Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

shieldmaiden, perhaps even a mercenary or pirate—Annika had never imagined that her sister might also be a mother.
    And she was still a shieldmaiden. Annika glanced to one of the guards standing at the edge of the clearing. “Why do you protect Paolo when Lorenzo has all of these men to do it?”
    “Because he doesn’t trust them to do it properly.” A wry smile twisted her sister’s lips. “He doesn’t trust me, either. But at least he knows I will protect Paolo and wait to kill him.”
    “Then who are the guards for?”
    “The workers.” They both paused as Olaf tumbled down the snow mound. Laughing, Källa called encouragement to him. When the boy regained his feet, she continued, “Lorenzo pushes the laborers as far as he can. He hires the guards to have protection near in the event he pushes them too far.”
    Annika hadn’t seen any of the laborers since she’d come back out to the clearing. Why weren’t they outside? Surely they didn’t like to be cooped inside throughout the day. “Are they not allowed to come out?”
    “They are.” Källa gave her a sideways glance. “But they are like boilerworms.”
    The giant mechanical worms that bored their way beneath the Australian deserts. Valdís had brought back tales of the dangerous creatures, and the hunters who’d died trying to capture the worms as trophies.
    The laborers were like those ? “How so?”
    “They lie in wait. They play dead. Lorenzo thinks that the men are beaten, their spirits broken, but…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “I don’t believe the same. I think they merely bide their time.”
    “Until what?”
    “Until they are done waiting.” Källa met her eyes, suddenly serious. “If that happens, Annika, do what you do best: hide. Find me if you can, but if not, find a hole and wait for the fighting to end.”
    Annika stared at her. “Do you think it will be so dangerous?”
    “I don’t know. I have seen how they look at the guards, Annika, when they think no one sees. Just a glance now and then, as if they forget to hold it in…or can’t any longer.”
    But di Fiore was an observationist. “Lorenzo doesn’t see?”
    “He does. But he has made up his mind that they will never act upon it.”
    That couldn’t be true. “Then why the guards?”
    Källa laughed a little. “Because he isn’t a fool, Annika. Even he knows that he might be wrong—Oh, Olaf! You silly flounder.”
    She strode forward to pick up the boy, who’d landed on his face in the snow. He opened his small mouth and a horrid wail split the quiet in the clearing. Källa cooed and brushed away tears while Annika watched, trying not to laugh too loudly. The sobs didn’tstop. With a sigh, Källa gave Annika a long-suffering look and headed back toward the living quarters.
    Not long afterward, a troll ambled into the clearing. A new driver, she thought, watching each stiff step. It stopped, settled with a huff of steam. The chest hatch opened, and men emerged one at a time, their eyes downcast and walking in a line. Each one carried a mask of leather and glass, with two circular protrusions on each side of the mouth. If they were on the verge of rebelling against di Fiore, Annika couldn’t see a sign of it. Without speaking or looking up, they trudged across the clearing and into their quarters. A few minutes later, a new line of men—twenty-five in all, Annika counted—climbed into the troll. It rose and ambled off to the south.
    Disturbed, she returned to Källa’s hearth chamber. Her sister sat at the table, looking harried and with her braid in disarray, rocking a sleeping Olaf against her chest. She held her finger to her lips when Annika entered.
    Annika stifled her laugh. Källa responded with a deathly glare and a wrinkle of her nose, then pointed to the snow tunnel.
    “I’ve had them put your packs in the last chamber,” she whispered. “You’ll have more privacy there.”
    The individual chamber was smaller, the roof lower. A bed stood in the center of the floor, a trunk at its foot. An oil lamp with its sconce embedded in the ice wall provided a dim light.
    Annika searched through their packs. Her spanner and his pistol had been taken. She pressed her lips together in frustration, then smoothed her expression when she heard the crunch of approaching footsteps.
    A moment later, David ducked through the low entrance. Her heart gave a wild leap, and her body followed. She threw herself into his arms, loving the strength