Assassin's Quest

"Comes the Catalyst, to make stone of flesh and flesh of stone. At his touch shall be wakened the dragons of the earth. The sleeping city shall tremble and waken to him. Comes the Catalyst." The Fool's voice was dreamy.

"The writings of White Damir," Kettle added reverently. She looked at me and for a moment was annoyed. "Hundreds of years of writings and prophecies and they all terminate in you?"

"Not my fault," I said inanely. I was already tucking my way into my blankets. I thought longingly of the almost warm day I had had. The wind was blowing and I felt chilled to the bone.

I was drowsing off when the Fool reached over to pat my face with a warm hand. "Good you're alive," he muttered.

"Thank you," I said. I was summoning up Kettle's game board and pieces in an effort to keep my mind to myself for the night. I had just begun to contemplate the problem. Suddenly I sat up, exclaiming, "Your hand is warm! Fool! Your hand is warm!"

"Go to sleep," Starling chided me in an offended tone.

I ignored her. I dragged the blanket down from the Fool's face and touched his cheek. His eyes opened slowly. "You're warm," I told him. "Are you all right?"

"I don't feel warm," he informed me miserably. "I feel cold. And very, very tired."

I began building up the fire in the brazier hastily. Around me the others were stirring. Starling across the tent had sat up and was peering at me through the gloom.

"The Fool is never warm," I told them, trying to make them understand my urgency. "Always, when you touch his skin, it is cool. Now he's warm."

"Indeed?" Starling asked in an oddly sarcastic voice.

"Is he ill?" Kettle asked tiredly.

"I don't know. I've never known him to be ill in my whole life."

"I am seldom ill," the Fool corrected me quietly. "But this is a fever I have known before. Lie down and sleep, Fitz. I'll be all right. I expect the fever will have burned out by morning."

"Whether it has or not, we must travel tomorrow morning," Kettricken said implacably. "We have already lost a day lingering here."

"Lost a day?" I exclaimed, almost angrily. "Gained a map, or more detail for one, and knowledge that Verity had been to the city. For myself, I doubt not that he went there as I did, and perhaps returned to this very spot. We have not lost a day, Kettricken, but gained all the days it would have taken us to find a way down to what remains of the road down there and then tramp to the city. And back again. As I recall, you had proposed spending a day just to seek for a way down that slide. Well, we did, and we found the way." I paused. I took a breath and imposed calm on my voice. "I will not seek to force any of you to my will. But if the Fool is not well enough to travel tomorrow, I shall not travel either. "

A glint came into Kettricken's eyes, and I braced myself for battle. But the Fool forestalled it. "I shall travel tomorrow, well or not," he assured us both.

"That's settled, then," Kettricken said swiftly. Then, in a more humane voice she asked, "Fool, is there anything I can do for you? I would not use you so harshly, were not the need so great. I have not forgotten, and never shall, that without you I would never have reached Jhaampe alive."

I sensed a story I was not privy to, but kept my questions to myself.

"I will be fine. I am just … Fitz? Could I beg some elfbark of you? That warmed me last night as nothing else has."

"Certainly." I was rummaging in my pack for it when Kettle spoke out warningly.

"Fool, I counsel you against it. It is a dangerous herb, and almost often more damaging than good. Who knows but you are ill tonight because you had some night before last?"

"It is not that potent an herb," I said disdainfully. "I've used it for a number of years, and taken no lasting ill from it."

Kettle gave a snort. "None that you are wise enough to see, anyway," she said sarcastically. "But it is a warming herb that gives energy to the flesh, even if it is deadening to the spirit."

"I always found it restored me rather than deadened me," I countered as I found the small packet and opened it. Without my asking her, Kettle got up to put water on to boil. "I never noticed it dulling my mind," I added.

"The one taking it seldom does," she retorted. "And while it may boost your physical energy for a time, you must always pay for it later. Your body is not to be tricked, young man. You will know that better when you are as old as I.

I fell silent. As I thought back over the times I had used elfbark to restore myself, I had the uncomfortable suspicion that she was at least partly right. But my suspicion was not enough to keep me from brewing two cups rather than just one. Kettle shook her head at me, but lay back down and said no more. I sat beside the Fool as we drank our tea. When he handed me back the empty mug, his hand seemed warmer, not cooler.

"Your fever is rising," I warned him.

"No. It is just the heat of the mug on my skin," he suggested.

I ignored him. "You are shaking all over."