Emilie & the Hollow World - By Martha Wells Page 0,76

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