Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

to meet Freya’s Cloak ,” Lisbet said. “Mother and I were leaving for England to find a daughter for me.”
    Such wonderful news. So why hadn’t they gone? Why did Lisbet appear so disappointed? “Were you late arriving?”
    “No. Ursula is,” Camille said.
    “The people who come into the shop tell Valdís that many ships are missing—including those that supply her store. The whalers say it is the megalodons, but airships haven’t come, either.”
    “ Phatéon did,” Annika said. “And we haven’t heard any rumors of this sort.”
    “You came from the New World?” When Annika nodded, Lisbet said, “Most of the others have come from the North Sea or Ireland. We think that perhaps the icebergs or megalodons have many of them worried, so they are waiting until it is safer.”
    “We have waited for Ursula almost two months now,” Camille said with a sigh. “So we’re leaving for home tonight, and will try again in the spring.”
    In the snow? Annika frowned. “How will you go?”
    “By boat along the shore, north to the Winding Rock. We’ve hidden Rutger Fatbottom there.”
    Annika’s troll. She grinned, picturing the trusty old machine. “Give him a kiss for me.”
    “I will,” Lisbet promised.
    This meant that her letter regarding David could reach home much faster than she’d expected. “I have news for Hildegard, too.”
    Lisbet exchanged a glance with her mother. The younger woman’s mouth spread into a wide smile. “And we have news for you.”
    “What?” Annika saw that Camille was smiling, too. “What is it?”
    “Your mother was missing you so terribly this summer after your letter arrived,” Camille said. “Weeping every night into that crimson shawl you made for her.”
    That was news to smile about? Annika’s heart twisted. “Oh.”
    “No, no,” Lisbet assured her. “It is good. One evening—we don’t know what happened to start it, but we heard Hildegard shouting at her in the street. ‘You don’t have to be lonely, you stubborn ewe!’ and ‘You are not the only woman missing a daughter!’ Then your mother began shouting back at her. ‘You faithless rabbitchaser! If I took you in, I’d find you riding the butter churn by morning!’ On and on. Oh, Annika, you should have heard it. Everyone came out of their houses.”
    “I’ve never witnessed anything of the like.” Camille was wiping tears of laughter. “Never.”
    “I never knew there were so many ways to insult a person,” Lisbet said. “They shouted until Frida’s voice gave out, then she stormed off into her home—”
    “Probably to find something to write on,” Camille broke in. “Your mother never has given up easily.”
    “And Hildegard followed her. She didn’t come out until the next afternoon…and we will be delivering her letter to yourmother’s home, Annika Fridasdottor, because it is also Hildegard’s own.”
    Oh. Annika couldn’t respond. Her chest was full and tight, her eyes hot.
    Lisbet’s voice softened. “It was time, yes?”
    Yes. Long past time. Annika buried her face in her hands, feeling the joyous laughter within but her eyes only crying, crying, as if a huge weight had suddenly vanished, and her relief and happiness was bursting out with tears.
    “Weeping already?” Valdís came in and stopped, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have left you two alone with her.”
    Now Annika was able to laugh. She mopped her face, let out a shuddering sigh. “I’m afraid that my news isn’t so wonderful. I’ve heard word of Inga.”
    “Does she live?” Camille’s expression was carefully hopeful. She had been friends with Inga, Annika remembered—the twins, Frida, and Camille, all of the same age, growing up together.
    “No,” Annika told her.
    Lisbet put her arm around Camille’s shoulders. The older woman closed her eyes, nodded. “It was too much to expect. If she’d been well, she’d have sent word to us by now. How did you discover it?”
    “I met her son, David. He wears her runes.”
    “Hildegard will want them.”
    Annika doubted that he would hand them over. “He’s here in Smoke Cove, and he’s searching for the mountain.” At their looks of alarm, she rushed on, “I didn’t tell him; he heard me speak Norse, saw my runes, and understood that we were from the same village. Inga asked him to bring her beads here, but he doesn’t know where to go. He’s determined to fulfill his promise, though.”
    Camille sat back, her expression