Emilie & the Hollow World - By Martha Wells Page 0,11
the source. Under the dome was a glass ball, and floating inside it was a bubble of silvery white light. Emilie leaned forward, squinting to see. It wasn't a light, it was a liquid. She could tell from the way it moved. It had an opalescent quality to it, as if it were a liquid drop of pearl. Blue light crackled under the glass, like a miniature lightning strike, and Emilie flinched.
So did everyone else. Miss Marlende said grimly, “That shouldn't be happening.”
“What is it?” Emilie whispered to Kenar.
“It's quickaether,” he told her softly. “It powers the motile, and the other spells the ship needs to travel the aether currents.”
The crackling light inside the glass flickered suddenly. The deck shuddered in response and the ship around them groaned. Emilie swallowed in a suddenly dry throat. That couldn't be good, she thought. The ship sounded as if it was strained nearly past bearing.
Barshion checked all the dials, spoke quietly to the older crewman Abendle, and turned some of the knobs. Then he stepped back from the plinth. His expression wasn't encouraging.
Watching him worriedly, Lord Engal said, “You look blank. I'd like to believe that's a clever ploy to frighten me right before you tell me that of course you know how to fix it.”
Barshion shook his head, baffled. “I don't understand what's wrong- All the spell's parameters are correct, but the engine is still failing.”
Miss Marlende took a sharp breath. “Then we've got to surface. How close to the boundary are we?”
Engal said, “We've just passed it. We entered the fissure just off the coast and the current's carried us through, just as we theorized.”
Kenar didn't seem surprised, but Dr. Barshion and Miss Marlende stared at Engal. “You didn't inform us,” Barshion said, startled and angry. “If you-”
“I was rather busy; we had three dock-raiders holding out in the forward hold who decided to fight to the death.” Engal lifted his brows. “We may be past the boundary, but we're still some distance from your father's last known position. I estimate several more hours of travel, at least. If we leave the current now-”
“But we can surface, that's the important point,” Miss Marlende said urgently.
Barshion waved an impatient hand. “I don't think we have a choice. It's either surface intact, now, or surface later as a smashed mass of metal.”
Engal nodded sharply. “Then we'll surface now.”
Emilie and Kenar stepped hastily out of the way as Lord Engal plunged out of the cabin and back down the corridor. Dr. Barshion stayed behind, but Miss Marlende dashed after Lord Engal, her boot heels tapping on the metal floor. Kenar followed her and Emilie hurried after him. Boundary, fissure, surface, she thought. It couldn't mean what it sounded like. Except that it couldn't mean anything else. She asked, “We're not going back up, back to the harbor, are we? We're already there, in the center of the world? That's what the black water meant?”
“Yes.” He sounded more relieved than worried, and she remembered they were going toward his home.
“But so fast...” She had thought it would take days.
“The aether currents move through water and air at a pace faster than anything could travel without magic.” He threw a quick glance down at her. “But we're here sooner than I expected. It must have something to do with the sea.”
She meant to ask him if it had been a long journey for him, flying up through the volcano, but Engal was already pounding back up the stairs and Emilie had no breath to talk.
They hurried after him, forward down a passage, passing a couple of short corridors lined with cabin doors. Everything was as rich as the lounge areas: fine wood, polished brass. They went up a set of stairs to the bridge, to a passage that opened directly into a chartroom. There was a big table in the center, and large cabinets for maps against the walls.
Four crewmen were there, all in the black livery. The oldest man looked up, frowning. It was the officer who had ordered Kenar off the deck and sent him to be confined in the lounge. He said, “Lord Engal, are we-”
“We're going to surface, Captain Belden, prepare the crew,” Engal said, moving past the crewmen into the wheelhouse.
The wheelhouse had a curved outer wall, with large ports all along it, now looking out on the black water. There was also a brass-bound wheel, a speaking tube, and an engine telegraph, for transmitting the captain's commands to the men