Emilie and the Sky World (2 page)

Professor Abindon lived farther down in the town, closer to the port, and so they had to walk back down the hill and wend their way through streets with shops and townhouses. There were a lot of people out now, doing early-morning shopping or heading to work in cargo and shipping offices down near the port. It wasn’t as busy as Meneport, but the people were the usual mix of brown-skinned and dark-haired Southern Menaen and fair-skinned and light-haired Northern Menaen, and every variation in between. Not much different from Emilie’s village. She found she preferred Meneport’s excitement and bustling atmosphere, though she could see why people liked to live here.

Emilie couldn’t help thinking about what Daniel had said. She had never considered the idea of going to the university before, it not being something her family would have encouraged. She wasn’t sure she wanted to consider it now, though she had always liked learning new things. She wasn’t sure she wanted to take on the work of a university student, particularly as it would surely mean curtailing her duties as Miss Marlende’s assistant. Even if she could afford the tuition and living expenses, which she couldn’t, she wasn’t sure they would let her in. She didn’t think her village school would compare well to a school like Karthea’s, or Shipands Academy, and surely she would need more basic instruction before going on to advanced classes.

Daniel found the right street, which curved away from the shops and up a hill. There were three-story townhouses along here, crowded together with no front gardens, their stones weathered with age. The carvings of ships and fanciful fish and sea serpents above the windows and pediments suggested they had originally been ship captains’ or cargo merchants’ homes. It was too quiet for Emilie to tell who lived there now, though some of the houses had signs indicating there were rooms to let. Professor Abindon’s didn’t have a sign, and while it was as old as the others and a little crumbly on the edges, its stoop was recently washed and the windows on the upper floors were open to catch the sea breeze.

“I normally send a wire or letter when I visit,” Daniel was saying as they climbed the steps to the door. “But of course this time I didn’t have an opportunity. I hope she’s home.”

Daniel knocked on the door. A housekeeper in a somewhat floury apron opened it, and the first indication that Professor Abindon didn’t keep a terribly formal household was when the housekeeper exclaimed, “Why, it’s Daniel!” She turned to shout down the hallway, “Professor, Daniel is here!”

“Well, tell him to come in!” a voice shouted back, but the housekeeper was already ushering them into the front hall.

It was small and a bit dark but smelled of beeswax polish and bread-baking. Before they had a chance to move, a tall figure burst out of a door down the hallway. It exclaimed, “Daniel, why hasn’t Marlende or Vale answered my wires? What the hell is wrong with them?”

“Uh,” Daniel began, and the housekeeper gave him a gentle prod down the hall. Emilie followed, now certain this visit was going to be even more interesting than she had thought. Daniel said, “They’ve been away. Very far away. They just arrived back in Silk Harbor yesterday, but they meant to leave last night before dark.”

“They were here?” Daylight fell through the open doorway, illuminating a tall woman with silver-gray hair that was as wild as Emilie’s on a bad day. Some of it was confined in a band, but the rest had escaped to hang in frizzy locks around her face. She was strikingly beautiful, with a mix of Southern and Northern Menaen descent in her features and her light brown coloring. “Why didn’t they… What were they doing here?”

“Didn’t you see the newspapers this morning?”

“I don’t read the newspapers; it’s a lot of gossip and idiocy. Why was Marlende in the newspapers?” She frowned at Emilie, though more in confusion than disapproval. “Who are you?”

“I’m Emilie Esperton, Miss Marlende’s assistant,” Emilie said, but Professor Abindon was already dragging Daniel into the parlor.

It was a more of a study, Emilie saw immediately, with tall windows facing the house’s tiny overgrown back garden letting in morning light. The walls were lined with shelves crammed with books and papers. More books and papers and writing materials covered the desk and the library table, but a small sofa and two armchairs were free of clutter. Flustered, Daniel said, “We went to the Hollow World, Professor; we used the aetheric currents.” He dropped down into a chair and Emilie took the other. “It worked just like you and Dr Marlende thought, but we had mechanical trouble and couldn’t return. Miss Marlende had to go to Lord Engal to get help–”

“Engal! Vale went to Engal? Was she out of her mind?” Professor Abindon waved her hands. “Why didn’t she come to me?”

Daniel opened his mouth but no words came out. Professor Abindon shook her head sharply. “I’m sorry, I don’t intend to drag you into the middle of this. Just go on.”

Emilie wondered what “this” was, but she thought Daniel needed help and she dove in. “Yes, we should tell it from the beginning. Daniel, start from when you and the others took the airship to the Hollow World.”

Daniel took a deep breath and launched into the story, telling it as briefly as he could, given Professor Abindon’s impatient expression. As he spoke, Emilie watched the professor’s face. She was older than she had looked at first, though the lines around her eyes and mouth were slight. And she looked vaguely familiar, as though she resembled someone Emilie knew, though she couldn’t think who it would be.

When he got to Emilie’s part of the story, Professor Abindon considered her, her expression skeptical. “How do we know you aren’t working for Ivers?”

“I distracted him while Miss Marlende shot him,” Emilie said.

“And me,” Daniel added ruefully, indicating his arm. “I was in the way.”

“Hmm,” the professor said, but didn’t comment further.

When they were done, Professor Abindon said, “At least Marlende had a good excuse for not answering my wires, but this doesn’t change the situation.”

“What situation?” Daniel asked. “What was so urgent?”

Professor Abindon started to speak, then hesitated, eyeing Emilie thoughtfully. She still doesn’t trust me, Emilie thought, which she supposed was fair. Fair, but not pleasant. Though she was burning with curiosity, Emilie said, “I can walk back to my cousin’s house.”

As she started to stand, the professor gestured impatiently. “Don’t go. If you work for Vale… I trust her judgment. Come upstairs, I’ll show you both.”

They followed Professor Abindon up the narrow stairs to the second floor, then kept following her up a still narrower set of stairs to the third, then up again to what should have been a small attic. Emilie followed the others through the door at the top of the stairs and saw why the professor had chosen this house.

The room had once been made into an artist’s studio, with one whole side of the pitched roof turned into windows, which could be unlatched and propped open with metal poles. Another set of large windows looked down into the back garden, so the room was full of light. A tiny spiral stair led up to a trapdoor in the roof, which Emilie bet opened into a small railed platform atop the house. She had seen them on many of the houses in Silk Landing and knew they were common for sea captains’ and ship owners’ homes. But Professor Abindon wasn’t using this room for artistic endeavors or to watch the ships come into port.

A large gleaming brass telescope stood on a stand beneath the slanted windows, pointed toward the sky. Emilie had seen drawings of big stargazing telescopes before, but never one in person. This one had extra parts, wheels and platter-like contraptions, mounted above the eyepiece, as if for fine-tuning the view. A big table in the center of the room was spread with maps and drawing paper. Pencils and inkstands and broken pen nibs were scattered around instruments that looked like they were for navigation. Emilie thought she recognized a sextant, from the same book with the drawings of telescopes, but the rest were a mystery.

Professor Abindon went immediately to the telescope and looked through the eyepiece. She straightened up and carefully adjusted some knobs. She beckoned Daniel over. “Look here.”

Emilie hadn’t thought there was much point to using telescopes in the daylight. But Daniel didn’t object, going immediately to peer through the eyepiece. He said, “What am I looking at, Professor?”

“Nothing, yet.” Professor Abindon took one of the plates attached to the telescope and turned it upright. Emilie saw the silvery stuff running through glass insets on the metal plate and realized it was a device for viewing aether. An aetheric telescope? she wondered, taking an involuntary step forward. She had known there were aether currents in the air, just like there were in the sea, but she hadn’t thought about what the devices for detecting them might look like. And did the aetheric streams in the air lead to another world, like the aetheric streams in the seas? Emilie’s heart started to pound in excitement.

Suddenly the professor’s claim of something urgent to show to Dr Marlende began to seem far more worrisome.

The professor slid the plate into a slot in the telescope, made another adjustment, and Daniel gasped. “How long has it been there?”

The professor’s voice was grim. “I first noticed it twenty-two days ago. It was much smaller then.” She pushed her hair back from her face in an exasperated gesture. “I should have gone to Meneport then, instead of just sending a wire. But it’s been getting steadily larger. I kept expecting it to stop.”

Daniel straightened up and motioned Emilie over. She hurried forward and leaned down to the eyepiece, trying to look as if she knew what she was doing. Fortunately, it was fairly straightforward, and she found the right angle to see through the glass lens without much trouble.

She saw intense blue sky, and in the center, a ring of brilliant colors – reds, greens, deeper blues than the sky – with a silver-white spiral woven through it. A description of it would have sounded like something rather beautiful, rather like the description of lines of dark storm clouds against the sky sounded like something beautiful until the hail and wind started. Emilie stood up and stared at the professor. “It looks like a hole.”

“That’s because it is a hole,” the professor said, “It’s an opening in an aetheric stream.”

“But why would that happen?” Emilie said. She wasn’t sure if that was a stupid question or not, but the hole didn’t look like something that was supposed to happen. It looked wrong, strange, threatening.

“That’s what we’d like to know,” Daniel said, leaning down for another look through the eyepiece.

“Yes,” Professor Abindon said, “There are a number of possible reasons I can think of, none of them good. But the one I’m rather afraid of is that it’s opening because something is making it open. Something is out there, pushing its way through to our world.”

Late that afternoon, Emilie, Daniel, and Professor Abindon boarded the fast steamer for Meneport. Daniel thought they would arrive perhaps half a day behind the Marlendes.

In a highly agitated conversation that morning, Daniel had convinced the professor that they could reach the Marlendes more quickly by going directly to Meneport themselves. Daniel had pointed out that the Marlendes were likely to spend all day today at the shipyards with the damaged airship. And Emilie had thought, though she didn’t say it aloud, that if Miss Marlende had been ignoring the professor’s wires, she wasn’t likely to bring them immediately to her father’s attention once they reached their home again. Obviously, there was some sort of disagreement or sore point between Professor Abindon and Miss Marlende.

Emilie had suggested that they could send a wire directly to Lord Engal, who was likely to have secretaries and so on who would bring it quickly to his attention.

Professor Abindon had glared at her. “You want us to send a wire to Lord Engal to tell him to tell Marlende to read his mail?”

“Yes,” Emilie had replied. “Why not?” Emilie was torn between the feeling that she should be showing more respect for the professor, and the feeling that she wasn’t particularly in the mood to be spoken sharply to for what was a perfectly valid idea. It made her miss Rani more than she already did.

“Hmm,” the professor had said, eyeing her again.

But in the end, they had decided it was best to deliver the news in person, not least because then they would also be able to deliver the extensive notes and drawings that the professor had made, chronicling the aetheric disruption’s first appearance and progress. “Aetheric disruption” was what the professor had told Emilie to call it after Emilie had referred to it as a sky hole. Apparently, that sounded rude, though Emilie hadn’t figured out why yet.

Emilie and Daniel had gone to Karthea’s house to pack their belongings. Emilie hadn’t explained to Karthea about the aetheric disruption, mainly because every explanation she rehearsed as they walked back to the house had sounded alarmist at best. The professor wasn’t even sure it was something they needed to worry about yet, though she seemed to feel that worrying about it was the best course. So Emilie had just said that the professor needed to speak to Dr Marlende urgently and had missed him when he was in town, and that they were going to escort her to Meneport, and that Emilie would write as soon as she had a chance.

By the time they reached the port to meet the professor, Daniel had had the idea to send a wire directly to the office of the docks where the Marlendes would take the airship. It might not be delivered before they arrived, but it was worth a try, and they were sure to reach Dr Marlende more quickly if he knew they were coming.

While Daniel was busy, Emilie took the money he had given her and purchased three passages on the steamer, something she had never done before. She considered it her first act as Miss Marlende’s assistant that didn’t involve being shot at.

This was a fast steamer, and they should arrive at Meneport sometime late that night, so they hadn’t bothered with a cabin. On the second deck of the steamer, there was a large glassed-in space with upholstered benches for seating. Daniel was ensconced on one with their bags, reading though one of the notebooks Professor Abindon had brought.

Emilie was too restless to sit down and went out on deck to stand at the railing. They were leaving the harbor, the cliffs turned golden by the afternoon sun. The wind was cool and refreshing, the sky blue and dotted with white clouds. Emilie leaned on the railing and watched the coast go by, feeling the now-familiar chug of the engines through the deck boards. There were gray stone houses in the little pockets of green fields in between the cliffs, with narrow sandy beaches at their feet. Sailing boats and a small tug clung close to the shore, avoiding the path of the larger steamer.

Professor Abindon moved up to stand at the railing beside her. After a moment, the professor said, “Daniel looks tired.”

“He hasn’t had much time to recover,” Emilie said, and realized neither had she. Only a few days ago, they had been fighting for their lives, and now they were eating dinner with Karthea and buying steamer passages and worrying about what the newspapers printed about them. Even with the aetheric disruption to be concerned about, it didn’t seem real.

“I suppose…” The professor’s gloved hands tightened on the railing. She seemed to change her mind about what she had intended to say. “Vale was well when you left her?”

“Yes, very well. Oh, she was tired. So was Dr Marlende.” Emilie realized then what the professor wanted to ask.
She was upset when she found out that Miss Marlende hadn’t answered any of her wires.
And Miss Marlende must not have bothered to open any of them, or she would have surely taken a moment to reply. The professor and Miss Marlende must have quarreled about something fairly serious. Emilie tried to explain her position without implying that she suspected there had been an argument. “I wasn’t her assistant until after we got to Silk Harbor. I mean, I wasn’t there when she and Kenar were trying to find a way to get to the aetheric stream, when they went to Lord Engal for help. So… I really don’t know anything about that.” She winced, having the feeling she had just made the whole thing all that much more awkward.

From the disgruntled expression on the professor’s face, she apparently agreed. Professor Abindon said, under her breath, “Well, we’ll see when we get there.”

They arrived late that night. Emilie had gone inside to doze on one of the hard benches, but woke in time to watch from the deck as the ship approached the port.

Mist drifted across the water, but she could see the gas and electric lights of the city sparking in the darkness like low-lying stars, hinting at the shapes of buildings and the presence of streets. She hadn’t seen this before, the
Sovereign
’s departure having been far too abrupt to enjoy the view.

Closer, misty lights marked ships floating at anchor, or sitting at their docks, passenger steamships and cargo vessels, and a few big sailing ships that were probably yachts belonging to nobles or other rich families. Some of the docks were dark, but some were brightly lit as ships were loaded with cargo or supplies or allowed passengers to board for an early morning sailing. The dock the steamer was headed for was brightly lit by gas lamps, with some figures standing around it, waiting for the ship to arrive.

Emilie smothered a yawn. She was a little hungry, too. The steamer’s steward hadn’t served an actual dinner, and the sandwiches and tea provided hadn’t been nearly as filling as last night’s meal.

Daniel and the professor arrived then, carrying their bags. Like Daniel and Emilie, the professor hadn’t brought much more than an overnight bag, though in Emilie and Daniel’s case, this was because they didn’t have many belongings with them. Everything Emilie hadn’t left behind at her uncle’s house was in the post, on its way to Karthea.

As the ship closed in on the dock, it slowed down and its engines changed in pitch. It wasn’t big enough to need a tug to push it in, though the process of edging up to the dock seemed tricky. There was a stir of activity on the lowest deck, and someone called out to the shoremen.

“There’s a coach,” Daniel said suddenly. He pointed to the stretch of roadway between the docks and the cargo offices. A few small one-horse cabs waited there for the arriving passengers, and among them was a larger coach-and-four. “Maybe they did get my wire… Yes, that’s Lord Engal’s crest on the door, I’m sure of it!”

Professor Abindon muttered, “Oh, joy.”

Emilie, caught by surprise, snorted with amusement, then turned it into a cough.

The ship came to rest against the dock, and after a little delay, the passengers began to disembark. Emilie, Daniel, and the professor followed the others down the gangway to the dock. Professor Abindon took the lead, striding through the sleepy, milling crowd to the end of the dock.

The liveried driver stood at the lead horses’ heads, and Emilie expected him to step forward to greet them. But the coach door swung open and a tall figure stepped out. It was Lord Engal himself. He was Southern Menaen, with brown skin and dark eyes contrasting against his gray hair and beard, and despite being a noble, he was burly and strong, built like one of the shoremen unloading cargo.

He said, “Miss Emilie, Daniel, I’m glad your ship arrived on… Good God, you didn’t say she was coming.”

“I’m just as pleased to see you, Engal,” the professor said, her tone grim. “Now let’s get on with this. Where’s Marlende?”

“He’s at the airship dock,” Lord Engal said, and stepped warily back, holding the coach door open for the professor. Another coachman swung down from the box to take their bags and hand them up to be stowed on top.

Emilie climbed into the coach after Professor Abindon and sat next to her on the soft leather seat. She could tell the coach was nicer than any she had ever been in before, though it was hard to see the interior with only the light from the dockside to illuminate it. The inside walls were padded with dark, rich fabric, and it smelled of sandalwood.

Lord Engal climbed in after Daniel and tapped his cane on the roof to signal the coachman to go. He said, “What’s this about an aetheric disruption?”

Daniel drew breath to speak but the professor said first, “I prefer to wait until we meet with Marlende. I don’t want to have to go over it all twice.” Then she ruined it by adding, “If you don’t understand it, then he can explain it to you.”

It was so rude, Emilie had to bite her tongue. Lord Engal could be annoying, but all he had done was ask a simple question, even if it didn’t have a simple answer. It was a little easier to understand now why Miss Marlende hadn’t answered the professor’s wires.

Lord Engal sighed and said, “I see. Thank you for excusing my no doubt abysmal ignorance.”

Emilie spent most of the short trip looking out the window, watching the dark warehouses and shipping offices go by. She recognized the long-necked shape of the big steam crane, like a monster rising out of the mist, that she had passed when she had been looking for the
Merry Bell
’s slip. That helped her orient herself.

The coach turned up a broad street leading away from the port. Infrequent gas streetlamps lit the signs above doorways, and most of the buildings seemed to be small manufactories or ship chandlers. Then the coach turned off to stop at a large metal gate in a wall. A moment later, a man with a lantern swung the gate open, and they rolled forward into Dr Marlende’s airship yard.

From the coach window, all Emilie could see were a couple of metal-roofed sheds, lit by electric lamps mounted on tall posts. Dr Marlende had obviously had the yard fitted with all the latest scientific devices, including electric light.

Lord Engal pushed the door open and swung out before his servant could get off the box, and held it open as they climbed out. As Emilie stepped down, she saw what the electric lights were illuminating.

In the middle of the walled yard, towering over them, the giant silver shape of an airship hung about twenty feet above the ground. Its nose was securely held in a big cone-shaped stand, and lines and heavy cables anchored it to the ground. The wooden cabin, with the narrow metal walkway around the outside, was tucked up under the gray swell of the balloon. Emilie could tell immediately that this wasn’t the airship that they had returned in from the Hollow World; it showed no signs of damage, for one thing. For another, she was fairly certain it was much bigger, its cabin nearly twice as long and with at least two levels to it.

Then she spotted their airship, lying some distance past this one, its balloon partially deflated and the triangular supports that held the insides rigid showing through the fabric. Emilie knew that the airship’s balloon wasn’t just a big bag filled with gas, but a cover over lots of smaller bags, held in place with very light metal supports. Watching Lord Ivers’ airship burn had been very instructive in teaching her airship anatomy. The battered cabin sat beside it, no longer connected to the upper structure. Men in work clothes were climbing all over it, taking it apart and carrying the pieces into a larger metal shed.

Lord Engal strode off across the yard and Emilie and Daniel hurried after him. The professor followed as well, but at her own pace.

They reached the shed and Lord Engal flung open the wooden door and shouted, “Marlende, they’re here!”

Dr Marlende, wearing a long coat dotted with oil stains and heavy protective gloves, stood beside a table spread with plans. Turning toward them, he said, “Thank you, Lord Engal, but I assure you that there is nothing wrong with my hearing and shouting is not…” He froze for a moment. “Abindon. I didn’t realize–”

“That I was coming, yes, I know.” The professor’s voice was dry. “Is Vale here? I’d rather not go over this twice.”

Dr Marlende cleared his throat, regaining his composure. He was a tall, fair-skinned, weathered Northern Menaen man, with shaggy gray hair and a beard that was still somewhat out of control. “She’s dismantling the steering control column in the airship.”

“I’ll get her,” Emilie said, and bolted before anyone could argue.

She crossed the open yard to the airship and climbed the stepladder up to the cabin doorway. An electric light on a heavy cable hung from the ceiling, and the floor was covered with broken glass and more oil stains. Emilie picked her way across the floor to the open door into the cockpit.

She saw Miss Marlende’s boots first, as the rest of her was tucked under the control panel, working on the pillar that held up the steering mechanism. “Miss Marlende?”

“Emilie?” Miss Marlende pushed herself out from under the panel and sat up. “Father said you and Daniel were coming back tonight, that there was some emergency. Is everything all right?”

Emilie crouched on the floor so they were eye level. “Yes, we’re fine, but there was a scientific discovery, about an aetheric stream, and… Professor Abindon is here.”

Miss Marlende didn’t look as shocked as the others, but she frowned. “Abindon?” she demanded. “What is she doing here?”

“It was her discovery. She tried to send Dr Marlende some wires about it, but it was after he left on the expedition, when you and Kenar were trying to find a way to help him and all the others, and you didn’t get them.”

Miss Marlende pulled her heavy gloves off and pushed her hair out of her face. She normally wore it in a tight bun behind her head, but it had come loose and, from the dark spots on the blond strands, gotten into the oil. She looked frustrated and upset more than angry. “Damn it. I did get them, but I didn’t open them. I thought they were about… Oh, never mind. Was it terribly urgent?”

“Sort of. I don’t think it was at first, but it kept getting worse. I thought…” Emilie hesitated, then finished. “If she really thought it was that urgent, she could have come here herself to make someone listen to her.”

“Well, yes, that’s what a rational person would have done,” Miss Marlende said, then made a sharp gesture. “I shouldn’t judge her, I suppose. It’s a very complicated situation. And I’ve done my share of complicating it, so I can’t complain.” She caught the railing along the control board and pulled herself upright.

Emilie pushed to her feet. “Was she your teacher? I mean, your professor at university?”

“No. She’s… a relation,” Miss Marlende said, and stepped past Emilie out of the cockpit.

Emilie followed, thinking that one over. It certainly explained a lot, if the professor wasn’t just an irascible colleague, but a relation. She knew how much trouble relations could be.

When they reached the shed, the table had been cleared of airship plans, and Professor Abindon’s drawings and notes were laid out in their place.

The professor looked up as they came in. Her expression was as closed and hard to read as Miss Marlende’s. She said, “Vale.”

Miss Marlende said, “Professor Abindon.”

The professor’s lips tightened, as if the greeting had been other than bland and polite. But she indicated the drawings. “I’ve been trying to bring this to your attention. I understand you were occupied.”

It was all very uncomfortable.

It was a relief when Lord Engal, already engrossed in the notes, said, “Dear God, Marlende. Is this what I think it is?”

“An aetheric disruption, obviously,” Dr Marlende said, passing a page of notes to Miss Marlende. “But what could be causing it?” He eyed the professor. “Your last observation was yesterday?”

The professor was watching Miss Marlende for her reaction. “Yes, before Daniel suggested we should come here. What do you think, Vale?”

There were lines in Miss Marlende’s brow, but this time they were from concentration. “We need a better aetheric scope.” She turned to Lord Engal. “Do you think you could get us into the Philosophical Society?”

“It’s after midnight,” Daniel said. “No one will be there to let us in. We could make an appointment in the morning…”

Dr Marlende scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I’m sure I could open the lock on the front entrance. Emilie, see if someone can find my small pocket toolcase…”

“Father…” Miss Marlende began. “Breaking into the building isn’t–”

“Commendable resolve but unnecessary.” Lord Engal tugged his pocketwatch out and checked the time. “I can send someone to get the director to meet us there and let us in. He enjoys noble patronage and late parties, so I doubt he will mind.”

The professor gave him a skeptical look. “Surely you don’t care if he minds? As long as the person inconvenienced isn’t you–”

“We all sacrifice in the name of Philosophy,” Lord Engal said, and strode off, calling for his servants.