Emilie & the Hollow World - By Martha Wells Page 0,15
supposed to be in charge of her, and she didn't want to remind them. And she didn't want to draw too much attention and get herself locked up in a cabin for the duration.
But her stomach was growling, and she felt sure she wasn't the only one; somebody would be feeding the crew breakfast.
She went down the nearest stairs to the main deck, and once there followed the smell of fried bread and sausages down another stairwell to the crew quarters. The corridor opened into a crew lounge fitted up as a galley, with long tables and benches, where an older woman and a boy about Emilie's age were working at a small stove and counter, dispensing food. Several crewmen, some with bandages, black eyes, torn uniforms, and other signs of the fighting, were sitting down to eat or waiting for seconds. Emilie picked up a tin plate and a cup from a clean stack and joined the line.
She noticed most of the crew were Southern Menaen, like Lord Engal, or looked as if they had a mix of both Southern and Northern heritage. They could have all been hired from Meneport, but.they seemed very comfortable with each other, as if they had been together as a crew for a long time. They had fought off the attack on the ship in a very capable fashion; it made her wonder if Lord Engal did this sort of thing a lot.
From the talk she overheard, everyone was unsettled by the fight, tired, and deeply uneasy about their current whereabouts. Emilie thought it was a rational reaction to the whirlwind events of the past few hours.
When it was her turn, the boy who took her cup to fill it at the tea urn just stared at her, but the woman who was dishing out the food blinked in surprise and said, “Now who are you?”
“I'm Emilie.” She held out her plate hopefully. “I'm with Miss Marlende.” Maybe that would come in handy after all.
“Oh, well then, you should really be eating up in the passenger lounge,” the woman told her, but continued scooping sausage slices, fried bread, and potatoes onto her plate. “Verian, the ship's steward, is going to be serving up there.”
“But this looks so good,” Emilie said, and for once it was the complete truth. The sausage was plump, the bread soaked with butter and sugar, the potatoes nicely browned.
Her sincerity must have been evident, because the woman smiled, ladled more onto the plate, and said, “If you need anything, I'm Mrs. Verian.”
Emilie thanked her, took her mug of tea, and retreated. She went back up the stairs to the passenger decks, since she was less likely to be noticed there. Recalling there were tables and chairs on the glass-enclosed promenade, she headed for it.
The hatch was already open. Emilie peeked out cautiously, and saw Miss Marlende seated at a table. Kenar was nearby, perched on a supply locker built against the wall. They were looking out at the view, which was so arresting Emilie had to stop and stare a moment.
The ship was moving slowly, the low throb of the engines the only sound as they sailed along the edge of the flooded city. The clear water sparkled in the sunlight, and their wake lapped at the white towers, the wide pitched roof of a submerged building, a line of artistically twisted columns that marched away to nowhere. Emilie supposed there was no time to stop and explore, not before they had rescued Dr. Marlende. But maybe we'll have to come back this way, and have time to stop then, she thought.
Her stomach grumbled again, and she stepped out onto the promenade. She meant to say something polite, but then saw the distant shape in the sky. “What's that?” she demanded, interrupting their conversation.
She couldn't tell how far away it was. It hung in the sky, like a solid band of heavy gray cloud, except something seemed to be stretching up from it, a translucent column that vanished high in the air. Miss Marlende followed her gaze. “Oh, that. It's the other outlet for the Aerinterre aether current, the one that's connected to Mount Tovera in the surface world.” She sounded much calmer than she had in the wheelhouse. Perhaps Lord Engal's assertion that he still meant to find her father had reassured her somewhat. “There's so much free aether in the air here that we can actually see it with the naked eye, if the weather conditions are