Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

undiscovered.
    Where were the pirates now? She listened, but only heard their own breaths and the faint ticking of David’s pocket watch. Were men still screaming outside? It was worse to imagine that they weren’t, that all the screams had been silenced. Perhaps some of the sailors had realized what was happening. Perhaps they hid now, too. Waiting, while someone hunted them in the dark.
    A tremble wracked her body. Again. Her teeth chattered.
    His arm tightened. “Are you cold?”
    “No.” Just shivering—reaction finally settling in. She clamped her jaw tight, then opened it again to ask, “Are you afraid, too?”
    “Yes.”
    “You don’t show it.”
    “Because you can’t see me.”
    She lifted her head and pressed her ear against his chest. His heart beat slowly, evenly. Unlike hers, racing as she recalled the whale’s gaping maw, the petrifying collision with the fluyt, and the screams afterward. David lay unafraid, but she could only think that she didn’t want to die now, didn’t want to end here—and how close they’d come to it.
    Her eyes burned. Oh, not now. She squeezed them shut. Whether terror or relief, she didn’t know, but she couldn’t stop the pressure welling in her chest.
    No sound. She would not expose them to the pirates with her sobs.
    Her breath shuddered. She felt David’s fingers in her hair, brushing the curls back as if to reveal her face. “Annika. Are you all right?”
    Yes. But only because he was here.
    She broke, curling against him, burying her face in her hands. He held her until the storm of silent weeping passed, until she used the hem of her chemise to wipe her face, feeling utterly stupid.
    “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’ve never been the brave one.”
    “Who was?”
    “Källa.” She settled her head against his shoulder again, rested her hand over his heart. “She was the one who would explore the New World. The one who’d leave and bring back tales that our children would repeat. She always wanted to have adventures, to face danger.”
    “Has Källa ever been swallowed by a giant mechanical whale that shoots a harpoon out of its blowhole?”
    She had to smile. “Probably not.”
    “You’ll have that story, then.” His thumb brushed over her cheek in a light caress, as if wiping away a tear. “You’ve had a hell of a day, Annika. Heimaey, Elena, now this. Crying over it is no reflection on your courage.”
    Annika buried her face again. Oh, he was the most wonderful person—and his words the most wonderful thing anyone had ever said to her. It had been an awful day.
    And he was very good at pretending she was brave.
    “Thank you.” It was muffled against his chest. She lifted her head when another thought occurred to her. “Do you think these pirates are responsible for the death in Heimaey?”
    “I don’t know. They weren’t killed the same way.”
    “No.” She bit her lip, realizing that their situation now might be disturbingly familiar to him. Darkness. No room to move. A woman on top of him. “Being in here doesn’t remind you of the mountain crushing your house?”
    “Not until you mentioned it.” His voice was dry. “But, no—it doesn’t. This doesn’t compare in any way.”
    No, she supposed it couldn’t. They were both alive, both unhurt.
    His muscles tightened as a faint thud came from one of the upper decks. “They’re aboard.”
    His whisper was hardly more than a breath of sound. She nodded against his shoulder, reached for her spanner. If the pirates found the smuggle hole, there wasn’t much she could do but whack at their hands. Still, broken fingers couldn’t hold a sword.
    Judging by the noise they were making, the pirates searched every cabin, every storeroom. She waited in an agony of tension. Finally, steps approached the engine room. Someone walked across the boards above—looking around the sides of the engine.
    A male voice called down the passageway; the man above them answered. Spanish, she thought, but it might have been Portuguese. The planks creaked as he moved about, stopping frequently. Annika stared into the darkness, unblinking. Though she couldn’t see a thing, she didn’t dare close her eyes. She imagined him crouching, searching beneath the machines, glancing behind the banks of pipes. Taking his time, making a thorough examination.
    He climbed down into the boiler room, and she waited, certainhe’d realize the pipe conduit was a fake, that they’d be discovered. She heard