Fool’s Quest

I made the offer reluctantly. Had not I known what it was to have a child with a baffling difficulty? Had not I felt the pain of a parent who would pay any price to make my child’s life better? “I don’t know that I can help all of them. Or any of them. But I am willing to try,” I said and attempted to keep my trepidation from my voice. It was not just that I was uncertain. It was the disquieting knowledge that my Skill-magic was moving strangely in me. Was it the Skill itself, was it stronger or more focused here in Kelsingra? Or was it me? Was the boundary between me and the Skill-current eroding? I had touched Phron, a boy I’d never met before, and healed him as effortlessly as if I were Thick. No. Not healed, I reminded myself. Adjusted him. With no previous knowledge of how a young Elderling’s body should be. I suddenly wished I had not agreed to try. What if my next effort did not correct but caused an error in a child’s body? What would have become of us if Phron had died choking and gasping at my feet?

“I have not yet finished my tale,” Amber interjected softly. I was startled to the point of staring. The Fool never volunteered information about himself. Was Amber so different a person?

“There is more?” Malta was incredulous.

“It’s quickly told, and perhaps a brief telling is best for you as well as FitzChivalry. The people who held me captive, tormented me, and stole my eyesight knew that I would seek help from my old friend.” She paused, and my belly turned over in me. He wouldn’t. She did. “They lured FitzChivalry away from his home. And then they attacked it with hired Chalcedean troops, led by a man whose name perhaps you may know. He called himself Duke Ellik.”

I actually heard Reyn’s teeth grind. Malta had gone pale under her scarlet scaling. The crimson outline of every scale against her white face was beautiful and frightening. Was Amber unaware of the response she had woken? She spoke on.

“They shattered his doors, burned his barns and stables, killed and raped and looted. And they stole his daughter. A small child of nine years. Her older cousin they took as well. Lady Shine was able to escape, not without harm, but alive. But little Bee, Lord FitzChivalry’s daughter, a child beyond precious to both of us, they destroyed.”

So bald a telling of that tale. I should have been inured to that pain. I should have been past the point where it made me want to rage, to weep, and to strike out at all around me. I found I was gripping the edge of the table, looking down at the edge of it and trying to cling to control as a storm raged within and around me.

“Destroyed.” Queen Malta spoke the word faintly.

“Gone forever,” Amber confirmed.

Reyn refilled my small blue glass with golden Sandsedge brandy and nudged it carefully toward me. It wouldn’t help but I tried to appreciate the gesture. I should not drink it. I’d already had too much, too quickly. I looked into it, swirled it, and my thoughts went to Verity. How often had I seen him make that small gesture? What had he seen there?

Nothing, Fitz. Nothing at all. Drink up your false courage and move forward. It’s the only direction a man can move in.

I lifted my eyes, listening. Imagination. I picked up my brandy and drank it down.

“Children are not bargaining chips,” Reyn confirmed. He looked to his queen. “Yet I am unable to imagine a way to let you understand the depth of our gratitude.” He paused and added uncomfortably, “Or the wild hope I feel for the other children. I know it must seem greedy of us, but if you will, please, let me summon the parents and speak with them tonight. To tell them that possibly you can help. Perhaps, tomorrow . . .” He let the request trail away.

I was shocked at the surge of anticipation I felt. “I can make no promises,” I cautioned him.

Amber spoke suddenly. “He will need to rest well before he attempts any more. These healings tax him in a way that is difficult to explain.” She paused and then dared to caution Reyn, “And when you speak to the parents, you must be honest, sir. Tell them there is risk as well, and not just that Prince FitzChivalry may not be able to help. Sometimes his healings take a heavy toll on the one he helps. I speak with a personal knowledge of that! Bid them consider well the gamble.”

“There is also General Rapskal. This will not please him.” Malta spoke anxiously.

“Few things do,” Reyn said with a laugh that had no humor in it. “And some few of the dragons may be interested. There are not many here right now. Most are gone to warmer lands, for a season, or a year, or a decade. They do not count time as we do.”

“They do not think of children who may need to be shaped or guided in their changes.” Malta spoke with an edge of bitterness. “Those who have neglected their young Elderlings will express perfunctory regret, of course.”