Assassin's Quest

"Perhaps," I agreed uneasily. "Bear in mind that we are well supplied and travel together. By the time Verity reached this far, he would have been alone, and with few resources." I refrained from telling Kettricken that I suspected he had been injured in that last battle. There was no sense in giving her more anxiety. Against my will, I felt a part of me groping out toward Verity. I shut my eyes and resolutely sealed myself in again. Had I imagined a taint upon the Skill-current, a too-familiar feeling of insidious power? I set my walls again.

"… split the party?"

"I beg pardon, my queen," I said humbly.

I did not know if the look in her eyes was exasperation or fear. She took my hand and held it firmly. "Attend me," she commanded. "I said, tomorrow we shall seek a way down. If we see anything that looks promising, we will attempt it. But I think we should give such a search no more than three days. If we find nothing, we should move on. But an alternative is to split the party. To send …"

"I do not think we should split the party," I said hastily.

"You are most likely correct," she conceded. "But it takes so long, so very long, and I have been alone with my questions too long."

I could think of nothing to say to that, so I pretended to be busy rubbing Nighteyes' ears.

My brother. It was a whisper, no more, but I looked down at Nighteyes beside me. I rested a hand on his ruff, strengthening the bond with a touch. You were as empty as an ordinary human. I could not make you even feel me.

I know. I don't know what happened to me.

I do. You are moving ever farther from my side to the other side. I fear you will go too far and be unable to return: I feared it had already happened today.

What do you mean, my side, and the other side?

"Can you hear the wolf again?" Kettricken asked me worriedly. I was surprised, when I looked up, to see how anxiously she regarded me.

"Yes. We are together again," I told her. A thought occurred to me. "How did you know we were unable to communicate?"

She shrugged. "I suppose I assumed it. He seemed so anxious and you seemed so distant from everyone."

She has the Wit. Don't you, my queen?

I can not say for certain that something passed between them. Once, long before in Buckkeep, I thought I had sensed Kettricken using the Wit. I suppose she well could have been using it then, for my own sense of it was so diminished I could scarce sense my own bond-animal. In any case Nighteyes lifted his head to look at her and she returned his gaze steadily. With a small frown, Kettricken added, "Sometimes I wish I could speak to him as you do. Had I his speed and stealth at my disposal, I could be more certain of the safety of the road, both before us and behind. He might be able to find a path down, one not apparent to our eyes."

If you can keep your Wits about you enough to tell her what I see, I would not mind doing such a task.

"Nighteyes would be most pleased to help you in such a way, my queen," I offered.

She gave a weary smile. "Then, I suppose, if you can keep aware of both of us, you may serve as go-between."

Her eerie echoing of the wolf's thought unsettled me, but I only nodded my assent. Every aspect of conversation now demanded my complete attention, or it slipped away from me. It was like being horribly tired and having to constantly fight off sleep. I wondered if it was this hard for Verity.

There is a way to ride it, but lightly, lightly, like mastering an ill-tempered stallion who rebels against every touch of the rein or heel. But you are not ready to do so yet. So fight it, boy, and keep your head above water. I would that there were another way for you to come to me. But there is only the road, and you must follow it. No, make no reply to me. Know that there are others that listen avariciously if not as keenly as I. Be wary.

Once, in describing my father, Chivalry, Verity had said that when he Skilled it was like being trampled by a horse, that Chivalry would rush into his mind, dump out his messages, and flee. I now had a better understanding of what my uncle had meant. I felt rather like a fish suddenly deserted by a wave. There was that gaping sense of something missing in the instant after Verity's departure. It took me a moment to remember I was a person. Had I not been fortified already with the elfbark, I think I might have fainted. As it was, the drug was increasing its hold on me. I had a sense of being muffed in a warm soft blanket. My weariness was gone, but I felt muted. I finished the little that was left in my cup and waited for the flush of energy that elfbark usually gave me. It didn't come.

"I don't think you used enough," I told Kettle.