There are many legends and customs associated with the standing stones found throughout the Six Duchies and beyond their borders. Even when the true purposes of those monoliths were forgotten, the significance remained, and thus people told tales about them and revered them. Most common were tales of careless folk, often young lovers in the tales, who wandered into those circles, leaned against the stones and vanished. In some of the stories they return a hundred years later, to find every familiar thing vanished while they themselves are aged not a day. As part of my studies of the Skill, I have often wondered if hapless folk with a wild talent for the magic and no knowledge of how to master it had not accidentally triggered a portal and been lost forever within them. I know that I shudder when I recall my misadventure involving Skill-pillar travel between Aslevjal and Buck. I know you have read my account of it. Did no one pay heed to this warning?
And again, King Dutiful himself has had some experience of the dangers of such travel. In one instance, we emerged from a pillar that was submerged by the tide. What if it had fallen face-down on the earth? We have no idea if we would have been permanently trapped within the pillars or pushed out to suffocate underground.
Even with the recovery of many scrolls relating to the Skill, our knowledge of the pillars is incomplete. Under Chade’s leadership, maps have been drawn of standing stones within the Six Duchies, the ancient markings on those stones noted, and the condition of the stones documented. More than a few have fallen, and the markings on some of them have either weathered away or been deliberately obliterated by vandals.
So, with all respect, I advise caution on this project. I think only experienced members of a coterie should attempt these explorations. We do not know where some of those portals lead, for we do not know what location the marking corresponds to. For the ones where we do know what location each glyph indicates, I think that an exploratory party should first travel by conventional methods to each location to confirm that the receiving pillars are still standing and in good condition.
As for experiments regarding the pillars on which the markings have faded or been defaced, I question why we would attempt to use any of them. Is it worth risking a Skilled one’s life to send someone we know not where?
A letter from FitzChivalry Farseer to Skillmistress Nettle
From my earliest recollections of Chade, he had enjoyed any opportunity to inject drama into his life. From Lady Thyme to the Pocked Man, he had savoured the roles he had played. Age had not decreased his love of subterfuge and disguise; instead, he relished it more than ever now that he had time and resources to indulge in it fully.
Thus I never knew who I would be encountering when he sent me one of his messages to meet him. Once he had been an old peddler with a sack of gourds to sell. Another time, I had entered the inn to find a singularly unattractive female minstrel mangling a tragic and romantic song, to the uproarious mockery of the inn patrons. The passage of years had, if anything, only increased his pleasure in such mummery. I knew that he would travel from Buckkeep Castle by the stones, reducing a journey of several days to a snap of the fingers. He would enter the Witness Stones not far from Buckkeep Castle and step out on top of Gallows Hill. From Gallows Hill to the taproom of the Oaken Staff was a pleasant stroll on a warm summer’s evening. Unfortunately for Chade, that night he would step out from the pillar into a sleety rain that threatened to be snow by morning.
I sat near the big hearth in the Oaken Staff, my drenched cloak saving a place for him on the bench nearest the flames. The Oaken Staff was a crossroads inn used mostly by merchants and travellers. I did not frequent it, and expected to encounter no one who knew me. Nonetheless, for our rendezvous, I had greyed my beard with chalk and donned a ploughman’s coarse tunic. My worn boots were muddy and I sat hunched with my woollen cap pulled down over my brow and ears. The only time I came to the Oaken Staff was when Chade demanded a meeting. Even so, it would not do for any neighbour of Tom Badgerlock’s to see me in the common room and wonder why I was there. So I drank mulled wine with hunched shoulders and a sullen air that I hoped would put off anyone trying to strike up conversation.
The door of the inn swung open, admitting wind, rain, and a drenched stable-boy followed by two sodden merchants. Beyond him, the evening sky was darkening to night. I growled to myself. I had hoped that Chade would arrive early and conclude his business swiftly. I had not been happy to leave Bee alone at Withywoods. She had assured me that she would be fine, that she would paint pictures in her room by her fire and go to bed as soon as she was sleepy. I had tried in vain to convince her that she might enjoy an evening spent with Lin and his wife. She had looked both horrified and terrified at the idea. And so I had left her, promising her that I would look in on her as soon as I returned. I sipped my mulled wine and tried to decide between worrying about Bee alone at home or Chade somewhere out in the storm.
The second time the woman bumped me from behind, I swivelled on my bench and stared up at her. My first thought was that it was Chade in one of his more outlandish incorporations. But she was too short to be the rangy old man I knew. Seated on my bench as I was, my turning had put my eyes exactly on a level with her breasts. Unmistakably real. When my gaze travelled up, she was grinning at me. She had a slight gap between her front teeth and long-lashed green eyes. Her hair was a very dark auburn. ‘Hello,’ she said.
So, not Chade. His messenger, or an overly friendly tavern girl or a whore? So many possible ways for this evening to go very wrong. I lifted my mug, drained it, and held it out to her. ‘Another, please.’ I put no friendliness in my voice.
She raised one brow at me. ‘I don’t fetch beer.’ The disdain in her voice was not feigned. My hackles lifted slightly. Be wary.
I leaned closer, pretending to struggle to bring her face into focus. I knew this girl. I’d seen her somewhere, and it was frustrating and alarming that I could not recall when I had met her or under what circumstances. Someone in the market? A daughter of one of our shepherds, grown and out on her own? Well, she hadn’t called me by name nor had her pupils reacted as if she recognized me. Play drunk. I reached up and scratched my nose, and tested her. ‘Not beer,’ I told her. ‘Mulled wine. It’s cold out there.’
‘I don’t fetch wine either,’ she told me. A trace of an accent in her voice. She hadn’t spent her childhood in Buck.
‘That’s a pity.’ I turned back to the fire.
She pushed my wet cloak to one side and boldly sat down next to me. That narrowed her roles to whore or messenger. She leaned close to me. ‘You look cold.’
‘No. Got myself a good spot by the fire. Had some mulled wine. Just waiting for an old friend.’
She smiled. ‘I could be your friend.’
I shook my head in drunken confusion. ‘No. No, you couldn’t. My friend is much taller and older and he’s a man. You can’t be my friend.’
‘Well, maybe I’m your friend’s friend. That would make you my friend, wouldn’t it?’
I let my head wobble slightly on my neck. ‘Maybe,’ I said. I fingered my pouch at my hip and frowned. Then I smiled. ‘Hey. If you’re my friend’s friend, and you’re my friend, then maybe you could buy the next round?’ I held up my mug hopefully with a vacuous grin and watched her face. Any whore worth her salt wouldn’t bother with a man who didn’t have enough coin to buy himself another drink.
Uncertainty rippled over her face. I hadn’t said what she expected. I suddenly felt very old. At one time, I would have enjoyed this sort of intrigue. I’d always taken great pleasure in mastering the little tests that Chade had constantly set for me. I’d participated in more than one of his dramas for the benefit of befuddling others. But tonight I suddenly just wanted to meet with my old master, find out what he wanted, and then go home. Was any of this subterfuge truly necessary any longer? We were at peace and politically stable. Why was it necessary for him to employ spies and set tests for people? It was time for me to cut through the fog and move the play along. But not so brazenly that Chade would be offended. So I peered at her again and asked, ‘Which do you think is best? Mulled wine by a warm hearth on a cold day, or having a tankard while sitting in the shade?’
She cocked her head at me, and she was much younger than I’d thought she was. I was suddenly sure she hadn’t seen twenty summers. Where did I know her from? ‘Beer in the shade,’ she said without hesitation. ‘Though shade can be hard to find when the sun hasn’t been out for days.’
I nodded and gathered up my wet cloak. ‘Why don’t we look for Chade?’ I suggested, and she smiled.
I stood and she took my arm. She led the way as we threaded our way through the inn’s customers toward the base of the wooden stairs that led to the rooms above. The storm outside had grown stronger. A gust of wind buffeted the inn and the interior shutters lunged with it. An instant later, the door blew wide open and stood thus, wind and rain gusting in. Amid cries from all tables for someone to shut the door, two men staggered in, leaning on one another. One of the men reached an empty table, put both hands flat on it and stood there, just breathing. Riddle turned back to the door and slammed it shut against the storm. In the next moment, I recognized Chade leaning on the table. ‘And there he is,’ I said to my companion in a quiet voice.
‘Who?’ she asked me and I knew a moment of chagrin.
‘My friend. The one I was waiting for.’ I slurred the words slightly, tugged free of her grip on my arm and went to meet Chade and Riddle. I turned my head just enough that, from the corner of my eye, I was aware of her backward glance at me as she ascended the stairs. A man descending the stairs met her eyes and gave her a barely perceptible nod. A whore, then?
Well, that had been peculiar. It was not the first time that Chade and his machinations had left me in an awkward position.
‘Are you all right?’ I asked quietly when I reached his side. He was breathing as if he’d just run a race. I offered him my arm and he took it, a distressing sign of how battered he felt. Without a word, Riddle took his other arm. We exchanged concerned looks.
‘Terrible storm. Let’s get a place by the fire,’ Chade suggested. His lips were dark and he breathed noisily through his nose. His ‘disguise’ was limited to soberly coloured garb of an excellent weave and a plain cut. His steel-grey hair hinted at his age, but his face and bearing did not betray it. He had outlived his brother and all three of his nephews and I suspected he would outlast me, his grand-nephew. But tonight the journey had taken a toll on him and he needed rest. The Skill could maintain his body but it could not make him a young man again.
I surveyed the crowded room. The place I had saved near the hearth had closed up as soon as I vacated it. ‘Unlikely,’ I told him. ‘But two of the upstairs rooms have hearths in them. I’ll ask if either is empty.’
‘Arrangements were made. Riddle, please make sure my requests were granted,’ Chade told me and Riddle nodded, dismissed, for now. He and I exchanged a look. Riddle and I had a long history, longer than his friendship with Nettle. Long before he had met and courted my daughter, he had been my brother-in-arms. In our little war with the Pale Woman on Aslevjal Island, I had left him as worse than dead. He’d forgiven me for that. I’d forgiven him for being Chade’s spy upon me. We understood one another, perhaps better than Chade realized. And so the nod we shared was that of old fellowship. He was a typical Buckman, dark-haired and dark-eyed, and garbed tonight to blend in with the tavern’s crowd. He moved off, effortlessly eeling through the crowd without anyone scowling at being displaced. It was a talent I envied him.
‘Let’s sit down until Riddle comes back,’ I suggested and set an example. The table was an undesirable one, placed near the draught of the door, and away from both the hearth and the kitchen. It was as private a place to chat as we could wish for in such a busy place. Chade sank ungracefully into a chair across the table from mine. His eyes wandered the room; he glanced up the stairs and nodded slightly to himself. I wondered if he was looking for someone, or if it was merely an old assassin’s habit to be aware of anyone who might be a danger. I waited for him to broach his business.
‘Why so busy in here?’ he asked me.
‘A caravan of horse and cattle-traders passing through, is what the talk at the fire was about. Three merchants, six hands. They’d expected to make the next town before they stopped for the night, but the weather forced them in here. I hear they’re not too pleased with leaving their stock in open corrals for the night, but it was the best this place could offer them. The working hands will be sleeping in the barn-lofts tonight. The merchants claim to have some top-quality stock and say they’re worried about thieves, but I heard two stable-boys referring to their horses as used-up hacks. One merchant doesn’t say much, but the tack on his riding horse is Chalcedean style. And his personal horse is a pretty good one.’
He nodded and despite his weariness, his mouth twisted with wry amusement. ‘I taught you that,’ he said with satisfaction. His eyes met mine and the fondness in them startled me. Was he becoming sentimental in his old age?
‘Reporting to you, correctly and completely, was one of the first things you taught me,’ I agreed. We were both silent for a moment, thinking of all else he had taught me.
I had rebelled and escaped the fate of being the king’s assassin. Chade had never wished to. He might no longer live like a hidden spider in the secret passageways of Buckkeep Castle, he might be hailed as Lord Chade now and openly advise King Dutiful, but I had no doubt that if King Dutiful thought a man needed killing, Chade could still rise to the occasion.
He was breathing more easily now. A tavern boy appeared, thunked down two heavy mugs of hot buttered rum and waited. Chade smiled at me. I tipped my head at him, shook my head and then with a faked show of reluctance found coins inside my belt and paid for our drinks. As the lad moved away, I asked Chade, ‘Was it harder than you expected to bring Riddle through the pillar with you?’
He didn’t deny it. ‘He took it better than I did,’ Chade admitted. ‘Even if I did borrow strength from him to do it.’ He lifted his steaming mug, drank and sighed. His eyes above the rim roved the room again.
I nodded, and then had to ask, ‘How did you do it? He’s not Skilled.’
‘No. But Nettle has taught him to lend strength to her when she needs it, and that creates a sort of opening … Well, that’s not the right word. A handle? I’m not sure what to call it. Rather like a horse with a halter always on, there’s a place to clip a lead when he’s needed. He serves her in that capacity, as a source of strength. And in a few others as well.’
Bait I would not take. I took a sip of my rum. Nasty stuff, but warming all the same. ‘How can he lend Skill-strength if he’s not Skilled himself?’
He coughed and spoke hoarsely. ‘The same way Burrich loaned strength to your father. There was a deep personal bond and, like Riddle, he had a great reserve of physical strength. The Skill would help, of course, if he had it. But having served one person in that capacity, he was able to trust enough to allow another to tap him.’
I mulled that over. ‘Had you tried this experiment before?’ I asked curiously.
He drew a deeper breath and shuddered abruptly. He was still chilled but his body was starting to warm in the still air of the tavern. ‘No. I thought this a good opportunity. The weather was fine at Buckkeep. I’ve used the stones to travel here often. I don’t know why it was so taxing.’
I refrained from saying anything about his age. ‘Did you read of this in a scroll or tablet?’ And was he about to propose a more extended and regular use of the Skill-pillars? I braced myself to dissuade him.
He nodded. His eyes weren’t on me but on Riddle, who was threading his way back to us, his own mug of rum held high. In his wake was a serving-lad with sling of firewood and a supply of extra candles. ‘He’ll prepare the room,’ Riddle greeted us as he sat down and the boy headed up the stairs with his bucket. ‘Give him a few minutes to build up the fire, and then we’ll go up.’ He transferred his gaze to me. ‘Tom. You look a bit better than the last time I saw you.’
‘A bit,’ I agreed. I reached across the table to grip wrists with him. I felt an odd little tingle when my hand touched his skin. He was Nettle’s. It was a strange sensation to recognize her touch on him, as intimate as if I had smelled her perfume on his clothing. The wolf in me sat up, alert. I wondered if Chade sensed it as clearly as I did. A thought uncoiled in the back of my mind and I suspected I knew why the trip through the stones had been so arduous. Was Nettle riding with Riddle, hearing with his ears and seeing all he saw? It was an intuitive leap that made me believe her presence would complicate their journey. I kept the theory to myself. I looked into his eyes, wondering if I could glimpse my daughter there. I saw nothing there but his smile broadened. All in the space of a moment. ‘So. A taxing journey, in this storm and all,’ I said.
I released Riddle’s grip and turned back to Chade. ‘Well, what brings you so far on such a foul night?’
‘We’ll wait for the room with the fire,’ he said to that, and picked up his mug again. Riddle’s glance caught mine and he lifted one eyebrow. He intended some sort of message for me, but I didn’t know what.
We sat in relative silence, letting the rum warm us while we waited. When the boy came down to the table and let us know the fire was burning well, Riddle tossed him a cut coin and we went upstairs. The room was at the end of the hall, sharing a chimney with the downstairs hearth. I was surprised that the cattle-traders hadn’t claimed it, but perhaps their purses were flatter than Chade’s. Riddle opened the door and with a startling swiftness, a little knife appeared in his hand. Seated on the end of one of the beds in the room was the girl who had earlier confused me. I took my cue from Chade who did not seem startled at all. Nor did the girl seem alarmed at our sudden entrance. Head slightly lowered, she looked at us warily from the corner of her jade green eyes.
Something I knew but could not bring to the front of my mind uncurled in the back of my thoughts. I was staring at the girl. Her lips curled in a cat smile.
Chade paused, then walked in and seated himself at the table. It was a well-appointed room designed to accommodate travelling parties, with a table and four chairs, four narrow beds, and heavy curtains at the window. There was a trunk in the corner, the new leather straps barely scuffed. The girl might not have been there at all for all the attention Chade paid to her. Instead he spoke to Riddle. ‘See if you can find hot food for all of us. And perhaps another drink. Tom, one for you?’
I shook my head slowly. I’d had enough and suddenly I didn’t want my wits to be muzzy. ‘Food would be good. They were roasting a nice beef joint earlier. A carve off that and some bread, perhaps.’
Riddle looked at me a moment longer. He knew he was once more being dismissed, and like me, he could not imagine why. Also like me, he did not like it. Chade had said nothing about the strange girl.
I looked directly at her. ‘I think we had a misunderstanding earlier. Perhaps you should go now.’
She looked at Chade and he spoke. ‘No. She needs to stay here.’ He didn’t look at anyone as he said, ‘Riddle, please. Food. And another hot drink.’ He looked at the girl. ‘For you?’ She gave the tiniest nod. ‘For all of us,’ he confirmed for Riddle.
Riddle’s glance met mine and I knew what he asked. I spoke it aloud. ‘I have his back, Riddle. You can go.’
Chade started to speak, and then nodded instead. Riddle left with one more baleful glance at me. I moved around the room, and made no pretence as I looked under the beds for other intruders, checked that the sole window was tightly closed and latched, and then inspected the strapped trunk. ‘That’s not really necessary,’ Chade said in a low voice.
‘That’s not what you taught me,’ I said, and finished my tasks. I came back to the table and sat down. The girl still hadn’t moved from her perch on the foot of the bed but now she spoke.
‘Looks to me like you’ve forgotten a lot of what he taught you. Checking under the beds now is too little and too late.’ She cocked her head at me. ‘I can see why he might need me.’
Chade spoke softly. ‘Please join us at the table.’ He cleared his throat and transferred his gaze to me. ‘I wish I had not been delayed. But here we all are, so we may as well discuss this together.’ It was as close as he would come to an apology for not preparing me for this. Whatever ‘this’ was. Something he had not wanted to discuss via the Skill. Yet if Riddle knew, then Nettle would know. But not King Dutiful, perhaps. I pushed those thoughts aside. Focus on the here and now.
I watched the girl as she rose to accept his invitation. She moved like a cat, save for the sway of her hips as she sauntered to the table. If she’d been wearing bells on them, they’d have rung at each step. I tried to catch Chade’s gaze. He evaded me. So I studied her as she crossed the room. She did not look dangerous, nor did she appear innocuous in the way that the most dangerous people I have known appeared. She looked ordinary, but contained. No. Not contained. Ready to burst with pride in herself. She walked like a cat with a bird in her mouth, one that wasn’t quite dead. In a moment she’d release her prey for the joy of pouncing on it again.
I suddenly recognized what made her familiar. Her heritage was unmistakably Farseer. I was accustomed to seeing those features echoed in the males of my lineage. Nettle now resembled her mother more than she had ever resembled me. But this girl, despite the femininity of her features, echoed Verity and, eerily, me. My mind was assembling bits of knowledge into theory as fast as it could. A Farseer born. Younger than Dutiful, but too old to be his get. Certainly not mine. So whose? I felt as if the room had suddenly tilted. Whence had come this sprout on the family tree?
I waited for one of them to speak. I wondered at her slow stroll to the table. Chade would have interpreted that as insolence if I’d ever tried it, and a rap on the skull would have been the least reminder I would have received. But in her, he tolerated it. Something to mull.
As soon as she sat down, he said, ‘Report.’
She cast me one glance and then focused her attention on Chade. ‘He’s careless,’ she said off-handedly. ‘His “disguise” is pathetic. I bumped him twice before he noticed me. It was stupidly easy to get next to him. All he was thinking about was watching for you.’ She swung her eyes to look at me, daring me to respond. ‘I could have killed him three times over, drugged him or picked his pocket.’
That stung. ‘I very much doubt that. And I think that is the poorest excuse for a report that I’ve ever heard.’
She raised her brows at me. ‘All necessary information was conveyed.’ She cocked her head at my old mentor and asserted, ‘If Lord Chade had needed more detail, he’d have asked me for it.’ As she spoke, she rose and came around to my side of the table. I twisted my head to look up at her. She spoke to Chade in a very confident tone. ‘Tell him that he should let me touch him.’
Chade met my gaze then. ‘It’s safe. She’s one of ours.’
‘In more ways than one, obviously,’ I retorted. I heard a small exhalation of breath from her, but I couldn’t tell if I’d hit my target or she was amused by me. I sat still, but somewhere a wolf lifted his hackles and growled low.
I felt her light touch on the back of my collar, then the shoulder of my shirt. She leaned down to touch my hip, and then I felt her hand brush my ribs. As she drew her fingers away, my shirt followed them briefly. Then she set the pins out on the table. There were six of them, not four, each less than a half-finger’s length. The heads were shaped like tiny green spiders.
‘If I had nudged any one of them a bit harder, they would have pierced your skin.’ She leaned closer, over my shoulder, and spoke by my ear. ‘Any of them could have been tipped with poison, or a sleeping dose. You’d have keeled over in front of the fire, just another drunk passing out, until no one could wake you again.’
‘I’ve told you,’ Chade said sternly. ‘Those spiders are a vanity that no assassin can afford. NEVER leave a mark that anyone might associate with you. I’m disappointed in you.’
Her voice tightened at his rebuke. ‘I merely used them in this instance to prove that I was the one who set them, not some other spy or assassin sent in before me. I would never use them on a task that was confidential or important. I only used them today to prove what I told you. He’s careless.’ Her disdain burned me. She stood behind me, slightly to my left and added, ‘Sloppy. Anyone could kill him. Or his child.’
I hadn’t known I was going to do it. My chair overturned as I moved. I wasn’t as fast as I once was, but I was still faster than she was. She hit the floor on her back. My left hand gripped her right wrist with the small knife she’d pulled as she fell beneath me. My right thumb was in the hollow of her throat, pressing firm and deep, my fingers biting into the back of her neck. Her teeth were bared and her eyes bulging at me when I became aware of Chade on his feet over us.
‘Stop it! Both of you! This is not why I brought you together. If I wanted either one of you dead, I could do it a lot more efficiently than setting you on one another.’
I lifted my thumb from her throat at the same time I throttled the knife from her hand. I came back to my feet with a backwards leap that put me out of easy reach. Another step back and I had the wall behind me and both of them in full view. I hoped neither of them could see what it had cost me. I breathed slowly and steadily despite my hammering heart and desperate need for more air. I pointed a finger at the girl. ‘Never threaten my child.’
‘I didn’t!’ Her angry retort was strangled as she used a chair to come to her feet. I ignored her and focused my anger on my old mentor. ‘Why did you set your assassin on me?’ I demanded of Chade.
‘I didn’t set an assassin on you,’ he objected with great disgust. He moved around the table to resume his chair.
‘I wasn’t told to kill you, only probe your weakness. It was a small test,’ the girl interjected. She wheezed in another breath and added vindictively, ‘One that you failed.’ She levered herself to her feet and sat down.
Much as I wished to deny that, I couldn’t. I spoke only to Chade. ‘Like the one you sent before. When Bee was only days old.’
Chade didn’t flinch. ‘Somewhat. Except that he was just a boy. And, as I suspected, not suited to the training. It was one of the things we wished to discover about him. I moved him in a different direction, as you suggested. My own fault. He really wasn’t prepared for you.’
‘But I was,’ the girl said with quiet satisfaction.
‘Stop gloating,’ Chade told her. ‘Your tongue runs away with you. You’re taunting a man who could have quickly killed you a minute ago. To no purpose. You’re getting completely on his wrong side, and then you’ll never be able to work with him.’
I didn’t move from my position. ‘I don’t do that sort of “work” any more,’ I told the old man coldly. ‘Nor do I currently need to live as if every stranger might be out to kill me. Unless you’ve done something to set those sorts of threats in motion again.’
He crossed his arms on his chest and leaned back in his chair. ‘Fitz. Stop being an ass and come back to the table. Those threats never went away. You of all people should know that. You put yourself mostly out of harm’s way, and it’s worked for you. Most of the folk who have deduced who you are either have no ill-will toward you, or haven’t had much reason of late to wish you dead. But when you produced a child, that changed things. I thought that surely you had recognized that and were taking precautions. The first time I tested your boundaries, you seemed well aware of the danger.
‘But when Nettle told me how mired you are in grief, and that the child may well need special protection for the rest of her life, I resolved to offer you help, if you needed it. Especially when she mentioned that you might send the child to Buckkeep. Or come back there yourself.’
‘I’ve no intention of coming back to Buckkeep. And I don’t need anyone to help me protect myself or Bee!’ I hated that he had called me Fitz in front of her. A lapse or deliberate? ‘The only threats I’ve encountered of late seem to come from those I thought I could trust.’
Chade gave me a look. It appealed to me for something. I wasn’t sure what he was asking. His words contradicted his expression. ‘That’s exactly how I expected you to respond. Which was why I charged Shun with first determining if you did or not. And you obviously do.’
Riddle warned us with a knock before he shouldered open the door and entered with a tray of plates and mugs. His dark eyes flickered over the room, taking in my stance, the over-turned chair and the girl’s sullen face. I saw his brows lift slightly. But he made no comment. As he slid the heavy tray onto the table, he noted, ‘I brought plenty for all of us. I assume she’s our guest?’ He stooped and righted the chair, gestured courteously at it for the girl.
‘Let’s eat before we talk more,’ Chade suggested.
I came to the table reluctantly. My pride was chafed. I didn’t like Chade sharing so much about me with this girl when I knew so little about her, save what I’d surmised. He’d spoken my name before her! All I knew of her was that she was related to us. How old was she, who was her mother, and how long had Chade been training her? Was she nobly born, with all the political strings that would attach to her? And why did he suddenly want to place her with me?
For that was obviously his intent, that he’d put her in my household, ostensibly as Bee’s bodyguard. A laudable idea, in some ways, if my child had truly needed guarding. Patience had always had Lacey at her side, and no one had questioned that Prince Chivalry’s wife would be accompanied everywhere by her servant. Nor had they thought it odd that Lacey had always had her tatting and her long needles for working lace with her. Lacey had watched over Patience, keeping her safe even after assassins had managed to kill her husband. In their old age, the roles had reversed, and Patience had lovingly tended her failing ‘serving-woman’ to the end of her days.
But I doubted this girl had the temperament for such a role. She looked of an age to be a nurse or nanny for a small child, but she had shown me no signs that she could adopt such an identity. Her stealthy skills were impressive but in a physical fight she had no muscle or weight to draw on. Her Farseer features would draw too much attention at Buckkeep; she’d be useless as a spy there.
I doubted even more that we would get along well enough for me to trust her with my daughter. And I didn’t like that Riddle had looked surprised and still seemed to regard her with caution. Obviously, he had known as little of Chade’s plan as I had. He hadn’t recognized her. I couldn’t tell if he had realized she was related to the royal family or not.
I seated myself opposite her. Riddle served her first, setting a laden plate in front of her. For short notice, he’d done well by us. Thick slabs of steaming meat fresh carved from the spit, the crackling fat nicely browned, potatoes popping white and mealy from crispy baked skins, and dark brown gravy. There was a loaf of warm bread and a pot of pale butter beside it. It was simple but there was plenty of it and Shun swallowed audibly as he set it in front of her. She had a healthy appetite and made no pretence of waiting for the rest of us, but seized a fork and knife and began eating. Riddle raised his brows at such childish manners but said nothing as he set out plates for Chade and me and then himself. He’d brought up a pot of tea and four cups as well.
Riddle went back to the door, latched it and then returned to join us at table. Riddle ate with an appetite. Chade sorted through his food like an old man. As for me, I recognized that the food was of good quality but could not concentrate on it enough to enjoy it. I drank hot tea and watched them. Chade was quiet, his gaze moving between me and the girl as he ate. At the end of the meal, he looked much the better for having eaten. Shun ate with obvious and focused enjoyment. She seized the teapot and refilled her own cup without asking if any of us would care for more. She did not hesitate to take the last potato in the dish, and when she was finished, she leaned back in her chair and breathed a loud sign of satiation. When Riddle began gathering and stacking the emptied plates back on the tray, I spoke bluntly to the old assassin.
‘You trained me to report well to you, to give you the whole of what I learned. After we had all the facts laid out, then we’d build our assumptions. Yet you’ve sprung this on me with no warning and less explanation, and expect me to humbly accept it without questions. What are you about, old man? What do you want? And don’t pretend that this youngster becoming my daughter’s protector is the sum of this.’
‘Very well.’ He leaned back in his chair and looked from me to Shun, and then at Riddle.
Riddle returned his gaze. ‘Am I supposed to leave now?’ he asked. There was a chill edge to his voice.
Chade considered it so quickly that it seemed as if he answered without a pause. ‘Little point to that. I’ve seen that you’ve put it together.’
Riddle flicked a glance at me and hazarded an interpretation. ‘You’d like to put this girl with Tom, so he can protect her for you.’
The muscles at the corner of Chade’s mouth twitched. ‘That’s a fairly accurate summation.’
I looked at Shun. She was dismayed. Evidently she hadn’t seen things from that vantage, and had been preening herself that she was being sent out on her first real assignment, only to discover that actually she was being banished from Buckkeep, possibly because she had grown into a phase where it would be next to impossible for anyone to miss that she was a Farseer. No. Not Buckkeep. If she’d been anywhere in the castle, Riddle would have known of her. Then where? I watched her straighten in her chair. Little sparks of anger lit in her gaze. She opened her mouth to speak but I was quicker.
‘I’d like to know who she is before I take her on.’ I said bluntly.
‘You’ve seen her lineage. I saw you recognize it.’
‘How did it happen?’ I demanded, baffled.
‘The usual way,’ Chade muttered; he looked uncomfortable. That triggered the girl.
She shook her head, making her auburn curls dance. A chill note, almost accusatory, came into her voice. ‘My mother was nineteen when she visited Buckkeep Castle with her parents for a Springfest. She went home, where it was discovered she was with child. She had me. A couple of years after I was born, her parents managed to find her a husband. My grandparents kept me to raise. Which they did, until my grandfather died two years ago, and my grandmother died six months later. At which time I went to live with my mother for the first time in my life. Except that her husband did not feel in a fatherly fashion toward me. And instead of being furious with him for his wandering eyes and grasping hands on her child, my mother became angry and jealous. And she packed me off with a sealed note to the old queen at Buckkeep.’
‘And she gave you over into Lord Chade’s keeping?’ That didn’t sound like Kettricken to me.
‘No.’ She cast a glance at Chade. He had steepled his hands. His firmly pinched lips indicated he did not enjoy her accounting, but realized that any attempt to interrupt it would be futile.
Shun leaned one elbow on the table, feigning a casualness she did not feel. I saw her tension in the muscles of her throat and in how one hand gripped the table’s edge. ‘I and my note were intercepted very shortly after I left my mother’s home. Both were delivered to Lord Chade. He took charge of me and placed me in a supposedly safe haven. And he has been my protector ever since.’ There was resentment, but for what? I made note of her use of ‘supposedly’. Were we getting closer to the bone of why she was here? Yet I was no closer to knowing her parentage. Did her Farseer looks come from her mother’s side? Or her father’s? How many generations back was the connection?
Riddle shifted slightly in his seat. He was not the one who had intercepted the girl. Did he know who had? But I sensed that he was gathering and sorting facts as much as I was. And this was his first encounter with Shun? Where had Lord Chade been keeping her? The sour twist of Chade’s mouth showed that he was not especially pleased that Shun was sharing these details.
‘How old are you?’ I demanded.
‘Does it matter?’ she retorted.
‘She’s nineteen now,’ Chade said quietly, and scowled as Riddle and I exchanged a glance. ‘And as you have guessed her resemblance to her forebears means that bringing her to court is a bad idea. For now!’ he added hastily as her countenance darkened. Caution flared in me. She seemed a snippy thing to me, arrogant for her years. I wondered whose she was, and who she thought she was. She was giving herself an air of importance that I didn’t comprehend.
I wondered. Shun. I pointed the thought at her, Skilling strongly. She didn’t even twitch. That answered at least one of my questions. Even untrained, she should have felt something. So she had no predilection for the Skill. I wondered if that disappointed Chade or if he were glad she could not be used that way. He was watching me, well aware of what I’d just done. I shifted my focus.
I have dozens of questions. Who is her mother, and who is she married to now? Does Shun know who her father was? She doesn’t name him, or her mother. Why have you kept her concealed from everyone? Or have you? Has Kettricken added her to her genealogy of unacknowledged Farseers?
Not now! He didn’t even glance at me as he responded. Nor did he look at Riddle. Concealed from Nettle as well? I boiled with questions and wondered if I’d ever get a chance to ask them privately. Some I would not speak in front of the girl and some were better not aired in front of Riddle. There was one I could ask.
‘And you have trained her?’
He glanced at her and then met my eyes. ‘In some things. Not personally, but she had a suitable instructor. Not as you were trained, but as I saw fit.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Mostly so she could protect herself. Though I did wonder if she might not be brought along in my footsteps.’ He coughed and added, ‘There is much you could teach her, if you would.’
I sighed. I suspected he had given me as much information as he intended to give me in this company. ‘Well. You still haven’t told me all I need to know. And you must know that I need to prepare my household. I can’t simply ride down to the inn for ale on a stormy night and come back with a girl on the back of my horse.’
‘That’s why I brought Riddle. I sent Shun here several days ago, and now that Riddle is here, he will act as her protector until he can deliver her to your door.’
Riddle’s mouth quirked once. This was news to him as well.
I tried to find my feet in the rushing current of Chade’s planning. ‘So, in a few days she will arrive at Withywoods. Where I will greet her as my distant cousin, come to help care for my child in my bereavement.’
‘Exactly.’ Chade smiled.
I wasn’t amused. It was too soon for me to find strength to help anyone except myself. I’d have to tell him no. I just couldn’t do this. I’d lost Molly and found our child and was fumbling my way toward knowing her. I felt a sudden sharp pang of anxiety. Was Bee safe? Was she frightened? I’d left her alone tonight and come here to this meeting, expecting it to be some brief consultation on a political situation into which he wanted my insights. Now he was asking me to take a young woman into my household, a woman I knew nothing about, and to both protect her and educate her in how she must protect herself. My first impression of her was that I would not like her, nor would she enjoy my company. With terrible regret, I wished he had been able to speak to me privately. I would have told him all the reasons I had to say no. Now he had me trapped at a table with both Shun and Riddle watching, and possibly Nettle. How could I say ‘no’ in these circumstances?
I drew a breath. ‘I’m just not sure this is the best solution, Chade. Bee is very young, and I am still in mourning.’ I turned to Shun. ‘Have you any experience with small children?’
She stared at me. Her mouth opened and closed twice. Her glance fixed on Chade. I saw both alarm and resentment build on her face as she demanded, ‘How small? How young? I was stuck caring for my mother’s spoiled nieces when I stayed with her, despite their having a nanny and a tutor. I didn’t care for it. If you think you can exile me from court and hide me at some provincial manor to play governess under the pretence that I’m protecting her, well, you can’t. Nor do I accept the idea that this Tom will watch over me. I proved for myself and you that however sharp he used to be, he’s grown careless and soft. He did not guard himself; how can he protect me?’
‘No one said “governess”. We are simply discussing what it might be said you are doing while Fitz continues your training. It would be excellent practice for you to protect his daughter, as her bodyguard.’
I flinched. It was the second time he had called me Fitz in front of her. She did not seem mature enough to be entrusted completely with that secret. Yet it was almost insulting that she had not seemed to realize she had been handed such a secret. I felt a sudden needle to my vanity. Nineteen. Hadn’t she even heard of FitzChivalry Farseer?
She crossed her arms on her chest and lifted her head high, defying Chade. ‘What if I say no? This is not why I thought I was coming here. I thought you had found a task for me, something significant to do with my life. I’m tired of hiding in the darkness like a rat. I’ve done nothing wrong. You told me that my life would be better with you. I thought I’d live in Buckkeep Castle, at court!’
Chade steepled his fingers and spoke carefully to them. ‘You can, of course, say no. You do have a choice, Shun.’ He sighed suddenly and lifted his eyes to meet hers. ‘No choices were given to me, so I do know that such things matter. In this regard, I will do all I can for you. I wish I could say you had many choices, but I am as constrained by fate as you are.’
I watched her face as she slowly realized that he was telling her that she was limited to the choices he would offer her. I wasn’t surprised. That was the life of a Farseer bastard. He and I had both known the constraints of being an unrecognized sprout of that family tree. One could be a danger to the family, and be eliminated, or one could be useful to the family in a defined role. One could not choose not to be part of the family. Chade was loyal to his family. He would keep her safe and guide her, and in the process he would protect the throne. And I found I agreed with him. He was right. But to Shun, it must have felt like a net being drawn tight around her. He read her face as he spoke. ‘I can well understand your bitterness toward me. I have done all I could to ameliorate it. You still have a right to be bitter toward all of the people who created the situation in which you must now live. Later, perhaps, you will understand that I am doing the best I can by you. You can, if you choose, make a home at Withywoods, at least for a time. It’s a lovely place in a gentle valley. It may not be Buckkeep, but neither is it a crude backwater town. You will have opportunities there for entertainment and refined socializing. You’ll be treated well and given an allowance of your own.’ He flickered a glance at me, and saw my doubts. The plea in his expression deepened and I looked away. Sparks were kindling in Shun’s eyes.
Relentlessly, he continued. ‘Indeed, initially, Withywoods is where you must go. But if you find yourself unhappy there, I will make other arrangements for you. You may choose an appropriate location beyond Buck Duchy and I will arrange for your lodging there. You will receive an allowance sufficient for a comfortable life, with up to two servants. That allowance will continue as long as you live quietly. That is for you safety.’
She lifted her head. ‘And if I don’t? If I get up and walk out of that door right now?’
Chade gave a small, defeated sigh. He shook his head. ‘You’d be putting yourself beyond the pale. I’d do what I could to protect you, but it wouldn’t be enough. You would be penniless. Your family would regard you as a renegade and a social liability. You would be discovered.’ He spoke the words I knew he would. ‘You’re like a doubled-edged blade with no handle, my dear. Dangerous to hold, and dangerous to set down. Someone would find you and either kill you or use you against the Farseers.’
‘How? What could they possibly use me to do to the king? What danger am I to him?’
I spoke before Chade could. ‘They could threaten Lord Chade if they had you as a hostage. Send him an ear or a lip to prove they were serious.’
She lifted a hand to her face, covering her mouth. She spoke through her spread fingers, suddenly a frightened child. ‘Can’t I just go back? You could demand they do more to protect me. I could stay where I was at—’
‘No.’ He cut her off sharply before she could betray where he’d been keeping her. An interesting puzzle for me. Somewhere close enough to Buckkeep Castle for him to visit often, yet far enough away that Riddle had never glimpsed her. His words stopped my musing. ‘Use your mind, Shun.’ Eyes wide, she shook her head at him.
My heart sank. I knew. ‘Someone already forced Chade’s hand. That’s why this is all happening so suddenly.’
She gave me a hateful look and looked back at her mentor. Chade was watching me. ‘For which I’m sorry. But you can see the situation I’m in. Fitz. It was not her father’s family that sought to kill her. She has enemies of her own. I need to place her somewhere safe. And the only place I have is with you.’ He looked at me with pleading sincerity. It was a look he had once made me practise in front of a looking glass for several hours. I did not laugh. We did not bare our tricks before others. I met it with a look of my own.
‘You have not told me who she is, nor who her enemies are. How can I guard her when I do not know whence the danger comes? Who are these enemies she has?’
The mask fell from his face. The desperation in his eyes was real, now. ‘Please. Trust me and do this for me. Those who stand against her are ones I am not ready yet to discuss. You should know that before I ask this of you. That this favour will involve you taking a risk for me. My boy, I have no one else I can ask. Will you take her and keep her safe? For me?’
And there it was. Any thoughts of refusing melted away. This was not a mere favour he was asking of me. It was a confirmation of who we were to one another. There was no one else he could ask. No one who would understand her danger as I would, no one who would know how to protect her and still keep her from harming us. No one else could sheath this double-edged sword. This was not a request I could refuse. He knew that and he hated to ask it of me. Just as Chade drew a breath, I took control of the situation.
‘I will. And I will do my best by her.’
Chade froze. Then he nodded weakly, relief slackening his face. I saw now how deeply he had feared I would refuse him. That shamed me.
Shun drew a breath to speak but I stopped her with an uplifted hand. ‘Unfortunately, I have to leave now. I will need to prepare a place for you at Withywoods,’ I announced.
She looked startled. Good. Keep her unbalanced until it was all determined. I spoke calmly, taking it all out of Chade’s hands. ‘You will be given enough money to stay at this inn for three days. Riddle will remain here with you, as your protector. You need have no fear of him. He is a man of honour. You don’t seem to have brought much with you from your old home. So, if there is something you need, just let him know. In three days, he will escort you to Withywoods, where I will greet you as my cousin, come to help me manage my household.’ I took a breath. It was only logical, the best way to explain her arrival, and yet it still pained me to say the words aloud. ‘Since my wife’s recent death.’ I cleared my throat. ‘I have a little girl at home. And a large holding to manage for Lady Nettle.’ I lifted my eyes to meet hers. ‘You will be welcomed there. And you may stay as long as you find it to your liking. You do need to know that I do not live as grandly as a nobleman, but as a holder, the trusted caretaker of a large estate. I am not sure what you are accustomed to, but you may find us rustic. Simple. As my “cousin”, you will have tasks to do, but I assure you that you will not be treated as a servant by anyone, but as a family member who has come to help in troubled times.’
‘Tasks?’ She said the word as if she could not fit her mouth around it. ‘But … I come of a noble family! On my mother’s side, I am …’
‘You aren’t.’ Chade cut in decisively. ‘That name is a danger to you. You must leave it behind. I’ll give you a new name. My own. You are a Fallstar now. I give you my surname. The one that my mother gave to me. Shun Fallstar.’
She stared at him, shocked. Then, to my horror, tears formed in her eyes. Mouth ajar, she looked at Lord Chade as the drops began their slow passage down her cheeks. Chade went pale, the old pock-scars standing out against his face. Many thought them the sign of his survival of some plague. I knew them for what they were: the traces of an experiment with a mixture that had proved far more explosive than he had thought it would. Like him, I bore some scars from the things we had exploded together. Just as we had this girl’s life.
I thought of the other life this would impact. My child, who was still just coming to know me. Bee was still adapting after her mother’s death. I wondered how she would react to this sudden inclusion of a new family member and knew the answer. She would not welcome it, any more than I did. Well, with a great deal of luck, it would not be for long, just until Chade found a better solution for all of us. Still. I looked at Shun. ‘Have you any experience with children?’
She made a quick swipe at her tears and shook her head. ‘I grew up with my grandparents. My mother was their only surviving child, so there were no other youngsters in their household. Only me. The servants had children but I had little to do with them. And my mother’s nieces were the children of her husband’s brother, and perfect little beasts.’ She took a breath and exclaimed, ‘I told you, I can’t pretend to be her governess. I won’t do that!’
‘No. I only wondered if you were accustomed to children. You aren’t. And I have no problems with that. I suspect you thought you might guard my child for me. I don’t think that will be needed at all. I can find other tasks for you, ones that have to do with running the household staff.’ Yet another thing I must invent. Busy work to keep her occupied.
Given the sort of child that Bee was, perhaps it was best that Shun had no experience of other children. Bee might seem less odd to her. But the vehemence of her instant response to the thought that she might have to care for the child was a small warning to me. I would keep Bee at a safe distance from her until I had gauged her character. I stood to leave. Chade looked alarmed.
‘I’d hoped to talk more with you! Can’t you stay the night? The storm outside is only getting worse. Riddle, could you see if the inn has another open room?’
I shook my head. I knew he wanted to have a long, private conversation with me. He longed for a chance to explain every part of this, and to explore every possible solution. But there was someone else who needed me more. ‘I can’t. Bee isn’t accustomed to being left alone.’ Was Bee asleep yet? Or lying awake and wondering when her papa would be back? Shame that I had all but forgotten her in this strange business washed through me, followed by uneasiness and urgency. I needed to get home. I looked at Chade.
‘Surely her nursemaid …’
I shook my head, irritated at the delay. ‘She has none. Molly and I were raising her, and before her mother died, she needed no one else. Now she has only me. Chade, I have to go.’
He looked at me. Then with an exasperated sigh, he flapped his hand at me. ‘Go, then. But we still need to talk. Privately.’
‘We will. Another time. And I will ask you about that tutor you recommended, as well.’
He nodded. He would find a way. Tonight, he needed to stay in this room and convince his sullen charge that she must do as he suggested. But that was his task, not mine. I had enough tasks of my own.
As I left, Riddle followed me out into the hall. ‘Bad luck all round,’ he said. ‘The passage was difficult for him to manage, and then the storm delayed us, too. He had hoped to have a quiet hour or two with you before dealing with “a problem”. I was shocked when the problem turned out to be a girl. Shun. Terrible name, eh? I’m sure it’s not what her grandparents called her. I hope she doesn’t decide to keep it.’
I looked at him wearily, reaching for words. ‘Well. At least it’s good to know that the Farseer talent for dramatics is being passed on.’
He grinned crookedly. ‘I’d say you and Nettle both carry a fair share of that.’ When I did not answer his smile, he asked in a gentler voice, ‘How are you doing, Tom?’
I shrugged and shook my head. ‘As you see. I’m getting by. Adjusting.’
He nodded and was quiet for a moment. Then he said, ‘Nettle is worried for her sister. I’ve told her that you are far more capable than she might imagine, but she has still moved forward with preparing a chamber and a caretaker for little Bee.’
‘Bee and I have actually been doing very well together. I think we are well suited to one another.’ It was difficult to be courteous. I liked Riddle but really, Bee was not his concern. She was mine and I was feeling more and more anxious, more and more certain that I needed to get home. I was suddenly weary of all of them, longing only to leave.
His mouth tightened and then I saw him decide to speak. ‘Except that you’ve left her alone tonight to come here. No nurse, no governess, no tutor? Tom, even an ordinary child takes constant watching. And Bee is not …’
‘For you to worry about,’ I cut in. I was stung by his words, though I was trying not to show it. Damn. Would he go straight back to Nettle as soon as he could and report to her that I was neglecting her little sister? I stared at him. Riddle met my gaze squarely. We had known one another for years, and endured several very bad things together. Once, I had left him for dead, or worse than dead. He’d never rebuked me for that. I owed him the courtesy of hearing him out. I tucked my chin and waited for him to speak.
‘We worry,’ he said quietly. ‘About all sorts of things that don’t necessarily belong to us. Seeing you tonight was a shock. You’re not thin, you’re gaunt. You drink without tasting what you put in your mouth, and you eat without looking at your food. I know you’re still mourning, and that’s only right. But grief can make a man overlook the obvious. Such as his child’s needs.’
He meant well but I was in no mood to hear it. ‘I don’t overlook her needs. It’s exactly why I’m leaving now. Give me three days to ready things before you bring Shun to my door.’ He was nodding and looking at me so sincerely that my anger faded. ‘You’ll see Bee then, and talk to her. I promise you she’s not neglected, Riddle. She’s an unusual child. Buckkeep Castle would not be a good place for her.’
He looked sceptical but had the grace to keep his doubts to himself. ‘I’ll see you then,’ he replied.
I felt his gaze follow me as I walked down the hall. I descended the stairs wearily and full of regrets. I admitted my disappointment. There had been in my heart the germ of a hope that Chade had arranged this meeting because he wished to see me, to offer me some sort of comfort or sympathy at my loss. It had been years since he had been my mentor or my protector, yet my heart had still yearned to once more feel the shelter of his wisdom. When we are children, we believe that our elders know all and that even when we cannot understand the world, they can make sense of it. Even after we are grown, in moments of fear or sorrow, we still turn instinctively to the older generation, hoping to finally learn some great hidden lesson about death and pain. Only to learn instead that the only lesson is that life goes on. I had known that Chade did not deal well with death. I should not have expected it of him.
I turned my collar up, pulled my damp cloak tighter around me and went back out into the storm.