The Liar’s Key (The Red Queen's War, #2)

by Mark Lawrence

The night can last twenty hours and even when the day finally breaks it never gets above a level of cold I call ‘fuck that’

The stars are pretty but the space between them is infinite and black with promise.’

‘Here.’ I held out a silver crown between two fingers to take his mind off it. ‘You can have this coin, or, you can have the most valuable piece of advice I own, something a wise man once told me and I’ve never shared.’ Snorri looked around at that, taking in the two of us with a raised eyebrow. ‘Well?’ I asked. Hennan furrowed his brow, staring at the coin, then at me, then at the coin. ‘I’ll…’ He reached out, then pulled his hand back. ‘I’ll … the advice.’ He blurted it out as if the words pained him. I nodded sagely. ‘Always take the money.’ Hennan looked at me uncomprehending as I stood, pocketing the coin and pulling my blanket tight. Snorri snorted. ‘Wait … what?’ Hennan’s confusion giving way to anger. Snorri led the way and I followed. ‘Always take the money, kid. Bankable advice, that.’

When you pare away at yourself you can reinvent, that’s true enough, but such whittling always seems to reveal a lesser man, and promises to leave you with nothing at the end.

There’s a lesson in that somewhere. The road forgets. Make your life a journey, keep moving toward what you want, leave behind anything that’s too heavy to carry.