The City of Ember: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

The next day, everyone in Ember gets off work at noon so they can practice for the Singing. It’s a slow morning, so Lina sits at her station and thinks of Mayor Cole gorging himself on peaches and hoarding light bulbs. She wonders if he’ll enjoy sitting in his lit room when the rest of the light bulbs run out, and thinks that when the power does go out for good, his light bulbs won’t save him. Like Looper, he must want to live well while he can. Lina wonders if the guards will announce the mayor’s arrest at the Singing. After a while, Lina moves to an alley and studies the Instructions. Doon finds her there, right after coming up from the Pipeworks, and shares that he found the E. Doon pulls out the spare Pipeworks key and they decide to go check it out.

Lina and Doon don’t grab boots or slickers, reasoning that wherever they’re going won’t be spurting water like the Pipeworks tunnels. Doon leads Lina along the river to where it ends and points out the E on a rock. He then lies on his stomach and hangs his head over the edge. From there, he can see metal bars bolted to the sheer rock face, down to what must be a ledge. Doon goes first and then calls for Lina. It’s terrifying climbing down, but Doon shouts encouragingly until Lina reaches the ledge. There, they find a space carved out of the wall with a door in the back. They puzzle over the next few instructions and get stuck on the mention of a “small steel pan,” but when they look to the right of the door, they find a small steel panel. Inside is a key.

Lina unlocks the door. There’s nothing inside but darkness, and no sign of a light switch. Cautiously, Lina and Doon step into the darkness, wondering if they have to walk out of Ember through a dark tunnel. Lina yelps when she hits two metal boxes, while Doon bumps into something big and curved. Doon helps Lina carry the boxes into the light. They open easily but the contents are disappointing: one is full of smooth rods with string on one end labeled “candles,” while the other is full of short wooden sticks with blobs on one end labeled “matches.” Doon wonders if he’s supposed to write with a match, so he tries to write on the Instructions and then on his arm.

Lina suggests he tries writing on the white stuff in the lid of the box. When Doon does, the match bursts into flame and he throws it in surprise. Lina lights a match too, but is only able to hold it for a minute. They’re excited, but confused as to how these useless fire sticks are supposed to save Ember. They wonder if the candles are match holders and painstakingly tie a candle’s string around a match and light it. To their surprise, the string catches fire. The candles, they realize, are moveable light. With a candle, they return to the dark room and inspect the large, rounded, metal object there. One end is pointed and the other is flat, and there are two poles in it. The thing is labeled “BOAT” and the poles are labeled “PADDLES.”

Lina checks the instructions and identifies part of the word “boat.” The next line says something about ropes and going down something. Doon realizes that the directions say to lower the boat with ropes and head downstream. The boat, they understand, is something to ride in: the way out of Ember is on the river.