Assassin's Quest

She patted my arm comfortingly. "You are getting tired. We had best turn back. I can always tell when you are wearied, you ask the most inane questions." She took a breath and returned to her topic. "Chade will not be going with us to seek Verity. He has to go back to Buck, to pass the word of your quest and hearten the folk there. Of course, he will respect your wishes and make no mention of you. Only that the Queen has set forth to find the King and restore him to the throne."

She paused, and tried to say casually, "He has asked me to devise some simple ditties for him, based on the old songs so they may be easily learned and sung." She smiled at me and I could tell how pleased she was he had asked this of her. "He will spread them among the taverns and inns of the road and like seeds they will sprout and trail from there. Simple songs saying that Verity will return to set things right and that a Farseer heir will rise to the throne to unite the Six Duchies in both victory and peace. He says it is most important to keep the heart in the people, and to keep before them the image of Verity returning."

I sorted my way back through her chatter of songs and prophecies. "Us, you said. Us, who? And going where?"

She stopped off her glove and set her hand to my forehead quickly. "Are you feverish, again? A bit, perhaps. Let us turn back now." As we began retracing our steps through the quiet streets, she added patiently. "Us, you and I and Kettricken, going to find Verity. Had you forgotten that was why you came to the Mountains? Kettricken says the way will be hard. It is not terribly difficult to travel to the scene of the battle. But if Verity went on from there, then it is on one of the ancient paths marked on her old map, and they may not be paths at all anymore. Her father is plainly not enthused with her undertaking. His mind is fixed only on the waging of war against Regal. `While you seek your husband king, your false brother seeks to make our folks his slaves!' he has told her. So she must gather what supplies are given to her willingly, and take only such folk as would go with her rather than stay to fight Regal. There are not many of those, to be sure, and …"

"I wish to go back to the Fool's house," I said faintly. My head was spinning and my stomach churning. I had forgotten that this had been the way of it at King Shrewd's court. Why had I expected it to be different here? The plans would be made, the arrangements undertaken, and then they would tell me what they wished me to do and I would do it. Had not that always been my function? To go to such and such a place, and kill that certain man, a man I'd never met before, all on someone else's say? I did not know why it suddenly shocked me so to find that all their momentous planning had moved on without any words from me, as if I were no more than a horse in a stall, waiting to be saddled, mounted, and reined to the hunt.

Well, was not that the bargain I had offered Chade, I reminded myself. That they could have my life, if they would but leave my child alone. Why be surprised? Why even be concerned at all? I should simply go back to the Fool's, to sleep and eat and build my strength until called for.

"Are you all right?" Starling asked me suddenly, anxiously. "I don't think I have ever seen you so pale."

"I'm fine," I assured her dully. "I was just thinking it would be pleasant to help the Fool make the puppets for a time."

She frowned again. "I still do not understand what you see in him. Why do not you come to stay in a room near Kettricken and me? You need little tending anymore; it is time you resumed your rightful place at the Queen's side."

"When the Queen summons me, I will go to her," I said dutifully. "That will be time enough."

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO. Departure

CHADE FALLSTAR OCCUPIES a unique niche in the history of the Six Duchies. Although he was never acknowledged, his strong physical resemblance to the Farseers makes it almost certain that he was blood-related to the royal line. Be that as it may, who he was pales in significance compared to what he was. Some have said he was a spy for King Shrewd for decades before the Red-Ship Wars. Others have linked his name to that of Lady Thyme, who almost certainly was a poisoner and thief for the royal family. These beliefs can never be substantiated.