The Complete Tawny Man Trilogy Omnibus (263 page)

Prince Dutiful had remained upon the dais with his mother. Now he looked down on her and no one in the room could doubt that he beheld her with delight. He did not say a word to either Chade or the Queen. Nor did he bother with the two steps, but leapt straight to the floor. At sight of him, Elliania threw back her hood, and then ran to meet him. They met in the centre of the Great Hall. As they clasped hands, her clear and joyous voice carried. ‘I could not wait. I could not wait for winter and I could not wait for spring. I am here to marry you and I will do my best to live according to your ways, strange though they are.’

The Prince looked down at her. I saw his face light with joy, and then I saw his hesitation. I saw him groping for what he must say, for what was correct for him to say before all his gathered people. Elliania looked up at him, and the light in her face began to dim as Dutiful attempted to compose a careful reply.

I Skilled fiercely.
Tell her you cannot wait either. Tell her you love her and that you will wed her right away. Love that comes so far and at such a price should not be put off! A woman needs to be loved now.

Chade’s face froze in a smile of horror. The Queen stood, and I knew she held her breath. Peottre stood motionless, and his face was very still. I knew he prayed the Prince would not hurt or humiliate the girl.

Dutiful spoke loud and clear. ‘Then we shall wed, within the week. Not just before my dukes, but before all gathered here. We
shall wed, and we shall bring in the harvest as man and wife. Would that please you?’

‘El and Eda, the Sea and the Land!’ Bloodblade shouted. ‘The Buck and the Narwhal! At the turning of the year. Good fortune to us all!’

‘So it would be!’ Peottre cried out and a sort of wonder came into his face.

‘That would please me.’ I saw the words formed by her lips, but did not hear them. Noise had erupted all about me as hundreds of tongues clattered at once. Chade closed his eyes for a moment, then put on a smile and looked with apparent fondness at his impulsive, impetuous prince. Yet the secret sourness of his gaze was defeated and nullified by what shone in Elliania’s eyes. If she had ever needed confirmation of her decision, Dutiful had given it. I wondered at what cost to herself and to her clan she had come here. The garment she wore bore both narwhals and bucks, and I doubted she had made it entirely herself. So I deduced some maternal support of her decision.

‘They’re getting married this week?’ Patience asked me, and I nodded in response.

‘This will be a Harvest Fest to remember,’ she observed. ‘Best send runners out about the countryside. No one will want to miss this. We haven’t had a proper wedding in Buckkeep since Chivalry and I married here.’

‘I don’t think this will be one now. They’ve prepared for harvest Fest, not a wedding. Cook’s going to be very upset!’ Lacey warned us.

She was right, of course. I was able to retreat from the chaos I’d created, and actually found a few hours of sleep that night holed up in the workroom. I fear few others did. The servants worked through the night. It was fortunate they had the feast for the harvest well begun and the castle already decked with autumn garlands. Fortunate, too, that the Prince’s dukes and duchesses had already convened for Harvest Fest, for it would have caused a greater furore if the Prince’s haste to wed had caused one of his high nobles to miss the ceremony.

I almost missed my peephole the next day. I stood through the
lengthy harvest ceremony in the back row of the Prince’s Guard. Longwick had replenished our depleted ranks, yet even so I was painfully aware of the absence of those who had gone to find the dragon with us. Riddle stood beside me, and I think he felt it as keenly as I did. Yet for all that, there was satisfaction in watching our prince and his bride.

They were arrayed as the King and Queen of the Harvest. Long had it been since that old custom was observed, for long had it been since we had had a royal couple in residence. The seamstresses must have worked throughout the night. Elliania wore her cloak of narwhals and bucks, and somehow a doublet that matched it perfectly had been created for the Prince. Dutiful’s simple coronet had been replaced with an ornate harvest crown, and in that I saw Chade’s subtle hand, for he displayed the Prince as a crowned king before his dukes. Ceremonial it might be, yet it could not fail to leave an impression. Elliania was crowned as well. Whereas the Prince wore a crown of gilded antlers, hers featured a single narwhal horn enamelled in blue and trimmed in silver. When they danced together, alone in the centre of the sanded floor, they looked like a couple from a legend sprung to life.

‘Like Eda and El themselves,’ Riddle observed, and I nodded to myself.

Nobility and commoners are alike swayed by pomp and pageantry. Over the next few days, the castle and the town swelled with folk as it had not in years. The ceremony to honour the Prince’s Wit-coterie was well attended, with far more folk than it would have ordinarily attracted. Cockle had the telling of the tale, and he acquitted himself well and with far more accuracy than I had come to expect of minstrels. Perhaps because he was Witted himself, he did not wish to be seen as embroidering the truth beyond what it would bear. So he told the tale with moving simplicity that made little of the type of magic Burrich and the coterie used and much that they had been willing to sacrifice all for their prince.

Cockle, Swift, Web and Civil were formally recognized as the Prince’s Wit-coterie. There was some small grumbling at that, as older nobles recalled well that once the word had only been applied to the circle of Skilled ones who aided a king. Chade assured them
that there would, indeed, eventually be a Skill-coterie as well, as soon as suitable candidates could be tested and selected.

The Queen conveyed Withywoods to Molly rather than Nettle, so that it might be seen as granted to Burrich’s line in token of his service. Molly accepted it gravely and I knew that the monies from that estate would provide well for her and all her children. Lady Nettle was presented as the newest of the Queen’s circle of ladies, and Swift officially apprenticed to the Witmaster Web. Web spoke briefly but strongly of the power of Burrich’s magic, and bemoaned that the man had been forced to hide it rather than educate his son in it. He hoped there would never be such a waste of talent again. Then Web solved for me the riddle that he had given me when first we set out on the voyage. For he said that Burrich briefly rallied before he died, enough to bid his son farewell, and to die with the Warrior’s Prayer on his lips. For, ‘Yes,’ he had sighed on his dying breath, and all knew that was the ultimate prayer one could offer to life. Acceptance.

I pondered that during the evening when I sat in my workroom. My hands were slick with lamp oil. It had spread through the Skill-scrolls, making many of the old letters fuzzy and swollen to my weary eyes. It was a discouraging, tiresome task. I pushed the scroll away from me, wiped my hands on a rag, and poured myself a little more brandy.

I was not certain I agreed with Web’s thoughts, and yet it seemed to me that ‘yes’ had been Burrich’s word for life. Certainly, there seemed to be very little glory or satisfaction in saying ‘no’ to it. I had said it often enough to have felt fully the truth of that.

I had sought in vain for another opportunity to speak to Molly alone. Always, she seemed surrounded by her children. Slowly it came to me, sitting there alone by my fire, that they were a part of her. Likely there would be very little chance of finding her alone and apart from them. The opportunity I had so long denied myself was here and now, but rapidly slipping away from me.

The next morning, on the eve of the wedding, I went to the steams early in the day. I washed myself and shaved more carefully than I had in years. Back in the tower room, I brushed my hair back into a warrior’s tail, and then took out the selection of clothing that
the Fool had inflicted on me. I dressed slowly in the blue doublet and the white shirt, finishing it with the Buck-blue leggings. I was now definitely a Buckman, but no longer looked like servant or guardsman. I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled ruefully. Patience would approve. I looked dangerously like my father’s son. I dared myself, and then moved the silver fox pin from the inside of my doublet to the outside. The little fox winked at me and I smiled back.

I left the secret labyrinth and walked through the corridors of Buckkeep Castle. Several times I felt eyes on me, and once a man stopped dead before me and squinted at me with a frown, as if struggling to remember something. I passed him by. The castle was acrawl with hastening servants and nobles socializing with one another. I made my way to the Violet Chamber and knocked firmly.

Nettle opened the door. I had not been prepared for that, thinking that young Chivalry would have been the first I must confront. She stared at me, and then recognized me with a visible start. She said nothing until I asked, ‘May I come in? I would speak to your mother and brothers.’

‘I don’t think that’s wise. Go away,’ she said, and began to shut the door but Chivalry caught the edge of it, asking her, ‘Who is it?’ and then, in an aside to me, ‘Don’t mind her, sir. Dress of a lady and manners of a fishwife.’

The room seemed full of children. I had never before realized how many seven children were. Swift and Nimble were sitting on the floor by the hearth, a game of Stones spread out before them, with Steady watching the play. Swift looked up, saw me, and his mouth opened in an O of surprise. I saw his twin poke him, demanding, ‘What is it? It’s your turn.’ Hearth and Just, wrestling on the bed, ignored me. I suddenly realized the size of the promise that Burrich had demanded of me; it was easily seven times what Chivalry had asked of him when he handed me over to his right-hand man to raise. The blankets were rucked about the tussling youngsters on the bed and the candelabrum on the night table was in obvious danger of being overset. And then, before Nettle could shut the door on me or Chivalry invite
me in, Molly entered from the adjoining chamber. She halted, staring at me.

I think she would have thrown me out if she’d had the chance. Hearth stood up on the bed and made a spring for his brother, who evaded him by rolling away. I took two swift steps and caught the six-year-old before he hit the floor. He wriggled away from me immediately, charging back into battle with his brother. They suddenly reminded me of a litter of puppies, and I smiled as I said, ‘I promised Burrich that I would look after his sons. I can’t do that if I don’t know them. I’ve come to introduce myself.’

Swift stood up slowly to face me. The question in his eyes was plain. I took a breath. I found my answer. Yes. ‘My name is FitzChivalry Farseer. I grew up in the stables of Buckkeep. Your father taught me all the things he thought a man should know. I would pass that on to his sons.’

Chivalry had caught Nettle’s uneasiness, and the name unsettled him even more. He moved to put his body between the smaller children and me. It was so instinctive of him that I had to smile, even when he said, ‘I think I can pass my father’s teachings on to my brothers, sir.’

‘I expect that you will. But you will have other things to think of as well. Who cares for your stock and stables right now, when you are all away?’

‘Oxworthy. A man from our village who used to come to help out with the heavy work from time to time. He can manage it well enough, for a few days, though I will have to return to our holdings right after the Prince’s wedding.’

‘It’s not his business!’ Nettle interjected indignantly.

I knew I had to face her down or let her drive me off. ‘I made a promise, Nettle. Swift witnessed it. I do not think your father would have asked that of me unless he wished the raising of his small sons to be my business. That sets it out of your hands.’

‘But not out of mine,’ Molly interjected firmly. ‘And for many reasons, I think this unwise.’

I took a breath and steeled my will. I turned to look at Chivalry. ‘I love your mother. I have for years, for years before she chose your father. Yet I promise you, I will not try to take his place with any
of you. Only to do what he asked of me. To look after you all.’ I looked back at Molly. Her face was so white I thought she would faint. ‘No secrets,’ I told her. ‘No secrets among us.’

Molly sat down heavily on the bed. Her two youngest boys immediately came to her, Hearth climbing into her lap. She put her arms around him reflexively. ‘I think you had better go,’ she said faintly. Steady came to his mother and put a protective arm around her.

Swift stood suddenly. ‘No secrets? Will you tell them you are Witted then?’ It was a challenge.

I smiled at him. ‘I believe you just did that for me.’ I took a breath and looked at Nettle. ‘I will also be instructing your sister in the Skill.’ At Chivalry’s blank look, I said, ‘The King’s magic, the old magic. She has it. She talks with dragons. You should chat with her about it some time. It was why she was first brought here to Buckkeep, to serve her prince. I believe your father had some ability in the Skill for he served as King’s Man to King-in-Waiting Chivalry. The man for whom your eldest brother is named.’

Swift was staring at me uncertainly. ‘Web said we were not to speak of who you really were. That there were still some who’d like to see you dead. That your life was in our hands.’

I bowed to him. ‘Yes. I put my life in your hands.’ I looked at Nettle and added, ‘If you’d truly like to be rid of me, it would be fairly simple for you.’

‘Please, Fitz.’ Molly sounded desperate. ‘Go. I need to speak to my children privately. I wish you had not given such a heavy secret to my younger ones. I scarcely trust them to wash their necks each day, let alone to preserve such a confidence.’

I felt a bit foolish then, and I bowed, saying only, ‘As you will, Molly,’ and left. I got five steps past the closing of the door before my knees began to shake so badly that I had to lean up against the wall for a moment. A passing servant asked me if I was ill, but I assured her I would be fine. Yet as I found my strength and walked away down the corridor, I wondered if I would be.