The Complete Tawny Man Trilogy Omnibus (259 page)

They fed me well and let me rest. Visitors came and went and left almost no impression on me. Once I opened my eyes to see Lacey looking down on me with stern disapproval. I closed them. The healer could do nothing for me and often loudly observed in my vicinity that he thought I was a lazy malingerer. They brought an old, old woman to see me. After our eyes met, she nodded vigorously and said, ‘Oh, yes, he has that Pecksie-nibbled look to him. The Pecksies took him underground and fed on him. It’s known they have a hole up there, near the Witness Stones. They’ll take a new lamb or a child, or even a strong man if he’s in his cups when he wanders about up there.’ She nodded sagely and advised, ‘Give him mint tea and cook his meat with garlic until he reeks of it. They can’t abide that, and they’ll soon enough let him go. When his nails have grown long enough to be cut, and he cuts them, that’ll set him free.’

And so they fed me a meal of garlicky mutton with mint tea, and then pronounced me cured and turned me out of the infirmary. Riddle was waiting for me. He told me that I looked like a mooncalf. He took me to the steams, crowded with noisy
guardsmen laughing far too loudly, and then in the guardsman’s act of ultimate purification, took me to the complete chaos of the guards’ tables and effortlessly persuaded me to drink ale with him until I had to stagger outside and vomit. The level of shouted conversation and laughter made me feel oddly alone. One young guardsman asked me six times where I had been, and finally I simply said, ‘I got lost coming back,’ which made me the cleverest fellow at the table for nearly an hour. If he had expected it to shake loose my tale from me, it failed. Yet, oddly enough, I felt better, as if my body’s violent protest over the mistreatment had persuaded me that, yes, I was human and had to make allowances for it. I woke the next day in the barracks, stinking and sweaty, and went back to the steams. I scraped my fouled beard from my face and scrubbed myself with salt and then washed all over with cold water. I dressed in a fresh guard’s uniform, for my trunk had returned with the rest of the quest’s company and gear, and then ate a very simple and small breakfast of porridge in the crowded and noisy guardroom. Just outside the door of the guards’ mess, the kitchen rattled and clanged as if a battle were going on there, with whole companies of kitchen help attacking their tasks.

Feeling more like myself than I had in days, I used the concealed door near the laundry court to enter Chade’s labyrinth and made my way up to the workroom.

I found the worktable lined with oily scrolls spread out for cleaning and copying. There were fresh apples in a basket by the hearth chairs. They had not been ripe when last I was in this room. That little fact rocked me more than I expected it to. I sat down, focused myself and reached for Chade.
Where are you? I need to report. I need someone to help me make sense of this.

Ah! Excellent to hear you. I would very much welcome your report. We are in Verity’s tower. Can you make the climb?

I think so. But not swiftly. Wait for me.

I made the climb, but they did have to wait for me. When I emerged from the side of the hearth, I received a shock, for Lady Nettle, unmistakably Lady Nettle in her green gown and lace collar, was seated at the great table with Chade, Dutiful and Thick. She looked only mildly surprised to see me emerge. I lifted a strand of
cobwebs from across my eyes and shook it from my fingers into the hearth. Then, uncertain of my role, I offered a guard’s courteous bow to all of them and stood as if awaiting orders.

‘Are you quite all right?’ Dutiful asked me and came to offer me his arm to my seat at the table. I was too proud to take it, and even seated at the table, I was uncertain of how to proceed. Chade marked my furtive glances at Nettle, for he burst into a laugh and said, ‘Fitz, she’s a member of the coterie now. You must have expected it to come to this.’

I glanced at her. Her look was like a knife, and her words as cold and sharp as she sank them into me. ‘I know your name, FitzChivalry Farseer. I even know that I am your bastard daughter. My mother knew no Tom Badgerlock, you see. So, while you were in the infirmary, she went to see who had claimed to be her old friend. Then she came away and told me all. All.’

‘She does not know “all”,’ I said faintly. Abruptly I could think of no more to say. Chade got up hastily, poured brandy and brought it to me. My hand shook so that I could scarcely raise it to my mouth.

‘Well, your mother named you well,’ Dutiful observed acidly to her.

‘As did yours,’ Nettle replied sweetly.

‘Enough, both of you. We will set this aside while Fitz tells us where he was while guards combed the entire kingdom for him.’ Chade spoke quite firmly.

‘Molly is here? At Buckkeep?’

‘Everyone is here at Buckkeep. The whole world came for Harvest Fest. Tomorrow night.’ Thick spoke with satisfaction. ‘I get to help with the apple press.’

‘My mother is here. And all my brothers. Who know nothing of any of this, and my mother and I have decided it is best that it remain that way. They are here because my father will be honoured at Harvest Fest for his role in the slaying of the dragon. As will Swift, and the rest of the Wit-coterie.’

‘Good. I am glad of that,’ I said, and I was, but my words came out dully. It was not just the shock of discovering that Harvest Fest was tomorrow. I felt plundered of dignity and control of my life.
And oddly freed by it. The decision of when and how to tell Molly that I lived had been taken from me. She had seen me. She knew I lived. Perhaps the next move was hers. And the thought that followed that plunged me into an abyss. Perhaps she had already made it. She had walked away from me.

‘Fitz?’ I became aware that Chade had spoken to me several times when he touched me on the arm. I twitched and came back to awareness of the people at the table. Dutiful looked sympathetic, Nettle distant, and Thick bored. Chade rested a hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘Would you report to the coterie on where you have been and what happened to you? I have my suspicions, but I’d like them confirmed.’

Habit made me begin from the last time he’d heard from me. I was blithely telling them of entering the Black Man’s abode when I suddenly became reluctant to share all the Fool had said. So I looked at my hands on the table and summarized it, leaving out as many of the intimate details as I could. Of those who sat at the table, only Chade perhaps had a glimmering of what my parting from the Fool meant. Without thinking, I said aloud, ‘But I did not go back, and you say I’ve been gone over a month. I do not know what they will make of that absence. I want to go back, but now I fear the pillars as I never have before.’

‘And well you should, if what I have read in the Skill-scrolls you brought back is an indicator. But more of that, later. Tell the rest.’

And so I did, of leaving and claiming the scrolls and disposing of the woman’s body. Chade was fascinated by the Elderling magic of lights and warmth, and asked many questions about the cubes of memory stone that I could not answer. I saw him already itching to attempt the trip and explore for himself that magically-charged realm. I went on to Prilkop’s farewell, and then to my endless passage through the pillars. When I spoke of the being who had rescued me, Dutiful sat up very straight. ‘Like the ones from our time on the Others’ beach.’

‘Like and not like. I think there, our minds were in their world. In the pillars, my body was there as well. Since I’ve returned, I’ve felt … strange. More alive in some ways. More connected, to even
the tiniest bits of this world. And yet more alone, also.’ And then I fell silent. There seemed nothing to add to my account. I glanced at Nettle. She met my gaze with a neutral little look that said I meant nothing to her and never had.

Chade seemed to feel he had enough to ponder, for he pushed back from the table like a man who has finished a substantial meal. ‘Well. A tale that will take some thought to sort out, and enough lessons for now. All of us have tasks to get to with Harvest Fest just around the corner. There will be a gathering tonight, in the Great Hall, with music and jugglers and dancing and tales. Many of our Outislander friends will be there, as well as all our dukes. I shall see the rest of you there tonight, I am sure.’

When they continued to sit and look at him, he added heavily, ‘And I would speak privately with Fitz now.’

Thick stood up. So did Nettle. ‘After I speak privately with Fitz,’ Dutiful announced calmly.

Thick looked perplexed, but immediately added, ‘Me, too.’

‘Not I,’ Nettle said coolly as she walked toward the door. ‘I can’t imagine anything I’d ever want to say to him.’

Thick stood rooted in place, his eyes darting from Nettle to Dutiful. He was obviously torn. I managed to dredge up a smile for him. ‘You and I will have lots of time later, Thick. I promise.’

‘Ya,’ he agreed abruptly, and managed to catch the door before it had completely closed behind Nettle. He followed her out. Dutiful gave Chade a glance and the councillor retreated to stand by the window looking out over the sea. Plainly it was not what Dutiful wanted. Just as plainly, the power struggle between councillor and prince continued. I looked at Dutiful. He sat down in the chair next to me and drew it closer. He spoke softly and I expected to hear of his concerns with the Narcheska and his betrothal. ‘I’ve talked with her a lot about you. She’s angry with you right now, but I think if you’ll give her time, she can calm down enough to listen to you.’

It took me a moment. ‘Nettle?’

‘Of course.’

‘You talked about me a lot with her?’ Better and better, I thought sourly to myself. Dutiful sensed my dismay.

‘I had to,’ he said defensively. ‘She was saying things like, “He abandoned my mother when she was pregnant, and never came to see me at all.” I couldn’t let her just say things like that, let alone believe them. So I’ve told her the truth, as you told it to me.’

‘Fitz?’ He spoke a few moments later.

‘Oh. Sorry. Thank you.’ I couldn’t even recall what I had been thinking.

‘You’ll like her brothers. I do. Chivalry’s a bit full of himself, but I think it’s a bluff to make up for how frightened he is of all the changes. Nimble is nothing like Swift. I never met two twins less alike. Steady lives up to his name, while Just chatters like a magpie. And Hearth, he’s the youngest, all he does is run and giggle and try to get his brothers and Nettle to wrestle with him. He’s not afraid of anyone or anything.’

‘They’re all here for Harvest Fest.’

‘At the Queen’s invitation. Because Swift will be recognized and Burrich honoured.’

‘Of course.’ I looked at the table between my hands. Did I fit anywhere in any of this?

‘Well, I suppose that’s all I wanted to say. I’m glad you’re better. And I think Nettle will come about, if you give her time. She feels tricked. I warned you she would. Oddly enough, I think that what made her angriest was that you disappeared like that. She took it personally, somehow. But I think she’ll reconsider her opinion of you, if you give her time.’

‘I don’t think I’ve much choice in it.’

‘No, I don’t suppose you do. But I didn’t want you to think it was hopeless and give up and go off somewhere to avoid seeing her. Your place is at Buckkeep now. So is hers.’

‘Thank you.’

He glanced aside from me. ‘I can’t tell you what it means to me to have her here at court. She’s so outspoken and blunt. I never was friends with a girl like I can be with her. I suppose it’s because we’re cousins.’

I nodded, unsure how true it was, but glad of it all the same. If she had the Prince’s friendship, she had a powerful protector at court.

‘I have to go. I’ve missed my last two fittings for my Harvest
Festival clothing. I swear, they take it out on Thick, poking him with pins “by accident” if I’m not there to defend him. So I’d best be there.’

I nodded to that as well and then somehow he was up and out the door and the room was silent without me much noticing how it had happened. Chade set a cup of brandy down before me with a firm tap on the table. I looked at it and then up at him. ‘You may need it,’ he observed mildly. Then he revealed, ‘The Fool was here, two weeks ago. I’d give a lot to know how he comes and goes from here so unseen, but he managed. I heard a tap at the door of my private sitting room, late at night. And when I opened it, there he was. Changed of course, as you said. Brown as an apple seed, all over. He looked weary and half-sick, but I think that could have been his journey through the pillar. He did not speak of the Black Man, or indeed of anything except you. He obviously expected to find you here. That frightened me.’

I set the empty brandy glass down on the table. Without asking, Chade refilled it for me. ‘When I told him we hadn’t seen you, he looked stricken. I told him how thoroughly we’d searched, and that my private premise had been that you’d gone off with him. He asked if we’d used the skill; I told him that of course we had, but that it had yielded no trace of you. He gave me the name of an inn where he’d be staying for a week, and asked me to send a runner immediately if any news of you came in. At the end of the week, he came back to me again. He looked as if he had aged a decade. He told me he’d made inquires of his own about you, with no positive results. Then he said he had to depart, but that he wished to leave something with me for you. Neither of us expected you’d return to claim it.’

I didn’t have to ask for it. He set down a sealed scroll, no bigger than a child’s closed fist, and a small bag made from Elderling fabric. I recognized it as coming from the coppery robe. I looked at them, but made no move to touch either of them while Chade was watching me. ‘Did he say anything? As a message for me, I mean.’

‘I think that is what those things are.’

I nodded.

‘Hap came to see you while you were in the infirmary. Did you know?’

‘No. I didn’t. How did he know I was there?’

‘I believe he spends a great deal of time at that minstrel tavern these days. When we were searching for you, we put the word out through the minstrels of course. We were desperate to hear any rumour of you, so he knew that we expected Tom Badgerlock to be at Buckkeep and he wasn’t. Then, when you were found, of course the minstrels heard of that, too. So he knew through them. You should see him soon and put his mind at rest.’