The Girl and the Stars (Book of the Ice #1) - Mark Lawrence Page 0,133

escaped.”

“What, just like that?” Yaz frowned. “Why didn’t you do it years ago?”

They walked in silence for several paces, circled by their shadows.

“Well, it wasn’t ‘just like that.’ First I had to build this.” Erris patted his body. “Which took finding, unlocking, and mastering some of the more complex machinery left by the Missing on the lower levels. That took some time.”

“How long?” Yaz knew it took a woman the best part of a year to make a baby.

“Lifetimes,” Erris said. “Dozens of them. And then I had to work out how to put myself wholly in it, with no part left to anchor me into the void. It’s fortunate that when the city took me it took all of me, including my marjal skills.”

“Even so, you didn’t really just figure it all out and get everything ready at the same time I happened to appear, surely?”

Erris stopped walking and turned to face her. “No.”

“Why then?” Why now, she meant. Why because of me, she wanted to ask. Didn’t he know she was broken? Didn’t he know she’d already failed those who put their faith in her, time and again?

“Why would I leave? I know what’s up there. Ice, ice, and more ice. A dead white world. A world that will sink its teeth into this body and bear down until the power cells are exhausted, and then at last there’ll be an end to me.” He paused. “I was scared to leave. Everyone I ever knew or cared about had gone.”

Yaz met his dark eyes, both reflecting a single red star. “Why . . .” She found her mouth too dry for her question. “What changed?”

He smiled a smile with too much uncertainty in it for someone thousands of years old.

“You made me care.”

27

DON’T LOOK SO astonished!” Erris laughed. “I haven’t seen another human in two hundred years, and that was the man who built the hunters. So it’s not as if you had a lot of competition. My mother always said I follow the first pretty face I see.”

Yaz found her fingers resting on her own unaccountably hot cheeks and lowered her hands quickly. “And do you?”

“Well, maybe. But I followed the last pretty face I saw for years and we were to be married. Only I had to go exploring some old ruins . . .” He grinned, showing white teeth. “Come on. Let’s go before we find some other trouble to get into down here.” He started walking again. “I’m sure there’s enough trouble waiting for us up above?”

Yaz didn’t know whether Erris was talking about the ice caverns or up on the ice itself. The answer was the same either way. “Yes. Lots.”

* * *

ERRIS LED THE way, paying no attention to any scavenger symbols. Where there were hanging cables he climbed them at a remarkable rate using just his arms. Twice Yaz had to call for a rest. She found herself very thirsty and had to be thankful for the turn of events that had reunited her with Erris so quickly, as she wouldn’t have lasted long. She made a mental note to check that Maya had stolen enough waterskins before realising that if she stole a heat pot then they would be able to melt ice as they went once they reached the surface.

“The way the assassin hit you. It would have killed me.” Yaz tried to see any sign of bruising or swelling on Erris’s face.

“I’m tough stuff.” Erris thumped his chest jokingly. “Built of alloys and polymers.”

“Just how strong are you?” Yaz knew that even Quell wouldn’t be able to haul himself up two hundred yards of cable without breaking a sweat.

“I’m not sure.” Erris shrugged. “It depends in part on how much power I draw from my reserves and how much risk I want to run of damaging myself.”

“You said you would live until your . . . cells? . . . run out? How long is that?”

Erris smiled and widened his eyes at her. “Nobody wants to know exactly how long they have left in the world. The truth is