Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells Read Free Book Online

world” and had been shown on top. “This means that theory is right, but we aren’t the surface world,” Emilie said. “We’re not on top; we’re just one of the circles.”
    “Yes, it’s been a theory for a long time,” Miss Marlende admitted. She sipped her tea and added, “Apparently, it’s on its way to becoming a fact.”
    They started back to the Philosophical Society, and as they turned a corner to the street, Emilie saw a small crowd milling in front of the building. Some of them were clutching notebooks and pencils and were probably journalists, others just looked like confused passersby who had seen something was happening and had stopped to find out what it was. A few early peddlers had gathered on the outskirts, and a vegetable cart on its way to the open market had stopped along the curb and appeared to be trying to take advantage of the unexpected crowd.
    As they approached the building, a man suddenly turned toward them out of the fringe of the crowd and rushed toward Miss Marlende.
    His face was tight with fury and Emilie reacted before she quite knew what she was doing. As Daniel stepped in front of Miss Marlende, Emilie dodged sideways toward the vegetable cart and snatched up a hard-shelled melon. She braced to throw it at the man’s head.
    “Stop!” Miss Marlende held up her hands. “It’s all right, Emilie, Daniel.”
    The man jerked to a halt in front of Miss Marlende and demanded, “Is it true?”
    Miss Marlende gently pushed Daniel aside and said, “It is, but it isn’t them. It’s a strange craft.”
    Emilie set the melon back on the cart with an apologetic nod to the startled vendor. Her reflexes seemed to be still tuned to the Hollow World, and at some point, snatching up a weapon had become more natural to her than screaming or running.
    Emilie had time to notice that the man really didn’t look much like a ruffian at all. Though, of course, neither had Lord Ivers. He was young, maybe no more than twenty-five or so. His clothes were well-tailored and his tightly curled hair was carefully cut, but there was something about him which suggested that he wasn’t well. His light brown skin was a little dull, his coat and jacket hanging on knobby shoulders as if he was normally slim but had also lost weight.
    The man glanced at Emilie and Daniel with an impatient grimace, then faced Miss Marlende again. “Are you going up?”
    Miss Marlende said, “Probably.”
    He nodded sharply with a brief expression of relief. “You’ll look for them.”
    “Mr Deverrin…” Miss Marlende’s face was a mix of frustration and pity. “They are all dead. Surely you must know that.”
    He set his jaw stubbornly. “And you and I both know that means nothing. Especially after the trip you’ve just returned from.”
    Miss Marlende said, patiently, “Even if they were in a current that… led somewhere, there is little chance that after all this time–”
    “Little chance is not no chance.” He turned away abruptly and strode toward the crowd, shouldering through it.
    Miss Marlende let her breath out and rubbed her forehead. “That was unpleasant.”
    Emilie demanded, “Who was that?”
    “Anton Deverrin. His father, Dr Deverrin, led the second airship aether-current expedition, the one that Daniel mentioned. The one that was never seen again.” Miss Marlende shook her head. “It was last year. There was a sudden storm, with a great disturbance in the aether, the day after they launched. There was no sign of the airship after that. There were twelve people aboard, including Anton’s brother, sister, and two cousins, as well as his father. His mother and the other members of the family threw all their efforts and their family fortune into searching for them. It ruined them, eventually. They wanted my father to mount an expedition in search of them, but…”
    Emilie winced. She could glimpse the scene beyond Miss Marlende’s brief description: the grief and hope and desperation of a