn’t you have an aether-navigator on your airship? Did it do anything odd?” She remembered the disused condition of the airship’s cabin. It had been strange that the Deverrins hadn’t used the airship cabin as a shelter. Emilie had put it down to Dr Deverrin’s influence but hadn’t thought further than that. “You must have had an aether-navigator. And other equipment. What happened to it?”
Miss Deverrin shook her head. “It was broken in the crash.”
Miss Marlende’s voice was highly skeptical. “If the plate for your aether-navigator ‘broke’, I don’t see how the rest of the cabin survived intact.”
Emilie knew what she meant. The plates for aether-navigators were solid silver. And she knew from the Lord Rohiro books that they were relatively easy to assemble if you had a sorcerer who could manipulate aether. If something had happened to the one aboard the airship, Dr Deverrin should have been able to repair it or build another.
“He didn’t want any of you near it, did he?” Professor Abindon watched Miss Deverrin speculatively. “Tell me: your father was known as a sorcerer of great skill. Has he done any magic since you’re been here?”
“No, but…” Miss Deverrin shook her head. “This place affected him!” she burst out. “It affected us all. You can’t understand.”
Professor Abindon grimaced in irritation. “Talking to this woman is pointless. Are we ready to go?”
Cobbier picked up the translator and relayed the question. Hyacinth waved its blossoms in assent, and Cobbier said, “It says to close the door and hold on.”
Mikel pulled the hatch shut and they all found a place to brace themselves.
Emilie managed to get a spot close enough to see
the translator, which Cobbier held. The lifeboat’s deck swayed as it lifted up, and Emilie breathed a sigh of relief. Then Mikel said, “Look. We had about another hour, if that.”
Emilie turned toward the nearest window, sharing it with Miss Marlende. “I don’t… There!”
Two hills away, in an area where the trees were sparse, several human figures were visible. They stopped as they saw the lifeboat, and Emilie was certain the one in the lead was Dr Deverrin. It sent a chill through her blood.
She turned away from the window to see Hyacinth’s blossoms lifted inquiringly.
“It was the Deverrins,” Emilie told the translator. Cobbier held it up so she could speak into it more easily. “They were coming this way. Somehow, they knew where we were.”
That is disturbing, Hyacinth replied. The ghost pirate must be very sensitive to the aether currents caught in this construct to detect our movements in that way.
Emilie read the answer aloud for the others, forgetting to change “ghost pirate” to something more dignified. “Ghost pirate?” Efrain said, grinning at her.
“If the name fits, call it,” Emilie said, embarrassed.
“Names aside,” Professor Abindon said into the translator, “guide us to the current, please.”
The ship lifted up and up, but there was no gradual darkening of the sky. The light was the same. “Is the light coming from the aether current itself?” Emilie asked softly. “We wondered when we got here.”
“Yes, it seems to be a side effect of whatever is attracting and holding these pieces of world in place.” The professor stared intently out the window, then looked back at the translator. “I’m not sure this is a mystery that we will ever solve.”
Unless we can get the ghost pirates to talk, Emilie thought. She had the feeling they knew everything about this place.
With the others, Emilie had been keeping an eye on the ball of metal-paper that functioned as the ship’s aether-navigator. Her gaze on the translator, the professor said, “Be ready. We’re nearly there, and the current is starting to fluctuate.”
