Assassin's Quest

Creece went off to stand night watch over our flock. I stretched out on my cloak just beyond reach of the firelight, thinking to drowse off immediately. I expected the others would soon be off to bed as well. The hum of their conversation was lulling, as was the lazy strumming of Starling's fingers on her harp strings. Gradually the strumming changed to a rhythmic plucking, and her voice lifted in song.

I was floating at the edge of sleep when the words "Antler Island Tower" jolted me awake. My eyes flew open as I realized she was singing about the battle there last summer, the Rurisk's first real engagement with the Red-Ship Raiders. I recalled both too much and very little about that battle. As Verity had observed more than once, despite all Hod's weapons instruction, I tended to revert to brawling in any sort of a fight. So I'd carried an axe into that battle and used it with a savagery I'd never expected of myself. Afterward, it had been said that I'd killed the chief of the raiding party we'd cornered. I'd never known if that was true or not.

In Starling's song, it certainly was. My heart nearly stood still when I heard her sing of "Chivalry's son, with eyes of flame, who carried his blood if not his name." The song went on with a dozen improbable embellishments of blows I'd dealt and warriors I'd felled. It was strangely humiliating to hear those deeds sung of as noble and now almost legendary. I knew there were many fighters who dreamed of having songs sung of their exploits. I found the experience uncomfortable. I didn't recall the sun striking flames from my axehead or that I fought as bravely as the buck on my crest. Instead I recalled the clinging smell of blood and treading on a man's entrails, a man who squirmed and moaned still. All the ale in Buckkeep that night had not been enough to bring me any sort of peace.

When the song was finally done, one of the teamsters snorted. "So, that's the one ye daren't sing in the tavern last night, eh, Starling?"

Starling gave a deprecating laugh. "Somehow I doubted it would be enjoyed. Songs about Chivalry's Bastard would not have been popular enough to earn me a penny there."

"It's an odd song," observed Dell. "Here's the King offering gold for his head, and the Guard telling all, beware, the Bastard has the Wit and used it to trick death. But your song makes him out to be some sort of hero."

"Well, it's a Buck song, and he was well thought of in Buck, at least for a time," Starling explained.

"But not anymore, I'd wager. Save that any man would think well of a hundred gold coins if one could turn him over to the King's Guard," one of the teamsters observed.

"Like as not," Starling agreed easily. "Though there's still some in Buck who would tell you that not all his tale has been told, and the Bastard was not so black as he's been tarred of late."

"I still don't understand it. I thought he was executed for using the Wit to kill King Shrewd," complained Madge.

"So some say," Starling replied. "Truth of it was, he died in his cell before he could be executed and was buried instead of burned. And the tale goes," and here Starling's voice dropped to a near whisper, "that when spring came, not a leaf of greenery would grow on his grave. And an old wise woman, hearing this, knew that meant his Wit magic still slept in his bones and might be claimed by any bold enough to pull a tooth from his mouth. And so she went, by full moonlight, and took a manservant with a spade with her. She put him to digging up the grave. But he hadn't turned but a shovelful of earth before he found splintered wood from the Bastard's coffin."

Starling paused theatrically. There wasn't a sound save the crackling of the fire.

"The box was empty, of course. And those who saw it said that the coffin had been splintered out from inside, not stove in. And one man told it to me that caught in the splintered edge of the coffin lid were the coarse gray hairs of a wolf's coat."

A moment longer the silence held. Then, "Not truly?" Madge asked Starling.

Her fingers ran lightly over her harp strings. "So I heard it told in Buck. But I also heard the Lady Patience, she that buried him, say it was all nonsense, that his body had been cold and stiff when she washed it and wrapped it in a grave cloth. And of the Pocked Man, that King Regal so fears, she declared he is no more than an old adviser of King Shrewd's, some old recluse with a scarred face, come out of his hermitage to keep alive a belief that Verity still lives and lend heart to those who must go on battling the Red-Ships. So. I suppose you can choose to believe whichever you wish."

Melody, one of the puppeteers, gave a mock shiver. "Brrr. So. Sing us something merry now, to go to sleep on. I've no wish to hear more of your ghost tales before I seek my blankets tonight."