Assassin's Quest

He turned very slowly to look at me, as if I were game that might be spooked off by sudden movement. "That night?"

"The night King Shrewd and Kettricken were to escape. Why didn't you have the scrub horses and the litter waiting?"

"Oh. That night." He sighed out as if recalling old pain. He spoke very slowly and calmly, as if fearing to startle me. "They were watching us, Fitz. All the time. Regal knew everything. I couldn't have smuggled an oat out of the stable that day, let alone three horses, a litter, and a mule. There were Farrow guards everywhere, trying to look as if they had just come down to inspect the empty stalls. I dared not go to you to tell you. So, in the end, I waited until the feasting had begun, until Regal had crowned himself and thought he had won. Then I slipped out and went for the only two horses I could get. Sooty and Ruddy. I'd hidden them at the smith's, to make sure Regal couldn't sell them off as well. The only food I could get was what I could pilfer from the guardroom. It was the only thing I could think to do."

"And Queen Kettricken and the Fool got away on them." The names fell strangely off my tongue. I did not want to think of them, to recall them at all. When I had last seen the Fool, he had been weeping and accusing me of killing his king. I had insisted he flee in the King's place, to save his life. It was not the best parting memory to carry of one I had called my friend.

"Yes." Burrich brought the pot of porridge to the table and set it there to thicken. "Chade and the wolf guided them to me. I wanted to go with them, but I couldn't. I'd only have slowed them down. My leg … I knew I couldn't keep up with the horses for long, and riding double in that weather would have exhausted the horses. I had to just let them go." A silence. Then he growled, lower than a wolf's growl, "If ever I found out who betrayed us to Regal …"

"I did."

His eyes locked on mine, a look of horror and incredulity on his face. I looked at my hands. They were starting to tremble.

"I was stupid. It was my fault. The Queen's little maid, Rosemary. Always about, always underfoot. She must have been Regal's spy. She heard me tell the Queen to be ready, that King Shrewd would be going with her. She heard me tell Kettricken to dress warmly. Regal would have to guess from that that she would be fleeing Buckkeep. He'd know she'd need horses. And perhaps she did more than spy. Perhaps she took a basket of poisoned treats to an old woman. Perhaps she greased a stair tread she knew her queen would soon descend."

I forced myself to look up from the spikes, to meet Burrich's stricken gaze. "And what Rosemary did not overhear, Justin and Serene did. They were leeched onto the King, sucking Skillstrength out of him, and privy to every thought he Skilled to Verity, or had from him. Once they knew what I was doing, serving as King's Man, they began to Skill spy on me as well. I did not know such a thing could be done. But Galen had discovered how, and taught it to his students. You remember Will, Hostler's son? The coterie member? He was the best at it. He could make you believe he wasn't even there when he was."

I shook my head, tried to rattle from it my terrifying memories of Will. He brought back the shadows of the dungeon, the things I still refused to recall. I wondered if I had killed him. I didn't think so. I didn't think I'd got enough poison into him. I looked up to find Burrich watching me intently.

"That night, at the very last moment, the King refused to go," I told him quietly. "I had thought of Regal as a traitor so long, I had forgotten that Shrewd would still see him as a son. What Regal did, taking Verity's crown when he knew his brother was alive … King Shrewd didn't want to go on living, knowing Regal was capable of that. He asked me to be King's Man, to lend him the strength to Skill a farewell to Verity. But Serene and Justin were waiting." I paused, new pieces of the puzzle falling into place. "I should have known it was too easy. No guards on the King. Why? Because Regal didn't need them. Because Serene and Justin were leeched onto him. Regal was finished with his father. He had crowned himself King-in-Waiting; there was no more good to be had out of Shrewd for him. So they drained King Shrewd dry of Skillstrength. They killed him. Before he could even bid Verity farewell. Probably Regal had told them to be sure he did not Skill to Verity again. So then I killed Serene and Justin. I killed them the same way they had killed my king. Without a chance of fighting back, without a moment of mercy."

"Easy. Easy now." Burrich crossed swiftly to me, put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me down in a chair. "You're shaking as if you're going into a seizure. Calm yourself."

I could not speak.

"This is what Chade and I could not puzzle out," Burrich told me. "Who had betrayed our plan? We thought of everyone. Even the Fool. For a time we feared we had sent Kettricken off in the care of a traitor."