Emilie & the Hollow World

by Martha Wells

  The older Menaen man had to be Dr. Marlende. He had shaggy gray hair and a beard that badly needed to be trimmed, which kept Emilie from spotting any resemblance to Miss Marlende. He wore a rather shabby tweed suit coat over a somewhat the worse-for-wear workman's trousers and shirt. He said, “Charter, Daniel, how good to see you!”

  One of the merpeople was less enthused to see them. Holding one of the translation shells, he turned to Rani and said, “You lied. You said you were alone.” He was young, very handsome, wearing a necklace of polished shells and a reptile skin belt set with disks of silver metal. The others with him, three young men and one older woman, wore the same kind of finery; Emilie suspected they were looking at the Nomads' leaders. Or at least the leaders of this group of Nomads.

  Rani snorted, amused. “Of course I lied. You keep dragging me and my people off by force. We are not friends, Prince Ise.” To Dr. Marlende, she explained, “That is Emilie, who came here with your daughter.”

  “Excellent!” Dr. Marlende said, and nodded to Emilie.

  Prince Ise rounded on Charter, demanding, “Where are the others?”

  They haven't caught them, they don't know they're aboard the airship, Emilie thought, relieved. His expression stony, Charter said, “I don't know. We split up, to look for Dr. Marlende and the Cirathi.”

  Prince Ise spoke to the mermen guards in his own language, and three of them hurried off, probably to organize a search. Emilie just hoped no one thought to check the airship. Prince Ise turned back to Dr. Marlende and Rani. “You can't expect me to negotiate with you after this. You have tried to escape, to attack my people-”

  Rani eyed him with contempt. “Oh, and if you were in our position, you would sit in a cell and do nothing, and wait for your captors to 'negotiate.' Is that what you would do?”

  Ise set his jaw, furious. He's young, Emilie thought. Younger than the Queen, certainly. Dr. Marlende said, “Oh, I think in our position Prince Ise would be fighting quite hard to escape. And I think we can agree that it is generous of him to speak to us at all, with everything he has to deal with at the moment.”

  It had given Ise time to get his self-control back. He said, more evenly, “I have been generous. I offer you an alliance. If you would help us fight the Queen's forces, we would treat you as honored guests.”

  Dr. Marlende shook his head. “My airship is for exploration, not war. And neither we nor the Cirathi have any business interfering in your disagreements with the Queen. Our involvement would cause you nothing but harm in the long run.”

  Ise folded his arms, his whole body communicating contempt. “I might have believed that, before the metal ship joined the Queen's fleet. Our spies say they have the same magics and projectile weapons that you do. I'm only asking you to even the balance.”

  “They were tricked!” Emilie had to interrupt. “They think you attacked the ship, but it was the Queen's people, pretending to be Nomads. And now they're only helping her because they think the Queen has Miss Marlende and me as hostages; they don't know I escaped with Rani and that Lord Ivers has Miss Marlende prisoner. If you let us all go, they have no reason to fight you.”

  “Yes, Rani informed me that Lord Ivers has my daughter prisoner,” Dr. Marlende said, sounding grim. “The nerve of the man.”

  Ise regarded her a moment in silence, and Emilie couldn't tell if her speech had had any effect on him or not. He looked at Rani and said, “She tells the same story you told.”

  “Of course she does.” Rani was exasperated. “It's the truth.”

  Prince Ise paced away from them, obviously torn. But before he could say anything, another merman pounded up the stairs, calling out. He spoke rapidly to Ise, who answered sharply in his own language. Then Ise turned to Dr. Marlende and said, “The Queen's forces have found our concealed cove. We'll drive them off, but when I return-” He hesitated again, but added, “This conversation is not over.”

  He strode out, the other merpeople following, leaving them alone in the room. The guard outside shut the door, and Emilie heard the lock thunk into place.

  Rani said, annoyed, “Well, that was not a timely interruption.”

  “I'm not certain it would have been any different had we talked all night,” Dr. Marlende told her. “We might convince him, but the Nomads have many leaders, and I don't know how much influence he has.” He motioned for them to draw together in the center of the room, and said quietly, “Keep your voices low, please. Prince Ise usually leaves the translation shell with the guards.”

  “They've made a mistake, leaving us together like this,” Rani muttered. “Surely Ise will recall it and send the guards to separate us soon.”

  “You can't use your magic to escape?” Emilie asked Dr. Marlende, keeping her voice low.

  Daniel looked offended that she had asked the question, but Dr. Marlende smiled at her. He said, “I can create a few rather flashy illusions, but I need access to my airship's aetheric channeling devices for anything more effective.” He turned to Charter and Daniel. “Any suggestions, gentlemen?”

  Charter glanced thoughtfully at the door. “There's a room above this one? Is there a trapdoor in the roof?”

  “Possibly, we've never been allowed up there,” Dr. Marlende said.

  Rani put in, “But we're three levels up, and there are guards on the ground below. This stonework is not so easy to climb.” She added to Emilie, “I tried earlier. It was very embarrassing.”

  “We don't need to climb,” Charter told her. He looked at Dr. Marlende. “Cobbier, Mikel, and Seth are in the airship.”

  “Ah.” Dr. Marlende lifted a brow, and exchanged a look with Rani. “The guards will expect us to try to escape through the ground level exit, so they'll concentrate their efforts there.”

  Rani said, “Then what are we waiting for?” and started for the door. Charter followed her.

  Daniel looked from them to Dr. Marlende. “Do we need a spell, a charm? I can try-”

  “They know my abilities,” Dr. Marlende told him. “They wouldn't be fooled by the illusion of an empty room.”

  “We are doing it the old fashioned way.” Rani took up a position to one side of the door, and gave Charter a nod.

  Charter pounded on it, and shouted, “Help, we need help!”

  From the other side of the door, a merman's voice said, “Be quiet!”

  “Please!” Charter kept pounding. Rani made a frantic gesture at Emilie. Emilie, interpreting this as best she could, shrieked as loudly and ear-piercingly as possible and flung herself on the floor.

  Emilie kept shrieking, and Dr. Marlende began to caper around her tearing at his hair and giving a good impression of hysterical grief. Emilie wasn't sure how long they could keep it up; she felt she was already close to bursting a blood vessel. But a moment later, the door started to open.

  The guard was cautious, entering spear first, but Rani moved like lightning. She grabbed the end of the spear, jerked the lighter merman through the doorway, and slung him across the room. As Emilie scrambled to her feet, Daniel hit the staggering merman with a water jar. The jar cracked and the merman collapsed.

  The guard still outside tried to shove the door shut, but Charter wedged himself into the gap, holding it open. He cried out and Emilie gasped, knowing he must have been stabbed. But he held the door long enough for Rani to throw her considerable strength against it, slamming it open.

  With the guard's captured spear, Rani slashed at the remaining merman, and he ducked away and stabbed at her again. Emilie reached the door and caught Charter as he slumped, staggering under his weight. The right shoulder of his shirt was already soaked with blood. Behind her Daniel reached the doorway, just as another merman charged up the stairs. Daniel was still holding the cracked water jar and, leaning down, slung it across the floor. “Oh, clever!” Emilie said, as it rolled down the first few steps, struck the merman in the shins and knocked him flat.

  With a sudden lunge, Rani shoved the other guard's spear up, flipped her spe
ar around and whacked him in the head with the butt hard enough to knock him back into the far wall.

  Dr. Marlende reached Charter, trying to take his arm to support him. Charter said, “No, get up to the roof, signal the airship! I can make it.”

  Dr. Marlende snapped, “Then hurry, damn you, I'm not leaving anyone behind!” and charged up the stairs. Stumbling a little, Charter started after him.

  Emilie hesitated, her first impulse to help Charter, but Rani and Daniel had plunged down the stairs, going to rescue the Cirathi. No, better help them, she thought, hurrying after them.

  The merman Daniel had tripped with the jar had hit his chin on the stone steps and was dazed. Daniel snatched up his spear in passing and Emilie, about to step over him, remembered, that door is locked, we need the key. Hoping this was the guard from that landing, she stooped down to pull at his belt, looking for the key, but there was nothing there. Suddenly he grabbed her arm, and a surge of panic almost blinded her. She snatched his big knife out of the sheath and hit him across the head with the hilt. It made an unpleasant thunk as it hit his skull and he fell backward. She pulled away, breathing hard. Hitting a person was very different from trying to hit the plant-creature who had attacked Miss Marlende. She felt sick, but there was just no time for it. She hurried down the steps.

  Another merman was already down, sprawled on the floor of the landing, and Rani and Daniel blocked the stairs, struggling with three others. Emilie dashed to the fallen merman, found a round metal knob attached to his belt with a cord, and jerked it free. As she stood and shoved it into the lock opening, Daniel fell backward and Rani lunged in to cover him. Gritting her teeth, Emilie forced the key to turn. The lock clicked and the door flung open, nearly slamming her against the wall. But a strong scaled hand caught her arm and steadied her as several Cirathi rushed out the door. They overwhelmed the mermen on the stairs and drove them back down the steps.

  The Cirathi holding Emilie up was a young woman, only a little taller than she was. She spoke in her own language, then switched to Menaen, saying excitedly, “You are rescuing us!”

  “We are!” Emilie replied.

  The young Cirathi threw a worried look around. “How?”

  “Oh, right! Up, we have to go up, to the airship!” Emilie said hurriedly, pointing up the stairwell. Rani shouted something in her own language that must have confirmed this, because some of the Cirathi started up the stairs, a few remaining behind to help Rani and Daniel hold off the merpeople.

  Emilie followed them, past the next landing and up to the very top. They found Charter struggling up the stairs, and one of the larger Cirathi caught him, heaved him over a shoulder, and continued to climb.

  They reached the landing at the top of the tower, where a doorway set at an angle opened into a large room. There was no trapdoor in the ceiling. “That's not good,” Emilie said under her breath. There were windows, fortunately, big round ones with no glass panes; Dr. Marlende was hanging out of one, waving a lamp that burned like a white firework. As Emilie reached him, he pulled himself back in, saying with satisfaction, “They've seen it, they're coming!”

  Emilie looked past him and her heart leapt. In the light from the ground lamps, the big silvery shape of the airship was lifting above the other towers, turning toward them.

  Dr. Marlende said, “Where's Charter? Ah, there he is.” Charter was upright and conscious though bleary-eyed, leaning on the shoulder of the Cirathi man, holding a crumpled handkerchief to his bleeding shoulder. Five other Cirathi had come up with them. All except the man supporting Charter were fairly small, scarcely taller than Emilie. Rani must have ordered the younger ones to flee up the stairs, with the one adult to take care of Charter.

  Dr. Marlende looked around the room, tapping his bearded chin. “Now if we can just hold off our captors until our transport arrives...” The lamp he still held was the usual sort the merpeople used, a convoluted shell hanging from a woven strap of reed or seagrass, which burned fish oil. Except this one was glowing white and spitting sparks. Emilie assumed Dr. Marlende had done something magical to brighten it so that the men in the airship could see it.

  Shouting, thumps, and crashes sounded from the stairwell, and Rani, Daniel, and the rest of the Cirathi hadn't appeared yet. There was no door, nothing they could use to block off the doorway. Emilie ran to the opposite window, the one above the front of the tower. Two of the young Cirathi were already there, looking worriedly down at the shadowed compound. One pointed for Emilie and she saw a group of merpeople running toward the tower. “Yes, they're sending reinforcements.” Emilie bit her lip. It sounded like Rani and the others could barely hold off the guards now. She turned to Dr. Marlende. “Can we do something? Go outside, to keep more of them from coming into the tower?”

  Dr. Marlende strode over to look out the window. He nodded grimly. “Yes, I think we'd better try a fire illusion.” He glanced around the room. “If you could find me another couple of lamps...”

  Emilie hurried to the doorway, taking down the lamp hanging near it. Even if it was an illusion, some of the merpeople might not be willing to test it too quickly. The young Cirathi didn't all seem to understand Menaen, but they saw what Emilie was doing and ran to collect the other lamps in the room. As they returned to the window, Dr. Marlende hefted the lamp he was holding, eyeing the nomads running across the compound. As they neared the base of the tower, he flung the lamp out the window.

  As it plunged toward the ground, white fire burst out of it. Emilie winced away, seeing stars before her eyes. She blinked hard, trying to see what had happened. The lamp had hit the ground, still blazing, if not quite as brightly. The nomads scattered and retreated in confusion. But Emilie couldn't feel any heat from the fire, and knew in a moment or so the nomads would realize it too. Dr. Marlende said, “Now we'll try this on our antagonists in the stairwell, though I fear they'll realize it's illusory.”

  He started toward the doorway, but Emilie stopped, caught by the view out the opposite window.

  The airship was above the tower now, the balloon huge above the smaller suspended cabin, trying to angle down to reach the window. Emilie saw Seth hanging out the open cabin door, holding a bundle of rope under his arm. Behind her, a deep voice said, “Tell them to drop a harness, this one can't climb.”

  Emilie glanced back. Without the lamps, the room was very dark, lit only by the dim light coming through the windows. After a moment, she realized the speaker was the Cirathi man who was helping Charter. “I can make it, Beinar,” Charter said through gritted teeth.

  “Of course you'll make it,” Beinar said, as he helped Charter toward the window. He sounded annoyed that there was any doubt at all.

  Emilie was glad Beinar was confident; it made it a little easier to ignore the tight panic in her chest. She leaned out, shouting up at the airship, “We need a harness; Charter's got a wounded arm!”

  Seth waved at her and ducked back inside. A moment later, a chain ladder with wooden rungs dropped out of the airship, dangling just out of reach. It was followed by a sturdy rope with a bundle of leather straps on the end, presumably the harness. The airship angled closer, and Emilie saw the propellers at the back of the cabin starting and stopping as it maneuvered toward the tower. She stretched, reaching for the ladder. It swung toward her; she made a wild grab and caught hold of a rung.

  Charter rasped, “Careful, if the ship moves up, it'll jerk you right out!”

  “Right,” Emilie muttered, bracing herself against the side of the window as she hauled at the heavy ladder. The airship seemed lighter than air, but it was far too heavy for her to anchor by herself.

  A Cirathi girl hurried to help her, their combined strength dragging the heavy ladder up to the sill. Then Beinar propped Charter against the wall, and took the ladder, pulling it into the room. Holding on to it, he stretched out a long arm and snagged the harness.

  Emilie realized Beinar couldn't help Charter into the harness and hold the ladder at the same time. She motio
ned frantically to the Cirathi girl that she was about to let go. The girl nodded and called out to the others in her own language. Two ran back from the doorway to grab onto the ladder, and Emilie went to help Charter.

  Between the two of them, with Beinar giving quick instructions, they got Charter's arms through the loops and Emilie quickly buckled the straps. In the dim light, Charter's face was pinched with pain, and he was sweating and shaking with the effort of standing.

  Beinar took one hand off the ladder to tug on the straps, said, “Good,” then hauled Charter around and shoved him out the window.

  Emilie couldn't help a strangled noise of protest, though she knew this was what they had to do. Charter hung in midair for only a moment, before the ropes were hauled rapidly upward. They must have a winch, Emilie thought irrelevantly, sticking her head out the window to watch.

  Mikel and Seth caught Charter as he reached the walkway and hauled him inside, then Seth reappeared, signaling wildly. He shouted, “Send the rest up!”

  Emilie pulled back in, got a scrape on the cheek from the swaying ladder, and reported, “He says to come on up!”

  Beinar spoke in Cirathi, and one of the girls started up the ladder, climbing quickly and agilely. As the next one started to climb, Emilie ran to the doorway. From the landing she could see bright white light glowing up the stairwell. She couldn't hear fighting anymore, though she could hear worried voices speaking in Cirathi. She called down, “Dr. Marlende, Rani, we have to go!”

  She heard Rani's voice give an order, and several Cirathi charged up the stairs. Emilie pointed urgently toward the ladder, and Beinar called to them. As one of the newcomers took over helping to brace the ladder, the last young Cirathi started up.

  Daniel bounded up the stairs next, breathing hard. His clothes smelled of male sweat, musky, something that wasn't nearly as unpleasant as Emilie thought it should be. He said, “Dr. Marlende's made a fire barrier across the stairs, making them think we've set the place alight. But he has to be there to maintain it.”