Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

shaking her head.
    “—and they’ve killed the crew, so not a one of them knows how to use their sails, and the wind is pushing them out to sea. And so Vashon, she yells up at them to lower their ladder, and they do, but it’s a good five feet above our heads and swinging by as fastas they are. So I’m thinking that they’re lost, but then Vashon jumps off the sled right into the pack of dogs, and while they’re still trying to stop and get their tails turned around, she runs after that ladder like a deer, leaps up and catches hold of the bottom rung, and hauls herself up there. Five minutes later, the sails are out and she’s coming back round for me, and has already made a deal with the men.”
    Awe still suffused Dooley’s voice, so David suspected that he hadn’t embellished any of it. “What sort of deal?”
    “She’s got a crew that needs an airship. They’ve got an airship that needs a crew, and they tell her they’re ready to take on all of Castile. By then, Vashon knows we’ve got to go up to that glacier for you. So she says, you give us the airship to go find our people, we’ll fly you to Castile afterward and smuggle you in. At first they weren’t happy to do it, especially with that volcano erupting, but then they figure out that it’s your girl she’s looking to rescue.” He pointed the stem of his pipe at Annika. “It seems that she’s the one who started all of this. So the captain of the airship—the Castilian who was acting as captain, that is—he says that Miss Fridasdottor is the one who helped him, so he’ll help her in return.”
    Pride swelled through David’s chest. He looked to Annika. The cut across her temple hadn’t completely healed yet. “And you thought you weren’t brave. That you’ve never done anything that matters.”
    She shook her head, the color in her cheeks high.
    “So we head back to Vik,” Dooley continued, “and there’s Källa, flying in, though her balloon has next to nothing left and ash in its engine, too. We figure out that you’re somewhere north on that glacier. Källa insists that you’ll hole up and wait, that you know we’d come. They’re cleaning out the engines as fast as they can, the old chief bellowing a full day and night, and that gray snow is falling. We’re all set to leave the next morning when a monster walks into town.”
    “This troll?” David guessed, remembering his own reaction.
    “The very same. It gave everyone a terrible scare. If not for Källa, Vashon would have likely put a rail cannon on it.”
    “I’m glad you didn’t,” Annika said softly.
    “And that’s a feeling we all share. So we work it out that Vashon will take the airship up over the glacier, look for the spot you went down, search for where you holed up. Frida here says, ‘No, they’ve got it all wrong. Annika will hole up until she needs to go—and then she’ll go despite her fear.’ So we decided to run up through the pass, looking for you, as we all agreed that’s the route you’d take. And it took us two days, but, there we were.”
    And thank God for it. “Is the airship still in Vik?”
    Dooley shook his head. “Vashon ran into us the next morning, saw that we had you. She’d have flown us in to Vik, where your aunt Lucia still is, but we saw that there was nothing going to pry Annika away from Frida, and I didn’t want to fly you into Vik and be murdered when you woke and found I’d taken you away from her. So Vashon’s gone on to Smoke Cove, to spread the word about Heimaey and to see if there’re any men at the station who want to fly with them back to Castile—and at this moment, I wouldn’t want to be where Komlan is standing. I suppose they’ll be there a few days, to sort out who is going and who is staying. There’re more men at the station camp than that ferry cruiser can carry at once, so they’ll be making several trips. Vashon says she’ll look to see us in Smoke Cove on her second trip, if we’ll be taking a ride back to Johannesland.”
    “And if I want a job again,” Annika said.
    David’s heart gave a heavy thud. “Do you?”
    “No.” Her fingers threaded through his. “I don’t know where I’ll be. I hope it’s close to you.”
    His throat was tight. “I’ll find some way to make sure it is.”
    “I’ll not be going far, either,” Dooley said. “After my heart stopped palpitating upon seeing this troll, I realized I might stay a while, record a few folk tales.”
    “Mr.