Fool’s Assassin

“Perhaps. Perhaps she didn’t think so. I know she feared that danger would follow her to my household. But she also told me that Lord Golden was trying to return, but that he, too, had to evade pursuers.” I weighed my risks. In for a copper, in for a gold. “Lord Golden may have fathered a child when he was in the Six Duchies. The messenger came to tell me that this son could be in great danger. That Lord Golden wished me to find him and protect him.”

Riddle was silent, organizing all I had told him. He spoke cautiously. “You think that FitzVigilant might be Lord Golden’s son?”

I shook my head. “He’s the wrong age. Huntswoman Laurel was one of the women I thought might be a possible mother.”

“More to the point, he has the wrong father. Laurel the huntswoman was his mother, Chade now says. But Vigilant claimed him as son. Unless the lad had two fathers …”

“Or was claimed by someone who didn’t father him,” I pointed out. Then I sighed. “He’s still too young. Unless Lord Golden had paid another visit to Buck.”

We both fell silent. Would he have returned to Buck and not contacted me? I didn’t think so. Why would he have returned?

“What do you know of Lord Vigilant?” I asked Riddle.

“Not a great deal. He’s a bit of a boor, and his estates were in disorder for some years. When I first heard of FitzVigilant, I was surprised that Lord Vigilant had been able to persuade any woman to lie down beside him, let alone that he, a single man, would recognize a bastard. But perhaps that does make sense, if he thought the boy his only chance for an heir. But he did take hold and hired a good man to help him in the running of his estates, and when he began to prosper, he married. I think that was when his troubles began. What lady would want a previous bastard to take precedent over her rightfully born sons? It wasn’t long after that when FitzVigilant was sent to Buckkeep, and wound up in Chade’s care.” He thought a moment longer. “I cannot see any connection between him and a possible child conceived by the same lady many years earlier.”

I shook my head. “No. Just a peculiar coincidence. I opened a poke expecting a piglet and found a cat. But it doesn’t end my search for this ‘son.’ I think I might be wise to make inquiries of Huntswoman Laurel herself.”

Riddle shook his head. “That would be difficult. She is many years gone, Fitz. I remember when she left Buckkeep Castle, much to Queen Kettricken’s disappointment. She had been instrumental, until then, in dealing with the Old Blood faction. She left so suddenly there was rumor that she had quarreled with someone in a high position, but if she did, it was well hushed. And before the year was out, we had word of her death.”

I pondered this. Had Laurel fled Buckkeep to keep a pregnancy private and bear a secret child? It was a mystery many years old, and far outside my concern. I was sad to know she was gone. She had been kind to me. I shook my head and let her go. “Riddle. As you are out and about, can you keep an ear open for any gossip about my messenger?”

“Of course. I’ve heard nothing of her pursuers. You know that. But I may do better at tracking her. You think she fled to … where?”

To a pile of ash in the sheep pens. “I don’t know. But I am more curious as to where she came from and who pursued her. I’d be as interested in what you might discover of her and those who hunted her before she came here as after she left.”

“I’ll keep an ear open. I suspect she would have come up the Buck River. I’ll make some inquiries on my way back to Buckkeep.”

“And I take that to mean that you wish to leave here soon.”

“My task is done, and then some. I delivered my package safely to you, as I was ordered. I didn’t mind helping for a time, but I do have things I must get back to.”

I nodded slowly, feeling hollow. I hadn’t realized how much I’d slipped into depending on him until he spoke of leaving. Riddle was someone who knew the man I once had been, someone I could speak openly to; that had been a comfort. I’d miss him. My voice did not betray that. “How soon must you leave?”

“Three days from now.”

I nodded again, knowing that he was allowing me time to adapt to his absence. He added, “By then Lant should be up and around, so you’ll have at least one man at your back.”

“He did not watch his own back very well. I doubt I shall trust him with mine.”

Riddle nodded and admitted, “He does not have the edge you and I do. But that does not make him completely incompetent. He’s young yet. You should get to know him better.”

“I will. As soon as he feels better. I thought he might want some privacy to heal.”