Assassin's Quest

He gave me a pitying glance. "It is not so complex a question, princeling. Who is this woman who knows so much of what troubles you, who suddenly fishes out of a pocket a game I have only seen mentioned once in a very old scroll, who sings for us `Six Wise Men Went to Jhaampe-Town' with two additional verses I've never heard anywhere. Who, O light of my life, is Kettle, and why does so ancient a woman choose to spend her last days hiking up a mountain with us?"

"You're in fine spirits this morning," I observed sourly.

"Aren't I?" he agreed. "And you are almost as adept at avoiding my question. Surely, you must have some musings on this mystery to share with a poor Fool?"

"She doesn't give me enough information about herself to base any wondering on," I returned.

"So. What can we surmise about one who guards her tongue as closely as all that? About someone who seems to know something of the Skill as well? And the ancient games of Buck, and old poetry? How old do you suppose she is?"

I shrugged. "She didn't like my song about Crossfire's coterie," I offered suddenly.

"Ah, but that could easily have been just your singing. Let's not grasp at straws, here."

In spite of myself, I smiled. "It has been so long since your tongue has had an edge to it, it's almost a relief to hear you mock me.'

"Had I known you missed it, I would have been rude to you much sooner." He grinned. Then he grew more serious. "FitzChivalry, mystery hovers about that woman like flies on … spilt beer. She absolutely reeks of omens and portents and prophecies coming into focus. I think it is time one of us asked her a few direct questions." He smiled at me. "Your best chance will be when she is shepherding you along this afternoon. Be subtle, of course. Ask her who was king when she was a girl. And why she was exiled."

"Exiled?" I laughed aloud. "There's a leap of the imagination."

"Do you think so?. I don't. Ask her. And be sure to tell me whatever she doesn't say."

"And in return for all this, you will tell me what is truly going on between you and Starling?"

He gave me a sideways glance. "Are you sure you want to know? The last time we made such a trade, when I gave you the secret you'd bargained for, you found you did not want it."

"Is this such a secret?"

He arched one eyebrow at me. "You know, I am hardly certain of the answer to that myself. Sometimes you surprise me, Fitz. More often, you don't, of course. Most often I surprise myself. Such as when I volunteer to slog through loose snow and dodge trees with some bastard when I could be parading up a perfectly straight avenue with a string of charming jeppas."

I got as little information from him the rest of the morning. When afternoon came, it was not Kettle but Starling who was my walking companion. I expected that to be uncomfortable. I still had not forgotten that she had bargained her knowledge of my child in order to be part of this expedition. But somehow in the days since we had begun our journey, my anger had become a weary wariness toward her. I knew now there was no bit of information she would scruple to use against me, and so I guarded my tongue, resolving to say nothing at all of Molly or my daughter. Not that it would do much good now.

But to my surprise, Starling was affable and chatty. She plied me with questions, not about Molly, but about the Fool, to the point at which I began to wonder if she had conceived a sudden affection for him. There had been a few times at court when women had taken an interest in him and pursued him. To those who were attracted by the novelty of his appearance, he had been mercilessly cruel in exposing the shallowness of their interest. There had been one gardener maid who was impressed with his wit so much that she was tongue-tied in his presence. I heard kitchen gossip that she left bouquets of flowers for him at the base of his tower stairs, and some surmised that she had occasionally been invited to ascend those steps. She had had to leave Buckkeep Castle to care for her elderly mother in a distant town, and that had been where it ended, as far as I knew.