It was like plunging myself into a rushing river. 'Ah, Verity, my boy, there you are!' Just for a moment I glimpsed Verity as King Shrewd still saw him. A chubby boy of eight or nine, more friendly than smart, not so tall as his big brother, Chivalry. But a sound and likable Prince, an excellent second son, not too ambitious, not too questioning. Then, just as if I had stepped off a riverbank, I tumbled into a black, rushing roar of Skill. It was disorienting to see suddenly through Shrewd's eyes. The edges of his vision were filmy with haze. For a moment I glimpsed Verity forging wearily through snow.
What's this? Fitz? Then I was whirled away, carried into the heart of King Shrewd's pain. Skilled deep inside him, beyond where the herbs and smoke deadened him, I was scorched with the agony. It was a slow growing pain, along his spine and in his skull, a pushing crowding thing that would not be ignored. His choices were to be consumed by the agony that would not let him think, or to deaden his body and mind with herbs and smokes to hide from it. But deep inside his fogged mind, a King still lived and raged at his confinement. The spirit was still there, battling the body that no longer obeyed him and the pain that devoured the last years of his life. I swear I saw him, a young man, perhaps a year or so older than myself. His hair had been as bushy and unruly as Verity's, his eyes were wide and lively, and once his face's only lines had been from a wide grin. This was who he still was, in his soul, this young man, trapped and desperate. He seized on me, asking wildly, 'Is there a way out?' I felt myself sinking with his grip.
Then, like two rivers merging, another force crashed against me, sent me spinning with its current. Boy! Contain yourself. It was as if strong hands steadied me and established me as a separate strand in the twisting rope we were forming. Father. I am here. Are you in need?
No. No. All is as it has been for some time. But Verity…
Yes. I am here.
Bearns is no longer true to us. Brawndy harbors Red-Ships there, in exchange for protection for his own villages. He has turned on us. When you come home, you must…
The thought wandered, lost strength.
Father. Whence come these tidings? I sensed Verity's sudden desperation. If what Shrewd spoke was true, there was no hope for Buckkeep to stand the winter.
Regal has spies. They bring word to him, and he comes to me. This must remain a secret, for a time, until we have the strength to strike back at Brawndy. Or until we decide to abandon him to his Red-Ship friends. Yes. That is Regal's plan. To hold the Red-Ships off from Buck, and then they will turn on Brawndy and punish him for us. Brawndy even sent a false call for help, in the hopes of luring our warships to their destruction.
Can this be so?
All Regal's spies confirm it. And I fear we can no longer trust your foreign wife. While Brawndy was here, Regal marked how she dallied with him, and made many excuses for private talk. He fears that she plots with our enemies to overthrow the throne.
THIS IS NOT SO! The force of this denial went through me like a sword's point. For an instant I was drowning again, lost, selfless, in the flood of Skill passing through me. Verity sensed it, steadied me again. We must be careful of the boy. He has not the strength to be used like this. Father. I beg you. Trust my queen. I know she is not false. And be wary of what Regal 's spies report to you. Put spies upon the spies, before you act on any of their reports. Consult with Chade. Promise me this.
I am not a fool, Verity. I know how to hold my throne.
Good. Good then. Make sure the boy is tended to. He is not trained for this.
Someone snatched my hand back then, as if from a burning stove. I sagged forward, put my head down between my knees while the world spun around me. Next to me, I could hear King Shrewd panting for his breath as if he had run a race. The Fool pushed a glass of wine into my hand, then went back to urging small sips of wine into the King. And over all, suddenly, Wallace's voice, demanding, 'What have you done to the King?'
'It is both of them!' There was a sharp edge of fear to the Fool's voice. 'They were talking together, quite calmly, then suddenly this! Take the damned smoke censers away! I fear you have killed them both!'
'Silence, Fool! Do not accuse my healing of this!' But I heard the hurry in Wallace's step as he made the rounds of the room, pinching out the burning twists in each censer or capping them with brass cups. In a moment the windows were thrown wide to the icy winter night. The cool air steadied me. I managed to sit up and take a sip of the wine. Gradually my senses came back to me. Even so, I was still sitting there when Regal came bustling into the room, demanding to know what had happened. He addressed the question to me, as the Fool was helping Wallace put the King to bed.
I shook my head at him dumbly, and the giddiness was not all pretended.
'How is the King? Will he recover?' he called to Wallace.
Wallace immediately came hurrying to Regal's side. 'He seems to be steadying, Prince Regal. I do not know what overcame him. There was no sign of a struggle, but he is as wearied as if he had run a race. His health will not stand this sort of excitement, my prince.'
Regal turned an appraising glance on me. 'What did you do to my father?' he growled.
'I? Nothing.' That at least was truthful. Whatever had happened, it had been the King's doing and Verity's. 'We were talking quietly. Suddenly I felt overwhelmed. Dizzy. Weak. As if I were losing consciousness.' I turned my gaze to Wallace. 'Could it have been the Smoke?'
'Perhaps,' he conceded unhappily. He looked nervously at Regal's darkening stare. 'Well, it seems every day I must make it stronger, for it to have any effect at all. And still he complains that—'
'SILENCE!' Regal cut him off with a roar. He gestured at me as if I were offal. 'Get him out of here. Then get back here to tend the King.'
At that moment Shrewd moaned in his sleep, and I felt again the feathersoft brushing of the Skill against my senses. My hair hackled.
'No. Go to the King now, Wallace. Fool. You get the Bastard out of here. And see that this is not spoken of amongst the servants. I shall know if I am disobeyed. Hurry up, now. My father is not well.'
I had thought I could rise on my own and depart, but found that I did need the Fool's assistance, at least to stand. Once I was up on my feet, I teetered along precariously, feeling as if I tottered on stilts. Walls loomed near and then far, the floor heaved gently beneath me like the deck of a ship when she rides a slow swell.
'I can manage from here,' I told the Fool once we were outside the door. He shook his head.
'You are too vulnerable to be left alone just now,' he told me quietly, and then linked arms with me, and began some nonsensical discourse. He put a fine front of camaraderie on helping me up the stairs and to my door. He waited, chattering on, while I unlatched it and then followed me in.
'I told you, I am all right,' I said with some annoyance. All I wanted to do was lie down.
'Are you? And how is my king? What did you do to him, back there?'
'I did nothing!' I gritted out as I sat down on the foot of my bed. My head was beginning to pound. Elfbark tea. That was what I needed just now. I had none.
'You did! You asked his permission, and then you took his hand. And in the next instant you were both gasping like fish.'
'Just an instant?' It had felt like hours to me. I had thought the whole evening spent.
'No more than three heartbeats.'
'Ooh.' I put my hands to my temples, tried to push my skull back into one piece. Why did Burrich have to be gone just now? I knew he would have elfbark. The pain demanded I take a chance. 'Do you have any elfbark? For tea?'
'With me? No. But I could go beg some of Lacey. She keeps a horde of all sorts of herbs.'
'Would you?'
'What did you do to the King?' The trade he offered was plain.
The pressure in my head built, pushing out on my eyes. 'Nothing,' I gasped. 'And what he did to me is for him to tell. If he chooses. Is that plain enough for you?'
A silence. 'Perhaps. Are you really in that much pain?'
I lay back very slowly on my bed. Even putting my head down hurt.
'I'll be back shortly,' he offered. I heard the door of my room open and shut. I lay still, eyes closed. Gradually the sense of what I had eavesdropped on formed itself in my mind. Despite my pain, I sorted information. Regal had spies. Or claimed to. Brawndy was a traitor. Or so Regal claimed his supposed spies had informed him. I suspected Brawndy was as much a traitor as Kettricken was. Oh, the spreading poison. And the
