by Robin Hobb
It had been some time since I had last called upon her. But her sitting chamber never seemed to change, save in the uppermost layer of litter that reflected her current passion. This day was no exception. Autumn-gathered herbs, bundled for drying, were suspended everywhere, filling the room with their scents. I felt I was strolling through an inverted meadow as I ducked to avoid the dangling foliage.
‘You’ve hung these a bit low,’ I complained as Patience entered.
‘No. You’ve managed to grow a bit too tall. Stand up straight and let me look at you now.’
I obeyed, even though it left me with a bundle of catmint resting on my head.
‘Well. At least rowing about killing people all summer has left you in good health. Much better than the sickly boy who came home to me last winter. I told you those tonics would work. As long as you’ve grown that tall, you may as well help me hang up these lot.’
Without more ado, I was put to work stringing lines from sconces to bedposts to anything else that a string could be tied to, and then to fastening bundles of herbs to them. She had me treed, up on a chair and tying bundles of balsam, when she demanded, ‘Why do you no longer whine to me about how much you miss Molly?’
‘Would it do me any good?’ I asked her quietly after a moment. I did my best to sound resigned.
‘No.’ She paused a moment as if thinking. She handed me yet another bouquet of leaves. ‘Those,’ she informed me as I fastened them up, ‘are stipple-leaf. Very bitter. Some say they will prevent a woman conceiving. They don’t. At least, not dependably. But if a woman eats them for too long, she can become ill from them.’ She paused as if considering. ‘Perhaps, if a woman is sick, she does not conceive as easily. But I would not recommend them to anyone, least of all anyone I cared about.’
I found my tongue, sought a casual air. ‘Why do you dry them, then?’
‘An infusion of them, gargled, will help a sore throat. So Molly Chandler told me, when I found her gathering them in the Women’s Garden.’
‘I see.’ I fastened the leaves to the line, dangling them like a body from a noose. Even their odour was bitter. Had I wondered, earlier, how Verity could be so unaware of what was right before him? Why had I never thought of this? How must it be for her, to dread what a rightfully-married woman would long for? What Patience had longed for in vain?
‘… seaweed, FitzChivalry?’
I started. ‘Beg pardon?’
‘I said, when you have an afternoon free, would you gather seaweed for me? The black, crinkly sort? It has the most flavour this time of year.’
‘I will try,’ I replied absently. For how many years would Molly have to worry? How much bitterness must she swallow?
‘What are you looking at?’ Patience demanded.
‘Nothing. Why?’
‘Because I’ve asked you twice to get down so we can move the chair. We’ve all these other packets to hang, you know.’
‘Beg pardon. I didn’t get much sleep last night; it’s left me dull-witted today.’
‘I agree. You should start sleeping more at night.’ These words were uttered a bit heavily. ‘Now come down and move the chair so we can hang these mints.’
I didn’t eat much at dinner. Regal was alone on the high dais, looking sullen. His usual circle of fawners clustered at a table just below him. I did not understand why he chose to dine separately. Certainly, he had the rank to, but why choose this isolation? He summoned one of the more flattering of the minstrels he had recently imported to Buckkeep. Most of them were from Farrow. All of them affected the nasal intonations of that region, and favoured the long, chanting styles of epics. This one sang a long telling of some adventure of Regal’s maternal grandfather. I listened as little as I was able; it seemed to have to do with riding a horse to death in order to be the one to shoot a great stag that had eluded a generation of hunters. It praised endlessly the great-hearted horse who had gone to his death at his master’s bidding. It said nothing of the master’s stupidity in wasting such an animal to gain some tough meat and a rack of antlers.
‘You look half-sick,’ Burrich observed as he paused beside me. I rose to leave table and walked through the hall with him.
‘Too much on my mind. Too many directions to think in all at once. I sometimes feel that if I had time to focus my mind on just one problem, I could solve it. And then go on to solve the others.’
‘Every man believes that. It isn’t so. Slay the ones you can as they come to hand, and after a while, you get used to the ones you can do nothing about.’
‘Such as?’
He shrugged and gestured downward. ‘Such as having a game leg. Or being a bastard. We all get used to things we once swore we could never live with. But what’s eating your liver this time?’
‘Nothing I can tell you about just yet. Not here, anyway.’
‘Oh. More of those, huh.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t envy you, Fitz. Sometimes all a man needs is to growl about his problems to another man. They’ve denied you even that. But take heart. I have faith you can handle them even if you think you can’t.’
He clapped me on the shoulders, and then left in a blast of cold air from the outer doors. Verity was right. The winter storms were rising, if tonight’s wind was any indicator. I was halfway up the stairs before I reflected that Burrich now spoke to me straight across. He finally believed I was a man grown. Well, maybe I would do better if I believed that about myself. I squared my shoulders and went up to my room.
I put more effort into dressing than I had in a long time. As I did, I thought of Verity hastily changing his shirt for Kettricken. How had he ever managed to be so blind to her? And I to Molly? What other things did she do for our sake that I had never realized? My misery returned, stronger than ever. Tonight. Tonight after Shrewd was done with me. I could not let her continue her sacrifices. For now, I could do nothing save put it out of my mind. I pulled my hair back into the warrior’s tail that I felt fully-earned now, and tugged the front of my blue jerkin straight. It was a bit snug across the shoulders, but so was everything I owned lately. I left my room.
In the hallway outside King Shrewd’s apartments I encountered Verity with Kettricken on his arm. Never had I seen them as they presented themselves now. Here, suddenly, was the King-in-Waiting and his queen. Verity was dressed in a long formal robe of deep forest green. An embroidered band of stylized bucks graced the sleeves and hem. He wore on his brow the silver circlet with the blue gem that was the mark of the King-in-Waiting. I had not seen him wear it in some time. Kettricken was dressed in the purple and white that she so often chose. Her gown of purple was very simple, the sleeves cut short and wide to reveal narrower and longer sleeves of white beneath them. She wore the jewellery that Verity had gifted her with, and her long blonde hair had been intricately dressed with a net of silver chain junctured with amethysts. I halted at the sight of them. Their faces were grave. They could be going nowhere except to see King Shrewd.
I presented myself formally, and carefully let Verity know that King Shrewd had summoned me.
‘No,’ he told me gently. ‘I summoned you to present yourself to King Shrewd. Along with Kettricken and me. I wished you witness for this.’
Relief flooded me. This was not about Celerity then. ‘Witness for what, my prince?’ I managed to ask.
He looked at me as if I were daft. ‘I ask the King’s permission to leave on a quest. To seek out the Elderlings and bring back the aid we so desperately need.’
‘Oh.’ I should have noticed the quiet page, all in black, bearing
an armful of scrolls and tablets. The boy’s face was white and stiff. I would wager he had never before done anything more formal for Verity than wax his boots. Rosemary, freshly-washed and clothed in Kettricken’s colours, reminded me of a scrubbed purple and white turnip. I smiled at the chubby child, but she returned my look gravely.
Without preamble, Verity rapped once on King Shrewd’s door. ‘A moment!’ called a voice. Wallace’s. He opened the door a crack, glared out, then realized that this was Verity he was keeping out. He had a moment of too obvious hesitation before he swung the door wide.
‘Sir,’ he quavered. ‘I did not expect you. That is, I was not informed that the King was to have …’
‘You are not needed for this. You may go, now.’ Usually Verity did not dismiss even a page so coldly.
‘But … the King may have need of me …’ The man’s eyes shifted wildly about. He feared something.
Verity’s eyes narrowed. ‘If he does, I will see you are summoned. In fact, you may wait. Just outside the door. Be there if I call for you.’
After an instant’s pause, Wallace stepped outside the door and stood beside it. We entered the King’s chambers. Verity himself set hand to the door and shut it. ‘I do not like that man,’ he observed, more than loudly enough to be heard through the door. ‘He is officiously subservient, and greasily obsequious. A very poor combination.’
The King was not in his sitting room. As Verity crossed it the Fool suddenly appeared in Shrewd’s bedroom doorway. He goggled at us, grinned in a sudden lift of joy, and then made a floor-sweeping bow to all of us. ‘Sire! Awaken! It is as I have foretold, the minstrels have arrived!’
‘Fool,’ Verity growled, but it was good-natured. He brushed past him, fending off the Fool’s mocking attempts to kiss the hem of his robe. Kettricken lifted a hand to smother a smile and followed Verity. The Fool all but succeeded in tripping me with a suddenly stretched forth foot. I avoided it, but made a clumsy entrance, nearly colliding with Kettricken. The Fool grinned and simpered at me, then capered over to Shrewd’s bedside. He lifted the old man’s hand, patted it with true gentleness. ‘Your majesty? Your majesty? You have callers.’
In the bed, Shrewd stirred and took a sudden deep breath. ‘What’s this? Who’s here? Verity? Pull back the curtains, Fool, I can scarcely see who’s here. Queen Kettricken? What’s all this? The Fitz! What is this about?’ His voice was not strong, and there was a querulous note to it, but for all that he was better than I had expected. As the Fool drew back the bed-curtains and propped pillows behind him, I found myself facing a man who looked older than Chade. The resemblance between the two seemed to become more marked as Shrewd aged. The flesh of the King’s face had fallen, to reveal the same brow-line and cheekbones as his bastard brother. The eyes beneath those brows were alert, but weary. He seemed better than the last time I had seen him. He pushed himself more upright to confront us. ‘Well, what is this about?’ he demanded, his eyes scanning our circle.
Verity bowed deeply, formally, and Kettricken echoed it with her curtsey. I did as I knew was required: went down on one knee and stayed there, head bowed. I still managed to peek up when Verity spoke. ‘King Shrewd. My father. I come to ask your permission for an undertaking.’
‘Which is?’ the King asked testily.
Verity lifted his eyes to meet his father’s. ‘I wish to leave Buckkeep, and with a picked band of men, attempt to follow the same path King Wisdom took so long ago. I wish to journey this winter to the Rain Wilds beyond the Mountain Kingdom, to find the Elderlings and ask them to keep the pledge they made to our ancestor.’
An incredulous look passed briefly over Shrewd’s face. He pushed himself upright in bed, swung his thin legs over the side. ‘Fool. Bring wine. Fitz, get up and help him. Kettricken, dear, your arm if you will to help me to that chair by the fire. Verity, fetch the small table by the window. Please.’
With this handful of requests, Shrewd popped the bubble of formality. Kettricken helped him with a familiarity that showed me she had a genuine bond with the old man. The Fool pranced off to the cupboard in the sitting room for wine glasses, leaving me to select a bottle of wine from the small store that Shrewd kept in his rooms. The bottles were covered in dust, as if he had not tasted these wines for a long time. I wondered suspiciously what was the source of what Wallace gave him. At least the rest of the room, I noted, was in good order. Much better than it had been before Winterfest. The Smoke censers that had so distressed me stood cold in the corner. And tonight the King seemed to have his wits still.
The Fool helped the King into a thick woollen robe and knelt to slipper his feet. Shrewd settled into his chair by the fire, and set his wine glass on the table at his elbow. Older. Much older. But the king I had reported to so often in my youth once more held council before me. Suddenly I wished I could be the one speaking to him tonight. This sharp-eyed old man might actually hear out my reasons for wishing to wed Molly. I felt a new roiling of anger at Wallace for the habits he had led my king into.
But this was not my time. Despite the King’s informality, Verity and Kettricken were strung tight as bowstrings. The Fool and I brought chairs that they might be seated to either side of Shrewd. I stood behind Verity and waited.
‘Tell it simply,’ Shrewd requested of Verity, and he did. Kettricken’s scrolls were unfurled one at a time, and Verity read aloud the pertinent passages. The old map was studied at length. Shrewd did nothing but ask questions at first, making no comments or judgements until he was sure he had from them every scrap of information. The Fool stood at his elbow, alternately beaming at me, and making terrible faces at Verity’s page in an attempt to make the petrified boy at least smile. I think it more likely he frightened the lad. Rosemary forgot entirely where she was and wandered off to toy with the tassels on the bed-curtains.
When Verity had finished speaking, and Kettricken had added her comments, the King leaned back in his chair. He drained the bit of wine that was still in his glass, then held it out to the Fool to refill. He took a sip, sighed, then shook his head. ‘No. There is too much of pecksies and nursery tales to this for you to undertake it right now, Verity. You have shown me enough to make me believe it worth our while to send an emissary there. A man of your choosing, with a fitting entourage, gifts and letters from you and I to confirm he is there at our behest. But yourself, the King-in-Waiting? No. We have not the resources to spare just now. Regal was at me earlier today, going over the costs of the new ships being built, and the fortifying of the towers on Antler Island. Money is becoming scarce. And it might not make the folk feel safe, to have you leave the city.’
‘I do not flee, I leave on a quest. A quest with their benefit as my goal. And I leave behind my Queen-in-Waiting, to represent me to them while I am gone. I did not have in mind a caravan with minstrels and cooks and embroidered tents, sir. We would be travelling on snowy roads, going into the heart of winter itself. I would take a military contingent, and travel as soldiers do. As I always have.’
‘And you think this would impress the Elderlings? If you find them? If they ever existed at all?’
‘Legend has it that King Wisdom went on his own. I believe the Elderlings existed, and that he found them. If I fail, I will return, to take up again with my Skilling and my warships. What will we have lost? If I succeed, I bring back a powerful ally.’
‘And if you die in the seeking?’ Shrewd asked heavily.
Verity opened his mouth to reply. But before he
could speak, the sitting-room door was flung open and Regal boiled into the room. His face was flushed. ‘What goes on here? Why was I not informed of this council?’ He shot me a venomous look. Behind him, Wallace peeped in at the door.
Verity permitted himself a small smile. ‘If you were not informed by your spies, why are you here now? Rebuke them that you did not know sooner, not me.’ Wallace’s head jerked back out of sight.
‘Father, I demand to know what goes on here!’ Regal very nearly stamped his foot. Behind Shrewd, the Fool mimicked Regal’s facial expression. At this, Verity’s page finally smiled, but then his eyes widened and he straightened his face.
King Shrewd addressed Verity instead. ‘Is there a reason that you wished Prince Regal excluded from this discussion?’
‘I did not see that it concerned him.’ He paused. ‘And I wished to be sure the decision reached was exclusively your own.’ Verity, faithful to his name.
Regal hackled, his nostrils pinching white, but Shrewd held up a hand to quell him. Again he spoke only to Verity. ‘Does not concern him? But on whom would fall the mantle of authority while you were gone?’
Verity’s eyes went icy. ‘My Queen-in-Waiting would represent my reign, of course. You wear the mantle of authority still, my king.’
‘But if you did not return … ?’
‘I am sure my brother could adapt to that situation at a moment’s notice.’ Verity did not bother to mask the dislike in his voice. I knew then how deep the poison of Regal’s treacheries had worked into him. Whatever bond they had ever shared as brothers was eaten away by it. Solely rivals, now. Shrewd heard it too, I did not doubt. I wondered if he was at all surprised by it. If he was, he covered it well.
