Assassin's Quest

Starling had lifted the blanket's corner to shelter his face, and he still lay covered like a dead man. I lifted it away, to look down at his closed eyes. He was a hue I had never seen before. The deathly white of his skin at Buckkeep had taken on a yellowish cast in the Mountains, but now he was a terrible dead color. His lips were dry and chapped, his eyelashes crusted yellow. And he was still warm to the touch.

"Fool?" I asked him gently, but he made no response. I spoke on, hoping some part of him would hear me. "I'm going to have to lift you and carry you. The footing is bad, and if I slip, we're going to fall all the way. So once I have you up in my arms, you must be very, very still. Do you understand?"

He took a slightly deeper breath. I took it for assent. I knelt downhill of him and worked my hands and arms under his body. As I straightened up, the arrow scar in my back screamed. I felt sweat pop out on my face. I knelt upright for a moment, the Fool in my arms, mastering my pain and gaining my balance. I shifted one leg to get my foot under me. I tried to stand up slowly, but as I did so rocks began cascading past me. I fought a terrible urge to clutch the Fool to me and run. The rattling and scattering of loose shale went on and on and on. When it finally ceased, I was trembling with the effort of standing perfectly still. I was ankle deep in loose scree.

"FitzChivalry?"

I turned my head slowly. Kettricken and Kettle had caught up. They were standing uphill of me, well off the patch of loosened stone. They both looked sickened at my predicament. Kettricken was the first to recover.

"Kettle and I are going to cross above you. Stay where you are, and be as still as you can. Did Starling and the jeppas make it across?" I managed a small nod. I had not the spit to speak.

"I'll get a rope and come back. I'll be as quick as it is safe to be."

Another nod from me. I had to twist my body to watch them, so I did not. Nor did I look down. The wind blew past me, the stone ticked under my feet, and I looked down into the Fool's face. He did not weigh much, for a man grown. He had always been slight and bird boned, relying on his tongue for defense rather than fist and muscle. But as I stood and held him, he grew weightier and weightier in my arms. The circle of pain in my back slowly expanded, and somehow managed to make my arms ache with it.

I felt him give a slight twitch in my arms. "Be still," I whispered,,

He prized his eyes open and looked up at me. His tongue sought to moisten his lips. "What are we doing?" he croaked.

"We're standing very still in the middle of an avalanche," I whispered back. My throat was so dry it was hard to talk.

"I think I could stand," he offered weakly.

"Don't move!" I ordered him.

He took a slightly deeper breath. "Why are you always near when I get into these sort of situations?" he wondered hoarsely.

"I could ask you the same," I retorted, unfairly.

"Fitz?"

I twisted my screaming back to look up at Kettricken. She was silhouetted against the sky. She had a jeppa with her, the lead one. She had a coil of rope looped on one shoulder. The other end was fixed to the jeppa's empty pack harness.

"I'm going to throw the rope to you. Don't try to catch it, let it go past you and then pick it up and wrap it around yourself. Understand?"

"Yes."

She could not have heard my answer, but she nodded back to me encouragingly. In a moment the rope came flopping and uncoiling past me. It unsettled a small amount of pebbles, but their scurrying motion was enough to make me sick. The length of the rope sprawled across the rock, less than an arm's length from my foot. I looked down at it and tasted despair. I steeled my will.

"Fool, can you hold on to me? I have to try to pick up the rope."

"I think I can stand," he offered again.

"You may have to," I admitted unwillingly. "Be ready for anything. But whatever else, hold on to me."

"Only if you promise to hold on to the rope."

"I'll do my best," I promised grimly.

My brother, they have stopped where we camped last night. Of the six men

Not now, Nighteyes!

Three have gone down as you did, and three remain with the horses.

Not now!

The Fool shifted his arms to get an awkward hold on my shoulders. The damnable blankets that had swathed him were everywhere I didn't want them to be. I clutched at the Fool with my left arm and got my right hand and arm somewhat clear even though my arm was still under him. I fought a ridiculous impulse to laugh. It was all so stupidly awkward and dangerous. Of all the ways I had thought I might die, this one had never occurred to me. I met the Fool's eyes and saw the same panicky laughter in them. "Ready," I told him, and crouched toward the rope. Every taut muscle in my body screeched and cramped.