Assassin's Quest

The soldier's eyes widened that Verity recalled him. "Tag, my lord. Serving my king as my father did before me." His voice shook a bit. His dark eyes never left the point of the sword Verity had leveled at him.

Verity lowered his blade. "Do you speak truth, lad? Or simply seek to save your skin?"

The young soldier looked up at Verity and dared to smile. "I have no need to fear. The prince I served would not strike down a kneeling, unarmed man. I dare say the King will not either."

Perhaps no other words would have convinced Verity. Despite his weariness, he smiled. "Go then, Tag. Go as swift as you may and as silent as you may, for those who have used you will kill you if they know you are true to me. Return to Buck. And on the way there, and when you get there, tell everyone that I shall be returning. That I shall bring my good and true Queen with me, to sit the throne, and that my heir will claim it after me. And when you get to Buckkeep Castle, present yourself to my brother's wife. Tell the Lady Patience that I commend you to her service."

"Yes, my king. King Verity?"

"What is it?"

"More troops are coming. We are but the vanguard…" He paused. He swallowed. "I accuse no one of treachery, least of all your own brother. But…"

"Let it not concern you, Tag. What I have asked you to do is important to me. Go quickly and challenge no one on your way. But carry back those tidings as I have asked you."

"Yes, my king."

"Now," Verity suggested.

And Tag rose, took up his sword and sheathed it, and strode off into the darkness.

Verity turned and his eyes shone with triumph. "We can do it!" he told me quietly. He gestured me fiercely toward the pillar. I reached to palm the symbol and tumbled through as the Skill clutched at me. Verity came on my heels.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Feeding the Dragon

By midsummer of that final year, the Six Duchies situation had become desperate. Buckkeep Castle, so long avoided by the Raiders, came under sudden siege from them. They had possessed Antler Island and its watchtowers since midwinter. Forge, the first village to fall victim to the scourge that took its name, had long since become a watering stop for Red-Ships. There had been for some time rumors of Outisland sailing ships anchoring off Scrim Island, including several sightings of the elusive "White Ship." For most of the spring, no ships had made passage either into or out of Buck Harbor. This strangle of trade was felt not just in Buck, but in every trade village on the Buck, Bear, and Vin Rivers. The Red-Ships had become a sudden reality to the merchants and lords of Tilth and Farrow.

But at the high point of summer, the Red-Ships came to Buckkeep Town. The Red-Ships came in the dead of night after several weeks of deceptive quiet. The fighting was the savage defense of a cornered folk, but they were also a starved and beggared folk. Almost every wooden structure of the town was burned to the ground. It is estimated that only one quarter of the town's residents were able to flee up the steep hills to Buckkeep Castle. Although Lord Bright had endeavored to refortify and supply the castle, the weeks of strangulation had taken their toll. The deep wells of Buckkeep Castle assured them a good supply of fresh water, but all other things were in scarce supply.

Catapults and other engines of war had been in place for decades to defend the mouth of the Buck River, but Lord Bright diverted them to the defense of Buckkeep Castle itself. Unchallenged, the Red-Ships beat their way up the Buck River, carrying their war and Forging deep into the Six Duchies like a spreading poison following a vein to the heart.

At a time when Red-Ships threatened Tradeford itself, the lords of Farrow and Tilth were to discover that a great part of the Six Duchies armies had been sent far inland, to Blue Lake, and beyond, to the very borders of the Mountain Kingdom. The nobles of these duchies suddenly discovered that their own guardsmen were all that stood between them and death and ruin.

I emerged from the pillar into a circle of frantic people. The first thing to happen was that a wolf hit me full force in the chest, driving me backward, so that as Verity emerged he all but fell over me.

I made her understand me, I made her know you were in danger and she made him go after you. I made her understand me, I made her understand me! Nighteyes was in a puppyish frenzy. He thrust his nose into my face, nipped at my nose, then flung himself to the ground beside me and half in my lap.

"He stirred a dragon! Not quite to wakening, but I felt one stir! We may yet wake them all!" This was Verity, laughing and shouting to the others these good tidings as he calmly stepped over us. He flourished his shining sword aloft as if to challenge the moon. I had no idea what he was talking about. I sat flat on the earth, staring around at them. The Fool looked wan and weary; Kettricken, ever a mirror to her king, smiled at his exultation. Starling looked at all of us with greedy minstrel eyes, memorizing every detail. And Kettle, her hands and arms silver to the elbow, knelt carefully beside me to ask, "Are you all right, FitzChivalry?"

I looked at her magic-coated arms and hands. "What have you done?" I asked her.

"Only what was necessary. Verity took me to the river in the city. Now our work will proceed more swiftly. What happened to you?"

I did not answer her. Instead I pi

Verity gave me one of his old grins, denying all regrets. "We know one another very well, don't we?" was all he offered by way of apology. Then his grin grew wider. "Yes, it was a fool's errand I sent you on. But I was the fool, for you did it. You woke one, or stirred him at least."

I shook my head at him.

"Yes, you did. You must have felt it, that rippling of Skill, just before I reached you. What did you do, how did you stir him?"

"A man died on the stone boar's tusks," I said flatly. "Perhaps that is how you rouse these dragons. With death." I ca

It was Skill-hunger, pure and simple, but I did not know it then. At that time, all I could feel was how perfectly linked he was with Kettle, and how firmly he repulsed me from joining that link. He walled me out as firmly as if I were Regal. I had forsaken my wife and child and crossed all of the Six Duchies to be of service to him, and now he turned me away. He should have taken me to the river, been beside me as I had that experience. I had never known myself capable of such jealousy. Nighteyes came back from frisking about Kettricken to push his head under my arm. I rubbed his throat and hugged him. He, at least, was mine.

She understood me, he repeated anxiously. I made her understand, and she told him he must go.

Kettricken, coming to stand beside me, said, "I had the strongest feeling you needed help. It took much urging, but finally Verity left the dragon and went for you. Are you much hurt?"

I got to my feet slowly, dusting myself off. "Only my pride, that my king would treat me as a child. He might have let me know he preferred Kettle's company."

A flash of something in Kettricken's eyes made me recall to whom I spoke. But she hid her twin hurt well, saying only, "A man was killed, you say?"

"Not by me. He fell on the stone boar's tusks in the dark and gutted himself. But I saw no stirring of dragons."