The Girl and the Stars

“Alright then. But if we need to run or to move quietly then Erris or Kao will carry you.”

Kaylal nodded.

“What will we do with Exxar?” Thurin asked gently.

Kaylal lowered his gaze. He had pulled the body beside the small patch of red-ball fungi. “The gods have the best of him now. Let the ice take what’s left.”

33

   YOU DID A remarkable thing, Yaz.” Erris came to walk beside her as they trekked through the ice caves of the Broken, bound for the city.

“I did?” She gave him a doubtful glance.

“All of you look defeated!” Erris shook his head. “But you have your brother back, and your two friends. Three people freed from the taint. Didn’t you say Thurin was the only one rescued in an age, and that even that wasn’t successful? And now here you are, walking away with all three, thumbing your nose at the odds.”

Yaz managed a smile. It was true, all of it. She had pulled off a great and unexpected victory. The Ictha said people divided into those who, at the middle of the long night, would sigh and say forty days of darkness remained, and those who would smile and say that already forty dark days lay behind them. Yaz had always thought she belonged in the half-finished camp rather than with those counting the days remaining.

She turned to Zeen, walking just behind her, and took his hand. He returned her squeeze and both smiled, without effort this time.

They reached the city cavern without challenge. Yaz led the way down the long slope, tired in every limb, still feeling grimy from her time in the black ice. The ache in her head had subsided but it still felt as though there were a knife lodged between the two halves of her brain and that every now and then an invisible someone would twist it.

Behind her Thurin, Kao, Zeen, and Erris trudged along in a disordered group, only Erris with his shoulders squared and head unbowed. Kaylal hauled himself along at the rear, scraping the iron-clad stumps of his legs across the rock.

Quell came striding across the city to meet them. At his hip swung some kind of makeshift axe that let her know he had been back to raid the hunter’s remains. He’d bound a large, sharp-toothed metal wheel to a short iron bar.

“Yaz!” He took both her hands in his, studying her face. “Are you unwell?”

She shook her head then regretted the movement. “I’m fi—”

“We thought you were still in the city!” Quell raised his voice, edging it with a hint of outrage. “I would have gone with you to rescue . . .” He waved a hand at the others behind her. “These.”

“I didn’t want to risk you or Maya being recaptured.” Yaz pulled her hands back. “It was my mistake to fix.”

“You took your friend from the city though.” Quell’s pale eyes found Erris and narrowed in distrust. “He doesn’t look like the hunter you described.”

“Quell, I presume.” Erris inclined his head.

“You do presume. You took Yaz back to that nightmare of a place—”

“She took me,” Erris pointed out. “I had no knowledge of its existence.”

Quell’s face darkened. Yaz didn’t remember ever seeing him angry. “You took my—”

“Quell!” She wanted to ask, “My what?” though she wasn’t sure how she might feel about the answer. “Calm yourself! We have to be ready to leave. The collection is due soon, yes?”

Quell hardened his face, forcing all traces of emotion from it. He nodded, mouth in a tight line.

“The next collection isn’t due for twenty-two days.” Thurin stared at Quell, challenge in his eyes. “If there is one before then it is because this stranger has arranged it with the regulator.”

Quell’s brows rose and he shot Yaz a betrayed look. “You told him?”

“I didn’t!” Yaz protested. Her words carried their own heat. Mention of Quell’s deal with the regulator still felt like betrayal. The way he had kept it secret from her had soured the trust between them that she had always taken as absolute and eternal. She turned to stare at Thurin. “How could you possibly know that?”

Thurin’s mouth twisted. “Theus told me. He saw it on him. He said the Ictha had signs of the regulator’s influence all over him. He said Quell would betray you. He said the priests stand behind this one, and behind them their Hidden God.”

Yaz wondered what stood behind the Hidden God, Seus maybe? She had dropped down the pit then found new depths to fall to, and wondered if the mystery of the Missing went deeper still, perhaps without end. Maybe all life was like that, people too. Tear off a layer, expose some new truth, but there will always be another layer. “Quell did what he thought was best. He was trying to help.”

Thurin narrowed his dark eyes at Quell. “Theus said—”

“A demon told you!” Quell stepped in close, full of menace now, his voice a furious hiss. “I won’t be accused of treachery by one who led us all into the black ice and tried to bury us there.”

“Hey . . . Quell.” Zeen stepped into view from behind Kao, a stumble in his legs.

“Zeen!” Quell was at his side, catching him as he collapsed.

“Zeen!” Yaz pushed her way toward her brother, but Quell was already carrying him in both arms.

“He weighs nothing. I expect he’s starved is all.” Quell started walking back down the slope, argument forgotten, genuinely pleased to see the boy again. “Come on. I’ll show you the mountain of food I’ve collected. Zeen needs to eat at least half of it.”

Yaz followed. This was the Quell she remembered from the ice. Strong, caring, in control of himself and the situation.

They crossed the city ruins, alert for hunters. Yaz offered a prayer to the Gods in the Sea that none would come. More than anything she wanted sleep. Deep and peaceful sleep. She felt like a raw wound.

Quell’s collection of fungi proved to be more of a hill than a mountain but he had done a good job in the time available. Yaz didn’t point out the number of inedible or poisonous caps in the mix; they could be discarded later. How long the pile would last the nine of them up on the ice was a matter for speculation. Not long enough, she suspected, but then she had no true idea of how long would be enough.

Kao began tucking into the fungi, chewing his way methodically through one thick grey-shield after another. Thurin picked up a handful of the less tough brown-scales and brought them to Zeen. “They’re better stewed in their own juice with some salt. But these are the most digestible raw.” He turned to Kao. “Eat too many uncooked grey-shields and you won’t need a cable to get to the surface. You’ll be able to blast there on your own wind.”