Assassin's Quest

Kettricken added a few bits of dry wood to the brazier to bring up a flame and light. She took out an enameled cylinder, removed the cap, and coaxed out a piece of vellum. As she gently unrolled it, I recognized the map that had inspired Verity to his quest. It seemed odd to look at the faded map in this setting. It belonged to a much more secure time in my life, when hot meals of good food were taken for granted, when my clothes were tailored to fit me and I knew where I would sleep each night. It seemed unfair that my whole world had changed so much since I had last seen the map, but that it remained unchanged, an aging flap of vellum with a worn tracery of lines on it. Kettricken held it flat on her lap and tapped a blank spot on it. "This is about where we are," she told me. She took a breath as if bracing herself. She tapped another spot, likewise unmarked. "This is about where we found the signs of a battle. Where I found Verity's cloak and … the bones." Her voice quavered a bit on the words. She looked up suddenly and her eyes met mine as they had not since Buckkeep. "You know, Fitz, it is hard for me. I gathered up those bones and thought they were his. For so many months, I believed him dead. And now, solely on your word of some magic that I do not possess or understand, I try to believe he is alive. That there is hope still. But … I have held those bones. And my hands cannot forget the weight and chill of them, nor my nose that smell."

"He lives, my lady," I assured her quietly.

She sighed again. "Here is what I would ask you. Shall we go directly to where the trails are marked on this map, the ones that Verity said he would follow? Or do you wish to be taken to the battle site first?"

I thought for a time. "I am sure you gathered from that place all there was to gather, my queen. Time has passed, part of a summer and more than half of a winter since you were last there. No. I can think of nothing I might find there that your trackers did not when the ground was bared of snow. Verity lives, my queen, and he is not there. So let us not seek him there, but where he said he would go."

She nodded slowly, but if she took heart from my words, she did not show it. Instead, she tapped the map again. "This road here shown is known to us. It was a trade road once, and although no one even recalls what its destination was, it is still used. The more remote villages and the solitary trappers have their paths to it, and they then follow it down to Jhaampe. We could have been traveling on it all this time, but I did not wish to. It is too well used. We have come by the swiftest route, if not the widest. Tomorrow, however, we shall cross it. And when we do, we shall set our backs toward Jhaampe and follow it up into the Mountains." Her finger traced it on the map. "I have never been to that part of the Mountains," she said simply. "Few have, other than trappers or occasional adventurers who go to see if the old tales are true. Usually they bring back tales of their own that are even stranger than the ones that prompted them to go adventuring."

I watched her pale fingers walk slowly across the map. The faint lines of the ancient road diverged into three separate trails with different destinations. It began and ended, that road, with no apparent source or destination. Whatever had once been marked at the end of those lines had faded away into inky ghosts. Neither of us had any way of knowing which destination Verity had chosen. Though they did not look far separated on the map, the terrain of the Mountains could mean they were days or even weeks apart. I also had small trust in such an old map being reliably to scale.

"Where are we going first?" I asked her.

She hesitated briefly, then her finger tapped one of the trail ends. "Here. I think this one would be closest."

"Then that is a wise choice."

She met my eyes again. "Fitz. Could not you simply Skill to him, and ask him where he is? Or bid him come to us? Or at least ask him why he has not returned to me?"

At each small shake of my head, her eyes grew wilder. "Why not?" she demanded in a shaking voice. "This great and secret magic of the Farseers cannot even call him to us in such need?"

I kept my eyes on her face, but wished there had been fewer listening ears. Despite all Kettricken knew of me, I still felt very uneasy speaking of the Skill with anyone save Verity. I chose my words carefully. "By Skilling to him, I might place him in great danger, my lady. Or draw trouble down on us."

"How?" she demanded.