Emilie & the Hollow World - By Martha Wells Page 0,75
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 spear 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.