Royal Assassin

"The message birds, the signal fires. A Skill message, from Will in Red Tower to Serene. Surely at least one of these things should have brought us word that Ferry was attacked. One might go astray, but all three?"

Her face paled, her mind made the leap. "The Duke of Bearns will believe his call for aid went unheeded." She lifted a hand to cover her mouth. She whispered through it, "This is treachery to defame Verity!" Her eyes grew very round and she hissed at me suddenly, "It shall not be tolerated!"

She turned and rushed for the door, anger in her every motion. I was barely able to leap in front of her. I put my back to it, held it closed. "Lady, my lady queen, I beg you, wait! Wait and consider!"

"Consider what? How best to reveal the depth of his perfidy?"

"We are not in the best position of power in this. Please, wait. Think with me. You think, as I do, that Regal must have known something of this and kept silent. But we have no proof. None at all. And perhaps we are wrong. We must go a step at time, lest we bring dissension when we want it least. The first person to speak to must be King Shrewd. To see if he has been aware of this at all, to see if he has sanctioned Regal to speak on his behalf."

"He would not!" she declared angrily.

"He is often not himself," I reminded her. "But he, not you, must be the one to rebuke Regal publicly, if it is to be public. If you speak out against him, and the King later supports him, the nobles will see the Farseers as a house divided. Already, there has been too much doubt and discord sown amongst them. This is not a time to set Inland Duchies against Coastal ones, with Verity not here."

She halted. I could see that she still quivered with anger, but at least she was hearing me. She took a breath. I sensed her calming herself.

"This was why he left you here, Fitz. To see these things for me."

"What?" It was my turn to be jolted.

"I thought you had known. You must have wondered why he did not ask you to accompany him. It was because I asked him who I should trust, as an adviser. He said to rely on you."

Had he forgotten Chade's existence? I wondered, and then realized that Kettricken knew nothing of Chade. He must have known I would function as a go-between. Inside myself, I felt Verity's agreement. Chade. In the shadows as always.

"Think with me again," she bade me. "What will happen next?"

She was right. This was not an isolated instance.

"We will have visitors. The Duke of Bearns and his lesser nobles. Duke Brawndy is not a man to send emissaries on a mission like that. He will come himself and he will demand answers. And all the Coastal Dukes will be listening to what is said to him. His coast is the most exposed of all, save that of Buck itself."

"Then we must have answers worth hearing," Kettricken declared. She closed her eyes. She set her hands to her forehead for a moment, then pressed her own cheeks. I realized how great a control she was keeping. Dignity, she was telling herself, calm and rationality. She took a breath and looked at me again. "I go to see King Shrewd," she announced. "I shall ask him about everything. This whole situation. I shall ask him what he intends to do. He is the King. His position must be affirmed to him."

"I think that is a wise decision," I told her.

"I must go alone. If you go with me, if you are always at my side, it will make me appear weak. It may give rise to rumors of a schism in the reign. You understand this?"

"I do." Though I longed to hear for myself what Shrewd might say to her.

She gestured at the maps and items I had sorted onto a table. "You have a safe place for those?"

Chade's chambers. "I do."

"Good." She gestured with a hand, and I realized I was still blocking her from the door. I stepped aside. As she swept past me her mountainsweet scent engulfed me for a moment. My knees went weak, and I cursed the fate that sent emeralds to rebuild houses when they should have girdled that graceful throat. But I knew, too, with a fierce pride, that if I set them in her hands this moment, she would insist they be spent for Ferry. I slipped them into a pocket. Perhaps she would be able to rouse King Shrewd's wrath, and he would rattle the coin loose from Regal's pocket. Perhaps, when I returned, these emeralds could still clasp that warm skin.

If Kettricken had looked back, she would have seen the Fitz blushing with her husband's thoughts.