Emilie & the Hollow World - By Martha Wells Page 0,22

they're plants, it can't do much good to shoot them,” she said. It might be just as useless as shooting a tree. “Oh, there's Dr. Barshion!”

Dr. Barshion had stepped out onto the deck just below. He was coatless, his normally sleek hair mussed. He held a small book in one hand, his other hand clenched in a fist. Emilie thought he was reading aloud, but she couldn't catch the words. On the lower deck, a plant-creature swung over the rail, grabbed a crewman, and tried to drag him over the side. But two other men drove it off with blows from their rifle butts. Emilie heard Lord Engal shouting orders. Kenar stepped up onto the rail, meaning to leap back down into the fray, but Miss Marlende caught his arm. “Wait!”

Below them, Dr. Barshion raised his voice, crying out something Emilie couldn't understand; then he made a throwing gesture with his free hand. Sparks of red light glittered along the hull; the plant-creatures climbing the rails keened in alarm and fell back away from the ship. A moment later the stacks belched again and the ship angled away from the weeds, and a gap of dark water opened between it and the dark mass.

“He manipulated the remnants of the aether bubble to repel physical objects,” Miss Marlende murmured. “Finally. I was beginning to wonder how much good he was as a sorcerer.” She swayed a little and Kenar asked, “Are you all right?”

She waved him away, turning back to the deck. “I'm fine. But this man was injured...”

The crewman who had tried to help them was stirring and trying to stand. Kenar went to haul the man to his feet, and in the lamplight Emilie saw it was Ricard, the young assistant engineer.

The young man gasped, “That was… What was…?”

“No one knows,” Kenar told him. “But some of that weed was caught on the hull; we can have a closer look at it.”

Miss Marlende told him, “Yes, but let's get Ricard inside first so I can check his head.” Tugging her jacket back into place and pushing her disordered hair out of her eyes, she turned to Emilie and said formally, “Thank you, Emilie, your assistance was effective and timely.”

“You're welcome,” Emilie said automatically. She realized she had clasped the ax to her chest. She decided to keep holding it for a while; it was reassuring.

Her heart was still thumping. This had been very different from hitting the robber with the fire bucket. The worst she had thought would happen then was that the man would hit her back, knock her down. She had realized later that that might have been naive; those men were deadly serious and he might have shot her. But even that wasn't as bad as that creature, dragging her and Miss Marlende off the ship to be... Drowned? Eaten? It was possibly better not to know for certain, but her imagination was doing a good job of filling in the details.

They went back inside, and once Ricard stepped into the brighter light of the corridor, they saw he had a bloody gash on his temple. “I thought you were helping Abendle and Dr. Barshion with the aetheric engine?” Miss Marlende said, helping Kenar guide Ricard down the first set of stairs.

“It was my turn to take a break, Miss,” he explained, wincing. “I was walking around the ship for a bit before I turned in.”

“Lucky for us,” Emilie put in, following behind them. “You distracted it.” And brought me the ax, she thought.

He glanced back, giving her a wan smile. “I think you did a better job of distracting it than me.”

Emilie didn't know what to say. She wasn't used to compliments about actual accomplishments, just stupid things, like needlework and decorating hats.

They reached the main lounge, and Miss Marlende caught a steward's assistant and sent him running off to get the ship's medical kit. Kenar left them then to head back out to the main deck, and after a moment of hesitation, Emilie followed him. She had decided that knowing what was out there was better than just imagining terrible things.

Out on the deck, Emilie was glad to see the men with rifles were still keeping watch. The searchlight, sweeping back and forth across the water, showed they were some distance from the vine mat already and moving steadily away. But a small section of it had caught on the ship's hull, and the crew had dropped the launch's platform to get a closer