Fool's Fate

I gazed out once more over the wide spectacle of sea and sky. It was an exhilarating view, at once breathtaking and yet reassuringly familiar. And then I forced myself to stare-down, over the low wall that stood between me and a plummet to my sure death below. Once, battered both physically and mentally by Galen the Skillmaster, I had tried to make that plunge from this very parapet. It had been Burrich's hand that had drawn me back. He had carried me down to his own rooms, treated my injuries, and then avenged them upon the Skillmaster. I still owed him for that. Perhaps teaching his son and keeping him safe at court would be the only repayment I could ever offer him. I fixed that thought in my heart to prop up my sagging enthusiasm for the task and left the tower top. I had another meeting to hasten to, -and the sun told me that I was already nearly late for it.

Chade had let it be known that he was now instructing the young princesin his heritage Skill-magic. I was both grateful and chagrined at this turn of events. The a

So it was that I descended the steps from the Queen's Garden, and then hastened through the keep. From the servants' areas there were six possible entry points to the hidden spy labyrinth that meandered through the entrails of Buckkeep Castle. I took care that every day I used a different entry from the day before. Today I selected the one near the cook's larder. I waited until there was no one in the corridor before I entered the storeroom, I pushed my way through three racks of dangling sausages before dragging the panel open and stepping through into now familiar darkness.

I didn't waste time waiting for my eyes to adjust. This part of the maze had no illumination of any kind. The first few times 'I'd explored it, I carried a candle. Today I judged that I knew it well enough to traverse it in the dark. I counted my steps, then groped my way into a narrow staircase. At the top of it, I made a sharp right and saw thin fingers of spring sunlight filtering into the dusty corridor. Stooped, I hastened along it and soon reached a more familiar part of the warren. In a short time, I emerged from the side of the hearth in the Seawatch Tower-I pushed the panel back into place, then froze as I heard someone lifting the door-latch. I barely had time to seek flimsy shelter in the long curtains that draped, the tower windows before someone entered,

I held my breath, but it was only Chade, Dutiful and Thick arriving for their lessons. I waited until the door was firmly closed behind them before stepping out into the room. I startled Thick, but Chade only observed, 'You've cobwebs down your left cheek. Did you know7'

I wiped away the clinging stuff. 'I'm surprised that it's only on my left cheek- Spring seems to have wakened a legion of spiders.'

Chade nodded gravely to my observation. 'I used to carry a feather duster with me, waving it before me as I went. It helped- Somewhat. Of course, in those days, it little mattered what I looked like when I arrived at my destination. I just didn't care for the sensation of little legs down the back of my neck.'

Prince Dutiful smirked at the idea of the immaculately attired and coiffed Queen's councillor scuttling through the corridors. There had been a time when Lord Chade was a hidden resident of Buckkeep Castle, the royal assassin only, a man who concealed his pocked face and carried out the King's justice in the shadows. N-o longer. Now he strode majestically through the hallways, openly lauded as both diplomat and trusted advisor to the Queen. His elegant garb in shades of blue and green reflected that status, as did the gems that graced his throat and earlobes. His snowy hair and piercing green eyes seemed like carefully chosen accoutrements to his wardrobe. The scars that had so distressed him had faded with his years. I neither envied nor begrudged him his finery. Let the old man make up now for the deprivations of his youth- It harmed no one, and those who were dazzled by it often overlooked the rapier mind that was his real weapon.

In contrast, the Prince was garbed nearly as simply as I was-I attributed it to Queen Kettricken's austere Mountain Kingdom traditions and her i

The squat man accompanying him was a complete contrast. I estimated Thick to be in his late twenties. He had tbc small tight ears and protruding tongue of a simpleton. The Prince had garbed him in a blue tunic and leggings which matched his own, right down to the buck crest on the breast, but the tunic strained across the little man's pot belly and the hose sagged comically at his knees and ankles. He cut an odd figure, both amusing and slightly repulsive, to those who could not sense, as I did, the Skill-magic that burned in him like a smith's forge-fire. He was learning to control the Skill-music that served him in place of an ordinary man's thoughts. It was less pervasive and hence less a

He was not dazzled. He knew how I had deduced it. He nodded with weary tolerance. 'Both Thick and I. It was a long morning,'

Thick nodded emphatically. 'Stand on the stool. Don't scratch. Don't move. While they poke Thick with pins.' He added the last severely, with a rebuking look at the Prince.

Dutiful sighed. That was an accident. Thick. She told you to stand still.'

'She's mean,' Thick ventured in an undertone, and I suspected he was close to the truth. Many of his nobles found it difficult to accept the Prince's friendship with Thick. For some reason, it affronted some servants even more. Some of them found small ways to vent that displeasure.

'It's all done now. Thick,' Dutiful consoled him.

We took our customary places around the immense table. Since Chade had a