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That night, in the Fool’s room, he sang the songs Bee had loved best, the old songs, the counting songs, the silly songs that had made her laugh with delight. The crow bobbed her head in time and once shouted, “Again, again!” Kettricken sat beside the Fool and held his bony hand. We had ginger cakes and elderberry wine. A bit too much wine perhaps. Hap congratulated me on becoming a prince instead of a Witted Bastard, and I congratulated him on being a famous minstrel instead of an odd-eyed Red-Ship bastard. At the time it seemed terribly funny to us two, but Ash stared at us in horror and Perseverance, who had somehow been invited, looked insulted on my behalf.

I slept that night. The next morning I breakfasted with the Fool, and then received an invitation to game with Integrity and Prosper. I did not wish to go but they would not let me refuse. I knew they meant well and hoped to distract me from my grief. I dressed in fussy clothing. I wore no hidden knives and carried no poison. I rolled dice made of jade and hematite and lost badly in games of chance that I’d never learned. My bets were made with small silver coins instead of the copper ones that crossed tables in the taverns of my youth. That evening I returned to visit the Fool, to find Hap already there entertaining Ash and Per with some very silly songs. I sat and listened with a pleasant expression on my face.

Decisions. No. A decision. The Fool had been right. If I did not choose what to do with what remained of my life, someone else would. I felt like ore, pounded to powder, heated until I’d melted and poured away. And now I was hardening into something I’d never been before. My awareness of what I would be came to me slowly, like numbness wearing off after a heavy blow. Inexorably. In my sleepless nights, my plans took shape. I knew what I would have to do, and in my cold evaluation, I knew I would have to do it alone.

Before I began, I would have to finish, I told myself. Late one night, I found myself smiling sourly as I recalled how the Fool had finished his role as Lord Golden. His plan to exit had not gone exactly as he’d imagined. He’d had to make a headlong flight from his creditors. Mine, I resolved, would be a gentler fading. A kinder vanishing than his had been.

Gradually I blundered into a peculiar normality. I looked at each person I would leave behind and considered well what each needed, as well as how I must prepare for my undertaking. I kept my word to the Fool: I took Ash down to the practice grounds and gave him over to Foxglove. When she demanded a training partner of a suitable size for him, I gave her Perseverance, and she started both of them with wooden swords. Foxglove penetrated Ash’s disguise far more swiftly than I had. The second day she had the lads she drew me aside and obliquely asked me if I had noticed anything “odd” about Ash. I replied that I knew how to mind my own business, and that made her smile and nod. If she varied Ash’s training at all, I did not notice.

I gave my guard over to Foxglove’s keeping. The few remaining Rousters accepted her hammering discipline and began to be useful. She demanded they surrender their Rouster colors and integrate with my guard. Privately, I asked her to make them available for any special duty that Lord Chade might require of them. With his network of spies and errand runners tattering away, I wondered if he might not require a guard of his own, something the old assassin had never supplied to himself. She nodded gravely and I left it in her very capable hands.

The next time Prosper and Integrity invited me to game, I countered with an invitation to the practice yards, and there I took my cousins’ measures. They were not the pampered castle cats that some might have thought them, and it was there, wooden blade against wooden blade, that I began to know them as men and kin. They were good men. Prosper had a sweetheart and looked forward to her being announced as his intended. Integrity did not bear the weight of the crown of the king-in-waiting, and had a dozen ladies vying to ride and game and drink with him. I gave to them as much as I could of what Verity had supplied to me. I became the man older than their father, telling them the stories of their grandfather that I thought they should hear.

I allowed myself my own farewells. Winter at Buckkeep Castle took me back to the days of my childhood. It was true that if I had wanted, I could have joined the lords and ladies elegantly attired and perfumed, rolling dice or playing other games of chance. There were singers from Jamaillia and poets from the Spice Islands. But still, in front of the Great Hearth, huntsmen fletched arrows and women brought their spinning or embroidery. There the working folk of the castle listened to the younger generation of minstrels or watched apprentices endlessly rehearse their puppetry while doing their tasks by firelight. When I was a lad, even a bastard had been welcomed there.

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Все книги серии The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

Fool’s Assassin
Fool’s Assassin

Nearly twenty years ago, Robin Hobb burst upon the fantasy scene with the first of her acclaimed Farseer novels, *Assassin's Apprentice,* which introduced the characters of FitzChivalry Farseer and his uncanny friend the Fool. A watershed moment in modern fantasy, this novel—and those that followed—broke exciting new ground in a beloved genre. Together with George R. R. Martin, Robin Hobb helped pave the way for such talented new voices as Scott Lynch, Brandon Sanderson, and Naomi Novik.Over the years, Hobb's imagination has soared throughout the mythic lands of the Six Duchies in such bestselling series as the Liveship Traders Trilogy and the Rain Wilds Chronicles. But no matter how far she roamed, her heart always remained with Fitz. And now, at last, she has come home, with an astonishing new novel that opens a dark and gripping chapter in the Farseer saga.FitzChivalry—royal bastard and former king's assassin—has left his life of intrigue behind. As far as the rest of the world knows, FitzChivalry Farseer is dead and buried. Masquerading as Tom Badgerlock, Fitz is now married to his childhood sweetheart, Molly, and leading the quiet life of a country squire.Though Fitz is haunted by the disappearance of the Fool, who did so much to shape Fitz into the man he has become, such private hurts are put aside in the business of daily life, at least until the appearance of menacing, pale-skinned strangers casts a sinister shadow over Fitz's past . . . and his future.Now, to protect his new life, the former assassin must once again take up his old one. . . .**Praise for Robin Hobb and the Farseer Trilogy**** **"Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb's books are diamonds in a sea of zircons."**—George R. R. Martin **"A gleaming debut in the crowded field of epic fantasies . . . a delightful take on the powers and politics behind the throne."**—*Publishers Weekly****,* on* Assassin's Apprentice*"This is the kind of book you fall into, and start reading slower as you get to the end, because you don't want it to be over."**—Steven Brust**, on *Assassin's Apprentice*"[Robin] Hobb continues to revitalize a genre that often seems all too generic, making it new in ways that range from the subtle to the shocking."**—*Locus****, *on* Royal Assassin*"[*Royal Assassin*] reaches astonishing new heights. . . . The Farseer saga is destined for greatness—a must-read for every devotee of epic fantasy."**—*Sense of Wonder***"An enthralling conclusion to this superb trilogy, displaying an exceptional combination of originality, magic, adventure, character, and drama."**—*Kirkus Reviews* (starred review)**, on *Assassin's Quest*"Superbly written, wholly satisfying, unforgettable: better than any fantasy trilogy in print—including mine!"**—Melanie Rawn**, on *Assassin's Quest***### Review**Praise for Robin Hobb and the Farseer Trilogy**** **"Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb's books are diamonds in a sea of zircons."**—George R. R. Martin **"A gleaming debut in the crowded field of epic fantasies . . . a delightful take on the powers and politics behind the throne."**—*Publishers Weekly****,* on* Assassin's Apprentice*"This is the kind of book you fall into, and start reading slower as you get to the end, because you don't want it to be over."**—Steven Brust**, on *Assassin's Apprentice*"[Robin] Hobb continues to revitalize a genre that often seems all too generic, making it new in ways that range from the subtle to the shocking."**—*Locus****, *on* Royal Assassin*"[*Royal Assassin*] reaches astonishing new heights. . . . The Farseer saga is destined for greatness—a must-read for every devotee of epic fantasy."**—*Sense of Wonder***"An enthralling conclusion to this superb trilogy, displaying an exceptional combination of originality, magic, adventure, character, and drama."**—*Kirkus Reviews* (starred review)**, on *Assassin's Quest*"Superbly written, wholly satisfying, unforgettable: better than any fantasy trilogy in print—including mine!"**—Melanie Rawn**, on *Assassin's Quest*### About the Author**Robin Hobb **is the author of the Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders Trilogy, the Tawny Man Trilogy, the Soldier Son Trilogy, and the Rain Wilds Chronicles. She has also written as Megan Lindholm. She is a native of Washington State.

Robin Hobb , Робин Хобб

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Fool’s Quest
Fool’s Quest

**Ranking alongside George R. R. Martin as a groundbreaking master of fantasy, *New York Times *bestselling author Robin Hobb delivers the second book in her long-awaited Fitz and the Fool trilogy.**The harrowing adventures of FitzChivalry Farseer and his enigmatic friend the Fool continue in Robin Hobb's triumphant follow-up to *Fool's Assassin*. But *Fool's Quest* is more than just a sequel. With the artistry and imagination her fans have come to expect, Hobb builds masterfully on all that has gone before, revealing devastating secrets and shocking conspiracies that cast a dark shadow over the history of Fitz and his world—a shadow that now stretches to darken all future hope.Long ago, Fitz and the Fool changed the world, bringing back the magic of dragons and securing both the Farseer succession and the stability of the kingdom. Or so they thought. But now the Fool is near death, maimed by mysterious pale-skinned figures whose plans for world domination hinge upon the powers the Fool may share with Fitz's own daughter.Distracted by the Fool's perilous health, and swept up against his will in the intrigues of the royal court, Fitz lets down his guard . . . and in a horrible instant, his world is undone and his beloved daughter stolen away by those who would use her as they had once sought to use the Fool—as a weapon.But FitzChivalry Farseer is not without weapons of his own. An ancient magic still lives in his veins. And though he may have let his skills as royal assassin diminish over the years, such things, once learned, are not so easily forgotten.Now enemies and friends alike are about to learn that nothing is more dangerous than a man who has nothing left to lose.**Praise for Robin Hobb and *Fool's Assassin***"Fantasy as it ought to be written."**—George R. R. Martin**"Hobb knows the complicated workings of the wayward human heart, and she takes time to depict them in her tale, to tell her story sweetly, insistently, compellingly. . . . A book meant to be inhabited rather than run through."**—*The Seattle Times***"[FitzChivalry Farseer is] one of the best characters in fantasy literature."**—*Fantasy Book Review***"[Hobb's] prose sparkles, her characters leap off the page."**—*Tor.com***"Modern fantasy at its irresistible best."***—The Guardian***"Fantastic . . . emotionally rich storytelling."***—Library Journal *(starred review)***From the Hardcover edition.***

Робин Хобб

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