Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

you have a pair yet?”
    “No. But I’m not leaving this troll anytime soon. I’ve been forbidden.”
    “By your mother?”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Yes.”
    “Good.” He could see that the little bit she’d done since he’d woken had worn her out. He lifted his hand to the beads at his neck. “They came to Vik to find me?”
    “Yes. And learned that we were up on the glacier instead.”
    “So the town wasn’t flooded?”
    “No. But something else happened. I’ll let Dooley tell that story, though. I’ve heard it three times from him already.”
    He grinned, strode over to the bed to kiss her. “I’m sure you will soon hear it again.”

    The muscles in his legs shook when he dropped from the chest hatch into the crunchy snow. Though David was aware of the others turning to look, he ignored them all for the relief of a nearby boulder. They must have stopped near the ocean. He could hear it in the distance, taste it on the air. Rectangular basalt columns stood ahead of him, their sides carved into regular widths, as if with a measuring stick and a sculptor’s adze. But it was just nature.
    Bludging incredible. The whole damn world was incredible, because he and Annika were still in it.
    He started back, his steps slowing as he took his first good look at the troll. By God, it was the ugliest thing he’d ever seen. Mottled patches of hide had been sewn and draped over the frame, hanging loosely. Its enormous, protruding rump steamed. The head was a riot of fur and feathers, and walrus tusks hung over the beard, giving the impression of giant fangs. Though it couldn’t have been much bigger than Austra Longears, the illusion that this thing might be living made it seem twice as large, twice as horrid.
    “It was almost the death of me when I first saw it,” Dooley said beside him.
    Speechless, David nodded then glanced at his friend. High emotion had flushed the other man’s face. Dooley clapped him on the back, shook his hand.
    “Oh, but it’s good to see you up and about, Kentewess. I didn’t think my heart would beat again when I saw them rolling you naked in the snow. It frightened ten years off of me, only a few days after twenty years had been scared off by that troll.”
    David grinned. “So I’m only half as ugly. Well, that’s something.”
    Dooley laughed with him. “I figure that after this expedition is over, I’ll only have three years left.”
    He’d no doubt make the best of them. David glanced over towhere his aunt spoke with Annika’s mother and Källa. Just behind them stood four clockwork dogs in harnesses attached to a sled. “So how do they run?”
    “Faster than a live dog can, and thank God for it.”
    David recognized the change in Dooley’s voice—he had a story to tell. He wanted to hear it, but not yet. His aunt’s resemblance to his mother struck him again, a hard spike through his chest. He approached her slowly, couldn’t stop staring.
    Her gaze searched his face in return. “You look very much like Inga,” she said softly.
    “Not as much as you, Aunt.”
    “So I do.” Smiling, she gestured to the woman beside her. “This is Frida Kárasdottor.”
    Without waiting for his response, Annika’s mother wrapped him in a hard embrace before stepping back, her small hands gripping his. “Thank you, David Ingasson, for bringing my daughter back to me. I will never be able to repay you. If ever you need anything, I will scour the world to find it for you. If you ever need help, I will sacrifice all of my strength and blood to give it. If you have any enemies, I will hunt them and strip their flesh from their bones. This I swear to you.”
    Overwhelmed, he shook his head. “I would offer you the same for coming to find us. For helping her when I couldn’t.”
    “She was never in any real danger,” Hildegard said. “She’d have clung to life for thirty years, if she had to, crawling into the snow and hibernating until a meal fell into her mouth. She’s as stubborn as her mother. Look at that.”
    David turned toward the troll. Annika hadn’t come out, but sat at the edge of the chest hatch with her bare legs dangling over, watching them.
    Watching him.
    “She hasn’t let you out of her sight since she awoke,” Källa said.
    He could hardly bear to be away from her, either. His gaze on Annika’s face, he asked, “How is your son? Paolo?”
    “Well. I’m sorry I couldn’t come for you sooner.”
    It didn’t matter. They’d come in time.