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

family suddenly ripped apart. No wonder the young man still looked ill. “But Dr Marlende thought they were dead.”
    “Yes,” Miss Marlende admitted. “We – and everyone else – thought the airship must have been torn apart over the sea. Lord Engal and some of the other explorers with steamers searched the area for survivors for days afterward, but they never even found a sign of any debris.”
    Emilie hesitated. “But now…”
    Daniel’s thoughts must have been moving along the same line. He said, “Maybe we were all wrong.”
    “Yes. In light of this new information, we could have been.” Miss Marlende bit her lip. “But it’s been more than a year. I don’t want to get his hopes up. Even if they were trapped somewhere, they may have died by now.”
    “Maybe they were lucky,” Emilie said. “Maybe they found nice people like the Cirathi who helped them.”
    Miss Marlende gave her a sad and somewhat ironic smile. “You usually aren’t such an optimist, Emilie.”
    “Well, I’m trying to be better at it.” Emilie agreed, though, there was no use getting the poor man’s hopes up. A year was a long time to spend trapped or adventuring in aether currents without getting killed. Their trip to the Hollow World had proved that.
    Daniel didn’t look optimistic. “But if the air currents are like the sea currents, we still couldn’t find them unless we knew where they left their current.” He looked toward the crowd the young man had disappeared into. “I agree, we certainly can’t make him any promises.”
    Emilie realized they had all made a rather important assumption. “So we’re going up in an air aether current to look at the strange craft, then?”
    “I would say there is an excellent chance of it,” Miss Marlende said.
     
    The meeting was finished by the time they entered the Society building. Coaches were starting to leave, tangling with the early morning traffic of omnibuses and delivery carts. They found Dr Marlende and Professor Abindon in the hall with Lord Engal, all surrounded by a small crowd of Society members and other people still discussing the strange object and its implications. Emilie thought the mood was a little less tense. Maybe confronting the problem and discussing it had helped. And if Miss Marlende was right, now they had a plan. Or at least a plan to get more information.
    Miss Marlende elbowed her way through the crowd to Dr Marlende’s side, waited until the man he was speaking to took his leave, and then said, “We’re going up in the airship, then?”
    “Yes,” he told her. “It’s fortunate the larger craft is airworthy and can be made ready in a short time. If we don’t get some idea of what this thing is soon, there could be a panic when the word spreads.”
    Miss Marlende jerked her head toward the crowd. “And with this lot, the word will definitely spread.”
    Dr Marlende turned toward the door. “It was necessary to inform them.” As Professor Abindon caught up with them, he continued, “Many of them have small scopes and would start to make their own observations. The professor here is an expert at aetheric interpretation, but the anomaly is growing large enough that amateurs will be able to see it soon.”
    Professor Abindon snorted. “If you hadn’t gone haring off into the subsurface world and gotten stuck, we would have been able to start sooner.”
    Emilie had noted that natural philosophers seemed big on saying “I told you so.” She didn’t think it was very helpful in a crisis.
    Dr Marlende gave Abindon a look, but said only, “And I would know a good deal less about the practical difficulties of aether current travel.” He told Miss Marlende, “Besides, we had to assemble the Society. We may need their help.”
    Miss Marlende’s expression bordered on the bitter. “They weren’t a great deal of help when Kenar and I desperately needed it.”
    “Did they all support Lord Ivers?” Emilie asked. The inner workings of the