Assassin's Quest

"Would anyone care to explain to me what has happened this night?" Kettricken asked a bit testily.

I half expected Kettle to answer but she kept silent.

The Fool lowered his mug of tea. "It is a hard thing to explain, my queen. Like two ruffians bursting into your bedchamber, dragging you from your bed and shaking you, all the while calling you by another's name. And when they discovered I was not the Fitz, they were very angry with me. Then came the earthquake and I was dropped. Down several flights of stairs. Metaphorically-speaking, of course."

"They let you go?" I asked delightedly. I instantly turned to Kettle. "They are not as clever as you feared, then!"

Kettle scowled at me. "Nor you as clever as I had hoped," she muttered darkly. "Did they let him go? Or did a Skill-blast shake them loose? And if so, whose power was that?"

"Verity," I said with sudden certainty. Comprehension washed over me. "They attacked Verity tonight as well! And he defeated them!"

"Of what do you speak?" Kettricken demanded in her Queen's voice. "Who attacked my king? What knowledge of these others who attack the Fool does Kettle have?"

"No personal knowledge, my lady, I assure you!" I declared hastily.

"Oh, do shut up!" Kettle snapped at me. "My queen, I have a scholar's knowledge, if you will, of one who has studied but cannot do a thing. Since Prophet and Catalyst were joined for that moment back in the plaza, I feared they might share a bond the Skill users could turn against them. But either the coterie does not know this, or something distracted them tonight. Perhaps the Skill-wave that Fitz spoke of."

"This Skill-wave … you believe it was Verity's doing?" Kettricken's breath was suddenly swift, her color heightened.

"Only from him have I ever felt such strength," I told her.

"Then he lives," she said softly. "He lives."

"Perhaps," said Kettle sourly. "To blast with Skill like that can kill a man. And it may not have been Verity at all. It may have been a failed effort by Will and Regal to get at Fitz."

"No. I told you. It scattered them like chaff in a wind."

"And I told you. They may have destroyed themselves in trying to kill you."

I had thought that Kettricken would chide her, but both she and Starling stared wide-eyed in astonishment on Kettle's sudden professing of Skill knowledge. "How kind of you both to have warned me so well," the Fool said with acid courtesy.

"I didn't know …" I began my protest, but again Kettle overrode me.

"It would have done no good to warn you, save to put your mind to dwelling on it. We can make this comparison. It has taken all our combined effort to keep Fitz both focused and sane on the Skill road. He would never have survived his journey into the city, had not his senses been numbed with elfbark first. Yet these others travel the road and use the Skill beacons freely. Obviously their strength overmatches his by much. Ah, what to do, what to do?"

No one replied to her questioning of herself. She looked up suddenly at the Fool and me accusingly. "This cannot be right. It simply cannot be right. The Prophet and the Catalyst, and you are scarcely more than boys. Green to manhood, untrained in Skill, full of pranks and lovesick woes. These are the ones sent to save the world?"

The Fool and I exchanged glances, and I saw him take a breath to reply to her. But at that moment, Starling snapped her fingers. "And that is what makes the song!" she exclaimed suddenly, her face transfigured with delight. "Not a song of heroic strength and mighty-thewed warriors. No. A song of two, graced only with friendship's strength. Each possessed of a loyalty to a king that would not be denied. And that in the refrain … `Green of manhood,' something, ah …"

The Fool caught my eye, glanced meaningfully down at himself. "Green manhood? I really should have showed her," he said quietly. And despite everything, despite even the glowering of my queen, I burst out laughing.

"Oh, stop it," Kettle rebuked us, with such discouragement in her voice that I was instantly sober. "It is neither the time for songs nor knavery. Are you both too foolish to see the danger you are in? The danger you put all of us in with your vulnerability?" I watched her as she reluctantly took my elfbark out of her pack again and put her kettle back to boil. "It is the only thing I can think of to do," she apologized to Kettricken.

"What is that?" she asked.

"To drug the Fool at least with elfbark. It will deafen him to them, and hide his thoughts from them."

"Elfbark doesn't work like that!" I objected indignantly.

"Doesn't it?" Kettle turned on me fiercely. "Then why was it used traditionally for years for just that purpose? Given to a royal bastard young enough, it could destroy any potential for Skill use. Often enough was that done."

I shook my head defiantly. "I've used it for years, to restore my strength after Skilling. So has Verity. And it has never …"

"Sweet Eda's mercy!" Kettle exclaimed. "Tell me you are lying, please!"