by Robin Hobb
‘Go, then, if that is all you can think of,’ the whiner said sulkily. ‘But when you’ve a moment to spare, I think we might be wise to take counsel together.’ After a moment, Burl added, ‘I’ve more than half a mind to go to him right now. Make it his problem.’
‘You’d only end up looking like a fool. When you worry so much, you are but giving in to his influence. Let him mouth his warnings and dire predictions and spend every moment of his life on guard. To hear him tell it, his watchfulness is all the King needs. He seeks to instil that fear in us. Your quaking probably gives him much satisfaction. Guard such thoughts carefully.’
I heard one set of footsteps walking briskly away. The roaring in my ears softened a little. After a time, I heard the other man leave, walking more ponderously and muttering to himself. When I could no longer hear his footfalls, I felt as if a great weight had been lifted off me. I swallowed drily and debated my next move.
Dim light filtered in through tall windows. I could make out a bedstead, with the blankets turned back to expose the white linens. It was unoccupied. There was the dark shape of a wardrobe in the corner, and by the bed a stand held a bowl and ewer.
I forced myself to calmness. I took long steadying breaths, then rose silently to my feet. I needed to find Regal’s bedchamber, I reminded myself. I suspected it would be on this floor, with servants’ quarters in the higher levels of the house. Stealth had got me this far, but perhaps now it was time to be bolder. I crossed to the wardrobe in the corner and opened it quietly. Luck had favoured me again; this was a man’s chamber. I went through the garments by touch, feeling for a fabric that felt serviceable. I had to work hastily, for I assumed the rightful owner was at the festivities below and might return at any time. I found a light-coloured shirt, much more fussy about the sleeves and collar than I could wish, but almost long enough in the arms. I managed to get into it, and a darker coloured pair of leggings that felt too loose on me. I belted them up and hoped they did not hang too strangely. There was a pot of scented pomade. I finger-brushed my hair back from my face with it and secured it afresh in a tail, discarding the tradesman’s kerchief. Most of the courtiers I had seen earlier wore theirs in oiled curls much as Regal did, but a few of the younger ones kept their hair tied back. I felt about in several drawers. I found some sort of medallion on a chain and put it on. There was a ring, too large for my finger, but that scarcely mattered. I would pass a casual glance and hoped to attract no more than that. They would be looking for a shirtless man in coarse trousers to match the bloodied shirt I had left. I dared to hope they would be seeking him outside. At the threshold I paused, took a deep breath, and then slowly opened the door. The hall was empty and I stepped out.
Once out in the light, I was not pleased to find the leggings were a dark green and the shirt a buttery yellow. Well it was no more garish than what I had seen folk wearing earlier, though I could scarcely blend with the guests at his Scarlet Ball. I resolutely set the worry aside and struck off down the hall, walking casually yet purposefully to seek a door that was larger and more ornate than the others.
I boldly tried the first one I came to, and found it unlocked. I entered, only to find myself in a room with an immense harp and several other musical instruments set out as if awaiting minstrels. A variety of cushioned chairs and couches filled the rest of the room. The paintings were all of songbirds. I shook my head, baffled at the endless riches of this one house. I continued my search.
Nervousness made the hall stretch out endlessly before me. I forced myself to walk in an unhurried and confident manner. I passed door after door, cautiously sampling a few. Those on my left seemed to be bedchambers, while those on my right were larger rooms, libraries and dining rooms and the like. Instead of wall sconces, the hall was lit with shielded candles. The wall hangings were richly-coloured, and at intervals niches held vases of flowers or small statuary. I could not help but contrast it to the stark stone walls of Buckkeep. I wondered how many warships could have been built and manned with the coin that instead went to ornament this finely-feathered nest. My anger fed my competence. I would find Regal’s chamber.
I passed three more doors, then came to one that looked promising. It was a double door, of golden oak, and the oak tree that was the symbol of Farrow was inlaid upon it. I set my ear briefly to the door and heard nothing. Cautiously I tried the burnished handle; the door was latched. My sheath knife was a crude tool for this type of work. Sweat soaked the yellow shirt to my back before the catch yielded to my efforts. I eased the door open and slipped inside, quickly locking it behind me.
This was certainly Regal’s chamber. Not his bedchamber, no, but his nonetheless. I went through it swiftly. There were no less than four tall wardrobes, two on each side wall with a tall looking-glass between each set. The ornately-carved door of one wardrobe was ajar; or possibly the press of the clothing from within would not allow it to be fully closed. Other garments hung on hooks and racks about the room or were draped on chairs. A set of locked drawers in a small chest probably held jewellery. The looking-glass between the wardrobes was framed by two branches of candles, now burned low in their holders. Two small censers for Smoke were set to either side of one chair that faced yet another mirror. Behind and to one side of the chair, a table held brushes, combs, pots of pomade and vials of perfume. A narrow twining of grey fumes still rose from one of the censers. I wrinkled my nose against the sweet odour of it, and went to work.
Fitz. What do you do? The faintest query from Verity.
Justice. I put no more than a breath of Skill onto the thought. I was not sure if it were my own or Verity’s apprehension that I suddenly felt. I brushed it aside and turned to my task.
It was frustrating. There was little here that was a sure vehicle for my poisons. I could treat the pomade, but I was more likely to kill whoever dressed his hair for him than Regal. The censers held mostly ash. Anything I placed there would probably be dumped with the ash. The corner hearth was swept clean for the summer and there was no supply of wood. Patience, I told myself. His bedchamber could not be far, and opportunities would be better there. For now, I treated the bristles of his hairbrush with one of my more potent concoctions and used what was left to dip as many of his earrings as I could. The last drops I added to his vials of scent but with small hope that he would apply enough to kill himself. For the scented handkerchiefs folded in his drawer, I had the white spore of the death angel mushroom to beguile his hours until death with hallucinations. I took greater pleasure in dusting the insides of four sets of gloves with deadroot powder. This was the poison Regal had used on me in the Mountains, and the most likely source of the seizures that had plagued me intermittently since then. I hoped he would find his own falling fits as amusing as he had mine. I selected three of his shirts that I thought he would favour, and treated their collars and cuffs as well. There was no wood in the hearth, but I had a poison that blended well with the traces of ash and soot left on the brick. I sprinkled it generously and hoped that when they set a fire upon it, the burning fumes might reach Regal’s nose. I had just returned my poison to my pouch when I heard a key turn the door latch.
I stepped silently around the corner of a wardrobe and stood there. My knife was already in my hand, waiting. A deadly calm had settled on me. I breathed silently, waiting, hoping fortune had brought Regal to me. Instead, it was another guardsman in Regal’s colours. The man pushed into the room and cast a quick glance about. His irritation showed in his face as he impatiently said, ‘It was locked. There’s no one in here.’ I waited for his partner to reply, but he was alone. He stood still a moment, then sighed and walked over to the open wardrobe. ‘Foolishness. I’m wasting time up here while he’s going to get away,’ he muttered to himself, but he drew his sword and carefully prodded about the interior behind the clothes.
As he leaned to reach deeper into the wardrobe’s interior, I caught a glimpse of his face in the mirror opposite me. My guts turned to water, and then hatred blazed
up in me. I had no name for this one, but his mocking face had been forever etched into my memory. He had been part of Regal’s personal guard, and had stood by to witness my death.
I think he saw my reflection at the same time I saw his. I did not give him time to react, but sprang on him from behind. The blade of his sword was still tangled inside Regal’s wardrobe when my knife punched low into his belly. I clamped my forearm across his throat to give me leverage as I dragged up on the knife, gutting him like a fish. His mouth gaped open to scream, and I let go of my knife to slap my hand over his mouth. I held him a moment as his entrails bulged out of the gash I’d made. When I let him go, he went down, his unvoiced bellow turned to a groan. He’d not let go of his sword, so I stamped on his hand, breaking his fingers around its hilt. He rolled slightly to one side, to stare up at me in agony and shock. I went down on one knee beside him, put my face close to his.
‘FitzChivalry,’ I said quietly, meeting his eyes, making sure he knew. ‘FitzChivalry.’ For the second time that night, I cut a throat. It scarcely needed doing. I wiped my knife on his sleeve as he died. As I stood, I felt two things. Disappointment that he had died so swiftly. And a sensation as if a harp string had been plucked, letting out a sound I felt rather than heard.
In the next instant, I felt a wave of Skill inundate me. It was laden with terror, but this time I recognized it for what it was and knew its source. I stood firm before it, my defences strong. I almost felt it part and go around me. Yet I sensed that even that act was read by someone, somewhere. I did not wonder who. Will felt the shape of my resistance. I felt the echo of his surge of triumph. For a moment it froze me with panic. Then I was moving, sheathing my knife, rising to slip out the door and into the still-empty hallway. I had but a short time to find a new hiding place. Will had been riding with the guardsman’s mind, had seen that chamber and me just as clearly as the dying man had. Like the sounding of horns, I could sense him Skilling out, setting the guards in motion as if he were setting dogs to a fox’s trail.
As I fled, a part of me knew with undeniable certainty that I was dead. I might be able to hide myself for a time, but Will knew I was within the mansion. All he had to do was block off every exit and begin a systematic search. I raced down a hall, turned a corner and went up a staircase there. I held my Skill walls firm and clutched my tiny plan to myself as if it were a precious gem. I would find Regal’s chambers and poison everything there. Then I would go seeking Regal himself. If the guards discovered me first, well, I’d lead them a merry chase. They couldn’t kill me. Not with all the poison I was carrying. I’d take my own life first. It wasn’t much of a plan, but the only alternative was surrendering.
So I raced on, past more doors, more statuary and flowers, more hangings. Every door I tried was locked. I turned another corner and was suddenly back at the top of the staircase. I felt a moment of dizzy disorientation. I attempted to brush it off but panic rose like a black tide inside my mind. It appeared to be the same staircase. I knew I had not turned enough corners to have come back to it. I hurried past the staircase, past the doors again, hearing the shouts of guardsmen below me as knowledge grew and squirmed queasily inside me.
Will leaned on my mind.
Dizziness and pressure inside my eyes. Grimly I set my mental walls yet again. I turned my head quickly and my vision doubled for a moment. Smoke, I wondered? I had no head for any of the fume intoxicants that Regal favoured. Yet this felt like more to me than the giddiness of Smoke or the mellowness of merrybud.
The Skill is a powerful tool in the hand of a master. I had been with Verity when he had used it against the Red Ships, to so muddle a helmsman that he turned his own ships onto the rocks, to convince a navigator that he had not yet passed a point of land when it was far behind him, to raise fears and doubts in a captain’s heart before he went into battle, or to bolster the courage of a ship’s crew so that they foolhardily set sail into the very teeth of a storm.
How long had Will been working on me? Had he lured me here, for this encounter, by subtly convincing me that he would never expect me to come?
I forced myself to halt at the next door. I held myself firm, focused myself on the latch of the door as I worked it. It was not locked. I slipped into it, closing the door behind me. Blue fabric was set out on a table before me, ready for sewing. I’d been in this room before. I knew a moment of relief, then checked it. No. This room had been on the ground floor. I was upstairs. Wasn’t I? I crossed quickly to the window, stood to one side of it as I peered out. Far below me were the torchlit grounds of the King’s Gardens. I could see the white of the great drive gleaming in the night. Carriages were coming up it and liveried servants darted here and there, opening doors. Ladies and gentlemen in extravagant red evening clothes were leaving in droves. I gathered that Verde’s end had rather spoiled Regal’s ball. There were liveried guards on the doors, regulating who might leave and who must wait. All this I took in at a glance, and realized also that I was up a lot higher than I had thought.
Yet I had been sure that this table and the blue garments waiting to be sewn had been down in the servants’ wing of the ground floor.
Well, it was not all that unlikely that Regal would be having two different sets of blue clothes sewn. No time to puzzle about it; I had to find his bedchamber. I felt a strange elation as I slipped out of the room and fled once more down the hallway, a thrill not unlike that of a good hunt. Let them catch me if they could.
I came suddenly to a T in the corridor and stood a moment, puzzled. It did not seem to fit in with what I had seen of the building from outside. I glanced left, then right. Right was noticeably grander, and the tall double doors at the end of the hall were emblazoned with the golden oak of Farrow. As if to put spurs to me, I heard a mutter of angry voices from a room somewhere off to my left. I went right, drawing my knife as I ran. When I came to the great double doors, I put my hand to the latch quietly, expecting to find it locked tight. Instead the door gave easily and swung forward silently. It was almost too easy. I set those apprehensions aside and slipped in, knife drawn.
The room before me was dark, save for two candles burning in silver holders on the mantelpiece. I slipped inside what was obviously Regal’s sitting room. A second door stood ajar, revealing the corner of a magnificently-curtained bed and beyond it a hearth with a rack of firewood laid ready in it. I pulled the door gently closed behind me and advanced into the room. On a low table a carafe of wine and two glasses awaited Regal’s return, as did a platter of sweets. The censer beside it was heaped with powdered Smoke waiting to be ignited on his return. It was an assassin’s fantasy. I could scarcely decide where to begin.
‘That, you see, is how it is done.’
I spun about, then experienced a distortion of my senses that dizzied me. I stood in the middle of a well-lit but rather bare room. Will sat, negligently relaxed, in a cushioned chair. A glass of white wine waited on a table beside him. Carrod and Burl flanked him, wearing expressions of irritation and discomfiture. Despite my longing, I dared not take my eyes off them.
‘Go ahead, Bastard, look behind you. I shan’t attack you. It would be a shame to spring such a trap as this on one such as you, and have you die before you appreciated the fullness of your failure. Go on. Look behind you.’
I turned my whole body slowly, to allow me to glance back with a mere shifting of my eyes. Gone, it was all gone. No royal sitting room, no curtained bed or carafe of wine, nothing. A plain, simple room, probably for several lady’s maids to share. Six liveried guards stood silent but attentive. All had drawn swords.
‘My companions seem to feel that a drenching of fear will ferret out any man. But they, of course, have not experienced your strength of will as completely as I have. I do hope you appreciate the finesse I used, in simply assuring you that you were seeing exactly what you most wished to see.’ He gave a glance each to Carrod and Burl. ‘He has walls the like of which you have never experienced. But a wall that will not yield to
a battering ram can still be breached by the gentle twining of ivy.’ He swung his attention back to me. ‘You would have been a worthy opponent, save that in your conceit you always underestimated me.’
I still had not said a word. I stared at them all, letting the hatred that filled me strengthen my Skill walls. All three had changed since I had last seen them. Burl, once a well-muscled carpenter, showed the effects of a good appetite and lack of exercise. Carrod’s attire outshone the man within it. Ribbons and charms festooned his garments like blossoms on a spring-time apple tree. But Will, seated between them in his chair, showed the greatest change of all. He was dressed entirely in dark blue in garments whose precise tailoring made them seem richer than Carrod’s costume. A single chain of silver, a silver ring on his hand, silver earrings; these were his only ornaments. Of his dark eyes, once so terrifyingly piercing, only one remained. The other was sunken deep in its socket, showing cloudy in the depths like a dead fish in a dirty pool. He smiled at me as he saw me looking at it. He gestured at his eye.
‘A memento of our last encounter. Whatever it was that you threw into my face.’
‘A pity,’ I said, quite sincerely. ‘I had meant those poisons to kill Regal, not half-blind you.’
Will sighed lackadaisically. ‘Another admission of treason. As if we needed one. Ah, well. We shall be more thorough this time. First, of course, we will spend a bit of time ferreting out just how you escaped death. A bit of time for that, and however much longer King Regal finds you amusing. He will have no need for either haste or discretion this time.’ He gave a minuscule nod to the guards behind me.
I smiled at him as I set the poisoned blade of my own knife to my left arm. I clenched my teeth against the pain as I dragged it down the length of my arm, not deeply, but enough to open my skin and let the poison from the blade into my blood. Will leapt to his feet in shock, while Carrod and Burl looked horrified and disgusted. I passed my knife to my left hand, drew my sword with my right.