by Robin Hobb
Thinking of the Queen made me look for her, and I found her on a high chair, overlooking the festivities. She looked tired but pleased. Chade was not beside her, and I thought that odd, until I saw that he, too, was dancing with a fiery-haired woman who was probably a third of his age.
One by one, my eyes sought and found all the folk who had woven the most important parts of my life. Starling, Lady Fisher now, sat on a cushioned chair. Her lord stood solicitously close by, and fetched her drink and food from the tables himself as if servants could not be trusted with such an essential task. Lady Patience entered, wearing more lace than all the other women combined, with Lacey at her elbow. They found the end of a bench near a puppeteer’s stage and sat nudging and pointing and whispering together as if they were two little girls. I spotted Lady Rosemary talking with two Outislander kaempras. I was sure that her charming smile and ample bosom were gathering plenty of information for Lord Chade to ponder on the morrow.
Arkon Bloodblade was there, in a mantle trimmed with red fox fur, discussing something earnestly with the Duchess of Bearns. She seemed to be listening courteously, but I wondered if any trade agreement could ever completely change her heart toward the Outislanders. I saw three others I recognized from the Hetgurd gathering over by the food tables, and several standing and staring perplexedly at a puppet show. My eyes snagged on Nettle again as she drifted alone through the festive throng. A stocky young man approached her. By his close-cropped curls, I deduced that it was Chivalry, Burrich’s eldest son. They stood talking in the midst of the noise and laughter. As I watched, a woman in simple dress of very dark blue approached them, leading a struggling small boy by the hand. I winced at Molly’s shorn head, knowing with deep certainty that Burrich would never have approved of what she had done to her tresses. Her bared head made her look oddly young. She gripped Hearth by the hand and was pointing at another young boy, evidently entreating Chivalry to help her gather them up for the night. Instead, Nettle swept her youngest brother up in her arms and whirled him out onto the dance floor, where his squeals of glee at having eluded his mother made more than one couple smile. Chivalry held out a placating hand to Molly, nodding at something she said. Then a troupe of tumblers stacked themselves up in such a way as to precisely block my view. When they were finished with their tricks, I could not see Molly at all.
I sat back in the dimness. At my elbow, Gilly asked, sausages?
I felt about in the basket but discovered only worried bits of meat. He’d taken them all to pieces in the act of killing them. I found one nub larger than the others and offered it to him and he snatched it happily from my hand.
And so my evening passed. On the dance floor, I saw those I cherished most turn and move to music that barely reached my ears through the thick walls. I leaned back from my peephole to ease my aching back. A tiny spot of light reached through it toward me. I caught it in my hand and sat staring at it for a time. A metaphor for my life, I thought. I pushed my self-pity aside and leaned forward again.
Thick was leaving the food table with a stack of tarts in his two hands. His music was loud and joyous and he moved to it, out of step from the tune that all the others heard. But at least he was out there, I thought to myself. At least he was out and amongst them all. I felt the impulse to throw caution to the wind and join him, but it died as swiftly as it had arisen. No.
Molly’s children had found a juggler to their liking. They stood in a half-circle, watching him. Nettle held Hearth’s and Steady’s hands. Just was in Chivalry’s arms. Nimble and Swift stood together. I noticed Web behind them, at a distance from them and yet present. My eyes wandered over the crowd, seeking and not finding. I stood. I left my basket and cushion to the ferret and went unencumbered through the narrow passages.
I knew there was a peephole to the Violet Chamber. I eschewed it. I left my secret warren, spent some small time in a closet slapping dust and cobwebs from myself and then walked swiftly, eyes down, through the crowded halls of Buckkeep. No one remarked on me, no one called my name or stopped me to ask how I had been. I could have been invisible. As I climbed the stairs, the crowd thinned. By the time I had reached the residential chambers of Buckkeep Castle, the halls were deserted. Everyone was at the festivities below. Everyone but me, and perhaps Molly.
I walked three times past the door of the Violet Chamber. The fourth time, I commanded myself to knock and did, more forcefully than I had intended. My heart was hammering and I was literally shaking in my shoes. There was only silence. Then, when I thought this mustering of courage would be for naught, that no one would answer, I heard Molly ask quietly, ‘Who is it?’
‘It’s me,’ I said stupidly. And then, while I was searching for what name to call myself by, she told me plainly that she knew who was there.
‘Go away.’
‘Please.’
‘Go away!’
‘Please.’
‘No.’
‘I promised Burrich I’d look after you and the young ones. I promised him.’
The door opened a crack. I could see one of her eyes as she said, ‘Funny. That was what he told me when he first began to bring things to my door. That he had promised you, before you died, that he’d look after me.’
I had no answer to that, and the door started to close. I shoved my foot into it. ‘Please. Let me in. Just for a moment.’
‘Move your foot or I’ll break it.’ She meant it.
I decided to risk it. ‘Please, Molly. Please. After all the years, don’t I get one chance to explain? Just one?’
‘The time for explaining was sixteen years ago. When it might have made a difference.’
‘Please. Let me in.’
She jerked the door suddenly open. Her eyes were blazing and she said, ‘I only want to hear one thing from you. Tell me about my husband’s last hours.’
‘Very well,’ I said quietly. ‘I suppose I owe you that.’
‘Yes,’ she said as she stepped away from the door, holding it just wide enough that I could eel through. ‘You owe me that. And a lot more.’
She wore a night robe and wrapper. Her body was fuller than I remembered it, her figure a woman’s rather than a girl’s. It was not unattractive. The room smelled of her, not just the perfume she wore, but of her flesh and of beeswax and candle-making. Her dress was neatly folded on top of the chest at the foot of the bed. A trundle bed made up beside hers proclaimed that her boys would sleep here with her. Her brush and comb were set out on a table, more by habit than for any need for them.
The first stupid words out of my mouth were, ‘He would not have wanted you to cut your hair.’
She lifted a self-conscious hand to her head. ‘What would you know about it?’ she demanded indignantly.
‘The first time he saw you, long before he took you from me, he commented on your hair. “A bit of red in her coat” is what he said.’
‘He would put it like that,’ she said, and then: ‘He never “took me” from you. We thought you were dead. You let us think you were dead and I knew despair. I had nothing except a child depending on me for everything. If anyone took anything, I took him. Because I loved him. Because he treated me well and he treated Nettle well.’
‘I know that.’
‘I am glad that you do. Sit there. Tell me how he died.’
So I sat on a chair and she perched on the clothing chest, and I told her of Burrich’s last days. It was the last conversation I would have imagined having with her in those circumstances and I hated it. Yet, as I spoke, I felt also a terrible relief. I needed to be telling her these things as much as she needed to be hearing them. She listened avidly as if every word were a moment of his life that she could reclaim for herself. I hesitated to speak of Burrich’s Wit, yet there was no way to leave it out of the tale. She must have heard of it before, for she showed no shock or revulsion. I told it in a way that not even Swift could have, for I could say to her that at the end, it was obvious to me how much Burrich loved his son, that the
re was no rift between them when he died. It was different from telling it to Nettle. Molly understood the full significance of Burrich asking me to look after her and his little sons. I repeated what he had said to me, that he had been the better man for her, and I repeated to her that I agreed with that.
She sat up straight and spoke bitterly. ‘Fine. So you both agreed on that. Did either of you ever think to consult with me on it? Did either of you ever pause to consider that perhaps the decision belonged to me?’
And those words opened the door for me to go back down the years, and to tell her what I was doing, and where and how I had learned that she had given herself to Burrich. She looked away from me, chewing on her thumbnail as I spoke. When my words lapsed to silence she said, ‘I thought you were dead. If I had known otherwise, if he had known otherwise …’
‘I know. But there was no safe way to send word to you. And then, once you had … it was too late. If I had come back, it would have torn all of us apart.’
She leaned forward, her chin cupped in both her palms and her fingers over her mouth. Her eyes were closed, but tears welled from under her lashes. ‘What a mess you made of it. What a mare’s nest we made of our lives.’
There were a hundred answers to that. I could have protested that I had not made the mess, that it had befallen all of us. Suddenly, it would have taken more strength than I had. I let it go. I let it all go. ‘And now it’s too late for there ever to be anything for you and me.’
‘Oh, Fitz,’ and even in rebuke, for me to hear my name from her lips was a sort of sweetness. ‘For you, it has always been too late or too soon. Always some day. Always tomorrow, or after you do this one last duty for your king. A woman needs a chance for something to be now. I needed that. I’m sorry we had so little of it.’
A little time longer we sat there in our own sorry silence. Then she said quietly, ‘Chivalry will be bringing the little ones to me soon. I promised they could stay until the last puppet show. It would not do for them to find you here. They would not understand and I could not explain.’
And so I left her, bowing to her at her door. I had not touched so much as her hand. I felt worse than I had when I had been trying to knock. Then, there had been some shred of possibility. Now, I was left with the reality. Too late.
I descended the stairs, back into the crowds and the noise. Then the noise seemed suddenly louder, and people were talking excitedly, some asking questions, others repeating rumours. ‘A ship! From the Out Islands!’
‘It’s late to be docking!’
‘A Narwhal banner?’
‘The runner just went in! I saw his message baton.’
Then I was trapped in the herd of folk crowding back toward the Great Hall. I tried to fight my way to the edge of the corridor, but only succeeded in being elbowed in the ribs, cursed at, and having my feet trodden on. I gave up and let the surge of eager folk carry me into the Great Hall.
A runner had indeed just reached the Queen. It took some little time for awareness of this to settle on the room. The musicians for the dance fell silent first, and then the puppeteers ceased their play. Jugglers stilled their clubs. The crowd hummed like a hive in anticipation as more and yet more folk crowded into the room. The messenger stood before the Queen, panting still, his baton that signalled to all that he was a royal messenger and not to be delayed still clasped in his hand. In a moment, Chade was at Kettricken’s side, and then the Prince was climbing the dais to stand beside her. She held out the open scroll so that they both might read it. Then, when she held it aloft, the murmurs and speculation died to near silence.
‘Good tidings! A ship with the Narwhal emblem has docked in the harbour,’ she announced. ‘It seems that perhaps Kaempra Peottre of the Narwhal Clan of the Out Islands will join us for our Harvest Fest tomorrow.’
It was wonderful news and Arkon Bloodblade’s shout of enthusiasm was easily heard above the polite mutters of the dukes and duchesses. An Outislander slapped the Duke of Tilth on the back. The Prince nodded his pleasure to the entire assembly and then motioned to the musicians who launched into a lively and celebratory tune. There was scarcely room to dance; yet folk seemed content to hop or sway in place to the merry tune. Then the crowding in the room eased a bit as some folk fled it for fresh air or space or a chance to spread the gossip further. The puppet show finished and I saw Chivalry and Nettle gather up their smaller siblings and herd them from the room. Other youngsters were being shooed along as well. Just when I thought that the crowd had eased enough that I could gracefully leave without resorting to elbows to get through the door, a second wave of excited voices reached us from outside. Almost immediately, folk began to spill back into the room. I felt someone tug at my sleeve and turned to find Lacey standing there. ‘Come sit with us, lad. We’ll hide you.’
And so I soon found myself on a bench between Patience and Lacey, looking as unostentatious as a fox in the henhouse. I slumped my shoulders and hid my face behind a mug of fresh cider and waited to see what the fresh hubbub was about.
It was Peottre arriving, I thought when I saw him standing still in the door. And yet the noise outside seemed greater than that would occasion and Peottre himself had a determined look on his face that bespoke something momentous. He lifted both arms over his head and cried out loudly, ‘Clear a way, if you will! Clear a path.’
It was easier said than done in the crowded space, and yet folk tried to give way. He walked in first, setting a measured tread, and then behind him came a vision such as few have ever seen. Elliania wore a hooded blue cloak. The hood was lined with white fur that set off her shining black eyes and hair. The cloak itself was floor length and trailed some little distance in a train. It was Buck blue, and worked all over with bucks and narwhals leaping side by side. Tiny glittering white gems made up their eyes, so that it seemed she wore a summer evening sky as she advanced into the room.
Prince Dutiful had remained upon the dais with his mother. Now he looked down on her and no one in the room could doubt that he beheld her with delight. He did not say a word to either Chade or the Queen. Nor did he bother with the two steps, but leapt straight to the floor. At sight of him, Elliania threw back her hood, and then ran to meet him. They met in the centre of the Great Hall. As they clasped hands, her clear and joyous voice carried. ‘I could not wait. I could not wait for winter and I could not wait for spring. I am here to marry you and I will do my best to live according to your ways, strange though they are.’
The Prince looked down at her. I saw his face light with joy, and then I saw his hesitation. I saw him groping for what he must say, for what was correct for him to say before all his gathered people. Elliania looked up at him, and the light in her face began to dim as Dutiful attempted to compose a careful reply.
I Skilled fiercely. Tell her you cannot wait either. Tell her you love her and that you will wed her right away. Love that comes so far and at such a price should not be put off! A woman needs to be loved now.
Chade’s face froze in a smile of horror. The Queen stood, and I knew she held her breath. Peottre stood motionless, and his face was very still. I knew he prayed the Prince would not hurt or humiliate the girl.
Dutiful spoke loud and clear. ‘Then we shall wed, within the week. Not just before my dukes, but before all gathered here. We shall wed, and we shall bring in the harvest as man and wife. Would that please you?’
‘El and Eda, the Sea and the Land!’ Bloodblade shouted. ‘The Buck and the Narwhal! At the turning of the year. Good fortune to us all!’
‘So it would be!’ Peottre cried out and a sort of wonder came into his face.
‘That would please me.’ I saw the words formed by her lips, but did not hear them. Noise had erupted all about me as hundreds of tongues clattered at once. Chade closed his eyes for a moment, then put on a smile and looked with apparent fondness at his impulsive, impetuous prince. Yet the secret sourness of his gaze was defeated and nullified by what shone in Elliania’s eyes. If she had ev
er needed confirmation of her decision, Dutiful had given it. I wondered at what cost to herself and to her clan she had come here. The garment she wore bore both narwhals and bucks, and I doubted she had made it entirely herself. So I deduced some maternal support of her decision.
‘They’re getting married this week?’ Patience asked me, and I nodded in response.
‘This will be a Harvest Fest to remember,’ she observed. ‘Best send runners out about the countryside. No one will want to miss this. We haven’t had a proper wedding in Buckkeep since Chivalry and I married here.’
‘I don’t think this will be one now. They’ve prepared for harvest Fest, not a wedding. Cook’s going to be very upset!’ Lacey warned us.
She was right, of course. I was able to retreat from the chaos I’d created, and actually found a few hours of sleep that night holed up in the workroom. I fear few others did. The servants worked through the night. It was fortunate they had the feast for the harvest well begun and the castle already decked with autumn garlands. Fortunate, too, that the Prince’s dukes and duchesses had already convened for Harvest Fest, for it would have caused a greater furore if the Prince’s haste to wed had caused one of his high nobles to miss the ceremony.
I almost missed my peephole the next day. I stood through the lengthy harvest ceremony in the back row of the Prince’s Guard. Longwick had replenished our depleted ranks, yet even so I was painfully aware of the absence of those who had gone to find the dragon with us. Riddle stood beside me, and I think he felt it as keenly as I did. Yet for all that, there was satisfaction in watching our prince and his bride.